Chapter 1280: Not Living Up To The Name

Upon seeing that her opponent was Xia Jiuyou, White reacted with a show of disgust on her face. "Ugly."

With that, she raised her hand high and said, "I give up."

These three words were loud and clear, and they were spoken with a bright tone.

No one was surprised, and many were actually relieved, as they had been worried that Xia Jiuyou would hurt White.

On the second layer, Black nodded with a serious expression. "That's right, just as Master taught us: don't be stubborn."

In the Neoverse, on Eversky Island, Highsage Grandmaster felt his teeth ache. The next generation really was not very reliable.

Xia Jiuyou remained calm, and he did not care about White's teasing remarks at all. He simply briefly appeared on the first layer before returning to the second layer, not moving once.

There were no powerhouses in the next match, as it was a battle between the third ranked person on the Top 100 Rankings, Qing Longlong, and the Realmling of the Sixth Mainland’s Brahman Realm.

The power of a secret technique was too much, and the gap between Qing Longlong and the Realmling was also too large.

Cang Mu ended up going against the Cosmic Sect’s Yao Ji, and he was easily defeated. Cang Mu was not even able to withstand a single Cosmic Palm.

Yao Ji was one of the Cosmic Sect’s true disciples. Although he was much weaker than Lu Yin and had been bullied repeatedly by Lu Yin, Yao Ji was more than enough to deal with an opponent at Cang Mu's level. Although Cang Mu was a Cruiser, there was still too much of a gap between him and Yao Ji.

Tu Bo was pitted against Shi Zhongjian, which ended in disaster for him.

Black met Toolwielder, and just like White, she did not even try to fight. She immediately surrendered and disappeared after leaving behind one comment: ugly.

Battles continued to play out under the watchful eyes of the entire universe. Some were fast while others were slow.

Time passed, and soon, an entire day had gone by.

The following day, Lu Yin had grown bored. Two figures appeared on the first layer who perked him up and excited countless viewers.

Lan Si was facing off against Yuhua Mavis.

A battle between one of the Ten Arbiters and one of the Neoverse’s top elites became the focus of both the Fifth and Sixth Mainlands.

During the events in the Mountain and Seas Zone, Lan Si had essentially been a spectator, much like Lu Yin. However, Lan Si certainly was not weak, and he had only lacked the cultivation realm to stand on the same level as the others atop the golden stage.

At the moment, Lan Si had already broken through to the Enlighter realm, and the Arbiter’s cultivation was no longer lagging behind anyone else’s in ZENITH.

Up on the first layer, the two contestants stood across from each other.

Lan Si solemnly stared at Yuhua Mavis. This woman had knocked Lu Yin down from the golden stage in the Mountain and Seas Zone with just seven punches, resulting in one of Lu Yin's few defeats.

Yuhua Mavis also viewed Lan Si as someone with great importance. Previously, she had not cared about the Ten Arbiters, but in the Mountain and Seas Zone, she had seen the power of some of the Ten Arbiters like Unseen Light, Ling Gong, Wen Sansi, and Liu Tianmu. Each and every one of them had revealed impressive levels of strength. On top of that, the Hall of Honor had apparently evaluated Lu Yin, another one of the Ten Arbiters, as even more powerful than Yuhua Mavis. Thus, she no longer looked down upon any of the Arbiters.

"I heard that Lu Yin's Vacuum Palm actually came from you and that you were the first of the Arbiters to face him," Yuhua Mavis said.

Lan Si replied, "He figured it out on his own. I didn't teach him anything."

Yuhua Mavis looked grave. "It’s a very powerful palm technique, but unfortunately, it is useless for me."

After she spoke, grass appeared beneath the soles of her feet and spread out in all directions.

Lan Si did not bother talking any more. Instead, he instantly made a move and fired off an invisible Vacuum Palm.

Yuhua Mavis forcefully received the Vacuum Palm. Even if Lan Si had become an Enlighter, the power of his Vacuum Palm should still be somewhat similar to what Lu Yin had used against her atop the golden stage in the Mountain and Seas Zone. This was an intimidating attack, but not for Yuhua Mavis. Although a Vacuum Palm was both fast and unseen, it could not break through her defense.

The green grass in front of Lan Si seemed to weaken slightly, but his Vacuum Palm was only able to disperse a bit of the grass. It was not enough to push all the way through this defense.

Yuhua Mavis raised a hand and smashed a volley of massive green fists at Lan Si. Each punch carried the same level of power that she had used to knock Lu Yin off of the golden stage.

Lan Si was not Lu Yin. Although Lan Si had an impressive physique and had made great progress in the Overlaying Stacks Path, he was not as strong as Lu Yin. His defenses were also inferior to Lu Yin’s, and the green fist punched Lan Si to the ground, followed by many more. Over a dozen green fists slammed down on the Arbiter.

Yuhua Mavis had not held back. She was facing one of the Ten Arbiters, and it would be disrespectful to not go all out. Besides, she refused to underestimate any of the Ten Arbiters.

Lan Si was defeated. It was a clean victory.

His most powerful attack was his Vacuum Palm, but it was useless against Yuhua Mavis.

Becoming an Enlighter had only slightly increased the power of Lan Si’s Vacuum Palm, and his greatest improvement was that he had gotten rid of the momentary pause before the attack’s release that had originally occurred due to the huge momentum transfer. Still, that change was not enough for his Vacuum Palm to be effective on Yuhua Mavis. She had not underestimated her opponent. Lan Si was more powerful than Lu Yin when he had been in the Mountain and Seas Zone.

Lan Si coughed up blood, feeling bitter. He looked out in the direction of the far off Starfall Sea. He had received the Overlaying Stacks Path and Vacuum Palm from the Stacks Dojo, that place actually had a follow-up technique that built off of Vacuum Palm. If the Starfall Sea had not been blockaded, then he could have returned to the Stacks Dojo and learned that next technique. In that case, his strength would not have been limited to what he currently possessed.

Without the subsequent technique to Vacuum Palm, Lan Si had not been able to qualitatively improve his strength. He had not been able to return to Stacks Dojo, so he was much weaker than the other Arbiters. Even if he had attempted to learn a new technique, mastery would have come too late for ZENITH.

Lan Si had basically entered ZENITH with a strength comparable to what the other Ten Arbiters had possessed in the Mountain and Seas Zone, and his progress was not obvious.

As he had expected, he had been overtaken.

On the second layer, Lu Yin shook his head. Why was Lan Si still using the same Vacuum Palm? His innate gift allowed him to turn off his sense of pain, which was incredibly effective when facing opponents of a similar level. If not for Lu Yin’s die, he would have lost to Lan Si.

However, a lack of pain was worthless when facing an opponent like Yuhua Mavis who could simply crush Lan Si.

Lu Yin was a bit disappointed in Lan Si. The strength that Lan Si had displayed was not worthy of the current Ten Arbiters.

Lu Yin was not alone, as many people were disappointed with Lan Si.

Yuhua Mavis gently asked, "Is that Vacuum Palm your only technique?"

Lan Si had nothing to say, but he also refused to retreat from his path. Since he could no longer return to the Stacks Dojo, he needed to find a way to learn more powerful palm techniques on his own.

No one could help him, so he needed to figure out a way to help himself.

Countless people throughout the universe stared at their screens. This last battle had not allowed them to see Yuhua Mavis’s strength. Rather, it just demonstrated how powerless Lan Si had been before her.

Even in the Innerverse, there were countless people who were disappointed with Lan Si. They felt that ever since this Arbiter had lost to Lu Yin, his performance had not been anything impressive.

He was known as the Divine Fist, but he did not seem to be worthy of such a title.

After Lan Si, Xia Luo was unlucky enough to encounter Bu Kong.

The moment Xia Luo appeared, Xia Jiuyou's entire demeanor changed, and he became extremely focused.

Lu Yin frowned and stared at the first layer.

Xia Luo was not weak, but there was still a massive gap between him and Bu Kong.

Lu Yin had always felt that Xia Luo was somewhat unreadable, but he did not think that Xia Luo’s secrets could be enough to pose a threat to Bu Kong.

Bu Kong looked like he wanted to completely crush his opponent, and he raced towards Xia Luo with his hands raised, ready to unleash an attack. Xia Luo avoided the attack and continued to evade several more times.

However, once things reached the point where Xia Luo was unable to avoid the attack, he actually stopped. "You’re a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker, right? How about we compete in terms of our star energy control?"

Bu Kong was about to continue attacking, but when he heard Xia Luo's words, he smiled and his expression grew arrogant. "You want to compare your control of star energy with mine?"

Xia Luo nodded. "I'm very curious about how you dispelled Lei Nü’s star energy. I won't fight against you, because I definitely can’t beat you in combat. So, are you willing to change this to a contest in star energy control? If you don’t want to, I won’t force things."

Bu Kong sneered. "Fine then, let's see how you compare with me."

As he spoke, he raised his hand. Star energy converged before blasting towards Xia Luo.

This was a pure star energy attack.

Xia Luo's eyes grew solemn as he also raised a hand and gathered a ball of star energy that shot back towards Bu Kong.

Two pure star energy attacks clashed in midair. This was the most primitive way to use star energy, as there were no other energies or techniques affecting it. This was a straightforward comparison in the two people’s control of star energy, and the results could be judged by how far each attack penetrated through the other.

Once one’s star energy control reached the Worldliness realm, not only would one be able to control their own star energy, but they would also be able to see through their enemies’ star energy. Such a person’s vision was different from that of ordinary people.

Bu Kong thought that it would be easy for him to suppress Xia Luo, but he quickly realized that Xia Luo had actually blocked his star energy bombardment—Bu Kong's star energy control was not enough to affect Xia Luo in the slightest.

Xia Luo was not a Boundless Advanced Lockbreaker, but his control of star energy had already entered the Worldliness realm. Contrary to most people's expectations, the two attacks of pure star energy collided and started to infiltrate each other.

Bu Kong frowned and suddenly looked a lot more serious, as he instantly realized that he could not easily suppress his opponent's star energy. As they continued to fight, Bu Kong grew increasingly astonished. When had so many geniuses appeared in the Fifth Mainland? It was nearly impossible to find a youth who had reached the Worldliness realm of star energy control, as anyone who had reached that level and accumulated enough lockbreaking experience would be able to work to comprehend a sourcebox array.

Any Lockbreaker whose star energy control entered the Worldliness realm would be regarded as a future Array Master.

Bu Kong, Lu Yin, and countless others were all amazed.

Xia Jiuyou was the only one who was not surprised. If Xia Luo’s control of star energy had not already reached the Worldliness realm, then it would have been impossible for him to have evaded Xia Jiuyou’s attack before ZENITH.

In the Neoverse, in the Lockbreaker World, Xiu Ming stared at his screen in surprise. "This child is very skilled at controlling star energy and is quite talented."

In the territory of the Seven Courts, on the landmass that housed the Xia family’s headquarters, the Xia patriarch, Xia Yi, narrowed his eyes; the Nine Clones Technique’s flaw had been revealed. Xia Luo was clearly one of the nine clones, but he had resisted Xia Jiuyou’s will, and his masterful control of star energy might even cause the Lockbreaker Society to reach out to help Xia Luo.

Xia Yi had already heard about the Ku family. Xiu Ming had stepped in and forced the Ku family to let Ku Wei go. But Xia Yi would never willingly follow in the footsteps of the Ku family and allow Xia Luo to be taken away by the Lockbreaker Society.

Xia Luo was competing in ZENITH, and he was clearly using the competition as a platform to garner the attention of the Lockbreaker Society!

Xia Yi had guessed correctly. Xia Luo had never considered placing high in the ZENITH as a priority, as he just wanted to reveal his control of star energy in order to gain the support of the Lockbreaker Society. That way, he would have a backer to resist Xia Jiuyou with.

He had learned this from Lu Yin. It was useless to try to keep a low profile. This lesson had caused Xia Luo to realize that Lu Yin was quite smart and that he himself needed to find a power to support and strengthen his own position with. How else had some nobody from the Outerverse managed to survive even after being targeted by the Daynight clan?

Being able to fight against Bu Kong and change the battle into a contest of controlling star energy meant that Xia Luo had already succeeded. He was just about ready to admit defeat, but then, his expression suddenly changed as he stared at the star energy that he had released. Is this?

Across the battlefield, Bu Kong saw the change in Xia Luo's expression, and Bu Kong’s expression grew sharp as a glint of murderous intent flashed through his eyes.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA