Chapter 178: Astral River and Flowzones   Lu Yin laughed. “I didn’t say that I’d do it by myself. Although Astral-10 only has a few students, each one has obtained a hundred victories in the ported battles. We aren’t inferior to the other students at all.”

Schutz ruefully shook his head. “Those people won’t bother helping you. Aside from Meng Yue and myself, everyone else already has their own backers. They have their own training grounds, so they won’t feel any need to stir up trouble.”

“I’m Astral-10’s student leader, and I naturally have my own ways to get them to help me.”

“Alright, if this is what you want, then I’ll join you. Besides, it’s not like I can actually die.”

“That’s more like it! That’s the Great Yu Empire’s younger generation’s number one powerhouse, Schutz, in my memories! Be fearless! I still vividly remember that scene of you challenging the Outerverse Youth Council,” Lu Yin marvelled as he reminisced about the past.

Schutz laughed bitterly; he had been too ignorant back then. Like Lu Yin had said, they could not even comprehend the vast difference that existed between the Outerverse Youth Council and themselves back then. Looking back, Ghostfire was just a failed examinee who could not even enter Astral-10, but he had still forfeited his Hall Master position at Yu Academy without any hesitation. The man behind him, Bazeer, was even an Explorer. While he wasn’t an Explorer of the Astral Combat Academy, his strength shouldn’t be too far off from one since he had joined the Outerverse Youth Council. Their vision had truly been too limited before.

“So which Dao are we headed to?”

Lu Yin unhesitatingly replied, “The Dao of Purgatory, Whitebones Gorge.”

“Whitebones Gorge’s Area Master is Charon, your backer, right?” Schutz asked in shock. Charon had announced that Lu Yin was under his protection, shocking many. To the public, Lu Yin was someone who had taken liberties with Xi Yue, beaten up other academy students before extorting and threatening them, and also completed the most difficult Sentinel mission. He was not some random unknown character, but rather the leader of Astral-10’s students.

At the mention of Charon, Lu Yin laughed again. “He’s my brother, a very good brother.” No one in the universe knew Charon better than Lu Yin did.

Schutz nodded acceptingly. “I was just killed inside. You enter first, and I’ll look for you after I’ve recuperated.”

Lu Yin walked up the trialzone mountain and looked into the distance. He vaguely saw Xia Luo’s figure, who was sitting in a rather careless position. The rest had looked for secret spots to hide themselves even though their physical bodies would be protected after they entered the trial zones, but Xia Luo obviously did not care about that at all.

Lu Yin wasn’t concerned, either, and he chose a random place to sit down before closing his eyes and entering the Dao of Purgatory. When he opened his eyes, he saw darkness all around him and a jet-black pair of eyes. Lu Yin jumped in fright and immediately shot backwards. When his eyes finally adjusted to the darkness, he saw that there was a war spirit in front of him. The war spirit had no features and simply looked like a mass of darkness with black eyes. It was easily recognizable. Lu Yin felt that his luck today was horrible since he had encountered a war spirit the moment he entered the trial zone. They had strong offensive abilities and were usually very powerful.

When it sensed Lu Yin’s arrival, the war spirit immediately acted, materializing a black sword. The blade trembled, causing countless shadows to rush out from the sword in a hundred meters radius around it.

Lu Yin was shocked. He knew that war spirits were powerful as they were remnant memory impressions of former powerhouses who had battled in the trial zone, but he had never imagined that the one before him would be this powerful. Its attack did not lose out to Zhuo Daynight’s White Phantomsword in the slightest, and it was also able to mimic a domain. He believed that, when this war spirit’s powerhouse had been alive, he had definitely grasped a domain.

Lu Yin was about to act when his expression suddenly changed. He dodged aside with Flash and reappeared a hundred meters away. Three students suddenly appeared and looked at the war spirit with delight. “Charge! Leave the last strike for me,” one of them shouted while the other two attacked the war spirit together.

Lu Yin’s eyes flashed: spirit hunters. Though he had not browsed through all of Charon’s memories during his Possession, he had still seen some. Those select memories meant that this spirit hunter team was not completely foreign to him.

Although he understood what spirit hunters were, he still did not understand why they existed. While the leaders of the spirit hunter team may not be top-tier powerhouses, they definitely had a respectable background. Clearly, some of these elites would rather organize these hunting teams than compete for the status of an Area Master, and they would even insist on delivering the last blow. It was very strange and there were all sorts of rumors as to their motivation.

The spirit hunter team before him was a bit different from those in Charon’s memories. The hunters that Charon knew were all very powerful, as all of the team captains were at least as strong as an Area Master. Otherwise, they would not dare to hunt war spirits. However, none of the trio before Lu Yin seemed impressive, and they would rank at the bottom of Astral-10’s students at best.

WIth a loud bang, the black ground shattered as the two students pincer-attacking the war spirit were heavily injured and thrown back. Their faces paled as they said, “Gu Er, this war spirit is too strong. It can even use a domain. We can’t handle this one.”

That leading student grew flustered as he continued to evade the war spirit’s blade. He saw Lu Yin and immediately shouted, “Hey you! Come over and help us kill the war spirit, but remember, leave the final blow to me.”

Lu Yin raised his brows. “Why should I listen to you?”

Gu Er snorted derisively. “You either kill this war spirit with us, or we abandon it and kill you. Make your choice.”

Lu Yin’s expression turned from one of fury to ridicule. This man was using such a domineering form of intimidation when he wasn’t even that strong himself. This guy really knew how to sink his own ship.

Lu Yin considered the situation some more, and then moved to join in on the attack against the war spirit. This wasn’t because of Gu Er’s threat, but rather because he wanted to kill the war spirit. This captain badly wanted to deliver the killing blow, and Lu Yin simply wanted to see why.

Gu Er truly believed that his threat worked and secretly had the other two to retreat. He wanted Lu Yin to act as bait while they waited for an opportunity to counterattack.

After fighting against Zhuo Daynight, Lu Yin now knew the signs of an incomplete domain. He immediately used his Nine Stacks Shockwave Palm technique, causing nine explosions to ring out. It first shattered the war spirit’s black sword, and then it directly exploded against the war spirit, completely destroying it.

This scene shocked Gu Er’s trio. They were incapable of defeating the war spirit even after working together, but this person had killed it in just one blow.

The moment the war spirit perished, it shattered into numerous black fragments that vanished before Lu Yin’s eyes. This was nothing abnormal, but on a whim, Lu Yin activated his Cosmic Art. Nine stars revolved around his body, forming a perfect galaxy. With his Cosmic Art, he saw something different as the final black fragment was about to vanish. A strange symbol appeared, or rather, a diagram formed from multiple lines. The black fragment consisted entirely of these diagrams, but it quickly vanished into nothingness .

Lu Yin frowned. What was that? Was that what war spirits are made of? They are formed from the battles of previous powerhouses that took place in the trial zones. Do these strange diagrams somehow capture the strength of the powerhouses and form them into war spirits? How strange…

No matter how Lu Yin thought about what he had just witnessed, he still lacked too much information to know anything. There was nothing he could understand for now, but he did need to deal with the wrath of the trio behind him.

Gu Er clenched both fists and stared at Lu Yin. “You dare to steal the final blow?! I told you to leave the final blow to me!”

Lu Yin turned around and looked at Gu Er with a bemused expression. “Buddy, there must be something wrong with your head. Why should I listen to you? Do you think that just the three of you can deal with me?”

Lu Yin’s words caused a guttural reaction within the other two as a flash of fear passed through their eyes. The person in front of them had instantly destroyed the war spirit, and he should be extremely close to the level of an Area Master. This was not someone who they could casually provoke.

Gu Er also understood this and forcefully suppressed his rage. He had grown too accustomed to his arrogance and had even forgotten to check the power behind the person. But then, his gaze swept across the backs of Lu Yin’s hand and saw a “10.”

Gu Er was blown away and did a double take. Sure enough, it was a “10.” He smiled and his arrogance resurfaced. “You’re from Astral-10?”

Lu Yin didn’t deny it. With his current power, as long as he didn’t meet an Area Master or Realm Master, no one else could even hope to kill him.

Gu Er’s lips curled up, and he stared at Lu Yin with renewed arrogance. “Do you know who I am?”

Lu Yin squinted. This person’s attitude had changed many times throughout the past few minutes, but the largest change was after he discovered that Lu Yin was from Astral-10. At that point, his arrogance had spiked even higher than before. It seemed that he had some background, and it might even be connected to Astral-10.

“Please, tell me more,” Lu Yin answered casually.

Gu Er snorted and raised his head proudly. “My father is Elder Gu De, the current Astral River Flowzone Envoy. Listen carefully. I said, ‘Astral-Riv-er-Flow-zone-En-voy.’”

Lu Yin’s eyes widened in surprise as he looked at Gu Er. This was too much of a coincidence. Then, Lu Yin’s gaze started turning colder by the second.

The Human Domain was split into the Innerverse and Outerverse, and the Outerverse was further separated into seventy two vast weaves, but the Innerverse was not small by any means. These two regions of humanity’s territory were separated by an incomparably large Astral River that flowed like a ribbon. This Astral River was formed from various liquid energies and was not a true river of water; it was just a visible flow of liquid energy that coursed through the universe. This Astral River was the border between the Innerverse and Outerverse.

The Astral River was chaotic and no spacecraft could pass through it. Only a special large vessel could cross the Astral River and connect the Innerverse with the Outerverse.

The Outerverse had no Astral River, but the Innerverse was filled with the Astral River’s tributaries. These tributaries divided the Innerverse into countless regions which were termed Flowzones, with the tributaries of the Astral River between each Flowzone.

The only known way to cross the Astral River was to use a giant vessel that could navigate across the Astral River. A person who controlled one such vessel was known as a Flowzone Envoy, and the controllers of vessels that traveled across the Innerverse’s tributaries were known as Flowzone Tributary Envoys. The individual who controlled the largest vessel that moved across the Astral River between the Outerverse and the Innerverse was the Astral River Flowzone Envoy. Elder Gu De was the current Astral River Flowzone envoy, and he had the unique privilege of controlling the Outerverse’s gate. Unless one had a special identity, anyone who wanted to leave or enter the Innerverse required his approval. Although he was just a doorman, his authority was vast. The person who held this position was always at least at the Cruiser or even Hunter realm.

It was no wonder why Gu Er acted so arrogantly; his father controlled something that countless people of the Outerverse could only dream of: the opportunity to enter the Innerverse.

Gu Er was quite pleased with himself as he looked at Lu Yin and waited for Lu Yin to apologize. It was quite pleasurable to force powerhouses to submit to him, and this was not his first time forcing one to do so. When he was on his father’s Astral River ark in the Astral River, an Outerverse Explorer had once even kneeled down to enter the Innerverse. Gu Er did not care about one’s personal power; as long as they did not have a special status, his father could suppress them all.

Lu Yin looked deeply at Gu Er. “How much longer will your father hold his position as the Astral River Flowzone Envoy for?”

Gu Er sneered as he replied, “My father hasn’t even been there for ten years. It will be at least fifty years more before he retires, and even then, he may continue to control the Astral River’s giant vessel.”

Lu Yin nodded. “That’s great news to hear. I was afraid that I wouldn’t get a chance to chop him down on the Astral River’s giant vessel.”

Gu Er was furious. “What did you say?”

Lu Yin’s gaze turned cold. “Remember this: I’ll kill you every time I see you.” He then Flashed over, pressed down on Gu Er’s head, and exerted some strength. Gu Er’s head instantly shattered as he died without a chance to resist.

Gu Er’s two companions felt their skulls go numb. This person obviously wanted to sow discord with Elder Gu De. They rushed to escape, but Lu Yin easily chased them down and finished them off with a single palm each.