When she heard what Lu Yin said, Hai Qiqi looked at him in a ridiculing manner. “You? Compete? Are you joking? Just go and play around on your own.”
Lu Yin was left speechless. That poisonous tongue of hers was really quite familiar. “I’m a genuine four star Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker. Do you really think that I don’t have any hope of winning?”
“Obviously. The Lockbreaker Competition is held once every ten years, and participants at the level of a four star Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker are a dime a dozen, though there are some who are young and others who are old. There are also Lockbreakers at the Perceptive Intermediate level. A Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker like you wanting to take first place is simply dreaming.” Hai Qiqi rolled her eyes.
“The Innerverse and Outerverse are separated,” Lu Yin commented quietly.
Hai Qiqi paused and then sighed. “That’s true, the Outerverse has been cut off from the Innerverse. Many Lockbreakers are still in the Innerverse, and there aren’t too many left in the Outerverse. Hold on-” She paused as she looked at Lu Yin. “Since the Outerverse has been isolated from the Innerverse, what’s the prize? What about True Insight?”
“It’s being held at the Lockbreaker Society’s Outerverse headquarters: Sourcepeak Planet.”
Hai Qiqi was stunned. “There’s really such a coincidence? Right, I recall now—during the Lockbreaker Competition ten years ago, True Insight was stored in the Innerverse, and this time around, it’s the Outerverse’s turn.”
She quickly understood the details, and she looked back at Lu Yin. “Your luck is pretty good for you to even encounter a situation like this.”
“Have you watched the Lockbreaker Competition before?”
“Yep, a live broadcast. It’s very impressive.”
“Did the Sea King ever mention anything about True Insight to you?” Lu Yin asked.
Hai Qiqi nodded. “Yes, that thing’s an absolute supreme treasure. Any Lockbreaker who has a few random pages will have their power spike by several levels. The more pages that they get a hold of, the more terrifying they’ll become. Rumor has it that if anyone completely comprehends all thirty six pages of True Insight, then not even a powerhouse with a power level of 1,000,000 will be their opponent. That person will also infinitely approach the power of a Progenitor. However, that’s just a rumor, and Father doesn’t believe it.”
Lu Yin’s eyes lit up. “Then there’s three pages of the True Insight over there.”
Hai Qiqi looked at Lu Yin. “Your luck’s good. Go and get some money ready.”
“For what?”
“To buy it, of course! Every year, the champion of the Lockbreaker competition sells off the three pages that they win. You don’t actually think that you’ll become the champion, right?”
“I plan on competing for it, but why do the champions have to sell it? That thing’s a priceless treasure.”
Hai Qiqi sneered, “Do you really think that just anybody can hold on to such a priceless treasure? Boundless Advanced Lockbreakers aren’t allowed to compete in this competition, but True Insight is only useful for Lockbreakers at that level. Do you think that those old monsters won’t move to grab those pages? Let me tell you something—there was a champion from a previous competition who was the disciple of the president of the Innerverse’s Lockbreaker Society. He didn’t sell the pages after winning the competition, and he ended up being murdered. After that, any Lockbreaker who managed to become the champion always sold off the three pages of True Insight or gave them to someone else. But regardless of what they do, not one winner has kept the prize for themselves since. This has become the tradition.
“With your current position in the Outerverse, you have a status that allows you to buy it. Of course, there will also be many others who will try to fight you for it.”
“What if I become the champion?” Lu Yin asked.
Hai Qiqi looked at him with pure condescension. “Don’t think too much about this. Even if the Outerverse is isolated from the Innerverse, there are still many powerful hidden Lockbreakers out here. Any random Perceptive Intermediate Lockbreaker will definitely beat you, so taking first place is practically impossible for you. Even the Lockbreaker Society’s Distinguished Five were defeated when they participated.”
“Who beat them?”
“That season’s champion, of course.”
Lu Yin considered how he could get his hands on True Insight. At the present moment, only Enlighters in the Outerverse were able to stand up to Lu Yin. If hidden powerhouses were not considered, Lu Yin could almost be considered an uncrowned king, but those old monsters definitely would not hold back as long as something appealing enough appeared; even the Hall of Honor might get involved.
“This season’s Lockbreaker Competition might be the worst line-up ever, as the competition was supposed to include Lockbreakers from both the Outerverse and the Innerverse, but since the two have been separated, there will only be a few qualified people participating. It’s just pointless,” Hai Qiqi said, but then she turned back to Lu Yin. “Even still, there’s no way for you to take first place.”
Lu Yin frowned. “I have a lockbreaking tool, and I’m confident in unlocking a Perceptive Intermediate sourcebox.”
“Is that so? Then which step are you at in terms of star energy control?” Hai Qiqi looked at him with disdain.
“Star energy control? Forcefield, I’ve comprehended a forcefield.”
“Hmph! I knew that you’d be clueless. You’re talking about the steps of controlling star energy for combat, which go from dispelling impurities, to forming something substantial, to the realm of infinite change, to changing colors, and then finally to comprehending a domain. But what I’m talking about is the steps for measuring the star energy control that is used in lockbreaking. Lockbreakers have to unlock sourceboxes and resolve the energies within them, so their control of star energy has to be meticulous, and it’s completely different from combat applications.
“The more meticulous one’s control of star energy is, the more things they can do as they please, and the faster they’ll be at lockbreaking. The Lockbreaker Competition is about testing one’s lockbreaking speed.”
“Give me some more details,” Lu Yin asked solemnly.
Hai Qiqi took a moment to recall the specifics before saying, “A domain is extremely useful for lockbreaking, and that’s why many Lockbreakers hope to comprehend one, but many of them fail. Not all Lockbreakers are domain experts, which begs the question: how do those Lockbreakers who haven’t comprehended domains improve themselves? Naturally, it’s through their star energy control, and the Lockbreaker Society has published six realms of control: Intricacy, Cloudwalk, Skywise, Divine Gaze, Worldliness, and Profound Creation.
“The higher one’s realm of control, the stronger one’s control of star energy will be. Legend has it that the Lockbreaker Society President, Geoffrey, has attained Worldliness and that his star energy is capable of forming a world. With his star energy control in that realm, he’s able to resolve the energies of a sourcebox extremely quickly.”
This was Lu Yin’s first time hearing of such a differentiation in star energy control. Did the Lockbreaker Society keep such information internal? All this time, he had not placed much attention on Lockbreakers, but it was possible that he had neglected a lot of things.
“How do you know about all this?” Lu Yin could not contain his curiosity.
Hai Qiqi proudly declared, “Father is a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker.”
“No wonder. Your domain is very powerful, and your control over star energy shouldn’t be too bad either,” Lu Yin probed.
Hai Qiqi was pleased. “Intricacy realm.”
“Just the Intricacy Realm?” Lu Yin’s eyes grew wide.
Hai Qiqi became unhappy at his reaction. “What do you mean, ‘just the Intricacy Realm?’ Do you know how difficult it is to enter the Intricacy Realm? It’s the same as using a lockbreaking tool! Let’s see if you can emulate one without actually using one!”
Lu Yin suddenly had a better understanding, and this allowed him to make a direct observation: if entering the Intricate Realm was the same as having an additional lockbreaking tool, then what about the Cloudwalking Realm? And what about the highest, the Profound Creation Realm? Just the name Profound Creation gave him a feeling of how incredible its power was.
However, this sort of control was not too helpful in combat, or else this classification system would have been circulated everywhere.
“Could you let me experience the degree of control that the Intricacy Realm has?” Lu Yin asked.
Hai Qiqi nodded. “Of course! I’ll let you worship me for a while.”
Lu Yin was rendered speechless, but he still raised a hand and released his star energy. It then materialized and transformed above his palm. It formed rain, then wind, then a snarling creature.
Hai Qiqi pressed a hand against Lu Yin’s palm, and Lu Yin saw the star energy that he had released from his hand be invaded by a foreign thread of star energy before quickly falling apart. The entire process was so smooth that it almost seemed as if the star energy had dissipated naturally. He intently stared at his palm with both eyes, unleashed his domain, and even took out the Giant Emperor’s third eye with his left hand. Only then did he see two strands of star energy encircling one another over his palm. One of the two strands appeared lifelike, and it incessantly dissolved his star energy.
He could forcibly gather more star energy to dispel Hai Qiqi’s star energy, and it would not even be that difficult to do so. Perhaps, this was the reason why the Intricacy Realm’s degree of star energy control did not have a great influence over fighting, as it could be easily countered. However, it was incomparable in terms of aid when lockbreaking. If Lu Yin had such exquisite star energy control, then his lockbreaking speed would definitely undergo a transformation.
“Alright.” Lu Yin lowered his hand and looked at Hai Qiqi. “How can I cultivate my control to that degree?”
“Just use star energy more, such as using it to control minuscule items. Father initially trained me by having me use star energy to control seawater to write an essay, and then I had to ensure that it would not dissipate for ten days. After that, I had to make the words smaller—the tinier the better—and ensure that the writing still won’t dissipate. Gradually, by repeating that, you’ll enter the Intricacy Realm,” Hai Qiqi explained. Upon mentioning the Sea King, her mood grew depressed again.
This sort of cultivation was effective, but it was extremely time consuming. Still, that was the cultivation method that Lu Yin was the least afraid of.
He had Hai Qiqi leave and then ordered Gavin to contact Madam Nalan to purchase some sourceboxes. In addition to that, Lu Yin also went ahead and bought some more from various places in the Outerverse. After that, he went to a secret room in the palace, raised his hand, and brought out his die. It was time to use Timestop again to practice, as this time, he had to cultivate his star energy control.
He screened the Ghost Monkey off, raised his hand, and summoned his die. It had been a long time since he had last rolled it, and as usual, he placed his cosmic ring aside before starting to spin it.
The die slowly stopped, showing three pips: Enhance. The two light screens appeared.
Lu Yin had nothing to do, as this time, he had nothing that he needed to upgrade. He rolled his die again, and this time, it stopped on four pips: Timestop. He snatched up his cosmic ring in an instant as the scenery before his eyes changed. He had entered the Timestop Space.
It would definitely take a lot of time to cultivate his star energy control, so he immediately used more than 400 star essence to increase the time in the space to six months. He would test it out first!
What entered one’s vision could be large or small, and not seeing something would cause one to assume that it didn’t exist. But in reality, there existed countless structures in space that were essentially invisible. Hai Qiqi’s training method was to use star energy to control a substance that grew gradually smaller and smaller as one trained, until it was no longer visible. Then, upon reaching that degree of control, one could be said to have entered the Divine Gaze Realm. Did that mean that, upon attaining that realm, even one’s normal physical vision could see the ambient star energy? Would that not rival a domain?
Lu Yin used his star energy to simulate water that he then used to write words in the air, making sure that the writing was very small. He wrote an essay of several thousand words, after which he continued to control them, making the characters float in the air without dissipating. He wanted to train with Hai Qiqi’s cultivation method. The Sea King was a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker, and his training method would definitely be effective, or at the very least, it would be better than Lu Yin blindly stumbling around on his own.
One day, two days… Five days passed.
Maintaining the writing in the air turned out to be much more difficult than what he had expected. Lu Yin had always felt that his star energy control during battles was sufficient, but he had never tried to manipulate star energy so meticulously for so long before. The star energy incessantly tried to dissipate, only to gradually coalesce once again.
Ten days later, the essay written with star energy finally dissipated.
After maintaining it for ten days, Lu Yin felt more beaten than even after a round of battle. For some reason, he felt that star energy was no longer star energy, and he had become a little numb.
Still, he continued.
This time, he maintained the writing in the air for fifteen days.
…
Day after day passed by, and although it wasn’t overly difficult to raise his star energy control, it proved to be more draining than Lu Yin could have ever imagined. It was like trying to get an uncultured brute to write by with a delicate brush that could be casually crushed. It would take a long time for the brute to learn to control their strength.
It was an arduous process to say the least.
The scenery before Lu Yin’s eyes changed, and he finally reappeared inside the secret room in King Zishan’s palace. After half a year of training in the Timestop Space, his perception of star energy had completely transformed compared to before. His comprehension of star energy had risen to another level, and aside from attaining the Intricacy Realm in terms of star energy control, he had unexpectedly increased the number of stars that he could manifest with the Cosmic Art to fifty.
It seemed that the fastest way of cultivating more stars for the Cosmic Art was to observe the operation of stars while also practicing his star energy control at the same time. Lu Yin remembered that the Trialmaster had once said that the Cosmic Art was the most desired cultivation technique for Lockbreakers. It seemed that the Cosmic Art could not only assist in lockbreaking, but that Lockbreakers could also cultivate the Cosmic Art through improving their star energy control, and the rate of cultivating with that method was quite a bit faster than when simply observing star charts.
