"Why go to Capital City? The apocalypse has come. Everywhere is the same," Zhou Shan said, puzzled.
Lu Yin didn't mention the mission. He only said, "I want to uncover the truth behind the apocalypse—and find that corpse."
Zhou Shan shook his head. "There's no need. That massive explosion turned everything within dozens of miles outside Capital City to dust. Although the apocalypse came after the explosion, people went to investigate the site right away. They found nothing. Do you really think there's any point in investigating now, after all this time?"
Lu Yin said gravely, "Whether it helps or not, I'm going."
Zhou Shan sighed and gazed at the outskirts of Jinling City with a complicated expression. "I can't stop you from going, but I hope you'll come back to Jinling if you don't find anything."
Lu Yin nodded. "I will."
Zhou Shan took an ID card from inside his clothes. "This is my ID from the national army, and it's also my token. The Seven Saints made an agreement back then: whoever sees this card can treat it as if they were seeing me in person. Take it to Capital City and find Zhang Ding Tian. Ask him to help you."
"Zhang Ding Tian? One of the Seven Saints?" Lu Yin asked, confused. He didn't know much about the Seven Saints. Communication had been intermittent since the apocalypse, and he'd focused all his attention on Liu Tiange. If he hadn't come to Jinling, he wouldn't even have known that Saint of Punishment was named Zhou Shan. As for the Seven Saint in Capital City, he only knew him as Blade Saint.
At the mention of Zhang Ding Tian, an inscrutable look appeared on Zhou Shan's face. "Lu Yin, I know you're strong now, strong enough to suppress the aliens, but I still have to tell you this: don't underestimate the Seven Saints, and don't judge them by my strength. Especially the Upper Three Saints. Zhang Ding Tian is one of them, and he's widely recognized as—first among the Seven Saints."
Lu Yin was surprised. First among the Seven Saints? That was no ordinary title.
Zhou Shan said solemnly, "After that corpse was brought back to Earth, Huaxia secretly selected countless people, hoping they could inherit some of its legacy. In the end, the seven Saints were the ones who succeeded, and Zhang Ding Tian is recognized by all of them as the strongest. His blade can suppress anything. Those students are strong, but I absolutely refuse to believe that anyone at the same level could defeat Zhang Ding Tian. Even Luo Saint Bai Xue, proud as she is, wouldn't compare herself to him. Many people call him Blade Saint, but his full title is—Mad Blade Hua Sheng. He is Hua Sheng."
As he listened to Zhou Shan, an image of a blade and a domineering man suddenly appeared in Lu Yin's mind: one man and one blade, suppressing Capital City.
"How do you compare to him?" Lu Yin asked. He wanted a direct comparison.
Zhou Shan smiled bitterly and raised one finger. "Aside from the Upper Three Saints, anyone else facing him would be defeated with one strike."
Lu Yin's gaze shifted. Defeating Zhou Shan with one strike was absolutely terrifying. Zhou Shan's true strength surpassed Aoton's and Granny's; he could fight Teres. In other words, Zhang Ding Tian could defeat someone of Teres's level with a single strike. According to Ye Ge, he should be at the level of the strongest students at the various academies. Earth actually had someone like this.
Lu Yin believed that he could also defeat Zhou Shan in one move with either Void Splitting Palm or Heavenly Star Palm. So which of them was stronger, him or Zhang Ding Tian?
Lu Yin took Zhou Shan's ID and carefully put it away. Zhou Shan had done him a favor and hoped he'd return to Jinling one day, but Lu Yin was bound to disappoint him. His future lay among the stars.
The second batch of Trial Takers would arrive in two months. Lu Yin hoped he could find that corpse and confirm its identity before then. He was running short on time.
"What? You want me to go to Capital City with you? No way!" Granny cried out, refusing at once.
Lu Yin said coldly, "You don't have the right to refuse."
Granny said anxiously, "Didn't you hear Ye Ge? The ones going to Capital City are the strongest students from those academies. They're freakishly strong. I saw Willow crush Teres with my own eyes. He wasn't someone you could beat with a sneak attack."
"I said you don't have the right to refuse," Lu Yin replied.
Granny was speechless. She pleaded helplessly, "Asta—no, Lu Yin, you don't understand what it means to be the strongest at an academy. During the academy tournament, Teres challenged Willow and was seriously injured with a single palm strike. The gap between them was enormous."
"Ye Ge was also seriously injured by one of my palm strikes," Lu Yin said flatly.
Granny wanted to argue, but then she realized that he had a point. She'd always placed herself below Teres in terms of strength, and without realizing it, she'd also underestimated Lu Yin's combat power. But thinking about it now, the guy in front of her was a freak, too. He'd seriously injured Teres in the Gaze Realm and injured Ye Ge when he couldn't even draw on star energy. Granny took a few steps back and sized Lu Yin up. She suddenly felt that this guy might really be on par with the strongest students at the academies.
Lu Yin had never shown Granny his full strength. She had no idea how strong he really was, but even what he'd shown her was enough to astonish her.
"We leave tonight. We're going to Capital City." Lu Yin said it flatly, then left without giving Granny the chance to refuse.
Granny had no choice. The universe was vast, with countless academies. Even the Great Yu Empire had many of them. A Trial Taker mission wasn't something someone at her level could even get involved in, yet now she was being forced into another circle—the circle of those known as the strongest.
In Hebei, amid the vast mountains, blood surged skyward like a crimson plume of smoke, staining the ravines red. Blood covered the rivers, and its pungent stench drew more and more Mutant Beasts. In the blink of an eye, wails filled the land, and the beasts were slaughtered to the last.
The stream had turned red. A short man stood in the water, rinsing himself off. Several scars across his back had long since healed, and his muscles bulged with strength.
On the bank, a man and a woman watched him quietly. "Bailie, if you keep playing around, there won't be any Mutant Beasts left in these mountains."
The short man glanced at the bank and replied coldly, "There are two Integrating Realm Mutant Beasts I haven't touched. I'll kill them before we leave."
The woman said indifferently, "It's time to go to this country's Capital City. That's where we have the best chance of finding the fugitive. The corpse this planet brought from Neptune is probably the fugitive."
A glint of coldness flashed in Bailie's eyes. "Willow, where are the other two teams?"
The man on the bank was Willow, the strongest student at the empire's First Military Academy. The woman was Paris, the strongest student at Blue Mountain Academy. These three were the elites Ye Ge knew about.
Willow replied, "Judging by their positions, Gulles and the others are on the grasslands, north of Capital City, while Ede and the others are in Shanxi. Neither group is far from Capital City."
Bailie climbed onto the bank. Energy rippled around him, and his body dried instantly. "Let's go to Capital City."
The three left. Behind them lay the corpses of countless Mutant Beasts, including many Heaven-level ones.
In northern Huaxia, the boundless grasslands swayed beneath the gusting wind. Seen from high above, they looked like green waves dancing in the sunlight, a remarkably beautiful sight.
On the grassland, a woman raised both arms and took a deep breath. "The air is so fresh! This is what the grasslands smell like."
Not far away, a two-meter-tall man with green skin glanced at her and grumbled, "It smells like a pile of shit. What's so nice about it? You're crazy."
"Balaro, what did you say?" The woman had sharp ears and had heard him. She immediately glared at him.
The green-skinned man, Balaro, quickly smiled. "Nothing. It smells nice, really nice."
The woman looked pleased. "That's more like it. Come on, let's go to Capital City. I heard the people on this Primeval Planet got a corpse from somewhere. It should be the fugitive."
"All right," Balaro replied. He lifted his head, and the grass stretching endlessly before them suddenly parted, as though it had a mind of its own and was making way for them.
In Shanxi, two people in black robes walked slowly. Endless yellow earth stretched before them, and strange, grotesque Mutant Beasts occasionally burst out of the soil, only to vanish again.
Beneath one of the black robes, a man with scales on his forehead had an icy gaze. With every step he took, the yellow earth grew bone-dry, as though all the moisture had been sucked away. A hundred meters behind him, the ground they'd crossed cracked and crumbled into dust. The Mutant Beasts within were nothing but skins; every drop of moisture had been drawn from their bodies.
"I don't like this place. We should've landed in the ocean."
"There's no choice. We have to go to Capital City to complete the mission. I know you were born beneath the sea, but bear with it. We'll be able to leave soon."
"I sacrificed so much. Anyone who dares stop me from completing this mission will die. I'll kill them all—even if every native on this planet has to die, they won't get in my way."
"Of course. No one can stop us."
In the northeast, ice and snow blotted out the sky, and the endless world was white.
Against that boundless whiteness, a pair of red boots walked slowly. With her back to the wind and snow, the woman revealed a breathtakingly beautiful face. Her eyes, as brilliant as the stars, seemed almost to melt the frozen world around her.
She was Bai Xue, Huaxia's Luo Saint, the peerless beauty from the banks of the Luo River.
This was the Blue Camp, Luo Saint's Blue Camp.
Three figures knelt in the snow, their faces twisted in agony. One of them managed to lift their head and stare fearfully at the peerless beauty before them. Their lips trembled. "You're just a mere native. How can you be so strong?"
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