Chapter 849: The Old Assassins
If an Imprinter family didn’t have an Imprinter, then they would no longer be recognized as an Imprinter family. Quite simply, the family would quickly lose its status.
The Huang family was a clear example of what would happen to such a family.
The Yan family had previously looked down upon the Huang family, but at present, they were in the same situation.
Yan Xiaojing was very smart, but only after this event actually occurred did she gain a clearer understanding of how drastic the consequences could be.
Autumnfrost Qing’s attitude towards Yan Xiaojing had clearly changed, and he wasn’t as caring towards her anymore. He coldly told her, “Don’t worry. Even if Elder Yan is dead, the Qiu family will still take care of you.”
Yan Xiaojing nodded. “Thank you, brother Autumnfrost.”
Autumnfrost Qing caressed Yan Xiaojing’s face with a satisfied expression. He didn’t care about Yan Cheng’s death. Although an extra Imprinter would have been beneficial to the Autumnfrost family, obtaining such a powerhouse wasn’t crucial for them. Thus, Autumnfrost Qing’s goal at the moment was to simply enjoy himself with Yan Xiaojing. He held her closer and tried to kiss her.
Yan Xiaojing was shocked, and she instinctively pushed Autumnfrost Qing away, warily saying, “Brother Autumnfrost, please behave yourself.”
Autumnfrost Qing was annoyed at her refusal. “Xiaojing, you’re nearly mine, so what are you worried about?”
Yan Xiaojing took a few steps back and glared at Autumnfrost Qing. “Brother Autumnfrost, I- I want to wait until we get married first.”
Autumnfrost Qing stiffly answered, “We don’t know how long this war will last for, so there’s no reason to wait. You’ll be my woman from now on.” He then forcefully pulled Yan Xiaojing closer towards him.
Yan Xiaojing turned pale. If Yan Cheng was still alive, then she would definitely end up marrying Autumnfrost Qing. However, now that her ancestor had died, the Autumnfrost family would no longer be as agreeable to a marriage between Autumnfrost Qing and someone from the Yan family. She would never let Autumnfrost Qing have her lest she ruin her chances for marriage in the future.
However, Yan Xiaojing was not powerful enough to push back Autumnfrost Qing, and her imprint had also been greatly weakened with Yan Cheng’s death.
The door of the room was flung open with a bang, and Fatty Bro glared at Autumnfrost Qing in fury. “Let Xiaojing go.”
Killing intent flashed through Autumnfrost Qing’s eyes. “Stupid fatty, how dare you!” He had wanted to kill this fatty before, but he had been stopped by Yan Cheng. However, that meant that there was no longer anyone around to stop Autumnfrost Qing.
He raised a hand and attacked with a Skyrender Claw.
The fatty opened his mouth as his body quickly expanded. The silhouette of a Sky-Eater Pig appeared and swallowed the Skyrender Claw.
Autumnfrost Qing smirked. Both Yan Xiaojing and the fatty had lost their imprints due to Yan Cheng’s death, and so, their strength had fallen dramatically. It would be extremely easy for Autumnfrost Qing to defeat them both. He retaliated by kicking at the fatty with his improved strength from his Sky Overlord bloodline.
The fatty spat out a mouthful of blood when he struck the wall.
Yan Xiaojing rushed over and helped Huang San up. “Please leave now.”
Huang San glared at Autumnfrost Qing. “I won’t leave.”
Yan Xiaojing started despairing. “Just leave! He’s going to kill you.”
“I’m not leaving!” The fatty bellowed as he stared daggers at Autumnfrost Qing.
Autumnfrost Qing was about to attack again, but he didn’t want to attract too much attention. Although he was the heir of the Autumnfrost family, the invasion was not going well, and the members of the Mojiang family were all in a bad mood. Thus, he didn’t want to create any trouble. He coldly glared at the fatty and Yan Xiaojing. “Stupid Fatty! I’ll make your life hell!”
He then looked at Yan Xiaojing. “You should consider this carefully. Your family won’t be able to survive in the Bloodburn Realm without my family’s protection.” He then turned around and left.
Everyone in the nearby area stared at the fatty and Yan Xiaojing with pity in their eyes before leaving.
The universe was a cruel place, and nobody was able to help the Yan family after Yan Cheng’s death.
Huang San spat out another mouthful of blood as he turned to look at Yan Xiaojing. He then weakly said, “Don’t worry, I’m here.”
Yan Xiaojing stared at Huang San in shock, and she suddenly felt that he was extremely impressive. Although he had been defeated by Autumnfrost Qing, the current fatty still made her feel safe. “Thank you.”
The fatty was feeling worried; Autumnfrost Qing had just injured him rather badly, and both he and Yan Xiaojing had lost their imprints.
Autumnfrost Qing wouldn’t be able to deal with them at the moment due to the ongoing war, but as soon as they returned to the Sixth Mainland, there would be many people who would gladly help Autumnfrost Qing deal with them.
“Xiaojing, let’s run away from the Bloodburn Region,” the fatty whispered.
Yan Xiaojing was stunned. She had always thought that she was a very smart and calm person, but at this moment, she became extremely flustered. “But what about my Yan family?”
“As long as we manage to escape, the Autumnfrost family won’t dare to do anything to the Yan family as there are other powerhouses in your family. Besides, Elder Yan Cheng made a great contribution to the invasion’s efforts, and the Autumnfrost family won’t be able to go too overboard,” the fatty said.
After Yan Xiaojing thought about it, she firmly answered. “Alright.”
***
There was a white dot in the dark vacuum of the Outerverse, and it was a planet that had been entirely frozen.
This planet was extremely cold, and even Hunter realm powerhouses couldn’t survive there.
Starfox appeared and descended towards the surface from the sky, stepping foot on the cryopreserved planet. A stone staircase suddenly appeared as the ground collapsed, and he descended down the stairs until he reached an underground room that had been completely frozen over. This was where the founding members of Aegis rested in cryostasis, and one of them would awaken every thousand years and assume management of Aegis.
Starfox approached a white, metal coffin and knocked against it. He then took a few steps back.
The white metal lid opened a few moments later and a pale hand appeared from within. The hand was very small, and it looked to be a child’s hand. Following the hand, a child appeared in front of Starfox. However, the child standing there had a precocious and aloof gaze.
“Has it been a thousand years already?” the child asked in a clear yet icy voice.
Starfox shook his head, “It hasn’t been a thousand years yet, but you must wake up. The Hall of Honor has drafted all of us to join Endless Weave’s defense.”
The child asked, “Has the Technocracy attacked?”
“Not only the Technocracy. There’s also another unknown force called the Sixth Mainland, according to the Hall of Honor.”
The child was perplexed, but he didn’t ask any further questions. Instead, he turned to look at the other coffin. “What about him?”
“He must go to the battlefield as well,” Starfox said reluctantly.
The child fully emerged from the white coffin. “How is Aegis doing?”
Starfox was uncertain about how he should answer that question. The Outerverse had recently been isolated from the Innerverse, the Great Eastern Alliance had formed, and Aegis had also fought against Lu Yin. Altogether, there were too many things for him to share with the others. “I have recorded everything onto this chip so that you can take a look at it for yourself.” He then passed a memory chip over to the child.
***
In another region of the Outerverse, Madam Nalan looked at a screen and slowly bowed. “Mother, the Hall of Honor has conscripted us to help out with the defense.”
The screen showed an old lady, and although her face was covered in wrinkles, the rest of her skin was clean and smooth.
The old lady had a complicated expression. “The Sixth Mainland? I have heard of it before, but it’s been too long. I can’t remember anything about it.”
***
At the edge of Endless Weave, a spacecraft with Endless Borders’ logo was headed towards the border.
This spacecraft had traveled out of the Astral Wilderness, and on it was one of Endless Borders’ expedition teams. They had been conscripted to join the defense as well.
***
Many forces in the Outerverse had been drafted to the border warfront.
The Sixth Mainland’s retreat did not mean that the war was over. On the contrary, it was actually an indication that the battle had intensified.
This was the natural progression, as the war would have eventually reached this stage with or without the Fifth Mainland’s successful counterattack. Nobody could stop it from reaching this point.
The only thing that the Hall of Honor could do at this time was find all of the hidden powers throughout the Outerverse and send them all to the border.
Despite that, no matter how powerful the Hall of Honor was, they couldn’t fully grasp every corner of the Outerverse. Thus, there would always be hidden powerhouses in the Outerverse. However, nearly all of them had been sent to the border by now, and even if there were still other powerhouses hiding, it would only be a small number.
If the border defense was truly defeated, then those powerhouses would still be forced to appear in the end. Thus, there was no reason for them to continue hiding.
These powerhouses were essentially the second batch of reinforcements, along with the people who had been sent out to destroy the mechanical giants. The Hall of Honor didn’t want to conscript a third batch, as that would be equivalent to admitting that they were close to complete defeat. This was because there were not enough powerhouses to produce a third batch of reinforcements, and the people who would make up this theoretical third reinforcement would be the final strength of the Outerverse, such as Huo Qingshan and Hill Auna from the Great Yu Empire, or the members of the Outerverse Lockbreaker Society.
These people wouldn’t be of much help at the border warfront. If they were truly drafted, then it would mean that the border had already failed and that such people were just being used as cannon fodder.
Lu Yin had previously been transferred to the Greatwood Lavazone due to the incessant attacks on that region, and he had assumed that he would be sent back to the Ironblood Lavazone after the Sixth Mainland’s retreat. However, he didn’t receive any such notification.
The arrival of the second batch of reinforcements increased the number of Enlighters within the Greatwood Lavazone by two. One of the Enlighters was the captain of an Endless Borders expedition team, Captain Shi, and his rune lines revealed that his power level had nearly reached 300,000, and his strength far exceeded Akira’s. The other Enlighter was actually even more powerful. Their rune lines numbered more than Captain Shi’s, but the most important detail was that this person was an assassin.
Lu Yin glanced at the assassin in the distance, and they turned around to stare at Lu Yin with cold eyes in turn.
Lu Yin suddenly felt chills crawl down his back.
He immediately thought of Aegis; this person was an assassin, and their power level was clearly above 300,000. The only assassins who had achieved such strength in the Outerverse were the founding members of Aegis who had been preserved through cryostasis.
Lu Yin had previously guessed that the assassins who had survived the past culling of assassins had to be extremely powerful if they had gone on to establish Aegis. At this time, his guess had finally been confirmed.
Fortunately, he hadn’t insisted on fighting Aegis to the death, as Smoker definitely wouldn’t have been able to kill these kinds of people. Smoker might be able to escape from powerhouses whose power levels were in the hundreds of thousands, but they were definitely not capable of defeating an expert with such strength.
The assassin glanced at Lu Yin and then disappeared, with even their rune lines vanishing.
Lu Yin’s brows perked up, as he had confirmed that this person was definitely from Aegis. They were the only people who had a method to conceal their rune lines.
Two Enlighters had joined the Greatwood Lavazone, and the same also had to be true for the other regions.
Even the old assassins from Aegis had joined the border’s defense. Thus, it seemed that there really weren’t any more hidden powerhouses remaining in the Outerverse.
Lu Yin was happy about that, as he had no wish to suffer from any hidden threats.
Lu Yin soon heard that Astral-9 had also arrived.
He was surprised by this development, as Astral-9 had always remained in Endless Weave, though they were situated quite far from the border. Without the speed of a radiant-grade Aurora, it would take someone at least ten days to travel from Astral-9 to the border. Lu Yin had not expected the Hall of Honor to draft Astral-9 as well.