Chapter 1738: Habitual Madness

The branches of the Astral Combat Academy were ranked according to how their students placed during the Astral Combat Academy’s assessments. However, the ranking had remained unchanged for many, many years. The only exception to this was Astral-10, which had insisted on remaining Astral-10 even when it ranked first.

Lu Yin watched each match with great pleasure as he reminisced about his time as an Astral-10 student.

The students he saw were all quite talented. There were no less than four who had cultivated four-lined battle force, which was even more than Lu Yin’s class. There were also many with domains or innate gifts. However, there was a lack of top powerhouses. When Lu Yin had fought in the Astral Combat Tournament, the Thirteen Swords had appeared along with Nightqueen Yanqing and Starsibyl. There were no powerhouses on their level in the tournament that Lu Yin observed.

However, Lu Yin did see a genius from the Mavis family participating in the tournament, and from what he could see, this person was even stronger than Grandini Mavis had been during the tournament that Lu Yin had fought in. This person was readily acknowledged as one of the strongest participants in the competition.

After watching the matches for a long time, Lu Yin lost interest and moved to leave.

"Leaving already? Don't worry, a genius from your Earth is about to fight. Won't you watch them?" Old Cai said.

Lu Yin stopped and turned to look.

At the end of the current match, the next round started, which was the top sixteen. This was the round that would determine the top eight students within the Astral Combat Academy.

The girl standing in front of the other students from Earth on top of the massive screw disappeared and reappeared in the arena. A man showed up in front of her. He was covered with tattoos from the neck down, his eyes were hideous, and his hands were several times larger than those of ordinary people.

It was at this moment that Lu Yin finally saw the girl’s face. He was shocked. Was it really her? The person down in the arena was Zhou Xixi, Zhou Shan's daughter.

Lu Yin had not even considered that Zhou Xixi could be here; was she even old enough to participate? After Earth’s apocalypse, when Lu Yin had left for the Great Yu Empire, the girl had not even been born, but in the blink of an eye, she was already this old. After thinking about it, Lu Yin realized that the girl should be about sixteen years old! Time had really flown by.

Three-lined battle force shrouded the tattooed man’s body, and he charged straight at Zhou Xixi without using any sort of battle technique. She gracefully dodged the attack and seemed completely unfazed by the man’s up-close combat style. He spread the fingers of one hand and launched a palm attack that contained the Overlaying Stacks Path.

Lu Yin’s meteoric rise had also caused the Overlaying Stacks Path to rise in popularity in the universe. Countless people wanted to learn the method, especially after Lu Yin had revealed his Vacuum Palm. There were untold numbers of people who coveted that technique.

The Vacuum Palm was a technique that had both power and speed, and it was even invisible. It truly was one of the best attack techniques.

The man's mastery of the Overlaying Stacks Path was quite good, and when that was combined with his three lined battle force, he would have attracted a lot of attention even if he had participated in Lu Yin’s Astral Combat Tournament.

Still, the man’s efforts were useless against Zhou Xixi.

A smile stretched across Lu Yin's face, as he saw that Zhou Xixi was having a happier time of things than he had. The girl had no worry about having enough resources, as her father was the headmaster of the top cultivation academy on Earth, which was also Lu Yin’s home planet. The planet enjoyed a very special status in the Great Yu Empire, and the amount of resources that Earth had received was surpassed only by Zenyu Academy. Given such tremendous resources, Zhou Xixi was more powerful than her peers, and her cultivation was also at a much higher level than others of her age.

That was even ignoring battle techniques. Lu Yin had provided a tremendous number of battle techniques to Yu Academy, and Zhou Xixi was qualified to learn any of them.

Her foundation was not something that the regular students of the Astral Combat Academy could compare to, and even the descendants of the Wen and Liu families might not have received her level of treatment.

The tattooed man was quickly defeated, and Zhou Xixi easily achieved her victory. She looked around with clenched fists. Defeating this opponent was no accomplishment to her eyes. Instead, her goal was to be the strongest person in the entire Astral Combat Academy. She intended to be recognized as the most powerful student so that she could proudly stand before her Uncle Lu.

Her father's greatest regret was that he had not been able to leave Earth with her Uncle Lu. Since her father had failed, Zhou Xixi intended to replace him. One day, she would be able to help her Uncle Lu and not just be the child of some old friend.

What?

Zhou Xixi's eyes suddenly went wide as she looked at the iron cube off in the distance. Was that her Uncle Lu standing with the academy’s mentors?

Lu Yin and Zhou Xixi locked eyes, and he smiled and nodded to her.

Zhou Xixi was incredibly excited, and she instantly left the arena and headed straight toward the iron cube.

It was clear that she was very excited, and her actions drew many people's attention. After all, she was one of the strongest contenders for winning the entire competition.

"Uncle Lu!" Zhou Xixi shouted in excitement as she leaped onto the iron cube and came face to face with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin smiled at the girl. "I didn't expect you to already be so big."

"Uncle Lu, why are you here? Did you watch Xixi's match?" Zhou Xixi eagerly asked.

Lu Yin snorted. "It was a good fight. Zhou Shan taught you well."

Zhou Xixi felt proud. "Uncle, just watch! Xixi will definitely become the champion! Uncle, you won your tournament, and Xixi will do the same."

"Haha, go for it, but that Mavis girl isn’t weak."

"Yes, Uncle."

…

Many of the students surrounding the arena stared at Lu Yin as he laughed with Zhou Xixi atop the iron cube. All of them were shocked to see him. "It's Arbiter Lu!"

"It really is Arbiter Lu! I didn't expect him to come."

"The leader of the Great Eastern Alliance, the champion of ZENITH actually came to see our Astral Combat Tournament!"

"Senior once studied at Astral-10, and it looks like he’s a bit of a nostalgic person. We have to do our best this time!"

"You were already eliminated, and yet you’re talking about working hard? Only the top eight can have a chance of entering Arbiter Lu’s eyes. I want to join the Great Eastern Alliance and gain glory."

"You’re just looking at the top and seeing stars."

"No way! Remember, Arbiter Lu came from Earth."

…

Lu Yin had intended to leave after Zhou Xixi’s match, but he got caught up talking to her and ended up watching a few more matches.

"Uncle, the finals will take place in just half a month, and Xixi will definitely win! Will you stay to watch, Uncle?" Zhou Xixi asked with high expectations as she stared at Lu Yin with glittering eyes.

Lu Yin replied, "If at all possible, I’ll try to be here."

Actually, he had felt that something was off this entire time, and it finally clicked at this moment: he was being called an uncle!

Lu Yin looked like he was around the same age as Zhou Xixi, so he felt very awkward being referred to as “uncle.”

At this time, Old Cai and the Sandmaster both suddenly disappeared. Lu Yin frowned; something had happened, and something in the real world was most likely causing problems.

Upon realizing this, Lu Yin told Zhou Xixi, "Have a good match. I’m going to head out for now."

He then immediately left the Three Daos Six Realms.

When Lu Yin’s eyes opened, he immediately leaped off the mountain. The Trialmaster was not outside the entrance, and there were some students off in the distance, shouting, "The headmaster went crazy! He lost his mind again!"

"Where?" Lu Yin asked loudly.

"The Rain Observator."

Lu Yin instantly disappeared.

"Hey, he looked really familiar. Who was that?"

"I think that was Arbiter Lu…"

…

Rain was still falling at the Rain Observatory. Off in the distance, there was a person laughing wildly and shouting, "You provoked the war, and you’ll suffer the consequences on your own! Hahahaha, you provoked the war!"

It was the insane headmaster.

After he started shouting, the enormous trees started to collapse one after another, and shockwaves swept over the Rain Observatory and across Astral-10 with enough power to shake the void.

Outside of the academy, multiple layers of the void were torn asunder, and even the nearby planets exploded.

The Starmaster, Old Cai, the Rainmaster, the Sand Master, and the Trialmaster all attacked as one. Lu Yin could not even understand what they were doing, but they somehow surrounded the headmaster and stopped him from moving.

Lu Yin approached the Rainmaster and looked at the bizarre scene.

Astral-10 had always been different from the other branches of the Astral Combat Academy. For one, Old Cai and the other mentors were not true mentors. Rather, they were the headmaster’s caretakers. The academy’s original mentors had all left long ago. This was why the headmaster had to beg the men to teach Lu Yin and the other students of his generation.

Astral-10 was a guide in the unknown, a battleship, and it carried the torch of humanity.

A long time later, the mad headmaster finally recovered, and he instantly disappeared without even looking towards Lu Yin.

Old Cai and others were all exhausted. "I don't know when these days will stop."

The Rainmaster asked, "Do you actually think that they will ever end?"

Old Cai rolled his eyes. "It would be fine if this place was just a cage, but I have to also shoulder the endless responsibilities of teaching all those students now. It’s such a pain."

After hearing their conversation, Lu Yin butted in, "Does the headmaster act like this often?"

The Starmaster, Trialmaster, and Sandmaster all left, and Old Cai answered, "Sometimes."

"It has been hard on all of you mentors," Lu Yin said.

Old Cai suddenly sounded upset, "If you know that your mentors have been working so hard, then you should contribute! If not for your class, Astral-10 would have been shut down long ago, and we wouldn’t have so many responsibilities. Just look at how busy we are—we can’t even watch a match."

Lu Yin let out a wry smile. He was curious about the insane headmaster’s words, but he knew that the mentors would not tell him anything.

He was about to leave, but just as he turned around, Zhou Xixi arrived through the teleportation device. "Uncle Lu."

Lu Yin felt a sudden headache, but he still forced a smile. "Xixi, what's wrong?"

Zhou Xixi had not come by herself, as there was a large crowd of students behind her. All of them stared at Lu Yin in a starstruck manner. This was not Lu Yin’s first time seeing such expressions.

"Uncle, they would like to get your autograph," Zhou Xixi stated clearly.

Lu Yin was speechless. "My autograph?"

As soon as Lu Yin spoke, he was swarmed by the students. Some offered him a piece of clothing, and others their hands for him to sign. The worst was a student who was about to disrobe and have Lu Yin sign her chest.

Before Lu Yin could even respond, Zhou Xixi drove the young woman away in anger. "Bah, shameless!"

Lu Yin felt quite embarrassed, as the woman was quite beautiful.

After finally chasing all of the students away, Zhou Xixi grabbed Lu Yin's arm. "Uncle, are you leaving?"

Lu Yin nodded. He reached up to rub Zhou Xixi's head. "Yes, I'm leaving, but I'll see you next time."

Zhou Xixi was disappointed. "I knew that Uncle Lu would be too busy to stay here for Xixi's competition."

"Don't worry, I’ll be back to see it."

Zhou Xixi obediently nodded. "Then can you accompany Xixi to the Stargazing Deck?"

"Have you not been there yet?" Lu Yin was caught off guard. According to the rules, each student could only visit the Stargazing Deck a single time, as a second visit would only allow a person to witness the same scene again.

Zhou Xixi whispered, "I heard that the Starmasters of the other eight branches of the Astral Combat Academy are absent, so I wanted to try to sneak in again, in case our Starmaster is also gone."

Lu Yin found this amusing. "Sorry to disappoint you, but our Starmaster is here.”

He was about to continue speaking when he finally processed what she had said and became startled. “The other eight branches’ Starmasters are absent?"

Zhou Xixi nodded and blinked. "That's what my classmates told me."

Lu Yin has always been very concerned about the Stargazing Deck. Long ago, he had held the goal of visiting each of the ten Stargazing Decks so that he could comprehend the Skybeast Claw, but besides Astral-10’s, he had only ever managed to visit Astral-9’s Stargazing Deck. He had never made it to any of the other branches of the Astral Combat Academy.

He had actually forgotten about that particular goal, but Zhou Xixi had just reminded him of it.