Star Odyssey

Wendy Yushan also noticed the Ironblood Points list, and her lips curled up at a beautiful angle. She looked at the sky. She wanted to increase her cultivation, or else she would be left behind.

An insignificant being had emerged from a fringe planet, been rejected for marriage, and endured countless humiliations. Now, it would be very embarrassing if Lu Yin surpassed Wendy Yushan, though she herself was very happy for his success.

Giantghost Fort, Seasons Fort, and Yellowsoil Fort were the three middle strongholds. Another round of battles had just ended at the three forts, and another Innerverse Enlighter who had been stranded in the Outerverse had perished alongside an invading Enlighter realm astral beast. Their battle had ended in a draw. 

Giantghost Fort was in a slightly better position than Yellowsoil Fort, as they still had four Enlighters who were in fighting condition, who were the fort’s commander, Long Ke, Elder Qing Han, Huo Houye, and Meng Ningge, who had defended Ironblood Fort for many years.

There was also a special person in Giantghost Fort, who was known as Kong Shi. She was a representative from the previous generation’s Universe Youth Council, and she had been one of the representatives who had been easily crushed by the Ten Arbiters.

She had defended Ironblood Fort for many years, and her position on the Ironblood Points rankings was just below Cool Sis’.

Cool Sis was currently ranked tenth on the Top Hundred Rankings for the younger generation, but she had already surpassed Kong Shi on the Ironblood Rankings. Evidently, there was a great disparity between the younger generation before the Ten Arbiters and the current one. 

In a corner of Giantghost Fort, a stunning lady wearing a fiery-red dress was leaning against the wall, and she beckoned with her finger in an entrancing manner. A youth looked at her fervently before charging towards her and embracing her. 

The girl smiled in a lovable manner. “Slower, you’re in too much of a hurry.”

“I can’t take it anymore, baby. You’re too beautiful,” the cultivator spoke eagerly, his entire head covered with sweat.

The girl allowed the cultivator to do as he pleased as she opened her gadget. Suddenly, her expression changed, and she shoved the young man away. She was staring at Lu Yin’s name on the rankings. “I was in a really good mood, but I never thought that I’d see this guy again.”

The cultivator embraced her urgently. “Stop looking. Have some fun first. There’ll be another battle soon, and who knows if we’ll make it out alive.” 

The woman slapped the cultivator’s shoulder and shoved him aside, her face full of contempt as she looked at him. “Compared to him, all of you are just trash. He ascended to the top twenty of the list in just a few days, but you guys just want to just wait for death. Trash!” And with that, she left.

“Lilyrose, why are you pretending to be so pure? Don’t you want it?” The cultivator called out to her, but she was already gone. 

At this same time, Lu Yin was busy, very busy. He was forced to permanently stay in the same position so that he could stare at the sky. 

The gaps between the sourceboxes’ danger zones were constantly shifting, and the astral beasts could invade through the holes at an extremely short notice. Lu Yin was forced to constantly update the locations of the holes on the map as soon as possible, as otherwise, the astral beasts’ invasion might still succeed. Because of this, he was given no time to rest. 

After several days, the beasts attempted another invasion, but the same events occurred as before. Countless Void Wanderers were instantly exterminated during the attack, and since very few beasts participated in the assault this time, the battle simply ended.

After a few more days passed, an Enlighter beast led an attack against Seasons Fort. But Wang Wen had already made the appropriate preparations beforehand. During the previous two battles, there had been no Enlighters attacking alongside the invading Void Wanderers as they had been waiting. When the Enlighter realm beasts charged at Seasons Fort, the intensity of the attack was completely different from before, though the Enlighter realm beasts were still driven back. The Void Wanderers similarly could not approach the fort, and a bunch of them were massacred again. 

Every few days, the astral beasts would attempt to destroy Seasons Fort.

Not very many Void Wanderers participated in the attacks on Seasons Fort since the astral beasts were launching attacks on several strongholds simultaneously, and Seasons Fort’s ability to slaughter Void Wanderers during the last few attacks had decreased the pressure on the other strongholds. It had effectively lowered the intensity of the attacks on all three of the middle forts.

This enormity of this contribution could not be understated. Every time the defenders successfully repelled the astral beasts’ invasion, Lu Yin would again obtain a large amount of Ironblood Points. By this time, he had entered the top ten again. However, he wasn’t merely ranked tenth or ninth, but rather sixth. 

His ranking shocked countless people in Ironblood Weave, as the increase in his Ironblood Points was a little bit too exaggerated for a Limiteer. Even Wendy Yushan could not understand what was happening. 

At Yellowsoil Fort, Duke Blackhawk was stupefied as he browsed through the Ironblood Points rankings. “He has to be cheating.” He had seen Lu Yin in the Northline Flowzone when they had both acted as witnesses for the Northgate Platform contest. He had some impressions of the kid, and although Lu Yin was currently the strongest Limiteer, his strength could not be so absurd as to surpass multiple Enlighters. The fact was that Lu Yin was gaining points way too rapidly. 

Cool Sis was also shocked by Lu Yin’s rapid rise, as he had even surpassed her position, and by a large amount at that. How had he done it? She did not suspect fraud, as the system would not falsify records, and it would be impossible for someone to cheat so blatantly. Wang Wen was also not stupid, which meant that Lu Yin truly deserved the number of points that he had received, which was very scary. 

Throughout the countless years of battle in Ironblood Weave, no one else had ever climbed to the top of the rankings list so quickly, with the sole exception of Wang Wen. 

At Giantghost Fort, Huo Houye’s expression sank, and he was so gloomy that tears almost fell from his eyes. 

Kong Shi stared at Lu Yin’s name in shock. This was the absolute genius of the current younger generation, and his strength was even enough to rival what those ten freaks had shown when they had been Limiteers!

Lilyrose licked her vibrant red lips, and a thirsty glint could be seen in her eyes. She enjoyed playing with the powerful.

Yue Xianzi was in one of the lower five strongholds, and she was astonished as she stared at the rankings with an incredulous expression. How could his position be so exaggerated? The total number of Ironblood Points that she had accumulated up till now didn’t even amount to a small fraction of what Lu Yin currently had. She had spent far more time in Ironblood Weave than he had, and she was even an Explorer. 

She understood the difficulty of obtaining Ironblood Points, so why did it feel like he was just playing around? 

An Shaohua also felt that the numbers were strange, but it was no wonder to him that Lu Yin was the strongest Limiteer.

There were many people in Ironblood Weave who recognized Lu Yin’s name or had crossed paths with him in the past, but no matter who it was, everyone was stunned by Lu Yin’s ranking. Even the Enlighters could not understand it, let alone the others. 

At Seasons Fort, Wang Wen looked at an elder on a screen, but he appeared depressed. “Elder, I don’t want to do it either, but he has the capabilities. Look, he’s already forced back a few beast invasions.” 

“But you can’t give him so much credit. How do you think the people in the other strongholds will react?” There was an elder on the screen, and he was the Hall of Honor’s Elder Lohar. He also appeared helpless at this moment, as Lu Yin’s contributions definitely matched up to the number of Ironblood Points that he had received. However, he had gained points too frequently, and his rise was actually shaking the confidence of the other defenders. 

Wang Wen’s face was solemn. “Elder, we can’t suppress those with meritorious contributions just because we are afraid of what others may think. That’s not fair to those who have made such contributions.” 

Elder Lohar muttered to himself, but in the end, he nodded. “You’re right. Find me a time to chat with this kid.” 

Wang Wen smiled. “Sure.”

A month passed, and by this time, Lu Yin had already spent nearly two months in Ironblood Weave, though it felt more like two years to him.

He had seen countless deaths come and go during these two months, and he had also experienced the cruelty of Ironblood Weave. His experiences during this time had spiritually exhausted him beyond measure, but he also felt very proud since he had used the holes in the stronghold’s defenses to repel four beast invasions. This had increased his Ironblood Points by an insane amount, and he had already accumulated more than 80,000 Ironblood Points, which didn’t even take the 30,000 points that he had previously exchanged for star essence. 

Having so many Ironblood Points caused him to feel rather emotional, and he casually browsed through the various goods that he could purchase with the points. After a while, he spotted a super-sized cosmic ring which had reportedly been manufactured by an Envoy-level powerhouse, and it had more than ten times the capacity of his current cosmic ring. However, it was extremely expensive as it cost 50,000 Ironblood Points. 

Lu Yin was rather disgruntled with the price, and he went to look for Wang Wen.

“What? You want to trade for that cosmic ring?” Wang Wen was shocked.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. “Not exactly. I’m just curious. Why is it so expensive? 50,000 Ironblood Points is a lot as killing an Enlighter is only worth 20,000. How is a cosmic ring more valuable than killing an Enlighter?”

“What do you mean? Of course it’s more valuable,” Wang Wen stated in a matter-of-factly tone.

Lu Yin was astonished.

Wang Wen rolled his eyes. “What do you think a cosmic ring is? Each one’s an area of space that’s been seized from a parallel universe by a powerhouse. They’re not something that just anyone can create. A parallel space is not easily contained, and in particular, the space needed to make a super-sized ring can’t be seized even by an Enlighter. Only those old farts with power levels that reach several hundred thousands are able to do that. 

“The cosmic ring that you’re thinking of getting is impressive, and its size is large enough to hold ten mountains. That toy can only be created by an Envoy. Don’t you think that the efforts of an Envoy are worth 50,000 Ironblood Points?”

Lu Yin now faced a dilemma. “It’s definitely worth it, but it’s still too expensive.”

“Chesspiece Bro, you need to know how difficult it is to get your hands on such a cosmic ring. Even if you go to the Innerverse and try to buy one, 50,000 star essence won’t be enough to get you one, but there’s one right here, which you should already be secretly happy about. However, a normal person would never need a cosmic ring of such a size. Are you sure that you want it?” Wang Wen asked.

Lu Yin considered the idea for a while, and then finally made up his mind. “I want it.”

Wang Wen lifted his thumb up. “Good choice. It’s yours.” After that, he closed the connection.

Lu Yin sighed, as he actually did not want the cosmic ring. However, the further along he progressed, the more frequently he would need to upgrade his equipment, and the more star essence he would need. His current cosmic ring was not large enough to store the amount of star essence that he was beginning to need, and there was no way for him to continuously visit a bank while he was in the middle of upgrading something. And that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that, if too much time went by, the two light screens from Enhance would disappear. It also wasn’t convenient to separate his money into multiple smaller rings. Besides, he would be able to use this cosmic ring through the Explorer realm and perhaps even until he was a Hunter.

The cosmic ring was quickly delivered to him, and Lu Yin caressed it as he painfully watched his Ironblood Points decrease by 50,000 points. He could only attempt to console himself.

It had only taken him an instant to drop from the sixth position to the seventh. Fortunately, it was not too bad. 

However, he knew that he would soon fall much further down the rankings. Lu Yin stayed still for a while and then contacted Wang Wen again. 

Wang Wen calmly looked at Lu Yin. “Don’t tell me that you want to exchange all your points for essence.” 

“There’s not enough?” Lu Yin’s brows rose.

Wang Wen held his forehead as if in pain. “Chesspiece Bro, aside from star essence, could you choose something different? Can’t you exchange your points for something else? Like Honor Points?”

Lu Yin shrugged. “I still think that essence is more practical.” He already had two Honor Points. He had been given one when he had visited Erudite Flowzone’s border warfront and he had received the other one after winning the Tournament of the Strongest.

Wang Wen nodded. “Fine, money grubber.”

“Wait a minute. How many points does each Honor Point cost?” Lu Yin asked.

Wang Wen raised two fingers. “Not much, just 20,000.”

“Then I’ll trouble you to exchange all my points for star essence, thank you very much,” Lu Yin said without hesitation.

There was a significant difference between having no Honor Points and having one, while having two or three points simply changed the various privileges that were available, and most of these privileges were only available to those in the Innerverse or even the Neoverse. Now that the Outerverse had been cut off from those two places, such privileges were unavailable to Lu Yin.