Chapter 302: A Woman’s Trap

“Um, if you get matched with Feng Jiu, do you think that you could show her some mercy?” the monkey asked hesitantly.

Lu Yin was surprised by the request. “Why? Is she your friend?”

“Ahem. The only thing left for us to do is confess,” the Ghost Monkey whispered.

This shocking statement made Lu Yin’s eyes widen like saucers. “You? A ghost monkey and an ice phoenix? How would that even work?”

“Why not?” the monkey fiercely rebutted.

Lu Yin was rendered speechless. Fine, I guess I have nothing to say about that. “So Feng Jiu likes you?”

“Of course!” The Ghost Monkey was very confident in himself.

“Tell me about the last one of the five academy lords.” Lu Yin said. He wasn’t going to argue with the monkey over this matter.

“The last one is called Tian Hou. He’s the only one of the four that I don’t know much about. I once snuck onto his area, but I was quickly found out. There’s only one thing that I know, which is that he’s Skymender’s disciple,” the monkey earnestly answered.

Lu Yin’s eyebrows jumped up. “Skymender? As in the imperial tutor from the Celestial Beast Empire? Are you talking about that mysterious beast that’s comparable to Starsibyl?”

“Yes. Within the Astral Beast Domain, Skymender holds a supreme position—even the emperor of the Celestial Beast Empire addresses him as teacher. No one knows what species he is, only that he possesses unfathomable strength. Tian Hou is his disciple, so you can basically think of him as the Astral Beast Domain’s Starsibyl,” the monkey simply said.

Lu Yin frowned. These four astral beasts sounded pretty troublesome; not a single one of the Spiritual Academy’s four lords would be easy to deal with. There was also the Technocracy. Lu Yin had no idea what to expect from this domain since they had the best technology that originated from ancient times. Modified beings—just these two words alone already sounded intimidating.

Finally, there was also the Cosmic Sea. That was a place with more unknown powers than even the Innerverse. His family had also warned him that the Cosmic Sea might even send out a few ultra powerhouses who had been publicly acknowledged as Ten Arbiters candidates. They would probably be at least as strong as Liu Shaoqiu.

“Your real opponents this time should be Starsibyl and Tian Hou. The rest don’t seem like much to me,” the monkey commented.

Lu Yin shook his head. Han Chong would not be an easy opponent, and the same went for Grandini Mavis. The Mavis family definitely had innate gifts beyond their brute force. Every stage of this tournament would be a huge challenge for Lu Yin, and he had no room for complacency.

Five-lined battle force was no longer enough to guarantee victory. He had very recently comprehended a domain, so he wasn’t very familiar with it yet. The tournament would be held in a trial zone, so he would not be able to use the Giant Emperor’s third eye, which also meant that Lu Yin would not be able to use the Secret Sidestep or his Cosmic Art. His abilities would be seriously restricted, which did not bode well for him.

By the looks of it, this upcoming competition would be quite similar to the Astral Combat Tournament; Lu Yin would only be able to use his stacking technique on the Shockwave Palm, but Thirteen Stacks wouldn’t be enough to defeat these people.

Lu Yin looked up at the starry skies. It was about time he went to the Rain Observatory and tried to leave his name on the list. That would allow him to win some guidance from the Rainmaster, so it was definitely worth a try.

The Tournament of the Strongest was going to be broadcast differently from the Astral Combat Tournament. It wouldn’t be broadcast to the entire Human Domain; rather, one could only watch if they possessed a certain amount of power.

Thanks to Lu Yin, the Great Yu Empire was among those eligible to view the tournament. Five of the empire’s ministers made the arrangements for Earth so that the Earthlings would be able to watch the tournament.

Back in Astral-7, Yue Xianzi had been feeling unwell ever since she had returned to the academy. She had essentially been pranked by Lu Yin during the Outerverse trials on the Shenwu Continent, but the conversation that they had had in the space station had caused a lot of people to become annoyed with her, and she didn’t even have a chance to explain herself.

“We’re back, Young Mistress!” A pair of beautiful twins appeared and respectfully called out to Yue Xianzi. They were Can Xue and Can Mei, the twins who had sealed Blackwater Lake back when Yue Xianzi had taken control of the training zone.

Yue Xianzi opened her eyes. “What do you need?”

“We just got word that the Astral Beast Domain’s participants in the Tournament of the Strongest will enter through our academy’s trial zone mountain,” Can Xue said.

Yue Xianzi was surprised. “Our academy’s?”

“Yes. Our academy is the closest one to the Erudite Flowzone, so they’ll enter the trial zones through our trial zone mountain,” Can Mei replied.

Yue Xianzi nodded. “Got it. Don’t cause any trouble.”

“Apparently a lot of people want to challenge the participants coming from the Astral Beast Domain before the tournament starts. They believe that the four lords of the Spiritual Academy hold empty titles and that their academy is merely a shadow of an imitation of our Astral Combat Academy.”

Yu Xianzi disdainfully answered, “The Spiritual Academy was created by the Celestial Beast Empire, so how could those four have empty titles? The power of those lords is definitely comparable to us ten student leaders. Ignore those people. If they want to die, then let them.”

This manner of thinking was very similar to how the Astral Beast Domain thought nothing of humans—many humans likewise thought nothing of the Astral Beast Domain. In fact, many of Astral-7’s students were eager to fight against these four contestants, hoping to beat up the lords of the Spiritual Academy.

A personal spacecraft gently touched down in Astral-10’s space station. Lu Yin had returned, and the first person who he saw was Xia Luo.

“It’s been a while. You’ve grown stronger yet again.” Xia Luo sighed in admiration after looking Lu Yin up and down.

This time, Lu Yin could sense a very obvious and unique aura emanating from Xia Luo. It was a domain, which was something he hadn’t sensed before. “Why are you here?”

“I’m headed out to complete a mission,” Xia Luo spoke gently.

Lu Yin nodded and did not say more. Time was of the essence. “I’m heading in.”

“Wait!” Xia Luo shouted. As he stared at Lu Yin, he slowly said, “Silver’s gone missing.”

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. “What are you talking about?”

Xia Luo explained, “He suddenly left the academy. He didn’t take any missions or tell the mentors—he simply left. I haven’t been able to contact him either.”

Lu Yin narrowed his eyes and tapped his gadget, only to find that all information on Silver was now unavailable. He had really disappeared. “When did this happen?”

“It was while you were participating in the Outerverse trials. To be more precise, it was after the Great Yu Empire’s emperor, Undying Yushan, died,” Xia Luo gravely answered.

Lu Yin looked baffled. That didn’t sound right; he had contacted Silver after leaving the Shenwu Continent. If what Xia Luo said was true, then Silver must have left Astral-10 right after Undying Yushan’s death, blocked off all contact with the people from Astral-10, but not blocked off Lu Yin’s calls. But now, Silver had also blocked Lu Yin’s calls.

Lu Yin wasn’t completely stunned. Silver was originally from the Neohuman Alliance, and the death of Undying Yushan must have allowed the Neohuman Alliance to confirm that the Yushan family wasn’t related to the “Yu” of the Seven Courts. Naturally, after that, they had paid Lu Yin no further mind, so it made sense that Silver had left. “Got it. Let's just leave things be for now. He’s always been the mysterious type.”

Xia Luo smiled, nodded, and then flew away in his personal spacecraft.

Lu Yin stepped into the teleportation device, wanting to head straight to the Rain Observatory. But then, all of a sudden, he paused and turned to observe the spacecraft that Xia Luo was in. He fell deep into thought.

He had missed something. Nobody should have noticed that Silver had left Astral-10 that quickly, but Xia Luo had even known that Silver had left right after Undying Yushan’s death. How had he found out? There was only one possibility: he had been observing Silver this entire time. As Lu Yin recalled Xia Luo’s attitude towards Silver, Lu Yin found the entire matter rather strange. Xia Luo must have known something. But if Xia Luo knew about Silver, then why hadn’t he reported the matter? It had always been very apparent that he had disliked Silver.

Also, Lu Yin had managed to improve very quickly from his time during the trials on Earth to the Astral Combat Tournament. It had all been thanks to his luck as well as his innate gift. As for Silver, he had managed to do so with help from the Neohuman Alliance. But what about Xia Luo? He was definitely not weaker than either of them, and was actually somehow even more powerful than Silver. Where had he come from? Who was backing him?

If Xia Luo had the guts to keep his eye on someone from the Neohuman Alliance, then the organization behind Xia Luo must be rather powerful as well. Xia Luo also looked quite similar to Xia Ye from Astral-5, and they were most likely from the same organization. What organization was it? Why had he been in the Great Yu Empire? Had he been investigating the Court of Seven Names as well?

Lu Yin stood next to the teleportation device, seemingly lost in thought. The more he thought about this, the more suspicious Xia Luo seemed. What exactly did he represent?

“Xia” was a primeval surname. The first time he had seen Xia Luo outside of Beijing, he had felt that there was more to Xia Luo than met the eye. Even now, Lu Yin had no idea as to what the youth’s true identity was.

While Lu Yin was deep in thought, someone else arrived in the teleportation device a few centimeters away. Lu Yin stared at the person in a complete daze.

It was Michelle. She had accepted a mission and was about to leave, but had run into Lu Yin by chance. The two were so close to each other that they could feel each other’s breath.

Michelle immediately took a step backwards and glared at Lu Yin. “Why are you blocking the way?”

Lu Yin took a few steps backward as well and awkwardly responded, “Sorry, I was just about to go in.”

Michelle glared at him, snorted, and then passed by. She suddenly paused after taking a few steps and turned around to glower at him once again.

Lu Yin was confused. “What’s wrong?”

Michelle narrowed her eyes and coldly asked, “Do you really think my sister’s prettier than me?”

Lu Yin froze, blinked, and then gulped. “Uh, that’s obviously false. You’re obviously much prettier than Mira! I just said that to appease her. She can’t be compared with you, you know.”

Michelle eyed him seriously. “Relly?”

Lu Yin quickly nodded. “Really.”

Michelle grinned and lifted her gadget. “I’ve recorded your answer and sent it to my sister. Good luck!” With a flick of her long hair, she departed, leaving a slight fragrance in her wake.

Lu Yin was rendered speechless. What was this? Were they just harassing him?

“You’re so dumb, dude. It’s a woman’s trap. A trap, you hear me?” the monkey screeched.

Lu Yin scowled at the beast. “Shut up.” After that, he headed to the Rain Observatory with a slightly depressed feeling.

Lu Yin could no longer remember how many times he had visited this training ground in the academy. But every trip here was like a brand new experience. This was the place where he had morphed from a child from the fringes of the universe who knew nothing to one of the top four fighters in the Astral Combat Tournament. He had broken through here twice, becoming both a Melder and a Limiteer here. This place held a special meaning to him.

There was an endless soft drizzle of rain here. A thick layer of deep green moss covered the slippery, rocky platform.

When Lu Yin stepped out of the teleportation device, the first person he saw was Little Pao, who immediately flew over.

“You’re back, Lu Yin!” Little Pao greeted.

Lu Yin nodded. “You’ve gotten stronger!”

Little Pao burst into laughter and landed in front of him. “It’s all thanks to you stealing the Heavenly Drum. We’ve all benefited from it, but you haven’t actually gotten anything out of it yet.”