Chapter 183: The Academy’s Tabloid (2/2)

Even though the people of Frostmoon Sect were after his life, he wasn’t very concerned about that. More importantly, he had finally received some financial backing; a group of network companies had extended an olive branch to him. To Wu Da, their financial support was secondary. What he cared about more was their recognition. He felt that he was mere inches away from realizing his dream of becoming the universe’s greatest paparazzi.

He grew increasingly excited as he continued to think about it. Wu Da stood at the same spot and scanned the scenery intently. After mumbling to himself for a moment, he turned to sprint off in a specific direction. His journalistic intuition was saying that there was hot news to be found in that way.

The Fathomless Pool seemed like an unremarkable pool, but the water inside was pitch black. If it were not so far away from Blackwater Lake, then many would have thought that the two were connected.

Twenty kilometers north of the Fathomless Pool, Michelle and two others sat, resting calmly against a huge black tree. In the distance were a group of wandering war spirits. Lu Yin was not aware of this, but the location that he had chosen at random was actually a gathering ground for war spirits.

When Lu Yin appeared, he was surprised to see the roaming war spirits there.

“You picked a good spot,” Michelle said coldly.

Lu Yin was slightly embarrassed. “Keep your voices down! We want to keep a low profile. They are war spirits after all.”

Michelle grunted, but did not speak.

A few hours later, when Xia Luo arrived, he looked at the group of war spirits in astonishment. “What a good place for spirit hunters.”

“It is unlikely that any spirit hunters would dare to do anything here,” Lulu said.

Xia Luo shook his head, “You don’t understand the longing the spirit hunters have for war spirits. These war spirits must have only started to gather here very recently, otherwise, they would already have become a target for the spirit hunters.”

“Why do spirit hunters hunt these war spirits?” Lu Yin asked, puzzled.

“I do not know either. It’s said that they hunt war spirits as a tradition that has been practised for ages,” Xia Luo responded.

“Alright then, let’s head to the Fathomless Pool. We have no time to waste,” Michelle said as she started walking toward the Fathomless Pool.

With their speed, they reached their destination very quickly.

The Fathomless Pool was within a secluded valley, and it had been initially discovered purely by coincidence. At this time, there was only one man inside the pool: Uro. He was one of only three Area Masters from Astral-6.

The Dao of Purgatory’s training grounds were Spear Mountain, Blackwater Lake, Fathomless Pool, Whitebones Gorge, and the Sky Platform. Four out of the five training grounds were occupied by Astral-6, and only Blackwater Lake had been snatched away by the Frostmoon Sect.

The number of Area Master-level combatants in each training ground was around the same, but that was only because there were not that many training grounds to begin with. This was also the main reason why Lu Yin had decided to snatch the Fathomless Pool. Snatching a training ground would likely escalate to war against the powerful figures from the academy that used to own the training ground, and in severe cases, Realm Masters could even get involved. The only exception to this was the Dao of Purgatory. This was because Lu Yin, like the Realm Master, Dao Bo, was a Lockbreaker.

“Attack,” Lu Yin growled lowly before immediately charging viciously at the Fathomless Pool without giving any indication that he was about to attack. This was a trial zone where only the strongest survived, and there were no rules to speak of.

A few meters away from the Fathomless Pool, a half naked man with messy hair suddenly looked into the direction of Lu Yin and his cohort. When he saw Lu Yin rush at him with the intent to attack, his gaze turned icy. “You don’t know who you’re messing with.” As he spoke, he stretched out his right palm, causing translucent streams of air to circulate around his body. Soon, visible currents enveloped his entire body like tattoos. This was his battle force.

Lu Yin raised his palms into the air, activating the Skybeast Claw technique. A bestial roar caused the void to tremble as the Ninety Sixth form of Skybeast Claw swept down upon Uro.

With a loud bang, the Skybeast Claw was easily shattered as Uro swiped at Lu Yin. The Area Master’s star energy then soared out from his palm as it transformed into a scorching wave of flames. The high temperature instantly scorched the ground black as it radiated in all directions.

Lu Yin took a step back as a silver shadow slid past him. Silver’s butterfly knife flashed and the star energy flames from Uro’s palm rushed towards the knife, attempting to deflect it, but they were unable to do so. A look of astonishment shot through Uro’s eyes and he forcefully changed the direction of his palm strike, slapping the ground. At the same time, his battle force surged and forced Silver to retreat.

From above Uro’s head, Lulu released a loud yell as she pounded down with a heavy fist.

Uro narrowed his eyes and evaded her attack, causing her to strike the ground. But then, starting from Lulu’s fist, the entire valley split in half, visibly shocking Uro.

“Don’t run!” Lulu cried out. She snapped out with her leg, revealing a slender calf that carried a tremendous strength within it. While her leg looked deceptively fragile, Uro didn’t dare to underestimate the girl’s physique after just witnessing the strength of her fist. He lifted his leg to counter her kick. Since both legs were charged with battle force, a violent explosion rang out, nearly deafening everyone’s ears.

Uro and Lulu both retreated at the same time.

Uro was shocked by how powerful these strange people who had just appeared out of nowhere were. They all had the strength to rival an Area Master. Could it be that another academy is trying to snatch this training ground in the Dao of Purgatory away?

After receiving the diligent instruction of Astral-10’s few mentors over the past four months, all of the students had seen their abilities rise meteorically. They were no longer the green, inexperienced novices that they had been before. Even Lu Yin was stunned by his fellow students’ improvements as their natural talents that already allowed them to fight those above their levels had been amplified even further.

It could be said that the gains that Astral-10’s students had made over the past few months equaled what students from the other branches of the Astral Combat Academy would need several years to attain. After all, the other academies did not have dedicated mentors who would personally instruct the students. Being admitted to Astral-10 had indeed been an exceptional bit of good luck for them.