Chapter 32: Escaped Criminal   Zhang Dingtian paused before saying, ”He is Zhou Shan’s friend, and a Realm of Sky powerhouse.”

“Realm of Sky? And you’re from Earth?” The President grew even more astonished when Lu Yin nodded, “I didn’t expect anyone outside of you seven and the Tianzhu Monk to accomplish it. Unbelievable, boy, how did you manage such a feat?”

“Talent,” Lu Yin answered calmly.

President Lian simply nodded, accepting that explanation at face value.

“President, what happened?” Bai Xue asked.

The President sighed, “The Research and Development Center was attacked; the alien stole all the information.”

“What information? There should be nothing in the Center that he’s interested in.”

President Lian shook his head and frowned, “I don’t know, he connected that thing on his wrist to the center’s terminal and suddenly grew happy.”

“That’s his gadget,” Bai Xue said, “This is foreign technology that far exceeds our networks, it might have been able to decipher something we couldn’t. No wonder he wanted to destroy the Center, he likely doesn’t want us to find out.

“No, I’m the one who destroyed the Center,” President Lian exclaimed, smiling bitterly at everyone’s surprise, “That man killed all the researchers when he came in, and went directly to the terminal. He would have found the basement if I didn’t destroy the building, and it was the only way to draw all of you here as well.”

Lu Yin felt a renewed respect for the old man; few people had the courage to put their lives at stake for the cause.

Zhang Dingtian frowned, “The Center has been destroyed and all the information is gone, we can’t even find them for our vengeance.”

“Who said that the information is gone? What’s the point of my presidency if that were the case?” President Lian shook his head again, opening the door to the underground, “There’s a backup of everything underground; any of you who has the foreign technology can try it out. Maybe you can obtain some information too.”

Zhang Dingtian, Bai Xue and Lu Yin went down immediately, and a few minutes later they were looking at the projection from the watch in shock. The screen was displaying the explosion that occurred half a year ago; on the screen of the Research and Development Center, there was nothing special about the explosion. However, the gadget enhanced the video to show a black shadow rushing west in the aftermath of the explosion; that shadow moved so fast that Earth’s technology simply couldn’t capture it.

All three cultivators had grim expressions on their faces, while President Lian was stunned, “What is this black shadow? A human?”

Lu Yin answered, “Half a year ago, the Seven Sages weren’t in the Realm of Sky yet. This speed is comparable to someone in that realm; if I’m not wrong, it should be that corpse.”

“That thing was alive?!”

“Mm. One can cover their body in energy to stop all functions; it should have been enough to fool our technology. Well, I guess that means this corpse was the criminal mentioned in the students’ missions.”

Everyone fell silent and stared at the screen, while Lu Yin looked at President Lian, “May I ask why you decided to transfer the corpse? Zhou Shan mentioned that there was some uncontrollable substance on it.”

President Lian glanced at Zhang Dingtian and Bai Xue, “It was a highly explosive compound; given the amount of it on the body, we knew that there would be grave effects if something set it off. We couldn’t find a way to neutralize that substance, so we decided to move the threat away.”

“Primary was worried that the corpse would blow up during the move, so he separated the seven of us. We’d never expected his fears to come true and cause the Apocalypse. At least we managed to protect the survivors,” Bai Xue continued softly.

Lu Tin nodded, “He truly was selfless; given the strength of the explosion, he wouldn’t have died if you had been protecting him.”

President Lian sighed, “No one expected things to turn out like this, but now it looks like the corpse was the one who triggered everything. He must have been the one to cause the explosion.”

Lu Yin frowned, feeling like something was off; why would the criminal want to cause the Apocalypse? That had triggered Earth’s evolution, wasn’t he afraid such an event would catch the attention of the Great Yu Empire?

“We placed a tracker under the corpse’s skin when we first started studying it; let me see if it still works,” the President said while tinkering with his terminal. Moments later, there was a blip on the world map and he said excitedly, “I found it! This is where the signal was last detected.”

Everyone looked over; the mark was in Europe, within the Mediterranean Sea.

“That student from before headed west to search for it,” Zhang Dingtian concluded.

“Should we follow?” Bai Xue asked.

Zhang Dingtian stared at the screen, “No.”

Lu Yin explained, “That corpse was once an Explorer; even if he’s heavily injured right now, he’ll still be fine. It’s too dangerous for us to go.”

“Don't worry, if those students are unable to capture him, he’ll definitely come back here,” President Lian claimed, explaining when he saw Lu Yin’s obvious confusion, “His belongings are still in the Research and Development Center; he won’t let them go.”

“What belongings?” Lu Yin asked. He had only heard about a blade that had been brought back to Earth with the corpse.

President Lian was just about to reply when Bai Xue cut in, “This is top secret; we can’t tell you.”

Lu Yin was amused, “We’re in the middle of the Apocalypse and the Seven Sages are the highest authority in China; how secret can it be?”

She glared at him, “We have no idea about your background. For all we know, you might be another student.”

“Zhou Shan can vouch for me, I was already at his camp when the students arrived,” Lu Yin frowned.

Her lips curved into a beautiful smile, “I remember hearing the students mention that the Great Yu Empire has been watching Earth for a long time; it’s not impossible for someone to have come here early.”

“Now you’re just imagining problems,” Lu Yin grew irritated. This woman was giving him trouble at every turn, and on top of that she was supposedly in some sort of relationship with Liu Shaoge.

“I’m just stating facts,” she responded calmly.

“The facts are that the students you’ve seen so far are only the first batch. The second will be arriving soon, and among them will be people you can’t defeat. I can help you, stop treating me like an enemy!”

“Hmph. If you’re really an earthling, not helping would make you a traitor anyway. If you’re not, it’s pointless for us to ask you for help.”

Lu Yin gritted his teeth, but couldn’t refute her point. In the end, Zhang Dingtian looked over as well, “Your background is uncertain, and Zhou Shan can only speak for himself. If you want to know, then you must get majority approval from the Seven Sages.”

“Forget it, communications are still disrupted anyway. Besides, this woman clearly has power; I’d lose even if there was a vote.” Lu Yin stormed out, leaving a thoughtful Zhang Dingtian behind.

Bai Xue commented, “He’s extremely powerful; I don’t know how someone could enter the Realm of Sky outside of us and the few foreigners we gave some of the inheritance to.”

“The Tianzhu Monk has already shown that it isn’t impossible; this guy would be the second.”

Bai Xue nodded. She wasn’t deliberately targeting Lu Yin; she genuinely was suspicious of him. He was unreasonably strong and extremely greedy; she still recalled the weirdly immediate response of looting those two students.

Lu Yin left the basement with a grim face. Earth was currently dealing with the Apocalypse, the ruthless students, and even a runaway criminal in hiding! With the soon-to-arrive second batch of students, things were only going to get more chaotic and he needed to quickly increase his strength. The Great Yu Empire was just an ordinary nation within the Frostwave Weave. There were numerous weaves in the Outerverse with geniuses born every day. If he couldn’t handle the students of mediocre schools, there was no way he could match up to those from the Thirteen Imperial Squadrons or Yu Academy.

“Jeraldine!” he shouted.

She walked over, “What’s wrong?”

“Post that the criminal is in the Mediterranean Sea.”

“What? Really?”

“Mm. Do it.”

She frowned, “If you know that, why don’t you go yourself?”

“Just do it! Why do you have to question everything?” Lu Yin snapped, prompting her to switch on her gadget and send the message out.