The Ninth Star

"I wonder if the Academy's mentors can deduce the next part of the Heavenly Star Art," Lu Yin thought, then felt it was probably impossible. The power of the Heavenly Star Art was beyond his imagination. Just eight stars were already so terrifying, surpassing most of the combat techniques he had seen—no, all of them. It must be a cultivation art inherited from ancient times, not something that could be deduced by current human effort.

Well, let's see if there's a chance to obtain the next part of the cultivation art in the future! Lu Yin thought helplessly, then raised his hand. Eight stars circulated, beautiful and dreamlike.

"It's missing one," suddenly, a world-weary voice sounded in Lu Yin's ear, startling him so much that he jumped up. He subconsciously used Void Flash to dodge, but the voice in his ear was like a shadow to a form. "It really is missing one. What a pity, it's not perfect."

Lu Yin stopped, slowly turned around, his face pale, with a feeling that his biggest secret had been discovered. He had just come out of the time-stopped space! Moreover, he could see him circulating the Heavenly Star Art? An ordinary person fundamentally couldn't see it.

What met his eyes was an old, world-weary face that Lu Yin had seen before and had a deep impression of: the Mad Headmaster, the Mad Headmaster who had almost killed him.

At this moment, the Mad Headmaster's eyes were cloudy, seemingly still in a mad state. He just stared at Lu Yin's palm, or rather, at those eight stars.

Lu Yin swallowed. "Disciple Lu Yin pays respects to the Headmaster."

The Mad Headmaster ignored Lu Yin and continued to stare at the Heavenly Star Palm, his eyes gradually brightening, and then he laughed wildly. "Haha, I remember now! It really is missing one star. I should add one. Eight stars are not perfect; nine can be perfect. Yes, that's it, haha."

Lu Yin's heart stirred. He suppressed the urge to dispel the stars. He had a feeling that he might be able to obtain an unimaginable fortuitous encounter from this Mad Headmaster. "Mad... no, Headmaster, you... recognize this palm technique?"

The Mad Headmaster laughed crazily, constantly muttering to himself, as if he had thought of something.

Lu Yin waved the Heavenly Star Palm in front of the Mad Headmaster and said with a feigned sigh, "How can I get the ninth star? I don't know how."

The Mad Headmaster's mouth hung open as he stared at Lu Yin. "You don't know?"

Lu Yin nodded. "I don't know."

"I do, haha, I do!" the Mad Headmaster laughed wildly, his laughter shaking the heavens.

Lu Yin was expectant. "You do? I don't believe you."

The Mad Headmaster's eyes widened. "I said I do, so I do. Even if I don't, I will!"

"I don't believe you."

"You have to believe."

"I just don't believe, unless I see the ninth star."

The Mad Headmaster was choked with anger, his hair a mess. "You, you, you're making me so angry! Fine, I'll show you the ninth star. I must make you believe." With that, he grabbed Lu Yin's palm, their palms pressing against each other. An indescribable strange ripple spread out, directly filling the Tenth Academy and even spreading into the void. It should have been a heaven-shaking vibration, yet not a single person noticed, including Elder Cai, the mentor of the world, and the others. At this moment, only Lu Yin felt this vibration.

He felt a circulation even more profound than the primary Heavenly Star Art. He didn't know if this was the advanced Heavenly Star Art, but he was sure it definitely surpassed eight stars, because in his eyes, the ninth star had faintly appeared on his body.

This was a completely different way of circulating than before. If the circulation of the stars before was to forcibly condense them one by one, then the moment the ninth star appeared, it resonated with the previous eight stars, forming an exquisitely beautiful star chart.

Lu Yin stared blankly at the starry sky revolving around him. This was not a real starry sky, but it was no different from a real one. To simulate a starry sky with nine stars was unimaginable. He could feel the terror of the starry sky revolving around him at this moment. Unlike before, where the power of each additional star increased severalfold, the moment the starry sky appeared, the power of the Heavenly Star Palm underwent a qualitative change. Even Lu Yin didn't know how much stronger it had become.

The explosion of one star was enough to distort a piece of void. So what about when an entire galaxy exploded?

Suddenly, the starry sky on his body vanished. Lu Yin's eyes widened. The Mad Headmaster was staring at the sky. "It's you, it's you! Don't run! You started the war, so you will suffer the consequences. Don't run!" As he spoke, the Mad Headmaster rushed into the sky and quickly disappeared.

Lu Yin felt it was a pity; he hadn't completely helped him construct that star chart. He could feel how strong he had been just now. He didn't know what terrifying limit of strength his body could erupt with, but the Heavenly Star Palm with the newly constructed galaxy had a foundation that made him tremble... A galaxy, a starry sky. Lu Yin's eyes burned with passion. Since a galaxy had appeared, could he add more stars to it, just like the previous eight stars?

This thought was very crazy, but not impossible. Lu Yin's breathing quickened. He was eager to simulate the galaxy he had just felt, to know what had caused a qualitative change in his strength.

He did as he thought. Lu Yin immediately sat down cross-legged and comprehended with a calm heart.

A few hours later, he opened his eyes. He remembered that method of circulation but could not circulate the ninth star. The difficulty of this star was definitely greater than the eighth. It had taken him nearly two months to circulate the eighth star; the ninth would probably be longer. He couldn't be hasty. He would wait for the next time he rolled the die to enter the time-stopped space and stay for three months. He didn't believe he couldn't get it out.

Lu Yin stood up and stretched his back, feeling his body tremble. What should he do now? He couldn't just cultivate all the time. He couldn't go to the Trial World for the time being either. Without a backer, going there was just asking for a beating. That left only one path: making money. While he had time, he would make some more money. His talent was so thirsty for Star Crystals.

Before long, Lu Yin arrived at the Treasure Pavilion. At this time, Xia Luo and Liu Ji had already left.

Seeing Lu Yin, Elder Cai's eyes lit up, and he said in surprise, "Little fellow, you're so rich. Your Star Energy has soared so much. It's only been a few days. You must have spent over ten thousand Star Crystals."

Lu Yin smiled. "No, just good luck. I got some."

Elder Cai snorted. "It's not like I'm asking you for it. What are you afraid of?"

Lu Yin gave an embarrassed smile. He had always felt that this catfish-whiskered old man in front of him was very unreliable. Elder Cai, Elder Cai (Cai means wealth), with 'wealth' in his name, how could he not be greedy? It was better to pretend to be poor in front of this person.

"Elder Cai, I want to find some missions to do, preferably missions near the Great Yu Empire's Planet Zhenwu," Lu Yin said.

Elder Cai hummed in acknowledgment. "With your current strength, you can't reach the high ones and won't do the low ones. You can only do missions." With that, he opened the mission list. "Choose for yourself. It's best to choose a difficult mission. There's not much time left."

"Not much time left? What time?" Lu Yin was puzzled.

Elder Cai remembered; Lu Yin had just entered the Trial World when the news appeared. No wonder. "Little fellow, do you know the division of this universe?"

Lu Yin nodded. "Are you talking about the Four Great Star Domains?"

Elder Cai chuckled. "No. To be precise, it's the three great star domains: the Human Domain, the Starry Sky Giant Beast Domain, and the Lost Technology Civilization Domain. The Nameless Domain can't be counted as a domain because no one knows how huge it is. The domain war since that year has been the cruelest. Some time ago, the Human Domain was defeated..."

A moment later, Lu Yin finally understood what had happened and was somewhat shocked. The ten-academy competition was being held against the backdrop of humanity's defeat, both to boost morale and to recruit soldiers. Of course, there was another reason, which was to dig out the prodigy geniuses hidden in the major powers. Whatever the reason, the scale of this ten-academy competition was rare in history.

"The specific time?" Lu Yin asked urgently.

Elder Cai shook his head. "It's not set yet. We're just waiting for all the civilized networks in the universe to connect together before we can set the time."

Lu Yin pondered. All networks connected? Thinking of it this way, this was also a purpose. The network would connect the entire universe together, shortening the space for information transmission. With the current technology of humanity, this could have been done long ago, but it hadn't. There must have been some scruples. Now, some people were using the defeat as an excuse to push this matter forward. But even so, after the ten-academy competition, the cosmic network would surely have various restrictions.

Elder Cai glanced at the mission list. He thought Lu Yin was pondering the matter of the ten-academy competition and had no idea he had already thought of a strange place. Lu Yin himself didn't pay much attention; he had naturally thought of these things.

"There are no missions near the Great Yu Empire's Planet Zhenwu," Elder Cai said casually after looking for a while.

Lu Yin ah-ed and looked at the mission list. Since there were none, he would just pick one randomly!

At this moment, a new mission popped up: 'Protect the Ilfa merchant fleet through the war-torn zone to the first domain of the Great Yu Empire in the Canglan territory.'

Lu Yin subconsciously clicked to accept. The first domain of the Great Yu Empire was where Planet Zhenwu was located. This mission came at just the right time. "Elder Cai, is this Ilfa merchant fleet also a sponsor of our Tenth Academy?"

"Of course not. This is a mission distributed to us by the Mercenary Association. The Mercenary Association is a sponsor of our Astral Combat Academies. They distribute suitable missions to us every so often," Elder Cai said.

Lu Yin understood. No wonder there were so many strange missions. "I'll be going then. Does Elder Cai have any other instructions?"

Elder Cai waved his hand. "Hurry up and fill up on Star Energy. This is your only mission right now."

Lu Yin nodded and turned to leave.

At the same time, at the space station of the Tenth Academy, Wu Sheng walked out. Behind him, Xia Luo said respectfully, "Mentor, please take care."

Mentor Wu Sheng nodded and looked at Liu Ji. Seeing her expression was not right, he was puzzled. "Liu Ji, what's wrong?"

Liu Ji shook her head. "Nothing."

Mentor Wu Sheng didn't mind and glanced at Xia Luo. He believed in Elder Dan's recommendation and had let this person directly join the Decipherer Research Society. But he needed a baseline for his ability. With this thought, he took out a sphere covered in a thin metal film from his spatial ring. Peeling off the metal film, Xia Luo saw a transparent sphere filled with berserk Star Energy, constantly flashing and colliding, causing vibrations.

"This is a Star Burst Sphere, one of the external assessment methods of the Research Society. You try and see how long it takes you to pacify the berserk Star Energy inside," Mentor Wu Sheng said, handing it to Xia Luo.

Xia Luo asked curiously, "What is the standard for passing the assessment?"

Mentor Wu Sheng said calmly, "10 seconds. Passing within 5 seconds is considered excellent, and within 3 seconds is extremely excellent."

A glint flashed in Xia Luo's eyes. Extremely excellent? He subconsciously looked at Liu Ji.

"Liu Ji pacified it in three seconds," Mentor Wu Sheng said, seeing Xia Luo's gaze.