Lu Yin touched the universal armor that had been upgraded four times, and then slapped it with full force, but he couldn’t even leave a trace of a mark. He put the armor on, and fortunately, nothing abnormal happened. He paused, but then, he threw out another hundred star essence, though that amount was only enough to upgrade the armor one more time, and that one upgrade used up nearly all of the entire hundred star essence.

Lu Yin did some quick calculations in his head, and it would probably cost him at least a hundred, likely closer to two hundred, star essence to upgrade it an additional time.

No, he had no money left since he only had 320 star essence remaining. It would be difficult for him to reach the peak of the Limiteer realm if he upgraded the armor one more time.

He hesitated, but then decided against any further upgrades at this moment. He would upgrade the armor again in the future, but he just didn’t have enough money right now. His eyes held a fervent light as he looked at his die; he really held great expectations for Enhance. He reckoned that, if he had the support of the Mavis family’s wealth, he could upgrade the universal armor to the point where even the Sea King would be helpless.

As he watched the two light screens vanish, Lu Yin sighed as he crushed another star crystal cube, and watched the die restore itself. He tapped out again, and this time he rolled one pip: Pilfer. There was a solid thump, and a stone fell out.

Lu Yin smashed it apart with a fist. Who was stupid enough to store a stone in their cosmic ring?

He tapped again, and this time, it was two pips: Blackhole Disassembly. Lu Yin currently didn’t have much use for this roll, but he had no guarantee that it would stay the same in the future since it had a reasonable function.

He had one more chance. If he didn’t roll four pips here, then he would have to wait ten more days.

Logically, four pips should be a relatively common roll, so Lu Yin took a deep breath and then tapped the die. It slowly stopped spinning, and it indeed landed on four pips. He relaxed, quickly grabbed his cosmic ring, and entered the Time Stop Space.

A familiar scene met his eyes, and he looked into the distance to see the numbers trickling down. Lu Yin instantly crushed a hundred star essence, and directed the released energy towards the numbers, increasing his time in the space to ninety days.

Given his current cultivation, it now took Lu Yin much longer to improve compared to in the past. Before, it might only have taken him a few days or weeks to greatly improve his strength, but now, even several months might not be enough for him to manifest any visible improvement.

The further he went down the path of cultivation, the more time was required to progress. When he tried to break through to the Hunter realm, he might have to calculate the time needed to improve in terms of years.

He had crushed a hundred star essence, and dense star energy quickly filled the space. Lu Yin took a deep breath as nine stars revolved around his body, and he quickly began to absorb the energy filling the area.

Star essence contained purer energy than what star crystals contained. That, combined with Lu Yin’s nine-fold star energy absorption speed, caused the star energy in this Time Stop Space to move like a whirlpool as it surged ceaselessly towards Lu Yin’s body, and his star energy absorption rate substantially increased.

When he had broken through to become a Limiteer, he had used up a million star crystals. At this moment, with his insane absorption of star energy, he had long since surpassed that amount, and it felt like his body’s thirst for star energy had no limit.

He had previously estimated that it would take him ten million star crystals to reach the peak of the Limiteer realm, but while he was absorbing the energy, Lu Yin gradually got the feeling that this initial amount would not be enough.

His strength began increasing along with his rapid absorption of star energy. He was not a simple Realmbreaker anymore, as he was now someone who could challenge two realms above his own. His power level did not reflect a Cruiser’s standard, but his true strength had already surpassed an average Cruiser’s.

The energy from the hundred star essence was rapidly consumed. So, Lu Yin opened his eyes, crushed another fifty star essence, and then continued to absorb the star energy.

But even when those fifty star essence were consumed, he still could not sense the peak of the Limiteer realm. Continue.

Cultivation depended on one’s resources as only arts and techniques depended upon one’s comprehension. For Lu Yin, the most difficult thing at this moment was to break through to the next cultivation realm.

To go from the initial Limiteer realm to the peak Limiteer realm, one merely required resources. Currently, the most difficult hurdle in Lu Yin’s path was actually breaking through to the Explorer realm, as he himself did not know how to go about it. It was something that was even more difficult than he had initially imagined, because even the crazy headmaster had found it difficult to break his seal when he had broken through to become a Melder.

He crushed another fifty star essence and then looked at the remaining time he had in the Time Stop Space. Surprisingly, a month had already passed. He had not even been aware that he had been absorbing star energy for this long.

Even with his nine-fold absorption speed, it had taken him this long to absorb this much energy, so he could only imagine how slowly others would have taken. From just this experience, it could be seen how difficult it was for the younger generation to reach the Explorer realm, and how unattainable the Ten Arbiters’ levels actually were.

Perhaps the Ten Arbiters’ absorption rate of star energy surpasses even mine.

He only had the elementary level of the Cosmic Art, so what was the advanced level like? The more stars that could be simulated, the greater one’s absorption rate would be. He could not even imagine how quickly the Cosmic Sect’s heir would absorb star energy. Could one of them be a member of the Ten Arbiters?

He thought no further about such matters and instead focused more on absorbing star energy. When he only had twenty days remaining in the Time Stop Space, his rate of star energy slowed. He was approaching the peak of the Limiteer realm.

Another two days passed, and the star energy in his body gradually filled up. Lu Yin widened his eyes, as he had finally reached the peak of the Limiteer realm. To proceed, he would have to repeat this procedure when he tried to break into the Explorer realm; use a one-time massive amount of energy. However, no one could actually cram star energy, and such thinking was merely an illusion.

He raised a hand and clenched his fist, releasing a terrifying strength. When he punched out, Thirty Stacks exploded forth, tearing through the void.

Lu Yin relaxed, as he had recovered his former strength.

The three grains of Fatesand had sealed his physical strength away, which had made it difficult for him to display Thirty Stacks. Now that he had reached the peak of the Limiteer realm, he had finally regained his previous power. However, if he used the Fatesand now, his physical strength would be unsealed, and he might even be able to withstand unleashing Thirty Five Stacks. After all three were awakened and used simultaneously, his body would be completely unrestrained. He wondered how many stacks he would be able to unleash in such a state. One thing was for certain—he would certainly surpass the Divine Fist’s record.

The Divine Fist’s true record might have been hidden away, but it was definitely not something outrageous enough to surpass his current strength. After all, the Ten Arbiters were still human, not gods.

The awakening of the other two grains of Fatesand proceeded relatively slower, and Lu Yin did not specially recite the Stonewall Scriptures to help them along. He was in no hurry, but by his estimations, it would take just a few days for it to complete. He was afraid that, if he continuously used the Stonewall Scriptures to quicken the awakening of the Fatesand, then there might be some unintended repercussion.

He still had more than twenty days left within the Time Stop Space, and after Lu Yin thought about it, he raised his hand as a clump of dark soil appeared. It was the awakened grain of Fatesand that came from his heart.

The moment it appeared, his heart rumbled and a powerful strength turned into flowing light that engulfed his entire body. The void shuddered as he clenched his fist and punched out again. The might of his fist that displayed Thirty Stacks was even greater than before, while the Shockwave Palm was upgraded to fiftyfold.

The Overlaying Stacks required a powerhouse to help deduce further stacks, but the Shockwave Palm didn’t.

Thirty Stacks Fiftyfold Shockwave Palm. At this moment, Lu Yin had truly surpassed his previous peak state. With the additional defense provided by the dirt, Lu Yin felt confident in defeating experts in the last twenty positions of the Top 100 Rankings.

If it was a matter of pure defense, then Lu Yin was confident that he could withstand the attacks of even the very top experts on the rankings. After all, he had even managed to withstand an attack from Feng Mo. Even though that attack had been casually thrown out, it should have been about as powerful as the attacks those at the top of the Top 100 Rankings were capable of.

“Basically, even if I can’t defeat the top few people on the list, they can’t beat me either, which is pretty disgusting,” Lu Yin mumbled to himself with a laugh.

Unfortunately, he could not use the Fatesand too often, as it was a precious treasure throughout the universe. If he used it, then others would move to investigate Lu Yin’s background more thoroughly, and he was afraid of his connection with Leon's Armada being discovered, or even worse, his past. If the Ten Arbiters discovered the paper listing the Lu family and the debt of seventy two lives, they might step out themselves.

Lu Yin planned to stabilize his current strength over the course of the remaining days, and also to familiarize himself with how he could use the black soil in combat.

…

Twenty days passed in the blink of an eye, and the numbers disappeared as the scenery in front of Lu Yin changed back into the courtyard.

Three months of cultivation made him feel like the courtyard was foreign, as not even a second had passed in reality.

Although he had reached the peak of the Limiteer realm, he estimated that it would take him a long time before he could break through to the Explorer realm. The next step before him was to earn more money, as he could achieve many things if he had money.

He only had 120 star essence left now, while not long ago, a million star crystals would have been enough to make him ecstatic. Now, as his strength improved, he even felt like ten million star crystals would be too few.

He suddenly thought of Feng Mo; even if Lu Yin was handed over to the Blackbeard Pirates, he had no money to return to them, unless he sold everything that he had bought with the Sea King’s token, which amounted to a huge sum.

He had to think of a way to unload the stuff he had bought, as he could not use all of those items himself. Speaking of which, spending a total of 5,000 star essence on the items that he had picked up shouldn’t amount to too much for the Sea King, but how much had Lulu bought? Lu Yin was rather curious.

According to the stipulated timing, Lu Yin still had two more days until the selection process started, which meant that he still had one more day for his shopping spree. Lu Yin considered spending another 5,000 star essence in the Sea King’s Dome. If he kept the total amount he spent to no more than 10,000 star essence, then he probably wouldn’t attract the Sea King’s attention.

For the moment, he planned to rest, as he was too fatigued.

The climate in the Sea King’s Dome was comfortable, and it had a very refreshing aura. At this time, the sun in the heavens vanished as night descended upon the mountain, and the temperature grew cool.

In another area around the middle of the mountain, Big Pao and Little Pao did not rest. It had not been easy for them to reach this place, so they planned to thoroughly enjoy themselves, despite having limited funds.

Michelle was rich, but the items in this place were too extravagant even for her, so she had only bought a few random items.

Coco and Zora walked along with Michelle. Although the latter had a cold personality, the three girls had become familiar with each other during this escape, and Coco and Zora had come to realize that despite Michelle’s cold front, her heart was warm. Although Big Pao could not realize it, his ignorance did not stop the girls from growing closer.

“Sister Michelle, look! The clothes here in the Sea King’s Dome are beautiful!” Coco happily ran into a clothing store. A robot welcomed them at the entrance, where the shop was filled with special blue clothes from the mountain that were the same color as the sea. The intensity of the color would even change under the sunlight, and it was very beautiful. The patterns on the clothes even appeared to be alive.

Michelle’s eyes lit up, as the clothes were indeed beautiful.

The store owner immediately walked out to greet them enthusiastically, while Zora also stepped forward to haggle. There was no choice, as the goods in this place were too expensive. If they didn’t haggle, they might even have a problem finding a place to eat at later.

Michelle was happily looking at a piece of clothing, as no woman would not be able to resist the allure of such beautiful clothes. Suddenly, she glimpsed a familiar figure out of the corner of her eyes. She squinted and then quickly rushed out of the shop as she had seen a man with a wooden flute slowly walk past.