Chapter 1337: Trading Pointers

The Sandmaster turned to look off into the distance. "Above nine lined battle force is another realm, but I don’t know much about that level. How can I describe it…? That sort of power is restricted."

Lu Yin was puzzled. "Restricted?"

The Sandmaster sighed. "Yes. Although it’s truly difficult to cultivate battle force to nine lines, and there aren’t many people in the universe who have managed to do so, you’re not even the only youth who’s managed to succeed. Unfortunately, the path beyond that level is broken."

"What do you mean ‘broken?’ Battle force is internal cultivation, so how could the path possibly be broken?” Lu Yin kept pressing.

The Sandmaster shook his head. "I don't know. Can you tell me why my Fifth Mainland hasn't raised a Progenitor since the ancient war?"

"Our sky was covered. The Sixth Mainland covered the sky of the Fifth Mainland," Lu Yin answered out of reflex.

The Sandmaster sneered. "What is the ‘sky?’ Where is that so-called ‘sky?’ How was it covered? What does it mean to cover it up? Do you know?"

Lu Yin shook his head. He had actually not thought about this matter at all, but after hearing the Sandmaster’s questions, Lu Yin had some of his own. What was the sky? According to ancient beliefs, the sky was above the earth, and the infinite space that they looked up and seen had been the sky. However, they were currently talking about the universe itself. In that context, what was the sky? Was it just the infinite universe? Still, the Sixth Mainland had covered the Fifth Mainland, but why had they done so? Had that really changed something that disallowed the Fifth Mainland from giving birth to any Progenitors?

Battle force suffered from the same problem. The path of cultivating battle force had been broken, but who had done such a thing? Why did this broken path stop people from being able to improve their battle force? There were no answers, or at least, the Sandmaster had no answers.

However, Lu yin’s path was not broken. He looked down at his palm and was almost unable to resist showing the Sandmaster his golden battle force.

"Alright, don't worry about such matters. Why have you come back? To graduate?" the Sandmaster asked.

Lu Yin replied, "I came by to have a look. I was passing by."

The Sandmaster smiled, as he did not believe Lu Yin at all. The mentor raised a foot and disappeared, moving even faster than Wang Yi.

Lu Yin's pupils shrank. Astral-10's mentors really were not simple at all.

But after thinking about it, Astral-9 had been able to defend themselves from a World Imprinter when the Sixth Mainland had invaded, and Astral-10 had actually managed to kill some of the Sixth Mainland’s powerhouses.

Lu Yin left the Sand Ocean and went to visit the Stargazing Deck next. He greeted the Starmaster from a distance and then moved on to the teleportation stones were kept to meet with the Trialmaster.

"Student Lu Yin greets the Trialmaster," Lu Yin respectfully greeted the man.

The Trialmaster looked at Lu Yin. "What? What did you say?"

Lu Yin pursed his lips. When he had first arrived at the Astral Combat Academy, all of the students had believed that the Trialmaster was borderline deaf, but in truth, the Trialmaster merely pretended to be hard of hearing as he found it quite funny. "This student greets mentor."

The Trialmaster coughed. "Hello."

Lu Yin thanked the older man. "Thank you for the Channeling Diagram sourcebox array that you sent me. It was very helpful to this student."

"What?" The Trialmaster looked puzzled, and he tipped his head to the side to lean his ear closer.

Lu Yin was left speechless, but then he shouted, "Thank you for giving me the Channeling Diagram, Trialmaster."

The Trialmaster put his hand to his ear. "What did you say? You can't use it? I won't teach it to you."

Lu Yin finally understood that the old man did not want to talk to Lu Yin. Still, as a junior, Lu Yin had no choice but to be polite. “Thank you, Trialmaster. This student will take his leave then."

The Trialmaster lowered his hand and waved Lu Yin off. He could not have been any more clear.

Lu Yin rolled his eyes. This was nowhere close to the attitude that the Trialmaster had shown when he had called Lu Yin in the Blaze Realm. At that time, the old man had been kind. Whatever. Lu Yin turned around and left.

As the Trialmaster looked at Lu Yin's back, his turbid eyes brightened a great deal and filled with admiration.

Any teacher who had a student like Lu Yin would feel both proud and depressed.

The main reason why the Trialmaster had given Lu Yin the Channeling Diagram was because Lu Yin had been one of Astral-10’s students. The other reason was because of Xiu Ming's connection. The old man had not wanted to abandon such a talented Lockbreaker.

Still, the Trialmaster had not expected the Channeling Diagram to do Lu Yin any good for the time being. He certainly had not expected to see the child use the Channeling Diagram to divert a physical attack launched by the Astral Beast Domain’s Star Devourer and then a full powered attack from the Technocracy’s Wang Yi.

The Trialmaster had felt somewhat helpless after seeing Lu Yin’s mastery of the Channeling Diagram. There was no need for the Trialmaster to try to teach Lu Yin anything at all. The kid was just too talented.

The Trialmaster did not even want to talk to Lu Yin.

Lu Yin glanced over at the teleportation stones and blinked. If not for the absurd difference in strength, he really would have wanted to go over and have some fun.

After leaving the area with the teleportation stones, Lu Yin went to Astral-10’s treasury and saw Old Cai.

What impressed Lu Yin the most about Old Cai were the old man’s Money Bombs, which had helped Lu Yin a great deal.

The old man was very enthusiastic upon seeing Lu Yin. As soon as Lu Yin arrived, Old Cai shooed the other students away in order to personally greet Lu Yin. “Why, isn’t it Alliance Leader Lu of the Great Eastern Alliance? What wind brought you here? Come, come, come in! Would you like some tea?"

Seeing an expression on Old Cai's face as though he had just seen a fat sheep approach, Lu Yin instantly grew wary. He waved a hand and caused tens of thousands of star essence to appear. He smiled at the old treasurer. "Old Cai, this is a donation from this student to Astral-10."

Old Cai's eyes lit up, and he tucked away the star essence at a speed that Lu Yin had never seen before. Then, Old Cai coughed and put on an act of scolding Lu Yin. “Child, it would have sufficed for you to just visit your alma mater. There’s really no need for presents. Won’t this just put a distance between us?”

Lu Yin smiled and said, "This is how students should act."

Tens of thousands of star essence was quite a large sum, but not in Lu Yin’s eyes. He was at Astral-10 in order to get 900 million star essence, and the academy’s mentors had to be coaxed into helping. Old Cai was clearly the easiest to coerce.

"Tell me, what matter has brought you back at this time? You aren’t stupid enough to graduate, right?" Old Cai spoke without holding anything back.

Lu Yin had nothing to hide from Old Cai. The old man was shrewd, and Lu Yin would not be able to get away with a lie even if he wanted to. "Of course I don't want to graduate. Astral-10 is Lu Yin's home."

Old Cai rolled his eyes. "Do you think that I don’t know what’s in your head, kid? If you never graduate, then Astral-10 will always be behind you."

Lu Yin snickered.

Old Cai laughed. "Don’t go thinking that you’re all that clever—you’ll have to support the Astral Combat Academy in the future, and you won’t be able to shirk away from this."

Lu Yin smiled and said, "That’s my duty."

He had not actually taken Old Cai's words to heart. After all, the old man had not mentioned Astral-10, but rather the entire Astral Combat Academy.

"Tell me, what matter forced you to come back this time, and with such a large gift as well?" Old Cai asked.

Lu Yin's expression grew serious. "This student has encountered some trouble, and I may need the school’s help to take care of things."

Old Cai’s eyes instantly went wide. "The Neohuman Alliance?"

Lu Yin shook his head. "Not this time."

Old Cai let out a sigh of relief. "I’ll be honest. Since you’ve managed to survive this long, kid, you must have some protection from the Hall of Honor. Who is it? One of the seven?"

Lu Yin nodded.

Old Cai felt confused. "Since you have one of the seven Semi-Progenitors protecting you, then why have you run here for help?"

At this moment, Xia Luo suddenly arrived from a ways away. “It’s a matter of this student’s business."

No matter if it was Lu Yin or Xia Luo, it was impossible for them to simply use the Astral Combat Academy. It was their alma mater, not a tool. Certain things needed to be clarified in advance. Otherwise, there would be issues if something happened to the Astral Combat Academy.

Lu Yin glanced over as soon as Xia Luo arrived.

Old Cai's eyes flashed, and he blurted out, "Xia Jiuyou?"

The two nodded.

The old man took a deep breath and stared at the two former students. "Boys, you want to use my Astral Combat Academy to hold back the Xia family’s experts in order to let him absorb Xia Jiuyou, right?"

Lu Yin nodded.

The old man showed his teeth. "Kid, do you realize that, in order to protect the top ten from the Neohuman Alliance, the Human Domain’s most powerful experts have been sent out? Xia Jiuyou is no exception. In addition to the powerhouses from the Xia family, the Hall of Honor also sent their most powerful experts to guard him from the shadows. Such a person is at least able to stall a Semi-Progenitor."

Lu Yin really had not known about this.

Xia Luo smiled and said, "We students already assumed that the top ten would not be allowed to have any accidents since the opportunity that they’re receiving is related to the Progenitor realm."

"And yet you still dare to scheme against Xia Jiuyou?" Old Cai shouted.

Xia Luo shrugged. "Neither the Xia family’s experts nor the hidden guardians from the Hall of Honor are allowed to enter the Astral Combat Academy. Besides, if you don't help with this, this student will be absorbed sooner or later."

Xia Luo’s words were spoken in a casual and laid back tone, but they spoke of sadness and a bleak future.

Old Cai's eyes flickered, and he observed Xia Luo with serious eyes.

Of Lu Yin's class, everyone had eventually left Astral-10 with the exception of Xia Luo. Currently, he was an alternative mentor.

Lu Yin was the pride of all of Astral-10’s mentors, and the pride of the entire Astral Combat Academy, but Xia Luo received the most concern and affection from the mentors out of all the students.

Old Cai was very unwilling to allow Xia Luo to simply disappear.

Xia Luo said, "Old Cai, we students simply wish to make the attempt. If the academy is not able to stop them, then we won’t make any trouble for the academy."

"What are you talking about? It doesn’t matter if you’re one of his clones or not—you’re a student of my Astral-10. There’s no reason for a teacher to just watch his students die." Old Cai was not happy with the situation.

Lu Yin let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Old Cai."

Old Cai frowned. "The Xia family is no ordinary power. They’ve probably sent that old lady, Xia Meng, to protect Xia Jiuyou. If it’s her, we have no way to handle her. It looks like we’ll need to ask the mad headmaster, and I don't know…"

Old Cai started muttering to himself, so Lu Yin and Xia Luo bade their goodbyes and left the treasury.

"I hope that your personality can become the dominant one. If not, this all will have been for nothing," Lu Yin mentioned to Xia Luo.

Xia Luo smiled and said, "Fate is something that is predestined, and there’s nothing that I can do. Still, even if my consciousness is absorbed, I will still have an effect on Xia Jiuyou, which means that he won’t be as hostile towards you in the future."

Lu Yin answered sullenly, "I’m more concerned about my 900 million star essence."

Xia Luo laughed. "It's not easy to love money as much as you."

…

Half a month soon passed. During these two weeks, the Neohuman Alliance did not launch many attacks or assassination attempts. The Hall of Honor had already shown their response, and the Sixth Mainland had suffered heavy losses. However, the Sixth Mainland was extremely arrogant, and there were rumors that the Progenitor of Secret Arts had moved out to search for the Neohuman Alliance and that he had already destroyed tens of thousands of their strongholds. Still, this did not cause much overall damage to the Neohuman Alliance.

Aeternus, the Neohuman Alliance’s headquarters, was located in the Fifth Mainland’s Neoverse, and not even the Progenitor of Secret Arts possessed enough power to shake the Neoverse by himself.

On one particular day, a young man named Xia He arrived at Astral-10 from space. He was registered to study at Astral-10 as part of an exchange program.

Xia He's qualifications had been directly confirmed by the Hall of Honor, and he had even been approved of by Nanyuan, one of the nine overseers. Even if the Astral Combat Academy held a special status, it could not ignore the Hall of Honor.

OMA's Thoughts

Translated By: OMA

Edited By: Neshi/Nyxnox

TLC'ed By: OMA