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Typically, Lu Yin would not expose himself to unpredictable dangers, but this was not a matter of cultivation. Instead, he was just attending a banquet, so there was no need to risk his life.
However, the Rainmaster, Starmaster, and Trialmaster all refused to speak a single word about the issue.
While Lu Yin was considering whether or not he should reveal his connection with Highsage Leon, at that moment, his gadget sounded; Lily Anna was contacting him.
Lu Yin was momentarily stunned; how could she contact him while he was inside the academy? He quickly remembered that Lily Anna was also an alumni of the Astral Combat Academy, so she was naturally able to contact him here.
“Miss Anna, how are you doing?” Lu Yin greeted.
“Brother Lu, I took the liberty of contacting you, so I hope that it’s no trouble,” Lily Anna replied.
“It’s no trouble. Miss Anna, do you have anything on your mind?” Lu Yin asked.
“Nothing much, but I recently recalled that I haven’t visited Frostwave Weave yet. Since Brother Lu is an uncrowned king of Frostwave Weave, please take care of me when I visit there one day.”
“Miss Anna is being too excessive. I’m no uncrowned king. Still, I look forward to hosting Miss Anna whenever you visit Frostwave Weave.”
“Hosting? Aren’t we friends? Or is Brother Lu looking down on a girl like myself, who’s from a small clan from a small Flowzone?” Lily Anna sounded rather hurt.
Lu Yin quickly replied, “Of course not, I’ve spoken badly. When Miss Anna arrives at Frostwave Weave, I’ll do my best to show you around as a friend.”
“Hehe, I’m just joking. Alright then, it’s a promise. Let’s meet in Frostwave Weave.”
“Let’s meet in Frostwave Weave.”
Lu Yin disconnected from the call and fell deep into thought. Lily Anna was the heir of the Northline Flowzone’s Lily family, and she was an Explorer as well. There was no need for her to give him prior notice if she wanted to tour the Outerverse. He recalled her attitude the first time they had met; she had praised him to no end, even though he didn’t know if it was intentional or otherwise. Could it have something to do with Frostwave Weave? Why else would she suddenly contact me for such menial things? Is there still something of interest in Frostwave Weave? Lu Yin was very puzzled.
Or perhaps he was over-thinking. Lu Yin laughed in spite of himself and brushed it out of mind. Ever since he had become the Royal Regent of the Great Yu Empire, he had started over-complicating many matters whenever he thought about them. Perhaps the Lily family just wanted to cement their relationship with him, and the call had been just a casual chat.
Lu Yin did not dwell on this matter any longer, and spent another two days resting at Astral-10. He then set off for Astral-7, which was the closest Astral Combat Academy branch to Astral-10.
During these two days, Feng Shang and Kuang Wang both contacted Lu Yin, inquiring about what had happened in the Ocean of Death. Lu Yin sang the same tune as everyone else from Astral-10, claiming that he had been forced out of the trial zone along with everyone else.
Neither of the two doubted him, as they did not believe that something that had affected all Nine Trialzones could be related to Lu Yin. The cause of the matter was something that even the headmasters had been unable to discover.
Although they hadn’t gained any results from their attempt to cross the Ocean of Death, they still transferred the money to Lu Yin. His Mavis Bank account swelled with yet another 1,500,000 star crystals.
It was neither too much nor too little, as the two of them were still students after all.
Astral-7 was in the Erudite Flowzone. Lu Yin made some calculations and quickly realized that it would take him a long time to arrive there if he used a normal spacecraft. He did not have much time to spare, but he had no choice. Before leaving Astral-10, he headed to the treasury to buy an Aurora spacecraft. Supposedly, it had been in Astral-10’s inventory for a long time, and it had even been upgraded to the radiant-grade.
An average personal Aurora spacecraft could fetch a price of over ten thousand star crystals, but the price of a radiant-grade one increased by a hundredfold: a million star crystals.
The production cost of a radiant-grade spacecraft wasn’t that high, but the market was balanced by supply and demand. No matter where a radiant-grade spacecraft was sold, it would always be urgently needed. The Aurora Company limited the production of their Aurora spacecraft each year, and the price for each one was inflated due to the urgent demand from many.
Fortunately, Lu Yin could afford it. A million star crystals was as painful as cutting his own flesh, but he had just obtained over a hundred star essence, so it was not excessively painful.
However, Old Cai’s complacent attitude completely irritated Lu Yin.
With the radiant-grade spacecraft, it would now take him just a tenth of the originally estimated time to reach Astral-7, which was less than ten days. He could afford to spend ten days traveling.
This time, Lu Yin did not wait with the civilians. Instead, he immediately used his Honor Points to board the Northline Flowzone’s Tributary Ark and head out to Tempest Flowzone.
Tempest Flowzone was unique, and it was rumored to have strange storms that could engulf even the void. These storms automatically avoided planets, but they would not move away from spacecraft or space-exploring powerhouses. Furthermore, these storms would often appear without much warning.
This meant that it was very dangerous to fly through Tempest Flowzone. Once one was sucked into a storm, there were few who could live to tell the tale.
Over the passage of countless years, even the powers of Tempest Flowzone had not been able to discover the cause of the storms. Once, they had even specially invited an old freak with a power level in the hundreds of thousands to investigate, but to no avail.
Ever since, many people had emigrated from Tempest Flowzone, and only a small number of powers had stayed behind. This caused the flowzone’s overall strength to decline over time.
Even then, the Tempest Flowzone’s Feng family and Fire Scorpion Sect were both very powerful, or else they would not be able to cause Northline Flowzone to feel apprehensive.
The fastest way to Astral-7 was through Tempest Flowzone since circumventing the flowzone would add another ten days to Lu Yin’s travel time.
Lu Yin’s current objective was to wander through the ten academies, which was the same as roaming through the entire Innerverse. A rough estimate of the time needed was between half a year to a year, so he had no time to waste. After all, he still needed to return to the Great Yu Empire at some point.
He did not know if spending a year visiting the Stargazing Decks was worth it, but at least the year would not be wasted. Between each academy branch, he would be reciting more of the Stonewall Scriptures, and traveling would also give him some worldly experience.
Also, the Daynight clan’s Daynight Feast was conveniently located along his journey.
Lu Yin felt a little flustered when he thought of the Daynight Feast, as Old Cai’s attitude had been just too strange.
Tempest Flowzone’s heavens were not like the starry skies of the other flowzones. It was dark, and only the celestial bodies emitted light within this darkness.
Sometimes, Lu Yin considered spending his entire life traveling to the edge of the universe. What was at the end of the universe? Was there an obstructing wall? A field of chaos? A body of water? What existed at the end in the other direction?
Even the Progenitor that the monkey always praised wouldn’t know!
“Seventh Bro, have we left Astral-10?” The monkey had awakened now. He had been knocked unconscious by the voices on the island that was at the end of the Ocean of Death and had only awakened now.
Lu Yin replied, “Yes. How are you feeling?”
“Headache.” The monkey sounded like he could not take the pain any longer. “Seventh Bro, do you still remember those words? Did you ask your mentors what they meant?”
Lu Yin shook his head. “Right, have you translated those words from inside the centipede's body?”
“No, when would I have found the time to do so? Also, my head is still spinning from those voices. Where are we now?”
“Tempest Flowzone,” Lu Yin casually answered.
“Where?!” the monkey cried out.
Lu Yin frowned, “Tempest Flowzone. Why? Is there a problem?”
“Of course there’s a problem! Why did you come here? Don’t you know where Tempest Flowzone got its name from? Don’t you know that it’s dangerous and that you’ll definitely die if you’re swept up by those storms?”
Lu Yin responded, “It’s not that serious, or else no one would live in this flowzone. The appearance of the storms is very rare, and someone once calculated that the probability of meeting one is one in a million.”
“Seventh Bro, do you know that in the scope of an entire flowzone, a probability of one in a million is still very high? This basically means that, if you stand up high and look at the entire Tempest Flowzone, there are storms damned near everywhere!” The monkey was speechless at Lu Yin’s answer.
“Relax, the Feng family, Fire Scorpion Sect, and other powers have been able to stay here for a reason.”
“That’s because they know the patterns of how the storms appear, and they must have mapped out some safety routes as well. But you dared to barge in here without knowing anything at all, and even thought that a one in a million chance was low!”
“How do you know that I don’t know the patterns.”
“Does that even need to be said? Do you know?”
“No.”
The Ghost Monkey painfully said, “Seventh Bro, let’s do things more cautiously next time. Given the size of the universe, anything can happen.”
Lu Yin was unsatisfied. “Did you really think that I entered without doing any research? Our current route has been mapped out by the network to be the safest.”
“Bull shit! The network is accumulated from the experience of normal people. Those who can grasp the true safe routes are the few powerful organizations living here, and why would they publicize that information? Do you not wonder why nobody has invaded Tempest Flowzone for countless years? That’s because of this exact detail: no one wants to see their own fleet gobbled up by a storm while traveling through this flowzone. These storms not only threaten the safety of Tempest Flowzone, but they also act as a barricade to defend them from external threats. Hence, no one would ever release information on the real safe routes, just like the Cosmic Sea.”
Lu Yin thought about it, and then agreed, “Let’s just forget it. Since we’ve already entered, we’ll just let nature take its course.”
The monkey had no other choice. “I’ve always had a sense that you’ll one day be the death of us.”
“Why are you so afraid of the Tempest Flowzone’s storms?” Lu Yin was curious.
The monkey muttered, “An ancestor from my family was once swallowed by a storm, and there weren’t even any remains left over. That ancestor was an Enlighter.”
Lu Yin felt numb and a little regretful as well. If he had known about such an incident earlier, then he would not have taken the risk and would have headed towards one of the other academy branches first. Right, he might not know the safe routes, but he could ask someone who was more familiar with this region. Lu Yin thought about it and quickly contacted Feng Shang.
“Brother Lu, what’s the matter?” Feng Shang appeared on the display.
Lu Yin said, “Brother Feng, sorry to bother you. I want to travel across Tempest Flowzone. Are there any safe routes?”
Feng Shang felt like something was strange. “Why are you headed for Tempest Flowzone?”
“I want to go to Astral-7, and traveling through Tempest Flowzone is the fastest route.”
Feng Shang’s feeling intensified. “What are you going to Astral-7 for?”
Lu Yin casually replied, “For an exchange trip.”
This left Feng Shang unable to come up with a response. “So what route are you currently using?”
Lu Yin showed Feng Shang his planned route, and the Tempest Flowzone native said, “Yes, there shouldn’t be any problem as long as you don’t deviate from the route. This route might not be the safest, but the probability of storms appearing there is far less than the other routes. It won’t be easy even if you look for them.”
“There’s no safer route?” Lu Yin tried his luck.
Feng Shang’s face grew serious. “Knowing Tempest Flowzone’s safe routes is the same as having a secret passageway straight to Tempest Flowzone’s heart. Do you think that I can give such a thing to you?”
Lu Yin nodded. “I got it. Alright, later.”
“Hold on.” Feng Shang looked at Lu Yin. “Do you plan on heading to the other academies after Astral-7?”
“How did you know?” Lu Yin was puzzled.
Feng Shang shrugged. “I guessed. Let me know in advance when you’re planning on coming to Astral-8.”
“You want to welcome me?” Lu Yin asked with a laugh.
Feng Shang had a rather serious expression as he replied, “I want to escape earlier.”
Lu Yin was left speechless as he directly ended the call.