Chapter 440: Various Upgrades

At this time, Lu Yin looked at all the items stored in his cosmic ring, feeling a bit stressed out. There were too many items available, and his cosmic ring could not store them all. It seemed like it was finally time to break through and become a peak Limiteer.

As he thought of that, he turned around to see an extremely stylish villa. It was the most expensive residence in this region of the mountain. Since he had not rested the day before when sweeping up the various items that had caught his eye, he decided to enjoy himself for the last day before the selection process began.

On the other side of the villa, a party walked over, and their leader was one of Lu Yin’s old acquaintances: Hart Phoenix.

As a member of the Phoenix family, he was blessed in the aesthetics department, and he could be considered to be quite handsome since he easily won over the escorting maid.

He should have been in the upper regions of the Sea King’s Dome, but those areas were not as lively as the lower levels. Hart could not stand the boredom there, so he had come to the middle part of the mountain. He was currently looking for a place to rest since it was getting late, and in this area, this was the only dwelling that, in his opinion, could barely match up to his status.

Hart Phoenix had just entered the villa when he was taken aback; he instantly recognized Lu Yin.

𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

At that moment, Hart Phoenix’s face turned ugly, as he hated this person. In the past, the supreme Sentinel mission that had been posted by the Astral Combat Academy had been stolen by Lu Yin, and Hart had also fought against him after discovering that Lu Yin had taken advantage of Xi Yue. After he had been defeated, Hart had gone to his family’s most dangerous training ground. Even though he had successfully returned, his power had only been elevated to the standard of an Area Master, but Lu Yin had already surpassed the strength of a Realm Master by that time.

Hart could not get this person out of his mind; he desperately wanted to defeat Lu Yin, but he also knew that such a thing was not possible.

This dichotomy had intensified after watching the Tournament of the Strongest. Hart clearly knew that he would never be able to defeat Lu Yin, and even his elder brother had said as much. Hart had recently been maintaining a low profile and kept his arrogance in check at the academy. He had decided to head to the Starfall Sea to participate in this selection for the Sea King’s son-in-law, but who would have thought that he would run into this person here.

As he watched Lu Yin enter the manor, Hart’s face shifted, and he immediately decided to leave. He truly did not want to interact with this person, as Lu Yin could make himself appear cordial on the surface, but he would definitely not allow anyone to take advantage of him, and he could even be a bit two-faced at times. Hart felt that nothing good would come of interacting with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin did not even know that he had scared away Hart Phoenix, as he was still admiring the villa’s extravagant decor.

The villa occupied a large section of land, and behind it lay the mountainside. The grounds were filled with all kinds of beautiful plants, and a soft fog floated out from within the villa. At the perimeter of the grounds, there were people employed to regularly crush star crystals so that the star energy concentration within the villa would be much higher than the surrounding area’s.

Just this detail alone showed that the price he had paid was high, and Lu Yin had never witnessed this method of luxury before. He believed that it had to be quite pricey to stay here even for just one night, but that was not his business since the Sea King could afford it.

He chose the best courtyard in the entire villa, and it had a pavilion that was modeled in the style of an ancient era, and it held an interesting charm. There were even Explorers standing guard outside the courtyard with several high-tech machines inside. The style and decor perfectly weaved antiquity and modern technology together in a manner that was very pleasing to the eye.

“So this is how rich people live!” Lu Yin remarked with a sigh.

“Seventh Bro, you’re also very wealthy now. If you sell what you obtained yesterday, you’ll be able to multiply your wealth several times over,” the monkey commented.

Lu Yin’s lips perked up, as he liked what the monkey had said. He originally had 800 star essence on him, but the value of items that he had bought the previous day should exceed 5,000 star essence, which was an enormous number. This amount was unbeatable, as even robbing the Blackbeard Pirates’ tributes for a second time would not match this amount.

“Don’t be so happy. Monkey, have you translated those words from the centipede's body yet?”

The monkey grudgingly replied, “Nope, it’s too hard.”

Lu Yin’s expression sank. “You haven’t translated anymore even after such a long time. I see that you must be slacking, so you should be appropriately punished.” And with that, he screened his right arm off.

At that moment, the Ghost Monkey’s heart was on the verge of collapsing.

After he screened the monkey off, Lu Yin instructed the Explorers outside to not let anybody disturb him. He raised a hand, and his die appeared. It was time to roll again.

It had been some time since he had last rolled the die, and Lu Yin did not intend to be careless today, so he placed his cosmic ring to the side before he started rolling. He was hoping to roll four pips instead of six this time. After all, he could not afford to squander his money even if he was rich since it would all vanish in an instant if he rolled a six.

He tapped on the die, and watched it slowly spin before it finally stopped on... three pips.

He was excited; his luck was just too good today. His first roll was three pips: Enhance, and it was a very good roll. 800 star essence was more than enough for him to spend it lavishly.

The two screens of light appeared before him, and Lu Yin casually threw the piece of white fruit on top. He calculated based on his previous experience, remembering that it had taken him about thirty five star essence to upgrade the strengthening fruit to the extent of showing signs of life. This piece of fruit should require about the same amount.

He generously threw thirty star essence into the screen, and the white fruit became visibly more substantial. It continued to morph as its radiance became more gentle. A fragrance unexpectedly appeared, and suddenly, and the grass beneath Lu Yin’s feet started to grow wildly while the fish in the stream that flowed through the courtyard gathered to stare at the white fruit.

Lu Yin was taken aback, and immediately sealed his surroundings with star energy before looking at the screen again.

When all thirty star essence were completely depleted, the white fruit appeared to be just a ball of liquid, and Lu Yin could even see the pulsating flow of life inside of it. All he wanted to do right now was take a bite.

This was what the Trialmaster had referenced, where the fruit contained the vitality of life. This white fruit was definitely extremely valuable now, and by conventional measurements, it was equivalent to one that had lived for over 10,000 years.

Lu Yin hesitated as he considered whether or not he should continue upgrading the fruit, but in the end, he finally decided to continue and tossed out another ten star essence.

This was untrodden territory, as he had already surpassed the degree that he had upgraded the strengthening fruit to, but he could tell that this white fruit had not reached its limit yet since it had not developed any instincts of fleeing from danger like the strengthening fruit had.

Only after awakening that instinct could the fruit be considered top-notch. In fact, Lu Yin wouldn’t even consider that top-notch. He had a feeling that a fruit would only truly become top-notch after it actually came alive.

After the light screens consumed sixty star essence, the white fruit suddenly unleashed a soft light that distorted the void as its fragrance became even richer. Lu Yin took a deep breath, and he felt completely refreshed, as if he had taken a stimulant. There was a strange ringing sound in his ears, but he could not identify what it was. Could it be the rhythm of life?

He had a sort of feeling that this fruit was about to try to evade danger.

Sixty star essence had been used so far, which meant that the next upgrade would take at least forty more star essence to complete. All in all, it would cost at least a hundred star essence to upgrade this white fruit to the level where it would instinctively avoid danger, which was three times the amount that the strengthening fruit had needed. This proved that this white fruit was much more valuable than the strengthening fruits.

Lu Yin gritted his teeth, but he went ahead with it since he had the money. He did not know if the Sea King’s token allowed him to take out a loan from the Mavis Bank and borrow a few million star essence, but he was certain that if he attempted to do such a thing, the Sea King would personally appear to kill him.

Suddenly, there was a whoosh as the upgraded white fruit attempted to escape by tearing through the void. Lu Yin was prepared for this and easily caught it in his hand since it was not his first time encountering such a situation. He watched the fruit struggle in his hand and quickly stored it away in his cosmic ring.

This upgrade had only been completed after depleting a hundred star essence, and he did not know how great its effect would be once he ate the fruit. Even if it could not resurrect him like what the Trialmaster had mentioned, it shouldn’t be too far off from that! At the very least, it could save his life once.

He had 700 star essence left, and he expected it to take about a billion star crystals for him to reach the peak Limiteer state, which was the equivalent of about a hundred star essence. The energy conversion between the two currencies was not the same, so a conservative estimate would be 150 star essence, which meant that he could act as if he had about 500 star essence left to use.

He thought about what else he should upgrade next.

Right, the Money Bomb. Lu Yin wasn’t even certain that the devices could be upgraded, but he was looking forward to finding out.

Since he had thought of it, he would go ahead and try it out. He immediately placed a Money Bomb on top of the light screens and threw out a single star essence. He watched expectantly and saw that it dropped down slightly, leaving Lu Yin delighted to discover that it was indeed possible to upgrade these toys.

Each Money Bomb was originally able to kill an expert with a power level of 100,000. Lu Yin was looking forward to seeing the amount of power it would possess after going through a round of upgrading.

He took out more star essence and watched as the Money Bomb dropped to the bottom layer after it was repeatedly upgraded.

There were not many changes on the surface of the cube, but Lu Yin could feel that the metal ball inside it had changed, and that its color had deepened even more, reminiscent of the heavens. He felt numb when he saw the cube. It had been upgraded five consecutive times, and he had gone through dozens of star essence before he had stopped upgrading the Money Bomb. When he touched the current Money Bomb, he felt uneasy. An overly powerful weapon was not good news for the wielder either, as it was important to reach a prerequisite level before one could safely use powerful weapons.

He did not know how destructive this upgraded bomb would be, but he really wanted to try it out.

He had six Money Bombs, and he upgraded three and left the other three alone, just in case the upgraded ones were somehow useless.

Upgrading three Money Bombs took close to another 200 star essence, and Lu Yin was left with about 500. He had used up quite a lot, but it was well worth it. Each upgraded item could easily fetch extraordinary prices.

What else can I upgrade? Lu Yin looked through his cosmic ring. There were way too many items in the ring, but there was one that stood out in importance: the universal armor.

There were many enemies such as Feng Mo waiting for him outside of this place, and he needed an appropriate method to preserve his own life. His thoughts had been too simplistic in the past, when he had assumed that his multiple titles and status were enough to make others afraid of killing him. However, the truth was that there was more than one way to kill someone, and there were many people who did not have any misgivings about killing others. In the end, Lu Yin could only rely on himself.

He pulled out the universal armor that he had bought from the auction house. It was tough enough to withstand an attack from a powerhouse with a power level of 100,000, and it was plenty strong enough for a Limiteer. However, Lu Yin had offended just too many people, which meant that this level of protection was still insufficient. He dreamed of being able of withstanding attacks with a power level of a million, but that was not realistic.

A set of universal armor was different from ring armor, as the latter had strength requirements for the wearer. If one did not have the sufficient strength, then they would only face disaster when they tried to put one on. However, the same was not the case for a set of universal armor. In some sense, they could be considered vessels for traversing outer space, similar to a spacecraft.

Lu Yin placed the armor on the upper screen and generously threw a hundred star essence onto it. He would spare no cost when it came to preserving his life.

He watched as the universal armor was upgraded multiple times; a hundred star essence were only enough for him to upgrade it twice. It was not quite enough to upgrade it a third time. This armor required even more star essence than the Money Bombs or the white fruit to be upgraded, which made sense since it had originally been able to defend against attacks with a power level of 100,000.

Lu Yin threw out yet another hundred star essence, upgrading the armor two more times.