Star Odyssey

sizing up Big Pao and Little Pao.
The two brothers were exchanging glances.

“You know, Little Pao, I’m getting old.
Why don’t you give the position of Astral-10’s seed to me? I’ll remember it forever.”

“No, I want to be the seeded student.”

“Don’t you know anything about humility?”

“That’s what I should be saying.
You shouldn’t be bullying someone younger than you! Don’t think that I haven’t noticed this: you just want everyone’s eyes on you so that you can become famous.
The top ten will be up on that platform, and there’ll be a huge commotion about them.”

“You’re heartless.”

“If you keep arguing, I won’t let you listen to Xi Yue’s albums anymore.”

“You…!”

…

The Sandmaster grew irritated at their bickering.
“Shut up, you useless things.”

Big Pao and Little Pao immediately shut their mouths.

At this moment, the Sandmaster’s gadget rang, causing him to frown.
Truthfully, he hated this thing, but he had been put in charge of running Astral-10 team as the other old men couldn’t be bothered with such things.

“Who is it?” The Sandmaster sounded like he was in a terrible mood.

On his gadget’s display, a girl frowned and said, “Greetings, Sandmaster.
I’m the leader of Astral-7, Liu Xiaoyun.”

The Sandmaster was astonished.
“The leader of Astral-7? Why are you contacting me?”

Big Pao and Little Pao were just as shocked by this call.
If she was the leader of Astral-7, then wouldn’t that make her a Realm Master? And a member of the Council of Astral Academy as well? This was someone who possessed real authority, and it had been a long time since anyone from Astral-10 had talked to someone this important.

“I would like to enter the tournament from Astral-10.
Please approve it,” Liu Xiaoyun said.

The Sandmaster was confused.
“Why not enter from your own academy?”

“I’m currently not in the Innerverse, but rather the Outerverse,” she explained.

The Sandmaster made a sound of understanding.
“Alright then, just come over.”

“Thank you very much, sir.
There’s one more thing.
The leader of your academy, Lu Yin, is currently with me.
We’ll head over together,” Liu Xiaoyun casually added on.

The Sandmaster was shocked.
“Lu Yin? He’s still alive?”

“He’s alive, but very badly injured.
However, he should be able to recover in time for the tournament.”

“When are you arriving?”

“Based on our speed, it’ll take us about ten days to arrive.
The tournament starts in seven days, so we’ll most likely only arrive when the drawing of lots actually begins.”

The Sandmaster said in a low voice, “Got it.
Hurry over.” With that, he ended the call and looked up to see Big Pao and Little Pao, completely bewildered.

“There’s no need to fight over it anymore.
The seeded position is going to Lu Yin’s.
He can’t make it before the competition’s start, so he can only be a seeded student.
He’ll be in time for that, at least,” Sandmaster explained.

“He’s not dead? That’s amazing! It’s a miracle that he managed to survive after being struck by that beam of light,” Big Pao said admiringly.

Little Pao also said, “Let him be the seeded student then.
But he’s pretty unlucky to have to stand next to the Realm Masters from the other nine academies.
Hehe, it’s gonna be stressful.”

The Sandmaster started to get annoyed by them again.
“Okay, enough of this.
Scram.”

When the tournament started, each academy had to pick a seeded student who would take part in the section of drawing lots.
Usually, the leader of each academy would take this position, but Astral-10 only had a leader among its new students, and he wasn’t actually the leader of all of Astral-10.
However, when Astral-10 submitted Lu Yin’s name, it stirred up quite a ruckus.
News of Lu Yin being killed at the pirate port had already spread far and wide, but Astral-10 had still submitted his name, so this shocked quite a number of people.

Everywhere, there were people wondering if Astral-10 was trying to confuse everyone with this.
However, neither Astral-10 nor Lu Yin received news of this.

Seven days later, within Zenyu Star’s palace in the Great Yu Empire, a huge screen had been erected.
This was connected to the universal network and would be livestreaming the entire Astral Combat Tournament.

This occurred not only at the palace, but also on almost all of the screens in Zenyu Star.
Almost everybody would be watching this tournament as it was a huge event for the entire universe.

Within the Huo Family’s mansion, Huo Xiaoling looked at the screen with a complicated look in her eyes.
She had participated in the entrance exam for Astral-10 but had failed.
Otherwise, she would be among the people on that screen.
While she thought about this, Huo Xiaoling recalled Schutz and Lu Yin.
One was the most powerful of his generation in the Great Yu Empire while the other was King Zishan.
These two would probably appear in this tournament!

The Auna Family was also watching their screen.
They were going to view the full tournament.

A list of the seeded students from the ten academies appeared, and the tenth seed was Lu Yin.

“There are rumors that he died, but not only did he not die, he even became a seeded student!” Rocky Auna told Xueshan Auna in excitement.

Xueshan Auna watched the screen with just as much excitement and exhaled happily.
“That’s great to hear.
I’m just glad that he didn’t die.”

Not too far away, Jenny Auna stared at the screen in surprise.

Within Yu Academy, Gerbach, Tian Ming, and the others were all crowded around a screen.
Everyone was watching for fun, but they were also watching to see the difference between them and the students of the Astral Combat Academy.
This was an order from Wendy Yushan.
The Astral Combat Tournament was a battle between the strongest of their generation, and Wendy Yushan wanted them to see just how far they were away from them.

“I didn’t think that King Zishan would be Astral-10’s seeded student.
That’s terrifying.”

“Right.
Schutz isn’t even seeded.
Does that mean that he’s stronger than Schutz?”

“He can’t be.
Schutz is the strongest in our Great Yu Empire.”

…

In the Sixth Squadron’s hall, Peach kept smacking her lips as she shoveled in snacks by the handful and stared wide-eyed at the screen. Hurry up! I’ve been waiting for ages for this.
Good luck, Lu Yin!

A spacecraft floated through space.
Inside, the second prince, Duke Yushan, intently watched the screen.
At this moment, he was not as relaxed as he had been on Zenyu Star.
He exuded fatigue from every pore of his body, and he seemed rather upset.

On another spacecraft, an armed mercenary group was also looking at a screen.
During this Astral Combat Tournament, all civil strife was forbidden in the entire human star expanse so that everyone could watch in peace.

“Ian, pour the wine,” Dayna commanded with crossed legs.

Behind Dayna, Ian stared dumbfoundedly at the screen. Lu Yin? That shameless looter? How the hell did he climb all the way up there?!