Chapter 48: Genius
Gerlaine blew her top when she saw the lightning around Zhang Dingtian, and glared at Lu Yin fiercely, “You scoundrel, you actually gave my armor to a random person. Bastard!”
Lu Yin waved his hand, “Don’t be offended, I’ll return it to you later.”
Gerlaine was infuriated, “No need, it’s too disgusting with all that sweat in it. You can use it as your coffin!”
Lu Yin ignored her and turned to the sky, where Zhang Dingtian felt his strength surging within that lightning armor. He recalled how Lu Yin had used this armor to ignore the attacks of so many students.
“Gerbach’s toy,” Munoor’s expression darkened, eyes squinting as a cold gaze swept towards Gerlaine, “His sister is here too, perfect. I can teach you a lesson.”
He then charged downwards, but Zhang Dingtian snorted and slashed out with his broken blade to block the path.
“You’re courting death!” Munoor barked as he saw the unhesitating slash, swatting Zhang Dingtian away with a claw. A bestial roar rang through the void, inspiring fear in the onlookers; this was the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw, far exceeding Raas’s strength. The attack should have killed Zhang Dingtian instantly, but the Bladesage growled softly in the face of the terrifying attack. Blood flowed down his lips as his blade trembled rapidly, distorting the air around it. A strange force converged around the weapon, radiating oppressive pressure. A loud explosion rang out as the broken sword clashed with the claw, powerful aftershocks dispersing the clouds in the sky and tearing the ground apart. One slash followed the city walls and cut the earth open, the depth of the gash unknown.
Scarlet blood sprinkled from the skies onto the ruins below as Zhang Dingtian’s armor broke, body crashing down to the ground where Lu Yin caught him at the last moment. He was left unable to even move, and his sword was shattered further, but no one dared underestimate him anymore. His attack had actually injured Munoor!
Up in the sky, Munoor stared at the native in shock. Fresh blood was dripping down his right shoulder, and his fingers were trembling from the impact. An elite of Yu Academy, a Melder who had once strived against a legendary existence like Gerbach, had actually been injured by a native and blasted a hundred meters away. Even if his power was restricted, this was supposed to be impossible! No one would even believe that the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw couldn’t kill a native.
On the ground, Lu Yin was suffering from similar shock; Zhang Dingtian had managed to survive the claw attack and had managed to somehow incorporate Shockwave Palm into his blade! The man was simply a genius, that blade attack was comparable to his own Cosmic Palm. The two-star Cosmic Palm had only been slightly weaker than the Bladesage’s full-power blows when they first met, and the third star allowed him to match Raas’s fifth form of the Skybeast Claw. Munoor’s was clearly much stronger than that, meaning Zhang Dingtian’s life was owed to the lightning armor, but that luck didn’t offset the achievement in the slightest.
Raas was stunned, ‘Where did such a pervertedly strong native come from?’
Bai Xue and the others quickly took Zhang Dingtian away to be treated. It was truly amazing that he had held out for so long; after all, his opponent was one of the strongest youths of the Great Yu Empire who had spent much more time cultivating than he had. Meanwhile, Lu Yin rose into the sky, “I’ll be your opponent now.”
Munoor stared at Lu Yin with an icy glare, fully intent on erasing his previous humiliation on this other native.
……
In the giant spaceship floating over Earth, everyone in the control room was similarly shocked at what they had just watched on the display. They were all aware of who Munoor was, as only a few Melders had come to participate in this planetary trial. This made Munoor one of the strongest participants, and yet a native had just injured him!
A loud bang brought everyone’s gazes to an excited Sigmund, “A realmbreaker! Who could have thought this planet had such talent! If he wasn’t missing battle techniques, he could have had a brilliant fight. This is the type of soldier we want.”
Shalosh licked his lips at the side, “Apologies, General Sigmund, the Twelfth Imperial Squadron wants him.”
Sigmund snapped, “The main responsibility of the Twelfth Squadron isn’t battle. This man is clearly extremely talented at combat, he could even copy the Roving Step so quickly and integrate the Shockwave Palm into his blade. He’s a genius!”
Torry spoke up from the other side, “General Sigmund is right, this person is truly a genius. The Auna Family is willing to pay for his formcast remodeling, leave him to the Ninth Squadron.”
The debate quickly and loudly escalated, while the others in the room cast envious glances at the badly injured man on the screen whose eyes were still resolute. They all knew that so long as he didn’t die during this trial, his future would be bright. Then there was the woman with the innate gift of Frost; if one threw in the mysterious youth who had captured Raas, the people of this planet weren’t simple at all!
As the trio’s argument continued, Mira looked at the display as Lu Yin and Munoor began their fight. Rage-addled from the injury, the sealed Melder wanted to vent all of his frustrations on the natives, starting with Lu Yin. He didn’t hold back from using the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw right away, assuming that victory would be easy, but Lu Yin proved even more impressive and dodged the wide-area attack with calm ease. It was only then that a stunned Munoor realized that this opponent would be even more difficult than the last.
Lu Yin grew serious, activating the Cosmic Art as Munoor attacked once more. He disappeared with the Roving Step, but the phantom claw flashed and brought him back only a moment later when the attack was no more than twenty centimeters away. He could feel the incoming power, but carefully observed the usage of the technique as he dodged to the side and evaded again. A Spacerender Palm was shot towards Munoor, but the Melder didn’t even bother avoiding the technique and just tore through it with his claw before sending out another attack.
It was at this point that Lu Yin’s gaze narrowed; he had seen enough. He thrust out another attack that Munoor assumed to be a Spacerender Palm; while a Sentinel being able to use that skill was rare, it couldn’t harm him in the slightest. However, Munoor’s skin crawled as he felt an immense sense of danger, watching as Lu Yin’s palm turned into a claw; this was the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw!
BANG! He fell down like a meteor, spitting out blood before he even hit the ground. The earth around his impact was dyed red, shocking every onlooker in one moment. Raas’s heart sank; he’d forgotten that this native could mimic the Skybeast Claw!
Bai Xue and the rest stared at Lu Yin in amazement; this person continued to grow stronger and more terrifying with every encounter.
Munoor was bleeding on the ground with a stunned look on his pale face. The blood from his abdomen stained his clothes, but his attention was on the person who had copied his own battle technique rather than on his injury. There was no way he had seen wrong, that was the seventh form of the Skybeast Claw. He glared at Lu Yin, “How do you know the Skybeast Claw?”
Lu Yin landed, “Learnt it from you.”
“Impossible, no one could learn the Skybeast Claw so quickly. I took nine months at Yu Academy to get to the seventh form, how could you learn it so quickly? Who the hell are you? Where did you learn this in secret?”
“Well, I can’t make you believe me if you don’t want to,” Lu Yin replied before leaping at Munoor once more. A phantom roar shook the sky as Munoor clenched his teeth in frustration, knowing that the seventh form was his strongest attack while he was sealed. It should have overpowered anything he encountered, but he was now facing an opponent who had the same skill and could dodge his uses of it. There was no chance to win this battle.
BANG! A giant claw mark dug into the earth as Munoor flew away in defeat. The only way to beat such a person was to break his seal. This group of natives was just too absurd; there was a second realmbreaker among them! No, this person definitely wasn’t even a native; he used the Spacerender Palm. Just who the hell was he?
Lu Yin allowed Munoor to fly away, only heaving a sigh of relief once he was gone. Facing a Melder had put him under a lot of pressure; if the opponent broke his seal, he would be badly injured at best and killed at worst. Munoor would be expelled from the trial for doing such a thing, but that was of no consolation to a dead man. Lu Yin preferred not driving him into such desperate straits, especially since he’d already gotten so much. His biggest harvest from the day was definitely the seventh form of Skybeast Claw. This was a battle technique that was a heritage of the Yu academy and lived up to the reputation of the Empire’s best academy. A total of 108 forms? He was looking forward to discovering the full power of the technique after all of the forms were learned.