Chapter 657: The Cause

After the court meeting, Phantom Sting appeared at King Zishan’s palace to present his first achievement ever since he had started training the Second Squadron.

“The Xun family has released a total of twenty one of the secrets in our possession,” Phantom Sting informed Lu Yin.

Lu Yin studied his screen calmly. “Go and find out where the Xun family is located.”

“Ok.” Phantom Sting immediately left.

Twenty one secrets sounded like a lot, but most of the exposed information was unimportant and wouldn’t affect the formation of the Great Eastern Alliance. Not a single one of them was as explosive as Cheng Yan’s, which showed that the Xun family didn’t dare to act aggressively. Despite that, they had still exposed numerous secrets, and the only reason why they would do so was that they were still trying to threaten Lu Yin in order to achieve a certain goal.

Lu Yin didn’t hesitate, and he quickly tried to contact the number that Madam Meilan had given him again.

When he had first called that number, an old man from the Xun family had immediately hung up. However, this time, once the old man appeared on the screen, he merely stared at Lu Yin calmly.

“You are Xun Qianye,” Lu Yin stated unceremoniously.

Xun Qianye nodded and slowly answered, “You’re right, I’m Xun Qianye. Nice to meet you, Lu Yin.”

“You’ve seen me before?” Lu Yin narrowed his eyes.

“I don’t like small talk. What’s your goal?” Lu Yin asked coldly.

Xun Qianye’s eyes flashed. “Your Highness, you’re very straightforward, so I’ll tell you the truth. Back at the Sea King’s Dome, one of the juniors from my family tried to buy a gun, but it was bought by you instead. Do you remember this incident?”

Lu Yin’s eyes flickered. He had originally believed that the Xun family was trying to make things difficult for him because of Xun Meiren. However, why would this old guy suddenly bring up that gun? Could it be because Lu Yin had used it to kill Enlighters? He suddenly remembered that a piece of paper with some unrecognizable words on it had fallen out of the gun after it had shattered from usage. The Ghost Monkey had translated the writing and said that it was two names.

“I do remember that. It was just a common gun, so why would the Xun family do all this for just a gun?” Lu Yin retorted.

“As long as Prince Lu is willing to give us the gun, the Xun family guarantees that we will not reveal any of the remaining information and that we will stop bothering Your Highness,” Xun Qianye said.

Lu Yin smirked. “Xun Qianye, I think that there’s been some misunderstanding. Everyone knows that I use a gun to kill Enlighters, you wouldn’t happen to believe that it’s the same gun, right?”

“Of course not. The gun that I’m talking about is at most capable of killing a Cruiser, so how could it be used to kill Enlighter realm powerhouses? The Xun family is not that dumb. Moreover, a lot of people saw when your gun shattered in Ironblood Weave,” Xun Qianye replied.

“The allure of a Cruiser-level gun is enough to cause your Xun family to resort to such unscrupulous methods and to involve Elder Lohar?” Lu Yin asked coldly as killing intent emanated from his eyes.

“The value of some items cannot be measured by their price. One of my ancestors died in the Astral Wilderness, and that gun was the only thing that he left behind. To the Xun family, it’s a sacred item, and we hope that you can understand that. I guarantee that as long as Your Highness returns the gun to us, the Xun family will definitely stop causing trouble for you, and we can even offer the Great Yu Empire some resources as compensation,” Xun Qianye suggested.

Xun Qianye was elated at this turn of events. “We will, don’t worry, Your Highness!”

“Time and location?”

“Your Highness, you only have to send someone to bring the gun to the space station at Shenwu Continent, and someone from the Xun family will be there to receive it. I have to remind you that the Xun family is well versed in machinery, so please do not send anyone to follow us. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be good for either of us if something ends up happening.”

Lu Yin ended the call and immediately delivered an order. “Use polarium essence to make a gun as quickly as possible.”

The gun that the Xun family wanted had already been shattered into pieces, and it was impossible to repair, so Lu Yin could only make a replica. This was mostly because the Xun family didn’t actually want the gun—they wanted the paper that had been inside the gun.

He took out the slip of paper and looked at the words again. “Hey monkey, take a look and translate a few more of these words.”

“Seventh Bro, I only recognize two bits from that paper, and I already told you that one is ‘Wen Zhaocheng’ and the other is ‘Cang Yi.’ I don’t understand any of the other words,” the Ghost Monkey reluctantly answered. He had come to realize that not only had it been a long time since he had seen any sort of battle action, but that he had also been reduced to nothing more than a translator.

Lu Yin copied the writing down and sent the paper to the Technology Department where Ban Jiu was making a replica of his shattered gun.

The gun wasn’t very special, and the polarium essence used was actually more valuable than what the gun itself would end up being.

“Stuff this paper inside the gun,” Lu Yin said.

“Alright.”

“How much time do you need?”

“It’s just a gun, so I only need half an hour. If I weren’t making it out of polarium essence, I could make ten thousand guns in just a few minutes,” Ban Jiu said.

Half an hour later, Lu Yin tested out the new gun. Although both the gun and its bullets had been made from polarium essence, the power of the gun couldn’t even match the attack of an Explorer, let alone a Cruiser’s.

However, Lu Yin hadn’t been hoping for the gun to reach the level of matching up to a Cruiser’s attack. Since it had been made with polarium essence, he could simply use Enhance to upgrade it to the level where it could match a Cruiser’s attack.

Normally, a gun wouldn’t be this powerful, and thus, the Xun family probably wouldn’t be able to tell that the gun was just a replica. Even if they could, it wouldn’t even matter since they only wanted that slip of paper. Moreover, Lu Yin wasn’t even planning on letting the Xun family off to begin with. He was going to personally find Xun Qianye and then destroy the entire Xun family.

No matter how advanced the Xun family’s machinery might be, they still wouldn't be able to hide their rune lines.

Although he could see rune lines within the realm of the Fifth Mainland, he couldn’t see them in the ruins of the Daosource Sect, which had led Lu Yin to start wondering what those runes actually were.

***

In Shenwu Continent’s space station, a junior from the Xun family was amicably chatting with Madam Meilan. The Daynight clan and the Xun family got along well, and so, the atmosphere within the space station was very friendly.

“Madam, someone from the Great Yu Empire has arrived,” a Daynight clan member announced as they entered the room.

Madam Meilan turned around, and the face of the person from the Xun family grew fearful. Anyone who had heard of Lu Yin’s reputation would be afraid of him since he had killed several Enlighters. Besides, the Xun family had already become Lu Yin’s enemy, so this person would definitely be very wary of Lu Yin.

“Who is it?” the Xun family member asked nervously.

The person from the Daynight clan answered, “Huo Qingshan, the captain of the Fifth Squadron.”

As soon as he heard that it wasn’t Lu Yin, the person from the Xun family became relieved. “Take me to him.”

He then turned to Madam Meilan. “Thank you for your hospitality over these past two days. I will be departing shortly.”

“Of course.” Madam Meilan watched him leave with a smile.

Huo Qingshan didn’t talk to the man at all and merely tossed the gun over as quickly as possible. The person from the Xun family caught it and said, “My uncle asked me to thank Royal Regent Lu.”

“His Highness said that you should remember your promise,” Huo Qingshan replied.

The person from the Xun family smiled and tossed a cosmic ring over to Huo Qingshan. “The resources inside are from the Xun family to assist the Great Yu Empire, as well as to express our apologies.”

Huo Qingshan put the ring away.

The person from the Xun family also left as soon as he finished speaking.

Huo Qingshan calmly watched the man leave, and Madam Meilan walked out from behind him and asked, “Aren’t you going to follow him?”

“Why should I?” Huo Qingshan asked coldly. He glanced at Madam Meilan, but he didn’t leave yet.

Madam Meilan smirked. According to her understanding of Lu Yin, the Xun family would definitely be facing dire consequences for their actions.

In contrast to Huo Qingshan’s casual behavior, the person from the Xun family immediately left the space station while constantly glancing behind themselves. According to Xun Qianye’s predictions, Lu Yin definitely would not let them off, but for some reason, there wasn’t anyone following after the man. Still, he planned to continue with his charade.

After going through multiple disguises over the course of two days, the man from the Xun family finally arrived at a planet in Darkmist Weave.

“Uncle, I’m back.” The man approached an estate that was next to a sea and soon met with Xun Qianye.

Xun Qianye anxiously asked the man, “Did you follow my instructions?”

“Don't worry, Uncle. I did everything as you said, and I’m certain that nobody followed me,” the man said.

Xun Qianye nodded. He then took the gun from the man and studied it carefully. His expression quickly changed. “No, this is a fake!”

The man was shocked. “It’s fake? How can that be? This gun fires shots that are comparable to a Cruiser’s attacks.”

Xun Qianye’s gaze turned cold. “Although I don’t know where Lu Yin got this from, it’s not what we want.” He then shattered the gun, and a piece of paper fell out. Xun Qianye was shocked, but he quickly opened the piece of paper and fell deep into thought.

The man looked at the paper that fell out from the gun curiously.

Suddenly, Xun Qianye’s gadget rang, and he was surprised by what he saw when he opened his gadget. “Lu Yin’s here.”

The man who had delivered the gun was stunned. Suddenly, there was a loud sound, and Lu Yin appeared in his universal armor.

No matter what disguise the person from the Xun family had used, he couldn’t hide his rune lines unless he was able to completely disappear.

Lu Yin glanced at the furious Xun Qianye beneath him and saw the paper in his hand. He commented icily, “I didn’t expect you to be this close to me.”

“Lu Yin, you didn’t keep your promise!” the man from the Xun family shouted in terror.

Xun Qianye walked forward and glared at Lu Yin. “Lu Yin, you used a fake gun to try to scam me! Give me the real gun. Otherwise, you will end up in much greater trouble than you ever expected. The Great Yu Empire might collapse because of this!”

“How dare you threaten me? I’m not scared of you even if you do team up with the Daynight clan as long as the Innerverse is cut off from the Outerverse. Just imagine how you’ll be able to survive.” Lu Yin raised a hand, and an attack descended from the sky; it was from the blind monk.

Xun Qianye looked up, and his face went pale. “Lu Yin, I’m telling you this for the last time: give me the real gun! Otherwise, everyone connected to you will die, and you won’t be able to stop it even if you do have the power to kill Enlighters.”