It wasn’t long before Yan Gang grew impatient; without Lulu around, he’d grown arrogant once more. Lu Yin didn’t take long to arrive, but he ignored Yan Gang and stared at Bai Xue instead. He vaguely recalled having done something before he fainted, and he could see the frustration on her face. The Water Sage certainly had her reasons for this; while Yan Gang was one thing, she hadn’t been able to get a handle on the rumors that were spreading through the city like wildfire.
“Where’s Lulu?” Lu Yin asked Jeraldine.
“Back in the city.”
He nodded and glanced at Zhang Dingtian, “Are you injured?”
“He’s very powerful, from the Fireforge Planet,” Zhang Dingtian answered in a low voice, prompting a raise of the brow from Lu Yin. He had come directly to Earth upon reaching the Frostwave Weave, so he hadn’t heard of the place.
“Who’s the one in charge? Come talk to me,” Yan Gang’s gaze turned cold.
“What’s your problem?” Lu Yin turned around and snapped.
Yan Gang laughed, “Looking down on me, are we?”
Lu Yin smiled, “So what?”
Yan Gang glared at him and the temperature around shot up, the very air starting to distort. However, he suddenly thought of something and sent a wary glance towards the city as he exhaled, “Stop this nonsense and give me Qingyu’s belongings.”
“Why the hell would I do that?” Lu Yin grunted, still annoyed at just having woken up.
Bloodlust filled Yan Gang’s eyes, “How dare you, do you know who I am?”
“Don’t know, don’t care.”
Yan Gang was outraged at the insolence. If not for the presence of a Mavis in the city, he would have attacked the native directly. “What are your conditions, I have to take Qingyu’s item.”
Even if Xia Luo hadn’t warned him, Lu Yin would have given the stone away anyway. Its background was far too complicated for him to hold onto, but he still had to make sure he would get sufficient compensation for its sale, “Do you represent Qingyu or the trainees?”
“Qingyu,” Yan Gang answered.
“Then I can give it to him, but he has to give me all the students he’s captured.”
Everyone was shocked by this condition, but they remembered what Lu Yin had once said about using these students to negotiate with the Great Yu Empire. Zhang Dingtian and the rest were happy with that stance, but in reality Lu Yin only cared about the students’ star crystals. The negotiations were only secondary.
Yan Gang frowned, “Why do you want the students? You also have a few here, and don’t you have Jenny Auna too?”
“I think there’s someone with that name,” he answered vaguely. Most of the students had removed their gadgets so their information wouldn’t be visible on the web. Meanwhile, Lu Yin’s gadget had no name attached to it, so it was also unable to announce some information.
“Let her go!” Yan Gang bellowed.
Lu Yin sneered, “Who do you think you are?”
“So rude!” Yan Gang glared at him, flames appearing on his palms as he rushed forward. Those from the Fireforge Planet were all bad-tempered, and for him to suppress his until now was already an accomplishment.
Everyone felt threatened by the attack, but Lu Yin balled up his right fist and distorted the light around. Yan Gang suddenly felt the world change around him; it was obviously still morning, but this punch showed him both day and night. It felt like a terrifying conflict had broken out within his own body, leaving him in excruciating pain. He growled and stabbed towards Lu Yin, but waves of energy swept across the earth and blasted him backwards, extinguishing his spear of flames.
Lu Yin took a step backwards as well, looking at Yan Gang with a grave expression. This person truly was far more powerful than Munoor. The Daynight Punch was a battle technique from the clan of the same name, which meant it was far more powerful than even the Cosmic Palm or the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw, but this guy had managed to block it without any significant injuries.
Although the result of the clash left Lu Yin surprised, Yan Gang was completely shocked; this native was just a Sentinel, but his attack had been so threatening that he’d had to respond with his most powerful strike. In fact, if Lu Yin’s attack had been the slightest bit more powerful, he might have broken his seal to counter.
Observing the exchange, Zhang Dingtian’s eyes narrowed. He had faced Yan Gang before, and it had been enough to understand how terrifying this trial participant was. And yet, Lu Yin had still managed to push him back, showing his absurd increase in strength since the day the two had first met.
The powerful attack changed Yan Gang’s impression of this native, and he descended slightly and looked Lu Yin straight in the eye, “Jenny is the heir to the Auna Family of the Great Yu Empire. You will only bring yourself trouble by capturing her, consider it carefully. Her family has countless options if they wish to wipe out the people of this planet.”
“I’m aware of all that, there’s no need to warn me. If you want to get the stone for Qingyu, then ask him to give me the students that he captured. This is my only condition, there’s no room to negotiate.”
“Fine, I’ll contact Qingyu,” Yan Gang reluctantly agreed and switched on his gadget, but just when he was about to contact Qingyu, Lulu Mavis suddenly appeared and surprised everyone.
“I knew you’d gotten something! That punch wasn’t bad, let’s fight!” she told him excitedly.
Lu Yin smiled, “I refuse.”
Lulu blinked, “Refuse? Why? Powerhouses should improve by learning from each other.”
“I’m not a powerhouse,” Lu Yin said.
She shook her head, “You’re not bad for a Sentinel, at least you qualify to fight me. Stop with this nonsense, bring it!”
Zhou Shan and the others watched the strange interaction with bemusement; it felt bizarre hearing a beautiful girl telling a man to “bring it.” This one probably wasn’t completely normal.
Lu Yin really didn’t want to fight with Lulu; she was way too strong and he didn’t want to suffer her punches. Besides that, the speed that she’d obtained from the inheritance stone would leave him nothing more than a punching bag; he wasn’t a masochist.
“Hey, are you even a man? Bring it! I said bring it!” Lulu shouted, but he ignored her and looked at Yan Gang instead. She grew anxious at this, but there was nothing she could do if he refused to move. She was a lady; she could only ambush bad people, so a sneak attack was off the table.
Lu Yin suddenly thought about his Cosmic Art, and how he’d been able to use it to learn the seven forms of the Skybeast Claw. Could he use it to copy Lulu’s movement technique just as quickly? Thinking of this possibility, his eyes started to gleam. ‘Maybe I should spar with her after all.’
That thought was interrupted when Bai Xue suddenly shouted, drawing everyone’s attention to her talking to someone on her gadget. Moments later, she lifted her head and informed them grimly, “The Blue Camp has been destroyed.”
“Who did it?” Zhang Dingtian’s gaze turned cold. Lu Yin looked over as well, recalling the girl Zhao Yu who was one of the three Snow Maidens from that camp.
Bai Xue answered in a low voice, “Not who, what. It was a mutant beast, an enormous flying turtle.”
“A turtle?” Many were shocked.
She nodded, “According to a gadget in the Blue Camp, the turtle’s combat level exceeded 10,000 and couldn’t even be read properly.”
The information stunned everyone. A combat level over 10,000 was at least the level of an Explorer! A Sentinel was limited to 3,000, Melders 6,000, and Limiteers 10,000. Qingyu being an Explorer was what allowed him to survive on Neptune despite severe injuries, what allowed him to showcase such power even now. How could there be a mutant beast on Earth with such power? Where could it have come from?
This also happened to be the moment Yan Gang finished his call. “Qingyu’s—” he started shouting, but a terrifying pressure from the east suddenly crushed him to the ground. An enormous figure covered the sky, and Lu Yin looked eastwards to see a giant turtle that was larger than all of Beijing. The scene stunned the millions of survivors in the city; they simply couldn’t conceive of the existence of such a massive creature. That shock soon turned into terror as the enormous creature drew closer.
Yan Gang picked himself up and was about to curse everyone, but raising his head left him stunned, ‘Where did this crazy turtle come from?!’
The turtles traveled extremely quickly, its shadow covering Beijing for only a second before it continued west. The beast never even looked towards the ground; to it, Lu Yin and the rest were nothing more than ants that could be crushed at any moment.