Dragon Eight’s body suddenly shook and split into two. Lu Yin dismissed it as extreme speed and was about to attack, but his eyes quickly narrowed as it split again into five total bodies. How was this possible? This wasn’t just a normal speed technique, it had to be an innate gift of speed! He looked for a way out, but the dragons attacked from all directions and sealed off his escape routes.
Forced to face the opponent directly, he gritted his teeth and activated the Cosmic Art, six full stars and the hints of a seventh appearing around him. He could see Dragon Eight’s movements clearly once more, noticing the one actual body among the five. His alarm faded away in an instant; the Cosmic Art was the bane of high speed. Dragon Eight’s enormous eyes shuddered as it saw the Cosmic Palm; how could this human actually find its body? However, the question didn’t last long. The attack landed square on its head, knocking it out in an instant.
A panting Lu Yin grew thrilled when he realized he’d won. Three consecutive victories; he’d completed the hardest Sentinel mission! He was warped back to the teleportation stone, seeing that Michelle had been joined by Coco, Hui Daynight, and Little Pao. However, he savored his victory and entered battle once more; he wanted to try and get four consecutive wins. With his current ability, a bit of good luck was all he needed.
However, his heart dropped when he saw his sixteenth opponent. Or rather, when he saw the one sword that the opponent swung at him. There was nothing after; he had been defeated before he could even glance at their codename.
This was definitely a powerhouse who was at least an Explorer, a fact that left Lu Yin aggravated. Luck was of the utmost importance here; some strong people could have horrible results while a Sentinel like him had consecutive wins. As he walked out of the teleportation stone, he heard the old Trialmaster’s voice, “Lu Yin, seven victories to 18 defeats.”
Michelle was stunned when she realized what that meant, and Hui Daynight clenched his fists as well. His own record was 3-52; how could this mere ant surpass him?
Coco was the first to speak, “Brother Lu, your results are amazing! Darkvoid and Michelle are the best of us, but they still only win one every four and five times. You win one in three!”
Lu Yin walked over and patter her head, “It’s just good luck.”
“How many Sentinels did you encounter?” Hui asked coldly.
“Hmm… Three.”
“Huh. It really is just good luck.”
Lu Yin didn’t bother to explain to the sneering youth. The Daynight Clan was definitely powerful, but Hui was mediocre at best. He would have won in a fight even back when they first joined Astral-10, and that victory would now be instant.
“Brother Lu, are you injured? Do you need treatment?” Coco asked hopefully.
An image of the huge syringe immediately appeared in Lu Yin’s mind and he shook his head quickly, “No thanks, ported battles aren’t real.”
Little Pao walked up behind the disappointed Coco, “Congratulations on completing the most difficult Sentinel mission, Junior Lu. Three consecutive victories is an amazing feat!”
Hui’s expression turned even darker, but Lu Yin just smiled, “I have good luck; I couldn’t lose if I wanted to.”
Little Pao smiled, “I wouldn’t believe that for a second. Anyone capable of entering ported battles is definitely an elite, a genius in the Outerverse if not the Innerverse. Some of them are even famous already; if they were easy enough to beat, the mission would have been completed long ago. But I have to congratulate you; keep up the good work and try to get to thirty consecutive wins.”
“Thirty? Is there any special reward for that, Senior?” Coco asked.
“Yes. Thirty consecutive wins give you the right to challenge the Astral Top 100.”
Lu Yin’s eyes gleamed. The Astral Top 100 listed the most powerful youths in the entire universe; this was the same ranking that Wendy Yushan had reached the top 20 of. Anyone who could get on this list would be renowned across the universe and had an easy opportunity to join the Ten Arbiters’ Council. A single word from them could determine the future of entire planets; it was much more powerful and prestigious than the title of King Zishan.
Coco stuck her tongue out, “I don’t want to go near the Astral Top 100, those people are insane.”
Little Pao laughed, “Well, one should always have a goal. For you guys, it should be the New Student Competition. I was sent to tell you that it will be held in a month, and the reward for the champion is quite unusual too.”
“What is it?” Coco asked expectantly.
“It’s a secret,” Little Pao put a finger to his lips, leaving the girl disappointed.
Meanwhile, Michelle glanced at Lu Yin before entering the ported battles herself. Lu Yin himself bid farewell to Little Pao and Coco to head to the treasury where the reward awaited him. Some of the Astral Combat Academy’s missions were restricted to specific academies, while others were public to all ten. Those missions were generally quite difficult to complete and would cause a commotion across the entire Astral Combat Academy when they were finished. The most difficult Sentinel mission was to obtain three consecutive victories in teleportation battles, and it was public. This had been Hart Phoenix’s goal, but he’d been defeated by Lu Yin in his third match. The mission was also removed once Lu Yin completed it.
Astral-9.
“Someone actually finished the top Sentinel mission? And they’re from Astral-10, too; they might be making a comeback.”
“Bull. They’re in the Frostwave Weave, could there possibly be any geniuses so remote? Someone powerful from the Innerverse must have joined them.”
Astral-5.
“Junior Hart’s mission was just completed by a… Lu Yin, I think? He must be a real talent to get three wins in a row.”
“It’s a pity that he’s from Astral-10, his potential will definitely be wasted there.”
Astral-1.
“The top Sentinel mission? What a joke, this mission was only hanging around because some people didn’t want to draw attention. It seems narrow-minded for Astral-10 to look for recognition this way.”
“Don’t say that. We still have to give them some respect, even if they’re driven out.” A gorgeous girl nearby turned to look at Lu Yin’s name before leaving.
Back in Astral-10, the old bearded man marveled at Lu Yin so hard that he felt disgusted by the stare. “Tutor, can I get the reward now?”
The old man cackled, “Why so formal, young man? Just call me Old Cai from now.”
Lu Yin raised a brow, “Old Cai?”
Old Cai nodded approvingly, “Not bad, not bad at all. Astral-10 hasn’t done anything impressive in a while. You’re not bad, young man, haha!”
“It’s just good luck,” Lu Yin replied humbly.
Old Cai waved his hand, “Luck is also a part of ability. Alright, here’s your reward. Keep it up and try to finish more public missions, it’ll help us out a lot.”
Lu Yin grabbed the cosmic ring that was thrown towards him and inspected it, finding 10,000 star crystals within and growing excited immediately. He finally had money again! 10,000 star crystals was a sizable figure.
“Your Aurora is at the space station. That thing will require endless resources, just do your best for now,” Old Cai added, giving Lu Yin permission to leave.
Lu Yin promptly headed to the space station, finding one of the Aurora spaceships and registering himself as its owner. Most of the resources in the Astral Combat Academies were sponsored by major economic forces, and the Aurora Space Company was one such supporter. These spaceships looked quite similar to most others—the personal model Lu Yin had gotten was less than three meters across— but they had a special energy converter on them. These things relied on pure energy to jump through space, and rare materials that passed through the converter were assimilated into the spaceship’s structure itself. This was the core feature that made the company famous, but it was rumored to have originated from ancient technology that other companies could not replicate.
The better the quality of the materials someone used on an Aurora, the faster and sturdier the ship would become. That was why Old Cai had said it would require endless resources; the spaceship would need it all to upgrade. However, once upgraded, the Aurora’s functions would far exceed a normal spaceship. Lu Yin had done his research, and all Auroras were at an elementary stage. The addition of the energy converter actually made them slightly worse than most other spaceships, but even at the radiant grade, they were ten times faster than normal spaceships and could defend from a Cruiser’s attacks. Another upgrade would bring them to the black hole grade, where they were 100x the speed of ordinary ships while also capable of blocking Hunter attacks. Their name came from the idea that they could rip right through black holes; they were certainly essential on long journeys.
It was rumored that there was an eon grade even higher up, but Lu Yin didn’t know the specifics of that. The Aurora Space Company’s marketing slogan was that they were flying warpships. That is to say, they could cover in flight what most other spaceships had to use wormholes to cross.