“I’m confident that I’ll succeed,” Lu Yin replied. He had Possessed Charon before, who was an incredibly experienced five-star Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker. If Charon was capable of unlocking an intermediate sourcebox, then Lu Yin was sure that he could do the same.
“If you were truly confident, then you wouldn’t have asked to make this lockbreaking attempt in front of me.” The Trialmaster sounded very stern, and he continued exhorting Lu Yin. “All I’ll say is this: when you fight against people, you can create miracles. However, if you fight against the heavens, you’ll definitely die. Countless powerhouses have been born over the years, but there’s no such thing as immortality. All of those experts have ended up being buried in space without exception. Lockbreaking is just a process that rushes you towards death more quickly than the others. You’re still only a one-star Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker, but for some reason, you’re confident that you can unlock this sourcebox even though it’s vastly more difficult than what you can currently handle. Within the Astral Combat Academy, nobody except Dao Bo can open this sourcebox; not even you will be able to succeed.”
“Charon can’t do it either?” Lu Yin asked.
The Trialmaster closed his eyes and ignored Lu Yin.
Lu Yin had a feeling that the Trialmaster was actually angry, and he cautiously put the sourcebox away before bowing to the Trialmaster. “I was too reckless. I’ll look for a sourcebox that’s suitable for a Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker. Please don’t be angry.” With that, he immediately left the area.
The Trialmaster opened his eyes and sighed. “The path of a Lockbreaker is far more treacherous than you’d expect. Even the same person might not be able to successfully unlock the same sourcebox twice. He’s being too egoistic—he thinks that he can unlock a sourcebox that’s too difficult for him when he hasn’t even comprehended how one’s-star energy control affects their domain. Even a harmless sourcebox could result in him losing his mind. Still, at least he’s not irredeemably stupid since he knows enough to come here to unlock a sourcebox. I hope that he won’t go down the wrong path.”
The Trialmaster’s stern scolding had caused Lu Yin to sober up, and he quickly realized that he really had been too arrogant. Lockbreaking wasn’t like battling. Regardless of how high a person’s power level reached, it was useless in a lockbreaking attempt. Charon had barely become a five-star Discerning Elementary lockbreaker, and he was still far from actually becoming an Intermediate Lockbreaker. Meanwhile, Lu Yin hadn’t even comprehended a domain, and he did not have much personal experience with lockbreaking. He had thought too highly of himself and had nearly tried to do something far beyond his abilities. Even if trying to unlock that harmless sourcebox might not be inherently dangerous, the vast, pure world of energy that the sourcebox was condensed from actually had the potential of destroying him.
Lu Yin was thankful that he’d spoken to the Trialmaster before making the attempt. If he had tried to unlock that sourcebox right away without contacting anyone, then he would have been in deep trouble.
However, where could he go to find a suitable sourcebox?
Lu Yin switched his gadget on and entered the Lockbreaker network. There, he discovered that quite a few people had contacted him. Most of the messages came from various organizations and the rest came from his acquaintances, such as Bazeer.
“Hello, and sorry to bother you, Mr. Seven, but may I know when you might be free? Council Member Puyu has invited you to visit San Dios.”
…
“Hi there, Mr. Seven. I have a harmless sourcebox and would like your help in unlocking it.”
…
“Mr. Seven…”
…
There were a dozen unread messages from Bazeer. It seemed that he had set his sights on recruiting Lu Yin, although Lu Yin found it quite strange that Wendy Yushan hadn’t discovered who he was yet.
Madam Nalan and many others had found out his true identity, and Old Cai had done the same. It seemed that nearly everyone knew who he was, which meant that a Lockbreaker’s identity wasn’t truly a secret. Since that was the case, then why hadn’t Wendy Yushan tried to find out? Was it just that she hadn’t told anyone? That didn’t seem very likely.
There was also another possibility. It could be that her foundation wasn’t exactly solid and that her position as a council member of the Outerverse Youth Council wasn’t enough to investigate the Lockbreaker network. She would need a Lockbreaker for that, but it was possible that she had yet to find a Lockbreaker willing to work under her.
If this was the case, then it would be proof that Wendy Yushan’s position was not actually as glamorous as it seemed. It was even possible that she had to answer to someone else on the council.
At the thought of even Wendy Yushan answering to someone else with her level of strength, Lu Yin’s desire to find powerful backers intensified.
In the end, it didn’t actually matter if a Lockbreaker’s status was secret or not. Liu Ji already knew, and a lot of other people could find out if they wanted to. Even if Lu Yin tried to keep his identity a secret, it wouldn’t work. Perhaps the best choice was to make his Lockbreaker status public to dissuade those plotting against him in secret. At the very least, revealing it would cause some of the people plotting against him to give up.
Lu Yin ignored Bazeer’s messages and started searching for a lockbreaking mission that was close to him. It was possible to filter the available missions to those that were closest and most suitable for him. This was something that the Lockbreaker Society had created after investing a large amount of resources. Anyone who signed into the network only needed to provide sourceboxes and rewards before they could issue missions.
Lu Yin browsed the network list for a bit before finding a mission close to him that had been issued by someone called End Of The Road. This person wanted someone to unlock a sourcebox, and the reward was fifty thousand star crystals.
The sourcebox had been verified by Lockbreaker Researchers as a two-star Discerning Elementary sourcebox. It did not have a high grade, but it was somewhat dangerous. Within the Outerverse, a price of fifty thousand star crystals was reasonable; it wasn’t too high, but it also wasn’t too low.
Back when he had helped someone disassemble metal, it had taken him two days to earn around three thousand star crystals. Now, unlocking a two-star Bright Eyed elementary grade sourcebox would earn him fifty thousand star crystals. It made sense that all Lockbreakers were rich.
Lu Yin accepted the mission and then asked the person called End Of The Road to go to Astral-10.
End Of The Road was just the person’s username on the network. The fact that the person had a sourcebox meant that they weren’t just any ordinary person.
“Astral-10? Are you a mentor there, Mr. Seven?” End Of The Road was rather curious.
Lu Yin indifferently replied, “There’s no need for such questions. Come if you want to. Otherwise, forget it.”
End Of The Road quickly answered, “My apologies. I’ll head over right away.”
Based on where the network showed his location to be, the person was within range of Astral-10 and would take at most half a day to reach the academy.
Lu Yin went to the space station and patiently waited there.
There were many people who possessed sourceboxes, and as such, there were naturally many missions. However, there were just far too few Lockbreakers.
On the network, there were only around ten Lockbreakers in the Frostwave Weave who had made their locations public. This was the Frostwave Weave, which included a hundred filaments. The universe’s organization went from a planet to a solar system, galaxy, cluster, supercluster, and then finally filament. Within this huge territory, there were only around ten or so Lockbreakers who had revealed their presence. Even if one included the Lockbreakers unwilling to reveal their locations, there would be at most fifty of them altogether.
There were 630,000 registered Lockbreakers in the Human Domain, which meant that, on average, there were less than fifty of them in any single given weave, which was a very small number. Many planets had Explorers, which proved that there were far fewer Lockbreakers than Explorers in existence. This was also one of the reasons why Wendy Yushan had been so shocked to see a Lockbreaker reveal his location as being on Zenyu star. It had been a long time since there had been a Lockbreaker on Zenyu star.
There were many missions but few Lockbreakers, which led to many of the people issuing missions to increase the rewards. All they wanted was for a Lockbreaker to help them. Thus, Lu Yin did not even have to leave the academy. With just a word from him, there would be people willing to send the sourcebox straight right to him. After all, he was a one-star Discerning Elementary Lockbreaker, which was on a completely different level compared to a Lockbreaker with no achievements.
Roughly half a day passed, but Lu Yin still did not see any sign of End Of The Road, though he did see Hui Daynight. Hui Daynight had also been ordered to go the frontier ahead of time, and he had returned at around the same time that Lu Yin had. It was entirely possible that the Daynight clan had interfered.
When he saw Lu Yin, Hui Daynight appeared calm and no longer tried to immediately challenge Lu Yin as he quietly left the space station.
Lu Yin had a feeling that Hui Daynight had changed; he seemed more mature and his gaze no longer contained that crazed and arrogant glint from before.
Not long after Hui Daynight left, Lu Yin received a message from End Of The Road. Lu Yin sent him his coordinates and guided him to the space station.
As he watched a mid-sized spacecraft dock, Lu Yin suddenly sighed ruefully. His Aurora had disappeared, and it had even been upgraded once! What a pity…
End Of The Road turned out to be a very mild businessman. When he saw Lu Yin, he was-startled, but he did not doubt Lu Yin’s abilities. He greeted him and then had someone bring out the sourcebox.
The sourcebox was kept in a large box made from Qiansi soul crystals. Metals such as this were very durable and difficult to destroy, which made such materials perfect for storing sourceboxes.
“This sourcebox has some offensive abilities, Mr. Seven, and it emanates an energy that can cause hallucinations. Please be careful.” End Of The Road then had someone pass the sourcebox over to Lu Yin since Astral-10 did not allow outsiders to enter.
Lu Yin took it and nodded. “You should be aware of the common lockbreaking rules. I’ll show you the entire process, but you can’t blame me if I fail.”
End Of The Road respectfully answered, “Of course. Nobody would dare claim that they’ll definitely succeed at a lockbreaking attempt. I just hope that you won’t get injured. Everything else is secondary.”
The man’s words made Lu Yin feel pretty good. As a businessman, it was semi-expected that the man would be most concerned about the sourcebox itself, but his words made it sound like he cared more about Lu Yin’s safety. If one failed during a lockbreaking attempt, the sourcebox might be destroyed, but the person who requested the lockbreaking attempt would still have to pay a sizable amount of money. That would be a total loss for him, but that treatment was exactly what Lockbreakers deserved.
Lu Yin carried the sourcebox towards the trial zone entrance. He wanted to unlock the sourcebox in front of the Trialmaster, and in order to prevent any mishaps from happening, he would definitely not waste an opportunity to safely unlock a sourcebox. He just needed to be a bit more thick-skinned.
End Of The Road looked extremely nervous. Every lockbreaking attempt was a gamble, and no matter how strong a sourcebox’s energy fluctuations were, there was always a chance of it being completely empty. This was very normal. Back when he first obtained this sourcebox years ago, he hadn’t been courageous enough to risk asking someone to unlock it. However, as he’d recently run into some cash flow problems, he had been left with no choice but to take a gamble. If he obtained something valuable this time, he would sell it and thus resolve his financial issues. Otherwise, he was done for.
Lu Yin dragged the sourcebox to the trial zone entrance and sat down a short distance away from the Trialmaster. He stared hard at the box made of Qiansi soul crystal. End Of The Road had said that this sourcebox could cause hallucinations, which meant that it was a harmful sourcebox. He had to be extremely careful this time.
With this in mind, he turned his gadget on and started a video chat with End of the Road through the Lockbreaker network. This allowed End Of The Road to watch the entire lockbreaking process, and it was also a rule that had been put in place to prevent any unscrupulous Lockbreakers from stealing the possible item within the sourcebox.
Inside the space station, End Of The Road’s breath was ragged as he intently stared at the screen.
Lu Yin took a deep breath and then opened the box. After a brief moment, a unique aura floated out that caused his vision to go hazy. There was also a very nice scent coming from the box.
The Trialmaster shifted his attention towards Lu Yin.
Lu Yin kept shaking his head vigorously. The illusory energy here wasn’t enough to threaten him. When it came down to it, the sourcebox had been evaluated to only be at the two-star Discerning Elementary level, so its offensive abilities couldn’t possibly be that strong. More importantly, he had to focus on unlocking the sourcebox.
Lu Yin produced the Giant Emperor’s third eye and activated the Cosmic Art. Nine stars swirled around him as his palm held a half-moon crystal that made him appear even more mysterious.
While End Of The Road could not see the nine stars revolving around Lu Yin, he grew very excited when he saw the Giant Emperor’s third eye. He had heard of this item before and knew that it was a lockbreaking tool. The fact that Mr. Seven possessed this tool gave End Of The Road a huge boost of confidence in the chances of this attempt succeeding.
With the help from the Cosmic Art and the Giant Emperor’s third eye, Lu Yin gazed at the sourcebox. The sourcebox that had initially seemed to be just the size of an arm now looked like an incredibly complex world. All kinds of energy intermingled and mixed together inside of it, and there was a gas-like substance constantly being dispelled from within. If he was not wrong, then this was coming from the item within the sourcebox.
