“In general, Avery doesn’t reject challengers, and many wish to be recognized by him. However, it’s difficult to achieve even that. Generally speaking, only other experts who are already on the Top 100 Rankings can meet Avery’s requirements. Brother Lu, it seems that your power has already reached that level,” Xia Luo said in a congratulatory tone.

Lu Yin was stunned. “Avery’s really arrogant.”

“He has the qualifications to be,” Feng Shang commented.

Kuang Wang rolled his eyes, as it was irritating just to hear his name.[1]

“Seventh Bro, you must teach this Avery a lesson some time. There’s even this Avery’s Test! He clearly thinks that he’s something else. You have to beat him, and after we trash him, let’s create our own criteria. We’ll call it the Harem Test!” the monkey shrieked.

Lu Yin suddenly thought of a problem. “Isn’t the Spirit Seal Flowzone where the Souldream Tribe is? They use musical battle techniques, which sounds rather similar to the Dire Barbarian Clan.”

“The Dire Barbarian Clan and the Souldream Tribe have a feud that’s lasted for generations. Their hatred for each other is deeper than anyone else’s,” Xia Luo said.

This was Lu Yin’s first time hearing about this, and he was rather curious to learn more.

“Rumor has it that the Dire Barbarian Clan has a tradition of kidnapping beauties from the Souldream Tribe and then marrying them, and whoever succeeds in doing this is considered to be a true warrior. The Souldream Tribe has their own tradition as well, which is to show no mercy to anyone they meet who’s from the Dire Barbarian Clan. Killing them is considered as making a contribution to the tribe, which has about the same significant as the Dire Barbarian Clan members becoming warriors. The famous massacres between the two clans have lasted for countless years,” Feng Shang explained.

“Interesting.” Lu Yin laughed.

“The Dire Barbarian Clan is arrogant, and that Avery’s basically their poster boy,” Feng Shang continued.

Kuang Wang rolled his eyes when he kept hearing his name being mentioned. “Focus on controlling the boat, and don’t let it wobble so much.”

“Don’t bother.” Lu Yin stood up and loosened his arms. “Get ready for a tough battle.”

Feng Shang and the rest felt like his words were strange since they hadn’t sensed anything.

Lu Yin squinted and looked ahead. In his eyes, the entire Ocean of Death was surging wildly, and countless lines of runes were converging right in front of them. The runes gradually coalesced into humanoid figures. These were war spirits with the ability to attack one’s spiritual force.

At that moment, Feng Shang and the rest also saw them, and their faces turned ugly.

“One, two, three… seven, nine,” Kuang Wang sluggishly counted them. “Nine war spirits, and each one should be at least as strong as a Realm Master. This is gonna be tough.”

Feng Shang smiled bitterly. “This is probably as far as we go.”

Xia Luo was even more serious than the two of them, as his face had also changed color.

Lu Yin took a few steps to move in front of the others. “I’ll try my best to draw some away, but you guys are going to have to take care of yourselves.” He then used Flash and disappeared. Five-lined battle force appeared around his body and he started using his domain and Cosmic Art. He slammed a palm out towards the nine war spirits in front of him. The force of the attack was earth-shattering, and he tried to get all nine of the spirits within the scope of his attack.

Given his power level, even if nine Realm Masters joined forces against him, he should still be able to handle their joint efforts all by himself.

Just as Lu Yin intended, the nine war spirits all focused on him, ignoring Feng Shang and the other. However, other war spirits were already appearing around the boat.

Kuang Wang said, “Impossible! How can there be so many war spirits so far out in the Ocean of Death? Some of these have to be illusions.”

Feng Shang shouted, “Real or illusion, who cares? Just start fighting!”

In an instant, a heated battle broke out in the middle of the Ocean of Death.

During the Astral Combat Tournament, Lu Yin had already been able to crush a Realm Master, and his power had only reached even more terrifying heights since. One war spirit was immediately dispersed by his palm, but each war spirit was birthed from someone who had been able to enter these regions of the Ocean of Death, which meant that each one of them had their own unique abilities. They unleashed all sorts of innate gifts and battle techniques, as these war spirits represented the successive generations of freakish geniuses. Although their absolute power level could not match those on the Top 100 Rankings, their methods did not lack in variety, and even Lu Yin needed some time to eliminate them all.

There were even Lockbreakers among the nine war spirits, and two at that. They used lockbreaking methods to dissolve Lu Yin’s Overlaying Stacks, and one Lockbreaker war spirit even gave Lu Yin a sense of familiarity. Surprisingly, its battle style felt exactly like Dao Bo’s. Surely it can’t be from Dao Bo…

The war spirit unleashed a domain that clashed with Lu Yin’s. His battle force also collided with another one’s, and the Ocean of Death was blasted apart.

Behind Lu Yin, Feng Shang’s trio was experiencing an uphill battle; they had been surrounded by seven war spirits. The first to fall was Kuang Wang. He had released his azure dragon, but it was quickly dispatched by a war spirit with four-lined battle force. His emperor butterfly topgrass had then been torn apart by another war spirit, leading to the group’s first death.

Feng Shang did not fare much better. His Cyclone Strike quickly eliminated one war spirit, but in turn, he was heavily injured by another.

In comparison, Xia Luo seemed to be taking care of himself the best. His lockbreaking methods were able to neutralize the war spirits’ attacks, but he wouldn’t be able to last for long either.

Lu Yin defeated three war spirits consecutively, but from behind him, a ferocious attack surged to come down upon him. On one side, there was a war spirit wielding a sword that tore through the void, and on the other, there was a strange chilly breeze atop the Ocean of Death, which was trying to freeze him in place.

Although there were many attacks, not a single one of them was able to overcome Lu Yin’s defenses. The war spirits were taken out one by one, and as he vanquished the final one, Xia Luo took a war spirit down with him.

Sixteen war spirits had attacked them, and while eight had been fake, the other eight had been real.

No one aside from Lu Yin could survive a joint attack from eight Realm Master-level powerhouses.

As Lu Yin floated a meter above the Ocean of Death, he looked up; he could not remain hovering there any further. A boat of star energy formed beneath him, and he descended to stand on it.

In the end, only he was left. The Ocean of Death really wasn’t easy to cross.

Lu Yin wasn’t sure if that would be the most difficult hurdle of the journey, but he had a feeling that it wouldn’t. From the many generations of students that had attended the Astral Combat Academy, there must have been a time when the ten Realm Masters had teamed up to cross the Ocean of Death, but even they had been defeated. This line of reasoning proved that the Ocean of Death was dangerous enough to extinguish the combined strength of ten Realm Masters.

The combined strength of ten Realm Masters from the Astral Combat Academy might even be enough to compete against that of an expert on the Top 100 Rankings. However, the danger of that previous encounter had not yet reached that level.

Lu Yin thought for a bit, and a war spirit slowly appeared before him.

Lu Yin trembled, and he suddenly grew very wary as he stared at it. This war spirit was extremely powerful.

The spirit approached Lu Yin step by step while carrying an umbrella formed from star energy in its hand. It leisurely walked atop the Ocean of Death in this manner, stepping out from the dark yellow fog. It then lowered the umbrella when it was about a hundred meters away from Lu Yin and pointed the tip at Lu Yin. One after another, strange bugs shot out from the umbrella towards Lu Yin.

The bugs looked like centipedes that were enlarged by more than a hundredfold. They were frightening and malevolent, and even the void that they traveled through was ripped apart.

Lu Yin’s scalp turned numb, and he instinctively waved his hand, unleashing a powerful wind that pushed the approaching bugs aside. He then raised his head as a giant umbrella suddenly appeared above him, enveloping the entire area. On the other side of the umbrella, there was a submerged bug over a kilometer long, and there was actually five-lined battle force emanating from it.

Whoosh!

The giant worm charged at Lu Yin as the layers of its body rotated grotesquely. It was trying to draw Lu Yin and the surrounding void into its maw.

Lu Yin suddenly felt light-headed. Poison! He did not remain careless and avoided the attack with Flash before slamming a single palm against the worm’s body that contained a Thirty Stacks Fortyfold Shockwave Palm. His attack split the worm into two; not even the five-lined battle force surrounding its body could withstand this strike.

The war spirit with the umbrella ferociously charged at Lu Yin and struck out with both hands. The star energy covering its palms changed in a strange manner, as if it had been compressed.

Lu Yin raised an elbow to forcefully block it, and the void transformed into waves that swept out from the collision point. Lu Yin only felt his arm hurt. What a powerful palm strength! And that was especially so for the suppressive force that had reduced his star energy to the Twenty Stacks level. The person who had birthed this war spirit must have been one of the strongest Realm Masters in the history of the Astral Combat Academy. Of the current batch, perhaps only Starsibyl could compare to this spirit.

This ferocious attack had also targeted Lu Yin’s spiritual force, but it was a pity that such attacks were useless against him.

A submerged bug approached Lu Yin once again, covering both the war spirit and Lu Yin with a strong poisonous gas that caused Lu Yin to feel dizzy.

He did not hesitate and stretched both of his hands out: one for the war spirit and the other for the bug.

The two palms caused both the worm and the war spirit to completely collapse, and they turned into lines of runes that then dissipated into the Ocean of Death.

It was truly difficult to find someone in the Astral Combat Academy who could match Lu Yin, even if one sifted through the long gone previous generations.

It was a pity that Feng Shang and the others had died, or they might have actually been able to identify who had birthed that war spirit. It had some very distinct characteristics such as its umbrella, worms, and five-lined battle force.

Just as Lu Yin was considering taking a rest, the entire Ocean of Death surged. This time, it wasn’t just one region that started boiling, but rather the entire ocean.

Lu Yin’s face turned deathly white, and he immediately leaped up into the sky. He endured the pressure and gazed into the distance, both in front and behind him. The entire Ocean of Death was flaring up, and endless lines of runes flew up into the sky before converging.

Lu Yin landed back in the star energy boat. He gritted his teeth as he looked at this foreboding scene. How had this happened? Almost the entirety of the Ocean of Death’s rune lines were attempting to force him out. Given the intensity of this strength, how had anyone ever made it through to the end? How had that one Arbiter done it?

Just like back at the Sky Platform, Lu Yin once again sensed that the Ten Arbiters’ strength lay beyond their published records; their true strength still exceeded his scope of understanding.

“Seventh Bro, why do I feel like you’re afraid? Is something terrifying about to leap out?” The monkey started to panic.

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed. The whole Ocean of Death was churning, and even the students back on the coast stared at the Ocean of Death in fear as it had actually started surging.

But the bystanders could not see the even more terrifying scene that Lu Yin was witnessing. From the bottom of the ocean, endless rune lines poured out, filling up the entire area. All of these rune lines represented power, and Lu Yin was being rejected by the entirety of the Ocean of Death at this moment.

It’s unstoppable, definitely unstoppable, Lu Yin continuously repeated in his heart. It was impossible to stop the strength of this Ocean of Death, or rather, the strength of the Dao of Heaven.

“Seventh Bro, what’s going on? I feel like I can’t breathe!” On Lu Yin’s right arm, the monkey’s tattoo shouted with alarm.

Lu Yin gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and then opened them wide once again as he sat down cross-legged. Since he could not block this strength, then he would gamble! “To be good at communicating, the Dao of Heaven refuses. To jump and lie in the heavens, the Dao of Heaven accepts. To jump and lie in the horizon, to condense gas, to swallow rivers…”

“Why the hell are you chanting right now? Let’s escape!” the monkey shouted desperately, but Lu Yin simply ignored him. From the start, he had never been able to completely recite the Stonewall Scriptures all the way through, and even now, he could only recite them bit by bit. The amount that he could recite at once had gradually increased, but there was always a limit. Once he passed that limit, he would faint.

Since he was facing the Ocean of Death’s full strength right now, he decided to use the limits of the Stonewall Scriptures to withstand it. The Ocean of Death possessed a destructive, corrosive power towards spiritual force, while the Stonewall Scriptures coincidentally negated such forces. All that he could do now was see if the Stonewall Scriptures’ limit could overcome the Ocean of Death’s strength.

All around the boat, the water of the Ocean of Death started rising up, filling the entire space, drop by drop.

Gradually, the runes lines in the sky formed an attack. This attack was actually a single finger. This finger engraved itself into Lu Yin’s memory the moment it appeared. It was something that he would never forget and would never be able to break away from, but was also strangely unable to remember—a singular finger.

[1] Just a reminder, "arrogant" is pronounced the same as Kuang Wang's name.