Chapter 56: The Deal (1/2)
Two days later, Yan Gang approached Qingyu to rescue Huo Xiaoling, but Qingyu turned him away with a sneer, “Do you have my item?”
Yan Gang was outraged, “You can settle that with those natives in eight days. Release Xiaoling now!”
“The condition was Huo Xiaoling for my property; why would I release her when you didn’t fulfill your end of the deal? Leave,” Qingyu said arrogantly. Yan Gang was enraged by this, but he knew that he simply wasn’t a match and left when he saw Qingyu’s gaze turning cold. Sitting on the ground, the hostage herself was staring at her captor’s back with a glint in her eyes. If this guy truly was from the Daynight Clan, none of the trainees would be able to beat him. The deal that would occur in eight days was just a fun exercise that he controlled.
Countless students started appearing at Cang Mountain in Tianzhu, mostly from the second batch. A majority had removed their gadgets to avoid revealing their locations as they hid themselves around the area, with even Munoor among them. Other than him, there was another sealed Melder; only true elites dared to appear here at this time.
The ten days passed in the blink of an eye, and Lu Yin spent the entire time watching star charts. His fourth star was growing clearer but had yet to fully form, prompting a sigh. It was growing increasingly difficult to add more stars to the Cosmic Art now; it was capable of simulating an entire solar system, but it was already so difficult to form just the fourth body. Even the maximum of eight was only for the limited technique he’d acquired, but with his rate of progress, he had no idea how long it would take him to complete the technique.
He also knew that he wouldn’t be able to break through to Melder anytime soon, either. Becoming a Melder wasn’t something that could be accomplished through a formcast model alone; everyone’s body was unique, so they all faced unique challenges on their path to this breakthrough. One’s own body would give them a signal when they were ready, and without that signal they would fail even with a formcast model. Even wealthy children like Raas couldn’t simply make it to this realm; while he had no lack of star crystals to speed up his cultivation, the obstacle of his body still persisted.
Everything one learnt, including their battle techniques, affected their Melder breakthrough. Lu Yin looked at his own palm, wondering what effect the Cosmic Art would have as he summoned the die with a twist of his hand. A cube of star crystals was crushed and the energy quickly absorbed, leaving him excited as the die regained its normal glow. Calculating the time, he realized that five uses would leave him exhausted to the point of deep sleep, and the die would become unusable for ten days. This meant he could use it up to four times in a row, with breaks of a few days in between.
Behind Zhang Dingtian were a bunch of weak and starving students who had been tied up. Despite their obvious weakness, many of the students glared at Lu Yin, particularly Raas and Jenny. With their background as the son of the Vice Treasurer and the heir of the Auna Family, they had never suffered through anything like this before. In this crowd of students, someone like Veron would only be an average cultivator.
“Let’s go,” Zhang Dingtian flew up, dragging the 42 students west with a tethered rope like they were useless bottles. These people couldn’t be left in Beijing once the city’s strongest cultivators were gone; Zhou Shan and Wu Sheng wouldn’t be able to handle them if something went wrong.
Lu Yin paused to take in the impressive scene and wondered how the other students would react when they saw this. Jeradine was simply stunned by the sight. Any one of these hostages could kill her in an instant, but here she was watching them herded like cattle. It truly changed her world view. On the other hand, Gerlaine was delighted with the situation and kept provoking Eddy, Raas, and Jenny, infuriating the bound girl to the point she felt like biting someone.
Lu Yin greeted Bai Xue, but she responded very coldly. However, this time he understood her reaction; he’d heard the rumors that spread through the city and considered it normal for her to be angry. He was furious as well. What did they mean he was rejected? Was he that bad?
The survivors of Tianzhu stared up in a daze, watching as Qingyu dragged all of his captive students in with a rope as he headed towards the foot of Cang Mountain. He had transported the students in the exact same manner as Zhang Dingtian, completely humiliating and enraging them all. Huo Xiaoling was flushed red, hating not only Qingyu but Lu Yin as well, ‘Couldn’t they have made some other deal? Why did they have to involve us? The pricks! If I wasn’t in the trial I would break this damn seal and fight Qingyu myself!’
In the spacecraft above Earth, Sigmund and the others were frowning at the screen while Mira grinned widely at the display that soon changed to show the foot of Cang Mountain. This was going to be the site of the final showdown for this trial, and based on what had happened so far, no one was expecting a peaceful transaction. A battle was inevitable. Qingyu had started traveling a day earlier and so arrived at the mountain before Lu Yin, giving the students already there quite the show to watch. Many of them gloated that Huo Xiaoling and the other arrogant elites were being embarrassed in such a manner.
Meanwhile, Yan Gang trembled in rage. Huo Xiaoling was the fiancée of the young lord of the Fireforge Planet; this was an absolute insult to both her and her future husband.