The Time Stop Space’s scenery was changed after Lu Yin used some star crystals. Though it was just a facade, it was still pleasing to his eyes.
One month quickly passed by within this space, and during this time, Lu Yin did a complete audit of his various battle techniques. His five-lined battle force could not be improved any further at this point in time, and currently, his Cosmic Palm and Nine Stacks, Seventeenfold Shockwave Palm were his two strongest attacks. Each one had their own distinct advantages, as one was outstandingly ferocious while the other was incomparably mighty. As for Flash, as long as his body could withstand the recoil, he could even tear through the void. The 96th form of the Skybeast Claw technique was already his weakest attack, but he did not want to abandon it quite yet, as he felt that the Skybeast Claw was not as weak as it seemed to be. After all, it was a battle technique that Undying Yushan had brought out from the Fallen Star Ocean in the Innerverse.
Of his various battle techniques, he had focused the most on the Invisible Aura Technique. From the Astral Combat Academy student leaders to various space-exploring powerhouses, none of them had been able to see his cultivation base. The technique that received the next most attention was the Cosmic Art.
The Cosmic Art was irreplaceable when facing a strong enemy. It was not only the nemesis of extreme speed, but it could also slowly learn and predict the opponent’s attack movements. For example, the Cosmic Art had completely countered Silver during their battle.
Regarding the Cosmic Art, Lu Yin longed to obtain the next portion of the technique. However, according to the Trialmaster, the Cosmic Sect was an absolutely terrifying monster of an organization, and since he had stolen this technique, there was no way he could reveal it publicly. This caused him to have a massive headache.
As for the Arcane Art – Fatal Revival, it only needed to be successfully triggered once, and now, it would take effect whenever he faced death.
Lu Yin would rather not have this technique as it suppressed his body’s recovery potential, which made it very dangerous to use. However, now that he had already learned it, he did not know how to unlearn it.
During this month, Lu Yin did not feel any sensation of breaking into the Limiteer realm. He felt helpless by his lack of cultivation progress and thus could only extend his time by another month. He was in a race against time, as he had fallen into the sights of the Daynight clan. In order to deal with Lu Yin, Nightqueen Yanqing would do her best to prevent him from entering the Council of Astral Academy while he needed to become a Limiteer before she took action.
Time ticked away, second by second, until Lu Yin had spent two whole months in the Time Stop space. After training under increased gravity, his physical strength had increased again, and his body could now easily withstand a Nine Stacks, Eighteenfold Shockwave Palm, or even possibly a Nineteenfold. However, he was still nowhere close to breaking through.
Lu Yin was starting to grow slightly anxious, as some people took years or even decades to break through from the Melder realm to the Limiteer realm. With all the time that Lu Yin had spent in the Time Stop space, he had been a Melder for over a year, and he thought that that amount of time was more than enough given his qualifications.
As a result, he was in a fidgety state of mind and could not calmly cultivate. Lu Yin pondered over what he could do and then began to recite the Stonewall Scriptures. ‘To be good at communicating, the Dao of Heaven refuses. To jump and lie in the heavens, the Dao of Heaven accepts. To jump and lie in the horizon, to condense gas, to swallow rivers…’ He passed out soon after starting.
Reciting the complete Stonewall Scriptures just once would cause Lu Yin to faint multiple times, but it also calmed his state of mind down. This scripture had an unimaginable power.
Lu Yin extended his time in the space by another month.
He had more than enough star crystals to spend, and he had set his heart on breaking through to the Limiteer realm in the Time Stop space; he would not leave until he broke through.
He opened his eyes and sighed. He had already spent three months in the Time Stop space, and although his power had grown in this time, it was not by much. Only his physical strength had shown significant improvement, but he still wasn’t any closer to breaking through into the Limiteer realm.
Do I really need to spend multiple years cultivating before I’ll break through? Lu Yin helplessly thought to himself.
Suddenly, he thought of the Ghost Monkey; that guy was a Limiteer. Also, since it was a tamed beast and thus a part of Lu Yin, it should be able to exist in this Time Stop space.
Lu Yin stopped blocking the monkey’s senses and looked at the cute, intricately detailed monkey tattoo. He unenthusiastically asked, “Still alive?”
“I’m not dead,” the Ghost Monkey replied in a foul mood. The flow of time for the beast was not relative to the outside world, but was rather the same time that Lu Yin experienced. Of course, Lu Yin’s bone age and body characteristics would not change while he was using Time Stop, but he would still experience the passage of time. This was evident with the Ghost Monkey, as Lu Yin had cultivated for three months, which meant that the short monkey had been isolated for three whole months, causing him to be in a bad mood.
“Let me ask you something,” Lu Yin started.
The Ghost Monkey snorted, which sounded like he was mocking Lu Yin.
Lu Yin glanced at the tattoo. “If you don’t answer, I’ll continue to screen off your senses.”
The Ghost Monkey hurriedly changed his stance and replied, “Sure, sure, go ahead and ask.”
“How do you breakthrough to the Limiteer realm?” Lu Yin asked expectantly.
“Breaking through to the Limiteer realm? Oh, that’s right, you’re still a Melder. How revolting, I actually lost to a Melder realm junior…”
“I ask, and you answer,” Lu Yin impatiently interrupted.
The Ghost Monkey sighed. “I suppose that one has to be humble when they’re trapped in an inferior situation.
“Whatever, breaking through is easy. As long as you feel like you’re breaking through, it’ll be done. You should know.”
“How do I find that feeling?”
The Ghost Monkey paused, “Do you feel like you’re near the peak of the Melder realm and full of star energy?”
Lu Yin nodded.
“Actually, your body’s not filled with star energy as the potential of the body is endless. Even now, your body is still automatically absorbing star energy, precisely because it’s not full yet. Let me tell you something else—even an Explorer won’t be able to fill their bodies to the brim with star energy, let alone a Melder.”
“Then what should I do?”
“It’s simple. Forcefully fill your body with it. The word ‘Limiteer’ means reaching the limit. The instant your body is filled with enough star energy, take that opportunity to break through. That’s the simplest method. However, the star energy and speed of absorption required to do so are both very great, as it requires at least five times the average rate. Otherwise, you can also take your time and slowly absorb star energy. Eventually, you’ll have a feeling of fullness and you can break through at that time,” the Ghost Monkey unhurriedly explained.
Lu Yin’s eyes brightened. Five times? His rate of absorbing star energy was nine times the average! “You’re not lying?”
“Nonsense! You and I are one body now. What good would lying to you do me?” The Ghost Monkey was impatient with Lu Yin.
Lu Yin thought that his answer was quite logical. “Alright, I’ll give it a try.” He then paused before asking, “Is there anything else that I should be aware of?”
“No, you’ve sensed it when you broke through to the Sentinel and Melder realms, so the Limiteer realm shouldn’t be too hard for you. Actually, breaking through to become an Explorer is the hardest bottleneck.”
Lu Yin’s lips curled up before he cut off the star energy to his right arm without any hesitation. He would not let the Ghost Monkey see anything, though he could imagine the monkey’s current mood; he was probably cursing to the high heavens right now.
There were about five cubes of star essence still left in Lu Yin’s cosmic ring since he had spent nearly 200,000 cubes of star energy crystals over the course of these past three months. Without the profits he had obtained from robbing the pirates and receiving the Mavis Bank’s generosity, he had no idea how long it would have taken him to acquire so many star crystals.
Lu Yin thought about it some more and then took out a piece of star essence before shattering it. He wanted to use five star essence for his breakthrough to the Limiteer realm.
The five cubes of star essence were not equivalent to 500,000 star crystals, and they were actually less in terms of raw star energy quantity, but they made up for it in terms of purity. Even if they weren’t equal to quite that many star crystals, it definitely would not be any less than 400,000, which was roughly the same amount that he had used to break through to the Melder realm.
Lu Yin grimaced when he realized that he had spent nearly one million cubes of star energy to cultivate from the Melder realm to the Limiteer realm. It was a shocking amount as, typically, the most exorbitant use of star energy was to cultivate battle techniques. A normal Melder would reach the peak of their realm after consuming merely 100,000 cubes of star energy, and they might even break through to the Limiteer realm. Lu Yin’s overall star energy consumption was approximately ten times that of an average Melder.
Surging star energy flooded the grey-white space and almost condensed into a tangible liquid state. This was a feature of the Astral River, which was composed of pure energy. This time, Lu Yin had used five cubes of star essence to create a similar phenomenon. Although the quantity was not much, it still had nearly condensed into a liquid state.
Lu Yin inhaled deeply and activated his Cosmic Art. Nine stars twinkled as he began to frantically absorb star energy. As he did so, his originally saturated body seemed to break through its limits as the nine stars brightened and the perfect galaxy that they formed began revolving. The star energy was absorbed by the galaxy in a vortex before quickly vanishing as Lu Yin’s body started to emit a faint radiance.
Suddenly, a strange sensation floated up from deep within him, which was the feeling of breaking through. Lu Yin suddenly opened his eyes; he was about to break through, but he could not do that here. He had not forgotten about the abnormal circumstances that he had encountered when he had broken through to the Melder realm. He had clearly felt the sensation of a breakthrough at that time, but he had still ended up failing somehow. If the Rainmaster hadn’t intervened at that time, he would have failed. This sort of matter did not occur very often if at all, but there must be some reason behind it. He did not know the exact reason, so he did not dare to be hasty with this breakthrough.
Lu Yin suppressed the impulse to use his formcast model to break through right then and there and instead continued to use the galaxy formed by his Cosmic Art’s nine stars to rapidly absorb the star energy. Although the effect right now was not very great, his body would go through vast changes as he ascended to the Limiteer realm. It would become more suited to outer space, and its capacity for star energy would increase again, although it was difficult for him to absorb anymore at this present time.
Lu Yin was also afraid that this sensation of breaking through would disappear, so he sighed and waved, causing the scenery of the Time Stop space that had been brought about by star energy to extend further into the distance. He was trying to use up all of the star energy in hopes that he could exit the Time Stop Space quicker.
As the final seconds trickled away, the scenery before Lu Yin’s eyes changed, and he reappeared in Astral-10. In reality, only a second had passed. Lu Yin did not hesitate and immediately charged towards the Rain Observatory. Compared to Old Cai, Lu Yin felt that the Rainmaster was slightly more reliable.
The scenery of the Rain Observatory never changed, and the constant pitter-patter of rain hitting the limestone platform was there, the droplets splashing and disintegrating like a miniscule world shattering into nothingness.
At the moment, the Rain Observatory was not empty as Schutz was there. His results during the Astral Combat Tournament had been lousy, and he was not qualified to serve at the warfront.
After experiencing the Astral Combat Tournament, Schutz had clearly realized his own shortcomings. Regardless of whether it was his control of star energy or his physical strength, he could not hold a candle to Lu Yin and the rest of the students in any aspect. He had only increased his battle experience and physique under the tutelage of the Sandmaster, and although he had improved greatly compared to before, it was too slow compared to the others. He had therefore decided to start training again from the most basic fundamentals: the control of star energy.
Lu Yin’s arrival sparked Schutz’s attention, and the almost unsuppressable, surging star energy caused him to tremble. That pressure—is he a Limiteer?
Lu Yin found a random limestone platform and sat down, cross-legged before retrieving his formcast model by cutting open his finger. He was very excited; it was time to break through and become a Limiteer!
As the formcast model integrated into his body, intense pain wracked his entire being. Lu Yin growled roughly as he could feel his star energy channels combusting as his cells were rebuilt. This was the feeling, the feeling of breaking through.
Suddenly, an expansive darkness appeared before him. Strangely enough, he saw the dark expanse of outer space and in it, an incomparably large battleship. Within the battleship, a figure looked out into the distance as his magnificent strength caused the void to shudder. The scene then changed, and that same magnificent strength pressed down upon Lu Yin like a mountain, almost crushing him to death.
