Within the huge spacecraft outside Earth, Sigmund and a few others were looking at the turtle on the screen anxiously.
“General Mathers, we can’t consider a beast that is beyond 10,000 combat level a part of the trial; let us capture it,” Torry Auna said nervously. Jenny was still in the capital; if the creature decided to attack, they would all die.
Sigmund clenched his fists and glanced at Mira, who smiled calmly, “Is death really that scary to the young elites of the Great Yu Empire?”
Torry’s face sank and he went quiet, looking back at the screen.
Fortunately, the huge turtle disappeared quickly before anyone in Beijing worked up the courage to utter a single word. That creature was truly terrifying; even its body alone could crush everyone here.
……
Lu Yin sighed, but then suddenly realized something was strange. Where is Lulu? He barely looked west in time to see a green silhouette disappearing into the distance; that crazy woman couldn’t have gone after the turtle, right?
Outside the capital, Yan Gang was coughing hard. He had choked on the dust from the turtle’s arrival, and was finally feeling better. While everyone was still immersed in the terror of the turtle’s appearance, he continued speaking, “Qingyu agreed to your condition.”
“Which gadget is his?” Lu Yin asked with a nod, contacting the man directly once it was pointed out, “Qingyu?”
In northern Europe, Qingyu looked at his gadget and smiled, “You’re the native who has caught dozens of students in the capital?”
“Your thing is with me; if you want to get it, hand me the students you’ve captured.”
“I talked about it with the other guy just now, I’m okay with that. Do you also want Huo Xiaoling?” Qingyu smirked.
Lu Yin narrowed his eyes, knowing that Xiaoling was the reason why Yan Gang was working for Qingyu. With Raas and Jenny already on hand, she wasn’t worth the fight that would cause, “No, but then you have too few students on hand right now.”
Qingyu’s eyes gleamed, “Kid, I’m dealing with you because I don’t want to come all the way there, do you think the few of you can stop me?”
“Of course not, you’re a Melder. But we can run just like you. I’ll just hide the stone until the mission fails, and then the Empire will send soldiers to capture you. Do you think you’d be able to defend yourself at that point? I know that you want a chance at escaping using that stone; compared to your life, my conditions are already quite lenient.”
Qingyu laughed, “You’re quite smart, I do intend to use that stone to escape. Fine, I can capture more students. I already have some here, is a total of 32 alright?”
“That works.”
“We’ll trade under Cang Mountain in Tianzhu; ten days.”
Lu Yin agreed and hung up, turning to the watching Yan Gang, “You can go retrieve Huo Xiaoling now.”
Yan Gang’s eyes sparkled, “You’d better hand Jenny Auna over; you don’t know how powerful the Auna Family is.”
“Not happening. Get a move on.”
Yan Gang didn’t bother responding and just left, after which Lu Yin informed the rest of his companions of the current situation. Zhang Dingtian was the first to speak up, “I’m going with you. Qingyu caused Earth’s evolution and brought about the deaths of countless people. I want him to pay with his life.”
Bai Xue said, “I’m going too.”
Lu Yin looked to Jeraldine, “Post the news that Qingyu will be at Cang Mountain in Tianzhu in ten days.”
“Do you plan on using the students to eliminate him?” Gerlaine asked.
Lu Yin nodded, “Isn’t that the mission? If he’s taken out, you’ll complete the trial mission, so it’s a win for you too.”
“What about you? Are you trying to seek vengeance for the people of this planet?”
He took a deep breath, “The trial isn’t only for the students, it’s for us as well. You students have your results to worry about, and I have mine too. Completing the mission also increases my chances of negotiating with the Great Yu Empire.”
Gerlaine sneered, “Are you really planning on negotiating with the Empire? You’re insane, there’s no way you’ll succeed”
“I can at least try,” Lu Yin shrugged.
The local network soon erupted into chaos as Qingyu captured more students, compelling most of those who were still in Europe to flee. News was also released that he would appear at Cang Mountain in Tianzhu, so many students rushed over immediately. They were far past the point of trying to verify whether this was real; it wasn’t much of a loss to take the trip anyway. This would be the final battle of the trial; either they would complete their mission, or they would all fail and the Great Yu Empire would capture Qingyu afterwards.
Lu Yin returned to training and studied the movement of the stars, hoping to be able to form the fourth star of the Cosmic Palm in this time. The technique was incredibly powerful, and the fourth star would greatly increase its strength. He could defeat Eddy and match up with Raas using the three-star version, but he knew for certain that the fourth would allow him to outright defeat even sealed Melders like Yan Gang and Munoor. With no way to increase the strength of the Skybeast Claw or the Daynight Punch, this was the only way for him to grow his combat ability.
However, before anything else, Lu Yin found a piece of paper and closed his eyes and tried to recall the dream he had woken from when Zhou Shan had come to his residence. He still recalled that crushing finger that spanned the heavens; it had felt quite real, as had the boundless rage in his heart.
And yet, even though he could clearly envision the scene from his dream, he couldn’t draw it on paper no matter how hard he tried. Thinking over it for a while, he eventually sighed and gave up on trying to make sense of it, deciding to just treat it like a normal dream. As such, he threw the sheet away and raised his hand to summon his die, observing the traces of ice on the face with five pips. This was Bai Xue’s innate gift; he could use it one time before it vanished from the die. If he wanted to use it a second time, he would have to roll Gift Copy again and touch her within that ten-second time limit.
“What an interesting gift,” he muttered to himself, retrieving a cube of star crystals from his cosmic ring and crushing it to allow the die to recover. However, the die didn’t absorb the energy this time. Had it reached its limit? It seemed like he had to wait a while. Dismissing the gift with dismay, he returned to his study of star charts.
This trial was a nightmare for many of the students. The first batch had mostly wanted to occupy a section of Earth and harvest rare materials in order to earn an average result, so it was only the stronger and braver of them that had been captured. However, the second batch had been truly unlucky, with nearly half of them captured across Europe and China. There was no such trial in the recorded history of the Great Yu Empire; it left General Sigmund and the other overseers embarrassed. The worst part of the situation was that even the heirs of powerful families like Jenny, Xiaoling, and Raas had been captured, as well as elites from Yu Academy. Mira watched everything and even meted out compliments from time to time, but it all sounded like sarcasm in Sigmund’s ears.
“Now this is a true trial. Most of the time, the trials just consist of the students defeating the natives, but that’s more of a show than an actual trial. General Mathers, the Great Yu Empire is truly a fair and just empire,” Mira commended, but her words left the General speechless. This woman had just criticized the youths of the Great Yu Empire for being afraid of death, but now she was saying the opposite. Was this anything but mockery?
“General, we should start preparing; the final battle will occur in ten days. Qingyu must be quite confident if he is giving ten days to allow more students to gather,” Torry spoke up.
“That Lu Yin doesn’t even understand how powerful a Melder is. This trial’s mission will most likely end in failure,” Shalosh said in a cold voice.
Sigmund looked at the screen. To the overseers, Lu Yin would be trying to make a deal with the devil if he really wanted to bargain with Qingyu. Even if Qingyu only had the battle power of a Sentinel, an elite from the Daynight clan was someone incomparable to normal opponents.
Mira smiled at the screen, Melder? No, that’s wrong. She had confirmed that Qingyu didn’t have the battle power of a Melder; in fact, it would be difficult for him to showcase even peak Sentinel power with his injuries. He was only half a Sentinel, but to others it seemed like he had the strength of a Melder. This showed the power of the Daynight Clan; it left her hopeful for something interesting after ten days.