Chapter 148: Playing With Balls (1/2)

Xia Luo nodded. He held the starburst orb and replied with a serious expression, “I’m going to start now.” One, two, three seconds passed before the surging star energy within the orb started to dissipate, only completely calming down after five seconds.

Liu Ji was surprised; he had actually succeeded in five seconds.

Master Wusheng wasn’t too surprised since Xia Luo had been recommended by Elder Tan. He smiled and said, “Not bad at all. This is a good result, especially when considering that this is your first time interacting with a starburst orb. Your potential is similar to Liu Ji’s. Elder Tan’s recommendation is perfectly justified. You may keep this starburst orb for yourself.”

Xia Luo placed the thin metal covering back over the orb and stored it away. “Thank you, Master.”

“Alright, you can return now,” Master Wusheng said.

Xia Luo understood that Master Wusheng probably wanted to talk to Liu Ji alone, so he nodded and left through the teleportation device.

After Xia Luo left, Master Wusheng looked at Liu Ji and asked, “What’s wrong? You look strange.”

Liu Ji solemnly replied, “This academy isn’t as simple as we had first assumed. I saw quite a few geniuses here.”

“That’s normal. After all, the Outerverse is bound to give rise to some geniuses. Didn’t Wendy Yushan from the Great Yu Empire in the Frostwave Weave break into the top twenty of the Astral Battle Leaderboards? I was astonished by her results as well. The Outerverse is enormous, and you don’t have to worry about the fact that there are a few geniuses here,” Master Wusheng explained.

Liu Ji agreed, but she still wanted to meet the top student. Just how powerful did the top student have to be for him to be able to defeat all of the students that she had seen so far? Liuyi was extremely curious.

“You haven’t neutralized a starburst orb in a long time, correct?” Master Wusheng suddenly said while looking at Liu Ji.

Liu Ji was caught off guard by his question, but she nodded slowly.

Master Wusheng took out another starburst orb and passed it to Liu Ji. “Try and see if you can wipe out the star energy instantly.”

Liu Ji muttered to herself, “How is that even possible? Only geniuses can do that.” But despite her misgivings, she did her best to instantly wipe out the surging star energy. At that moment, someone appeared in the teleportation device. Wusheng and Liu Ji turned around to see Lu Yin appear.

When Lu Yin entered the space station, he hadn’t expected other people to be there, let alone two strangers. Was that a girl playing with a ball?

He was even more shocked to see a girl seemingly playing with a ball in Astral-10’s space station, but the ball did look rather intriguing with star energy surging from within it.

“Be as calm as water. Is this the extent of your current abilities?” Master Wusheng said sternly as he stared at Liu Ji.

Liu Ji hung her head as she angrily glared at Lu Yin. This annoying person had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, distracted her, and caused her to fail and be scolded by Master Wusheng.

“Again!” Master Wusheng roared, completely ignoring Lu Yin, who was now right beside him. Master Wusheng took out another starburst orb and gave it to Liu Ji while still glaring at her.

Liu Ji took a deep breath and removed the thin metal layer yet again. Star energy surged from her palm, neutralizing the violent star energy within the ball in just three seconds.

Master Wusheng sighed. “It’s still three seconds. It seems that you won’t be able to overcome this threshold anytime soon.”

Liu Ji hung her head in disappointment. Three seconds was a significant threshold that she wanted to overcome someday. She wasn’t hoping to clear the energy instantly, but even a minor improvement of one or two seconds would show that her ability had improved. This was very important to Lockbreakers, as their control of star energy was of the utmost importance to them.

“Can I try playing with that ball?” Lu Yin asked. He was very interested in the orb, and if his guesses were right, then this should probably be some kind of assessment that tested one’s control over their star energy. Moreover, he saw that there was a spacecraft that did not belong to Astral-10, and the symbol of the Lockbreaker Society was even emblazoned on the spacecraft.

Liu Ji snorted disdainfully. “Go away.”

Lu Yin blinked before saying, “You mentioned neutralizing it within three seconds just now. I can do that too.”

Both Master Wusheng and Liu Ji were stunned when they heard Lu Yin’s claim. The starburst orb looked simple, but the surging star energy contained within it was very complicated, and it would erupt violently if one tried to wipe it out forcefully. It could only be neutralized by someone whose control over star energy had reached a certain level. There were a very small number of people who could do this within a minute, let alone three seconds. Otherwise, this orb wouldn’t have become the Lockbreaker Society’s standard assessment method.

Master Wusheng frowned. The quality of Astral-10 has truly dropped. This student can’t even tell how difficult the starburst orb is to neutralize.

“Go away. Where did you come from?” Liu Ji was annoyed. She had just been scolded by hger master and was still disgruntled that Lu Yin had interrupted her.

Lu Yin felt helpless as he insisted, “Just let me have a try. You won’t lose anything if I fail.”

Liu Ji was furious and glared at Lu Yin, but she was just about to tell him off again, Wusheng waved his hands. “Give it to him.”

“Master, this guy-” Liu Ji was reluctant, but Wusheng impatiently said, “Just give it to him,” before boarding the spacecraft to leave.