Brutal

Lu Yin felt the power of the Great Desolate Palm; the life force in his body felt as if it were being drained away. He knew its power was not weak, so he also raised his hand, a sharp light flashing in his eyes. If the other wanted to die, he wouldn't be polite.

Boom!

The two attacked with all their might simultaneously. As the inherited combat technique of the Honghuang Sect, the ruling power of the Honghuang Continent, the Great Desolate Palm was incredibly powerful. Meanwhile, Lu Yin circulated his Heavenly Star Palm to five stars, a move that had once defeated the Martial Hall's Melting Realm expert, Thyssen, and was praised by Gurbach as enough to rank in the Martial Hall's top 10.

With a loud bang, a shockwave like a storm tore apart the ground, shattered the cold air, and spread out in layers. A group of Reaching Realm cultivators who happened to be passing by were caught in this air current, screaming as they were severely injured. The ground was split in two. Lulu was shocked and immediately dodged.

The clash between the two had surpassed that of an ordinary Melting Realm expert.

Meng Yue was shocked; his Great Desolate Palm had actually been blocked. He had relied on the Great Desolate Palm to defeat many Melting Realm experts.

Lu Yin and Meng Yue both retreated simultaneously. This clash was almost a draw.

Meng Yue's strength surprised Lu Yin. To be able to defeat a Melting Realm expert while in the Reaching Realm was extremely rare, not to mention that the person before him was not a talented cultivator.

"Good! There are not many at the same level who can block the Great Desolate Palm. What's your name?" Meng Yue asked excitedly.

Lu Yin frowned. "I don't have time to waste on you. Get out of the way."

Meng Yue pondered, looking at Lu Yin for a while before retracting his Star Energy. He remembered Lu Yin's speed. With this person's attack intensity plus his speed, if they really fought, he would not be the opponent. "My name is Meng Yue, remember it."

Lu Yin was startled. Meng? Could it be one of the ancient single-character surnames? He only knew a few of those ancient surnames and wasn't sure.

"Hey, you want to fight? I'll fight you," Lulu stared at Meng Yue excitedly. She was naturally belligerent.

Meng Yue glanced at her. "I'm not interested in women."

Lulu frowned. "Looking down on me." With that, her body suddenly vanished, appearing directly in front of Meng Yue and kicking out. It was a very ordinary kick. Although Meng Yue's speed was not as fast as hers, his reaction was not slow. He raised his arm to block. With a thud, the shockwave trembled. Meng Yue's pupils shrank, a sharp pain coming from his right arm. An unstoppable force sent him flying, directly shattering three low mountains and embedding him in the ground.

Lu Yin's face twitched as he looked at Meng Yue with sympathy. He had underestimated Lulu too much. This was a member of the Mebis clan, a freak with monstrous strength. That kick was probably not light!

"How dare you look down on me. Hmph. Let's go," Lulu raised her head and waved at Lu Yin, then leaped up and flew into the distance.

Lu Yin glanced again at Meng Yue amidst the cloud of dust, then got up and flew away.

Underground, Meng Yue gritted his teeth, his arm bent at an unnatural angle. That one kick had directly broken his arm. "Vicious woman," Meng Yue hurriedly took out healing medicine to treat himself. Emerging from the ground and finding that the two had already left, he let out a breath and looked at his right arm with a bitter smile. Looked down on her, what a freakish woman.

"Lulu, was your move—no, your kick—a bit too heavy?" Lu Yin asked.

Lulu snorted. "Serves him right for looking down on me."

Lu Yin chuckled, silently reminding himself not to provoke her in the future. This woman's strength was truly too great. It was a talent, it had to be a talent.

In the following time, Lu Yin and Lulu did not encounter any enemies. The Tenth Academy's assessment was just to reach the end of the path, with no specified number of people. Under these conditions, very few people would actively cause trouble. Someone like Meng Yue was a rarity.

There were no enemies, but the number of strange beasts was increasing. Under the dark night sky, in the icy cold wind, all kinds of strange beasts walked the land, and many flew in the air. Many Reaching Realm cultivators were killed by these beasts.

Lu Yin and Lulu encountered a terrifying strange beast. Although it was also at the Reaching Realm, it was impervious to weapons. Fortunately, Lulu finally shattered its internal organs with a heavy punch. Even so, its exterior had no wounds at all, which sent a chill down Lu Yin's spine. This kind of defense was too powerful.

There was also a strange beast that could shoot lightning, fast and with a fierce attack, far surpassing the Flashing Thunder Arrow that Gurbach had used against Lu Yin. In the end, Lu Yin and Lulu managed to escape because the beast's speed was too fast and it was difficult to hit. Fortunately, the beast did not pursue them, as if it were guarding its own territory.

Besides the strange beasts, there were also many peculiar plants. Coupled with the harsh weather, every so often, the two would find more and more corpses on the ground.

All who could come here to participate in the assessment were outstanding among Reaching Realm cultivators, with the worst being at Erde's level. But facing this path, the shadow of death still loomed.

Far behind Lu Yin and Lulu, Las was hiding in fear, shivering. The few people who were originally with him were all dead, leaving him alone. He didn't dare to go on and decided to hide until the assessment was over.

He didn't know how much time had passed, but the suns that had been frozen in the sky suddenly exploded. Scorching high temperatures accompanied by dazzling sunlight fell, making it difficult for many people to adapt. Among them, some who were in the middle of a battle died in vain due to a moment of carelessness.

The interweaving of cold and heat and the sudden dazzling light almost got even Lu Yin. He subconsciously used Void Flash to dodge. The ground exploded with a thud, and a strange flower emerged from the ground, releasing countless white substances at Lu Yin. Lu Yin raised his hand, and a Triple Impact Three-Wave Palm directly shattered everything. The terrifying force of the wind then smashed into the flower, grinding it to pieces.

Looking up, Lu Yin exhaled. It had changed again. This high temperature would last for at least forty-eight hours.

"It's getting hotter and hotter. Look, the further in we go, the lower the altitude of the suns. In the very center, they're almost level with the ground," Lulu complained.

Lu Yin looked into the distance. Indeed, the altitude of the suns was constantly decreasing. At the entrance, though far away, even an ordinary person with a strong body could endure the heat. But this region was already extremely hot; only those at the Outlook Realm could bear it. Further in, and even to the deepest part, perhaps even Reaching Realm cultivators would find it difficult to endure. Plus, there were boundless strange beasts and ubiquitous plants, as well as enemies. The assessment was truly brutal.

The competition on the Reaching Realm path was not considered fierce. The competition on the Melting Realm path was the truly brutal one. Jenny Ona and Huo Xiaoling were eliminated at the very beginning. They encountered a Melting Realm strange beast before they could even regroup after landing. If Shuz hadn't appeared, they would have died. Even so, it was difficult to complete the subsequent assessment, and they had to give up.

Nearly 80 Melting Realm cultivators from the Great Yu Empire participated in the assessment. In just one day, more than half were eliminated, with the death toll reaching thirty. These were the true elites of the Great Yu Empire, not just from the Martial Hall but also experts from all the major academies. Such losses made even Undying Yushan's face turn ugly.

What was more terrifying was that one of the Five Great Hall Masters, Lok Ang, was also eliminated, casting a shadow over this assessment and making Dolan Yushan and the others' expressions heavy.

The Martial Hall Masters were the true peak experts of the Great Yu Empire's younger generation. His elimination cast a shadow over this assessment.

"Gurbach and Yan Gang have teamed up," someone reported.

Dolan Yushan nodded, not surprised. The ambush on the Reaching Realm path was just carried out by a few who didn't know the situation. If Yan Feng truly wanted to marry Wendy, Yan Gang had to maintain a good relationship with the Great Yu Empire.

However, Yan Gang's strength was inferior to Gurbach's. Hopefully, he wouldn't hold Gurbach back.

Time passed slowly. More and more spaceships appeared around the ten paths. In the starry sky, a Star-Wandering Realm expert stood, looking at the ten paths in the distance.

On the Reaching Realm path, also far behind Lu Yin and Lulu, a young man clutched his left arm, growling in pain. He was Ukai Maldo, son of Siken Maldo, also participating in the Reaching Realm assessment. He had just been attacked by a strange plant, his left arm crushed, but the plant had also been destroyed by him.

Ukai Maldo had deceived Siken Maldo to come to the assessment. His strength was not weak, comparable to Las's. At this moment, Las was hiding in the distance, shivering, while he was pushing forward with amazing perseverance. But in the end, he still fell here. He couldn't go on.

Ukai Maldo was bitter, his fresh blood staining the ground and the cliff. Was this the end?

Suddenly, Ukai Maldo's gaze sharpened. There were strange patterns on the cliff wall. He stared intently, gradually becoming engrossed. This was a set of fist techniques, without a name, without an origin, buried in dust for an unknown number of years. It had emerged along with Ukai Maldo's battle. This was his fortuitous encounter.

Lu Yin and Lulu flew forward. A few hundred kilometers ahead of them, a huge strange beast was roaring, like an ancient dinosaur, about a hundred meters tall. Its sharp, hard claws easily tore open the ground. Facing the siege of a dozen Reaching Realm cultivators, it was extremely violent. It opened its mouth, and terrifying Star Energy gathered, finally turning into a beam of energy that swept across the sky, destroying everything.

"It's no use! Our attacks have no effect on it! We can't break its defense!"

"Let's try teaming up!"

"We can't! It's very smart! It attacks whichever side has more people! There's no room to team up at all!"