Star Odyssey

Chapter 748: Mislead

Thud thud thud!

“Come in.” Zi Xianxian stretched her body out. Making trouble for someone else was rather tiring, as it required her to think a lot.

Lu Yin walked into the room. He did a serious double take when he saw the pink sofa across from Zi Xianxian. It was exceptionally pink. Who would place such a pink sofa in their office? Was this actually meant to be sat on?

Zi Xianxian’s gaze trembled as she stared at Lu Yin. “Who are you?”

Lu Yin had wanted to sit down to speak with her, as that would have been more conducive towards presenting the image that he wanted to. However, he decided against it after realizing that his backdrop would be the intensely pink sofa. He returned to his normal appearance and looked at her. “This is the first time we’re meeting. Hello, Miss Zi Xianxian.”

Lu Yin’s face was not unfamiliar to Zi Xianxian, as she had seen his picture before. She had also been expecting him to look for her some time soon, though she had not thought that it would be at this moment. “So it’s the Great Eastern Alliance’s leader. I have been looking forward to meeting you. Please, sit.”

Lu Yin felt awkward. Sit? That didn’t feel right. With the bright pink sofa as the only option, he really didn’t dare to sit down.

Zi Xianxian blinked, gestured towards Lu Yin, and then brought him out of the office and into another, more spacious one.

Upon entering the second office, Lu Yin saw another vividly pink sofa. How many pink sofas did this woman have? Fortunately, there was also a tea set in this room, which gave it a slightly more refined atmosphere.

Zi Xianxian gestured for Lu Yin to sit down, and then personally brewed him a cup of tea. “Why has the Alliance Leader come looking for me?”

Lu Yin took the offered cup and tasted the tea, but it was nothing special. “Miss Zi Xianxian gave me 5% of this exchange’s shares, so I can also be considered a shareholder, correct?”

Zi Xianxian smiled. “Of sorts. Did the Alliance Leader come by to offer your opinions on the exchange? Or are you here to collect a bonus?”

Lu Yin set down the teacup. “Neither. My objective, as Miss Zi Xianxian knows, is to obtain the top-tier information that is in Amethyst Exchange’s possession.”

“It looks like the Alliance Leader is in trouble.” Zi Xianxian beamed at Lu Yin. At this moment, Lu Yin finally took a serious look at the girl, as all his attention had previously been distracted by the pink sofas.

The young girl in front of him was very pretty, and her eyes were bright and lively. She even had bangs with the rest of her hair falling all the way to her waist, all of which gave her a very gentle demeanor. She seemed to be around the same age as Hai Qiqi, though she also felt a bit more mature than Hai Qiqi.

The most striking aspect of her was her purple gown that matched her black boots, and her outfit contained a hint of a fairytale princess’s charm. She was obviously from a wealthy background.

“I’m curious—how does Amethyst Exchange charge people for the information it provides?” Lu Yin got right to the point, as he felt that the pink sofa was exceptionally irritating.

Zi Xianxian sized him up with her bright eyes, and she continued to stare at him curiously, some degree of probing visible in her gaze.

Lu Yin felt awkward. “Is there something on my face?”

Zi Xianxian smiled. “I’m just thinking about how best to cooperate with you.”

Lu Yin acknowledged her with a grunt, but he said nothing more after that. He simply minded his own business and sipped his tea as he waited.

After looking at him for a while, Zi Xianxian finally shifted her gaze, “We’ve conducted some investigations into your background. You have cultivated for no more than seven years and only began to rise up over the last two years. Before the Outerverse was isolated from the Innerverse, you were just a normal male who was a part of the younger generation. However, ever since the Outerverse was isolated, you’ve undergone a complete change that started off with you killing Enlighters and becoming a brilliant star in the Outerverse. I am very curious—were you always keeping yourself hidden, or did you suddenly come across some lucky opportunity?”

Lu Yin looked up at her. “Is this related to our cooperation?”

“If we are to cooperate with you, then we must first come to understand all we can about our potential partner. Our Amethyst Exchange believes that we can gain a complete view of the background of anyone from the Outerverse, but we were still very surprised by your sudden rise. Aside from that, we are even more baffled at how we cannot find any reason to explain how you managed to kill Enlighters, where your external items came from, how you obtained your secret technique, or even how you survived the attack on the pirate port in the past. We have no clue regarding any of these questions.”

Lu Yin smiled. “I’m here to purchase information, not to provide it for you.”

Zi Xianxian casually took out a memory chip from her cosmic ring and set it on the tea table. “This chip contains information on all the various powers related to your Great Eastern Alliance as well as the ones related to Aegis. As long as you answer my questions, this chip is yours.”

Lu Yin pondered a moment and then lightly tapped the table. Those who knew him well would recognize this as a habit of his.

He looked at the memory chip and said, “Some time ago, the Innerverse’s Xun Family and the Daynight clan allied to deal with me so that they could prevent the Great Eastern Alliance from being established. During this, some members of the Xun family personally appeared to obstruct me, and they also accused me of crimes that made it all the way to the Hall of Honor. Do you know about this matter?”

Zi Xianxian nodded. “Yes. The Xun family was then abandoned by the Hall of Honor, and the Daynight clan no longer moved against you. This has lasted until today, and they are almost completely low-profile.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Do you know how Darkstar Gorge was annihilated?”

Zi Xianxian nodded. “Yes. They colluded with the Neohuman Alliance and were therefore exterminated by the Hall of Honor.”

“The Daynight clan, the Xun family, and Darkstar Gorge all tried to interfere with the establishment of my Great Eastern Alliance, but not one of them succeeded. There’s one common factor in all of these situations.” At this time, Lu Yin paused, no longer speaking as he simply stared at Zi Xianxian with a sly half-smile on his face.

Zi Xianxian’s expression changed, as the common detail was the Hall of Honor. She stared at Lu Yin in disbelief. “Could you actually be-”

Lu Yin raised a hand to stop Zi Xianxian from completing her sentence. “I didn’t tell you anything, and I cannot tell you anything either.”

Zi Xianxian quickly thought things through. If this was true, then it was no wonder how Lu Yin had been able to repeatedly obtain such opportunities and establish the Great Eastern Alliance so quickly. Not even their Amethyst Exchange could check on those messages. This person had to be from the Hall of Honor, as nothing else could explain why the Hall of Honor supported him so much. Even the Xun family and the Daynight clan had been abandoned, as the Hall of Honor was directly supporting Lu Yin.

Those external items of his that had been able to eliminate Enlighters must have also been given to him by the Hall of Honor. Otherwise, how else could a puny Limiteer cultivator have obtained such items? Even their Amethyst Exchange might not necessarily possess such powerful power vessels—only the Hall of Honor would.

Reportedly, during the defense of Ironblood Weave, Lu Yin had obtained extraordinary rewards from his Ironblood Points, which was very strange. How could a Limiteer achieve such impressive contributions? There were even rumors claiming that he had forced back an old monster with a power level of 300,000. That was only possible if this person had the Hall of Honor’s support? With this added detail, everything suddenly made sense.

The more Zi Xianxian thought about it, the more certain she became that this person was backed by the Hall of Honor and that they had also assisted him in establishing the Great Eastern Alliance. Hold on, could the Hall of Honor’s goal be to unify the entire Outerverse? Zi Xianxian instantly felt as though she had stumbled upon some supreme secret.

Throughout history, the Hall of Honor had stood above the rest of the universe, seldom intervening with the Outerverse’s affairs. But now that the Innerverse and Outerverse had been separated, had the Hall of Honor’s policies somehow changed?

Zi Xianxian’s mind was in turmoil, as the four great corporations could not compete against the Hall of Honor; not a single one of them was a colossal giant like Shamrock Enterprises, Aurora Enterprises, Mavis Bank, or other such monsters. The Hall of Honor was the true master of the Human Domain, dominating all others. Once it decided to act, who could possibly go against them? The person in front of her had hidden his immense backing all along.

Lu Yin smiled to himself, as he knew that Zi Xianxian had misunderstood his words. This was the effect that he had intended to have, and it was not that Zi Xianxian was being foolish, but rather that the Hall of Honor’s support could easily create misunderstandings. He knew that he had gained the support due to his futon, but others did not know about that. Thus, they would simply assume that the Hall of Honor was supporting him. Once some choice words were added to instigate certain thoughts, even Wei Rong would likely find it hard to refute the idea, and so, people could only choose to believe it.

He slowly reached out and picked up the memory chip.

Zi Xianxian saw what he was doing, but she did not stop him. She was still considering her best course of action. If the Hall of Honor was planning on supporting this person and unifying the Outerverse, then what should their Amethyst Exchange do? How would the Outerverse’s situation shift in the future? She did not know, as the details concerning this matter were too complex.

“What is it that you intend to do?” Zi Xianxian stared at Lu Yin. She had originally only wanted to stir up some trouble for her brother, but she had inadvertently stumbled upon a huge secret. If his information was improperly handled, then it might even lead to Amethyst Exchange being utterly destroyed. Against the Hall of Honor, even all four great corporations combined would not be able to do much.

Lu Yin smiled at her. “What do you think?”

Zi Xianxian’s voice trembled slightly. “You want to unify the Outerverse?”

Lu Yin deftly spun the memory chip around in his fingers. “I don't know, and I wouldn’t be able to say even if I did know. The consequences concerning this matter are very severe, so you best not say anything or make any wild guesses, as they may not even be accurate.”

She had definitely been correct with her guess; Zi Xianxian was completely certain of this. The more this person denied her guesses or refused to answer, the stronger she believed that she had discovered the truth.

“Alliance Leader Lu, our Amethyst Exchange has never held any malice towards you. It’s the same now, and it will be in the future as well. We are just playing our role as business people,” Zi Xianxian gently explained.

Lu Yin smiled. “I know, which is why I came here to do business with you.”

Zi Xianxian averted her eyes. “The memory chip has been given to you, and that should be enough for you to work with for a while.”

“It’s not enough. Once the powers listed in this memory chip are taken care of, the others will immediately run and hide. I need the full list of all the powers.”

Zi Xianxian replied, “Although there’s only a portion of the organizations listed in that information chip, the scope is simply too broad. With Alliance Leader Lu’s current control over the alliance, it won’t be easy to exterminate all of them, and attempting anything further would be impossible. Alliance Leader Lu, you can’t possibly be thinking of taking care of Aegis in one breath, right? That’s just not possible.”

Lu Yin agreed after thinking about it. The forces recorded in this memory chip were about what the current Allied Forces should be able to handle. If more were added, the alliance might not be able to wipe out all of the forces, and some of the allies might even leak some of the information to Aegis to gain a bit of favor. Lu Yin was not overly hopeful about those organizations, and after thinking about it, he stood up. “It was a pleasure chatting with you today, Miss Zi Xianxian. Thank you for the gift.”

Zi Xianxian hurriedly denied his words, “It’s not a gift. This was an equal exchange.”

Lu Yin smiled, as it seemed that Amethyst Exchange’s doctrine of maintaining a neutral position had been engraved into their very bones. She believed that she had verified the secret that the Hall of Honor was backing Lu Yin, but she was still unwilling to support him. That’s fine, as this at least meant that they would not lean towards supporting Aegis either.

Aegis by itself was already so difficult to deal with, and he could not afford to offend any of the other corporations at the moment.

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