One day, Gu Xiao’er arrived at the east of Zenith Mountain. He was feeling quite smug at the moment, as he was in the Innerverse. Thus, as a powerhouse from the Neoverse, he naturally felt very superior.
After just walking a few steps, he spotted a fortune teller wearing a grey robe with a star chart drawn on the back in ink. He was also carrying a flag with two words on one side: “Staribyl’s Grandfather.” The other side had six words: “Fortune Teller—believe it or not.” This was precisely Xuan Jiu, and he had just made it just in time.
Gu Xiao’er stared at Xuan Jiu in surprise, especially after reading what was written on the flag. He walked towards Xuan Jiu and asked, “Are you really Starsibyl’s grandfather?”
Xuan Jiu looked over at Gu Xiao’er. “Let me see… Young man, you’re not from the Outerverse.”
Gu Xiao’er was shocked. “You can see that?”
Xuan Jiu smirked and began to act all mysterious. “Of course.”
Gu Xiao’er was stunned. “What else can you see?”
Xuan Jiu snorted. “My fortune telling is a rare skill! Do you think that I’ll just do it whenever you want?”
Gu Xiao’er was about to answer, but then someone started shouting from up above. “Xuan Jiu, stop embarrassing us and follow me.”
It was Starsibyl. She had tracked Xuan Jiu down to this place.
Xuan Jiu cursed under his breath before replying, saying, “Granddaughter, this young man is here to ask for your hand, so let me take a look at him for you.”
Starsibyl arched a brow before a sudden and massive surge of star energy crashed down towards both Xuan Jiu and Gu Xiao’er.
Gu Xiao’er felt a terrible chill. “Hey! What are you doing? I’m innocent!”
“You’re all the same,” Starsibyl retorted coldly as she continued attacking.
Xuan Jiu immediately made his escape, but Starsibyl chased after him.
Gu Xiao’er had already been dragged into this mess for no reason. Although he had not been injured, he still felt wronged since Starsibyl had shoved him underground with star energy.
After finally climbing out from the hole, Gu Xiao’er heard a mocking voice. “Girl, look at this! This two-legged beast is insane—he actually likes being buried in the ground.”
Gu Xiao’er was outraged. When he turned around, he saw a girl walking towards him, but there seemed to be something on her head… Was that a fish? She had a fish on her head?
Gu Xiao’er felt like he was most likely hallucinating after being hit by Starsibyl.
It was Xi Qi. She also intended to compete in ZENITH, and when she saw Gu Xiao’er staring at her in shock, she gently asked, “Hey, are you ok?”
The fish flapped its fins. “Stupid! Why are you talking to him? He’s clearly crazy. Such a two-legged beast can’t even qualify to be my ride. Let’s go. Lord Fish will give you special training to ensure that you win ZENITH.”
Xi Qi reluctantly replied, “You already said that you would teach me about sourcebox arrays, but you still haven’t taught me any of that.”
“Stupid! I know countless sourcebox arrays that you can’t even imagine. Even if I teach you just a few, you’ll still be way better than that Xiu Ming.”
“Shh! Don’t say that! What if Master Xiu hears you?”
“What are you scared of? I want him to be my ride.”
…
As they walked away, Gu Xiao’er listened in on their conversation in a daze and rubbed his eyes. He had only just arrived in the Innerverse, but he had already gotten beat up and heard a fish say that he wanted to find a ride. Gu Xiao’er felt like his life was going downhill.
Some distance away, atop the Astral Beast Domain’s skeleton, Tian Hou appeared and stared out at the distant Zenith Mountain. It had been ten years since he had last been in the Human Domain, so he wondered if he would meet that person here again. Lu Yin’s image appeared in Tian Hou’s mind, and although there were many talented youths participating in ZENITH, Tian Hou still felt the most threatened by Lu Yin.
Apparently, Lu Yin had been selected as one of the five gatekeepers. That proved that Lu Yin was someone on the same level as Crown Prince Yao Xuan. There was a huge gap between them, but Tian Hou was a unique lifeform. Thus, even powerhouses that were much stronger than him were not guaranteed to emerge victorious over him.
However, within the Astral Beast Domain, there were many other unique lifeforms as well.
ZENITH had brought all of the younger powerhouses from both the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands to one place, and from among them, the champion would soon emerge.
More and more experts arrived at Zenith Mountain.
One day later, Lu Yin’s spacecraft arrived at Zenith Mountain.
As the ship’s occupants looked out at the distant towering Zenith Mountain, they were all shocked.
Lu Yin had been to the Honor Zone before, but he was still blown away by Zenith Mountain. This had nothing to do with the size of the mountain, but rather because Zenith Mountain represented the peak of his generation.
His eyes were invariably drawn towards the highest peak of Zenith Mountain. He would only be considered peerless if he could stand at that point alone.
Lu Yin altered his appearance and left on his own without waiting for Ku Wei or the others to tag along. He did not want people following him everywhere he went.
There were many planets surrounding Zenith Mountain, and Lu Yin sipped some alcohol as he listened to the gossip around him on one of the planets.
Many projected lists and leaderboards had been created, and aside from predicting the top ten, he also heard about something called a genius leaderboard, an appearance leaderboard, and many more.
His name kept appearing on the various leaderboards, as he was simply too famous. The people of the Neoverse did not know anything about the various powerhouses from the Innerverse or Outerverse, and the same was true in the reverse direction. And yet, everyone knew of Lu Yin.
Lu Yin felt that it was not ideal to be so famous.
He heard a bang as a fight broke out nearby.
This particular fight was between disciples of the Sword Sect and the Cosmic Sect after the two groups had upset each other. The Sword Sect was fearless of even the Neoverse’s major forces while the Cosmic Sect disciples instinctively felt superior to the Innerverse, especially since Qiu Shi outranked Liu Tianmu in the most popular prediction list for the top ten. This made the Cosmic Sect disciples even more arrogant than normal, and thus, a battle had erupted between the two sides.
The restaurant was soon destroyed by both sects’ disciples.
Lu Yin did not interfere at all, as he could simply move to another location if this restaurant was destroyed.
He had only walked a few steps when two silhouettes flashed past him. He smiled, as the two were Black and White, and the two brats were laughing as they ran along.
Qian Zou hurriedly chased after Black and White. Lu Yin had not expected him to be the one who had become Black and White’s prey, and Qian Zou looked extremely reluctant.
“Please, let’s return his items to him! He’s not someone who we can offend! He’s predicted to be one of the top ten,” Qian Zou wailed as he chased after Black and White.
“Haha, stupid! We’ll get beat up if we give it back. This is fun, so let’s just keep running since he’s chasing us.” White laughed.
Black looked more serious. “Stop laughing, White. We are going to get beat up soon.”
White smiled slyly. “Oh, right. I don’t want to get beaten up, so let’s run faster.”
They then did just that.
Qian Zou was helpless. This had nothing to do with him, but he had been implicated in the end even though he was not the thief.
Wu Dan was right behind the trio, and he furiously shouted, “You crazy girls! Give it back to me!”
The two brats had stolen his pills together with another bastard a few days before. They were healing pills that he had received from Master Xiu, and he had especially saved them for ZENITH, making him absolutely furious.
Lu Yin was speechless. Black and White were always getting into trouble, regardless of if they were in the Mountain and Seas Zone or at ZENITH. This time, they had even dragged someone else into their mess.
Lu Yin did not interfere and simply allowed Wu Dan to continue chasing after the three. Nothing would happen to them anyway. The fact that the twins were present meant that someone else from Eversky Island would also be nearby. Between Highsage Shenwei and Highsage Wudi, either one was perfectly capable of protecting the two girls.
The older powerhouses generally stayed away from Zenith Mountain in an attempt to create a fair environment.
Lu Yin wandered around Zenith Mountain on his own, and he saw many things take place, some of which were even related to him.
The powerhouses from the Innerverse kept causing trouble for anyone who was from the Great Eastern Alliance, as the Great Eastern Alliance presented a threat to the Innerverse.
Some of Lu Yin’s close friends also got into trouble. For example, he saw Ku Wei challenging Ku Lei and then getting chased around. Lu Yin also saw Starsibyl chasing after Xuan Jiu, but he did not interfere in either of these incidents.
ZENITH was approaching, so everyone was trying to reserve their strength. Thus, none of them attacked with their full strength.
Additionally, when Lu Yin looked up at outer space, he could see some truly enormous clusters of rune lines around the mountain. These rune lines belonged to Envoys who were present to ensure that ZENITH would proceed smoothly.
ZENITH was different from the competition for the Cosmic Five. ZENITH was a true competition, and nobody knew just how many peak powerhouses had been sent by the Hall of Honor. Lu Yin had even seen Yuan Shi’s rune lines over on the western side of the mountain. This meant that, unless the Neohuman Alliance wanted to start a war against both mainlands, they absolutely would not create any problems during ZENITH.
The most important detail was that Zenith Mountain was quite close to the Starfall Sea, which was where the three Progenitors were. Nobody knew just how powerful the Progenitors were, but that was enough reason for even the Seven Skygods to be unwilling to show up.
A few days later, Lu Yin saw another familiar face from someone who was similarly wandering around aimlessly: Mr. Bai.
The two of them stood at opposite sides of a waterfall on some planet.
Mr. Bai was still as calm and unruffled as always, looking as if nothing could affect him. “Deafmute Bro—no, Brother Lu, it’s been a long time.”
Lu Yin smiled. “Mr. Bai—no Brother Wu, it certainly has.”
“People say that a person can change a great deal in just three days. Brother Lu, you have certainly changed a lot,” Mr. Bai replied.
Lu Yin shrugged. “I’ve interacted with you before, but even when I stand this close to you, I still can’t see you clearly.”
Mr. Bai laughed. He stepped atop the waterfall, and Lu Yin also began walking towards the other youth. Finally, they ended up a meter away from the center of the waterfall, and an unseen force clashed between them. Although there was no impressive explosion, the waterfall tore apart, quickly followed by the ground, the mountains, rivers, and even a few cities.
Nobody on the planet understood just what was happening, and even the Enlighters on the planet were confused since they were unable to locate the source of energy that was splitting the planet apart.
Fortunately, the clash between the two only lasted for a short moment. The waterfall merged back together, though with a slight split due to how the ground had changed. The water flowed towards the ground, but it was quickly vaporized into steam.
Mr. Bai laughed. “Brother Lu, it’s boring to walk around all alone. Would you care to join me?”
Lu Yin nodded. “Let’s go, Brother Wu. It really is boring to be alone.”
“After you.”
Although the collision between the two had just been a test, it had allowed them to gain some understanding of the other’s strength.
Lu Yin did not know what Wu Taibai’s thoughts were, but Lu Yin was extremely wary of the Daosource Three Skies. This carefree person had actually given Lu Yin a feeling of being threatened. With Lu Yin’s current strength, it was rare for him to feel threatened by anything. Even when he had been in Progenitor Chen’s Mausoleum, neither Xia Jiuyou nor Corpse Beast had made Lu Yin feel threatened despite their incredible strength.
