A familiar figure appeared on Lu Yin’s screen when he answered the unknown call, “Hey, friend. Hope you’re doing well.”
“How did you get my number?” he was shocked. He never could have guessed that Silver would contact him, but fortunately he’d given Bronsen a residence in the outer courtyards of the residence just to keep any secrets in check.
Silver smiled, “I can find out anything I wish to know.”
“What do you want from me?” Lu Yin asked indifferently.
Silver laughed, “I haven’t seen you in quite some time, I missed you. Also, I wanted to give you a gift.”
“Gift?” Lu Yin asked, unconvinced.
Silver sent over some location coordinates to his gadget, “There are a few corpse kings hidden in these areas.”
Hearing this, his gaze sharpened, “So you really are involved with the Neohuman Alliance. I guess you were also the one behind Barudar? You almost killed Zhang Dingtian on Earth because he was about to shell the zombies, and then took them away with you.”
Silver cupped his own ear, “Quieter, someone might hear you! I don’t belong to the Neohuman Alliance, I just happened to find out about it. Don’t push the blame onto me.”
“And why would you tell me?” Lu Yin’s eyes twinkled.
“I already said I was helping you.”
“And I also told you that I wouldn’t reciprocate in the future.”
“Haha, how heartless of you. Even so, just take it as me being a good guy,” Silver laughed.
Lu Yin stared at the youth on the other side, “Destroying the Neohuman Alliance is an obligation of all mankind. I’ll take care of those corpse kings, but I’m on your trail too. Don’t try to escape; once I find out where you are, I’ll catch you and send you to the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons.”
Silver’s mouth twitched, “Oh? Then let’s see just how capable you really are. Goodbye!”
Lu Yin raised his head to look at the sky. The Neohuman Alliance was a behemoth of the Outerverse; what was Silver’s role among them? Why did he help out? Was it because of his status as King Zishan? If that were the case, this title was perhaps more useful than he gave it credit for. Home had allowed him to become the King Zishan, and the Neohuman Alliance had taken the initiative to approach him because of this. The Great Yu Empire was just one of the major forces in a single weave; what was so appealing about this title?
He sighed it off, not wanting to think about it anymore. He only wanted two things right now: first, to enter the Youth Council, and second, Astral-10. Everything related to his title could wait. Looking outside, he turned off the light in his room. It was now time to roll his die again, another gamble to look forward to.
After running some calculations, he knew that he had about 70 cubes of star crystals. This was an unprecedented wealth that could make for as many rolls, but he could only hold out for a maximum of four before the exhaustion kicked in and forced time off.
“Alright, here it goes,” he mumbled to himself, looking exactly like any other gambler. The die appeared within one palm, glowing brightly with hazy starlight. It was at this point that he tapped his head in annoyance; he’d forgotten that it could regenerate on its own even without star crystals. The time he’d taken to travel from Earth to the Capital Star was more than enough for the restoration, but it was too late for regrets.
Looking at the die, he stretched a hand out to set it off. It spun rapidly and slowly came to a stop, ending up with a two.
“Not bad,” he mumbled to himself as the vortex formed before him, taking several items out of his cosmic ring and throwing them in. This included a few spare cosmic rings as well, and most of the materials obtained after disassembly were unfamiliar to him. He threw everything in repeatedly until it came out without a change, and the only thing he recognized was imperial gold. He now had three small ingots in total; while not a large amount, the material was quite expensive. As for the rest, he just stowed it away on the assumption that it was quite valuable.
Five minutes passed in the blink of an eye, and Lu Yin had a varying yet small quantity of what he felt were good materials. He then took out a cube of star crystals to regenerate the die, and set it rolling once more. This time, it stopped on five, Gift Copy. He immediately felt an urge to rush out the door and copy someone’s innate gift, but he quickly quashed the thought. Just who would he be able to find in ten seconds? There wasn’t anyone to sponge off. There were bound to be many cultivators with innate gifts on the Capital Star, but he didn’t know any of them.
Lu Yin’s mouth twitched as he let the ten seconds pass by, at which point the twitching suddenly grew worse. Wait a minute, how had he forgotten Xu San? He was left speechless, unable to believe that he’d forgotten all about his own subordinate. Unfortunately, there was no point crying over spilt milk. He sighed to himself and fetched more star crystals, this time rolling a number which he hadn’t so far. It was six, which he quickly learned was Possession.
Before he could rejoice at this new roll, a terrifying suction emerged from within the die, extracting all of the star energy in his body in an instant. The star crystals from his cosmic ring were absorbed as well without even giving him a chance, transforming into star energy that disappeared into the die. A rift appeared in space right before him, but it disappeared in a second and everything returned to normal.
What just happened? Lu Yin gasped, staring at the die that was dark as night. He’d clearly rolled Possession, but nothing had happened! Why had his star energy disappeared? He suddenly had a realization and rushed to check his cosmic ring, being devastated to find out that his newfound wealth had now vanished as well. He cried out in agony, “No, this is blatant theft!”
Of the six sides of the die, only the roll of three was still unknown to him. The other four sides didn’t demand as many star crystals as Possession, which only opened a small slit somewhere with seventy cubes. And he didn’t even find out what it did!
He suddenly felt a bad sense of foreboding; was it always going to be like this when he drew Possession? Was the roll of six just an immediate extraction of all his star energy? That couldn’t be it, every roll had its own purpose. It had to be that this use was a little frightening, and something that he couldn’t support right now.
As he looked at his dark, glowless die, Lu Yin let out a sigh. The day had been ruined, he was out of star crystals and star energy, and all he could do was slowly wait to recover. What a bother! He lost any interest in continuing training for a day and immediately went to bed, only growing more resolved to complete his plans.
……
Many people didn’t sleep that night, all wildly speculating about the light from the Zishan Residence. When Lu Yin got up the next morning, he contacted Zhang Dingtian’s trio and found that they were at Yu Academy. He only conversed casually; the road ahead was something they would have to travel themselves.
“Boss, someone wants to see you!” Xu San shouted from outside his room.
“Who is it?” Lu Yin walked out.
“Some high-ranking army officer, he says he’s a commander-in-chief named Long Chu.”
Lu Yin had Xu San guide the guest into the lounge, soon meeting a formidable-looking middle-aged man who grew excited the moment they crossed gazes. The man bowed courteously, “I am the commander-in-chief of the third ring, Long Chu, Your Majesty.”
Lu Yin stepped forward and pulled the man up, “No need for formalities, Commander, please take a seat.”
Filled with emotion, Long Chu continued, “Your Majesty, we have long awaited your return.”
Lu Yin’s eyes darted across to Xu San, signaling for him to leave. He then looked back, “What do you mean by that, Commander?”
Just before Long Chu could open his mouth, he subconsciously looked around his surroundings. Lu Yin laughed, “Bronsen isn’t here.”
Long Chu huffed and whispered, “I used to be a subordinate of His Majesty The Undying Zishan, and many of us served him. But ever since the disappearance of the Zishan Family, we were deployed to the third ring. I’d already given up all hope of seeing a successor in this lifetime; it was wonderful news to hear that his successor had showed up.”
“The third ring?” Lu Yin asked in confusion.
Long Chu nodded and continued in a somewhat agonized tone, “Ever since the disappearance of the Zishan Family, the soldiers who served under them were deployed to the third ring. On the surface, we’re the first line of defense for the Capital Star. In reality, it’s just a place for youths of powerful families to frolic about. We veterans who served under His Majesty were thrown away like garbage. We’re military men, we will not stand for such humiliation!”