Chapter 1268: Lu Yin’s Standards

Time Reversal was a secret technique that had been created by the Progenitor of Secret Arts, and it forcefully sent a person tens, hundreds, or even thousands of years back in time. What’s more, the target’s strength would revert to their strength at that time, which was the truly horrifying aspect of this secret technique.

During the battle in the Cosmic Sea, nobody dared to be struck by any of Bu Kong’s attacks, as they would be immediately defeated if Time Reversal returned them to their youth.

Although Time Reversal was extremely powerful, its greatest disadvantage was that it was difficult to use. As long as someone was cognizant of the ability and had their guard up, it was not easy to apply Time Reversal to them.

Despite that, such a limitation did not apply to Star Devourer, as he had completely underestimated Bu Kong.

The moment Bu Kong used Time Reversal, Star Devourer was instantly sent back to his childhood, and those who witnessed the subsequent physical changes were terrified.

No matter how powerful Star Devourer was, his strength would be useless if he was sent back to his childhood.

Star Devourer was absolutely stunned. He was not a very intelligent creature to begin with, and the sudden change left him terribly confused.

“Stupid,” Bu Kong calmly stated. He then flashed to a point above Star Devourer and raised a hand. “Decompose.”

Suddenly, a halo of light spread out from the distance to cover the entire mountain. It brushed past Bu Kong before disappearing into the sky.

Bu Kong’s eyes went wide, and he looked to the north. That light had been formed from the spiritual force of the Celestial Beast Empire’s crown prince, Yao Xuan. The crown prince had attacked Bu Kong.

Not only had Yao Xuan’s attack affected Bu Kong, but it also hit Lu Yin and Zhi Yi, as they had also been within range of Yao Xuan’s spiritual force attack.

Cultivators from the Sixth Mainland possessed considerably strong spiritual force due to their imprints, but despite that, Bu Kong was still shocked by the power of Yao Xuan’s spiritual force, which delayed Bu Kong’s attack for a split second. During that moment, Star Devourer managed to recover and slam his paw against the mountain, causing the mountain to fracture. As Bu Kong’s palm approached Star Devourer, the giant beast opened his fourth eye, and a visible shockwave of power radiated forth from him.

Bu Kong’s palm did not strike Star Devourer. Instead, it only dissipated the shockwaves from the newly opened eye, but at that moment, Star Devourer rushed through the mountain pass.

Bu Kong was outraged that Star Devourer had managed to clear his checkpoint.

According to the rules of ZENITH, the gatekeepers were not supposed to attack any of the competitors after they cleared the checkpoints unless they the gatekeepers were attacked first.

Bu Kong was upset, and he turned to face towards the north. Had that been Yao Xuan, the crown prince from the Celestial Beast Empire? If not for that person, Star Devourer would have already died. Bu Kong grew serious as he thought about the spiritual force attack that he had just been hit by.

He was one of the Daosource Three Skies, and his imprint was from the Progenitor of Secret Arts. Although spiritual force was not Bu Kong’s specialty, it was no weakness either. Despite that, he had still been affected by Yao Xuan’s attack. That meant nobody in ZENITH was comparable to Yao Xuan when it came to spiritual force.

Zhi Yi held the same opinion. She had also been affected by the attack, which had allowed the first person on her side of the mountain to successfully clear Zhi Yi’s checkpoint.

Yao Xuan’s spiritual force was amazingly powerful, and nobody could compare to him in this aspect. The Sixth Mainlanders quickly realized that they would need to think of alternative means to defeat the crown prince. Fortunately, their spiritual force was not that weak.

There was nobody behind Zhi Yi, but someone had already cleared her checkpoint: Yōu Qi.

Not many people were able to see him, but everyone who could were elites.

“Consider yourself lucky,” Zhi Yi commented.

Yōu Qi did not respond and simply continued on his way up the mountain.

On the eastern side of the mountain, Lu Yin was looking at a screen with curiosity. Yao Xuan was lazily leaning against the mountainside after he used his spiritual force to help Star Devourer clear the checkpoint.

Yao Xuan’s spiritual force was very powerful, and Lu Yin wanted to find out if Yao Xuan’s spiritual force attack or his own Daynight Praises was stronger. He was looking forward to clashing with him.

To the north, Yao Xuan was still calm. Somebody had cleared his checkpoint, but it had not been Xia Jiuyou, Wu Taibai, or Wang Yi. Rather, it had been a Void Wanderer.

This timid and cunning Void Wanderer was named Xu Ling, and it was one of the elites that the Astral Beast Domain had sent to ZENITH.

Tian Hou followed right behind the Void Wanderer. Although he was not as powerful as Xia Jiuyou, the unique characteristics of a Cosmic Hou made it difficult for anyone to injure Tian Hou, and no one had been able to stop him from steadily climbing up the mountain.

The most shocking contestant on the northern side was Wang Yi, who had injured Yao Gu with a single attack. At the moment, Yao Gu was still recovering at the foot of the mountain.

Everybody wondered whether or not Yao Xuan would move to stop Wang Yi from crossing through the mountain pass since the Technocracy’s representative had injured Yao Gu.

There were quite a number of elites on the northern face of the mountain, and among them were even Starsibyl, Arbiter Liquor Hero, the Hall of Honor’s second Honor Chosen, Lei Nü, and the Sixth Mainland’s White Silkworm and Toolwielder.

Many people felt that it was a pity that Lu Yin had not been assigned to the northern pass since he had been the most proactive gatekeeper so far.

In truth, Lu Yin was quite tired at the moment. This was not him being exhausted from fighting, but rather from keeping watch. There were quite a few familiar faces among the millions of competitors, and Lu Yin occasionally helped some of them out when they were up against stronger opponents, which was quite draining.

Half a day had passed since ZENITH had commenced, and at the moment, the person who was closest to Lu Yin right was the Sixth Mainland’s Corpse Looter.

Lu Yin had a strong impression of this person since he was always followed around by a number of corpses.

The most memorable part about this person to Lu Yin was that Corpse Looter was not as creepy as people assumed, and he was actually a chatterbox.

Corpse Looter calmly walked through the checkpoint, his lips moving rapidly the entire time.

Lu Yin did not bother listening to what Corpse Looter said, instead scanning the other people approaching. Mu Rong had made it quite close; he had once been hailed as one of the four peerless Limiteers.

Mu Rong had been known as the strongest person under the Explorer realm until Lu Yin had appeared and destroyed that legacy.

His most powerful move was a song that took people to a grassy plain with cattle, which was actually his innate gift.

At the moment, Mu Rong was still an Explorer, and he had nearly reached the Cruiser realm. He was much stronger from before, and Lu Yin felt that Mu Rong possessed a level of strength comparable to a Hunter, which meant that he was still practically invincible within his realm.

There were not many Explorers who could fight evenly against Mu Rong, and it was possible for him to reclaim the title of the strongest Explorer.

“I want to fight you again, but I won’t have the chance to ever do so again.” Mu Rong continued climbing up the mountain without even looking over at Lu Yin.

Lu Yin looked at Mu Rong’s back—fight? It was true that Mu Rong no longer had the chance to do so, as he was no longer capable of standing up to a single attack from Lu Yin. At this point, even Lu Yin’s domain alone would utterly crush Mu Rong.

Then, Lu Yin remembered that Mu Rong’s idol was Unseen Light and that the younger youth had been a member of Unseen Light’s group within the Ten Arbiters Council. It had to be because of the Arbiter’s domain!

Lu Yin felt that his life would not be lonely as long as he had strong rivals like Unseen Light with his domain, Yao Xuan and his spiritual force, and Yuhua Mavis and Star Devourer for their strength.

Someone rushed over and smiled at Lu Yin.

This person was Qian Zou, who was familiar to Lu Yin. Lu Yin looked at the young man’s legs, as Qian Zou used a rather unique battle technique, Inverse Steps.

Qian Zou panicked when Lu Yin looked over, and he fled the moment he made it through the checkpoint.

With the sole exception of Little Arrow Saint, Lu Yin had not blocked anyone from passing through his checkpoint, and this excited many of the competitors on the eastern side.

Some of these participants were powerhouses who could qualify to be second tier contestants.

However, Lu Yin was not actually as nice as people believed; only half of the competitors could be allowed past each checkpoint.

Only the strongest powerhouses in the younger generation could qualify to participate in the later stages of ZENITH, and the people who could continue on certainly were not mere average cultivators.

A young man excitedly walked up to the checkpoint. He was just a normal Limiteer who did not possess any impressive battle techniques. Rather, he had relied entirely on his unique innate gift to avoid all of the powerhouses on his way up the mountain, finally arriving at the mountain pass. He had actually arrived even before Mu Rong, but he had not dared to attempt to continue.

After seeing that Lu Yin had still not blocked anyone, the Limiteer finally gathered the courage to walk forward.

The young man glanced at Lu Yin once more as he stepped into the pass. He was about to continue walking, looking up at the mountain before him. After passing through this checkpoint, his name would remain on Zenith Mountain. He looked a little higher, at the central checkpoint, which was guarded by the strongest powerhouse of the entire younger generation. This Limiteer had no confidence that his innate gift could help him make it past Shang Qing, but the first Honor Chosen could not eliminate everyone.

The Limiteer grew confident that he would be one of the first to arrive at the second checkpoint. As long as he moved faster than the others, it would demonstrate that he possessed a certain level of ability. Hopefully, Shang Qing would not cause any trouble for him and would instead focus on eliminating the competitors further back.

The young man stepped forward, but his body suddenly flew backwards. His face went pale. Oh no, Lu Yin attacked.

Lu Yin had been observing this young man from the start. This Limiteer had been hiding near the checkpoint for a long time and had clearly wanted to see if Lu Yin would eliminate the other competitors. This young man was too scheming and was not qualified to continue on in ZENITH.

Lu Yin did not use a powerful attack on the youth, and he simply forced him off of the mountain with pure strength. The Limiteer tried to move, but he instantly failed. Lu Yin’s strength completely suppressed the youth, and there was too large of a difference.

Why? Why had Lu Yin attacked him? Did he have some grudge against the youth? If that were the case, then Lu Yin would not have been this gentle. Had Lu Yin simply wanted to eliminate the Limiteer?

That young man was the first person that Lu Yin had personally eliminated aside from Little Arrow Saint, but he would not be the last one.

Many of the competitors on the eastern face of the mountain were shocked. Lu Yin had attacked, and he clearly did not intend to allow everyone who made it to the checkpoint to pass through.

A group of people who had arrived close to the checkpoint suddenly froze.

Kayze caught up to the crowd and then rushed on to the checkpoint. He bowed to Lu Yin. “Your Highness.”

Lu Yin nodded. “Don’t force yourself. Just use this as a way to gain experience.”

“Yes.” Kayze bowed again and then walked past Lu Yin.

Kayze was followed by Lu Yin’s former classmate from Astral-10, Zhao Yilong. He also greeted Lu Yin and walked through the checkpoint. Although Zhao Yilong had been Lu Yin’s classmate, he was still only an Explorer at this time. He came from Myriad Swords Peak, which was a place that Lu Yin had once admired, but now, it was just a minor force in his eyes, as they did not even have any Envoys.

Zhao Yilong was followed by An Shaohua, but An Shaohua was not alone. Several people had tagged along with him, and some of them were from the Great Eastern Alliance. Some of these people felt that they would definitely make it through the checkpoint as long as they followed An Shaohua, though they were taking a gamble.

Unfortunately, Lu Yin allowed only An Shaohua and a few others to pass; all of the others were eliminated, even including some people from the Great Eastern Alliance.

Lu Yin was the Alliance Leader of the Great Eastern Alliance, so he would naturally take care of his people from the Great Eastern Alliance. However, he was not their nanny.

Furthermore, if he allowed such people to continue through to the later stages of ZENITH, then their weakness could get them killed. It was better to just painlessly eliminate them here.

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