Granny shook her head. "No. The planet we were originally meant to conduct our trial on is very far from Earth."
Lu Yin hadn't expected this piece of information. So Earth's evolution wasn't brought by the Dayu Empire but occurred internally? A fugitive, Neptune—could it be that corpse?
"What's the fugitive's identity?" Lu Yin asked.
Granny coughed a few times. "I... I don't know. His identity is top secret. No one knows his appearance or name."
"Then how are you supposed to find him?" Lu Yin asked again.
"That's the task. A trial mission is never simple," Granny replied.
"Even if you did find him, with your students' strength, could you really capture him?" Lu Yin was puzzled.
"He escaped from the Innerverse to the Outerverse and was already severely wounded. It's impossible for him to retain any strength above the Fusion Realm. Plus, all of his possessions were destroyed—he has no survival tools left," Granny answered.
Ten minutes later, Granny was released. Lu Yin ordered someone to help her bathe and treat her injuries.
For a whole day, Granny didn't appear before Lu Yin. It wasn't until the afternoon of the next day that she finally met with him.
Though the past half month had been tormenting for her, apart from her right shoulder, the rest of her injuries had healed. That was the power of universal healing medicines.
When they met again, Lu Yin brought Granny to an open field on Mount Zhong. "Aside from your shoulder, you've recovered. So, what do you think? Want to try defeating me? Let me have a taste of what it's like to be imprisoned?"
Granny glared at Lu Yin, her wrists and ankles still bound by iron chains.
Lu Yin smiled. "Don't pretend. With your strength, these can't hold you."
Clang! Granny broke free from the chains. A sharp pain pierced her right arm. Her face paled, and she exhaled. "I said I'd help you."
Lu Yin pulled out the energy gun that once belonged to Tres from his waist and tossed it on the ground. "Without this energy gun, you shouldn't be so wary anymore, right?"
Granny looked in surprise at the energy gun Lu Yin had casually thrown to the ground. That gun was Tres's life-saving weapon—enough to threaten even a Seeker Realm expert. It was also the reason she feared Lu Yin. And now he had given it up willingly?
"Come on. You can try to defeat me. If you win, Jinling is yours. You can even get your revenge. Sounds great, doesn't it?" Lu Yin provoked her.
Granny's eyes lit up. She flipped her long hair and charged at Lu Yin. She was ready to go all out. Even with only one functioning arm, she was confident that while she might not be able to defeat this man easily, at the very least, she could fight him to a draw. She wasn't some fledgling Seeker Realm cultivator.
As she neared Lu Yin, sparks flew from her sliding feet. Her left palm slashed forward, and the sparks condensed—"Blazing Flame Palm!"
Lu Yin watched the attack and evaded it easily with a graceful movement step. He casually threw out a flame crystal. "That's not enough fire—try again."
Granny was surprised but didn't hesitate. Since she had already made her move, she had to go all out. The crystal shattered, unleashing a pillar of roaring flames. Granny leapt through the flames, her left palm rotating, the fire seemingly taking on a will of its own and gathering at her palm. A deeper, more intense flame formed, which she struck toward Lu Yin.
Lu Yin's eyes narrowed. He stepped back half a pace and raised his right palm. Stars appeared above his hand. He met her palm with a strike of his own—Heavenly Star Palm.
Boom!
A shockwave split the earth. Heatwaves surged, and the flames shot into the sky before erupting. Countless sparks burst outward.
The intense shockwave exploded between the two. Then, Granny spat out a mouthful of blood, her body sent flying before crashing heavily onto the ground. She coughed up blood again.
Lu Yin hadn't moved an inch. Not even his expression had changed.
Back when he was still at the Vision Realm, he could use the Heavenly Star Palm to seriously injure Tres. Now, with both him and Granny at the Seeker Realm and their combat power not far apart, the palm strike was even more powerful. The only reason Granny wasn't dead was because Lu Yin had held back.
Granny collapsed on the ground, staring at Lu Yin in disbelief. "How... how is this possible?"
Granny was well aware of the formidable power behind this man's palm technique. He had managed to defeat her Flaming Palm shortly after breaking through to the Explorer realm. However, at that time, she was still injured and unable to exert her full strength. Just now, she had unleashed her Flaming Palm with full force, yet she couldn't even make him take a single step back.
The surrounding troops from the Punishment Camp quickly arrived but were dismissed by Lu Yin.
Lu Yin walked step by step toward Granny. "Still thinking of resisting?"
Blood trickled from the corner of Granny's mouth, her beautiful face pale. "What kind of battle technique is that?"
Lu Yin sneered, "Triple—Wave Palm."
"Impossible! That's not the Wave Palm," Granny said weakly.
Lu Yin chuckled as he picked up the energy gun. "Haven't you heard the legend? A powerful warrior once shattered stars with a hundredfold Wave Palm. Defeating you with a triple Wave Palm is effortless."
Granny was still immersed in shock and disbelief. Someone she could once easily suppress had now turned the tables and defeated her with ease—it was hard to accept.
"Go heal yourself. From now on, you're my personal bodyguard," Lu Yin said with a smile, glancing at Granny before turning to leave.
Granny felt bitter and spat out blood again. No wonder this bastard had let her make a move; he had intended to subdue her.
Back in his residence, Lu Yin was excited. Although his combat power was only 1,500, with the Heavenly Star Palm, even if Tres exerted his full strength, he wouldn't be a match. He finally had the means to protect himself.
Lu Yin instructed Xu San to guard outside and announced his seclusion.
Inside a sealed training room within Mount Zhong, he took out a star energy crystal and crushed it. He didn't absorb it but instead retrieved the die.
Since its last use, the die had remained dim. Lu Yin had observed it several times and noticed its glow gradually returning, albeit very slowly. He speculated that it might require star energy.
As soon as the die was taken out, the star energy permeating the training room surged toward it, being absorbed. The dim glow on its surface gradually returned. Lu Yin continued to take out star energy crystals one after another, and the die's glow kept restoring. Finally, when only one star energy crystal remained, it had returned to its original appearance from the first time it appeared.
It was enveloped in a hazy starlight.
Lu Yin wiped the sweat from his forehead. This thing consumed an enormous amount of star energy. He calculated that the combined star energy crystals from Granny and Tres, plus the energy it had absorbed over these days, amounted to nearly half a cubic meter. This didn't even include the burst of energy from his breakthrough to the Explorer realm. If all were accounted for, it might require a full cubic meter of star energy crystals.
It's worth noting that the star energy crystals Tres brought for the trial were already his limit. Even a wealthy student couldn't obtain a full cubic meter of star energy crystals, highlighting their preciousness. This die consumed that much each time it was used.
Lu Yin felt he might be very poor in the future and needed to find ways to get rich; otherwise, he couldn't afford to use it.
He would never give up the die. The first use had granted him the Heaven Star Technique, a heaven-defying method. Who knew what it might bring in the future? The key point was that there were no side effects, and no one knew he had taken it—no, acquired it. To many, this thing was a cheat device.
Even if it required ten or a hundred cubic meters of star energy, he would still use it. At worst, he could resort to robbery.
Lu Yin looked at the die floating in mid-air, swallowed hard, and rubbed his hands together. "Come on, it's time to test my luck. I hope it brings me something good this time." Saying this, he gently tapped the die as if in a sacred ritual. Immediately, the die spun rapidly, and finally, the numbers on five faces disappeared, leaving only one face—four.
"Four?" Lu Yin was puzzled. Before he could think further, the environment around him changed dramatically. The training room was gone, Mount Zhong was gone. He saw an endless gray-white space with no end in sight. Looking up, there was infinite darkness; beneath his feet was a floor of unknown material, seemingly very sturdy. Behind him, a set of numbers slowly changed: 259200, 259199, 259198...
A strange understanding of this space's purpose emerged in Lu Yin's mind. This was the—Time-Stopped Space.
Lu Yin was shocked; it was unbelievable. Time-stopped? He had only heard of such a concept in legends. His die actually had this function? Four points allowed him to stay in the Time-Stopped Space for three days. The changing numbers represented seconds, meaning that even after staying here until the last second, no time would have passed in the outside world.
Looking at the slowly changing numbers, Lu Yin exhaled. Was his talent perhaps a bit too terrifying?
Shaking his head to dismiss distracting thoughts, he raised his hand, and the die appeared again. This time, however, it had become dim once more.
Lu Yin now understood why using this thing consumed so much star energy. At this moment, he felt that perhaps the star energy consumed was too little compared to the value of this space.
He took out the last star energy crystal and tossed it toward the changing numbers. Immediately, the crystal turned into a stream of light and disappeared, while the numbers increased by five seconds. Lu Yin's face twitched. Five seconds? That's too little, he thought, feeling quite speechless.