Star Odyssey

Chapter 2082: The Next Batch

Lu Yin only needed to stabilize his nine lined and ten lined battle force at this point. However, he had a feeling that stabilizing these two levels would require at least as much time as all of the previous levels combined, and likely even more.

Two days after Lu Yin finished stabilizing his battle force, a spacecraft arrived at Sword Mountain. The other nine members of the competition team had arrived.

People jumped out of the vessel one after another to land in the Sword Array Plaza.

The plaza was surrounded by members of Team Resolution's affiliate teams, and in front of them stood the two members of Team Resolution itself, along with Lu Yin.

Lu Yin stared at the nine people who had arrived in surprise. He actually knew most of these people.

The first one to appear was Wang Yi, who stood in the plaza with an indifferent expression on her face. She looked quite arrogant, but while she had practiced the Wang family’s Four Arts before, she had never cultivated battle force.

Close to Wang Yi stood two people from the Xia family’s Lin's generation: Xia Linyue and Shan Lingui. While Lu Yin had never really interacted with the two before, he had known of them due to his time in the Perennial World.

Within the Xia family, the Lin generation was second only to the Tai generation, which meant that these two were second only to Wu Taibai, Xia Taili, and Xia Shenfei, who naturally held the highest status in all the younger generations.

Lu Yin had not expected to learn that these two had also never trained in battle force before the recent changes to the universe.

Behind those three, Darkvoid was quietly standing. The man had absolutely no presence to him, and he was someone whom Lu Yin certainly had not expected to see.

Lu Yin had lost contact with many of his classmates from Astral-10, but he still remembered Darkvoid. The man had been one of Shamrock Enterprise’s hidden seeds, and he had an innate gift that allowed him to detonate the void. Lu Yin had felt that Darkvoid was the most mysterious of the students when they had first entered Astral-10.

Seeing Darkvoid immediately reminded Lu Yin of Wei Rong. This was because after Leaf King had died, Wei Rong had been the one to take control of Shamrock Enterprise and all the company’s hidden seeds. One such seed had been exposed within the Wen family when Lu Yin had been sowing discord between the Fifth Mainland and the Perennial World’s approaching army.

Could Darkvoid have been sent by Wei Rong? Did he really have some talent for battle force?

In addition to Darkvoid, Lu Yin saw another of his old classmates, and this person was the last person he had expected to see. Even if Lu Yin were killed, he would never have expected to find Coco in this sort of place.

Was she actually able to cultivate battle force? However, even if that was true, how had she caught the eye of Team Resolution?

Lu Yin stared at Coco, and Coco looked back at him. She quickly ducked her head, growing a bit embarrassed.

Lu Yin was speechless. Team Resolution was a group of ruthless and decisive individuals, so why had they recruited a girl like Coco? Lu Yin just could not understand it at all.

Close to Coco stood another of Lu Yin’s acquaintances: Dai Ao. He had also been a student at Astral-7 when Lu Yin had been in the Astral Combat Academy. Dai Ao cultivated the Starburst Palm battle technique, and he also had the impressive innate gift of gravity. Lu Yin felt that Dai Ao was most likely very well suited for cultivating battle force, especially with his innate gift of gravity.

People who had believed themselves to have already been eliminated by others of their generation were once more finding a place for themselves on the main stage of the universe. Battle force had always been a vastly different cultivation method than stellular energy or star energy, and with battle force spreading across the Fifth Mainland, many unknown geniuses had been discovered. People like Darkvoid and Dai Ao were given another chance to shine.

Lu Yin became increasingly curious as to why these people were valued by the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate.

In addition to the people Lu Yin recognized, he also saw two strangers: a man and a woman. Neither of them looked to be very old, and their eyes were fixated on the two men from Team Resolution, staring at the two with open admiration.

Lu Yin glanced across the nine team members. Huh?

Lu Yin noticed that there was one more person standing behind everyone else, and he blinked. Xia Luo?

Xia Luo looked up and met Lu Yin’s eyes. There was a twinkle in his eyes, and he smiled and gave Lu Yin the slightest nod. He behaved as properly as ever.

Lu Yin arched a brow, though he did not find it overly surprising to discover that Xia Luo was qualified to join this team. Lu Yin had always had the impression that Xia Luo could excel at any cultivation method that he attempted.

Lu Yin stepped forward and took his place with the other nine team members before turning to face the two men from Team Resolution.

Scarface looked at the ten people in front of him. "You will soon face the challengers from the other Heavenly Gates. My Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate has always excelled and focused on cultivating battle force, domain, and spiritual force. Thus, I will not accept your defeat even in death. This means that if you lose, you will also die on that battlefield."

"We will never lose!" Dai Ao yelled as he stared at the two men from Team Resolution with a fanatical gleam in his eyes. However, he was the only one to even respond, as the other nine people were either distracted or, like Coco, embarrassed by the sudden outburst.

Scarface glanced at Dai Ao before continuing. "Over the course of the next month, we will continue to push you further and further. This month, you will face your limits, and I hope to see at least some of you break through those limits. Even though none of the other Heavenly Gates have the ability to teach their people how to cultivate battle force, it’s not impossible for you to be unlucky enough to face some incredible genius who’s managed to achieve nine lined battle force or even higher. This is why I hope that you will all push yourselves further and won’t be satisfied with your current progress."novelbuddy.com

It was at this moment that Scarface glanced at Lu Yin.

This caught Lu Yin off guard. Was it possible that he was the only one out of all ten representatives for this challenge who had achieved nine lined battle force? Wait, that was Xing Kai, not Lu Yin.

If this was accurate, then Xing Kai's talent for battle force was even more impressive than Lu Yin had previously thought.

"We’ll start right now," Scarface stated. At that moment, the spiritual force cultivator stepped forward from behind Scarface.

The middle-aged man looked at the ten people in front of him and then slowly said, "I already know that all of you are geniuses, and some of you are even comparable to one-tribulation Envoys. However, I do hope that you won’t resist my technique. I’m going to use my spiritual force to highlight whatever desires lie hidden in the depths of your heart and then draw them out to trigger everyone’s potential. If you resist me, the illusions will fail, and this training will be completely meaningless.

"However, none of you need to worry, as I won’t be able to actually observe whatever illusion you fall into. That will be something only you will be able to witness."

The second man from Team Resolution grew impatient. "They’ve already gone through this process many times before, so let's just get started without all the nonsense."

The middle-aged man reacted by going still. A glint flickered in his eyes, and then his spiritual force surged forth. He was not launching an attack, but the spiritual force moved forward like mercury spreading across the ground.

Lu Yin only felt a brief pressure on his mind, and then nothing. He was a three-tribulation Envoy, and he also practiced the Origin Progenitor’s Sutra. Both of these details meant that Lu Yin’s spiritual force far surpassed the middle-aged man’s, so expecting the man to be able to submerge Lu Yin in an illusion was simply a joke.

The other team members gradually entered their own illusions, and as they did, each of them showed rather odd reactions.

To Lu Yin's left, Dai Ao appeared to be fine, and he seemed quite calm, but his fists were clenched tightly.

Just a little ways away from Dai Ao, Coco suddenly took out her innate gift that looked like a syringe. It was three meters long with a terrifying needle, but she held it in front of her and stabbed it forward. Again and again, she repeated the same forceful motion, her mouth pursed in a tight line. Lu Yin was not entirely sure why, but he found a bit of pleasure in seeing the reactions of the two men from Team Resolution and all the surrounding affiliate team members as well: all of them stared at Coco in complete stupefaction.

Xia Linyue suddenly yelled, "Xia Shenfei, you’ve lost today! From now on, I’ll lead the Shen generation, hahahaha!"

Lu Yin was left speechless. This person had a deep obsession if he was immediately seeing himself stomp on Xia Shenfei the moment he fell into the illusion.

"Taili, you’re mine! Xia Shenfei, you’ve fallen this day, but because you are Taili’s brother, I’ll give you a bit of face and allow you to stay as a part of the Tai generation. However, all the resources previously allotted to you will be given to me. Hahahaha!" Shan Lingui roared in a disturbingly arrogant manner.

On Lu Yin’s other side, the man he did not recognize suddenly threw his arms open as he let out a maniacal laugh. "I’m the king of the world! I’m invincible throughout the universe!"

Scarface covered his face with a hand. This was better than watching a show.

All nine of Xing Kai’s teammates showed some sort of reaction or another. Even Xia Luo, who remained the most subdued, had an ever-growing smile on his face. Lu Yin wondered what the man was experiencing.

Lu Yin felt that he should also show some sort of reaction, but what would be appropriate?

Scarface was looking at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin pursed his lips, and then suddenly gave a deep bow to the space in front of him. "Thank you, benefactor, for your instructions regarding battle force. I will make sure that I live up to benefactor’s expectations and carry the Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate further forward! I will lead Team Resolution to conquer the entire Fifth Mainland and ensure that benefactor’s name echoes throughout all time!"

Scarface glanced over at the other member of Team Resolution before looking back at Lu Yin with even greater appreciation than before. The two men were not able to see whether or not Lu Yin was experiencing an illusion, or what he was seeing.

He was not using a technique that created a specific illusion on a person. Rather, it highlighted aspects of a person’s mind with spiritual force and brought those aspects to the forefront in a manner that displayed a person’s most primitive desires.

What “Xing Kai” was demonstrating were the deepest desires of his subconscious, his most primitive motivations.

"When we get back, we need to suggest to the gatemaster that we should allow him to train with Team Resolution for a bit," Scarface mentioned.

The other man immediately agreed. "The kid’s both straightforward and loyal, not to mention quite talented with battle force. He’s a good fit for Team Resolution, and it might not be long before he becomes one of our companions."

"Benefactor, your disciple is willing to do your bidding! I will raise the sky and clear all obstacles for you!" Lu Yin yelled again.

Scarface's eyes instantly went wide. It was a genuine wish of every member of Team Resolution to remove all obstacles for Gatemaster Hen Xin. Xing Kai’s exposed desires perfectly matched that of the rest of Team Resolution.

"Begin," Scarface quietly ordered.

The other man raised a hand, and his battle force suddenly dropped down on the ten people.

There was a split second when Lu Yin's body trembled, but this was the moment when he realized that this was not an attack from the man from Team Resolution, nor was it a blunt pressure like it appeared, but rather guidance. This man’s control of battle force was exquisite, and it seeped deep into the ten people’s bodies to stimulate their own battle force.

Lu Yin found that he could not stop himself from releasing nine lined battle force across his entire body. Fortunately, this was what Xing Kai himself was capable of.

Battle force appeared on the other nine people’s bodies as well, and just as Lu Yin had suspected, not one other person had achieved nine lined battle force. The next best was Wang Yi, who had eight lined battle force. Everyone else possessed seven lined battle force.

The agreement that the Heavenly Gates had reached was that the participants in the competition would all be under the Envoy realm, and had to have started cultivating battle force after the competition had been agreed upon. It had only been a bit more than ten years, so it was quite impressive for these people to have made so much progress in that amount of time.

This was especially true of Xing Kai. He had managed to rise from nothing at all to possessing nine lined battle force in just over ten years. On top of that, he had even managed to stabilize his six lined battle force. This speed was comparable to what Lu Yin had accomplished when he had first started cultivating battle force.

"I hope that all of them can improve by a level during this month. That will give me at least a bit more confidence in them," Scarface quietly commented.

His companion who was using his battle force on the ten people replied, "That should be possible. We can then use the remaining time to have them work on stabilizing their battle force. With that, they will definitely dominate the Heavenly Gates competition."

"We can’t afford to be careless. Remember, this era’s given birth to monsters like Lu Yin, so there’s no reason why there can’t be another one," Scarface cautioned.

Lu Yin thought that this warning was a bit strange when he heard it. Why did Scarface seem so familiar with Lu Yin? Was this because Scarface himself was familiar with Lu Yin, or was the entire Three Fatalities Heavenly Gate familiar with him?

The battle force continued to press down upon the ten people, and after a few days, the first one to reach a breakthrough was Coco. The girl had spent the recent days stabbing her syringe forward, and she suddenly broke through and was covered with eight lined battle force.

Was it really that easy to cultivate battle force?

When it came to cultivating battle force, aside from the necessary comprehension behind a breakthrough, the most important thing was spirit. Just what had Coco experienced within her illusion?

After achieving eight lined battle force, Coco set her syringe down and wiped her forehead as though wiping away sweat. She then waved a hand. "Send the next batch over."

Lu Yin was stunned. She was healing people, right? Batch? Just how many people had Coco healed in her illusion?