Chapter 1261: No Restrictions
Lu Yin’s finger flick had just been a casual attack, but that only served to make people even more nervous.
The Sixth Mainland cultivators all fell silent and stopped provoking those from the Fifth Mainland. As for the participants from the Innerverse who belonged to powers antagonistic to the Great Eastern Alliance, they also went silent out of shock.
Although the Sixth Mainland cultivators stopped attacking, Lu Yin had no plans of letting them off. His next target was Bai Ling.
It would be interesting if he could eliminate a Realmling with a flick of a finger.
He raised a hand once again.
At this moment, countless people stared at Lu Yin’s finger while wondering who his next target would be.
Everyone on the eastern face of Zenith Mountain was terrified, and some of them even stopped moving as they stared at Lu Yin.
Bai Ling felt a chill, and her eyes shot up to look at Lu Yin. When she saw his cold gaze, goosebumps crawled down her back; she knew that she was his next target. Bai Ling’s eyes narrowed, and countless strange lines appeared across the entire eastern side of the mountain. All the other battles fell silent as she fully utilized her innate gift.
Lu Yin’s brows rose high. This girl really was a Realmling as well as an Enlighter; she was so powerful that her innate gift could affect the entire eastern face of the mountain. If Lu Yin insisted on attacking Bai Ling, then he would end up implicating everyone on his side of the mountain, including the Fifth Mainland cultivators.
Lu Yin hesitated, but then he lowered his hand. He had his own matters to consider, as the existence of the Great Eastern Alliance had already created a rivalry with some of the major Innerverse powers. If Lu Yin dragged all of the competitors into his battle, then he would definitely be seen as the universal enemy of not just the Innerverse, but also the Cosmic Sea and the Neoverse.
Once one attained a certain status, they would be forced to make some difficult decisions.
Bai Ling felt confused as to why Lu Yin had stopped attacking.
At that same moment, a huge shadow covered her. She turned around to see a strange creature attacking her. It was Ze Lin, who was ranked sixty-seventh on the Top 100 Rankings. He was able to fuse with his tamed beast, an Oolong Horse, and was extraordinarily strong.
Ze Lin’s physical strength could even compare to Lu Yin’s, though that was back when Lu Yin had still been a Limiteer.
Furthermore, Ze Lin had become a Cruiser, so he had also become much stronger. However, he had vastly underestimated his opponent.
Bai Ling’s expression chilled. The strange lines that she had formed wrapped around Ze Lin, and then something new happened.
Ze Lin collapsed and died.
Lu Yin shook his head. Ze Lin had not thought his attack through. What a shame; the Beast Tamers Flowzone had just lost one of their geniuses.
In the Innerverse’s Beast Tamers Flowzone, the master of the Divine Grade Hall, Mountain God roared angrily. Ze Lin had been an elite whom the Divine Grade Hall had groomed. Within the younger generation, he had been second only to the Little Mountain God, who did not actually belong to the current generation.
Ze Lin’s death meant that the Divine Grade Hall had lost a future elite, and the Mountain God was grieving.
However, there were no restrictions during ZENITH, and it was Ze Lin’s own fault for dying while trying to sneak attack Bai Ling.
“Stupid! Stupid! That woman dared to go up against Lu Yin. Why did you think that you would be able to deal with her? Stupid!” the Mountain God bellowed.
Ze Lin was not the first competitor to die during ZENITH, but his death carried a larger impact since the cultivators from Beast Tamers Flowzone were all furious. Additionally, many of the Innerverse cultivators were shocked.
There had already been tens of thousands of deaths on the eastern face of Zenith Mountain in the short time that the competition had officially started, and most of the people had died from getting caught up in the powerhouses’ battles.
The various deaths caused many competitors to stop and wait for the stronger participants to clear the first checkpoint. Otherwise, many of them would simply die from getting caught up in the elites’ battles.
Liu Tianmu and Xin Nü had also both stopped fighting, and despite Little Arrow Saint’s persistent harassment, Yuhua Mavis was still the closest to Lu Yin.
Although Zenith Mountain was very tall, it would take an Enlighter less than half a day to reach the first checkpoint if no one disturbed them.
Lu Yin could almost hear Yuhua Mavis’s breath by now.
Lu Yin was excited to see what Yuhua Mavis would do upon arriving at the mountain pass. Although she had the appearance of a calm demeanor, she was actually just as impulsive as Lulu, and she similarly hated being challenged. It was possible that Yuhua Mavis would challenge Lu Yin to a fight as soon as she reached the checkpoint.
That seemed to be the most likely scenario.
Yuhua Mavis was focused on reaching the mountain pass, and Little Arrow Saint was infuriated that she was constantly ignoring him. He raised his bow as nine lined battle force covered the weapon. At the same time, a ten meter tall image appeared behind him; his imprint came from an absolute powerhouse.
Little Arrow Saint’s actions attracted the attention of countless other competitors, including Lu Yin.
He was no stranger to Little Arrow Saint, as the Realmling had once hunted Lu Yin for a few days, though Lu Yin had never seen Little Arrow Saint use his imprint during that time.
During the Sixth Mainland’s invasion, the Fifth Mainland had been protected by the Rune Progenitor, which had forced everyone to suppress their power level to under 200,000, regardless of whether or not they possessed an imprint. This was why Lu Yin had never seen Little Arrow Saint use his imprint during the invasion. However, when Lu Yin had fought against Little Arrow Saint in the Daosource Sect’s ruins, Little Arrow Saint had used his imprint, which had been a three inch tall elder at the time, the same as Shi Zhongjian’s. However, the Realmling’s imprint had since changed.
His current imprint was that of a ten meter tall man wearing animal skins. The man was muscular and carried a bow.
He was the East Realm’s new Empyrean Imprinter.
When Little Arrow Saint used his imprint, Yuhua Mavis suddenly hesitated before slowly turning around.
Little Arrow Saint sneered at her. When he loosed his arrow that held the combined might of his nine lined battle force and imprint, its power level far exceeded 300,000. This was the strongest attack that Zenith Mountain’s eastern face had seen so far, and it was even more powerful than Liu Tianmu’s Fifth Sword.
Yuhua Mavis frowned. Green grass spread across the ground before turning into an enormous fist that punched at Little Arrow Saint.
The Mavis family possessed the greatest wealth and the greatest physical strength.
The fist collided with the arrow, and the sky exploded. A massive shockwave raced down the mountain, and many competitors cursed at the two powerhouses since they could not dodge in time and were thrown back by the shockwave.
A hole had appeared on Zenith Mountain.
The two attacks had both exceeded a power level of 300,000, which was terrifying.
Little Arrow Saint kept a careful eye on Yuhua Mavis.
She then picked up a small rock from the ground and threw it at Little Arrow Saint.
It was just a normal rock, so it should not have bothered Little Arrow Saint at all. However, a chill suddenly ran down his spine. Although it was just a normal rock, it contained an incredible amount of force.
He narrowly dodged the stone, and it smashed against the mountain, which shattered from the impact.
Shattered pieces of rock went flying in all directions, striking down a few competitors in the air. One of the shards even scratched Little Arrow Saint’s cheek.
Little Arrow Saint looked up at Yuhua Mavis in shock; this woman was incredibly strong!
He watched in a daze as Yuhua Mavis continued to rush up the mountain. Little Arrow Saint no longer wanted to stop her after being startled by her strength.
Lu Yin smirked. Yuhua Mavis was one of the most physically adept people in the entire universe aside from him. In anticipation, Lu Yin clenched his fists as Yuhua Mavis approached, wondering how many attacks she would be able to endure.
Many people were interested in a battle between two of the strongest participants, but most people were even more concerned about the contestants who were actually related to them.
In Southside Weave, within Astral-9, a large group of students nervously watched a screen.
They were watching a battle between three people, of which two were from Astral-9. They were Liu Yin, the previous top student of Astral-9, and Chao Zhi, who had participated in the Astral Combat Tournament.
At this particular moment, they were working together to fight against Kayze, who had been Lu Yin’s doorman for King Zishan’s palace for a long time.
Kayze had also signed up for ZENITH since he had previously been ranked in the top eighty of the Top 100 Rankings. After the Outerverse had been cut off from the Innerverse, Kayze had been captured by Lu Yin and tasked with guarding King Zishan’s palace. Even after the Innerverse had reconnected with the Outerverse, Kayze still had not returned to the Dire Barbarian Clan, as he had watched Lu Yin achieve the impossible.
Aside from those closest to Lu Yin, Kayze was the person with the best understanding of how much Lu Yin had improved. Over the past few years, he had seen Lu Yin countless times, and Kayze’s innate gift was that of hearing, which allowed him to hear the vibrations of a person’s body.
Whenever Lu Yin had returned to King Zishan’s palace, Kayze had always attentively listened to him, hearing new things every time. Over the years, Kayze had gained a new understanding of physical strength, and he had even achieved a breakthrough in his own battle technique, which had allowed him to become much stronger.
He had also become a Cruiser, and he was now comparable to the top fifty of the Top 100 Rankings, which was why he had dared to join ZENITH.
Once registration for ZENITH had opened, Kayze had told Lu Yin about his plans to register and had only signed up after Lu Yin agreed.
Kayze wanted to create a name for himself during ZENITH. He had no delusions of reaching Lu Yin’s level and having everybody be in awe of him, but Kayze at least hoped to be recognized as someone with the power to be in the top half of the Top 100 Rankings.
Liu Yin and Chao Zhi were not weak, and they were both Explorers. If they had been fighting against the old Kayze, then they would have definitely been able to defeat him by working together. However, they were facing the Kayze who had followed Lu Yin for many years, and there was no possible way for them to defeat him.
Liu Yin was the first to fall. His voice could not compare to Bai Ling’s innate gift of sound, and he was not able to damage Kayze much before being defeated by Kayze’s strength.
Chao Zhi had a good grasp of battle force, and she also possessed a strong battle technique: Wind of Seasons, which was able to cause her opponent’s body to decay. However, even though it was a powerful battle technique, it still a strong power to support it.
Compared to Kayze, Chao Zhi was much weaker and she was also summarily defeated.
The people back in Astral-9 felt helpless, but there was no shame in losing to someone in the Top 100 Rankings.
There were countless cultivators throughout the Innerverse and Outerverse, but only a hundred of them were on the rankings. On top of that, Kayze clearly belonged in the top half.
Kayze was exhausted after defeating Chao Zhi and Liu Yin, as they were both quite strong. If they had actually been in the same cultivation realm as Kayze, he might not have been able to beat them.
He looked up at Lu Yin.
Kayze had once been an elite in the Dire Barbarian Clan, but his life had completely changed because of Lu Yin. Even after the Outerverse had reconnected to the Innerverse and Kayze had been summoned back to the Dire Barbarian Clan, he had never returned. He was smart, and he knew that following Lu Yin would be a much better choice than returning to the Dire Barbarian Clan. After all, they would rather focus all of their resources on Avery instead of him.