Chapter 24: Targeting The Capital   Jaeger smiled, “I know a little more than you, but even I barely have any news of that circle. Veron from your school and Borise from mine have teamed up with Parlie. They should be exploring the cause for this planet’s evolution, and are perhaps on their way to the capital. That area isn’t somewhere we can go; I would be satisfied with just a province and some minerals. There’s no need to fight those freaks.”

Jeraldine paled, “Parlie? From the Third Gravitas Planet?”

Jaeger’s gaze turned serious, “Yes, the very same one who almost joined the Empire Youth Council. He’s already a peak Sentinel at 3k combat level.”

Lu Yin was surprised that people so powerful would be among this batch. If Vesta and Orton were in the bottom tier, Jeraldine could barely join Terence and Jaeger in the middle. The strongest were already close to the capital, which would undoubtedly be the epicenter of the battles.

Jaeger said seriously, “From what I know, there are three top-tier teams in China, of which I only know Parlie’s. Still, even the others are certainly going to be freaks that can compete with the second batch; their goal isn’t even the planetary trial, they’re just using it to warm up for the legendary territory trials.”

Jeraldine fell silent at this juncture. Her own network was too weak to know much at this level.

"Alright, I've told you all I needed to. It's about time," Jaeger said suddenly.

“What time?” Jeraldine asked with suspicion.

"Time for you to be happy," he laughed weirdly.

She felt her heart drop immediately and looked at her teacup, “You poisoned the tea?”

“Of course not, your watch would have caught it. I actually gave you something quite good; powerburst powder.” Jaeger retrieved a crystal vial from his cosmic ring with a dark green clover emblem on it.

“Shamrock Enterprises? What does this do?” she cried out.

“Find out for yourself. Try to activate your energy,” Jaeger chuckled.

Lu Yin pressed down on Jeraldine’s shoulder and stared at Jaeger, “Don’t move. Powerburst is meant to allow Melders to activate all their star energy in an instant for explosive strength. Sentinels don’t have enough star energy; we’ll injure ourselves and wither up. Am I right?”

Jaeger was astonished, “You actually know? Right, you mentioned that your grandfather was a headmaster? Looks like you have some family background.”

Lu Yin’s gaze went cold, “People who aren’t Melders yet can’t activate their star energy for a while after consuming powerburst, but that’s a huge price to pay. What are you pulling?”

Jaeger stowed the vial away and exclaimed proudly, “Nanjing is a decent place, and it has a unique position in this country. Occupying it myself would improve my results. And on top of that,” greed flashed in his eyes as he looked Jeraldine up and down, “I’ve wanted to taste the First Military School’s beauty for quite some time.”

Jeraldine backed away, the blood draining from her face, “You bastard.”

“Bastard?” Jaeger smiled, "How could you say that? I gave you a powerful supplement, you should blame yourself for not being able to use it."

The two students in the corner were writhing about, trying to raise the alarm, but he frowned as his gaze swept past them, “Useless things that still require my rescue.”

A gale tore open their chains with a wave of his hand, and they shouted immediately, “Senior, watch out!”

Jaeger’s gaze narrowed and he turned around, only to feel his stomach being crushed as a violent impact sent him flying out of the camp. He crashed into an abandoned field in the distance as Lu Yin jumped up and raised his hand, causing ripples in the air all around. Another motion of the palm gave rise to a second wave of energy that crumbled the earth, assaulting the fallen Jaeger once more. The youth could barely raise his hands to defend himself, but the force broke both his arm and forced out a mouthful of blood before he fainted.

Lu Yin stared coldly at him as he stretched his hand; both the Shockwave Palm and Spacerender Palm could be activated without star energy and were unaffected by powerburst. He cast a cold glance at the countless watching cultivators before shifting to the two other students of Blue Mountain Academy, whose faces paled as they froze in place. Jeraldine heaved a sigh of relief, but she was shocked as well. Even knowing the power of the Spacerender Palm, she wouldn’t have thought it could defeat Jaeger. Lu Yin’s physical strength alone could put him on par with the top three in most institutions. That rate of improvement was terrifying.

"Are the wind crystals real?” Lu Yin asked the two students. They had said so the last time he’d asked, but he didn’t believe them anymore.

The two glanced at each other and finally spilled, “They’re real, but it’s hard to beat the mutant birds. There’s a giant bird there that could be a Melder, one of our schoolmates was killed by it.”

Jeraldine glared at Jaeger upon hearing that, but Lu Yin made his way outside the army camp, “The effects of the drug will pass in half an hour. We’ll take these guys back to Nanjing after that.”

Feng Hong and the other captains were already waiting outside, having surrounded another group from Anhui who had fallen under Jaeger’s control. This group was not saddened by Jaeger’s death, but instead heaved sighs of relief; he had only ruled over them with terror.

“Release them, and keep those who are willing to join our camp. The unwilling ones can leave.”

Feng Hong nodded and started his arrangements, returning a short while later, “Apologies, Hidden Sage, we needed you to save us again.”

Lu Yin smiled, “No matter, the opponent was in the Realm of Sky. How’s the clean-up process?”

“Roger. We’ve already cleared up most zombies in Nanjing’s countryside, as well as many mutants. We left the ones that were too strong for us to deal with, but managed to mark their territories on the map for warning. Further west is Anhui, where that other Realm of Sky powerhouse came from…”

Lu Yin dismissed Feng Hong after the report, falling into thought. He realized he had mixed up his thoughts. He had seen the intense ambition in Liu Shaoge’s eyes when the city had been bombed, but the so-called Radiance had no understanding of the greater universe at this point. His ambitions then were only directed at Earth, but with the first batch of students having appeared, he would have understood the heavens much better. Would his sights be limited to Earth anymore? That was impossible. It was 90% likely that Wucheng was in the same state as Nanjing; Liu Shaoge had suppressed some students to better understand the greater universe. He would not have much interest in China or even the Earth anymore; his ambition would have shifted to the skies.

Using Zhou Shan’s soldiers to strike at Wucheng was a narrow-minded effort. The troops would have to spend a long time and give up many lives to reach the city, and the second batch of students would have already landed by that time, bringing great change to the world. It would be near impossible for him to pursue his vengeance this way; it wasn’t even guaranteed that Liu Shaoge would be able to fend off the second batch at all.

Lu Yin breathed out and gazed towards the west, deciding to put his vengeance on the back burner while he focused on the corpse. He wanted to complete the mission of the trial, the same mission that could be completed by anyone from Earth. With all his other arrangements, that would make it possible to enter Astral-10.

Half an hour later, Jeraldine dragged Jaeger’s trio back out. The two students had been bound once again, and Jaeger himself had been beaten within an inch of death. Lu Yin didn’t stand on ceremony as he grabbed the latter’s ring, using some blood to open it and pour everything out. Unfortunately, he didn’t have much of value outside of some wind crystals, some unknown medicine, and a dozen star crystals. Pocketing what was useful, he turned around, “Let’s go back.”

Jeraldine nodded and followed behind him.

Those who had landed around Nanjing were mostly from the First Military School and Blue Mountain Academy. Their fates had varied between death, capture, and servitude to Lu Yin. Lu Yin believed there weren’t any major threats to the city left nearby save for the silver-haired youth who could completely block the Cosmic Palm. That fellow’s power far exceeded that of Jaeger and Terence, but he hadn’t been able to obtain any information about him from Jeraldine. She simply didn’t know anyone with that description.