Ah Ya thought about Lu Yin’s question and then replied, “Actually, it’s not like there aren’t any methods. With just a sentence from you, the entire Great Eastern Alliance will start campaigning for you. That means that, as the Great Eastern Alliance’s size increases, its influence will naturally grow as well. The media can only follow the empire. Otherwise, they will be censored.”

…

After talking with Ah Ya for a short while, Lu Yin dismissed her. The responsibility of the media was to disseminate the truth to the masses, but was that saying actually the truth of the matter? Lu Yin laughed; if he could not influence any outside regions, then he would just work on influencing the Great Eastern Alliance for the moment.

He contacted Gavin and had the minister send out an order making all the media companies in the entire Great Eastern Alliance speak highly of him. Just this simple order was enough. It didn’t matter what the outside universe thought about him for the moment, but the Great Eastern Alliance at least needed to be filled with voices of approval.

Something like reputation could not be seen or touched, but its uses were greater than what could be imagined.

Ever since Old Gu De had died, that brat, Hai Qiqi, had spent all of her time at the Astral River’s border, still exploring.

Lu Yin suddenly thought of Wendy and wondered how her recovery from the injuries that she had suffered in the Daosource Sect was going. Once the thought entered his head, he moved out to visit her manor. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the Fifth Princess’s residence, he was told that she was not available. She was not in seclusion this time, and had instead gone out with a young man.

“Did she elope? Seventh Bro, your woman just eloped with someone else!” the Ghost Monkey shouted.

Lu Yin directly screened the monkey off and then replicated Ku Wei’s image with star energy. “Is this who she went out with?”

The guard quickly answered, “Yes. This man requested an audience with the princess. Then, she left with him. Neither of them have returned yet.”

“Did they say where they were headed?” Lu Yin frowned.

The guard shook his head.

Lu Yin sent out an order throughout the empire to be on the lookout for any traces of Ku Wei. Since Wendy Yushan had left with him, then did that mean that he had discovered a trace of the Yu bloodline?

This possibility left Lu Yin feeling a bit uneasy. If members of the Yu bloodline appeared, then who would end up ruling the Great Yu Empire? If Undying Yushan was actually not dead, then would Lu Yin still have any authority as the Royal Regent?

Not much time passed before Ban Jiu contacted Lu Yin, reporting that 200 of the androids had been completed.

Lu Yin went to visit the Technology Department, where he saw 200 androids silently standing in place. He could see that each one of them had rune lines that nearly matched those of a Cruiser, leaving him ecstatic. He immediately added them to the empire’s First Squadron.

200 peak Explorer realm androids amounted to a rather frightening strength, and they would be enough to shock many when they were sent out.

Not even Aegis could assemble so many peak Explorers at such short notice.

Currently, the First Squadron consisted entirely of Lu Yin’s trusted people. Those who had joined previously included Kayze, Yue Xianzi, An Shaohua, and Ah Fan, who were later followed by Li Zimo and Bei Qing. All of the First Squadron’s members boasted extraordinary talent. And now, 200 androids and Lu Yin himself had been added to their ranks, which allowed the First Squadron to completely surpass the other twelve squadrons. Even if Undying Yushan were still alive, unless his strength had reached a level where Lu Yin could not even resist, then he was confident that he could at least stay alive.

Unfortunately, the Yu bloodline might also have old monsters hidden away, which was a most frightening possibility.

Ding!

A message arrived, and Lu Yin grew somber as soon as he read it. Aegis was about to retaliate.

He had managed to eradicate around half of Aegis’s bases and strength that had been scattered throughout the Great Eastern Alliance. This move had forced Aegis into a situation where their only option was to prepare for a direct confrontation.

The message that Lu Yin had just received had been sent by the bespectacled Mistchild. Aegis had made an announcement to the entire underworld and were recruiting assassins to launch a sneak attack on Zenyu Star. They wanted to eradicate all of the Great Yu Empire’s upper levels in one go.

Many weaves in the Outerverse were still isolated, but despite that, Aegis was able to gather a considerable number of assassins and mercenaries as well as Enlighters such as Lord Egret. If an attack was really launched on Zenyu Star, the result would be devastating.

Lu Yin did not doubt that Aegis had the ability to sneak into Frostwave Weave undetected.

These assassins and mercenaries were well trained and experienced, and thus, they would not be discovered by the empire’s soldiers.

Aegis’s planned retaliation was well within Lu Yin’s expectations, and at this moment, he was not even thinking about Aegis. Rather, he was thinking about Wei Rong.

Aegis appeared to have a great deal of strength, but in truth, they were not strong enough to actually frighten him. Wei Rong was the true hidden snake. Since he had lurked behind the scenes and orchestrated the events that led to the Outerverse Lockbreaker Society’s collapse, Lu Yin did not doubt Wei Rong’s ability to take advantage of this chaotic situation that Aegis was stirring up with the Great Eastern Alliance.

After Lu Yin thought about it, he quickly contacted Felynn. “President Felynn, how are things progressing with Sourcepeak Weave?”

Felynn had an awkward look on the screen. “Sourcepeak Weave and the Great Eastern Alliance are too far apart, as there are several weaves separating them. Thus, they aren’t willing to join the Great Eastern Alliance.”

Lu Yin replied in a low voice, “Raise the price. President Felynn, I hope that you can take care of this matter for me, and I can guarantee that I won’t mistreat you in the future. I have a general idea concerning Deng Pu movements, and he holds some pages of the True Insight. If you can pull Sourcepeak Weave into joining the Great Eastern Alliance, then you will receive a portion of True Insight.”

Felynn’s eyes lit up. “You’ve discovered Deng Pu’s whereabouts?”

Lu Yin nodded with a smile. “That’s right. My people discovered him in the Astral Wilderness, but unfortunately, he slipped away. However, he won’t be able to escape, and it won’t take long to actually capture him. By that time, I hope that you will be able to give me a reason for me to reward you with the True Insight.” Lu Yin then abruptly ended the call.

He had always been searching for traces of Deng Pu, but the man had proven to be completely untraceable. Still, that did not stop Lu Yin from tempting Felynn with the True Insight.

No Lockbreaker was able to ignore True Insight, as it was truly a supreme treasure to all Lockbreaker.

On Sourcepeak Planet, the scene of that Corpse King being instantly disintegrated by the sourcebox array had been seen by not only him, but also by Felynn. She fully understood the terror of a sourcebox array, and True Insight was something that she strongly desired.

However, Lu Yin was not actually counting on her pulling Sourcepeak Weave into the Great Eastern Alliance, as he only wanted to use this to keep Wei Rong as busy as possible.

Lu Yin was certain that he was doing the right thing. Regardless of what Felynn’s efforts became, a portion of Wei Rong’s energies would be consumed by her actions.

Although Felynn had an escape route in Wei Xin'er, and even though she also occasionally provided Wei Rong with a bit of information, the allure of True Insight was too strong, and she could not ignore it. She started to seriously pursue the matter concerning Sourcepeak Weave, and it eventually led to Wei Rong having to personally head to Sourcepeak Weave to stymie her efforts.

Lu Yin was not sure how much the matter with Sourcepeak Weave could occupy Wei Rong’s attention, and he did not count on that entirely. His die was what he was truly relying on.

Only his die gave him the confidence to deal with Aegis.

“Seventh Bro, why don’t you make use of the Hall of Honor to suppress Aegis? They dared to openly try to assassinate you, and if you die, the Hall of Honor will investigate your death and seek revenge. They are going after the Hall of Honor’s reputation,” the monkey curiously asked.

“The Hall of Honor is not a bodyguard. Them investigating the cause of death and seeking revenge is simply the Hall of Honor safeguarding their own dignity. The Hall of Honor will not intervene in struggles between powers, and as long as Aegis doesn’t kill me, the Hall of Honor will not interfere no matter what. Even if they destroy the Great Yu Empire, the Hall of Honor will not step forward. Only we can resolve the problem that is Aegis,” Lu Yin answered in a low voice.

There was no reason why Lu Yin wouldn’t use the Hall of Honor to deal with Aegis if he could, but with the way things were, the Hall of Honor would not help him since they would be breaking their own rules to do so. Breaking the rules in such a fashion would lead to a terrible outcome, and this was why the Hall of Honor never intervened in struggles between the various powers of the Human Domain.

Otherwise, it would have only taken a single sentence from Elder Lohar to establish the Great Eastern Alliance, and there would have been no need for Lu Yin to go through so much trouble.

The Hall of Honor surpassed countless powers and protected its own dignity, but once it intervened, nobody could predict the final outcome.

Still, Aegis was certainly crazy, as they had dared to send Feng Zi to kill Lu Yin despite knowing that he had eleven Honor Points. Had they been that certain he would not die? Or were they crazy to the point where they were not intimidated even by the Hall of Honor? The Outerverse was currently isolated from the Innerverse, and Aegis had been acting too arrogantly. Not even the Daynight clan dared to openly challenge the Hall of Honor.

Lu Yin’s expression suddenly changed, as he had just thought of another possibility.

Lu Yin immediately went into seclusion when he returned to King Zishan's palace. Aegis, the Yu bloodline, and the Daosource Sect's ruins: all of these issues demanded that he increase his strength, and there was nothing wrong with Lu Yin upgrading his own strength. However, he simply did not have enough time. Just like when Karthika had intimidated Lu Yin when the Outerverse and Innerverse were first separated, Lu Yin once again needed a strength that could shock everyone.

He screened the Ghost Monkey off and pulled out a few objects. The first was his universal armor, which was strong enough to withstand attacks from powerhouses whose power levels were around 300,000. Although some force would still penetrate through the universal armor and attack his body, he was able to withstand those forces with his own physical strength.

The next item that he pulled out was a Money Bomb, the last one in his possession. He had already upgraded it to the point where it could threaten an Enlighter, and when he used it in combination with Progenitor Wushang’s hide, it could kill Enlighters.

These were Lu Yin’s trump cards.

It was a pity that Granny Chan had exposed the existence of this item in the past, as it had led to many people becoming familiar with how he could kill Enlighters. It was very difficult for such a method to succeed against people on guard against it, and that wasn’t even mentioning how a small piece of Progenitor Wushang's Hide was still suppressing the mummy in the Primal Zone. Fortunately, Lu Yin still had the larger piece in his possession. It gave him some degree of protection.

The only external items that Lu Yin could rely on at the moment were these two. Wait, he also had Elder Wu’s poisons. The other powerful items that he had owned, such as the Enneadic Wings, the pike, his gun, and the Void Thunderbeast’s flesh, had all been ruined.

It was time to upgrade another batch of items to the level of being able to threaten Enlighters.

Recently, after the establishment of the Great Eastern Alliance, many people and organizations had sent Lu Yin gifts. That, combined with what he had gained from killing Old Gu De and destroying Aegis’s various associates and bases, meant that he now had several decent items. Once they were upgraded to the level of being a threat to Enlighters, they would be able to serve his purposes.

Lu Yin raised a hand, and his die appeared. He took a deep breath and placed his cosmic ring to one side. He tapped out, and the die slowly spun before finally stopping on four pips: Timestop.

Lu Yin quickly grabbed his cosmic ring as the scenery changed before his eyes. He had appeared in the Timestop Space.

Coming to this place allowed him to feel at ease, because as long as he stayed in this place long enough, he was guaranteed to eventually roll three pips: Enhance.

After thinking about it, he restored the die and tapped it again. It spun, before finally stopping on three pips: Enhance.

Lu Yin was delighted. That had been so easy!

The first item to be upgraded was the bracer that he had gotten from Old Gu De. It was a power vessel that, according to Old Gu De, would double the wearer’s physical strength as long as their strength did not surpass the upper limit of a Hunter’s strength.

Lu Yin had tested it before, and sure enough, it could only upgrade his strength to the point of matching a peak Hunter’s.

Still, that was fine. Lu Yin held high expectations as he set the bracer on the upper light screen. He then started to throw out a crazy amount of star essence as he upgraded the bracer over and over again. His eyes grew brighter as the bracer was continuously upgraded, until it finally reached the point where it made Lu Yin palpitate, at which point he stored it away.

He had upgraded it seven times, which had cost him about 20,000 star essence, which was much more than what he had previously spent on upgrading the gun. It had cost him 27,000 star essence to upgrade the gun thirteen times. Still, the bracer was cheaper than the pike. He had had to use 26,000 star essence to upgrade the pike just six times.

Different items required differing amounts of star essence for their upgrades. The Void Thunderbeast’s flesh had also been extremely expensive to upgrade, but Lu Yin had not even counted since there had been nothing he could do about it. No matter how much it cost, he had had no choice but to follow through, so there had been no point in counting the costs.