Chapter 108: Hidden Gifts (2/2)
As the rain continued to patter constantly on the limestone platform, Lu Yin looked at the two newcomers with astonishment. Xia Luo? Schutz? The former smiled back with no signs of surprise, while the latter instead looked around at those present. There were a total of eleven people here, six Sentinels and five Melders. Minus Xia Luo and himself, only three other Melders had passed the examination. Of them, Schutz fixed his gaze on Darkvoid, who gave off an incredible sense of danger.
Not far away, Silver smiled at Xia Luo just as he looked over. They exchanged glances and Silver maintained his smile, but Xia Luo’s lukewarm gaze morphed into something sharper. Coincidentally, a new figure arrived between the two.
Lu Yin looked over and his eyes narrowed as he noticed the black and white hair of the Daynight Clan. Everyone else turned towards him as well; the Daynight Clan was well-known among the cultivators of the Innerverse, and the black-and-white hair was easy to recognize as well. The man had a haughty look and scanned his surroundings, gaze lingering slightly on Michelle with his breath taken away.
At this point, a voice rang through the void, “The examination has ended. Congratulations to the twelve of you who passed.”
The voice died down, and one more name appeared on one of the screens on the Sentinels’ path in the heavens. Under Zhao Yilong’s name was Hui Daynight.
Lu Yin turned his gaze to the emptiness in the skies; the voice seemed to have come from all directions. All he noticed was the dark green curtain of rain that connected the skies to the earth, with the occasional puff of mist.
“Congratulations to all that have entered the Tenth Astral Academy. We have specially prepared five gifts and hidden them in the rain. Finders, keepers.”
Everyone’s eyes brightened; gifts from Astral-10 would not be simple. Lu Yin looked towards the rain and wondered what those words meant. Gifts hidden in the rain?
Twelve individuals, each with their own thoughts, looked into the distance in the pouring rain. There were no signs of any gifts whatsoever, but Michelle walked to one corner of the limestone platform and silently looked eastwards. Xia Luo did the same, as did Hui Daynight. He might have been a Sentinel, but no one would view him as one. All twelve eventually chose their own directions and stared at the rain, trying to sense something.
Lu Yin allowed the rain to splash on his palm. It was nothing but normal in his perception, but the Academy seemingly wanted them to understand something from it. His mind drew a complete blank when faced with this natural phenomenon.
Not long after, star energy ebbed and flowed around him from Michelle and a few others, as though they had discovered something. Lu Yin frowned and glanced at Lulu, whose eyes were gleaming with some understanding. He then looked at Xia Luo, the youth’s ever-gentle gaze concealing all thought. He breathed in deeply; he could not carry on like this, or he would fall behind.
Lu Yin’s gaze grew steady as he thought over it. He hadn’t wanted to use the Cosmic Art in case someone recognized it, but he had no choice. This was only their first task, and he didn’t want to fall behind with every step. Six stars started to circle around him, the result of many days of training. At this point, he believed he could give Gerbach a run for his money.
A pair of wizened eyes opened within the curtain of rain, peering through a great distance to watch Lu Yin with surprise, “Someone from the Outerverse got a hold of this technique? Interesting, very interesting.”
Gadgets were cut off from the moment everyone entered the world of rain, and the new students did not have an idea of how time flowed in Astral-10 compared to the rest of the world. Three days quickly passed; for Lu Yin, they were three days of constantly staring at the rain. Even with the Cosmic Art, he could not see a thing. The rain helped him cleanse any impurities in his star energy, but the only thing outside of that was vague images flashing within bursts of star energy nearby.
Soon, he saw all sorts of strange phenomena within those images. The sound of raindrops cleared his mind, turning those sights into what felt like an experience of stepping onto the road of cultivation. As he immersed himself in that feeling, Michelle opened her eyes and her star energy erupted to sweep the rain aside. A burst of air rushed forth and tore open a tiny crack in the curtain; her eyes brightened and she stepped out into the rain to grab a chip of some sort.