Chapter 98: Assessment Road
This was The Undying Yushan’s power, the power of someone in the top twenty of the Astral Combat Ranking in his youth who was now a Hunter. Even though he was heavily injured and didn’t have much longer to live, he was still an unyielding emperor that someone like Bazeer could not defy.
Bazeer panted, and it took a while for his face to regain color. He gritted his teeth and stared at the Emperor’s back, gaze filled with anger.
On the spaceship, Lu Yin, Xia Luo, and Lulu Mavis finally reunited; they hadn’t seen each other since they arrived at Zenyu Star.
“Haha, Lu Yin, I heard that your proposal got rejected, so embarrassing, haha,” Lulu laughed immediately.
On the other hand, Xia Luo patted his shoulder, “Don’t mind her.”
Lu Yin smiled, “It’s fine, but why didn’t Bazeer invite you two to the party?”
Lulu rolled her eyes, “Do you think that just anyone has the right to invite me?”
Xia Luo shrugged, “I just arrived two days ago.”
“Huh. Well, I wonder how strict the assessment will be, and whether anyone from the Innerverse will be there,” Lu Yin mused while looking at the sky.
“The Innerverse? There shouldn’t be a lot of people from the Innerverse,” Xia Luo said. Seeing the curiosity in Lu Yin’s expression, he turned to Lulu, “You should know that Astral-10 has been driven out.”
Lulu nodded and her smile disappeared, “The Astral Combat Academies are ranked according to the Interacademy Tournament. Astral-10 has been the worst for a long time; if not for that, they wouldn’t have been sent to the Frostwave Weave.”
“Rumour has it that since the news that the old students even left once they learnt of the relocation. So we’re currently registering to join an empty school.”
“But why?” Lu Yin asked, “Even if Astral-10 moves to the Frostwave Weave, the trial zones of the Three Realms Six Daos that you mentioned should still be around, right?”
“I’m not sure about that, but I am pretty confident that most of the people joining the Astral-10 assessment will be from the Outerverse. The geniuses who can join any Astral Combat Academy would go to the first eight; Astral-10 will join Astral-9 in being predominantly Outerverse,” Xia Luo explained.
“Still, the Astral Combat Academy is very attractive to people from here. You can see it from the Empire itself; most of the young elites from the weaves nearby will definitely attend; this is the only place where they will get a chance to compete with the countless prodigies of the Innerverse. This is their hope that they’ll be able to catch up,” Lulu continued.
“Countless prodigies?” Lu Yin muttered to himself. The Astral Combat Academy was like a line that connected the young elites of the Outerverse and Innerverse, but how long was that line? He really wanted to see how powerful those geniuses from the Innerverse were.
Most students retreated into training to prepare for the impending assessment, including Gerbach and the rest. Time passed quickly in isolation; the very next day, Lu Yin noticed all sorts of other spaceships joining them on the journey, from one that looked like a coffin to one that resembled a sword. These spaceships were carrying elites from various places in the Outerverse. To the Innerverse, Astral-10 was a rejected failure. To the Outerverse, it was a lifeline.
One more day passed, and Lu Yin put down his star charts as the spaceship came to a halt. He looked out the window and saw a vast array of others nearby, all pointing in the same direction. He left his room and headed to the top deck where a bunch of students were already gathered, all looking at the scene in front of them. In the middle of empty space was a vast continent that stretched out endlessly, with an ordered array of small, personal stars that illuminated the land in their fiery hue. He could feel the heat even from the distance, his vision distorted by the high temperatures as though the flames were burning the sky.
Many of the students were dazed, “What is this?”
Crown Prince Dorren turned around from the helm, saying solemnly, “This is Astral-10’s assessment for Sentinel cultivators. The Academy is at the end of this path; if you fail to complete it, you can either retreat or die.”
Lu Yin’s expression was grim, this was a path? It was certainly narrow and long, but it was almost as wide as the Earth!
“Sentinel?” Lulu exclaimed as well, her expression sinking.
Dorren looked over with a gentle gaze, “Yes, this is the path for Sentinels. There are a total of ten paths leading to Astral-10, three for Sentinels and seven for Melders. All Sentinels are to board their personal pods and set off for the assessment right now.”
“Tch, I should have brought Little Turtle here,” she said bitterly.
Little Turtle? Dorren was stunned, while Lu Yin was left speechless as well. How was that thing little? It was an Explorer!
Less than twenty Sentinels from the Great Yu Empire were participating in this assessment, and of them, Lu Yin only knew Lulu, Raas, and a few others. He hadn’t interacted with them outside the banquet, and they had no interest in talking with him either.
“All the best, Brother Lu, see you at Astral-10,” Xia Luo waved him off. Gerbach gave him a few words of encouragement as well; Gerlaine had already given up.
Lu Yin nodded, but at that moment, Ghostfire walked past and threatened him in a low voice, “You better not meet me, I didn’t promise not to let you off.”
Lu Yin’s gaze turned cold in the face of that smirk and he left slowly.
Dorren Yushan looked at Lu Yin’s back as he left.
Jenny Auna walked towards Rocky with a slightly pale face, “Uncle, this environment is bad for me.”
Rocky frowned, “The environments are different across the paths.”
“That’s good,” she heaved a sigh of relief.
Rocky said regretfully, “We shouldn’t have forced you to break through. With His Majesty’s ability, it is very likely that he would have been able to pass the assessment, and he could have taken you along. No, you’ll have to take the Melder test, and no one can help you with that.”
Jenny gritted her teeth. She was already quite scared as she looked at the road in front of her, and that was only the assessment for Sentinels. She wondered how difficult the Melder assessment would be.
……
The assessment had started from the moment this path appeared in the sky, and the Great Yu Empire wasn’t the first to reach it. There were already quite a few Sentinels around, including those from the Fireforge Planet. As the hot suns baked the ground and distorted the air, groups of Sentinel cultivators flew into the distance. Sounds of battle rang out regularly, accented by bestial roars.
Apart from the adverse environment and enemies, students had to face huge beasts on the path as well. The beasts were all Sentinels, but were certainly one of the biggest challenges the students had to face.
A group of seven people looked up at the sky from the shadows, “Young Master, the people from the Great Yu Empire are arriving soon.”
Within the group, a young man who was sitting on the ground looked up and sneered, “Good, I want to show them the consequences of insulting us..”
A flurry of thuds rang out as the space pods crashed down onto the path, stirring up a storm of dust. Lu Yin walked out as the door opened, and the first thing he felt was overwhelming heat. The suns were getting larger towards the ends of the path, and it would only get hotter and hotter with time.
“Not bad,” he leapt up and felt the air and star energy around him, rushing forward into the distance.
Of the near-twenty Sentinels from the Great Yu Empire’s ship, a few landed close to the seven people from the Fireforge Planet. The young man finally stood up and leapt into the sky, “Start hunting, don’t leave anyone alive.”
All seven of them split up to chase their targets. The Fireforge Planet was surrounded by flames year-round, and this environment was favorable to them. They were confident that no one could defeat a powerhouse from the Fireforge Planet in an environment with high heat.
“What a crazy assessment,” Ayker kicked open his pod’s door, squinting under the sun’s glare to look at his gadget, “My position is slightly off, but only ten kilometers. I should be able to get there.”
He flew westwards to meet up with his group, but a fiery red spear pierced through the skies and flew towards him. A surprised Ayker dodged and the spear brushed past him, landing on a stone wall.