Lu Yin was rendered speechless. He wanted to leave, but he had no confidence that he could break through the castle. This was the end result of White Knight’s ten combined innate gifts, and he had personally seen it compete against Blood Looney’s blood lotuses and corpse dragons, not to mention the white sun that Shang Rong created. This wasn’t something that Lu Yin could overcome. 

Although White Knight was heavily injured at the moment, she had already started recovering over the past three days, and thus, Lu Yin wasn’t sure that he could defeat her. 

He should have left before she had awakened. Why had he stayed next to her until now?

He grew very anxious as he turned his back to the Arbiter. He immediately activated the Cosmic Art as a precaution for any sort of sneak attack. 

White Knight felt relieved when she saw Lu Yin turn around and that he hadn’t even spread his domain out. Her star energy surged and removed the armor that she was wearing. The pieces on her arms, chest, and head fell off easily, but the armor on her legs and back were evidently very difficult to remove as they were stuck to her skin. 

Shang Rong’s talent was related to disintegrating things, and his white sun had severely injured her. It had broken down the skin on her legs and back, essentially fusing her flesh to her armor, so trying to remove it caused her incredible pain. 

“Hmph,” White Knight grunted. She removed the armor from one of her legs, but it left her panting with pain. 

Lu Yin grew curious; just what was she doing? Her panting and grunting led him to consider certain things, but while he wanted to turn around to take a look, he didn’t dare to do it. 

Hmph! White Knight’s anguished grunt was even louder when she removed the armor piece from her other leg. She looked over at Lu Yin and saw that he still hadn’t turned around. She gritted her teeth and then used her star energy to remove the last piece of armor. Fresh blood gushed from her back and stained the ground before flowing away from her and dripping into the stream. 

White Knight waved a hand, and the water from the stream that had been contaminated by her blood was flung back up onto the stream bank. This place was quite well hidden, and she didn’t want to compromise their position from the blood that was flowing downriver in the stream. 

White Knight was now left with only her helmet and thin undergarments, as all of her armor had been removed. There were huge patches of her skin exposed and horrible injuries covering her back and legs. 

She took some medicinal powder out from her armor and scattered it on her wounds. However, it was not very effective as the powder broke down immediately upon contact with the wounds. There were still white strands floating about within her wounds.

White Knight sighed, as these were the remnants of Shang Rong’s power, and it meant that she wouldn’t be able to heal her injuries until she removed every last bit of it.  

She had very little star energy left after her battles with Blood Looney and Shang Rong, and she also wasn’t able to gather enough star energy from the area around her for her to remove the remnants of Shang Rong’s power. The only way she could do so was to rely on Lu Yin as he still had large reserves of star energy. Furthermore, he was a Lockbreaker, and that was the real reason why she had forced Lu Yin to stay. 

“I’m- I’m done,” White Knight said weakly.

Lu Yin immediately turned around, but instead of seeing an intimidating Arbiter dressed in full armor, he instead saw a fragile girl who was heavily injured. Although she was still wearing her helmet, it didn’t detract from her fragile beauty in any way. At this moment, White Knight—no, Ling Gong, didn’t possess an imposing aura. Instead, she radiated the gentleness of a woman.

Her bloodstained gown covered her body, but the wounds on her legs and back were still exposed. Blood was still oozing out from her wounds, and her feet were barely standing on the stony ground. Her pale feet contrasted starkly with the bright blood on the ground, forming a stunning image of a heavily injured woman. Lu Yin was astounded when he saw this scene. 

It would be even better if she took off her helmet. 

“Remove your helmet,” Lu Yin said reflexively. 

White Knight threw a stone at him with a cold expression. 

He dodged it and coughed awkwardly. “Why did you ask me to stay?”

White Knight lowered her head and answered in a weak voice, “There are still some traces of Shang Rong’s power in my wounds. I want you to remove them with your lockbreaking ability.”

Lu Yin approached her, and he could smell the sharp metallic scent of blood mixed with a subtle fragrance. This woman clearly didn’t use perfume or makeup, and thus this scent had to be her natural fragrance. 

Lu Yin’s first kiss had been with Ming Yan, and he had hardly any experience with romance. This had caused him to often be teased by Madam Nalan, and he was feeling very awkward now that he was confronted with a half naked girl. “What- what should I do?” 

“You’re the Lockbreaker, so why are you asking me?” White Knight scolded. She was flustered by the fact that she was so close to a man in her current state. She was angry at herself for getting injured, but she was also angry at Lu Yin for talking so much. She was currently feeling very conflicted, and she didn’t know what to do, especially when she felt Lu Yin’s presence so close by. 

She had been the pride of her clan since a young age and thus had rarely been injured. Her talent meant that few among her peers could rival her, and she had never fought any of them as they were all wary of each other. This was the first time she had ever been injured this badly, and it was also the first time she had been in such close proximity with a man. She almost wanted to kill him out of sheer reflex. 

Lu Yin had no idea of what the girl in front of him was thinking, as he definitely would not be willing to approach her if he did. His current actions meant that he was walking along a tightrope, as this woman wasn’t thinking logically, and there was no way to predict what she would do. 

Lu Yin stared at her leg while squatting down next to her. It looked very pale and soft. 

White Knight started getting anxious. “Faster.” 

Lu Yin seriously replied, “This is Shang Rong’s power, and it will be difficult for me to remove it with my lockbreaking skills. Thus, you’ll have to bear with this for a moment.” 

White Knight looked away. A lock of her hair fell forward, and she simply remained silent. 

Lu Yin paused for a moment. He then raised a hand up and placed it on White Knight’s thigh. White Knight was so shocked that she tried to attack him, but Lu Yin had expected such a response, and he immediately used the Cosmic Art to easily dodge the attack. Her attack struck the mountain wall across the stream from them and left a deep mark. 

“Are you crazy? I’m trying to save you!” Lu Yin shouted.

White Knight glared at him. “Don’t touch me.”

“How am I supposed to save you without touching you?”

“Do you have to touch me when you lockbreak? You’re just trying to make trouble!”

“This is Shang Rong’s power. I already told you that it’s not going to be easy to remove.”

White Knight and Lu Yin glared at each other. Finally, White Knight sighed and turned to look in another direction while blushing.

Lu Yin heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m helping a tigress extract her tooth.”

White Knight’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t answer. For that matter, she didn’t even look at Lu Yin.

There were only a few traces of Shang Rong’s power in her wound, and Lu Yin used his domain with the Cosmic Art to interact with the white power. His star energy was broken down as soon as it touched the power, leaving Lu Yin surprised. This was a very strong energy, and it was no wonder why Shang Rong was a Realmling who could even battle evenly against an Arbiter. Lu Yin could only slowly remove this power. 

He treated Shang Rong’s power as if it were a threat from a sourcebox as he slowly removed it. Although Shang Rong was much stronger than Lu Yin, these strands were only stray traces of his power, and so, Lu Yin was able to remove it after an hour. 

Lu Yin exhaled. 

It’s done.

He reluctantly removed his hand. This was actually the first time that he had ever touched a girl’s thigh, and he discovered that it was very soft.

“My back,” White Knight ordered coldly. 

Lu Yin arched a brow and walked behind her to examine her back. The wound on her back was much larger than the one on her thigh, and almost half of her back had been ravaged. He couldn’t believe that she had endured the pain for so long, especially since the remaining power from Shang Rong was still disintegrating her flesh. 

Lu Yin didn’t hesitate, and he quickly pressed his hands upon her back. It was very smooth, just like her thigh. 

White Knight felt the heat from Lu Yin’s hand on her back, and his masculine aura startled her. She took a deep breath and scattered some of the medicinal powder onto her leg. The powder was finally able to start working, and her wound recovered quickly. 

After three hours of work, Lu Yin finally finished with removing the foreign power from the injury on White Knight’s back. The sky had already turned dark by the time he finished. “I’m done. Let me help you with the medicine.” 

“No,” White Knight refused in an unfriendly tone. 

Lu Yin became annoyed. “I’ve saved you again now. Can’t you show me a better attitude?”

White Knight continued, “Not yet.”

“Huh?” Lu Yin asked.

White Knight lifted up her left leg and showed him the other side of her foot. There was a wound there as well, and although it was a small wound, it still held traces of Shang Rong’s power.

Lu Yin casually held her calf with one hand while his other hand held her foot, and he quickly started lockbreaking. 

White Knight blushed. Half of her body had been touched by this person in just one day.

Less than half an hour later, Shang Rong’s power on White Knight’s foot was finally removed. Lu Yin released her foot and peeked at it once again. This woman had dainty little feet, he could cover one of them with a single hand.

“Go away and don’t look back.” White Knight glared at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin pouted; this girl was truly extremely ungrateful.

“Seventh Bro, I sympathize with you!” The Ghost Monkey laughed at him.

Lu Yin ignored the monkey.

When the sky had turned completely dark, White Knight finally spoke. “How’s the Outerverse?”

Lu Yin turned around and saw that White Knight had donned all of her armor once again. He was slightly disappointed. “The Astral Beast Domain invaded Ironblood Weave and many people died in battle…” 

Lu Yin told her everything that had happened after the Innerverse and Outerverse had been cut off from each other. 

White Knight listened to him quietly, only asking him a few questions from time to time. Lu Yin did most of the talking, and she listened attentively. 

“How did Wendy learn a secret technique?” White Knight asked.

Lu Yin looked back at her. “I don’t know.”

White Knight calmly said, “Everyone has their own destiny. With this secret technique, she’ll be able to try entering the top ten of the Top 100 Rankings, and she might even have the chance to come to this place in future.”

At this moment, she turned to look at Lu Yin. “How did you get a futon?”

“A coincidence,” Lu Yin answered.

White Knight didn’t probe any further.

“How’s the Innerverse?” Lu Yin asked. 

White Knight gave him a succinct answer. “We’ve been invaded, and there’s a war going on right now.” 

“What about the details?” Lu Yin probed. 

White Knight ignored him. 

Lu Yin was helpless; this Arbiter was so arrogant. “Where did they invade from?”

“The Starfall Sea.”

“The Starfall Sea?” Lu Yin was shocked. 

“The Starfall Sea is directly connected to the Sixth Mainland,” White Knight explained, but after that, she didn’t say anything more about the war no matter what Lu Yin asked.  

As for the friends that Lu Yin cared about, he didn’t ask her about them as she probably didn’t even know who they were. 

“Oh, by the way, why did you take Wendy to Myriad Swords Peak back then?” Lu Yin was curious. If White Knight had been a man who liked Wendy, such a thing would have been quite a normal thing to do. However, she was a woman, which had aroused his curiosity. 

“That’s none of your business,” White Knight replied coldly.