It took a bit of time to examine everyone, which included Angie herself. In the end, to everyone’s horror, they found that their bodies indeed contained some strange poison—it was like maggots had tightly bound themselves to each cultivators’ blood vessels. If there was only a small amount of the poison in each person, then they would be able to simply remove the affected portion of the blood vessels, effectively eliminating all of the poison, in a simple procedure. However, the longer this poison incubated, the further it would spread until it eventually bound itself to every blood vessel in a person’s body. At that point, their entire circulatory system would have to be replaced if they wanted to remove the poison.

This discovery caused the Umbral Butterfly Tribe to panic, and Angie immediately ordered the information to be sealed. After that, she called Wei Rong back. “You’re despicable! I trusted you so much back then, and I even entrusted myself to you. However, you still schemed against my Umbral Butterfly Tribe!”

Wei Rong put on an innocent expression. “I’m sorry, but I simply wanted to do an experiment back then. As our relationship grew deeper, I would have removed the poison, but who could have seen that things would turn out the way that they did? I simply informed you out of goodwill earlier, as I can’t go there to remove the poison myself. If I had told you earlier, then do you think perhaps you guys could have cured yourselves?”

Angie became so angry that her body started trembling. She was deeply fearful of Wei Rong’s methods, as this man was truly able to live up to his reputation of being Armament Weave’s genius who had forcibly held back the Great Eastern Alliance. He was someone who always had multiple backup plans, and what he had done to their Umbral Butterfly Tribe definitely was not a one time thing; he had definitely employed similar methods against the various other organizations and groups that he had contacted throughout the universe.

At this moment, Angie understood why Lu Yin had openly destroyed the Wei family's ancestral planet but never harmed the Wei family itself. Lu Yin, more than anyone else, understood Wei Rong. In Lu Yin’s eyes, Wei Rong had been able to stall a much more powerful army on his own.

At the same time, Angie also understood why Wei Rong had intentionally told Lu Yin that he could be brought over to Lu Yin’s side. Wei Rong had obviously been aware of his own value in Lu Yin’s eyes.

Every sentence that was spoken between the two men, and every action that they took was able to influence the future, which was something that Angie could not understand.

“What do you want?” Angie gritted her teeth.

Wei Rong smiled. “I need information concerning all of the high-ranking officials of the central region’s Central Coalition as well as the relationship network between the various powers. I need the most detailed intelligence.”

“Impossible! I won’t betray the central region!” Angie bellowed.

Wei Rong casually responded, “If the weaves of the central region join the Great Eastern Alliance in the future, then at that time, you won’t be considered a traitor, but rather someone who made outstanding contributions. You will be the one who brought them on board before they were swallowed by the waves. Angie, you’re very smart, so think about it.”

And with that, Wei Rong ended the call.

Lu Yin had not expected Wei Rong to have already dealt with the Umbral Butterfly Tribe, as Wei Rong’s methods were simply hidden too deeply. Fortunately, Lu Yin had been able to suppress Wei Rong. Otherwise, Lu Yin would have preferred to kill this kind of person if they couldn’t be used.

According to Wei Rong’s words, as long as he was able to obtain information regarding the relationships between the various members of the central alliance along with information regarding the military officers, he would be able to cause the Central Coalition to disintegrate within two months and their forces to crumble.

A war was sometimes a contest of strength, but there were also times where a war could be waged off of the battlefield. Wei Rong was adept at strategizing off of the battlefield, Wang Wen was adept at achieving victory on the battlefield, and Qiong Xi'er focused on contesting resources. Each of the three had something different about them, and Lu Yin occasionally fantasized about gathering all three of them under him. If that happened, he would truly be invincible in the Outerverse unless someone was able to crush him with overwhelming strength.

Actually, that was also impossible, as there was nobody in the Outerverse who could crush Lu Yin with pure power. Not even the Hall of Honor was able to do so, as Lu Yin had Mister Mu behind him.

Angie did not take long to consider her options before agreeing to Wei Rong’s demands. The Umbral Butterfly Tribe had no desire to join the Great Eastern Alliance since they did not want to be controlled by someone else. However, joining the alliance was not a calamity that would exterminate the tribe. It was just an alliance, not a declaration of their allegiance towards Lu Yin, so it was not too severe. However, if they did not agree to Wei Rong’s demands, then their situation would become much more troublesome.

Even if they were able to cure the poison, the price that they would have to pay would not be light. Compared to the price of joining the Great Eastern Alliance, they were not willing to pay what was needed to cure the poison. This was in large part due to the fact that they were on their ancestral planet, and everyone who had been poisoned had a high standing within the tribe, and losing any one of them would cause a huge commotion.

More importantly, Angie truly was frightened, as she was afraid of Wei Rong’s methods.

Just as Angie had realized earlier, all of her past worship towards Wei Rong had become fear at this time. As soon as Lu Yin was also added into the equation, she truly had no courage to become enemies with the two young men.

It had only taken a breath to join the central region’s alliance, but that breath had been snatched away by Wei Rong. Angie was just a small woman, and she could not compare to even Ah Mu in terms of courage.

During this time, quite a few people had tried to contact Lu Yin, especially the leaders of the central weaves’ guiding powers. They wanted to probe his intentions, but all of these calls were all rejected by Lu Yin, as he did not have the time to care about such people.

He would be better off using this time to cultivate.

His gadget beeped yet again, and when Lu Yin looked at it, he was surprised to see that Smoker was actually calling him.

Ever since the war in Armament Weave had ended, Lu Yin had not contacted Smoker, and the assassin had not contacted Lu Yin, either. Generally, assassins would not contact their employers on their own. However, Smoker had actually taken the initiative to contact Lu Yin this time.

He opened the screen, and the familiar smoke floated about the screen to form words. ‘Is there anyone not pleasing to your eye? Inexpensive fees.’

Lu Yin felt taken aback by this. “Are you running out of natural treasures?”

The smoke floated about, as if hesitating, but then they formed, ‘Yes.’

“What do you need so many natural treasures for? Cultivation?” Lu Yin asked curiously.

‘Something like that. Do you have more?’

Lu Yin's lips curled up. “I do, but there’s nobody that I need assassinated right now. Don’t you forget that I’ve already become a VIP client of yours, and I paid you with twenty natural treasures for that. Those things belong to me, so you can’t just handle them as you wish.”

The smoke floated about the screen for a bit without forming any words. It was as if the person on the other side of the call was at a loss.

Lu Yin frowned and then unhappily said, “What? Did you already use those?”

‘The membership fee belongs to me. You can’t take it back.’

Lu Yin grew amused. “Twenty natural treasures that have reached the point of evading danger should be enough to hire you to kill at least ten people, and if they aren’t too strong, then killing twenty shouldn’t be a problem either. There are not many in the entire Outerverse who qualify to have me hire you to deal with them.”

‘There are the upper ranks of the central weaves’ Central Coalition.’

“There’s no need for that—I have Aegis,” Lu Yin answered immediately.

Smoker did not reply, and the white smoke drifted about the screen endlessly, constantly forming words that quickly dissipated.

“It seems that you’re really lacking natural treasures. How about this: I’ll give you an opportunity, and then however many natural treasures you want, I’ll provide them for you,” Lu Yin offered in a tempting voice.

‘Conditions?’

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Join the Great Yu Empire and become the Second Squadron’s captain. Each year, I’ll pay you 100 natural treasures that have reached the point of evading danger.”

Smoker did not reply.

Lu Yin continued trying to lure the assassin over. “Only I am able to offer these conditions, and you can consider whether or not you want to accept them. Or, you can instead try to assassinate me. However, let me warn you: the moment you even attempt to do so, the Hall of Honor will declare you as a must-kill target, and nobody will ever hire you again. You will never be able to obtain any additional natural treasures.”

Smoker still did not respond, but the assassin did not end the call either.

Lu Yin did not speak any further, and the two just waited in silence.

After a long while, the white smoke finally formed words. ‘I can join the empire and follow your orders, but I cannot allow you to see me. However, I can still train your Second Squadron, and I can fully accomplish all of the responsibilities.’

“Deal!” Lu Yin was thrilled, as he had long since wanted to recruit Smoker. It didn’t matter whether or not they met face to face, as that would happen some day in the future.

Out of the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons, only the Thirteenth Squadron was still missing a captain. The rest of the positions had finally been filled.

However, Peach, Shalosh, and Rocky Auna no longer had the strength to hold their positions, which made Lu Yin want to replace them. However, he was not able to. Peach had the Neo-Vestige Sect behind her and was able to get the Neo-Vestige Sect’s experts to join the Sixth Squadron and assist her. Rocky Auna represented the Auna family, and that family had become Lu Yin’s knife that had cleaned out the Great Yu Empire’s government. He had also promised the Auna patriarch that that captain’s seat would forever remain with the Auna family, so Lu Yin could not touch it. Shalosh was the only person that Lu Yin could remove from his position as captain, but no suitable replacement had been found yet.

Now that Smoker had become the Second Squadron’s captain, the Great Yu Empire’s strength had been boosted significantly, and its deterrence against other organizations had risen as well, which was what Lu Yin was hoping for.

Who knew what was special about this particular day, but good news came in one after another. First, Smoker had joined the Great Yu Empire and become the Second Squadron’s captain. Then, Thousand Eyes’ pirates had discovered someone from Northline Flowzone who had been hiding.

Northline Flowzone had originally maintained a good relationship with Lu Yin, but Granny Chan had later deliberately revealed the method Lu Yin had been using to kill Enlighters, which had nearly resulted in his death. Then, she had even tried to instigate Topmist into helping her assassinate Lu Yin. Finally, during the war against Armament Weave, she had stood alongside the Wei family. Thus, Northline Flowzone’s people were now Lu Yin’s mortal enemies.

Lu Yin had ordered Thousand Eyes to have his people keep an eye out for people from Northline Flowzone. Lu Yin was hoping to use them as bait so that he could lure out Granny Chan and finally take care of that witch.

That day, there were actually three pieces of good news, which made Lu Yin want to check the date. To the north of the weaves, in the central region, something emitting a high temperature had appeared in the space between two weaves. It was reported that the temperature was high enough to even scorch the void, and not even Hunters dared to approach it, though some had tested its heat. The temperature was high enough that it might even pose a threat to Enlighters.

Lu Yin had long since ordered the Great Eastern Alliance to search for flames with an astoundingly high temperature. In the past, he had wanted to use a high temperature flame to help him absorb star energy faster, but his current desire for a high temperature flame was even greater than before because he wanted to see if the Skyblaze Stone could absorb heat from an outside source. That would mean that he could restore it multiple times.

The Skyblaze Stone had improved Lu Yin’s cultivation speed by way too much, and he had become addicted to it.

When he learned of the high temperature’s location, Lu Yin immediately took a spacecraft and headed out, as he did not want to waste even a single minute.

This was a benefit to controlling the alliance; if there was anything that he needed, if it existed almost anywhere at all, then he would quickly learn of it.

Some days later, Lu Yin looked at the distorted space ahead of him, and his brows furrowed tightly.

The temperature was indeed high, but it did not possess the boundless amount of rune lines that he had expected it to. This temperature could not make him feel any sort of pressure, and it definitely could not compare to the heat that the Skyblaze Stone had initially released.

Lu Yin felt a little disappointed, but since he had already come, he did not bother immediately heading back.

After thinking about it, Lu Yin flew towards the source of the heat.

This region of space had not originally been this high in temperature, but this sudden change was most likely a result of something suddenly appearing. It was even possible that a sourcebox was the source of this heat.

The hot area was not very large, but as Lu Yin proceeded deeper, the temperature did not increase at all. Lu Yin spun around, disappointed, and decided to return to Frostwave Weave.

But then, a black shadow suddenly emerged from within the flames and charged at Lu Yin, moving so quickly that it tore through the void. Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed, and runes appeared in his pupils as he reduced the amount of rune lines before him. This was the only action he could react with given the time that he had, and the next moment, a sharp pain was felt from his chest, and a pair of deathly cold eyes appeared not even ten centimeters away from him. Looking into these eyes sent chills across Lu Yin’s entire body. This was a corpse king.

Plop!

Lu Yin spat out a mouthful of blood as his entire body was blasted into the inferno by the corpse king’s punch. The corpse king did not stay still, and it ferociously charged towards Lu Yin once again. This time, both of its arms were raised high as it ruthlessly pounded down at him.