The silver-haired man stepped back, admiring, "No wonder he's the first of the Seven Saints. Until we meet again." With that, he suddenly dashed toward the distance, attempting to escape.
Zhang Dingtian spun around and slashed with his sword, but was shocked to see the silver-haired man rushing at Bai Xue. His blade forcibly stopped the attack.
Bai Xue raised one hand toward the silver-haired man; a chilling aura enveloped the sky as solid ice spread from the void. She intended to freeze this entire area.
The silver-haired man sneered, easily tearing through the solid ice with his butterfly knife, then slashed toward Bai Xue's neck. Bai Xue was unable to defend, helplessly watching the blade come at her. At the critical moment, Lu Yin appeared before Bai Xue using his Body Wandering Step. He raised his palm and struck out. The silver-haired man was surprised; his butterfly knife turned to face Lu Yin. The white light clashed with the Heavenly Star Palm again, shaking the void and shattering stars. The terrifying shockwave forced Bai Xue back, and the ground cracked instantly, with countless energy waves scattering in all directions.
Dust and smoke blanketed the land.
Soon, as the dust settled, only Lu Yin remained on site. The silver-haired man had vanished.
The assassination happened quickly—no more than ten seconds passed from Zhang Dingtian's injury to the silver-haired man's departure. The surrounding troops had not yet reacted before it was over.
Bai Xue's gaze was stunned. In that instant, she had felt the approach of death. The beautiful butterfly knife had easily pierced her defenses. That cold gleam was truly lethal. Since achieving the status of the Seven Saints, she had never experienced such a dire crisis.
Lu Yin stepped out of the shallow pit and looked at Bai Xue. "Are you okay?"
Bai Xue shook her head, her expression complex. "Thank you."
Lu Yin turned toward Zhang Dingtian. "You're injured."
Zhang Dingtian touched his neck. "It's nothing serious."
Only then did the surrounding troops arrive and were shocked to see Zhang Dingtian wounded. He was Zhang Dingtian—the first of the Seven Saints. That he could be injured was unbelievable.
"How did you get here?" Zhang Dingtian asked, looking at Lu Yin with suspicion.
Lu Yin glanced at his palm. "Curiosity. I want to know who the culprit is."
Zhang Dingtian replied calmly, "It's that person."
"I know," Lu Yin answered, glancing at the wound on Zhang Dingtian's neck, frowning. He had witnessed the silver-haired man's assassination attempt on Zhang Dingtian. Undeniably, Zhang Dingtian was impressive. Without using footwork or combat skills, he managed to evade a close-range stabbing. Lu Yin admitted that if it had been him, he wouldn't have done any better.
What Lu Yin wanted to know most was how the silver-haired man concealed his aura. Ordinary students could hide their aura to avoid personal terminal detection, but Zhang Dingtian was so close and still didn't detect him. That was terrifying. Such an assassination left few survivors.
"Why did that person try to kill you?" Bai Xue asked, puzzled.
Zhang Dingtian squinted. "I don't know. I've never met him. There's only one possibility—he doesn't want the corpse tide to be slaughtered."
Lu Yin's heart sank. Today's assassination confirmed his previous suspicions: the silver-haired man was connected to the Corpse King. He didn't care about the mission but cared about the Corpse King. That was hard to understand. This person was unpredictable.
Although Zhang Dingtian guessed some of this, he couldn't learn more. One assassination alone didn't yield useful intelligence.
"Order the troops—eliminate the corpse tide day and night for the next 24 hours," Zhang Dingtian suddenly commanded.
People like the silver-haired man were impossible to capture. Zhang Dingtian sealed off the news of the assassination and intensified the corpse tide eradication. Many evolvers who hadn't joined the Hua Camp were forcibly recruited to leave the city and hunt zombies.
Time passed quickly. One month remained before the arrival of the second batch of trial participants.
During this time, Europe was embroiled in intense fighting, but no trace of the fugitives was found. Just when exactly one month remained before the second batch's arrival, Lu Yin's left-hand personal terminal beeped, forcibly receiving an email.
"Dear students, the safety period has ended. The trial officially begins. From now on, personal terminal locations cannot be turned off and will be synchronized on the starry sky network map. Please complete your tasks promptly. Wishing you good fortune in battle."
This email made the trial even more brutal.
The first batch of trial participants had landed two months ago. Those two months were the so-called safety period, during which everyone could conceal their strength or secretly mine precious ores and herbs to improve their scores. But once the safety period ended, everyone's location would be clearly marked unless they discarded their personal terminals.
Lu Yin exhaled and gazed up at the starry sky. This was the real trial—no one could hide. The two-month period was not only a safety window for the students but also an opportunity for Earthlings to seize the trial participants' resources. This was fairness—the so-called fairness of the universe.
At the moment Asta died, his personal terminal lost connection to the starry sky network. But now, the network had established a local area network (LAN) for Asta's terminal. This LAN was a model of Earth, showing the locations of all first-batch trial participants on the globe.
"Quite a few people," Lu Yin murmured. The dozens of meteors he saw in Jinling were only a portion. There were over a hundred trial students across Asia alone, plus others in Europe, Africa, the Americas, and even places like Antarctica.
Currently, Europe had the highest concentration, with more than a hundred people gathered in a small area near the Mediterranean.
At that moment, a line of text appeared at the top of the LAN map: "Earth's Tianzhu Ascetic defeats Haidian."
Lu Yin was surprised. They even announced the battle results?
At the same time, many trial students were shocked. Haidian was not weak—he was the strongest in the academy—but he was defeated by a native Earthling. This shook many students, especially those like Granny, who found it unimaginable. To them, the academy's strongest were almost unbeatable, yet someone had already fallen at the very start of the trial. This made them take the trial far more seriously than ever before.
The Dayu Empire held trials periodically, but rarely did the academy's strongest get defeated. If Earth were a normal planet evolving naturally, its strongest would never reach the Probe realm, let alone be defeated. So Haidian's loss was hard to believe.
Soon after, another notification appeared: "Erd defeats Earth's Tianzhu Ascetic."
Lu Yin was puzzled—why were Erd and Haidian both in Tianzhu?
At that moment, Granny hurried over to Lu Yin. "The trial officially began. The LAN not only shows everyone's locations but also allows communication. You knew that, right?"
Lu Yin's heart sank. "We can communicate?"
Granny nodded. "Trial students come from all over the Dayu Empire, which is vast, and most of us didn't know each other in the first two months. But now with the LAN open, we can contact each other. Just now, a message was released saying fugitives left something important in Huaxia's capital and must return to find it."
Lu Yin's eyes sharpened. "Who sent that message?"
Granny shook her head. "Don't know. The LAN only detects personal terminal locations. It can't tell who used the terminal."
Lu Yin ran through the possibilities in his mind. Only the Seven Saints knew the fugitives had something in the capital— even the dean and himself, but not Erd. Now that the message was out, Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue would surely suspect him.
Suddenly, surging energy swept across the land. Lu Yin immediately leapt into the air and saw the sharp gazes of Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue.
"I didn't send the message," Lu Yin said.
Zhang Dingtian fixed his eyes on Lu Yin. "Make me believe that."
Lu Yin narrowed his eyes and whispered to Granny, "Send an anonymous message saying the fugitives' item is hidden in Tianzhu. That's why Erd and Haidian appeared there. Only the Tianzhu Ascetic could defeat Haidian."
Granny responded and quickly did as instructed.
Zhang Dingtian said sternly, "This trick won't last long."
Lu Yin stared at Zhang Dingtian. "I'm just showing good faith. Believe it or not, up to you."
Zhang Dingtian took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his long sword. Lu Yin was the only outsider who knew the secret. He wanted to control him, but Lu Yin's strength was not weak. Zhang Dingtian wasn't confident.
Bai Xue spoke up, "Lu Yin, let us inspect your personal terminal."
Lu Yin was furious and sneered arrogantly, "Who do you think you are? If you're so capable, come and take it yourself."
"You—" Bai Xue was outraged. She only wanted to prove Lu Yin's innocence since he had saved her life, but this guy was so infuriating and ungrateful.
"Nine people know this secret. I'm in the capital. To be blunt, even if I had ill intentions, I'd keep them to myself. Only an idiot would leak the message. Think carefully before mindlessly accusing me," Lu Yin said coldly.