Bai Xue

He had already obtained Teres's Body Sculpting Technique, so he didn't need to worry about breaking through to the Integrating Realm. He could stay for the time being, but the moment he heard anything about that corpse, he would leave immediately. Nothing mattered more than that corpse.

Smoke billowed across the land around Jinling, rising straight into the sky. The fighting never stopped. Every few days, a wave of beasts would inexplicably surge in from the west.

In the sky, flocks of flying Mutant Beasts charged toward the settlement.

Granny flew into the air. Flames filled the sky, condensing into a Flame Palm that shook the heavens and sent sparks flying, drawing gasps of admiration and reverence from countless people.

Lu Yin stood atop the city wall and gazed west. The beast waves had been coming far too frequently these past few days. Had a powerful Mutant Beast appeared?

"Granny, go support the southwest!" Lu Yin shouted.

In the sky, Granny felt aggrieved. She was a prodigy from the stars, yet here she was, being ordered around. She wanted to refuse, but when she saw Lu Yin's cold eyes, she wisely obeyed. A scene from several days earlier came unbidden to mind.

It had been the day after they visited Zhou Shan. Lu Yin had suddenly proposed a spar, promising not to use Wave Palm. Only then had Granny agreed. But the bastard had actually used Void Splitting Palm, nearly crippling her with a single strike. Granny had been so furious that she swore never to spar with him again.

At the same time, she was stunned by Lu Yin's strength. Wave Palm wasn't all that rare, but Void Splitting Palm was completely different. Among people her age, she knew of only one person who could use it: Willow, the strongest student at the Great Yu Empire's First Military Academy. Lu Yin was the second.

Boom!

The Flame Palm slammed into the ground, smashing several powerful Mutant Beasts to pieces. Granny caught her breath.

She also found it strange. There were many Mutant Beasts after the apocalypse, but not all of them attacked humans. Beasts had their own instincts; as long as no one invaded their territory, they rarely came out. That was one of the main reasons so many survivors had managed to stay alive. Yet the beast waves were unusually frequent now.

Roar!

A tremendous howl rang out. Two Mutant Beasts charged at Granny from ahead. She unleashed Flame Palm again and killed them both with a single strike.

On the city wall, Lu Yin frowned. This woman relied too heavily on battle techniques, which was holding back her development. Without Flame Palm, her combat strength would immediately drop by half. He figured she was probably only above average at her academy, nowhere near Teres, and only a little stronger than Aoton.

Suddenly, Lu Yin's eyes widened. "Stop!" he roared, then thrust his palm down through the air. The air was seized and rippled outward before surging toward Granny like a cannon blast.

Granny turned in surprise. When she saw Lu Yin's Void Splitting Palm coming at her, her expression changed drastically. Has this bastard gone mad? He's attacking me! Then she felt a chill at her back. Someone was sneaking up on her. Granny reacted quickly, instinctively bending down. Void Splitting Palm swept past her and struck directly behind her. The air shuddered with a bang, and the tremendous force swept Granny away. Behind her, a man spat out blood and flew backward, crashing into the ground.

Lu Yin leaped into the air and darted toward Granny, glaring at the man sprawled on the ground. He landed in front of her.

Granny let out a breath and looked at Lu Yin with relief. If not for him, she would have been caught off guard. The attacker was also in the Probe Realm. If his sneak attack had landed, she didn't know how badly she might have been hurt—or whether she might even have been killed.

A huge fissure split the ground. Clutching his chest, the man stared at Lu Yin in shock. "V-Void Splitting Palm? How is that possible?"

Lu Yin fixed the man with a cold stare, but his peripheral vision swept across the surroundings. Then his gaze sharpened, and he vanished with Roaming Step, charging into the beast wave. The man shouted, "Run!" But it was too late. A young man hiding beneath a Mutant Beast's belly stared in surprise as Lu Yin reached for him with one hand. He drew a long saber and slashed, but with a clang, the blade snapped. Lu Yin's palm shattered the saber and slammed into the man. The ground crumbled for dozens of meters around them, and spiraling shock waves tore countless Mutant Beasts apart.

With just two strikes, Lu Yin had defeated two people in the Probe Realm, leaving Granny dumbfounded.

She was sure the two men were students. They weren't from the First Military Academy, but anyone who could take part in the trial had to be formidable. And yet they had been defeated so easily. This was Lu Yin's current strength; his actual combat ability far surpassed what his combat rating suggested.

As soon as the two men were defeated, the beast wave strangely retreated.

Lu Yin immediately realized that those two had been behind the beast waves all along.

"Who are you?" Granny shouted at them. She had nearly been ambushed.

The two men glanced at Lu Yin warily but didn't answer.

Lu Yin waved the soldiers away and glared coldly at the pair. "If you don't talk, I'll chop you up and feed you to the Mutant Beasts."

"We're students. You can't be so cruel!" one of the men said fearfully, his face pale.

Lu Yin shrugged. "Sorry, I'm not a student. I'm an Earthling."

"Impossible!" The two exclaimed in unison, then looked at Granny.

Granny remained silent.

The two men were stunned. "How could mere natives defeat us so easily? And how do you know Void Splitting Palm?"

"Enough. Either talk or die," Lu Yin said coldly.

A dozen minutes later, Lu Yin ordered the two men locked up. He contemplated what he'd learned. They were from Blue Mountain Academy in the Great Yu Empire. Blue Mountain Academy was located on a planet teeming with beasts, so they knew a little about beast taming, but could only control weak Mutant Beasts. As for their attack on Jinling, just like Granny and the others, they wanted to seize the city.

Unlike Granny, though, the two men had people backing them—and those people were not far from Jinling, in Anhui.

"Why didn't you kill them?" Granny asked angrily. "They were trying to take Jinling."

Lu Yin looked at her. "Then you go kill them."

Granny was taken aback and turned away. "I can't bring myself to."

"Trials may not forbid killing, but too much bloodshed isn't good either. Don't try to play tricks in front of me again. This is the first time, and it'll be the last." With that, Lu Yin turned and walked away.

Granny watched Lu Yin's retreating figure and pursed her lips, thinking it was a shame. She'd wanted to make Lu Yin the target of everyone's hostility so she could escape his control, but it hadn't worked. The bastard was smarter than she'd expected.

"Boss, the beast wave has retreated!" Xu San said excitedly, his little eyes shining.

Lu Yin glanced at him and immediately knew what he was thinking. "Have you used up the Energy Crystals I gave you?"

Xu San said sheepishly, "I used them all up. I've gotten a lot stronger."

"Don't rush to break through to the Heaven Level. You don't have the ability yet. For now, focus on refining the energy inside you."

"Okay, boss." Xu San could feel Lu Yin's concern.

As for Lu Yin, he didn't want Xu San's potential worn away by absorbing too many impurities. That would make him worthless. Many major powers had ways to disperse all the energy in someone's body and start cultivating from scratch. Xu San was valuable enough for those powers to go to such lengths, but the higher his strength, the greater the price they'd have to pay—and the less they'd be willing to pay for him. So the stronger Xu San became, the less Lu Yin would be able to get for him in the future. The Earth Level was just right; as long as he could protect himself, that was enough.

Zhou Shan had recovered considerably from his injuries. Lu Yin had given him some of Granny's healing medicine.

"What are you planning to do with those two aliens?" Zhou Shan asked.

"Keep them locked up for now. They could be useful. You can interrogate them too; it would be good to learn more about the aliens."

Zhou Shan nodded. "I heard they're from Anhui?"

"That's right in the direction we're heading. We might as well deal with them along the way."

"The direction we're heading? I've always wondered why you keep wanting to go west." Zhou Shan looked puzzled.

Lu Yin looked at Zhou Shan. "Want the truth?"

"Obviously."

"I need to go to Hubei and see someone," Lu Yin said calmly.

"Hubei? A relative of yours?" Zhou Shan asked, puzzled.

Lu Yin smiled. "Something like that."

Zhou Shan nodded. "All right. You saved Jinling, so if you say we're going west, then west it is. By the way, if we really make it to Hubei, that could work out well. We could link up with Liu Shaoge's Wu City and join forces against the aliens."

Lu Yin's gaze flickered. "Liu Shaoge? Saint of Light? How is he?"

"What do you mean, how is he? His strength or his personality?"

"I'm curious about both," Lu Yin said with a smile.

"To be honest, I don't know him that well either. We worked together once, but we didn't interact much. The person who knows Liu Shaoge best is probably Luo Saint Bai Xue. From what I've heard, the two of them seem to have been involved."

Lu Yin frowned, then relaxed. "Involved? Were they married?"

"No, I think they liked each other," Zhou Shan said uncertainly. Then he grinned at Lu Yin. "Have you ever seen Bai Xue?"

Lu Yin shook his head.

Zhou Shan lifted his head toward the sky and pointed at the clouds. "Bai Xue. That's what she's like."

Lu Yin followed Zhou Shan's gaze upward, looking rather confused.

"Bai Xue—like a lotus rising from clear water, naturally beautiful and unadorned. The goddess of the Luo River, as lovely as a painting." Zhou Shan sighed.

Lu Yin stared at Zhou Shan as though he'd seen a ghost. "You know how to use idioms?"