Chapter 52: Five Pips
Outside the capital, more than ten students who had joined forces suddenly charged in to rescue Jenny. The Auna Family was much more powerful than Raas’s father, and the students had grown impatient since she had not returned after such a long time. Zhou Shan immediately sounded the alarm, but Lu Yin and Zhang Dingtian were still underground in the Research and Development Center while Gerlaine, Balaror, and Jeraldine were resting. He was left alone to face more than ten students, and couldn’t even mount a moment’s resistance.
A green silhouette suddenly zipped through the skies, shooting past Zhou Shan as it charged straight into the dozen students on the attack. With one punch for each, it took less than ten seconds for as many unconscious bodies to hit the ground. The scene was rather astounding, especially for the Executioner. Many of these people were from the second batch, the strongest in their schools! They couldn’t even react to this girl in green; just how was she so fast?
Out in the distance, Lu Yin and the rest had just risen to the skies when they saw this scene, and they were stumped as well. The girl definitely wasn’t this fast when she’d first tried to grab the stone, or he wouldn’t have been able to block her off. Her current speed must have been inherited from the stone.
Outside the capital, the girl in green frowned, “The White Flash, huh… Still a little slow, looks like it’ll be fastest in daytime. Let’s test it out again tomorrow.”
The dozen captured students were thrown into the city by the cultivators, and including Jenny Auna, they now had a total of 42 captives. Lu Yin was rude as ever as he plundered them, going from 20 cubes of star crystals to a whopping 42. Jenny alone had contributed nearly 15, more than any other student, even Raas. Coincidentally, this meant that he had the same number of captives as he did cubes of star crystals. This was a rather impressive fortune, nearly tripling that of the heir of the Auna Family.
Lu Yin grew excited; he could roll his die again. Robbing truly was the most lucrative occupation. He secluded himself again after greeting Zhang Dingtian; his cosmic ring no longer had enough space to store all his wealth, so he had to use up some of the star crystals. Entering his residence and burying fire crystals all around for safety, he raised his hand and summoned the die once more.
The die’s surface had actually recovered a little by this time, but Lu Yin wasn’t one to wait. He crushed a cube of star crystals for it to absorb, and it quickly recovered its vague starlit glow. As always, he felt excited and nervous as he stretched out a finger and tapped it, like he was about to end a pilgrimage. Spinning rapidly, the die rolled one.
Pilfer again. Lu Yin stared intently at the void, wondering what he would steal this time. The die didn’t keep him waiting either, and a fist-sized star crystal fell out of the portal and landed on the ground with a thump. He was left speechless at the sight; a cube of star crystals had been exchanged for this? It was barely a thousandth of the value! Gambling truly was harmful.
Pilfer was a scary roll, but Lu Yin lifted his heavy spirits with the thought that he had money to spend. He shattered another cube of star crystals to recover the die, and tapped it lightly once more.
It was Pilfer again.
Lu Yin had no response at this point, his luck was just too bad. While Pilfer had huge potential, the odds of actually obtaining something worthwhile were low. Sure enough, his eyes went wide in anger at what he’d acquired. He felt like going through to the other side and smacking the idiot who he’d stolen from. Who the hell put TOILET PAPER inside a cosmic ring?
It took a good while of fuming for Lu Yin to calm down. Even if one were filthy rich, money should not be spent like that. That was two cubes of star crystals, two entire cubes, and they had been exchanged for a fist-sized star crystal and a roll of toilet paper. If Jeraldine learnt about it, she would probably cry until she died. Her entire family’s fortune was probably not worth more than a dozen cubes; he had spent two thousand times her fortune. Only now did he understand how lucky he’d been to receive the Cosmic Art the first time; perhaps all the luck in the universe had been granted to him on that particular day.
‘Should I wait? Maybe today’s a bad day…’ he couldn’t help but think as he crushed the third cube, but he shook his head and dismissed it. He was rich himself, and it was time to continue. He nervously tapped the die and it slowly came to a stop, and when it rolled a four he finally released a pent-up breath. Timestop was alright; at least it wasn’t a waste of money.
He appeared in the ash-colored room the next moment, the timer starting to count down. Three days wasn’t enough to train further in the Cosmic Palm and he didn’t have any more forms of the Skybeast Claw to study, so after some consideration he realized there was only one thing he could try; that fist he had seen within the inheritance stone. It had thrown him right out, but he had seen its secrets when he used the Cosmic Art. While the girl had received that extreme speed skill, he had gotten this.
He adjusted his breathing and thought back to that monochrome fist— the Daynight Punch.
……
Three days later, the timer ticked down to zero and an exhausted Lu Yin left the room. Even though that ashen space stopped time, it didn’t stop physical fatigue. Grabbing some random food, he slept through the night and woke up later the next day.
“Back at it,” he growled immediately afterwards, crushing the next bunch of star crystals for the die to recover. This was his fourth roll and he felt a wave of dizziness hit him for a moment, but he paid it no notice and focused on the die that slowed to a crawl in front of him before stopping on two pips—Blackhole Disassembly. This was perfect; he’d gathered a decent amount of trash already, so he disassembled it all and ended up with some strange metal that he didn’t recognize.
Once the vortex vanished, Lu Yin crushed more star crystals and tapped the die, but suddenly felt much dizzier than before. He finally realized why this was happening; this die was his innate gift and couldn’t be used endlessly; similar to star energy, use it too much and it would run out, forcing him comatose until he recovered. His body trembled and he nearly fell to the ground, ‘Five. Five times is the limit.’
Trying to shake the dizziness away, Lu Yin looked at the die that was showing five pups, a roll he’d never seen before. So far, he’d rolled Pilfer on one, Blackhole Disassembly on two, and Timestop on three. This was the fourth side he’d unlocked, and its usage drifted into his mind—Gift Copy.
With this roll, he could touch anyone with an innate gift and copy their ability within the die. It could be used once before it vanished in the future. Unfortunately, this roll needed him to touch someone with an innate gift within ten seconds of the roll; it would fade away after that time passed.
Checking the time to find that two seconds had already passed, Lu Yin rushed out of his residence to hunt down the only cultivator in the entire city with an innate gift. He knew where Bai Xue was supposed to be right now, so he raced towards the city walls without hesitation even as his body trembled amidst his flight. Five uses had completely exhausted him and he desperately needed rest, but the Water Sage was still a hundred meters away. He shot forward with full strength, placing a hand on her shoulder and heaving a sigh of relief when there was only one second left.
What was this? Jeraldine, Gerlaine, Balaror, and Zhou Shan all stared at him blankly from their own positions atop the walls, while Bai Xue herself stared dumbfoundedly. His hand was still on her shoulder as he looked up to see the strange looks everyone was giving him, and he suddenly pulled back and fled, “My bad, wrong person.”
There was a deathly silence left behind, as not one person managed to come up with a response. Jeraldine was at a loss for words, ‘What a crappy excuse was that? Why did that bastard stretch out his hand? Was he trying to take advantage of Bai Xue, in broad daylight without any indication? He had to be insane!’
Jeraldine wasn’t the only one to start making assumptions as all the rest were doing the same, especially Gerlaine, “Did Lu Yin just try to confess his feelings? Did we interrupt him?”
“Seems like it,” Balaror replied seriously.
Bai Xue’s face flushed with embarrassment, captivating even Jeraldine for a moment. Even the heavens truly paled in comparison to this woman’s beauty. Meanwhile, Lu Yin crashed into his own residence and instantly fell asleep. Already past his limits, he dozed throughout as rumors spread through Beijing like wildfire.
“Did you hear? The Hidden Sage declared his feelings for the Water Sage and was even rejected. He drank himself unconscious and hasn’t shown his face since.”
“No way, I heard that the Hidden Sage didn’t actually dare to say anything. He was smitten by the Water Sage and left before even saying a word.”
“You are all wrong, my cousin’s uncle-in-law’s younger brother’s neighbor saw it with his own eyes; the Hidden Sage kissed the Water Sage and even proposed to her, with a ring even!”
“Get lost, where would he buy a ring in these times.”
That afternoon, Zhang Dingtian sought out Bai Xue, “I heard—”
“It was nothing, he mistook me for someone else.”
The Bladesage was caught off guard and froze for a moment, then responded with a simple “Alright” before leaving.