Lu Yin descended and walked up to Lasse. "Empty everything out of the Ningkong Ring. Don't force me to take action."
Lasse's face twitched. "You're one of the strongest from some academy, right? Instead of completing your mission, you come here to rob me? You'll lose points for that."
Lu Yin's eyes grew cold. He raised his hand, and the air began to distort — this was the Wave Palm.
Lasse hurriedly said, "Don't, don't attack! I'll empty it out, I'll empty it!" Saying that, Lasse reluctantly dumped everything from the Ningkong Ring. There was a messy assortment of things. Lu Yin took the Stellar Energy Crystals and some useful items, then left immediately.
"Hey, what's your name?" Lasse shouted after him.
Lu Yin ignored him.
Lasse cursed loudly. There are students like this? Suddenly, he remembered something and quickly opened his personal terminal's local network. At the top of the map floated the words: "Lasse defeated."
Lasse spat blood again. There was only one possibility for no name being reported — that bastard's personal terminal was not his, it was stolen.
Far away in Tong City, Lu Yin looked at the local network and nodded in satisfaction. The people from the Dayu Empire who monitored Earth's trials must know his name but concealed it, which was fairly honorable. Who's next? Lu Yin stared at the map. It's you. After saying that, Lu Yin sped off.
For three consecutive days, Lu Yin robbed more than a dozen students quietly hiding in Huaxia. These students were all of Granny's caliber — they only wanted to quietly occupy an area, gather some mineral resources, and survive until the trial ended, with no plans to interfere otherwise. Unfortunately, Lu Yin had his sights on them. He was currently in dire need of Stellar Energy Crystals; even mosquitoes are meat.
Inside the clouds, Lu Yin organized the contents of the Ningkong Ring. His ring was relatively spacious, but still insufficient. There were too many miscellaneous mineral ores and herbs. Lu Yin had no choice but to throw them away one by one. Since he didn't care, he didn't feel bad about discarding them. What annoyed him the most was how poor these students were — after robbing so much, he only managed to collect two cubic units of Stellar Energy Crystals.
In fact, students who dared to participate in the trials were elites from various academies. Compared to ordinary students, they were already quite wealthy. If they were ordinary students, even if Lu Yin robbed a hundred or a thousand of them, he might not be able to collect one cubic unit of Stellar Energy Crystals.
These crystals were hard currency in the universe, equivalent to gold on Earth. Even wealthy students hesitated to use them to speed up cultivation, preferring to save them for crucial moments to survive. So most students only absorbed the wandering stellar energy from the universe step by step in their cultivation — unlike Lu Yin, who wanted to take shortcuts.
"Looks like I have to rob someone like Willow, the strongest in an academy, otherwise efficiency is too low," Lu Yin muttered to himself. Actually, even if he didn't think this way, it wouldn't matter — all nearby targets had already been robbed. Now his exploits were spreading on the local network, saying a space pirate had infiltrated the trial students, terrifying everyone.
Because of Erde's suggestion, more and more students gathered toward Tianzhu. During Lu Yin's robbing spree, over thirty students had assembled there, including nearly ten academy strongest contenders.
Those daring to track fugitives were at least the top three strongest from their academies. Thirty such strong students gathered, making the whole Tianzhu tremble.
On the fifth day, Erde announced publicly that he was heading to the capital city, telling other students not to come to Tianzhu.
The local network exploded with activity — the war against the capital city had finally begun.
In Huaxia's hidden peak, Lu Yin stood up. "Is it starting? Then I'm starting my hunt," he said, then soared into the sky.
Two days later, a notification floated across the local network map: "Ian defeated."
Many students' hearts sank. They had seen this kind of notification more than ten times. Rumors said it was the handiwork of that space pirate. That person's personal terminal was stolen, so his identity was unknown.
Originally, many students believed that person only dared rob ordinary students. But Ian's defeat made many hearts tighten — Ian was the academy's strongest.
On the barren land, a man coughed up blood, his face pale and furious as he stared into the distance. There, Lu Yin easily opened the Ningkong Ring using Ian's blood, his eyes shining brightly as he looked at its contents. "Not bad, not bad, quite a lot of good stuff. Worthy of being the academy's strongest."
"Who exactly are you? Which academy? Leave your name!" Ian shouted angrily. Just now, he had encountered this person. Without a word, the other struck him with the Rift Palm, knocking him out cold. When he regained consciousness, he was struck again — the Rift Palm could at most injure, but the second palm was the decisive blow, sending him crashing to the ground seriously wounded.
Lu Yin tossed the Ningkong Ring back to Ian. "Call me Seventh Brother."
"Seventh brother my ass!" Ian yelled furiously as Lu Yin walked away.
In the far west of Huaxia, Qinghai, Erde, Haidian, and more than ten students wore grave expressions.
"Ian was robbed too. That guy claims to be Seventh Brother. Erde, we should deal with this threat first before going to the capital city. After all, the second batch of trial participants will arrive in fifteen days. There's enough time," someone suggested.
"That's right. Letting a rat like that run free will only cause trouble," another said with a grim face. His junior sister was also robbed. That bastard even robs women — he was furious.
Erde and Haidian exchanged a glance. "Alright, two people per team to operate. Search around the capital city, gradually narrowing the area. Locate all personal terminals. If you encounter anyone acting alone with the combat strength of an academy's strongest, strike immediately — better to mistakenly kill than to let them escape."
"Too bad the local network blocks image transmission, or we would've known who's causing trouble already," someone complained.
After speaking, everyone dispersed.
Lu Yin looked at all the personal terminal locations on the map. "Two-person teams, interesting. One of them must be an academy's strongest. Let's see."
After a while, Lu Yin stood within the clouds. In the distance, two students appeared and looked at their personal terminals. "Only 1,700 combat power? Trash," one sneered, glaring at Lu Yin.
The other waved at Lu Yin. "Kid, come here."
Lu Yin calmly flew over and stood before them, his gaze indifferent.
"Kid, I ask you — have you seen the person who robbed you?" one asked.
Lu Yin nodded. "I have."
"Draw a picture of that person," he said.
Lu Yin shook his head. "I haven't learned to draw."
"You idiot! Connect your personal terminal and you can directly draw the image in your mind," the man snapped angrily.
Lu Yin replied calmly, "Actually, no need. That person is right here."
"Where?" The two were startled.
Lu Yin pointed to himself. "Me." Saying this, he slapped both palms forward. The Wave Palm distorted the air and slammed into the two. One immediately lost consciousness from the shock, while the other barely held on, shouting furiously, "So it's you! You're asking for death!" He then drew a long blade and slashed at Lu Yin.
This man was an academy's strongest. Although not as powerful as Willow and others, he was much stronger than Teres and the rest. Yet facing Lu Yin's Heavenly Star Palm was still not enough — one palm shattered his long blade and sent him crashing to the ground.
Lu Yin easily succeeded in another robbery. This incident once again ignited the local network.
Erde's face darkened. How long had it been? Someone else got robbed again. Where did this bastard come from?
"Everyone remember, do not approach any strangers," Erde sent a notice to everyone. Actually, he didn't need to — all the students instinctively kept their distance from anyone, no matter their combat strength.
Lu Yin looked at the Ningkong Ring. "Together, about one and a half cubic units of Stellar Energy Crystals. Time to absorb them." Saying this, Lu Yin removed his personal terminal and was still inside the mountain stream. He rushed to the other side, found an abandoned farm, crushed the crystals, and activated the Heavenly Star Technique to directly absorb the energy.
Far away inside the capital city, Zhang Dingtian and the others stared silently at the local network.
"I'm certain it's Lu Yin," Bai Xue said firmly.
Zhang Dingtian asked in confusion, "Why?"
Bai Xue recounted Lu Yin's robberies of Bailey and Willow. "If not him, then who else?"
Zhang Dingtian's expression grew strange. Lu Yin seemed ordinary at first glance, but unexpectedly so radical in action. Counting it up, he had robbed more than fifteen people, including several academy strongest contenders. What was he trying to do?
If Bai Xue could guess it was Lu Yin, Granny could naturally guess as well. Compared to Zhang Dingtian and others, Granny was even more shocked. She recalled the first time she met Lu Yin when he was only at the Hope Realm and wasn't a match for her. She didn't expect him to so quickly surpass many academy strongest contenders. This guy was truly abnormal.
Lu Yin leisurely absorbed stellar energy on the farm. Erde and the other students had already gone mad searching. They had been looking for five days with no clue and finally found an unclaimed personal terminal in the mountain stream.
"Keep searching. If we can't find him within seven days, forget it and head to the capital city. The second batch of trial participants will arrive in ten days. The plan must not fail," Erde said grimly.