Unseen Light also rushed through the checkpoint, his eyes closed. As he went past Lu Yin, he said, “Your domain is very strong. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Lu Yin’s expression remained the same. His domain was indeed very strong, and the Trialmaster had also given him the designs for a sourcebox array to help Lu Yin control the mountain pass. However, Lu Yin had no need for a sourcebox array, as his domain and spiritual force were more than enough to protect the checkpoint.
After seeing Bai Ling and Unseen Light clear the pass, Liu Tianmu and Xin Nü also stopped fighting. Liu Tianmu rushed through the checkpoint without a word. Xin Nü was right behind the other woman, but as she brushed past Lu Yin, she said, “Congratulations, you’ve improved a lot.”
Lu Yin nodded. “Thanks.”
He was thankful for Xin Nü helping him multiple times in the past.
Xin Nü smiled and continued making her way upwards. There still was another checkpoint up above them, and Shang Qing was guarding it. Shang Qing was recognized as the strongest participant in ZENITH, and he was treated as the pinnacle of all the youths.
A huge shadow covered the area as Cursewind appeared, making his way through the checkpoint.
Feng Liu appeared at the same time as Cursewind, both of them powerhouses on the Astral Beast Domain’s Skymender List.
Lu Yin looked up and frowned. “You’re way too big. It wouldn’t make sense for me to not attack you.”
Upon hearing Lu Yin’s words, Cursewind’s eyes flared. He then shrank into the form of a young man who looked at Lu Yin with wary eyes.
Lu Yin was astonished; Cursewind was actually scared of him.
When ZENITH had first begun, Cursewind had not cared at all about Lu Yin, and he had even wanted to attack the human and throw the gatekeeper off the mountain. However, the blue lion had since lost his courage to attempt such a thing.
Although Cursewind had not been the target of Little Arrow Saint’s attack, he had still been threatened by it. Cursewind knew that it would have been very difficult for him to withstand such an attack, as he had participated in the war efforts against the Sixth Mainland when they had invaded the Astral Beast Domain. He was well aware that cultivators from the Sixth Mainland naturally suppressed those from the Fifth Mainland.
Little Arrow Saint had released an extremely powerful attack, and Cursewind had no confidence of withstanding such power. Despite that, Lu Yin had still defeated Little Arrow Saint with a single attack. Thus, Cursewind had promptly decided that he would not fight with Lu Yin at all. He felt that Lu Yin was much stronger than him.
Feng Liu had not expected Cursewind to admit defeat so easily, and he looked at his companion in shock.
Cursewind remained calm, as though everything about the situation was a normal occurrence.
Lu Yin no longer felt like attacking the astral beast, as he was being too respectful.
Cursewind sighed in relief when Lu Yin looked away, and he quickly cleared the checkpoint.
Feng Liu glanced at Lu Yin and tried to rush through the checkpoint when Lu Yin suddenly appeared in front of her.
Feng Liu immediately transformed back into a Celestial Ice Phoenix and froze everything around her. She was ready to attack, as she believed that Lu Yin would attack her.
Cursewind turned back and changed back into an enormous blue lion. If Lu Yin attacked Feng Liu, Cursewind would definitely join forces and help her.
Countless people attentively watched Lu Yin, since he was one of the most active gatekeepers in ZENITH.
An elderly beast atop the skeleton from the Astral Beast Domain roared and kept a careful watch of the events playing out on a screen. “This boy isn’t targeting those from the Sixth Mainland, but he is attacking our Astral Beast Domain! Traitor, traitor!”
“Does this child support the Sixth Mainland?”
Back in the mountain pass, Lu Yin felt amused by the chaos that he had stirred up. He looked up at the Celestial Ice Phoenix. “I’m not going to attack you, but it’s tiring looking up given how enormous you are.”
Feng Liu slowly blinked and changed back into the shape of a human. She warily watched Lu Yin, and at the same time, Cursewind changed back into the form of a person as well, the two flanking Lu Yin.
Lu Yin cocked his head and shouted at Cursewind, “I’m giving you one chance to leave. Otherwise, you won’t have a chance to participate any longer.”
Cursewind was outraged. He admitted that Lu Yin was powerful and was able to eliminate him, but he could not stand being humiliated in such a manner.
“Cusewind, focus on the bigger picture,” Feng Liu urged.
Cursewind gritted his teeth, furious.
Lu Yin locked eyes with Cursewind. “Do you want to fight?”
Cursewind grunted and looked over at Feng Liu. “Take care.”
He then continued making his way upwards.
Lu Yin turned and looked back at Feng Liu. “I want to know more about Progenitor Wushang.”
Feng Liu was confused. “Progenitor Wushang? That’s a Progenitor from the Astral Beast Domain.”
“That’s right. The Celestial Ice Phoenix clan is connected to Progenitor Wushang,” Lu Yin said.
Feng Liu asked, “Connected? I don’t know anything about that, so how would you know such a thing?”
Lu Yin carefully observed Feng Liu. “You don’t know anything about it?”
Feng Liu shook her head. “Progenitor Wushang was an ancient powerhouse who everybody in the Astral Beast Domain knows about. The other clans have a number of legends regarding him, but not our Celestial Ice Phoenix clan. We are completely unrelated to Progenitor Wushang.”
Lu Yin was certain that the girl was not lying since he had been observing her with his domain.
The Ghost Monkey had once told Lu Yin that the entire Celestial Ice Phoenix clan was his harem and that they had been chosen by Progenitor Wushang. The monkey had mentioned this to him during the Tournament of the Strongest, and Lu Yin did not believe that the monkey would lie to him. Since Progenitor Wushang had chosen the clan, then it meant that the Celestial Ice Phoenix clan was definitely connected to Progenitor Wushang since they had listened to his instructions.
Since Feng Liu had said that her clan had no connection to the Progenitor, then it must mean that she was ignorant of the matter.
“Have you heard about the Ghost Monkey?” Lu Yin asked.
Surprise momentarily flashed through Feng Liu’s eyes. “No.”
Lu Yin smiled. No? How was that possible? Lu Yin had once Possessed Star Devourer’s protector and gone through that guard’s memory. Lu Yin was aware that all of the competitors from the Astral Beast Domain had been ordered by the Celestial Beast Empire’s Skymender to seize the Ghost Monkey from Lu Yin and that the command had been personally issued by Skymender himself.
Lu Yin closely observed Feng Liu’s eyes and saw a hint of panic, which confirmed that the memories that he had obtained had been accurate.
Feng Liu was definitely unaware of the Ghost Monkey’s capabilities, and the same had to be true of Cursewind, Star Devourer, and the other competitors from the Astral Beast Domain. There was even a chance that not even Crown Prince Yao Xuan was aware of the matter, but Lu Yin was certain that Skymender knew.
Lu Yin did not expose Feng Liu’s lie, as he had simply wanted to confirm the information that he had received from those memories.
“You can go now,” Lu Yin said.
Feng Liu rushed by and continued climbing up the mountain.
She felt confused; why had Lu Yin talked about the Ghost Monkey? Wasn’t the monkey Lu Yin’s tamed beast? So why would Lu Yin ask her such a question? Was there something wrong with the monkey? Or had Lu Yin discovered something?
Feng Liu remembered what Skymender had said; he had ordered the Astral Beast Domain’s contestants to seize the Ghost Monkey from Lu Yin, and she was wondering what that monkey was capable of. Did Lu Yin know about that order? But that was impossible as Skymender had only given the order to a few astral beasts.
Feng Liu left the pass with complicated emotions.
After Feng Liu and Cursewind left, a cloud of smoke approached Lu Yin. It was Gu Xiao’er, and he was finally showing himself.
“Brother, I’m here.” Gu Xiao’er was ecstatic. He had known that he would definitely be able to clear the first checkpoint after discovering that he had been assigned to Zenith Mountain’s eastern face. The gatekeeper on this side was Gu Xiao’er’s brother who had gone through life and death with him.
Lu Yin looked at Gu Xiao’er. “Can you give me some of that smoke?”
Gu Xiao’er glared at Lu Yin. “This is a treasure from Smoke-Eater Peaks! I managed to get the first part of the Cosmic Sect’s Cosmic Art with this smoke.”
Lu Yin nodded. He had just asked for the fun of it.
“I still don’t know who stole that thing from me. I only kept it in my cosmic ring, and it just suddenly disappeared one day, but not even my dad believes me. It’s so irritating,” Gu Xiao’er muttered as he walked past.
Lu Yin’s mouth twitched, and he turned to give Gu Xiao’er a sympathetic glance. The memory chip with the Cosmic Art on it that Lu Yin had Pilfered all those years ago had actually belonged to this unfortunate boy.
Suddenly, Gu Xiao’er paused and turned back to look at Lu Yin.
Lu Yin grew nervous.
“Do you think that the Cosmic Sect fooled us? Could those memory chips with the first layer of Cosmic Art disappear automatically after some time?” Gu Xiao’er asked, completely serious.
Lu Yin solemnly answered, “That’s possible.”
Gu Xiao’er grew furious. “Then it must be them! Those bastards! Bastards!”
Gu Xiao’er ran off while scolding the Cosmic Sect.
Lu Yin was relieved as he thought to himself, Xiao’er, Seventh Bro owes you for this. I’ll repay you one day.
Lu Yin looked up at a screen above him. A few people had already cleared his checkpoint, and some others had succeeded at the other three passes as well. On the southern face of the mountain, the competitors had stopped attacking Star Devourer after the beast had proven to possess an impenetrable defense, and he had simply climbed up despite so many people attacking him. Every step that the beast took covered a huge distance, and he was the first to reach the checkpoint.
Star Devourer was not the first to reach the pass because of how much faster he was, but rather because everyone had been stunned by how Lu Yin had defeated Little Arrow Saint, making them wary of the other gatekeepers. No one wanted to become the second Little Arrow Saint.
Star Devourer was unconcerned and continued rushing towards the mountain pass. It looked as though the beast was going to crush Bu Kong, the southern gatekeeper.
Bu Kong calmly watched as Star Devourer rushed closer.
Star Devourer suddenly opened his second and third eyes when he arrived at the checkpoint. He raised a paw and smashed it down towards Bu Kong. Although the beast did not look down on Bu Kong, as a unique creature, Star Devourer possessed an innate sense of pride and disdain toward humans. Thus, he felt that humans were a lower species, treating them like ants.
To Star Devourer, there were no humans that could threaten it.
It was already impressive that the massive beast had opened three eyes to deal with Bu Kong, and it had only done so because Lu Yin’s attack had increased Star Devourer’s respect for all the gatekeepers. Otherwise, he would have merely opened a single eye against Bu Kong.
Many people switched their attention from Lu Yin to Bu Kong, as the Star Devourer’s reputation warranted their attention. This creature devoured planets to increase his strength, and these such terrifying rumors made him one of the most mysterious competitors in ZENITH. Although he had not been predicted to be one of the top ten finalists, that was only because the people at that level had all either demonstrated extraordinary power or came from peerless backgrounds. Still, most people felt that Star Devourer would make it to the top ten.
Bu Kong slowly raised a hand when faced with the legendary Star Devourer. “Time Reversal.”
When Star Devourer’s claw struck Bu Kong, his massive body suddenly began to shrink, and his aura disappeared. The barbaric pressure that had been suffocating the entire southern side of the mountain disappeared.
Everyone felt as though a storm had changed into a sunny day.
The most obvious change, aside from the beast’s smaller body, was that Star Devourer’s six eyes had been reduced to merely two, as he had been reverted to a much younger age.
