Spear Mountain’s Area Master’s strength actually wasn’t that surprising as both Area Masters and Realm Masters stood at the peak of Limiteers. Although Area Masters were slightly weaker than Realm Masters, they were all still top elites of their academy and the rare few who could potentially battle against a Realm Master.

Apart from Astral-10, the other nine academies all had Realm Masters and Area Masters. There was only one Realm Master in each academy and a handful of Area Masters; they were the true elites of the Astral Combat Academies.

Still, Lu Yin was shocked to hear how powerful Frankfurt was, and he immediately shelved any idea of battling against the Area Master with his current strength. Lu Yin looked at the man. “Why did you ask me to leave when you saw me?”

The guy was surprised by Lu Yin’s question. “Is this your first time in the training realm?”

Lu Yin’s gaze turned cold, and he waved his hand, shattering the remainder of the bridge. A trace of his Skybeast Claw technique grazed past the man’s head, almost drawing blood. The threatening motion prompted him to anxiously answer, “Ancient voices can be heard within the training realm. It could be wails from a battlefield, a warsong, or even skills, but the probability is always very low. Moreover, the more people there are in an area, the lower the chance of hearing anything. Thus, most people don’t want to be in an area with anyone else around within the training grounds.”

Lu Yin finally understood, but he was still amazed. How was this possible? What an amazing place! Would he be able to hear ancient voices too?

Lu Yin released the man shortly after. In the end, this person was just an average Melder from Astral-6. He didn’t know much or even have the qualifications to enter a training ground. Lu Yin had learned everything that he could from the man and was surprised to learn about the number of powerhouses that belonged to the Astral Combat Academy. Fortunately, all of those famous experts were far away from him.

Lu Yin planned on traveling to Spear Mountain to see one of the few training grounds in the Dao of Purgatory. The Dao of Purgatory was a massive region, but all Lu Yin could see was darkness. Lu Yin traveled quite slowly as the gravity was fifty times stronger than normal. He also had to stay on guard for any sudden attacks that might be launched against him. In the Nine Trial Zones, not only were there other students training, but there were also strange beings called war spirits. These spirits weren’t actually living beings. Rather, according to what the student he had interrogated earlier had said, these spirits were the memories of students who had previously fought in the training realms. Additionally, they had the same combat abilities as the fighter at the time of their creation.

There was no explanation for the existence of these war spirits, but after years of investigation, it had been repeatedly proven that war spirits were beings without intelligence or visible features. They were just physical bodies that had very strong attacks. Average students were typically defeated whenever they bumped into a war spirit, so their presence increased the danger of the training realms.

Of course, not every battle would create a war spirit, and there was only ever a small probability for one to be created. Otherwise, the spirits would have filled up the entire training realm after all these years.

There weren’t a large number of war spirits even in the entire Nine Trial Zones, so the greatest danger in the training realms was still other students.

When Lu Yin first heard of them, he thought that the war spirits’ existence was very odd. His initial reaction was that they sounded like opponents that had been intentionally created by the designer of the Nine Trial Zones to adjust to the strength of the cultivators training within. If this training area was thought of as a massive game, then the war spirits would be monsters that were custom made in such a way that they scaled to the power of the cultivators while never being depleted. The stronger the cultivators, the stronger the war spirits that would form.

“Could the training realm possibly have been created by some ancient being from the Astral Combat Academies?” Lu Yin guessed. He looked around and saw a gigantic sphere in the sky. It was one of the moons of the training realm, of which there were three, all pure and bright. The realm even had a day and night cycle, so there was a sun as well.

These three moons illuminated a path through the darkness of the Dao of Purgatory.

The number of footsteps along the illuminated path was increasing, and Lu Yin finally found a used path a few hours later, verifying that he was approaching Spear Mountain.

Bang! 

The earth shook as gusts of wind blew through the area, uprooting a few of the black trees.

Lu Yin saw two students battling off in the distance. They were both Limiteers and were both using spears.

“Just give up! You’ll never be able to graduate with your ability. As long as I’m here, you shouldn’t even think about reaching Spear Mountain!” one of them shouted proudly.

The student opposite him had a solemn gaze. “I’m free to go wherever I want. I will definitely graduate successfully, and I will even join the Ten Arbiters Council!” 

“What a joke. The people who can join the Ten Arbiters Council upon graduation are all elites. You definitely don’t have such qualifications to do so. Just go and die.”

Crash! The earth trembled once again.

There were quite a large number of Limiteers in the Astral Combat Academy. The academies were difficult to enter, but they were even more difficult to graduate from. One could either graduate voluntarily by becoming an Explorer, or be driven out after they became too old to be considered a part of the younger generation. There were many students who had been expelled throughout the academy’s history, and there were probably more expelled students than graduated students since not all students could successfully become an Explorer.

These two Limiteers looked to be no more than ten years older than Lu Yin and were probably around thirty years old. They still had ten more years before the Astral Combat Academy would expel them. If they couldn’t become Explorers within that timeframe, then they would be expelled and their names expunged from the Astral Combat Academy’s student list.

Lu Yin wasn’t interested in their battle, as they clearly had some personal feud that was none of his business. He didn’t hesitate to take a detour east to avoid their battle. Spear Mountain was right before him, and he could see the silhouette of a peak reaching into the sky. The silent mountain towered over the ground, as if it were piercing through the air and cause the sky to collapse.

This was Spear Mountain, and Lu Yin looked at it with a fervent gaze. Maybe he would be able to gain something from this place. He grew increasingly excited at the prospect and rushed forward anxiously. 

The aura of Spear Mountain intensified the closer he approached. The aura had an indescribable sharpness, and every time Lu Yin looked at it, he felt like his gaze had been stabbed through by something. There were a few times where he even saw the vague image of a spear shooting towards him.

Then, Lu Yin’s eyes suddenly lost focus and he abruptly stopped moving. He had heard something that sounded like an anguished roar. The scene before him distorted and he felt like he had been transported back to ancient times. He saw a man slowly lift a spear; this was an ancient spear technique and the man was about to use it. Lu Yin’s head suddenly went numb as he sensed impending mortal danger, causing him to take a step back reflexively.

Someone yelled, waking Lu Yin from his trance. There was a man staring at Lu Yin with an icy gaze. His body moved and he launched a spear straight at Lu Yin’s head without another word.

Lu Yin was outraged; not only had this person ambushed him, but he had even gone on to attack him for no reason. This man had also interrupted the scene that Lu Yin had just seen. In his eyes, this person deserved death. Lu Yin had no intention to hold back, and he instantly disappeared with Flash before  reappearing behind the man. Then, Lu Yin activated his Seven Stars Cosmic Palm and thrusted forward, surprising the man. He responded by swinging his spear backwards, grazing past Lu Yin’s palm and heading straight towards his head.

A palm and a spear were worlds apart in reach, so Lu Yin was forced to reluctantly redirect his Cosmic Palm towards the spear. The power of the seven stars’ explosion surprised the man, and he nearly dropped his spear. In the end, he barely managed to disperse the power of the Cosmic Palm, but despite his success, his palm had been injured by the aftershocks and was covered with blood.

Lu Yin raised his hand to hit the tip of the spear, causing the power of his Nine Stacks to rush toward the man through the spear. The man couldn’t keep his grip on the spear anymore and stumbled a few steps back, his face pale as he looked at Lu Yin in disbelief, each step leaving a clear footprint on the ground.

Lu Yin didn’t plan on letting the man go. He had been comprehending an ancient scene and had nearly grasped the rare ancient spear technique, but then he had been rudely interrupted by this man. Lu Yin grabbed the spear and stabbed the man with it. Lu Yin’s opponent was actually quite powerful; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to withstand Lu Yin’s Cosmic Palm. However, he hadn’t reached the level of being able to withstand Lu Yin’s Nine Stacks Shockwave Palm, especially after losing his spear. He simply had no way to retaliate against Lu Yin’s attack. His body was easily pierced through by his own spear, and he looked at Lu Yin in fury. “You are so cruel.”

“You brought this upon yourself,” Lu Yin coldly replied as he let go of the spear. He didn’t bother asking why the man had attacked, as there were way too many possible reasons. The fact that Lu Yin had been comprehending an ancient scene was more than enough reason to justify his attack. Everyone was selfish, and since Lu Yin had seen the ancient scene, this person had probably assumed that nobody else would be able to see it again and had thus ambushed him. Moreover, Lu Yin was just a Melder and shouldn’t be too strong. That’s why this person hadn’t cared, or maybe there was still another reason—Astral-10.

When someone occupied the weakest position for too long, their former peers would begin to regard them as no longer being qualified to be equals. Astral-10 had not done anything of note for far too long, and now that they had reappeared, they would definitely face ridicule and resistance from others.

Lu Yin had long since learned why Astral-10 had a rule that required its students to win a hundred victories before they were allowed to enter the Nine Trial Zones. However, the more time he spent in the training realm, the deeper his understanding; Astral-10 had been weak for far too long.

The spear stopped moving after a while, and the man’s body started fading until it disappeared entirely. This was a training realm and killing was allowed here. However, the person wouldn’t truly die as their physical body in their academy would still be fine. Nevertheless, their spirit would be heavily injured by the event, and this man would probably need some time before he could enter the Dao of Purgatory again.

This was just a small setback, but it was still a shame that Lu Yin hadn’t been able to comprehend the ancient spear technique.

He looked up at Spear Mountain and noticed that he had almost arrived at the majestic and imposing towering peak. Lu Yin took a deep breath and continued walking forward, but he was soon stopped by two Melder realm students.

“Student, may I know whether you use spears as your weapon?” one of them asked.

Lu Yin’s eyes glinted and he shook his head. “No.”

“Then you won’t be able to continue on to Spear Mountain. Leave,” the other person bellowed fiercely.

Lu Yin frowned at this unexpected hurdle. “Why? Who decided that only spear wielders can enter Spear Mountain?’

The two of them glanced at each other and sneered before answering, “This is a rule set down by Senior Frankfurt, the Area Master of Spear Mountain.”

Lu Yin hesitated; if that was true, then there was nothing he could do about it. An Area Master held absolute power in the training ground that they ruled over, and no one could object to their rules as long as they weren’t too ridiculous. Moreover, Frankfurt was from Astral-6 and the Realm Master of the Dao of Purgatory was also from Astral-6. In some sense, the entire Dao of Purgatory belonged to the Sixth Academy.

Lu Yin paused for a moment before turning around. He needed to think of another idea. At worst, he would just find a random spear and pretend that it was his weapon. He would manage to get in one way or another.

At that moment, a girl casually walked past Lu Yin, headed towards Spear Mountain. However, the two Melder students didn’t stop her.

Lu Yin looked at the girl. She was a Melder too, but she hadn’t been stopped. “Why didn’t you stop her?”

The two who had stopped Lu Yin irritably answered, “We can stop whoever we want. Do we answer to you?”

Lu Yin raised his brow and he saw their gaze sweep across the back of his hand before he finally understood. They must have stopped him because he was from Astral-10. But that was strange as well. Even if people looked down on Astral-10, they shouldn’t go so far as to treat students from Astral-10 as enemies. The students from the Astral Combat Academies weren’t dumb and wouldn’t find trouble for themselves for no reason. Lu Yin thought about it from another angle. What if the two of them were deliberately picking on him? Lu Yin suddenly remembered Xi Yue and how he had a poor reputation within the Astral Combat Academies. He probably had countless enemies among the academies now.