Chapter 17: Becoming A Sentinel   “Can the Executioner hang in there for another three hours?” Qin Xuan asked the attending doctor from afar, and when she got a nod, the army surrounding Jeraldine quickly retreated. Without a soul in sight, she heaved a sigh of relief.

She’d only demanded a three-hour period to play it safe. She only needed about two hours to recover from her injuries, and without any Sentinels around, no one would be able to stop her at that point. With that train of thought, she glanced at Terence before her gaze shifted back to Orton. Wait, where was Orton? Her eyes went wide and she tried to get up to look around, but a violent pain surged through her entire body, forcing her to sit back down. She consoled herself with the thought that there was no need to rush; even if Orton wasn’t dead, she could deal with him in two hours. After all, his injuries were definitely worse than hers. As for Yatar, the boy who’d dared to lay a hand on her would get his comeuppance as well.

Orton’s corpse was in a ruined building a thousand meters away. Next to it was a gasping Lu Yin; he was badly hurt as well, but to him there was nothing more important than the formcast model right now. With it, his body could still be healed to some extent. Although he tried his best to observe the situation, it took cutting off five of Orton’s fingers before he finally found the model, at which point he excitedly grabbed it and fused it into his own body. A sharp pain suddenly engulfed him, but he also felt that unmatchable power coursing through and modifying his cellular structure. The agile energy seemed to overlook the starry sky, bringing even a small creature like him away from the Earth. Soon, he spat out a mouthful of blood. Cellular rearrangement was very painful, but it was a good pain. He could feel his body evolving, growing more and more compatible with the sky.

An hour quickly passed, and Jeraldine’s face had regained a bit of its flush. Her injuries were much better, the healing process right on track. “One more hour,” she muttered to herself excitedly, without any plans to leave at that point. Her only goal right now was to take control of Nanjing, giving her a bargaining chip with the next batch of students that would arrive. Even though blue zones were protected to a certain degree, not everyone followed that rule. It wasn’t much of a problem in ordinary trials, but now that Astral-10 was about to appear, everyone wanted to show off. She was most worried about the next batch of students that would arrive. While her group had been decided before news of Astral-10 was spread, there would undoubtedly be a plethora of prodigies who’d join the second to make a name for themselves. She knew that keeping Nanjing was a pipe dream, but she wanted to rely on it to at least obtain a slightly better score. This was likely the exact same idea Terence had.

Another half-hour passed, and just as Jeraldine felt like she’d recovered enough to go look for Orton, she felt an appalling surge of star energy from a kilometer away. She looked over in shock; what was that?

In the building, Lu Yin finally felt the pain starting to subside. Clenching his fist, he felt the energy surging within his body; it was only now that he’d truly stepped into the realm of cultivators, gaining the right to look towards the stars.

Back near the pit, Jeraldine tapped her watch and activated the scanner, the gadget beeping a few times before showing a reading of 1,000. Someone had just broken through to the Sentinel Realm? Was it Yatar? As though he’d heard her thoughts, the distant ruins were pushed aside as Lu Yin walked out, staring straight towards her. Her heart sank in shock, gaze flickering, “You became a Sentinel?”

Lu Yin stepped forward and smiled, “So you noticed.”

Jeraldine frowned before trying to say gently, “Yatar… Sorry, I shouldn’t have used you as a shield there. But it wasn’t intentional, my body just moved on its own. You have to believe me!”

Lu Yin walked forward until he was about ten meters away, “Of course I believe you. Elite students have faced many life and death scenarios in life, that sort of reflex is normal.”

Jeraldine smiled, “That’s great. Terence and Orton are now dead, and this native is also broken. Nanjing is ours now; as long as we work together, no one can snatch it away.”

Lu Yin continued smiling, “Yeah. Before that, can I borrow something?”

Her expression froze, “Borrow what?”

“Nothing much, just some energy crystals.”

“What did you say?” she glared at him.

Lu Yin stared back indifferently, “Hand over your cosmic ring.”

“Are you trying to rob me?!”

He shrugged at her yelling, “Don’t make it sound like that, I just want to take a look.”

Jeraldine got up and hissed, “Yatar, just because that formcast model healed you a little doesn’t mean you can bully me. You haven’t fully recovered, and I’ve gotten better too. You’re not guaranteed to win if we fight, and don’t forget you’re still 1.3k.”

“Would you spout so much bullshit if you really believed in the level difference?” Lu Yin’s lips twitched. Seeing the glint in her eyes even as she remained silent, he continued, “Combat level is just a measure of the outward influence of someone’s star energy; it isn’t an actual reading of one’s ability in battle. That’s the first line in most textbooks.”

“That’s just the books trying not to upset mediocre students. The higher one’s combat level, the more their star energy can suppress the opponent. Why else do you think Terence is almost twice as strong as me? I can’t make up for that with battle techniques.”

Lu Yin walked closer, “Then attack me, if you’re that confident.”

Jeraldine stared coldly at the approaching Lu Yin, retrieving a fire crystal from her cosmic ring. She forced herself to execute a Flame Palm that would defeat Lu Yin in a single strike. The rebound of that attack would injure her again, but she was left with no choice.

Lu Yin watched the deep blaze in her palm and lifted his own, the moon starting to spin as he used Cosmic Palm without the slightest hesitation. The contact explosion completely extinguished the flames, fracturing Jeraldine’s arm and ending her flying a hundred meters away. She stared at him in pain and shock, unable to believe that a single strike could hurt her so severely. Just what kind of battle technique was that? Shockwave Palm was no match for her Fire Palm, and she was supposed to be twice as strong as him!

Lu Yin himself wasn’t surprised, nonchalantly glancing at his palm. The power of his strike had risen again now that he was a Sentinel, with traces of stars in the attack as well. The explosion suppressed everything with just a single cosmic body; what would happen when he had two, or ten or twenty? How powerful would it be then? He wouldn’t even dare imagine it; he just knew that he simply couldn’t reveal this battle technique’s origins.

The explosions attracted Qin Xuan and the rest once more, and when the troops reappeared, they only saw Lu Yin standing on the ground next to Zhou Shan.

“Brother Lu?” Feng Hong was shocked. They had all been too far from the battle to see what had happened.

“Lock this woman up and save the Executioner,” Lu Yin ordered.

Jeraldine was quickly brought away by the troops, but as Zhou Shan was moved onto a stretcher he regained consciousness and called out in a weak voice, “Wait.”

Everyone drew closer, and the Executioner turned to Lu Yin, “I’ll need your help… Protect Nanjing while I recover.”

“Don’t worry,” Lu Yin nodded.

“Thank you.” With that, Zhou Shan immediately fainted again.

Nanjing had suffered heavy losses in today’s battle. Lu Yin ordered the troops to rebuild the destroyed assembly grounds and pacified the survivors before commanding Luo Yi and group to rush back to the city. Fortunately, these were things he didn’t need to worry about himself, allowing him to head to the lowest level of the camp’s prisons.

All four of Jeraldine’s limbs had been locked and tied up, with a number of guns trained on her from all around. They would fire at the first sign of abnormal movements, blowing her to pieces, but Lu Yin ordered the guards away and walked over alone. Taking off her cosmic ring, he unlocked it with a drop of blood from her finger and emptied her belongings onto the floor. Not many people could afford these things, with Vesta and even Orton not being in possession of one. He’d already cleared out Terence’s ring just before he came here, and now it was Jeraldine’s turn.

“What are you?” Jeraldine asked as he sorted through her stuff.

Lu Yin smiled, “What do you think?”

“You don’t belong on this primitive planet, you have to have come from elsewhere in the universe,” she reasoned, staring at Lu Yin with gritted teeth.

Lu Yin nodded, grabbing all her energy crystals before stuffing other items like undergarments back in the ring and returning to her. Cosmic rings were tied to the genetic code of their users, so it would be useless for him to hold onto it.