Chapter 505 - 1: Return
Chapter 505: Chapter 1: Return
When Lin Yu astutely brought up his rank, Yun Qihao proudly began to speak about the benefits of believing in the Goddess of Wisdom and War.
The lords gathered around Yun Qihao chimed in with praise for the Goddess. It was clear that most of these lords were followers Yun Qihao had cultivated himself. However, it was also apparent that some were his newer subordinates; while they praised the Goddess, their expressions were flat, unlike the other animated lords.
...
"Hey man, who’s that Lin Yu fellow? Why did the boss go out of his way to greet him?"
"You don’t know?"
"Know what?"
"Oh, that’s right! You only joined us when the stage ended, so you wouldn’t know. I’ll tell you, but you can’t tell anyone else, okay?"
"Okay, definitely!"
"That Lord Lin, he’s the lord from our cohort with the largest territory and the greatest strength."
"The largest territory? The greatest strength? Is he that legendary powerhouse who caused our entire stage to get swarmed, the one who fought a whole race on his own?"
"That’s him!"
"Oh, no wonder..."
In the crowd, the lords who had just joined Yun Qihao’s ranks were stunned to learn this shocking news from their senior. One after another, they turned to look at Lin Yu with worshipful gazes.
After another round of preaching the benefits of believing in the Goddess of Wisdom and War, Yun Qihao struck up a conversation with Lin Yu again.
Lin Yu kept sampling foods he hadn’t tried yet, exchanging a few half-hearted words with Yun Qihao.
Yun Qihao didn’t seem to mind. Although he was jealous that Lin Yu had helped the Goddess gain a large number of followers, he knew it was something that could only be accomplished because of Lin Yu’s immense power.
Given that the two of them were about to participate in the fourth stage’s competition together, he felt it was necessary to win over a powerful lord like Lin Yu. Since Lin Yu was able to help spread faith in the Goddess, it must mean he had a favorable impression of her. If that was the case, pulling him into the church would be a major accomplishment.
"By the way, did you hear? At the end of the third stage, some guy caused a huge incident. He’s on a global wanted list now."
"What happened?"
"It was a lord named Chen Xiaohuai. Not only did he fail to advance himself, but he also tricked other lords who hadn’t advanced into pledging allegiance to him. Then, right before they were all teleported out, he destroyed all of their territories."
"Those eliminated lords could have gotten a ton of points from their territories during the final settlement, but it all went up in smoke. I heard he screwed over several hundred lords."
"The lords who got duped went ballistic. The moment they were out of the competition, they ran to the Governor’s Mansion and the Legion to file a complaint. So now that punk is wanted."
Lin Yu was a bit stunned by this bizarre story.
"Wait, during the settlement, weren’t we told that a lord could only accept the allegiance of three other lords? How could he dupe so many people?"
"Tsk, that restriction was for us lords who advanced. There were no limits for the ones who didn’t."
"Holy crap, that’s insane! Why would he do that? He couldn’t have collected the resources that dropped when he destroyed those territories, right?"
"Who knows what he was thinking. It was pure spite, harming others without any benefit to himself. He probably just couldn’t handle being eliminated."
"The moment he got out, he used a Teleportation Array to flee to another planet. They still haven’t found any trace of him."
...
His interest in the gossip piqued, Lin Yu started chatting with him seriously.
Later, Qian Duoduo joined them, and the three of them began chatting about the various shenanigans lords pulled during the competition.
For the most part, Yun Qihao and Qian Duoduo did the talking while Lin Yu listened quietly.
The methods the various lords used to advance were a real eye-opener for Lin Yu.
...
「The next day.」
Lin Yu arrived early at the central conference room of the Lord Competition Service Center.
From a distance, he could see a large crowd of people standing at the entrance to the conference room.
Aside from the service staff greeting guests, the others all looked vaguely familiar. They were probably former lords from his cohort.
In a corner of the crowd, he saw Li Hua standing with his arms crossed, so he walked over.
Lin Yu walked up behind Li Hua and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, what are you looking at so intently?"
Li Hua flinched, startled by Lin Yu.
When he saw it was him, he said, "You scared me to death!"
"Boss Lin, I was waiting for you here."
"Waiting for me? Why didn’t you just go in? I would have gone in myself when I got here."
"I never thought an honest-looking guy like you would learn how to suck up after joining me."
"Hehehe, you’re exaggerating. How could this be called sucking up? If I could have gone in, I would have saved a seat for you long ago. It’s just that I’m not an advanced lord, so I have to wait for you, Boss, to take me into the venue."
Lin Yu had a flash of realization. ’Now this sounds more like the Li Hua I know.’ "They don’t let Affiliated Lords like you attend this meeting?"
"We can, but we Affiliated Lords have no way to prove our status, so we can only be brought in by the advanced lords we’ve pledged allegiance to."
"So I had no choice but to wait here for your mercy."
"If you were waiting for me, you should have found an obvious spot. Why hide so far in the back? If I hadn’t seen you and just gone in, wouldn’t you have been stuck outside?"
"If I didn’t get in, I didn’t get in. I could just ask you about it later!"
Lin Yu pursed his lips. He knew Li Hua was holding something back, ’but he couldn’t figure out what Li Hua was thinking.’ "Let’s go. Let’s head inside."
After speaking, Lin Yu walked toward the conference hall door. As he approached, it opened automatically, allowing him to enter.
"Welcome, Lord Lin Yu!"
However, after the machine on the door scanned Li Hua, a voice came from the door, "Excuse me, is Lord Li Hua your Affiliated Lord?"
"Yes!"
"Welcome, Lord Li Hua!"
Upon hearing this question, all the lords near the door turned to look at Li Hua in astonishment.
"Is that the Li Hua who had the potential to achieve an Extraordinary Territory?"
"It really is him."
"He didn’t even make it through the third stage?"
"What a waste of such a good territory."
"Back then, he was too proud to sell his territory or become someone’s subordinate. Look at him now. He didn’t even make it to the fourth stage and can only be an Affiliated Lord like us."
"What a total waste..."
...
Hearing these remarks, Lin Yu glanced at Li Hua and saw his face flush bright red. He finally understood why Li Hua had been hiding off to the side.
"Come on, let’s go inside."
Lin Yu shook his head and walked into the conference hall. ’Ultimately, this is the result of Li Hua’s own mistake, so he’ll have to get used to the gossip. Still, his territory is inside mine now, so it should develop quickly. Who knows, maybe one day these lords will be the ones trying to get on his good side.’
After entering the conference hall, Lin Yu scanned his surroundings.
This conference hall was much larger than the ones for the previous briefings Lin Yu had attended. In contrast, there were far fewer lords participating this time.
The conference hall, which should have been quite empty, was already packed with people, though he didn’t know who they were.
Only a large section in front of the stage was mostly empty. ’That must be reserved for us lords,’ he thought.
There was a row of tables on the stage, but only Levin Zack was seated there; the other seats were empty.
After finishing his observation, Lin Yu led Li Hua to a seat in the back row.
However, he hadn’t been sitting for long before a staff member approached him.
"Excuse me, are you Lord Lin Yu?"
"I am. Is there something I can help you with?"
"The Legion has already reserved a seat for you at the front. You may go sit there."
Lin Yu looked in the direction the staff member was pointing. On the stage, Levin Zack saw Lin Yu looking over and waved, gesturing for him to come to the front.
Although he didn’t want to attract attention, he couldn’t very well refuse a personal invitation from the Legion Commander of the Cuiwei Star Lord Corps and cause him to lose face.
Lin Yu stood up and said to Li Hua, "Well, I’m going to go sit up front. You can stay here."
"Lord Lin, each VIP may bring three attendants. This gentleman may accompany you to the front as well."
"Then let’s go together."
The two followed the staff member to the front of the conference hall and, under his guidance, sat in the VIP seats in the first row.
Lin Yu also noticed that his seat had a nameplate.
’As I thought, this seat was prepared in advance.’
Lin Yu looked at the other VIP seats and saw that not many had nameplates. The names on them were all familiar to him—people like Yun Qihao and Qian Duoduo. They were all lords who had distinguished themselves during the third stage’s battle against the Beastmen and had conquered large territories.
’It seems the Legion already knows about our performance in the competition!’
’I just don’t know how much they know. Do they know about the state of my territory?’
...