Two days later, Yan Gang approached Qingyu to rescue Huo Xiaoling, but Qingyu turned him away with a sneer, “Do you have my item?”
Yan Gang was outraged, “You can settle that with those natives in eight days. Release Xiaoling now!”
“The condition was Huo Xiaoling for my property; why would I release her when you didn’t fulfill your end of the deal? Leave,” Qingyu said arrogantly. Yan Gang was enraged by this, but he knew that he simply wasn’t a match and left when he saw Qingyu’s gaze turning cold. Sitting on the ground, the hostage herself was staring at her captor’s back with a glint in her eyes. If this guy truly was from the Daynight Clan, none of the trainees would be able to beat him. The deal that would occur in eight days was just a fun exercise that he controlled.
Countless students started appearing at Cang Mountain in Tianzhu, mostly from the second batch. A majority had removed their gadgets to avoid revealing their locations as they hid themselves around the area, with even Munoor among them. Other than him, there was another sealed Melder; only true elites dared to appear here at this time.
The ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and Lu Yin spent the entire time watching star charts. His fourth star was growing clearer but had yet to fully form, prompting a sigh. It was growing increasingly difficult to add more stars to the Cosmic Art now; it was capable of simulating an entire solar system, but it was already so difficult to form just the fourth body. Even the maximum of eight was only for the limited technique he’d acquired, but with his rate of progress, he had no idea how long it would take him to complete the technique.
He also knew that he wouldn’t be able to break through to Melder anytime soon, either. Becoming a Melder wasn’t something that could be accomplished through a formcast model alone; everyone’s body was unique, so they all faced unique challenges on their path to this breakthrough. One’s own body would give them a signal when they were ready, and without that signal they would fail even with a formcast model. Even wealthy children like Raas couldn’t simply make it to this realm; while he had no lack of star crystals to speed up his cultivation, the obstacle of his body still persisted.
Everything one learnt, including their battle techniques, affected their Melder breakthrough. Lu Yin looked at his own palm, wondering what effect the Cosmic Art would have as he summoned the die with a twist of his hand. A cube of star crystals was crushed and the energy quickly absorbed, leaving him excited as the die regained its normal glow. Calculating the time, he realized that five uses would leave him exhausted to the point of deep sleep, and the die would become unusable for ten days. This meant he could use it up to four times in a row, with breaks of a few days in between.
Although Lu Yin wanted to use the die immediately with the star crystals he had stored in his cosmic ring, he was out of time and had to head for Tianzhu immediately. He leapt up and left his bedroom, seeing Zhang Dingtian and the others waiting nearby. Zhou Shan and Wu Sheng would stay behind to guard Beijing, while he would be accompanied by Zhang Dingtian, Bai Xue, Jeraldine, Gerlaine, and Balaror on the trip.
Behind Zhang Dingtian were a bunch of weak and starving students who had been tied up. Despite their obvious weakness, many of the students glared at Lu Yin, particularly Raas and Jenny. With their background as the son of the Vice Treasurer and the heir of the Auna Family, they had never suffered through anything like this before. In this crowd of students, someone like Veron would only be an average cultivator.
“Let’s go,” Zhang Dingtian flew up, dragging the 42 students west with a tethered rope like they were useless bottles. These people couldn’t be left in Beijing once the city’s strongest cultivators were gone; Zhou Shan and Wu Sheng wouldn’t be able to handle them if something went wrong.
Lu Yin paused to take in the impressive scene and wondered how the other students would react when they saw this. Jeradine was simply stunned by the sight. Any one of these hostages could kill her in an instant, but here she was watching them herded like cattle. It truly changed her world view. On the other hand, Gerlaine was delighted with the situation and kept provoking Eddy, Raas, and Jenny, infuriating the bound girl to the point she felt like biting someone.
Lu Yin greeted Bai Xue, but she responded very coldly. However, this time he understood her reaction; he’d heard the rumors that spread through the city and considered it normal for her to be angry. He was furious as well. What did they mean he was rejected? Was he that bad?
The survivors of Tianzhu stared up in a daze, watching as Qingyu dragged all of his captive students in with a rope as he headed towards the foot of Cang Mountain. He had transported the students in the exact same manner as Zhang Dingtian, completely humiliating and enraging them all. Huo Xiaoling was flushed red, hating not only Qingyu but Lu Yin as well, ‘Couldn’t they have made some other deal? Why did they have to involve us? The pricks! If I wasn’t in the trial I would break this damn seal and fight Qingyu myself!’
In the spacecraft above Earth, Sigmund and the others were frowning at the screen while Mira grinned widely at the display that soon changed to show the foot of Cang Mountain. This was going to be the site of the final showdown for this trial, and based on what had happened so far, no one was expecting a peaceful transaction. A battle was inevitable. Qingyu had started traveling a day earlier and so arrived at the mountain before Lu Yin, giving the students already there quite the show to watch. Many of them gloated that Huo Xiaoling and the other arrogant elites were being embarrassed in such a manner.
Meanwhile, Yan Gang trembled in rage. Huo Xiaoling was the fiancée of the young lord of the Fireforge Planet; this was an absolute insult to both her and her future husband.
Qingyu tossed the students to the ground and yawned, calmly turning to observe the peak of the mountain. His demeanor seemed nothing at all like an escaped criminal. After half a day passed, Lu Yin arrived with the others from Beijing. The students hiding around the mountain were shocked once more with Lu Yin’s arrival, when they saw that he had captured even more students than Qingyu and that all of them were hanging in the air. It was an impressive scene that stunned even Yan Gang, though his emotions quickly changed to fury. His Fireforge Planet had a good relationship with the Auna Family, who had even hosted him during his travels to the Great Yu Empire. Discovering that Jenny was being treated the exact same way as Xiaoling left him fuming.
The students who had tried to protect Jenny Auna were also quietly seething, knowing that the Aunas would be humiliated if this information spread. Compared to the two women at the center of attention, Raas was relatively unimportant.
Qingyu’s gaze landed on the group of new arrivals and quickly settled on Lu Yin, “You’re the one who negotiated with me.”
“What makes you think that?” Lu Yin asked.
Qingyu smiled, “Instinct.”
Lu Yin gestured with a hand and Zhang Dingtian brought the students forward and threw all 42 of them to the ground, where they landed near the students that Qingyu had brought. The two groups of students looked at each other awkwardly, especially Jenny Auna and Huo Xiaoling. The two’s families weren’t on good terms, but they held a similar status and had known each other since they were young. Never had they expected that they would see each other in a situation like this.
“Here are the 32 students, where’s my item?” Qingyu asked Lu Yin.
Lu Yin took the stone out and tossed it to Qingyu, who caught it and looked at it before turning to him in surprise, “Don’t you want to know how to use this stone?”
“No,” Lu Yin answered. He had no intention of revealing the Daynight Punch to this guy; who knew if the information would get back to the Daynight Clan. He didn’t want to get involved in matters at that level, so it was best to just get rid of this thing quickly.
Qingyu complimented, “You’re smart to not try to trick me with a fake one. If you hadn’t threatened me, I could have given you a bright future.”
His words elicited a stone-cold gaze from Lu Yin, while Zhang Dingtian and the rest moved forward while radiating bloodlust.
“Did you cause Earth’s evolution?” the Bladesage asked.
“Who do you think you are to question me?” Qingyu looked at Zhang Dingtian and sneered, laughing as his gaze fell upon the sword, “It’s an insult for you to hold my blade. Give it back.”
He disappeared and rushed over, but Zhang Dingtian slashed out with full power. The buzzing sword surprised Qingyu. “Realmbreaker? Interesting!” he said as he swung his metal rod at the attack, destroying the energy entirely. The rod seemed to occupy a corner of the sky as it crashed down towards the Bladesage, including Lu Yin, Bai Xue, Gerlaine, and the others within its range.
