Xia Luo burst into laughter at Lu Yin’s claim of being in trouble, “Not entirely. Who knows, they might even try to recruit you. But you did do one thing right, which was not revealing the Daynight Clan’s battle techniques. If not, you’d be dead.”
Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed. This was why he hadn’t used the Daynight Punch regardless of how precarious the situation was; no family would allow outsiders to learn their secret techniques; if he was exposed, the Daynight Clan wouldn’t be the end of it; other organizations from across the universe would chase him down to obtain it. Only someone like Lulu with her powerful family’s backing was immune to such things.
Then what about Xia Luo? Lu Yin looked at him earnestly, “I’m quite curious; what will you get out of this?”
“Just some scraps,” Xia Luo grinned.
Both of them suddenly turned towards a figure that had just turned the corner, with a signature head of short silver hair. “What a coincidence!” Silver waved to them with a grin so wide his eyes seemed to shut, acting as though he was very familiar with them.
Lu Yin’s heart thumped once more, radiating that familiar sense of danger that he always felt in this youth’s presence. Even with his personal growth since that day, the alarm didn’t even fade. Even the ever-jovial Xia Luo’s face sobered up, and he left a surprised Lu Yin behind without a word.
Silver drew closer and stopped three meters away, “I heard you nearly killed Qingyu in the trial. Congratulations!”
“Thanks!” Lu Yin smiled, “He wasn’t half-bad, forced me to use half my strength.”
“I fought him before too, he forced out barely 30%. Alright, I’m off; we’ll meet again if that’s what fate has in store for us,” the youth smiled even brighter in answer. Lu Yin rolled his eyes at the lame response, but the departing Silver suddenly paused, “Perhaps it won’t be long.”
“The Astral Combat Academy?” Lu Yin asked calmly, only getting a grin and wave in response. He sighed; there were exactly three people out of all the trainees on Earth that were most mysterious to him; Lulu Mavis, Xia Luo, and Silver. Munoor and some others might have been sealed Melders, but he couldn’t even read their true power.
Thinking of Munoor, he couldn’t help but feel a touch of guilt. He had force-fed Powerburst and used the man to take on one of Qingyu’s strike; the resulting counter-attack had been the critical blow that caused Qingyu’s defeat. Without Munoor, there was no way for him to have eked out a victory. While that guy had a low opinion of him, he was still a benefactor.
A while later, Lu Yin also left to explore the rest of the area. Ultra-large spacecraft were uncommon, and even in the entire Great Yu Empire there were only a few. A typical cultivator would just use a personal spacecraft to travel among the stars.
Though the lower floor didn’t have the same number of facilities as the top floor, there were still quite a few that Lu Yin was interested in. In particular, the bar! Students dealt with a great deal of stress and were expected to rest before a trial. Of course, they would also wildly celebrate the end of a trial, so the bars were always among the busiest places on these ships. So busy, in fact, that he bumped into someone the moment he stepped in.
“What the fuck—” the student took two steps back and cursed, but shut his mouth the moment he made eye contact with Lu Yin. He tried to smile right after, but his face looked even more miserable than if he’d been crying as he spoke, “Oh, Mr. Lu Yin. Please, come in; there’s plenty of room inside.”
Lu Yin looked at the student doubtfully, “I’m sorry, but… do we know each other?”
The student’s mouth twitched, but he forced himself to keep smiling, “Um, I was one of the students that you captured.”
Lu Yin grunted in acknowledgment and entered the bar. The student heaved a sigh of relief and took off; he had no wish to stay close to the cause of so many of his troubles, not to mention the guy was the enemy of nearly every student.
The bar on the spacecraft was just as rowdy as one on Earth, with music and dancing everywhere. If Lu Yin had to point out a difference, it would be that there was nothing “dirty” going on and there were no drugs of any kind, just people enjoying themselves simply. He chose a random seat and ordered some liquor, looking around while he drank. The place was huge and occupied by off-duty staff, soldiers, as well as students; people of all ages occupied the establishment.
The bar had many screens, some showing action movies while others played news or music from across the Great Yu Empire. The whole thing was so busy that Lu Yin felt a headache coming on.
Not far away, a dozen students raised their glasses, “Here’s to our senior finding rare metals and getting the best trial results of anyone from his academy!”
“Congratulations, Senior!”
“Congratulations, Senior!”
“Thank you, everyone. I’ve said this before, but this trial’s mission wasn’t easy. That idiot Hayden recklessly charged ahead and didn’t manage to get even remotely close to Qingyu. In the end, he was even held captive by a native, haha! But that’s not even all of it! He was even by what’s-his-name, that Tianzhu Monk, and needed Eddy to help him save face. Hah”
“How can an idiot who was born at the bottom of the sea compare with us? He’s an idiot and he’s probably done for.”
There were people celebrating at the other end of the bar as well. These celebrating students weren’t the strongest from their academies, but were returning from the trial with pretty good rewards. They weren’t aiming for the sky and trying to enter Astral-10, so they were more than happy with finishing some basic tasks instead of the primary mission.
This was how the perpetually mediocre comforted themselves. Lu Yin couldn’t hold back a laugh and took another drink, watching as the door to the bar crashed open and everyone looked over to see Eddy and Hayden stroll in. All the gloaters fell silent in one moment; now that the actual school leaders had appeared, they didn’t dare to speak a word.
Jenny Auna walked in right on the duo’s heels, looking completely pissed off. Many students scrambled towards the exit in an instant, afraid that they would become the target of that stress.
Hayden walked over towards some of the celebrating students and shouted, “Scram.” The students were annoyed, but still got up to leave. He and Eddy took up the entirety of the table that had previously seated a dozen students by themselves, both looking depressed. Meanwhile, Jenny headed directly to the private rooms on the second floor.
“Hey, let me sit here.” Just as Lu Yin was taking a drink, he heard someone speaking to him. He looked over in confusion and saw that it was one of the students that Hayden had chased away.
“Are you talking to me?” he pointed to himself.
“Cut the crap. Scram!” a tall student answered
He burst out laughing, looking past the students in front of him to make eye contact with Eddy and Hayden, “Hey, you two! You took their spot and now they want to give me trouble. Take care of it.”
The students froze. Did this guy know Hayden and Eddy?
The duo froze when they saw Lu Yin, looking like they had seen a monster. When they saw that he was growing more annoyed, they hurried to scold the students, “Get lost! Leave him alone when he’s drinking, you’re being rude!”
Lu Yin snorted.
The man the students had called “Senior” got irritated and looked at Hayden, “This is ridiculous, Hayden. What does our drinking have to do with you?”
Hayden stood up with an icy look in his eyes. The students were terrified, but refused to back down. It was easy to see that they would rather be beaten up than act like cowards.
“Who’s making a fuss? If you want to fight, get out,” Raas suddenly exited a private room on the second floor and looked down. Seeing him sent a shiver down the spines of many students, and even the music stopped playing. Standing behind Raas was Munoor, who had regained his strength as a Melder. His reclaimed power left many feeling uncomfortable.
One by one, people walked out of the private room. They had all been part of the second batch of trial-takers, and even Yan Gang was among them. The Fireforge Planet native was now looking very pompous.
“Ah, it’s you, Senior Raas. Sorry for disturbing you,” the tall student immediately apologized.
Raas was arrogant and loved being able to look down on everyone as he surveyed the room. These people didn’t even have the right to speak to him, and with his appearance, all of the students and even some of the soldiers in the bar went quiet. This was the reaction that someone of his position ought to evoke.
Wait a moment, he focused a frown right below, where someone was still drinking. Someone dared to ignore him even after he’d made himself known? This was intolerable, “Hey you, get up!”
Everyone looked over at Lu Yin, while Hayden and Eddy had a strange look in their eyes. The tall student cheered up and glared at him, “He’s talking to you, kid. Senior Raas told you to get up, didn’t you hear?”
“I can’t even drink in peace,” Lu Yin set down his glass, slowly looking up at Raas with a smile.