Mira’s eyes glowed as she was informed about Lu Yin’s innate gift, and she smiled, “It is quite average. Do you want me to recommend you to the Great Yu Empire’s Youth Council? If you agree to my terms, I could perhaps recommend you to the Outerverse Youth Council instead.”
“If I agree to your terms?”
“Well, if you fulfill them,” she said tiredly, “You’ll have to enter the Tenth Academy, but more importantly, do something that’ll make me proud of you. Something the Red Lotus Witchbow would be proud of.”
After saying this, she grinned at him, gave him a series of numbers, and turned to leave. Lu Yin simply narrowed his eyes; the Red Lotus Witchbow?
“By the way, it makes sense that you’re protecting that barbarian planet. Who knows, you might even get more talents like Zhang Dingtian and Liu Shaoge. Treasure it,” she said at the door, leaving Lu Yin even more surprised. Lu Yin was surprised. He understood why she mentioned Zhang Dingtian, but why Liu Shaoge? It was already a pity that he hadn’t killed the man; had she discovered something?
He immediately left and headed towards the command center. It wasn’t a place just anyone could enter, but his status on the Perseverance was second only to Lulu and Mira now, beyond even Sigmund’s. He shot out an order right as he entered, “Show me all the footage of the battle in Tianzhu.”
The people in the control room froze for a moment before carrying out his orders, and Sigmund, Torry, and Shalosh all got word right away. The trio quickly appeared at the control room themselves; while confused, the General didn’t really mind. He’d already said before that Lu Yin could do anything he wanted, so long as he wasn’t out of line.
Lu Yin focused on Liu Shaoge as he stared at the video of the battle, shock slowly turning into dread. The screen was showing footage of him sending Shaoge flying with one blow; that was normal, but what really drew his attention was what had happened just before. The man hadn’t been injured helplessly; he’d chosen not to defend. Why?
The answer was simple. Liu Shaoge had stood on Qingyu’s side, and Qingyu had been severely wounded in that battle. What would his master think of him if he was completely unharmed? He had to show his loyalty, even at the cost of taking on an attack that could kill him in one blow. This was the kind of person he was, someone who was vicious with others and even more so with himself. Lu Yin felt a sense of foreboding about the trickster.
It was no wonder that Mira admired Liu Shaoge’s talents, the man was extremely cautious and could endure what others couldn’t. He made sure that he didn’t stand out and was comfortable with loneliness. Whenever he acted, every move was perfect; he would get injured when needed and his intelligence and cunning were far beyond Zhang Dingtian or Bai Xue. Lu Yin had the feeling that this person would not remain behind anyone. They would definitely meet again in the future.
“It’s fine. There’s plenty of time,” he muttered to himself, drawing glances from the people in the command center. They had watched in the trial as he had captured dozens of students; they had assumed he was good as dead when he showed the gall to capture even Raas and Jenny Auna; who could have guessed that he would suddenly become a king? It was simply unbelievable, leaving them all curious.
“Show me all the footage of the surveillance cameras on the Perverserance,” he asked bluntly.
A slightly older officer was put in a tight spot, “You may only see that if the pilot gives you permission, Your Majesty.”
“Don’t make me repeat myself. I’m ordering you as the King Zishan.”
The officer hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth, “Play it.”
Screens all around them lit up immediately, constantly changing to show different locations. Lu Yin grinned in response; he didn’t really care about the surveillance footage, he just wanted to test how far his status went. It seemed like this kingship would be more useful than expected.
Hmm? Right as he was about to leave, his attention was drawn to a scene where Xu San was getting beaten up. He narrowed his eyes and left.
……
On the second level of the residential region, a few students had grabbed Xu San, “You’re just a native, don’t start thinking you’re equal to us just because you managed to get on the ship! A savage is a savage, and will always be trash. Got it?!” Veron yelled, eyes glimmering with bloodlust.
Xu San’s face was black and blue, but he remained silent. When Veron eventually snorted and called for the students to leave, he was coughing with his head bowed low, too afraid to fight back. Students kept passing by and glanced at him with mocking expressions before ignoring him. Most people who managed to leave the trial planets dealt with similar hazing, and no one thought Veron was being out of line. To them, Veron had actually held back because of Lu Yin’s status and merely beaten this man until he looked bad without doing anything lasting.
All of a sudden, a figure blocked the departing students. Veron looked up to see Zhang Dingtian and barked, “Scram!”
Zhang Dingtian pulled out his sword and moved it in front of Veron, “Apologize to him.”
Veron’s gaze changed and he burst into laughter, “Do you know where we are, bumpkin? If you use your weapon, you’re dead.”
As he spoke, a group of soldiers surrounded the students, “Lower your weapon immediately. Fighting is not allowed on the spacecraft.”
Zhang Dingtian replied coldly, “So why didn’t you stop them when they were beating him?”
“I’ll say again. Put down your weapon immediately.” A soldier shouted.
Xu San quickly ran to Zhang Dingtian, “I’m fine, let them go.”
Zhang Dingtian’s eyes narrowed and his grip on his sword tightened. More and more students arrived to watch the show, quite a few of them excited. They were the students who had run out of luck during the trial and been captured, so seeing an earthling in a bad state obviously delighted them.
It was at this point that Xia Luo arrived, threading his way through the crowd to move in front of Veron. He lifted a leg and drove his knee right into the youth’s stomach, kicking so hard that Veron squealed and dry-heaved as his body curled up in agony. Everyone, Zhang Dingtian included, was stunned by his action.
Xia Luo turned and smiled at the Bladesage, “Is this okay?”
“Thank you,” Zhang Dingtian put his sword away.
Xia Luo glanced at the soldier, “Do your job like you should. You can go now.”
The soldiers gave him a long look and then left, but not before giving Zhang Dingtian one last warning glance. Veron kept coughing as he looked up and glowered, but Xia Luo’s death glare forced him to hang his head. “Let’s go,” he said to the other students and left quickly.
Zhang Dingtian looked at Xia Luo again before leaving without a word.
It was only after nearly everyone had left that Lu Yin arrived, enquiring about the situation.
“He was the one who helped me, Boss,” Xu San told Lu Yin.
Lu Yin nodded. “Thank you.”
“No worries,” the youth answered kindly, “They were annoying. I still have some things to do, so I’ll be on my way.”
Lu Yin thanked him once more and watched as Xia Luo walked away. After they were alone, Lu Yin turned to study Xu San, “Why were they picking a fight with you?”
Xu San shook his head, “I really don’t know. I just came out to get some food and they approached me; said they thought I was an eyesore.”
An eyesore? Lu Yin’s eyes gleamed. Veron was certainly aware of Xu San’s relationship to him, but still had the nerve to attack. Why? There was no way a mediocre student like that would have the guts to provoke the King Zishan; some sort of conflict had already started within the Great Yu Empire. Was someone already trying to eliminate him?
Lu Yin was positive that every move of his was being recorded and sent back to the Capital Star. Any trivial matter could be blown up by certain people, used to make assumptions about his personality, intelligence, morality, and more. It was all to gather information that could be used against him in the future, and this was only the start of the provocation. The people behind this affront would keep escalating until he’d had enough.
“I heard something interesting just happened. I wish I had been here to see it,” Silver suddenly said with a grin, having appeared at some unknown time.
Lu Yin told Xu San to leave and turned to look at the man, “What were you hoping to see?”
Silver smiled, “I wanted to see a certain someone looking troubled. Maybe they’d curse you after you beat them up? Or maybe you’d just let them provoke you? It would have been fun to watch.”
“Which kind of person do you think I am?” Lu Yin asked.
“Don’t know,” Silver answered nonchalantly.
Lu Yin didn’t have the time to continue the discussion; he had to consider what his status as the King Zishan meant within the Great Yu Empire and gather more information.
“You don’t want to chat some more? I know quite a lot about the Zishan Family. Maybe it could help you,” Silver beamed at him.
Lu Yin looked back, “What do you know?”
Silver shrugged, “Not much beyond old news from a few centuries ago. For example, the old headquarters of the Zishan Family, their amazing food, battle techniques, the marriage agreement between the Zishans and Yushans, and so on.”
Marriage arrangement? Lu Yin felt like he’d just heard something critical, “What marriage agreement?”