Metal Mine?

The attackers included not only a Domain Lord who had gained the laws' recognition, but also several Domain Lords.

What kind of person would send a Domain Lord just to kill a Domain Lord?

He lowered his head, entered the situation into his Optical Computer, and sent it out with the message, "Newly promoted Domain Lord Level Giant Axe Warrior Li Yilin is suspected to have been attacked. His life or death is unknown."

Though the Giant Axe Arena was loosely managed, that didn't mean it didn't care about its people. Quite the opposite: Fighters with exceptional talent, strong wills, and a little luck were highly valued.

As it happened, Li Yilin was one of those lucky few whose talent and will were both outstanding.

Although he hadn't joined the Giant Axe Arena, that didn't mean he wouldn't join later.

Besides, he had been attacked right after earning the title of Giant Axe Warrior. This was clearly a provocation against the Giant Axe Arena, showing utter contempt for it. The matter had to be thoroughly investigated.

"Request an investigation into the latest changes in Li Yilin's assets, with particular attention to the planets under his name—Mulan Planet and his home planet, Wunuo Star. Determine the reason for the attack."

In the thirty thousand years Li Yilin had lived, he had never left Mulan Planet except to fight in life-or-death battles. He wasn't the sort to stir up trouble, so it was highly unlikely the attack stemmed from some personal grudge.

With those possibilities ruled out, only a dispute over interests remained.

After recording all the available information, Sawatdee searched the area once more. Once he was sure nothing had been overlooked, he boarded his ship and left.

That was all he could do.

In the silent reaches of space, asteroids drifted aimlessly.

A purple bolt of lightning flashed inside a speck of dust, and a tattered figure appeared out of nowhere. His right hand was twisted, one trouser leg hung empty, and his wounds were still bleeding... Only the faint rise and fall of his chest proved that he was alive.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Yilin opened his eyes. The pain wracking his body made him furrow his brow.

"Haah!" He gasped, cold sweat pouring from him as pain coursed through his body. These injuries were more harrowing than any life-or-death battle he had ever fought.

He had nearly died!

He took a Life Fruit from his ring and swallowed it at once.

An immense vitality spread through his body. In moments, his missing lower half had grown back, and his wounded soul had been replenished and healed. The surplus energy even pushed his strength up two minor stages, bringing him to Domain Lord Level Seven.

Feeling his body and strength fully restored, Li Yilin wasted no time. He took out a spacecraft and climbed inside.

The spacecraft accelerated. Once it reached the speed of light, it vanished from the Original Universe.

Dark Universe.

Inside the spacecraft, Li Yilin slumped in his chair, his face filled with relief at having survived.

"That close. I almost died.

"Damn it!

"Who are these people?" He gritted his teeth, but no matter how he thought it over, he couldn't figure out why they had attacked him. He could only set the question aside for now.

After what had happened, he couldn't return to Mulan Planet until he dealt with the people lurking in the shadows. The same went for Wunuo Star.

Mulan Planet was just a Desolate Planet, so it didn't matter. But Wunuo Star...

More than six million of his people lived there. He couldn't just leave them to their fate!

Li Yilin hesitated.

To be honest, he was only someone who had taken over another person's body partway through life. Naturally, he didn't care about the original owner's people as much as the original owner had. For thirty thousand years, he had never considered abandoning his life-or-death battle contract. He had done it to repay the original owner for leaving him this body. He would never let Wunuo Star fall into slavery.

He had taken someone else's body. As long as it didn't endanger his race, his life, or his convictions, he should take on the original owner's responsibilities.

All of that depended on him being able to stay alive.

But...

He pressed his fist against the left side of his chest and felt his heart beating beneath it.

"Thump, thump-thump! Thump..." Its steady, powerful beat proved that he was still alive.

Should he risk his life for those people?

Li Yilin asked himself.

He wasn't a saint, but neither was he a bad person.

He couldn't throw away his life for some lofty ideal, and he didn't want to.

But...

Memories of that planet swept through his mind like scenes in a picture scroll. Some were happy, others not, but every one of them made him feel at ease.

The original owner had no parents and had relied on his people to grow up. After reaching adulthood, his talent had shown itself through his cultivation, and his people had naturally come to value him even more. They had taught him wholeheartedly and invested vast resources in him, enabling him to become a Universe Level powerhouse before he was even ten thousand years old.

The original owner had died, but he had left Li Yilin everything without reservation: his memories of nearly ten thousand years, his emotions, and more...

"I was wrong!"

Li Yilin gave a bitter laugh and lowered his head, resigned.

By the time he had inherited the original owner's memories, emotions, strength... everything, his feelings and the original owner's had already become impossible to separate.

Compared to the vast memories and emotions accumulated over millennia, the few short decades of his previous life were too insignificant to describe—so small they were almost impossible to see. So... what difference did it make whether he separated them or not?

"Beep!"

The vibration of his Smart Optical Computer brought Li Yilin back to his senses. He lowered his head and saw that Sawatdee was still messaging him, asking how he was.

When he had been attacked, he had sent Sawatdee an email asking for help.

He hadn't expected Sawatdee to actually come.

Looking at the messages on his Optical Computer, he hesitated, then composed a reply and sent it. At the same time, he connected to the Virtual Universe.

Virtual Universe.

Aldo Island.

In a quiet villa, Li Yilin sat facing Sawatdee.

"This is a famous drink in the Noah Universe Kingdom, Star Brew Dew. Please give it a try, sir." Li Yilin poured him a cup, set it in front of him, and said,

"Then I'll have to try it." Sawatdee picked it up and downed it in one gulp. He smacked his lips and nodded. "Not bad."

"If you like it, I'll bring you a couple of bottles next time." Li Yilin set down the drink and returned to his chair.

He didn't waste any more time. "I contacted you because I want to investigate something."

"You want to know if the attack had anything to do with Wunuo Star?" Sawatdee asked.

Li Yilin nodded. "I want to know what Wunuo Star has that made them target me."

Sawatdee smiled. "I didn't expect you to guess almost everything just from a suspicion."

He sighed, then continued, "If it were an ordinary Domain Lord, they wouldn't have been able to find out. But I'm different. I have a King-Level Immortal backing me. I used that lord's authority to investigate. The reason they attacked you... was that Wunuo Star has a metal mine."

A metal mine!

Li Yilin's pupils contracted, and his hands clenched instinctively. Seeing how composed he was, Sawatdee felt impressed and continued, "And that metal mine is D6-Grade..."

At those words, Li Yilin could barely stay in his seat. But through sheer force of will, he managed to keep himself planted there.

Sawatdee continued, "It's a massive metal mine."

You could say that nearly half the planet was made up of this mine. He had been astonished when he learned that such vast reserves of high-grade metal lay beneath a habitable planet.

Generally speaking, planets that produced high-grade metals couldn't evolve into habitable planets. Forming high-grade metals required an enormous amount of energy, while the energy a planet could draw from the universe was limited.

Unfortunately, the moment Li Yilin earned the title of Giant Axe Warrior, Wunuo Star had already been returned to him.

He couldn't tell whether Li Yilin was lucky or unlucky.

The bad luck was that Wunuo Star's value had been exposed.

The good luck was that the metal mine had only been discovered after he earned the title of Giant Axe Warrior. Otherwise, with such enormous interests at stake, it would have been difficult for him to survive his life-or-death battles.

The people behind the attack probably hadn't expected him to use a King-Level Immortal's authority over a Domain Lord who had merely been his opponent in a single life-or-death battle.

Unfortunately, he had still underestimated how much was at stake behind the attack. Borrowing that authority had also meant exposing the information.

News that Wunuo Star had a D6-Grade Metal Mine had already spread through the middle ranks of the Giant Axe Arena. Li Yilin didn't have much time.

If he didn't handle this properly, the people on Wunuo Star would never survive.

It all depended on what Li Yilin chose.

No wonder!

So that was it!

Realization dawned on Li Yilin.

The so-called assassination was simply because he had gained ownership of Wunuo Star. With his knowledge, he would have easily learned everything about the planet if he returned.

That was why they had targeted Wunuo Star before he could return, hoping to seize the metal mine without anyone finding out.

"If there's a metal mine on Wunuo Star, why don't my people know about it?" Li Yilin asked, puzzled. A bad feeling was already rising in his heart.

If it was a large metal mine, it shouldn't have been possible to mine it in complete secrecy.

The slightest sign of anything amiss should have drawn his people's attention.

And yet, in all these thirty thousand years, he hadn't received even a hint of information.

"Have quite a few of my people been brought under their control?" he asked quietly.

Sawatdee fell silent for a moment, then slowly nodded.

"Of Wunuo Star's 6.51 million Wutuo Clan members, nearly 380,000 had Bio-Chips secretly implanted in them."

The Wutuo Clan was Li Yilin's race, with a seventh-tier bloodline. Its members reached the "Apprentice Level" upon adulthood.

The Wutuo Clan looked much like the Earthlings of his previous life. The only difference was that its members were larger, averaging over two meters tall. Some grew to three meters or even taller.

"Most of those 380,000 were Planetary Level and Star Level Fighters. Only a few were ordinary people living near the metal mine or Universe Level Fighters..." A trace of coldness flickered in Sawatdee's eyes as he spoke.

To keep the news from getting out, those people had implanted Bio-Chips in all the Wutuo Clan members living near the metal mine, controlling them regardless of age or sex.

That was why Li Yilin hadn't known anything about the Bio-Chips.

"When our people arrived on Wunuo Star, the people behind the scenes ordered all 380,000 who had been implanted with Bio-Chips to resist to the death. In the end, every one of them... sacrificed themselves."

As soon as the words left his mouth,

"Crack!"