Normal earthlings simply couldn’t even hear about the Great Yu Empire’s trial. In their view, strong individuals had simply appeared out of nowhere to protect their new population centers. They had no idea that the trainees in this trial were currently boarding the spacecraft, a total of 150 out of 237 having returned alive.
87 deaths might seem like a large number, but Sigmund wasn’t moved in the slightest by it. In fact, this was considered quite good by standard of most trials, where about half the participants died in the process. In fact, the only thing that would cause a fuss would be the death of some noble heir.
Many students around Jeraldine’s level were in high spirits; their goal had only been to hold onto one or two major cities for a while and come back alive. On the contrary, it was the elites who were annoyed, especially those from the second batch. Each one of their faces was more unsightly than the last; they had basically earned nothing.
Among the earthlings, Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue were exceptional enough to join the Empire’s ranks. One was a realmbreaker, while the other had an innate gift; both would receive direct invitations to one of the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons. The only one outside of the Sages that qualified to join was the Tianzhu Monk, Seruzen. Zhou Shan and Wu Sheng had been asked as well, but both chose to retain their positions as Earth’s guardians. Sigmund didn’t particularly mind; there was a large disparity between these two sets, and the regular Sages would only be normal soldiers for the Empire.
It took about two hours for Sigmund’s doctors to treat Lu Yin’s chest wounds, and the first people he saw when he opened his eyes were Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue. He asked feebly, “How are things?”
Zhang Dingtian’s tone was downcast, “It has ended. Earth hasn’t changed, but the Empire will send people to monitor the situation and clean up the zombies. Thank you.”
“Thank you,” Bai Xue echoed with gratitude.
Lu Yin coughed and got up from bed, looking at the clouds floating past them, “Are we leaving soon?”
Zhang Dingtian nodded, “Zhou Shan and Wu Shend decided to stay behind. Outside of the three of us, one other person from Earth is joining the Great Yu Empire— Seruzen.”
“The Tianzhu Monk?” Lu Yin was astonished, “Is he very strong?”
“He is an eccentric. You can take a look yourself, he’s just outside. We’ve all been arranged to join Yu Academy.”
Lu Yin walked out of the treatment room to see the Tianzhu Monk, who really was quite unique. His feet were bare and he wore only half the amount of clothing a typical person would, revealing his skinny body that looked like a pile of bones covered in bronze skin. One could mistake him for an exquisitely detailed copper statue at first glance.
Strangely, the monk had his right hand raised in the air; it was unknown just how long he’d kept it like that, but it was withered and deformed from its original shape to look more like a tree branch than an arm. His beard was wrapped around that arm, drawing strange looks from everyone passing by. Lu Yin was stunned as well; this was the Tianzhu Monk?
Zhang Dingtian was someone with a strong will, but even he was a little disturbed by the Tianzhu Monk. Given that, there was no need to even mention Bai Xue; Lu Yin even felt a bit of fear coming off her.
“This is Seruzen; the only one from Earth who became a Sentinel without receiving anything from Qingyu’s inheritance. He even defeated Hayden,” Zhang Dingtian informed him.
“How did he become a cultivator?” Lu Yin felt odd; it felt like someone with this appearance would find it extremely difficult to fight mutant beasts. Seruzen looked to be disadvantaged even against the average human.
Zhang Dingtian replied, “I don’t know, he hasn’t spoken.”
“I can answer this question,” Sigmund walked over and those in the vicinity immediately saluted him. Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue were a bit standoffish in the general’s presence; the two of them had joined the Great Yu Empire to gain strength, but they had no good opinions about the Empire itself. Granted, they felt no hatred, either; after all, Earth’s evolution had been caused by Qingyu and was unrelated.
Despite already knowing the answer, Lu Yin turned to Sigmund and asked, “You seem to treat me differently now. Why?”
Sigmund smiled, “I will explain everything to you in time, but right now the spacecraft is about to leave Earth. Are there any final tasks you need to complete?”
Lu Yin muttered to himself before answering, “Please have a man fetched from Jinlin. His name is Xu San, he’s like a little brother to me.”
Sigmund nodded and asked no further questions, sending instructions through his gadget before looking at Seruzen, “As for your earlier question, this is someone with outstanding perseverance. He sat alone with no fear amidst two groups of mutant beasts, bathing in their blood as they waged war. He then swallowed their energy cores after the massacre, becoming a Sentinel. His willpower is extraordinary, almost never seen across the universe.”
Lu Yin’s little trio stared at the monk in shock, He sat alone in the middle of a mutant beast battlefield when he was just a normal human? He must have been insane! How was he not eaten?
“I made a special exception to allow him to join the Great Yu Empire since his willpower attracted the interest of some. He may have an impressive future before him,” Sigmund continued.
At this time, Seruzen raised his gaze to look at Lu Yin with clouded eyes. He stood up and stepped forward with his bare metal feet, slowly bowing down to his waist.
“Th-Thanks,” he said hoarsely to a confused Lu Yin, as though his voice hadn’t been used for a long time. It took some effort to even make out what he’d said.
“You’re welcome,” Lu Yin replied, “You don’t look like someone from Tianzhu.”
“I was born in the mountains of Tibet, my practice of Buddhism led me to Tianzhu,” the man explained, bowing again before turning to leave. Sigmund left as well; his workload in the aftermath of this trial was mountainous.
Lu Yin turned to the others, “Let’s go explore. After all, this is the Great Yu Empire’s spacecraft and it should be more valuable than an average planet.”
“I’ll pass. I want to check out the gravity room, and there’s a small library here as well,” Zhang Dingtian said before walking away. Lu Yin turned to Bai Xue. She was truly beautiful and it was a pleasure just to look at her. However, Bai Xue had not yet recovered from Liu Shaoge’s betrayal and apologized to Lu Yin before also leaving on her own.
Lu Yin felt rather helpless. With these two kill-joys, he might as well have asked Seruzen to stay behind; he would have at least been useful to scare people away. With the monk’s appearance, most people would not dare act against him.
The giant spacecraft was named the Perseverance, and was used exclusively to fetch trial takers. It was larger than Beijing’s assembly grounds and housed all the necessary facilities; there were over one hundred gravity training rooms and more than three hundred personal spaceships within. Its crew had already recovered all of the personal pods, ready to take off.
The Perseverance had clearly designated areas for training, maintenance, day-to-day living, observation, and administration. Lu Yin was currently in the top-most level of the residential area, having been placed in his own home that had a swimming pool, medical room, and much more. There were only three such quarters in the entire ship, and Lu Yin took one over even Shalosh. All of the students were housed at least one level below, and while their rooms were large as well, the luxury was incomparable.
He descended one level into the student housing; the workers’ quarters were at the other end while the soldiers’ barracks were at the bottom-most level. The residential area was enclosed in what he found was some sort of sturdy yet transparent metal, and as he tested it out, he heard a gentle voice behind him, “Only Explorers or greater can shatter this metal. With your power, you can’t even scratch it.”
Lu Yin turned back to see a smiling Xia Luo, “Why weren’t you at Tianzhu?”
Xia Luo continued smiling, “Wasn’t interested.”
Lu Yin raised his brows, “As a trial taker, I’m really curious why you wouldn’t be interested in the primary mission. Especially with your strength.”
Xia Luo walked to Lu Yin’s side and looked through the metal to the clouds outside, past which the giant turtle’s tail could vaguely be seen wagging back and forth, “As long as the goal is accomplished during a trial, that’s enough. No need to confuse that with completing the mission.” He turned to look at Lu Yin, “Congratulations on defeating Qingyu. This will definitely cause the Great Yu Empire to take notice of you.”
Lu Yin shrugged, “It was just a cheap trick. I wouldn’t be able to defeat him directly.”
“There are no cheap tricks in the universe. A victory is a victory. Lu Yin—no, Brother Lu—do you know what defeating a Nightking means?”
Lu Yin shook his head.
“It means that the Daynight Clan has their sights on you now. They will watch you closely if you ever enter the Innerverse.”
Lu Yin shrugged his shoulders, “In other words, I’m in trouble.”