Chapter 616: A Strange Land

After returning to the Great Yu Empire, the first thing that Lu Yin did upon arriving at King Zishan’s palace was meet with En Ya.

“Your Highness, this is the current draft of the alliance contract that summarizes how the alliance will be created. We have already sent some people out to begin working on the first step and have privately contacted several people. Everything is going smoothly at this moment,” En Ya reported.

Lu Yin read the contract and summary that En Ya had passed to him. “I’m not very good at this, so you can make the decisions. Shenwu Continent has already joined the Great Eastern Alliance, so please remember to send someone over to them with the contract, and don’t delay.” He was eager for Ming Yan to come to the Great Yu Empire as soon as possible.

“Yes, Your Highness,” En Ya replied.

Since Undying Yushan’s death, the Great Yu Empire’s morning meetings had instead been held by the Imperial Cabinet. These meetings were also referred to as “forums,” and the formal meetings were only held when Lu Yin was also present.

However, most of the key issues regarding the Great Yu Empire had already been handled; the collaboration with the Nalan family, the creation of the Great Eastern Alliance, the recruitment of more soldiers, and all the other tasks were all progressing smoothly. Hence, Lu Yin didn’t have to worry too much about the empire at the moment. He was busy scanning through his cosmic ring when he suddenly noticed something.

During the final battle in Ironblood Weave, at Seasons Fort, which was also the first fight that Lu Yin had participated in after becoming an Explorer, he had used his die to learn the Yu Secret Art so that he could contribute more to stopping the astral beasts’ invasion. He had also received a yellow prayer mat when rolling the die at that time.

Back then, he had heard some faint chanting, and his body had been instinctively drawn towards the prayer mat. He was sure that it wasn’t an ordinary prayer mat, but he had had no time to investigate it and slowly forgot about it afterwards. This was actually the perfect time for him to take a look at the mysterious item.

He took the prayer mat out, and he immediately heard the chanting again. It wasn’t just one person’s voice either, but was rather numerous people chanting altogether.

“This thing’s a prayer mat, right?” the monkey hesitantly asked.

Lu Yin wasn’t sure either. “I think so.”

“Then take a seat. Prayer mats are meant to be sat on,” the monkey suggested. He had also heard the chanting and was very curious about the object.

Lu Yin sat down upon the prayer mat. Suddenly, a dull, golden light appeared and swirled around him. The chanting kept increasing in volume until space itself distorted. Lu Yin suddenly disappeared along with the prayer mat, though not a single other thing changed in the King Zishan palace.

Lu Yin experienced the same sensation that he had felt when entering the Time Stop Space or the mysterious space whenever he rolled Possession, where he would select an orb of light. Thus, he had built up a certain amount of resistance towards these sudden changes. Despite that, he was still stunned when he took a closer look at his new surroundings. What was this place?

It resembled a massive arena, and the weather in this place was amazing as there were clear skies for miles. However, Lu Yin had appeared within ruins where even the ground had cracked in multiple places. Multiple bloodstains had colored the ground a muddy red, and there were even a few bones here and there, giving the entire area an extremely desolate appearance.

Lu Yin used his domain to survey the area and quickly observed that the scenery was the same everywhere. The entire place was cracked and covered with bloodstain, piles of bones, and even some ancient weapons.

This is probably an ancient land much like the insides of that ancient centipede’s body, Lu Yin surmised.

He stood up, turned around, and looked at the futon that was still glowing. Lu Yin hesitated, but he then stored the prayer mat away before starting to walk forward across the cracked ground.

He took a step, but his foot caused the ground to crack further, even shattering a nearby skeleton.

“Seventh Bro, where are you right now?” the Ghost Monkey yelped.

“I don’t know,” Lu Yin answered.

“Seventh Bro, why do you always appear in all kinds of weird places?” the monkey complained.

Lu Yin bent down and examined the sword that lay next to the shattered skeleton. There were some ancient characters etched upon the blade. “Monkey, take a look at these words.”

The monkey took a look and curiously commented, “I don’t recognize them, but they still look rather familiar. The style of the writing seems rather similar to the words in the centipede’s body.”

“So they’re from the same time period?” Lu Yin asked.

“I’m not sure. It would depend on the development of this place’s culture, as written language can evolve quickly or slowly depending on the circ.u.mstances.”

There wasn’t a single living person within the scope of Lu Yin’s domain, and he couldn’t even find any animals nearby. His eyes looked around with star energy, but he still couldn’t see anything. This was the first time that this had happened ever since his eyes had transformed.

Lu Yin could only start walking towards the towering peaks that he saw off in the distance. Those peaks were a landmark, and if anyone was alive in this place, then they would probably head in that direction as well.

“Seventh Bro, let’s head back,” the monkey suggested.

“Let’s take a look around first,” Lu Yin replied. He had arrived by using the prayer mat, so he could probably only go back by using the prayer mat as well. It was very strange that a prayer mat could transport him to this place.

After a while, Lu Yin arrived at the foot of the mountain. There, he saw two huge stone pillars with a sign hung between the pillars. Upon it was carved some words:

‘This is a door, the mountain door.’

He then stepped through the mountain door and saw a twisting path in the forest. This place also resembled the arena where he had first appeared; many areas had been destroyed, and there were also random bones here and there.

This place is probably a sect that was destroyed countless years ago, Lu Yin thought to himself.

“Seventh Bro, let’s go! Don’t you think that this place might be haunted?” the monkey shouted.

“I’m going to screen you off if you spout out anymore nonsense,” Lu Yin growled in frustration.

The monkey immediately went silent.

After ten more minutes, Lu Yin suddenly halted. He had heard a weird noise that sounded like metal rubbing against metal.

Lu Yin turned to his right and saw that an enormous shadow had suddenly appeared right next to him.

Is this a metal automaton? Lu Yin was shocked.

The thing in front of him had a humanoid shape and appeared to be an automaton constructed entirely from metal. It was nearly three meters tall and had human features, but there were no pupils in its eyes, and its metallic body glinted brightly in the sunshine.

With a swoosh, the metal automaton swung its arm at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin dodged, but even the aftershock of the swing was enough to surprise him. The metal automaton was extremely strong.

The metal automaton was huge, but it reacted very quickly. It swung at Lu Yin once again, and this time, Lu Yin dodged before kicking at the metal automaton’s abdomen. However, his kick was blocked by the metal automaton’s other arm. There was a loud bang as Lu Yin was forced a few steps backward by the impact. He looked up at the thing in shock; this metal automaton was extremely sturdy, and it was incredibly strong as well.

“Seventh Bro, you were pushed back?” The monkey was astonished, as he knew perfectly well how freakishly strong Lu Yin was. On top of that, this metal automaton didn’t even have the aura of a Hunter. At best, it’s strength felt comparable to an Explorer’s. Thus, it was unbelievable that it was physically stronger than Lu Yin.

Lu Yin clenched his fists, and his expression turned serious.

The metal automaton didn’t give Lu Yin any time to prepare himself, and it immediately swung its arm down at him yet again, blocking the sun from his eyes. Lu Yin nimbly dodged aside, and he was about to retaliate when he realized that this metal automaton had increased its speed. It was now moving multiple times faster than it had before. Another attack descended from above, and Lu Yin dodged it again. Filling his eyes with star energy was useless in this place, and he needed the aid of a lockbreaking tool to use the Secret Sidestep Technique. However, he hadn’t reached the point where he needed to rely on the technique as he was still able to respond to the automaton’s movements with just his natural agility.

Lu Yin didn’t retaliate as he wanted to test out the strength and speed of the metal automaton first.

He soon realized that the metal automaton was extremely strong and powerful, and it also moved very quickly. Moreover, it could extrapolate Lu Yin’s weak spots based on his evasive movements. Although it didn’t seem like the metal automaton had any intelligence, it did demonstrate a strong sense of instinct.

With a bang, Lu Yin punched the metal automaton’s head in between its attacks. He used the strongest attack that he was capable of without unsealing his grains of Fatesand, and this blow was only barely able to dent the head of the metal automaton.

Lu Yin stared at the metal automaton in shock. His intention had been to send the head flying clean off since this was one of his strongest attacks. Ever since he had become an Explorer, he hadn’t met anyone within the same realm as him who could withstand this attack, and it was easily powerful enough to defeat the person ranked fiftieth in the Top 100 Rankings. And yet, despite that, it hadn’t been enough to defeat this automaton.

The automaton adjusted its head. It soon returned to its original position, after which it attacked Lu Yin again.

Lu Yin frowned and leaped up, suddenly appearing in front of the automaton’s head. “Fiftyfold Shockwave Palm.”

The metal automaton’s head finally flew away from its body.

The metal automaton collapsed to the ground with a loud clunk.

Lu Yin moved forward and touched the metal casing. It was very hard, and he couldn't even dent it with his current strength. He looked up and wondered what sect had created these automatons. This should be the mountain entrance of the sect; could it be that these automatons were used as a test for those who wished to join the sect?

If that was the case, then it would be insane since no cultivator below the Explorer realm could defeat these metal automatons. Even if Mu Rong faced off against one of these metal automatons while in the Limiteer realm, he would have a hard time defeating one. What sect could this be, to use this kind of automaton to test out potential disciples?

A loud noise indicated the arrival of more metal automatons from the surrounding forest. However, there were three of them approaching Lu Yin this time.

Lu Yin immediately ran away as he didn’t have the energy to fight against these metal automatons, not to mention that he didn’t even know how many of them there were.

Although the metal automatons were fast, they weren’t able to catch up with Lu Yin, and he soon lost them in the forest.

***

Huang San felt that he had been very unlucky ever since he had followed Xiaojing to this place. Even though he had arrived just a little later than her, that slight delay had become a huge distance between them, and he hadn’t been able to find her anywhere. He had even been surrounded by five First Divine Gate Guardians, and he had almost died there.

Fine, surround me! I’ll just retreat, Huang San thought to himself. However, when he glanced around him, he saw that there were another two guardians patrolling about a hundred meters away. He wanted to vomit blood and started wondering why there were so many guardians in this area. He had heard that these things had been almost completely destroyed after the war. Could he have run into all of the remaining guardians?

His family had finally managed to use their past contributions to obtain a futon. He couldn’t die here, and he had to marry Xiaojing.

Huang San screamed and dodged to the side when he suddenly heard a bang. The metal automaton had created a huge crater, and he suddenly felt an ominous sensation coming from behind himself. He reflexively bent over as a huge arm swept past his head; just the aftershock itself almost tore his pants apart.

Huang San picked up his pants and rushed towards the base of the mountain. He soon encountered the two First Divine Gate Guardians that had been a ways off from him, and he was still being chased by the five others behind him.

Huang San was about to cry. He was just an Explorer, and he had never even killed anyone before. Why were they all targeting him?