Chapter 707: The Umbra

This was a barren planet. The violent atmosphere was filled with tyrannical thunderclouds, and thick lightning continuously struck the planet's surface, turning the sky dark and the earth gloomy.

Thunderstorms that could easily shatter diamond enveloped the surface of this barren planet all year round. The harsh planetary environment had not given birth to any life.

Suddenly, a black flash of light streaked through the thunderstorm. A figure appeared out of thin air, plummeted from mid-air, and smashed into the earth.

This person was wearing heavily damaged mecha and was bathed in blood, as if severely injured, struggling to stand up.

He raised his hand and popped out a thin black energy shield, blocking the continuous thunderstorms around him.

In the very next second, several more flashes of light appeared behind him. Space shattered, and two Terror Lifeforms and an interstellar human descended.

Continuous rumbling echoed all around as both sides faced off.

The heavily injured man stared coldly at the interstellar human among the Terror Lifeforms, his tone filled with killing intent:

"Louis, you betrayed us!"

Mountbatten gritted his teeth and stumbled to his feet. There were tracking methods left on his body by the other party, making it impossible to shake off Louis and the others from start to finish.

The communicator network was also locked down and couldn't be unsealed anytime soon. For him, it was already a situation with no way out.

Mountbatten's face was cold and hard. He squeezed his fists and shouted in a low voice:

"Killing A-Tier Lifeforms is the alliance's directive! If you kill me now, the alliance won't let you off!"

He, Louis, and another A-Tier Lifeform were all members of the A-Tier Alliance, having joined not long ago.

Furthermore, his home civilization had recently been plagued by Terror Lifeforms, so he had called upon friends within the A-Tier Alliance to come and exterminate the Terror Lifeforms here.

The three of them had chatted privately for some time and all felt like old friends meeting for the first time.

Therefore, Mountbatten invited Louis and the other person to come and help him exterminate the Terror Lifeforms.

Exterminating Terror Lifeforms would not only help his hometown get rid of the trouble but also earn the alliance's protection, killing two birds with one stone.

However, he never expected that halfway there, they would be ambushed by Terror Lifeforms first, and Louis even blatantly made a move against them.

The other companion was directly heavily injured and killed before even having time to react.

And having struggled to escape to this point, he probably wouldn't be able to escape death either.

Louis suddenly roared violently, "Mountbatten! If I were worried about the A-Tier Alliance, would I have secretly made a move against you!?"

"This bullshit A-Tier Alliance is nothing but a shackle and a cage. We A-Tier Lifeforms are high and mighty, and rightfully deserve to enjoy everything in the universe."

"It was bad enough suffering the supervision of the major civilizations before, but now the A-Tier Alliance actually wants us to abide by its ridiculous regulations and treat those ants as our kin?"

Most A-Tier Lifeforms fundamentally weren't overly tyrannical, but they didn't have much sympathy either.

There were also some A-Tier Lifeforms who truly viewed themselves as Divine Spirits.

The appearance of the A-Tier Alliance was a kind of shackle to them.

Panting heavily, Mountbatten said in a deep voice, "Who didn't evolve from an ordinary lifeform? Were you born an A-Tier Lifeform?"

"Dragon Sovereign was right: with great power comes great responsibility. We A-Tier Lifeforms have the obligation and responsibility to maintain the stability of economic society!"

"Haha, with great power comes great responsibility? You actually believe such conning words? What bullshit Dragon Sovereign; he just got a bit luckier, that's all. Let me tell you, The Umbra is already preparing to hunt Dragon Sovereign. He won't live much longer!"

Louis laughed heartily, his tone filled with jealousy and resentment toward Dragon Sovereign.

"You've talked too much, Louis. Don't waste time on a dead man. I want to devour him!" the Terror Lifeform beside him let out a sinister laugh.

Mountbatten's expression flickered, and he clenched his jaw tight. "The Umbra? Is this the organization of those Terror Lifeforms? You not only betrayed us, but you also betrayed your own race."

"We are the same race!" Louis spread his hands, his posture arrogant. "The entire interstellar space should supply us. That is their honor!"

"You don't know, nor will you understand, just how powerful The Umbra is!"

Hearing this, Mountbatten's brows knitted together. Due to the establishment of the A-Tier Alliance and the hunting of Terror Lifeforms, it had also provoked a backlash from the Terror Lifeforms.

They acted tyrannically and had different ways of thinking, but they also had a sense of crisis. They knew it would be difficult to survive if they fought independently, so they also formed an organization.

Mountbatten had also heard about this some time ago, but he didn't take it seriously.

Having lived in civilized society for a long time, he believed in his heart that the Terror Lifeforms would be wiped out sooner or later. He didn't expect that this The Umbra organization would actually attract a group of A-Tier Lifeforms.

This was an extremely critical piece of information, but unfortunately, he currently had no way to transmit the message out.

"We've chatted enough. For the sake of our past friendship, I'll let you die knowing why." Energy fluctuations erupted from Louis's body as he said coldly, "And then, I'll personally send you on your way."

"If you want to kill me, then come and try!"

Mountbatten also shouted fiercely, ignoring the consumption of his vitality index and madly squeezing his utterly exhausted cells.

The next moment, several figures burst into motion, crashing together with a boom.

Bang!

An intense shockwave swept across the surface, and the planet shattered inch by inch!

......

The bi-weekly regular alliance meeting convened once again. There were no empty seats in the conference hall, all of them being A-Tier Lifeforms, probably approaching ten thousand in number.

To be exact, the number was at—9623.

Following the explosive growth of members in the early stage, the number of new members joining had now gradually slowed down, though it still maintained a good growth trend.

No one knew exactly how many A-Tier Lifeforms currently existed in the entire interstellar space.

But just those who had already joined exceeded the estimates of some large civilizations, even making them gasp in shock.

And according to their speculations, those who had currently joined the A-Tier Alliance were still just a small fraction.

At least a considerable portion of the direct descendants of civilizations had not joined.

There were also some absolute lone wolves who couldn't be bothered to care about anything happening in the outside world.

Even though most of them were low-grade A-Tier, such a massive number was enough to bring about an astonishing deterrence.

The venue was somewhat noisy as the projections of the A-Tier Lifeforms whispered among themselves.

Every A-Tier Lifeform was high and mighty within their own civilization, enjoying extremely high treatment.

But here, they were merely an insignificant part of the whole.

Every time they attended a regular meeting, it would remind them that the universe was boundless and they were fundamentally nothing.

And at the front of the ordinary meeting area were even more exquisitely designed seats. In the Virtual Conference Room, this was merely a parameter adjustment, just to distinguish the nobility of their status.

Many A-Tier Lifeforms cast longing glances toward those seats.

Relative to the massive base of A-Tier Lifeforms, there weren't many such seats, only less than twenty; these were precisely the council seats.

This was the fifth such regular meeting convened since Loyd took over. Due to the many trivial matters in the early stages of the alliance's establishment, they were held more frequently.

As the meeting time approached, projections also gradually surfaced on the council seats. With every projection that appeared, the noise in the venue weakened by a fraction.

By the end, there was no longer any assorted noise in the entire conference hall. Everyone's gaze gathered on the members of the council seats.

One of them slowly stood up, wearing a white long robe. He looked around, his eyes like an ancient well without ripples.

The "Praying One"—Luvac Perrin.

He was a special lifeform, not naturally born, but more akin to a virtual Divine Spirit born from the combined faith of the masses. However, he had developed his own consciousness.

"The Fourth Joint Meeting of the A-Tier Alliance is officially convened. In accordance with precedent, the President and the First Vice President will not be in attendance..."

He narrated calmly. The A-Tier Alliance had a total of one President and three Vice Presidents; this was the organizational structure set when it was founded.

Loyd had not changed it. The President position was occupied by Li Yu, Husband occupied one Vice President position, and the other two Vice President positions were occupied by people from the Star Glory Empire.

President Dragon Sovereign almost never attended meetings, and the members had already grown accustomed to it.

It was just that this time, it was a little different. Luvac hadn't even finished speaking.

In the very center of the entire Virtual Conference Room, a light blue projection slowly condensed.

The commotion here attracted the gaze of the entire Virtual Conference Room. The Praying One paused, his tone fluctuating slightly, "Oh, this time, it seems His Excellency the President will be attending."

The numerous A-Tier Lifeforms looked at each other in dismay, and Li Yu's projection had already solidified. He looked around and said indifferently, "Hello, everyone."

After a moment of silence, the numerous A-Tier Lifeforms in the Virtual Conference Room stood up and said respectfully, "Your Excellency the President!"

"Please sit down, everyone. There's no need to be so polite." A flash of surprise flitted across Li Yu's eyes, feeling somewhat unexpected.

He had actually thought that not attending the previous few meetings would cause his reputation to decline.

What he didn't know was that his influence was far more astonishing than he imagined, a portion of which was also brought about by his own strength.

The expressions of those on the council seats varied, their reactions not being overly intense.

After everyone sat down, Li Yu spoke up again, "Has anything major happened recently?"

He had no interest in this kind of meeting, but this time Loyd strongly requested his attendance, saying there was a major matter concerning the future of the A-Tier Alliance.

"Recently, the casualties from hunting Terror Lifeforms have been relatively high, so we intend to discuss what we should do next."

The Praying One continued, "Over the past half month, member casualties have reached as high as 16."

"A month-over-month increase of four times; there's definitely something fishy going on."

As soon as this was said, the numerous A-Tier Lifeforms in the conference hall were somewhat shocked.

They had previously only heard that this incident was rather serious. They never expected that so many people had actually died.

"Just..." Li Yu paused. He had thought Loyd was talking about some major event. He rested his chin on one hand and said casually:

"Suspend the operations to exterminate Terror Lifeforms."

"Stop exterminating Terror Lifeforms?" The Praying One frowned slightly.

Here, Vissa, whose presence in the seats wasn't high, also looked at Li Yu with a doubtful gaze.

"Mhm, I will personally investigate the fishiness within. We'll talk after I've investigated it. During this period, the A-Tier Alliance will stop hunting Terror Lifeforms," Li Yu emphasized once more.

As his words finished, the noise level in the venue rose by another degree.

"This isn't very good, is it?" a certain council member spoke up. He was someone from the Star Glory Empire.

Right now, exterminating Terror Lifeforms was no longer just a slogan.

For Loyd, this was a good excuse to overtly interfere in the affairs of other civilizations.

It was also an important goal to positively guide the A-Tier Alliance into a virtuous cycle.

It wasn't something they could just stop doing because someone said so.

"The lives of A-Tier Lifeforms are also lives. Before we've investigated exactly what changes have occurred, don't make any moves for the time being." Li Yu pulled out an ostentatious excuse, not giving them a chance to refute, and waved his hand:

"Alright, meeting adjourned. Whoever has an opinion can find me after the meeting."

With that said, his projection directly disappeared from there, leaving only the bewildered council members behind.

Shouldn't this kind of action concerning the alliance's main purpose be put to a vote?

However, looking at the A-Tier Lifeforms who were already disappearing one after another, they also knew that today's meeting could only end here.

The surrounding luminescence disappeared, and Li Yu muttered to himself, "And here I thought it was some major event."

To him, Terror Lifeforms didn't necessarily have to be exterminated.

Previously, he supported Husband's decision solely to farm reputation.

Now that Loyd was here, just manipulating some public opinion would bring his reputation up.

Since there was a problem with exterminating Terror Lifeforms, then just don't exterminate them. What a big deal; they actually had to make him attend, wasting time.

However, right now his Transformation Legion was also exterminating some not-too-powerful Terror Lifeforms.

After this meeting, he finally remembered to look through the casualty reports. After looking carefully, he indeed found that the casualties had become higher recently.

According to some information, the intel initially received by the Transformation Legion indicated there was only one active Terror Lifeform in a certain area.

But upon arriving, they found there was more than one Terror Lifeform, resulting in heavy casualties.

"Are they conducting joint operations?" Li Yu pondered inwardly.

Had the Terror Lifeforms also developed connections with each other?

"Suspend the hunting of Terror Lifeforms." He had the Transformation Legion also stop their operations.

After the hunting over this recent period, those extremely arrogant and tyrannical Terror Lifeforms had pretty much all been killed.

The remaining ones were all deeply hidden and very hard to deal with. Without a detailed plan, it would be difficult to succeed.

So his temporary suspension of hunting Terror Lifeforms wasn't just him speaking off the cuff either.

Besides this, there was another layer of consideration, which was to avoid being ambushed.

If this matter wasn't resolved as soon as possible, at some point he might be forced to take action, and it was hard to avoid the Star Glory Empire's hidden hand being involved.

Therefore, directly stopping operations would end it all.

(End of this chapter)