Within the Innerverse, in the Sword Sect, the disciple who had preemptively reported the results to the sect leader now had a deathly pale face. No one could have imagined that Liu Shaoqiu would actually lose, let alone lose even using the Third Sword. He had even been defeated by a Melder! This was just too unimaginable, as it defied what they saw as the natural order of the world.

An elder in a white gown was staring at the screen from behind everyone else. His eyes flickered with a strange light as he said, “What an interesting kid. So he was actually unaffected by Shaoqiu’s Third Sword. Pass a message to Astral-10. Tell them that my Sword Sect will take on this child as a personal disciple with the same position as Shaoqiu.”

Many of the Sword Sect’s disciples were shocked to hear this command. Direct disciples held the highest position amongst all the disciples as they were able to command countless members of the Sword Sect. But Liu Shaoqiu’s position as a personal disciple was second only to that of the Sword Sect disciple who was one of the Ten Arbiters. There were not many Flowzones in the universe, but the difference between each one of them was stunning. This youth had just skipped past countless peaks in one step and become a lord of the Innerverse’s First Flowzone.

Under the dimly lit “Yōu” banner, the little girl clapped and cheered as she excitedly looked at Lu Yin with a strange zeal. The shock in the old maid’s eyes had not faded yet, as she had just seen a mortal trample over the heavens.

In Astral-10’s space station, Madam Nalan was also absent-minded. She hadn’t even noticed that she had spilled her wine as she stared at the screen in shock.

She recalled the first time she had met Lu Yin and when she had brought up the legendary Liu Shaoqiu to him. At that time, she had only wanted to give Lu Yin some context and prevent him from being too dispirited after he lost. That way, he would be able to focus on lockbreaking, where his talents lay. Who could have predicted that, in such a short time, that person would grow to the point of being able to defeat Liu Shaoqiu?

Lu Yin’s victory over Liu Shaoqiu had created more than just a stir within the entire Human Domain. He was unaware of this, but his battle with Liu Shaoqiu had actually drawn the attention of the Ten Arbiters.

But no matter how shocked the onlookers were, it was just the end of the sixth round of battles. The top eight had been determined: Dao Bo, Liu Xiaoyun, Han Chong, Grandini Mavis, Starsibyl, Feng Shang, Nightqueen Yanqing, and Lu Yin. These eight were the strongest of the Astral Combat Academy, and the seventh round to determine the top four would begin one day later. The tournament’s finale was approaching closer and closer.

What was worth mentioning was all the geniuses who had only recently joined the Astral Combat Academy had been defeated without exception.

Before the Astral Combat Tournament started, countless people had believed that the original students of the Astral Combat Academy would be swallowed by the various monsters like Liu Shaoqiu, Yue Xianzi, Chao Zhi, Calcifer, and Cang Shi. But as these various new geniuses successively appeared, they had been beaten back one by one. As the tournament progressed, the true strength of those who had hidden themselves within the Astral Combat Academy had been revealed, such as Sha, Xia Luo, Silver, Lu Yin, Grandini Mavis, Tu Bo, and others. They had firmly suppressed all of the recently joined geniuses.

These results shocked many of the powers in the universe. Although the Astral Combat Academy was also known to be the best academy, it was still just a school. Many great powers had elected to not send their elite disciples there as they felt that the Astral Combat Academy’s tutelage could not possibly be better than their own. However, the results were too obvious to refute: there were many talents within the Astral Combat Academy, and they were all monstrous to the extreme. And now, even the widely acknowledged top-tier talent, Liu Shaoqiu, had been defeated.

The Astral Combat Academy was very pleased with the results of its students in this tournament. Although they had separated the academy leaders on purpose to prevent self-eliminations, it was clear to see that the leaders could crush those outside geniuses from various powers.

It was quite likely that, after this tournament, many powers would value the Astral Combat Academy more and consider sending their outstanding disciples there.

At the frontier of the Human Domain, at the border of the Erudite Flowzone, Shui Chuanxiao stared in disbelief at the screen before marvelling, “Not bad. The Astral Combat Academy’s not bad at all. It actually trained up a student who managed to defeat Liu Shaoqiu. When he comes, let him be a war drummer.”

Behind Shui Chuanxiao, a golden-haired girl in a military uniform immediately spoke up. “The war drummer must have a body capable of traveling through outer space, or else they won’t be able to pick up the mallet much less defend against the astral beasts’ assault.”

“The Third Sword was completely ineffective against him. He is qualified to grasp the mallet.” Shui Chuanxiao did not care about the woman’s concerns.

The golden-haired woman frowned before saying, “Chief, I must remind you, the agreement that we have with the Astral Combat Academy only covers letting these students experience the cruelty of the battlefield, and does not include sending them to their deaths. During your time at the battlefront, a total of 172 powerhouses have perished while beating the war drums. This student is far from qualified to become a war drummer. You’d be sending him to an early grave.”

Shui Chuanxiao sighed. “En Ya, when I first recruited you, it wasn’t for you to oppose me.”

En Ya coldly replied, “I’m not opposing you. I just don’t want to see this student die a tragic death.”

Shui Chuanxiao laughed. “Fine, let me tell you then. Do you really think that the Astral Combat Academy is only rushing these students onto the battlefield for them to gain first-hand experience? The Astral Combat Academy itself is about to transform.”

“Transform?” En Ya was confused.

Shui Chuanxiao’s lips curled up as he explained, “The Astral Combat Academy has held the title of the best training institution for far too long. At this point, it can only fall and not rise any further. As more time passes, the ten academies will only continue to drift further apart—they might even completely separate and form completely independent institutions. The best example is of Astral-10 being targeted by those insects. So, the Astral Combat Academy has shifted focus to send its students to the battlefield and have them survive at the Human Domain’s war front for as long as possible. They have already begun to transform and have made contact with the troops. The academy will become a top-notch institution that delivers geniuses to the warfront.

“Why?” En Ya could not understand why this was happening. Even if the academy wanted to increase the students’ battlefield experience as quickly as possible, there was no need to send them to the warfront as soldiers.

Shui Chuanxiao sighed. “Do you know how high the current mortality rate is for the graduates of the various institutions in the universe? Let me tell you.” Then, Shui Chuanxiao stared straight into En Ya’s eyes as he enunciated, “Nine out of every ten graduates die at this frontier.”

En Ya was shocked, as she had never heard of this statistic before.

“Now you should know why. The Astral Combat Academy has very few graduates, and regardless of if a student graduates or is expelled, they still have to go to the domain’s warfront, where less than a tenth of them will survive. The other academies are no better. This is the fate of these students. Even if a youth does not enter an academy, they still must come here and experience the Human Domain’s warfront so as to gain some experience about the universe before they can grow stronger. This also includes the descendants of great powers, as this is an inviolable law of the Human Domain. The Astral Combat Academy’s transformation is actually inevitable, as its purpose is to help the students preserve their lives for as long as possible. Protecting the students is akin to protecting the academy itself, so it’s a must for them to make a move at the time the students arrive at the battlefield.” Shui Chuanxiao then paused for a moment before patting En Ya’s shoulder and saying, “Alright, that’s enough. Go on and carry out your orders.”

“Yes,” En Ya answered respectfully as she watched Shui Chuanxiao leave. Suddenly, she felt that something wasn’t quite right—the Astral Combat Academy’s transformation was completely unrelated to this student being assigned to be a war drummer. This bastard had played her like a fool.

On Astral-10’s trial zone mountain, Lu Yin opened his eyes and slowly stretched his body. The others immediately gathered around him, and Coco praised, “Brother Lu, you were fantastic!”

Lu Yin smiled and looked over everyone. His gaze paused on Hui Daynight’s face, who turned away awkwardly.

Silver walked over to Lu Yin with a beaming expression. “Very awesome! You can force me to use about a third of my strength now.”

Lu Yin indifferently replied, “I only used a fifth.”

“I would only need a tenth of my strength to defeat that Thirteen Swords guy.”

“I didn’t even use a tenth.”

The others were confused at the two’s strange back-and-forth.

At this point, Liu Xiaoyun approached them, causing everyone to involuntarily make some room for her. She looked at Lu Yin seriously with a trace of disbelief still present in her eyes. “How was the First Sword?”

Lu Yin thought about it seriously before replying, “Very sharp and very swift.”

“The second?” Liu Xiaoyun continued.

Lu Yin blurted out, “A large scope and a powerful attack.”

“And the third?” Liu Xiaoyun stared closely at Lu Yin, but he just smiled slightly.

Liu Xiaoyun was disappointed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

Lu Yin smiled and said, “Madam Nalan saved me once, so I don’t mind telling you this. The Third Sword…” Everyone stared at him in anticipation as he spoke his next words. “…I didn’t feel a thing from it.”

The others were caught off guard by his response, and they simply could not understand his words. Liu Xiaoyun’s disappointed expression deepened as she bitterly said, “It seems that this universe really does have geniuses like you who are immune to the Third Sword. You might actually be a natural nemesis of the Daynight clan.”

This sentence shocked Hui Daynight, and he whirled around with a puzzled face. Why was being immune to the Sword Sect’s Third Sword indicative of being the Daynight clan’s nemesis?

Lu Yin understood what Liu Xiaoyun was saying; the Daynight clan’s battle techniques all had a similar effect to the Third Sword, which was targeting one’s spiritual force. If he was truly immune to attacks against his spiritual force, then the Daynight clan’s battle techniques would become normal battle techniques when used against him. Of course, despite Lu Yin’s understanding, he did not express it and instead looked at Liu Xiaoyun with a puzzled face, like Hui Daynight.

“Be careful of the Nightking clan,” Liu Xiaoyu said after taking a long, careful look at Lu Yin. She then turned around to leave.

Lu Yin sighed, as he realized that he might have made a mistake. He should not have revealed the fact that the Third Sword had been completely ineffective against him. If even Liu Xiaoyun believed he was the nemesis of the Daynight clan, then what about the Daynight clan itself? He involuntarily recalled what he had seen when he had entered the Daynight clan’s inheritance corridor as well as the topmost name on the stone tower outside the long corridor—Nightking Zhenwu. He had a feeling that this name was perhaps a mountain that he would inevitably have to cross one day.

Just as Lu Yin was about to go and rest, his expression changed. He briskly walked out of the trial zone mountain and to the entrance, where he respectfully bowed to the Trialmaster. “Mentor, were you looking for me?”

The Trialmaster opened his eyes, revealing a trace of shock on his wizened face. “Little brat, you caused a great deal of astonishment when you defeated an inheritor of the Thirteen Swords.”

Lu Yin remained humble. “My luck was good. He could not display the Fourth Sword.”

The Trialmaster shook his head as he smiled. “It wasn’t that he could not display it, but rather that it was ruined by you.”

A light flashed across Lu Yin’s eyes.

The mentor looked at him seriously. “You intentionally damaged but did not destroy the star energy sword that he materialized. Thus, his sword would not be able to bear his full strength at a key moment, and when his sword dissipated, his energy would spiral into chaos and allow you to unleash the fatal strike. Correct?”

Lu Yin smiled wryly. “Mentor, I can’t hide anything from you.”

The mentor smiled back in response. “Little brat, that was very smart. Even in that heated battle, you did not reveal that technique.”

Lu Yin’s heart skipped a beat. He had a feeling that these mentors had seen through his Cosmic Art. The Rainmaster and Sandmaster had vaguely mentioned it, and the crazy headmaster had even simulated the ninth star for him. However, this was the Trialmaster’s first time mentioning it. “Mentor, please give me your guidance.”

The Trialmaster looked at Lu Yin seriously. “I don’t know where you obtained this technique. It doesn’t matter if it’s from the original source, as it’s unrelated to us. However, let me give you this reminder: this technique comes from an extremely terrifying sect. That sect’s power surpasses even the Sword Sect’s.”