Star Odyssey

"Have Wei Rong distribute some of this to everyone who participated in the war and then leave the rest to me." Lu Yin coughed as he stared eagerly at all the star essence strewn across the ground. This was more than everything that he had received in the past combined; now, he finally had a decent amount of money.

Not only had he acquired the Blaze Realm's treasury, but he had also obtained the strange power vessel that Madam Lan had tried to use when Lu Yin first appeared as well as the Karmic Flame. Both of these items were priceless treasures.

After emerging from the pocket dimension, Lu Yin immediately ordered the surrounding area to be blocked off so that no one could raid the treasury. As for the few Blaze Realm cultivators who had tried to steal a tidbit, not only did they have to return what they had grabbed from the treasury, but everything that they owned was also confiscated while they themselves were made prisoners, which was a pathetic outcome.

As soon as Lu Yin emerged, he received a call from Wei Rong. "Your Highness, the Innerverse is boiling right now, and everyone wants us to be kicked out. The nearby flowzones have already formed an allied army, and the Ross Empire and the sylvan dragon clan are ready to declare war."

Lu Yin felt helpless; why was it that people protested his presence wherever he went? His recent attack on the Blaze Realm had been a bit showy; perhaps, next time, he would employ alternate means and stealthily occupy a territory.

"With Leon's Armada blocking their path, they won't dare to actually do anything. The nearby flowzones are also just minor powers, so there's no need to be worried about any of them," Lu Yin said.

Suddenly, another call appeared on Lu Yin's gadget, but this time, a stranger was calling him.

If someone unknown was able to reach out to Lu Yin at this time, then they were definitely someone important, as not just anyone could call Lu Yin.

Lu Yin connected to the call, and a pleasant female voice called out. "Alliance Leader Lu, I'm Xin Jiao."

Lu Yin's eyes snapped wide open, as this woman was one of the Hall of Honor's nine overseers. "So it's Overseer Xin. How has this little junior managed to draw an overseer's attention?"

"Hehe, Alliance Leader Lu is a great person, and there's no need to belittle yourself." Xin Jiao laughed.

Lu Yin replied, "I don't know how the overseers are investigating the claims that I'm a traitor to the Fifth Mainland, but do you intend to use your overseer's unique privilege?"

"Is Alliance Leader Lu still holding a grudge? You shouldn't hold one against me, regardless," Xin Jiao said.

Lu Yin smiled and said, "I wouldn't dare, as I'm just asking. I, Lu Yin, have a clear conscience and simply do not want to be slandered."

Xin Jiao answered with a smile as well. "I believe that no investigation has been launched against Alliance Leader Lu, as everyone believes you."

Lu Yin smiled. This had nothing to do with whether or not people believed him. If he had not received the support of Eversky Island, Yuan Shi, as well as Arch-Elder Zen, then the overseers would have arrested Lu Yin long ago, regardless of whether or not he had actually been framed.

The Hall of Honor's nine overseers managed the mundane matters of the Human Domain. Under normal circumstances, not even the Chief Justice would intervene in such matters, though this was only in theory. If the Chief Justice spoke up, then the nine overseers would not dare to slight such a powerhouse by ignoring him. Yuan Shi held a similar level of prestige within the Hall of Honor due to all the people that he had taught, but it did not matter at this moment.

"Alliance Leader Lu, first of all, congratulations on leading the Great Eastern Alliance to occupy the Blaze Realm. You have Xin Jiao's admiration."

Lu Yin said, "So Overseer Xin is calling about this matter. Does the Hall of Honor intend to step in?"

"Although the Hall of Honor stands at the top of the Human Domain, it does not concern itself with internal affairs. I would just like to remind you that the Outerverse will be given over to the Sixth Mainland in the future. Alliance Leader Lu's history with the Sixth Mainland is quite clear, and you are one of their greatest enemies. Thus, Alliance Leader Lu should not try to set up the Innerverse as an enemy as well."

"The Sixth Mainland is the enemy of my entire Fifth Mainland. Compared to just me, the major forces of the Innerverse should be more concerned about the Sixth Mainland."

"That's what I said as well, but it's still a terrible situation for one to be stuck between the hammer and the anvil. Alliance Leader Lu should carefully think things through. Still, regardless of what you choose to do, we nine overseers will not intervene. That's all, Alliance Leader Lu. I wish you good luck." After speaking, Xin Jiao hung up.

Lu Yin lowered his gadget. Xin Jiao was clearly hoping that Lu Yin would not start another war. It was also clear that many people from all across the Innerverse had appealed to the Hall of Honor, causing a lot of pressure to befall the overseers, which had naturally led to this call.

Lu Yin found this matter somewhat amusing. Regardless of Xin Jiao's call, Lu Yin had no intention of starting another war. He did not want to set himself to go against the entire Innerverse.

He thought for a moment and then called Wei Rong. "Go ahead and release it. We aren't the Innerverse's enemy."

Wei Rong smiled. "Yes, Your Highness."

Before long, an edited video was broadcast throughout both the Outerverse and Innerverse on the universal network. The video contained a great deal of historical content, and it documented many of the atrocities that the Blaze Realm had carried out over the years, which mostly included oppressing the top forces in the Outerverse. Included in the video were clips of Outerverse powerhouses being forced to kneel in order to gain access to the Astral River Ark.

The video was more than ten hours long, and it documented dozens of incidents perpetrated by the Blaze Realm. Any of these incidents could easily incite public outrage, especially among the Outerverse cultivators.

And at the end of the video, there was a quote by some former Blaze Realm cultivator. "Trash from the Outerverse who want to enter the Innerverse can only become slaves. They are bottomfeeder cultivators who will never be anything more than ants, and they can only kneel down and worship me when in the Blaze Realm." This sentence was paired with the scene of an Explorer on his knees before a Limiteer from the Blaze Realm.

The Explorer in the video was no longer alive, as the end of the video showed him being killed by a Blaze Realm cultivator as a joke.

As soon as the video was released, it shook both the Innerverse and Outerverse.

The universe was cruel and full of darkness, and terrible things that could challenge anyone's faith in humanity were carried out on the daily. But those aspects remained hidden, and as long as nothing was exposed, there would be no problems. At this moment, the Blaze Realm's darkness had been completely exposed.

Immediately, across the entire network, countless people cursed the Blaze Realm, especially the people from the Outerverse. Anyone with access to the universal network would hear rumors about this video, and it threatened to destroy the Blaze Realm's entire legacy.

Soon, a second video appeared, which portrayed more incidents of cultivators from the Blaze Realm bullying others. It was soon followed by a third video, a fourth, and more. Before long, thousands of videos had appeared.

The Blaze Realm had stood for countless years, and even tens of thousands of videos would not be enough to document all the atrocities that the Blaze Realm had committed. There were millions of Blaze Realm disciples, and even if only one in ten people had committed such deeds, there would still be countless such people and millions of incidents.

These videos were all released by the Gasfire Alliance.

The Gasfire Alliance has been secretly hiding and fighting against the Blaze Realm. Most of their members were people who had previously suffered at the hands of the Blaze Realm, as only such people would be willing to join the Gasfire Alliance. They had hundreds and thousands of such videos documenting numerous cases of abuse.

In the last video, En Ya appeared. "My Great Eastern Alliance has no intention of starting a war with anyone else, but the Blaze Realm has bullied our Outerverse for countless years, and they even masterminded a plan known as the Purge. Our Great Eastern Alliance is not aggressive. By…"

With this final video, the Great Eastern Alliance announced that Lu Yin had gone into seclusion to concentrate on preparing for ZENITH.

The Great Eastern Alliance's war against the Blaze Realm had initially triggered severe backlash across the entire Innerverse, but the videos released by the Gasfire Alliance caused countless people across the entire universe to condemn the Blaze Realm. Although these people could not influence the major powers' decisions, public sentiment had already changed.

Many people claimed that the cultivation era was all about strength and that, no matter how many ants appeared, they could do nothing. However, public opinion was also a sign of the zeitgeist. Why had the Hall of Honor even created the nine overseers' positions? It was to secure benefits for the people at the bottom. Although the people at the bottom had no power, their general opinion was not necessarily any less influential than the opinion of the major forces.

Even back when the Great Eastern Alliance had first been established, Lu Yin had learned of the benefits of having the support of the public. The feelings of the hoi polloi were invisible, but they could reverse a situation at any critical moment.

The Hall of Honor also valued public opinion.

In fact, mastering the wills of the masses was no different than mastering the opinion of the Hall of Honor.

Liu Qianjue, the sect master of Sword Sect, had said that Lu Yin could not stop the general trend of the Innerverse and that Lu Yin could not fight the Innerverse all alone.

But at this moment, compared to when the Great Eastern Alliance had first invaded the Blaze Realm, countless people's opinions had changed after they learned of the various crimes that the Blaze Realm had committed over the years. Many people in the flowzones near the Blaze Realm no longer had any interest in taking up arms against the Great Eastern Alliance as long as the alliance maintained the neutral stance that they had stated. The nearby forces had been willing to go to war, but none of them actually wanted to do so.

A war had nearly been started due to a fog of misunderstanding, so Lu Yin had cleared the air for the nearby flowzones.

The Ross Empire was different from the sylvan dragon clan in that they were natives of Blazing Mist Flowzone. The Great Eastern Alliance posed a threat to the empire, and that wasn't even mentioning how the Great Eastern Alliance had clearly allied with the Royal Frost Continent. The empire was very nervous, but Leon's Armada had blocked their path, preventing them from attacking Lu Yin.

After Lu Yin announced that he would go into seclusion to prepare for ZENITH, many forces heaved a sigh of relief, hoping that he would not make trouble for a period of time.

Lu Yin really was not concerned about what was happening in the outside world. He genuinely did want to prepare for ZENITH, and he needed to put all of these distractions aside.

A few days later, Wang Wen arrived in the Blaze Realm and stared out at the starry sky. The Blaze Realm was being rearranged, as it had become the Great Eastern Alliance's launchpad to enter the Innerverse.

There were thousands of habitable planets throughout the Blaze Realm, and Lu Yin had found one with a beautiful environment to stay in. Although it was a habitable planet, it was still wild and prehistoric with massive creatures roaming everywhere. There were creatures hundreds of meters tall roaming about, and some were even thousands of meters tall. Not only were these creatures enormous, but some of them were also quite powerful.

This planet was normally used for trials and assessments for the Blaze Realm's disciples, and it was used all year round.

Lu Yin stood on top of the back of a gigantic creature known as the terrorphant. It truly did look very similar to an elephant, but it was more than a thousand meters tall and three thousand meters long. The ground shattered with every step that the creature took, and even Limiteers were unable to withstand its roars.

Wang Wen dropped down from high above and landed on the back of the terrorphant. "I didn't expect the Blaze Realm to have planets that aren't furnaces."

Lu Yin smiled. "It's been a very long time."

Wang Wen smiled back. "Your Royal Chesspiece, it has indeed been a long time. You've become even more domineering."

Lu Yin laughed and sat down cross-legged as he watched a distant volcano erupt. Many creatures hurried to escape while others were trampled to death. "The Blaze Realm is just like those creatures being trampled. If they don't move forward fast enough, they will die."

Wang Wen also sat down. "And you, Your Highness, are like the one running in front."

As soon as Wang Wen finished speaking, the creature at the front slipped, fell off of a cliff, and plummeted to its death.

Wang Wen pursed his lips, feeling a little embarrassed.

Lu Yin sighed. "You're right. If you rush too fast, then you will easily fall to your death. Those who survive are often the second or third."

"Do you want to be second and third?" Wang Wen asked.

Lu Yin smiled. "Of course not. Even if you might fall to your death by running too fast, if you survive, you will become the leader, and all creatures have to follow the leader."

Wang Wen nodded. "Then I can rest assured. I was afraid that you would be fooled by those people from the Innerverse."