Ye Ge smiled and said, "I know a bit more than you do. I can barely get news from that circle. Willow has allied with the strongest in our academy, Paris, and Bai Lie. They're currently investigating the cause of this planet's evolution. They might have already gone to the capital city, a place we cannot set foot in. As for me, I only need to secure an area and discover a mineral deposit. There's no need to fight those monsters."
"Bai Lie? The Bai Lie from the Third Gravity Planet?" Granny exclaimed, her face turning pale.
Ye Ge's eyes grew serious. "Exactly. Bai Lie, renowned among the younger generation of the Great Universe Empire, who nearly joined the Youth Council. His combat power is three thousand, peak explorer level."
Lu Yin was surprised. He hadn't expected that these students were not unprepared—they had already quietly assigned tasks. Only the top-tier strong would undertake missions. Asta and Auden belonged to the lowest level; Granny barely qualified as Tres' level; Ye Ge was in this tier too. The top-level strong weren't even in Su Province—they were near the capital city, where the harshest trials took place.
"As far as I know, there are three top teams in the Huaxia region on this planet. One is Bai Lie's team; the other two I don't know exactly, but they must also consist of the strongest from various academies. These monsters are strong enough to rival the second batch of trial students soon to arrive. Their true goal isn't the planetary trials—it's the legendary Territory Trials, which for now are only a warm-up," Ye Ge said solemnly.
Granny fell silent. She knew too little, far beneath their level.
"That's enough. I've told you all you need to know. The time has come," Ye Ge suddenly said.
Granny was puzzled. "What time?"
Ye Ge chuckled strangely. "The time that will make you happy."
Granny looked at Ye Ge's smile and felt a chill. She glanced at her teacup. "Did you poison the tea?"
"Of course not. Poisoning isn't that easy; personal terminals can detect substances to some degree. I put in something good—Qianggong Powder," Ye Ge said, pulling a crystal vial from the Condensed Air Ring, decorated with three green leaves.
Granny gasped. "A potion from Clover Company? What's Qianggong Powder?"
Ye Ge grinned proudly. "You can try to activate your internal energy."
Lu Yin placed a hand on Granny's shoulder. "Don't move rashly." Then he looked at Ye Ge. "Qianggong Powder is a potion for Fusion Realm cultivators that instantly unleashes all their star energy for tremendous power. Explorers using it will drain their star energy and suffer severe backlash injuries. Am I right?"
Ye Ge was surprised. "You actually know? By the way, you said your grandfather is the principal? You have some background, then."
Lu Yin's gaze turned cold. "Cultivators below Fusion Realm can't mobilize star energy after taking Qianggong Powder. Why would you spend so much to consume it? What are you planning?"
Ye Ge put away the crystal vial arrogantly. "Jinling is a good place, holding a unique status in this country. Taking Jinling will make me shine even brighter. Besides," he said greedily eyeing Granny, "I've long wanted to taste the beauties of the Imperial Academy of Affairs."
Granny stepped back, face pale, angry. "Despicable."
Ye Ge laughed. "Despicable? How can you say that? I'm giving you a tonic. It's your own weakness that it doesn't help."
In a corner, two students from Lanshan Academy twisted and made noises.
Ye Ge glanced over, frowned. "Worthless things. Still want me to save you?" Saying this, he waved his hand, and a fierce wind tore the iron chains binding the two students.
They shouted anxiously, "Senior, be careful!"
Ye Ge turned, eyes narrowing. Suddenly, a powerful impact coupled with intense pressure blasted him out of the military camp, smashing him into the wasteland behind. Lu Yin leapt forward, raised his hand, the air rippling. With a downward palm strike, a terrifying shockwave smashed the ground. Ye Ge was hit again and fell to the ground. He barely raised his hands to block but was still slammed underground, breaking both arms. He spat blood, then fainted.
Lu Yin landed coldly on the ground, watching Ye Ge with indifference. The Wave Palm and Rift Sky Palm required only physical strength to execute, no star energy needed.
Outside the camp, countless Evolvers surrounded the scene, shocked as they watched Ye Ge barely alive, not daring to move.
Lu Yin gave them a cold glance, then turned his gaze to the two students from Lanshan Academy. Their faces were pale, and they stood quietly without moving.
Granny breathed a sigh of relief but was even more shocked. Although she knew how powerful the Rift Sky Palm was, she hadn't expected it to utterly crush Ye Ge. Lu Yin's sheer physical strength alone was enough to fight against the top three strongest fighters from the various academies—his progress was astonishingly fast.
"I'm asking you, is the Wild Wind Crystal real or not?" Lu Yin asked the two students. He had asked them before, and their answers matched Ye Ge's, but now Lu Yin didn't believe it.
The two students exchanged glances and whispered, "The Wild Wind Crystal does exist, but the mutated bird flock is not easy to deal with. There's a huge monster bird there that might have reached the Fusion Realm. One of our classmates died under the claws of that monster bird."
Granny glared at Ye Ge with resentment. She had no desire to provoke a Fusion Realm expert.
"In half an hour, the effects of the medicine inside their bodies will wear off. Then take these people back to Jinling," Lu Yin said to Granny and then walked out of the military camp.
Feng Hong and several other ten-thousand-man commanders were already waiting outside. A group of Evolvers from Anhui, controlled by Ye Ge, stood there. These Evolvers didn't mourn Ye Ge's death; rather, they were relieved. Ye Ge's rule over them was solely based on strength.
"Release them. Those willing to join the penal camp can stay; those who don't want to, let them leave," Lu Yin said.
Feng Hong nodded and quickly began to make arrangements.
Shortly after, Feng Hong returned and said quietly, "Sorry, Hidden Sage, you had to come save us again."
Lu Yin smiled. "They are Heavenly-level experts. It couldn't be helped. Tell me how the surrounding cleanup is going."
"Yes, from Jinling to Yuxiang, most of the zombies have been cleared out, and some mutated beasts too. But we can't clean them all; the mutated beasts are very strong. We had to mark some of their territories on the map as a warning. To the west lies Anhui—the Heavenly-level expert came from that direction..." Feng Hong reported.
Lu Yin listened for a while, then dismissed Feng Hong.
He realized he had been mistaken about the direction. During that assault on the city with firearms, he saw Liu Tiange's eyes full of intense ambition. Before the students arrived, Liu Tiange knew little about the starry sky; his ambition was limited to this land. But now, as students appeared more frequently, he had learned about the starry sky. Would his vision still be limited to Earth?
Lu Yin was certain that Liu Tiange wouldn't easily submit to anyone. Wucheng was probably marked as blue for the same reasons as Jinling. He had suppressed the students and learned everything about the starry sky. For Huaxia—or Earth—he surely had little affection. His ambitions would shift to the starry sky. Meanwhile, Lu Yin was still fixated on using the penal camp to attack Wucheng, which was far too narrow-minded.
Using the penal camp to get from Anhui to Wucheng in Hubei would take too long and certainly cost many lives. Moreover, everything would have changed by then. The second batch of trial students would arrive, bringing huge uncertainties. Things would never proceed as Lu Yin wished. Liu Tiange might not even withstand the second batch's assault.
Lu Yin exhaled and looked westward. He decided to temporarily set aside his hatred for Liu Tiange and focus on that corpse. He had a mission, and the students' mission could also be the Earthlings' mission. Once he completed it, combined with his previous arrangements, entering the Tenth Academy of the starry sky wouldn't be impossible.
Half an hour later, Granny dragged Ye Ge and two others out. The two students were tied up again. Ye Ge was in worse shape, his internal organs severely damaged by Lu Yin's strike—moving was extremely difficult.
Lu Yin casually removed Ye Ge's Condensed Air Ring and used his bloodline code to unlock it, dumping out all its contents.
Ye Ge was just a student with nothing valuable—only a few Wild Wind Crystals, some unknown potions, and dozens of star energy crystals. Lu Yin kept everything useful. "Let's go back to Jinling."
Granny nodded obediently and followed Lu Yin.
Most of the arrivals around Jinling were students from the Great Universe Empire's First Military Academy and Lanshan Combat Academy—either dead or captured, with one taken over by Lu Yin. Before the second batch of trial students appeared, Jinling should be relatively stable.
Lu Yin's only concern was the silver-haired man, the first person to make Lu Yin feel a chilling threat, and the only one to completely block the Heavenly Star Palm. His strength far surpassed Ye Ge and Tres.
Lu Yin had asked Granny if she recognized that man, but she was completely clueless.
In Jinling, Lu Yin formally requested permission from Zhoushan to travel to the capital city.