“You can use Spacerender Palm?” Veron stared at Lu Yin with a surprise. A shocked Parlie stared at Lu Yin, confused at the existence of someone else who could match up to Veron with the Spacerender Palm. Lu Yin himself shared the sentiment, but for the exact opposite reason. The exchange had taken far less power than he’d expected, and Veron’s hand was already shaking in the aftermath.
Meanwhile atop the steel walls of Beijing, Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue were coldly gazing at the core of the city. Bloodlust was pouring out of Bai Xue’s eyes at the thought of the enormous damage these callous students could inflict on the people of Earth.
“Zhang Dingtian is heading over with another Sentinel,” Jeraldine called out in the city.
Lu Yin was unfazed, but Parlie frowned, “Hurry this up!”
Veron’s gaze sharpened as his ring armor covered his body, and he leapt up and kicked towards Lu Yin with blinding speed. However, Lu Yin lifted his own leg and stomped down on his calf, breaking the ground below and prompting a pained roar. Star energy erupted from Veron’s body, trying to force a contest of pure energy, but Lu Yin simply sneered. He had no way to match Veron’s energy reserves, but his absorption rate was more than twice that of anyone else here; he had no need to worry about running out.
Jeraldine fled the area to escape the effects of the clash of star energy, and Parlie raced forward in an attempt to grab her. She crushed several fire crystals in tandem to boost her Flame Palm, but the attack failed to even wipe the smirk off the short man’s face. A single blow dispersed all the energy; these flames were simply no match. This forced Lu Yin to send a Spacerender Palm his way, which he shattered before turning to Veron, “Let’s go.”
Veron laughed and rushed to leave, but Lu Yin snorted and gave chase using the Roving Step. The youth sensed the danger and went wide-eyed, turning to inspect Lu Yin’s palm. He could dodge the Spacerender Palm, but the Cosmic Palm was different. The movements of the stars created a huge pull centered around Lu Yin’s hand, as though everything in the vicinity was being drawn in by their gravity. The force behind the attack stunned even Parlie.
A loud explosion rang out as a last-second Spacerender Palm was shattered, and Veron’s body was smashed into the ground like a meteor. The bridge was destroyed completely, and a crater was formed in the ground below. Veron spat out a mouthful of blood and stared at Lu Yin in disbelief; he had never expected to even be injured, but the attack had destroyed his ring armor. Even Jeraldine was shocked at the easy defeat of her school’s top student.
“How dare you fight in the city!” A distant roar suddenly interrupted them, followed by a fierce slash directed towards Parlie. The short man activated his ring armor even as he dodged, leaving the attack to gust past and cut into the ground.
Zhang Dingtian took in the scene below him and swept his gaze past Parlie and Jeraldine to see Lu Yin on the ground near the injured Veron in the crater further below. His heart dropped; he had fought Parlie and Veron before and knew how strong the two were, but one of them had been injured by one of these new strangers. This was going to be extremely difficult considering the four other Realm of Sky experts who were still around.
Veron coughed up more blood as he walked out of the crater, casting a fearful gaze at Lu Yin as he headed next to Parlie, “Things aren’t looking good.”
“Not necessarily. This is going to become a chaotic three-way battle, so try to find a chance to escape.” Parlie narrowed his eyes and sighed deeply, suddenly shoving Jeraldine towards Zhang Dingtian before anyone could react. The Bladesage slashed towards the terrified girl by reflex, prompting Lu Yin to jump up and push her out of the way. He used the Spacerender Palm to block the incoming attack, the meeting of slash and palm warping the air before sending Lu Yin barrelling to the ground once more, his feet sinking into the earth. He was stunned by the sheer power behind that strike.
Parlie and Veron had fled the moment they’d pushed Jeraldine over. Both were insufferably arrogant, but they weren’t stupid. Zhang Dingtian could take on both of them alone, but with another strange newcomer on top, their only real option was to flee. However, Zhang Dingtian was no idiot either, and had already slashed towards Parlie right after his attack on Jeraldine. Parlie barely dodged the strike, “We don’t want to fight, let us leave!”
“No one’s leaving!” Zhang Dingtian shouted, continuing his frightening attack. The short man clenched his fist and turned around, throwing a punch towards the Bladesage, “Gravity Punch!”
Crash! The earth shook from Parlie’s battle technique. He had originally been confident that this attack would be enough to injure Zhang Dingtian, but was shocked to find that Zhang Dingtian wasn’t injured in the least. He wasn’t even slowed down, the attacks coming with greater ferocity and pushing Parlie to the ground. The shockwaves washed over the area like a tsunami, crushing everything within a 1,000-meter radius of the attack. Veron reluctantly launched a Spacerender Palm towards Zhang Dingtian, who slashed it apart before once more directing his attention and sword towards Parlie, intent of facing both students simultaneously.
Just as Lu Yin was about to attack Veron, ice appeared under his feet. Bai Xue walked out from behind Jeraldine whose legs had been frozen and glared coldly at him, “Don’t move.”
Lu Yin stared at Bai Xue, awestruck by her astonishing beauty for the moment, “You’re the Water Sage?”
“Seems like you’ve done your research,” Bai Xue said coldly.
“No, Zhou Shan told me about you. He said your beauty is like the sky.”
Bai Xue’s gaze frosted over, “You attacked Zhou Shan?”
A slash from Zhang Dingtian brushed past Lu Yin before he could explain; the Bladesage was intent on pulling him into the battle. Lu Yin dodged, but seeing Bai Xue freezing Jeraldine, he used the Roving Step to blink over and grabbed the woman’s cold hand, “Are you trying to kill her?!”
“So what?” Bai Xue asked, radiating an extreme chill from her body.
Lu Yin’s gaze changed, “Innate gift, you have the gift of Frost.”
Bai Xue didn’t answer, simply freezing Lu Yin’s palm that was holding her back. The ice inched up his arm, but a burst of star energy shattered the ice and blasted her more than ten meters away. Bai Xue was stunned as she felt the pain shooting up her arm; this was the first time someone had shattered her ice so easily.
Possibly because he saw Bai Xue forced back, Zhang Dingtian changed his target from Parlie and Veron to Lu Yin instead, slashing his sword in that direction. Lu Yin grew annoyed at this and threw out Zhou Shan’s certificate while dodging the attack, “I’m Zhou Shan’s friend, not an alien!”
The Bladesage grabbed the document in mid-air and glanced at it with surprise, “You’re from Earth?”
Lu Yin nodded, but before he could explain further, his expression suddenly changed. He used the Roving Step to blink after Veron, “They’re going to escape!”
Zhang Dingtian didn’t hesitate, attacking Parlie himself. He was the only realmbreaker present, and could defeat even the powerful peak Sentinel with ease. While Lu Yin’s Cosmic Palm was powerful, it still didn’t allow him to cross realms and match a Melder’s power. This was in part because his own combat level was barely above 1,000, and also in part because he had only trained it to two stars. Once he managed the third, he would likely have similar strength.
Veron had already been injured once by Lu Yin, so he was captured quite quickly. Zhang Dingtian’s endless attacks proved too much for Parlie as well, and he soon collapsed with a wound on his chest. The battle ended up being quite short, but it was quite shocking. Everyone involved had the power of a school leader at minimum; this kind of intensity was rare even across the various academies of the Great Yu Empire; those like Jeraldine couldn’t even participate.