Lu Huaishuang was no stranger to death. Quite the opposite — she had killed quite a few people with her own hands.
When she had first taken over the Lu Family, the He Family, another major clan on Zhaoyang Star, had raised an army and marched against them. The two families had clashed immediately, resulting in countless casualties. It was precisely her outstanding performance in that battle that had cemented Lu Huaishuang's status.
Now the entirety of Zhaoyang Star was divided between the Lu and He Families, the two clans carving up all of the star's resources roughly fifty-fifty.
But the appearance of this young man furrowed Lu Huaishuang's brow — not out of disgust, but out of puzzlement.
She studied his face carefully, and after a long moment raised her head to ask an elder beside her, "Third Uncle, is this one of ours?"
The warship carried several hundred warriors. While she couldn't claim to know every single name, she had laid eyes on practically all of them. Yet this young man felt utterly foreign to her.
She was certain she had never seen him before.
Lu Bing shook his head. "No."
"No?" Lu Huaishuang's beautiful eyes narrowed.
If he wasn't one of them, then why was he on the warship? A flurry of possibilities flashed through her mind in an instant, the most likely being that he was a spy planted by someone bearing a grudge against the Lu Family, sent to infiltrate the vessel.
If that was the case, there was likely even more trouble waiting ahead.
As though guessing what she was thinking, Lu Bing said, "This person was found at the point of damage on the warship."
"Third Uncle means…?" Lu Huaishuang looked up at him. Brilliant as she was, she couldn't fathom what he was implying.
Lu Bing's expression was complicated. "Based on my observations, the reason the warship was damaged appears to be… because this person crashed into it."
The words fell like a stone into still water. Everyone went silent, turning over the meaning in their minds. Then, one by one, a staggering notion surfaced in each person's head, and their eyes filled with disbelief.
Lu Huaishuang, too, caught on after a moment. She stared blankly at her Third Uncle — had she not known the man so well, she might have thought he was joking.
Lu Bing let out a bitter laugh. "I thought at first the warship had been struck by a meteorite. But upon closer inspection, I couldn't find any traces left by a meteorite. Instead, I found this person. And the hole in the hull… it looks rather like something — or someone — had smashed through it."
A collective hiss of breath rippled through the crowd. Everyone regarded Lu Bing with peculiar expressions.
Lu Huaishuang said nothing, her face a mask of silence.
Lu Bing continued, "I know this sounds almost impossible, but I truly can't find any more reasonable explanation."
Almost impossible? It was flat-out absurd.
A single person had punched a hole through this warship, slowing it to a crawl and forcing them to halt here for repairs? This was one of the two finest warships on all of Zhaoyang Star — a vessel of the Void King grade, capable of withstanding even a Void King powerhouse's attacks for a considerable time before sustaining damage. How could it possibly be damaged by one lone individual?
If a warship like this could be so easily broken, it would be unfit for travel through the starry void — a handful of stray meteorites would be enough to send it to the bottom of the sea.
Even granting, for the sake of argument, that someone out there truly possessed that kind of strength…
What about the ten Star Cannons firing simultaneously? Had that all been a shared hallucination? All ten shots had struck their target. What person could withstand the bombardment of ten Star Cannons? And looking at this young man's condition, he was completely unscathed — his clothes were a little tattered, and that was all.
Even if his body were forged from tempered steel, he couldn't have survived such punishment.
It was a tangled mess. The sudden discovery of this young man at the breach had thrown every last person into confusion. Every bit of common sense and understanding they had seemed to have been overturned.
"There's no point in discussing this further. Repair the warship as quickly as possible," Lu Huaishuang declared, closing the matter with a single stroke.
Lu Bing sighed inwardly, knowing she didn't truly believe his hypothesis. Never mind the others — even he didn't believe it himself. He kept feeling that his deduction had to be wrong.
So he let it lie, offering no further argument.
"As for this man… find a place and bury him." Lu Huaishuang lowered her gaze to the dead young man. Regardless of who he was or why he had appeared on the warship, now that he was dead, he should return to dust.
A sudden streak of light shot toward them from every direction. Waves of chaotic energy fluctuated and surged. The attackers had not yet arrived — but their strikes already had.
Tssss tssss tssss — a dense barrage of sounds erupted. Light flickered, and where the Lu Family cultivators stood, the air transformed into an ocean of energy.
"Ambush!" someone screamed in terror. The cry cut off abruptly, as though an invisible hand had seized their throat. Their aura vanished entirely — they were dead.
Screams erupted all at once.
Lu Huaishuang's face changed. Never had she expected an attack in a place like this — this was a dead star, and their decision to stop here had been entirely spontaneous. Who could possibly be lying in ambush?
No time to think. She reached up and touched the delicate earring on her earlobe, crushing the pendant. A luminous white light burst forth, instantly expanding into a massive, bowl-shaped barrier of protection that enveloped the Lu Family warriors on all sides.
Boom boom boom — the incoming attacks slammed into the barrier, sending layer upon layer of ripples across its surface. The barrier's glow dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye. In less than ten breaths, accompanied by a sharp crack, the barrier shattered.