“The third round of drawing lots will begin in one day,” the giant voice boomed across the Lifeseek Realm.
Many were roused and looked at Lu Yin with sympathy in their gazes before leaving one after another.
Han Chong turned to Lu Yin. “Brother Lu, don’t overthink. Just prepare well.”
Beside him, Grandini Mavis shook her head helplessly. “Even I feel luckier than you since they won’t make such obvious comparisons.”
Lu Yin was left speechless.
“Seventh Bro, are you confident? Actually if you use your Secret Sidestep, you’ll be able to easily deal with any one of them’s attack, but to win against these people is way too difficult. No one knows the upper limits of Tian Hou’s resistance, and that woman, Yun, is way too weird. Even you humans’ Starsibyl seems to be disgustingly strong.” The Ghost monkey seemed to take joy in Lu Yin’s current predicament.
Lu Yin released a breath and immediately screened the monkey off before leaving the Lifeseek Realm.
Lu Yin opened his eyes atop the trial zone mountain. This time, there were no students of Astral-10 surrounding him. They wanted to give Lu Yin some peace and quiet to rest since he was about to face off against one of those three freaks.
Lu Yin stepped out from the trial zone mountain, bowed to the Trialmaster, and then headed for the space station, hoping that the beautiful Madam Nalan was still there.
The mentor watched Lu Yin’s figure disappear; this kid had done very well, but he was still just a shade weaker than the remaining participants. If he could truly reach the level of strength that the Ten Arbiters had attained while they were in the Astral Combat Academy, Lu Yin would be able to face anyone and even suppress everyone. The title of “Ten Arbiters candidate” was just a bit of flattery, as the only Limiteers in the younger generation who could truly qualify to be a Ten Arbiters candidate were still only those three.
The Nalan family’s spacecraft was still docked at Astral-10’s space station.
Lu Yin entered and saw the stunning Madam Nalan.
This time, she wore an even more enticing set of clothes that complemented her already enchanting figure. Lu Yin felt heated at the sight, growing rather embarrassed.
“The semi-finals are tomorrow, so why has Student Lu come to seek me out today?” she asked curiously as she poured Lu Yin a drink.
Lu Yin felt awkward, but when he thought of those three freaks, he decided to speak up. “Madam Nalan, could I borrow some money?”
She was astonished by his request. “Borrow money?”
Lu Yin nodded. “It’s very embarrassing, but honestly, I am urgently in need of money right now.”
Madam Nalan smiled faintly as she pursed her lips. “Very well. How much?”
Lu Yin did some quick mental math. He had used about 400,000 star crystals during his last upgrading session for that strengthening fruit, and even then, it should not have reached its peak state. If he extrapolated from that and rounded up to the nearest million… He tried to test Madam Nalan’s limits. “Two million star crystals.”
She nodded. “So not much.”
Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat. Not much? When he had been at his wealthiest, he had only possessed ten star essence, which was the equivalent of one million star crystals. And now, when he asked for two million, it was “not much?” No wonder she was the Outerverse’s wealthiest widow—she was just too rich!
Not long after, a Mavis Bank crystal card was delivered to him.
Lu Yin hurriedly asked, “Madam Nalan, do you have the actual goods? I need the actual crystals.”
She clasped her forehead and smiled. “My mistake. Since you urgently need money, you will naturally require the physical form.” She then instructed someone to deliver twenty star essences to Lu Yin. “I don’t have two million star crystals on me, so are these essences alright?”
Lu Yin nodded. “Thank you, madam. Oh right, how much is the interest?”
“Hehe, Student Lu, do we have to calculate interest even with our relationship?” She beamed at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin felt embarrassed. He hurriedly stood up and bade farewell to Madam Nalan.
Her lips quirked up as she watched Lu Yin leave. This youth was very interesting. While two million star crystals were not much, it was still not an amount that just anyone could borrow. As an investment in this youth, two million star crystals was indeed not much.
More than half a month had passed since Lu Yin last rolled the die, which was a considerably long time. Lu Yin found a secluded area and hoped to roll three pips: Enhance. But before he began, he placed his cosmic ring to the side.
The more time that passed, the greater the probability of rolling a good number. If he rolled six pips: Possession, then he would lose all hope of being able to upgrade the strengthening fruit this time around since Possession could use up all of his star crystals in the blink of an eye.
He raised his hand, and the die appeared over his palm. He tapped on it, causing it to quickly spin. When it finally stopped, the surrounding scenery changed for a moment before returning to normal.
Lu Yin let out a pent up breath; this was the sensation of rolling Possession. He had expected to roll this, and fortunately, he had placed his cosmic ring to the side, or else all of his hard-earned star crystals might have already been consumed.
Possession was useful, but currently, his best chance of improving his strength was by upgrading the strengthening fruit. Possession was a gamble, as he might Possess the body of a powerhouse and greatly increase his own power, or he might just as likely Possess someone like Wu Xia. He could not afford to gamble at this time.
He used a cube of star crystal to restore the die and tapped it again. He also picked up his cosmic ring in case he rolled Time Stop.
As the die slowly came to a stop, Lu Yin’s breathing quickened, and he saw the rolled number. He was rather moved as it was three pips: Enhance. He had actually rolled it already! Sure enough, the more time that passed between each roll, the higher the chances of rolling something good.
As he watched the two screens appear, Lu Yin took out a strengthening fruit and threw it on top of the upper light screen along with one star essence.
As the strengthening fruit underwent a repeated chain of upgrades, it started to change just like the previous one.
After four star essences were consumed, this strengthening fruit’s upgrade slowed down a bit compared to the previous time Lu Yin had upgraded a fruit. Although a star essence’s energy was of much higher quality than a normal star crystal, that did not mean that they held the same amount of energy. But Lu Yin was helpless to do anything about it. He could only retrieve another star essence and continue upgrading this strengthening fruit to the same extent as the previous one.
Five star essence was valued to be the same as 500,000 star crystals, and it had all been used to upgrade a single strengthening fruit.
As he watched the strengthening fruit release ripples that started distorting the void, the star energy started automatically circulating through his meridians.
He considered his situation for a moment, and then threw the strengthening fruit onto the light screen one more time, immediately followed by two star essence. The strengthening fruit fell down once more, but only about half way this time. He calculated that he would need to use three more star essence if he wanted to completely upgrade the fruit one more time. This meant that it cost double the amount of star crystals each time Lu Yin wanted to upgrade a fruit to a higher level.
Lu Yin grit his teeth and threw out another three star essence. The strengthening fruit fell to the ground with an audible thump, and the pumping energy circulating through Lu Yin’s meridians became even louder and clearer, as if it had become tangible. All the while, the ripples that distorted the void became more noticeable.
Lu Yin had wanted to upgrade the fruit even further, but when he saw that he had only ten star essence remaining in his cosmic ring, he reckoned that he might not have enough to completely upgrade it one more time. The further he upgraded something, the more resources the upgrade required. This strengthening fruit was even better than the previous one, and it should be able to strengthen Lu Yin to a level where he could deal with this competition.
Lu Yin did not hesitate, and he immediately swallowed the strengthening fruit.
One day later, in the Lifeseek Realm, all of the students arrived and excitedly looked into the distance. The semi-finals were about to begin.
All the competitors had arrived on scene, except for Lu Yin.
“What happened? Is Lu Yin not coming?” some students wondered.
“Could he be afraid? He’s slated to face those three freaks.”
“Shh, don’t spout nonsense. Those Astral-10 people are looking at you.”
…
In the distance, Xia Luo remained calm while Michelle frowned; Lu Yin had not arrived yet.
“Senior, should we go look for him?” Coco asked.
Little Pao shook his head. “There’s no need.”
On the west side of the battlefield, Yun sneered. Her contempt for everyone was readily apparent, save for a slight modicum of respect that she showed towards Starsibyl and Tian Hou. The rest, however, were not worthy of her attention. Oh, there was also that kid from the Sword Sect. His sword technique wasn’t bad, but of course, that was all. It was merely not bad.
In the east, Starsibyl remained calm.
Grandini Mavis frowned.
On the north side, Liu Shaoqiu’s eyes narrowed. Lu Yin was about on par with him in terms of power, so Lu Yin’s chances of victory were slim against those three, especially Yun. Even now, Liu Shaoqiu still could not understand what she had used to crush his Fourth Sword.
At that moment, four wooden lots flickering with color appeared in the sky. The lot-drawing was about to begin.
Beside Grandini Mavis, Lu Yin suddenly appeared, startling her quite badly.
“Why did you only arrive now?” she shrieked.
Lu Yin grinned, but even that small movement caused him to experience an intense pain. He felt rather helpless, as the effects of the strengthening fruit had been too startling. He had forcibly endured a day of wracking pain. Even now, the pain had not lessened in the slightest. He could not casually eat these high leveled natural treasures in future.
“I overslept,” Lu Yin casually replied.
Grandini rolled her eyes in disbelief.
Starsibyl studied Lu Yin, and her eyes then gleamed. This person had changed a bit.
As the four star energies rushed out, the four lots were drawn. The first match was determined to be Lu Yin against Yun.
Lu Yin had no change of expression when he saw his opponent, though the looks of everyone else changed abruptly.
Could this be a predestined confrontation?
Many immediately remembered the battle between Lu Yin and Liu Shaoqiu during the Astral Combat Tournament. That battle had propelled Lu Yin to fame, and now, his opponent was Yun, who had knocked Liu Shaoqiu out of this tournament.
On the north side, Liu Shaoqiu’s eyes flashed, and he carefully observed the scene. He believed that Lu Yin stood no chance in this battle, as Yun was too bizarre.
Many of the other students thought so as well. Of the final four, the three besides Lu Yin were on a different level where their strength couldn’t even be gauged. Only Lu Yin was slightly weaker, as Grandini Mavis, a user of five-lined battle force, had been defeated even after using Seventeen Stacks. From what most people knew, Lu Yin had only used Nine Stacks to defeat Nightqueen Yanqing, so there was nothing more that he could do in this tournament.
In the distance, Nightqueen Yanqing sneered. Lu Yin would lose without a doubt, and she hoped that Yun could give that worm a humiliating experience.
On the other side of the stage, the other student leaders looked solemn. This tournament had progressed to a point where there were clear delineations between the competitors. Those three were top-notch Limiteers of the younger generation, and they could be considered to be absolute experts even when placed beside an Explorer. Lu Yin was slightly lacking compared to them.
Even further away from the battlefield, the veiled lady focused on Lu Yin. She was the woman who had instantly eliminated Sai Luo.
“Since these two are battling, Hou, it means that your opponent is that human, Starsibyl,” Feng Jiu said.
Tian Hou growled, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.”
Feng Jiu looked at Lu Yin, then at Starsibyl as she pondered who would emerge victorious in this tournament. Nothing was for certain, but she already knew that Lu Yin would be the first to be knocked out.
Out on the battlefield, it was painful for Lu Yin to even walk. He had not yet recovered from the pain of ingesting the strengthening fruit, and did not know how it would influence this battle, but he hoped that it would not be too severe.
In front of him, Yun had already appeared, still with that expression of absolute disdain towards everything under the sky. It was as if she had her eyes fixed on only the very top. She sneered, as she did not even see Lu Yin as her opponent.
When the duo appeared, the battle started.
