The seating on the platform was not arranged by who had arrived first or last, but rather with the strongest individuals sitting in the middle.

Lu Yin maintained a low profile and sat to the side, and beside him was the cold-looking male from the Tempest Flowzone with a scorpion tattoo on his face. He seemed rather strange.

This person paid no heed to Lu Yin, but he had not been included in the crowd’s combined pressure when Lu Yin had arrived on the scene.

“Seventh Bro, this bunch of scoundrels are shameless! You’ll need to be more careful about people scheming against you.” The Ghost Monkey was unhappy with what had just happened.

Lu Yin naturally knew all this. It was normal that he was not viewed favorably by Duke Blackhawk since he was from the Ross Empire. Fortunately, the Beast Tamers Flowzone’s Fayde had not acted against him. Otherwise, he may not have been able to resist the combined pressure.

The stone platform where Lu Yin was seated was where the witnesses were watching from. There were also seventeen other platforms floating around the plaza where the seventeen families were located.

The Seventeen families sounded like there were too many, and Lu Yin gave them nothing more than a glance. The only ones that were actually noteworthy were the three great families.

And Lu Yin paid the most attention to the Barthe Jacques family, but that was just because they were the richest.

His gaze swept across the crowd and towards the Barthe Jacques family’s floating platform. His eyes met a scene of such wealth and opulence that his mind went momentarily blank.

The floating platforms of the other families had concise layouts, with the sole exception of the Barthe Jacques family. Their platform appeared to be similarly furnished as Northgate Mansion. No, their platform was even more luxurious than Northgate Mansion! It wasn’t the platform’s decorations that stood out, but more so the various delicacies and wines. Lu Yin obviously could not recognize anything, but there were actually fluctuations of star energy coming off of the food, which was evidence that it was astral beast meat.

Lu Yin swallowed a gulp of saliva. This setting was just too luxurious and over exaggerated. Their family was clearly demonstrating to everyone else that they suffered from no lack of money.

On the Barthe Jacques family’s floating platform, the family head, Henry, suddenly turned to exchange glances with Lu Yin. His lips rose in a faint smile as he raised his wine glass to offer a toast from a distance. Lu Yin nodded in reply and maintained a slight smile, but internally, he was screaming. Those people were too rich, and everything that they ate was precious resources. If Lu Yin was given all of the Barthe Jacques family’s wealth, then he would dare to point at anyone in the Top 100 Rankings and challenge them.

“Father, that’s Lu Yin,” said a youth from behind Henry. His name was Harold, and he was one of the Barthe Jacques family’s heir. He was the same age as Northgate Lie, but he was still a Limiteer. The family did not care much about their heir’s power levels since money could invite any powerhouse to act as their bodyguard, just like how they had hired Tie Sa.

“I know. He’s an enthusiastic fellow who has great potential for investment,” Henry replied with a smile.

Harold’s eyes flashed. “Does Father intend to rope him in?”

Henry laughed. “Rope him in? Your thinking is too simple. This brat is not someone that we plutocrats can hope to rope in. Even the Sword Sect failed to entice him. We just have to maintain a good relationship.”

“I’ve heard he’s offended the Daynight clan,” Banico spoke up. He was another one of the family’s heirs, as well as one of Harold’s competitors.

“It’s just a conflict between juniors,” Harold replied.

Banico contemptuously said, “Given the temperament of the Daynight clan, Lu Yin will run out of luck one day.”

“Not necessarily. It was also someone from the Daynight clan who proved Lu Yin’s innocence, which just goes to show that there are also people within that clan who support him,” Harold rebutted.

“But he offended Nightqueen Yanqing, Arbiter Zhenwu’s own sister. She’s a powerful person with great influence within the Nightking Clan.”

“It’s not Nightqueen Yanqing’s turn to make decisions for the Nightking Clan yet.”

…

Henry frowned. “Alright, it’s not time for either of you to argue about such things either. We are just a family focused on business, so we have no need to meddle in such matters.”

“Yes, Father.”

“Yes, Father.”

Lu Yin did not know that his single glance of awe had incited two heirs of the Barthe Jacques family to argue about him. He was no longer a nobody, and the influence from his status was actually very impressive, especially within a specific context.

The time left until the start of the Northgate Platform Competition slowly dwindled away.

Suddenly, the sky became boiling hot, and everyone looked up to see a blue-green flame burning the void apart. A bone-deep chill struck everyone and caused their hair to stand on end. The chill was not from the cold, but was rather an innate response to the appearance of something life-threatening.

Suddenly, the scarlet radiance flashed once again and dispersed the bone-piercing chill. “Mister Poison Flame, please sit atop the high platform.”

The last witness to appear was the Blaze Realm’s Poison Flame. There were rumors that his fire was abnormal.

Lu Yin’s eyes narrowed when he saw Poison Flame. This Poison Flame was the person who posed the greatest threat to Lu Yin out of everyone gathered here. Duke Blackhawk or Fayde would never act against a junior like him, but Poison Flame might not show such restraint since people from the Blaze Realm seemed to be more rash. And that wasn’t even mentioning the fact that Lu Yin had a grudge against his faction as well.

The Astral Combat Academy acted as a miniature model of the universe, and the conflicts within the academy were often extensions of real conflicts between great powers. Lu Yin had suppressed the Blaze Realm within the Astral Combat Academy to a point where they could no longer raise their heads, so to them, he was their enemy.

Poison Flame landed on the high platform and looked straight at Lu Yin. In that moment, Lu Yin’s heart raced, and his entire body tensed up.

Poison Flame frowned. “Why is there a Limiteer junior here?”

Northgate Kong stood up with a smile. “Mister Poison Flame, please don’t mind him. That’s our little friend Lu Yin, who’s representing the Ten Arbiters as a witness for the Northgate Platform Competition.”

Poison Flame stared at Lu Yin with icy eyes while the scorching temperature from his flames caused the high platform’s color to change. Lu Yin felt this crushing pressure even more acutely than the previous one since Poison Flame was targeting him. This was different from Duke Blackhawk and the others; their pressure had been naturally exerted due to the difference between their realms, but Poison Flame had a grudge against Lu Yin, which caused the pressure he emanated to be different.

Lily Liana, the Lily family’s head, stood up and was about to intervene, but Lu Yin suddenly asked. “Why are Astral-10's mentors not present?”

This one sentence caused Poison Flame’s pressure to dissipate. He could suppress Lu Yin, but he did not dare to be disrespectful towards Astral-10. Even if others were unaware, how could those from great powers not know of Astral-10’s terror? That place was a prison, and those qualified to guard the prison were all freaks.

Lily Liana smiled. “We’ve sent out invitations to Astral-10’s mentors long ago, but they responded that they were busy with their duties there and are too busy to attend. My sincere apologies in forgetting to pass this news to Student Lu.”

Lu Yin smiled and replied with some courteous remarks before sitting back down and directing an unsatisfied face towards Poison Flame. He relaxed, delighted that he had had the foresight to bring Astral-10 to the Northline Flowzone. All of these old bats were shameless! He could not place his hope on the Northline Flowzone’s experts. They would eventually make a move to help him, but they would quite possibly be just a step too late. It was better for him to retain control of the initiative.

All around the plaza, the descendants of the seventeen families gave Lu Yin strange looks, almost as if they were looking at a deity. This person was hated by so many people, and the stronger he became, the more he was targeted.

Lu Yin felt helpless. This was all because he had obtained a position that did not match his current age and strength. Others his age were playing in the academy, not being ordered to join in the local “fun” here. This had resulted in him being targeted.

He suddenly envied Xia Luo and the others’ carefree lives. No, he should be envious of Lulu; she was rich, but she still spent her days playing around.

Not long after Poison Flame arrived, a loud boom rang through the sky. The Northgate Platform Competition had officially begun.

According to the schedule, each family would take turns reporting their contributions to the Northline Flowzone and detail what their family had invested in the Flowzone and what returns they had obtained. It was nothing more than a self-praising session, and the entire process was arduously long. Many people started daydreaming and some even fell asleep.

Lu Yin looked around and saw that even Fayde had closed his eyes and was recuperating his energy. Evidently, this was not these people’s first time witnessing the Northgate Platform Competition. Their appearance was purely to represent their organizations’ friendship and to allow the Northline Flowzone to publicize its strength.

Lu Yin had nothing else to do, so he started silently reciting the Stonewall Scriptures.

The man beside him with the scorpion tattoo on his face never even looked at Lu Yin a single time.

A few hours passed, and when the seventeen families finally completed praising themselves, they moved on to praising each others’ achievements. The three great families had the most accomplishments, especially the Barthe Jacques family. When it was their turn to report their contributions, Lu Yin specifically sat up and paid attention, completely stunned. According to the family’s records, they sustained almost half of the Northline Flowzone’s economy.

They’re too rich! Lu Yin estimated that he would not even be able to count the family’s entire wealth.

He looked at the family with an increasingly gentle and friendly gaze, impatient to run to their family’s floating platform to have a chat.

There were many details throughout the entire process of the Northgate Platform Competition, but the only one that attracted Lu Yin’s attention was the Juniors’ Tournament.

There were more than a hundred cultivators among the younger generation of the seventeen families, and when it was time for the Juniors’ Tournament, they all went onstage to battle. Quite frankly, the battles were nothing special, and they even fell a few levels short of the Astral Combat Tournament’s matches.

Of course, there were space-exploring powerhouses even amongst the juniors, but one’s power level was just one part of their strength. If judged with the Astral Combat Academy’s standards, these Explorers were about comparable to an academy leader, but those leaders were only at the Limiteer realm.

The truly astounding one was Northgate Lie, and his appearance even roused Duke Blackhawk, Fayde, and Poison Flame. After all, this youth ranked within the Top 100 Rankings, and even if he was at the tail end, he still was one of the Top 100 fighters in the younger generation. Barring any unforeseen events, this person’s reputation would definitely eventually surpass their own. After all, these super powerhouses had never been able to step into the Top 100 Rankings in their youth.

Northgate Lie was the poster child of the Northgate family, as well as the entire Northline Flowzone. The Northgate family had united with Shangwu Academy to pour all of their resources into grooming him, so he could not possibly be weak.

Lu Yin also paid special attention to Northgate Lie. The Ten Arbiters’ Divine Fist had once mentioned that his Thirty Stacks had been able to defeat an expert at the tail end of the Top 100 Rankings. However, times were different now, so even if Lu Yin felt like he could rival those at the bottom of the rankings, it was still just a feeling.

In the middle of the plaza, Northgate Lie looked around before his gaze finally settled on Lu Yin.

His family had tasked him with finding a way to have the battle agreement rescinded, so he had to let Lu Yin know how arduous the battle that lay ahead of him would be. As long as some other certain measures were used, both sides could save face. Of course, this was assuming that Lu Yin was not foolish and that he would understand that he was not Northgate Lie’s opponent.

Everyone looked at Northgate Lie. His opponent was the strongest youth of a family, and he was an Explorer with a power level roughly equal to Northgate Lie’s: about 30,000.

“Brother Northgate, let’s begin.”

Northgate Lie remained calm. “I won’t hold back. As a sign of respect to you, I’ll use my full strength.”

His opponent’s face turned ugly, as his power could only be considered above average within his realm. Actually, he could only barely be considered a genius within the Northline Flowzone even after his family had expended all of their resources on him. There was still too far a gap between him and Northgate Lie, but he had thought that they could have a few rounds. His heart sank when he heard that Northgate Lie would use his full strength, and he hurriedly responded with a smile, “Brother Northgate, this battle’s not that important is it? There’s no need for Brother Northgate-”

But before he could finish speaking, a round wheel whirled past his neck. Just a few inches more, and his head would have been separated from his body.