Chapter 425: Link-Up

Chapter 425: Link-Up

Lu Yin walked over to the formidable-looking Cruiser and inspected him. This person deserved to be called a pirate; he had very quick reactions, as any regular cultivator would have been killed by Lu Yin’s ambush.

He crouched down, retrieved the man’s cosmic ring, took a bit of the man’s blood, and then headed for the nearby hills. He did not kill the man, though he made sure that it would take the man at least two days to stir before he could leave for the hills.

Lu Yin returned to his personal spacecraft and immediately activated it. He only relaxed enough to pour out whatever was inside the ring when his spacecraft started to ascend. 

Lu Yin was ecstatic upon seeing what the cosmic ring held. There were actually more than a thousand star essence, which was just too ridiculous. If he exchanged them all, then he would have more than a hundred million star crystals. 

His breath quickened, as he had never seen such an enormous amount of wealth ever before. Even Lulu with her rich background would not carry this much money around. No wonder that pirate group was worthy of having a Cruiser oversee it. 

This was just one pirate group, and an unknown number of pirate groups offered tributes to the Blackbeard Pirates on a regular basis. Lu Yin did not even dare to imagine how much wealth so many pirate groups would gather all together.

These Blackbeard Pirates were much wealthier than the Great Yu Empire, and they definitely lived up to their reputation of being the unofficial king of the Chaos Flowzone’s underworld.

These pirate crews made annual tribute payments. Even if there were only a hundred pirate groups offering tribute, it meant that the Blackbeard Pirates had a fixed annual income of more than 100,000 star essence. This was the true path to wealth. 

Lu Yin suddenly thought of Highsage Leon. Since that man was the Pirate King, he should be even richer than the Blackbeard Pirates. It seemed that he would head for the Cosmic Sea sooner rather than later. Whatever welcome gift he received there should be rather significant. 

Aside from star essence, the Cruiser’s cosmic ring also contained some more conventional items such as medicine and weapons. Lu Yin was not concerned about these items, and he casually flipped through them. For fear that he would even overlook something good, he used his Cosmic Art.

The moment he used the Cosmic Art, he discovered something abnormal: there was a small tracking device mixed into the thousand star essence. He had not discovered it with just his domain. Rather, he needed the combination of his domain, the Cosmic Art, and his mutated eyes to do so, which meant that the tracking device was as difficult to perceive as the Secret Sidestep technique. 

Lu Yin’s first thought of obliterating the device, but then, his hand paused midair. His eyes flashed deviously before he quickly stored all of the star essence away, along with the tracking device.

Unfortunately, it hadn’t been Mad Viper Knight who had landed in that forest. 

If he had robbed the Mad Viper Knight, Lu Yin would not have received nearly as much, as it was unlikely that all of the pirate groups offered the same amount of tribute, though there was likely a minimum. The Mad Viper Knight was just an Explorer, so it would be pretty decent if he could offer even a hundred star essence. 

Lu Yin was rather excited at this moment as he looked out of his spacecraft and into the heavens. He had never obtained such a large amount of money before, so his confidence had swelled tremendously. 

“Seventh Bro, your plundering actions are rather nimble. Do you perform such deeds often? You couldn’t have been a pirate before, right?” the monkey asked curiously. 

Lu Yin laughed, as he was in too good of a mood. He did not even mind the monkey’s words today.

“Seventh Bro, if we’re rich, can we buy a better spacecraft?” the monkey asked again.

Lu Yin looked up. Right, he had forgotten that this spacecraft was just an ordinary vessel and not of a decent grade either. He wanted to buy another Aurora, which only cost around ten star essence or so. Inexpensive, inexpensive.

The Blackbeard Pirates’ spacecraft would definitely be very fast, so even with a head start of two days, he might not be able to successfully beat them to Deep Crimson Planet. Moreover, the pirates that Lu Yin had just robbed had landed their spacecraft in the forest, so the Cruisers definitely would have seen it land. Thus, it was quite possible that it wouldn’t even take them two days to discover Lu Yin’s actions. When his thoughts reached this part, Lu Yin immediately changed course for the closest planet with lots of traffic, quickly changing his route.

The next time Lu Yin entered space, he was flying in a radiant-grade Aurora.

With this new ship’s speed, it would only take him about half a day to arrive at Deep Crimson Planet; a tenth of the previously estimated travel time.

When Lu Yin arrived at his destination, the fierce-looking Cruiser still had not woken up yet. Only one day had passed, and it could only be said that the Blackbeard Pirates were so confident in themselves that they had lost their vigilance.

Deep Crimson Planet was still locked down, so people could only enter but not exit. Lu Yin docked his spacecraft at the space station before trying to contact Xia Luo, but it was to no avail.

Big Pao and Little Pao had thoroughly angered the Bo Duo, to the point where they had blocked all the communications signals on Deep Crimson Planet and sealed the planet, all so that they could thoroughly search for the attackers. 

Deep Crimson Planet’s capital was a city called Han Da, where the Bo Duo resided. Lu Yin was not in a rush to find Xia Luo and the others. Instead, he simply headed towards Han Da.

With his Invisible Aura Technique, nobody could detect his power level. He easily sneaked into Deep Crimson Hall’s headquarters and then into a kitchen. Once there, he left the star essence with the tracking device embedded in it in a random area and then left.

“Next, I just have to wait for the Blackbeard Pirates to arrive.” Lu Yin looked at the starry sky and sighed. 

The Ghost Monkey marveled, “Seventh Bro, that’s a good trick, but aren’t you afraid that Deep Crimson Hall will just clear up the misunderstanding?”

“How? The tracker is located inside Deep Crimson Hall’s headquarters, and they’ve blocked off all outside signals. The last place that the Blackbeard Pirates would have received the signal from would be Deep Crimson Planet. Thus, they have to invade Deep Crimson Planet before they can pinpoint the tracker’s position. When that happens, I’ll be able to get in contact with Xia Luo and take them all away.” 

“Deep Crimson Planet’s so large, so will there be enough time for you to escape before those Blackbeard Pirates and Deep Crimson Hall start fighting? It’s going to be tough.” The monkey was doubtful of Lu Yin’s plan.

Lu Yin muttered to himself, “It’s not that difficult. They’re relatively close by, and the Bo Duo’s cultivation isn’t that spectacular—they definitely haven’t comprehended a domain yet. They can’t use their star energy to constantly monitor their surroundings, so the area that they can observe won’t be very large. Deep Crimson Hall also has many captives that they have to keep an eye on while they’re trying to ferret out Big Pao and Little Pao.”

“So Big Pao and Little Pao shouldn’t be too far away from Han Da.” The monkey quickly understood.

Lu Yin smiled, since that was the logical conclusion. Fortunately, not everyone could comprehend a domain, or else Lu Yin would have no sense of security no matter what he did.

In the past, when he had been in Shenwu Continent, his actions had been discovered by Ming Zhaoshu. This demonstrated why a domain was so awesome. Without it, even a Hunter might as well be blind, as they would only be able to see a limited area.

Not long after Lu Yin arrived at Deep Crimson Planet, the fierce-looking Cruiser awakened. He had been taken to one of the nearby natives’ homes, and he forcibly suppressed his severe injuries and contacted the Blackbeard Pirates. 

Over the many years that the Blackbeard Pirates had dominated the Chaos Flowzone, they had never been robbed. But today, their tribute had actually been stolen. This was not just a humiliation for the fierce-looking Cruiser’s pirate crew, but also for the Blackbeard Pirates. Nigh instantaneously, the Chaos Flowzone’s Blackbeard Pirates were mobilized, and they started to trace the signal, vowing to make the thief regret their actions for the rest of their life.

A Hunter who had been enjoying his time on another planet became even more furious. He was responsible for collecting the tributes from this region, but such a thing had happened during his supervision. This made him the laughingstock of the Blackbeard Pirates, so he could not let this matter rest. He definitely would not let the bastard off. 

“Found it! The signal disappeared in this area.” One pirate brought up a star chart on the screen, showing a point that was highlighted with a red light.

That Hunter looked over, and his eyes narrowed. “Deep Crimson Planet. The Bo Duo are truly audacious. Contact the boss and tell him to let me handle this matter. I’m not a man if I can’t retrieve that tribute.” He then leaped up and charged into space.

On Deep Crimson Planet, within the capital, Han Da, Lu Yin found a slum where he could hide himself since he had decided to roll his die to pass the time. He was rich at this moment, so he was hoping to roll three pips: Enhance. His cosmic ring still contained a strengthening fruit that had previously been upgraded to a gold color, and there was also that half portion of the white fruit. He was not planning on using the strengthening fruit anytime soon, since his physical body had already been upgraded to the extreme, which meant that he could not upgrade it anymore while in the Limiteer realm. Instead, he was planning on upgrading the white fruit half in his possession.

His mentor had previously mentioned that the white fruit was filled with vitality, and that such a fruit could even resurrect a person if it was old enough. Of course, resurrection was a bit of an exaggeration. However, Lu Yin believed that if the fruit was upgraded to a similar degree as the other strengthening fruits, then while it might not be able to resurrect a person, it would at least be able to let someone preserve their life. That was a valuable chance worth purchasing. 

Right, he suddenly recalled that he still had his universal armor, and he wondered if such a thing could also be upgraded. He also had Progenitor Wushang’s hide, and he wondered if that could be upgraded into a complete hide. He did not know how many pieces of Progenitor Wushang’s hide there were, and they were all different sizes as well. It would be virtually impossible for someone to collect all of them. 

As he thought about it, Lu Yin felt like he had been bewitched—he wanted to upgrade everything. For a moment, he even thought about throwing himself onto the screen to be upgraded. Perhaps his entire being might be directly enhanced.

Lu Yin walked deep into a side alley before using his domain to merge himself with his surroundings, concealing his aura. He no longer needed to worry even if a Hunter appeared. Suddenly, his domain distorted; another domain had appeared.

Lu Yin suddenly widened his eyes, and he turned to look towards the west, in the direction of the other domain user.

At the same time, in the west, Xia Luo looked up, and his lips perked up. He had just felt a familiar domain; Lu Yin had arrived.

Lu Yin also felt the familiarity of the other domain. It was Xia Luo’s. An involuntary smile spread across his face. Deep Crimson Planet was so massive, but they had somehow managed to find each other in such a manner. 

The slums were extensive, and Lu Yin’s domain could not envelop such a large area. At best, they could cover a third of the slums. This meant that Xia Luo and he had coincidentally selected the same general area of the slums. 

Soon after, Lu Yin pushed away a tattered wooden door to reveal Xia Luo, Lulu, Michelle, Zora, Coco, Darkvoid, and Hui Daynight. It was wonderful since not even one person was missing. They had all arrived safely. He would not have thought much of the others being present, but even Darkvoid and Hui Daynight had come along, which seemed strange.

“Brother Lu, you’re here!” Coco was delighted.

The rest looked at Lu Yin as well. He was their backup, since his strength was equivalent to a Cruiser’s.

“It looks like we think alike.” Xia Luo beamed at Lu Yin. He almost always had the same facial expression, except for when he looked at Silver.

Lu Yin nodded towards Coco and the rest and then turned and shrugged towards Xia Luo. “Just as I was worrying about where to look for you guys, it turns out that I guessed correctly. Our two seniors shouldn’t be imprisoned too far from here.” 

Xia Luo nodded. “So, shall we rest before we discuss how to rescue them? Meng Yue and Zhao Yilong have already scouted their location. They’re being held beneath Han Da.”

Lu Yin was shocked. “Underground?”

“There’s a giant mine beneath Han Da, about a kilometer beneath the surface. Everyone who was captured was sent there, including our two seniors. The place where Meng Yue sneaked in is right under our current position.”

Lu Yin looked down, and his domain penetrated through the ground. Once his domain stretched a kilometer down, he was able to detect some noise and confirm that there was indeed a large mine.

“What’s the plan?” Lu Yin asked.

Lulu rolled her eyes. “What plan? Haven’t we just been waiting for you? We can’t escape from two Hunters on our own.”

“The academy didn’t have a problem with letting all of you make this trip?” Lu Yin was confused.

Lulu grinned, and a Money Bomb appeared in her hand that she started tossing about.