The Body Sculpting Technique

Lu Yin ducked to avoid the attack and fled more than ten meters in a rather sorry state. Behind him, the factory building collapsed into ruins.

The young man soared high in the air, looking down at Lu Yin with cold, arrogant eyes. "Are you a native of this planet?"

Lu Yin's gaze turned grave. A Heavenly Rank Expert!

"I asked you a question. Didn't you hear me?" the young man snapped. With a casual slash, he sent a visible blade of energy cutting through the earth, kicking up clouds of dust.

Lu Yin said seriously, "Are you an alien?"

The young man sneered as he landed. He glanced at his wristwatch. "Your battle power is only eight? Pathetic. Wait, someone with a battle power of eight shouldn't have been able to dodge my slash." He looked at Lu Yin in surprise. "Do you specialize in **?"

Lu Yin frowned. "You're an alien, right?"

The young man furrowed his brow. "That's what you natives call us, but we prefer that you address us as Superior Ones."

"Superior Ones?" Lu Yin frowned.

The young man looked down at him. "Our Great Yu Empire has been monitoring your planet for a long time. As far as we're concerned, you're just natives we keep in captivity. Of course we're your superiors. Anyway, tell me: do you specialize in **, and have you trained your ** to the Gaze Realm, or even close to the Probe Realm?"

"I don't understand what you mean," Lu Yin replied.

The young man narrowed his eyes. Then again, how could the natives of this planet know about the different realms?

A cold glint flickered in his eyes as he stared at Lu Yin. "Attack me. Let me see what you can do."

Lu Yin clenched his fist. "Are you sure?"

The young man sneered. "I, Asta, won't be injured by a native like you. Even if you can hide your battle power, there's no way you've reached the Probe Realm. And even if you had, you still wouldn't be able to compare with me. I'll show you what an insurmountable gap looks like."

Lu Yin drew his iron rod. "Then I'm coming at you."

Asta stood proudly and beckoned with a finger.

In the next instant, Lu Yin charged at Asta. The blade of his iron rod swept through the air toward Asta's neck.

Asta dodged with ease, both hands casually tucked into his pockets. "Planetary evolution really does produce a bunch of savages. Your attacks are fierce and decisive, and you go straight for the kill. That's good, though. Only this kind of environment can forge iron-blooded warriors."

Lu Yin's iron rod sealed off every route Asta could take. Each strike came faster than the last, and the fierce gusts of force it generated slashed into the ground like blades, carving out one scar after another.

Asta handled the assault with ease. As Lu Yin brought his rod down, Asta raised a leg and stopped the blade with his combat boot. His hands remained in his pockets as he looked at Lu Yin with cold arrogance. "Your battle power is three hundred and two. Not bad. Reaching the Gaze Realm through physical training alone is no easy feat. Even the Probe Realm students at our academy would struggle to reach the Gaze Realm through physical training alone. I admire you. I'll give you a chance: follow me and become my slave. I can take you off this planet and show you a different starry sky."

Lu Yin pressed his iron rod hard against Asta's combat boot, his expression curious. "A different starry sky?"

"Of course. I'm a top student at the Great Yu Empire First Military Academy, an elite with the qualifications and courage to apply for the Evolution Trial. Once I successfully complete the mission, I'll be able to advance to a higher-level academy. Following me will be the greatest honor of your life. Of course, that depends on whether there's anyone more suitable than you on this planet. Just pray you're not too useless. Hahaha!" As he finished speaking, he kicked the iron rod out of Lu Yin's hands.

As Lu Yin watched Asta revel in his sense of superiority, his gaze suddenly turned cold. His right palm trembled rapidly, and ripples formed visibly in the air, as if he had seized it in his grasp.

Asta paid no attention at first. But the moment he noticed what Lu Yin was doing, he stared in disbelief. "Wave Palm? How do you know—" In the next instant, Lu Yin slammed a palm into Asta's chest. A wave of force burst outward, shattering Asta's white light armor. Blood sprayed from his mouth as he was sent flying. In midair, Asta struggled to raise his head and forcibly twisted his body, drawing a short blade and slashing at Lu Yin. Lu Yin charged straight at the blade, his right palm trembling rapidly once more.

Asta gritted his teeth and roared, "You're not a native! You came from the stars!"

Lu Yin's gaze was icy as he struck with his palm.

Asta snarled and thrust his short blade forward, but it stabbed into empty air. Lu Yin had disappeared; all he had struck was an afterimage. "A movement combat technique?" Asta spat blood. The ring on his finger melted, forming pieces of armor that covered his body. With a bang, he was struck by another palm in the same spot. This time, the faint sound of something cracking could be heard.

A second after he was hit, the armor covered his entire body. Unfortunately, it was too late. His heart had been completely pulverized. His body crashed into the crater beside the spaceship, and blood streamed down its hull.

Lu Yin dropped to one knee and panted heavily. The blood vessels in his right hand had burst, and pain twisted his face.

The Wave Palm was beyond what he could currently use. If he hadn't needed to kill Asta, he wouldn't have risked crippling his arm to use it. Fortunately, his ambush had succeeded. He had waited a long time for this moment.

Just now, he had used the Wave Palm twice and the Roaming Step once. His body trembled violently; he had pushed himself beyond his limits.

He slowly walked over to Asta's corpse and watched as the armor covering his body vanished, turning back into a ring.

Lu Yin removed the ring and tucked it away. It was a Ring Armor, a standard piece of defensive equipment carried by many cultivators in the starry sky. Asta's Ring Armor was only the lowest grade, but it could still withstand attacks from a Heavenly Rank Expert.

Besides the Ring Armor, the device on Asta's wrist that measured battle power was a Personal terminal. It contained all his information, including his location.

Lu Yin removed the Personal terminal, skillfully disabled the tracking device, and stored it in his Void Ring. Finally, he looked Asta over, his gaze shifting before settling on the second knuckle of Asta's right hand. He cut it off, and a chip fell from the blood.

"Just as I thought. It was here." Lu Yin was overjoyed as he picked up the chip. The reason he had ambushed Asta, and the reason he hadn't become an Evolutionary by absorbing Energy Crystals, was that he had been waiting for this.

The Body Sculpting Technique was a chip condensed from the energy of a super-strong expert. When anyone fused it into their body, it stimulated their cells and cleansed their body, allowing them to break through their physical limits and directly absorb cosmic energy for cultivation. This was universally recognized as the most effective cultivation method in the universe.

Swallowing and absorbing Energy Crystals to cultivate was a lower-grade method. It did not allow one to absorb cosmic energy directly with the body. Not only did cultivators have to search for Energy Crystals, but they also found it difficult to break through their physical limits.

Those who cultivated this way were known in the universe as Wandering Soldiers. Many even called them—War Slaves.

The energy that could be absorbed directly in the universe was called star energy. The Energy Crystals inside Mutant Beasts were also a form of condensed star energy, but they were too impure. Absorbing them directly did more harm than good.

Lu Yin had come from the stars. To make his identity legitimate, he hadn't cultivated with the Body Sculpting Technique before arriving on Earth, putting himself squarely in the position of an ordinary person. Now, on this planet, he had no reason to hold back. Anything was possible during the Evolution Trial.

In the universe, anyone who cultivated using the Body Sculpting Technique had to register it. Otherwise, it was illegal. But in the Evolution Trial, anything you obtained was yours. That was a rule set by the Great Yu Empire Youth Council, and no one could break it.

"This person was only at the Probe Realm, which means this Body Sculpting Technique has already been used twice. There's one use left. What a shame. I'll have to keep searching," Lu Yin murmured. He tossed Asta into the spaceship, then turned to leave.

Suddenly, a shadow blocked out the sunlight. Someone attacked him from behind.

Lu Yin shifted aside and spun, lashing out with a kick. With a bang, his leg collided with the attacker's. An Earth-level Expert, Lu Yin immediately realized, and he retreated.

The attacker also stumbled back several steps. When she looked up, a delicate face came into view. She was a woman.

"Why did you attack me?" Lu Yin asked coldly. He hadn't sensed any killing intent from the woman, but an attack was still an attack—and a sneak attack, at that.

The woman glanced at the spaceship, then fixed her eyes on Lu Yin. "I saw you throw that alien's corpse into the ship. Who are you? Why did you kill an alien? What do you know?"

Lu Yin sneered. "Why should I tell you?"

"I'll make you talk," the woman said coldly. She pulled a dagger from behind her back and sprang at Lu Yin. The dagger cut through the air, flashing with a cold gleam.

Lu Yin deftly dodged. The woman moved quickly, her dagger flashing as it tore through the air with a series of sharp whistles. Every strike aimed at one of Lu Yin's vital points.

Lu Yin watched the dagger's flashes and seized his chance to grab the woman's wrist. His other hand reached for her abdomen. She furrowed her brows, and her feet cracked the ground as she let go of the dagger and met Lu Yin's palm with her own. The air suddenly grew colder, and Lu Yin's eyes narrowed as ice formed over his palm. "A combat technique?"

"You're no match for me. Talk," the woman snapped, and the temperature dropped further.