Chapter 110 – Misfortune, Advancement

As expected.

Lu Yuan wasn’t too surprised when he saw the reply from White Glowing Grass.

Although Lu Jing and her archaeological team hadn’t made it to the news, discovering temple ruins was such a significant event that it was impossible for people in the same circle not to catch wind of it.

Unless White Glowing Grass was abroad, and Xia State had completely blocked any information about the archaeological team.

After some thought, Lu Yuan replied to White Glowing Grass: “I can’t tell you the origin of the pattern for now. I saw it somewhere else.”

Lu Yuan wasn’t sure if White Glowing Grass could pinpoint his location. To avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to honestly tell her that the truly valuable information wasn’t with him.

Shortly after sending the message, White Glowing Grass replied.

“I guessed as much. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have sent a hand-drawn version of the pattern. (smile)”

“Oh, by the way, may I ask something else?

Are you asking about the Elephant Deity Sect because… you, or someone you know, has encountered some trouble?”

Lu Yuan’s eyelid twitched hard when he saw the next message from White Glowing Grass.

He quickly placed his hands on the keyboard and began typing rapidly.

“Do you know something? Please, you must tell me. This is really important to me!!”

Before sending the message, Lu Yuan thought for a moment and added two more exclamation marks after the final “!!”.

He hoped White Glowing Grass, far away in Javier, could feel his urgency and anxiety.

After sending the message, Lu Yuan stared intently at the computer screen.

It felt like a clock was ticking in his mind, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock…

After one minute and thirty-five seconds had passed.

White Glowing Grass finally replied.

“I don’t know how to help you. (sigh)”

“I can only tell you what I know.”

“Information about the Elephant Deity Sect is incredibly scarce. This is not only because of the sect’s own mystery and the brevity of its existence during the Baishan Era, but also because anyone or anything that has ever been related to the Elephant Deity Sect… without exception, has ended up dead or disappeared.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered, his pupils reflecting the last sentence from White Glowing Grass in the chat box on the screen.

Yet, his mood was unexpectedly calm.

“What do you mean by ‘related’? Does our current level of involvement count?”

“Of course not.”

White Glowing Grass replied, “Only those who have had close contact with excavated artifacts from the Elephant Deity Sect would suffer this kind of misfortune. The ones we are studying now are all rubbings and replicas.”

“Misfortune? Is there any basis for this claim?”

“The news is the basis, but you won’t find anything because no country’s authorities would ever link murders or disappearances with this and make it public. What I know are just rumors circulating within the circle.”

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and typed, “If someone accidentally came into contact with such items, is there any way to remedy the situation? Has there ever been a similar case?”

White Glowing Grass: “I don’t know. Most of what I’m telling you are just rumors; no one can really verify their authenticity. The Elephant Deity Sect is just one of my research topics. So far, I don’t have an in-depth understanding of it.”

“Can you elaborate on those cases? For instance, who came into contact with items from the Elephant Deity Sect, when it happened, and how they died or disappeared afterward?”

Lu Yuan kept typing one question after another.

But White Glowing Grass seemed to be growing impatient.

The time intervals between her responses grew longer, and her replies became shorter.

Eventually, Lu Yuan’s messages received no response at all.

Lu Yuan finally gave up on further questioning.

“A stranger on the internet, to have told me this much is already quite rare…”

Lu Yuan sighed softly, then tried to add White Glowing Grass as a friend.

But before she could accept, Lu Yuan saw that her avatar had already gone completely grey.

Lu Yuan silently shifted his gaze from the computer screen to the notebook in front of him, where the emblem of the Elephant Deity Sect was drawn.

If what White Glowing Grass had said was true, then Lu Jing’s archaeological team was indeed in big trouble.

This might also explain Lu Jing’s odd behavior over the past few days.

Unfortunately, even knowing all this, there was nothing Lu Yuan could do now. He could only pray that Lu Jing hadn’t come into contact with anything her team had excavated from beneath the temple.

The likelihood of that was relatively high.

After all, Lu Jing was just a recent graduate, an intern tagging along with the archaeological team professor.

Such precious ancient artifacts wouldn’t likely be handled by her.

Lu Yuan didn’t dare to share the information he got from White Glowing Grass with Lu Jing. If Lu Jing knew, whether she had come into contact with anything or not, her personality would drive her to paranoia, living in constant fear.

But he couldn’t just say nothing.

After some thought, Lu Yuan sent Lu Jing a message.

He told her that he had read a foreign investigative report indicating that ancient artifacts were often considered eerie.

Regardless of whether it was true or not, she should avoid handling them as much as possible. He suggested she take it easy whenever she could since she’d be coming back soon anyway.

Lu Jing didn’t respond for a long time, so Lu Yuan didn’t know if she had seen the message.

Lu Yuan sighed softly, calmed himself, and decided to set the matter aside for now.

The bruises from his combat training had mostly faded. He put on a shirt and picked up an Ancient Language book from his desk to start studying.

Learning more ancient languages would be beneficial, both for his own skill enhancement and for solving potential future problems.

…

“Hiss.”

Lu Yuan focused intently, feeling his five fingers cutting through the air, the mysterious qi energy flowing at his fingertips, leaving white trails in the air.

Repeating this process dozens, even hundreds of times, he finally chose to exit the Consciousness Space.

Upon opening his eyes, Lu Yuan swiftly moved his hand.

His right thumb, index, and middle fingers bent into a claw shape, grasping at the air in front of him.

Again and again… each time his right-hand muscles tensed like springs, then relaxed.

He continued until his right hand was so sore and swollen that he could barely lift it.

He then checked his professional panel.

[Your skill Basic Palm Techniques has gained a boost, experience points +3]

[Your skill Basic Finger Techniques has gained a boost, experience points +1]

…

After a round of practice, both Basic Palm Techniques and Basic Finger Techniques had improved, with the former advancing significantly more, reaching level 4.

In Lu Yuan’s [Martial Artist] panel under professional basic skills, only these two remained unmaxed.

Lu Yuan had discovered by chance that attempting to mimic Qin Feng’s killer move actually helped to improve these two basic skills.

“It makes sense; Qin Feng’s claw move should be derived from palm and finger techniques. But…”

Lu Yuan slightly bent his five fingers and suddenly thrust them toward the floor.

“Bang.”

A floor tile cracked abruptly where he struck. Lu Yuan quickly retracted his hand with a hiss, feeling a sharp pain in his fingers.

Upon closer inspection of the cracked tile, the fracture primarily started from the upper left corner corresponding to his index finger.

There were almost no marks on the right side and bottom where his middle and thumb fingers had struck.

“Qin Feng’s move emphasizes two stages.

The first is the penetrating power of the fingertips, and the second is the subsequent gripping, tearing, and pulling force.

I’m not even in the first stage yet…”

Lu Yuan knew that if he could perfectly replicate Qin Feng’s move from the Consciousness Space, there should be three deep finger holes in the tile.

And there wouldn’t be any cracks in the tile at all.

“Take it slow; it’s not something that can be achieved overnight…”

Lu Yuan wasn’t too discouraged. After all, it took him a long time to fully grasp [Crane Shadow Float].

Having concluded his exploration of the killer move, Lu Yuan continued with the Spirit Crane Body movements.

After Lin Zhiqin left, Lu Yuan’s life had settled into a regular routine.

Lu Yuan’s daily routine now mainly consisted of practicing Spirit Crane Body and the moves of crane boxing.

In the Consciousness Space, he would spar with others, studying Qin Feng’s killer moves.

He would also take time to go to the Yuan Martial Arts Gym for secret ointment and acupuncture therapy.

Then, he would read books, study Ancient Language, and earn experience points.

During this time, he didn’t neglect the skills on his [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] panel.

Whether it was [Eye of Doom] or [Death Energy Entanglement], both skills gained experience points based on usage time.

Using these two skills didn’t interfere with Lu Yuan’s other activities.

So now, while reading or doing other tasks, he habitually activated these two skills. After a few days, he had accumulated some experience points.

However, there was still a long way to go before reaching level 2.

On the other hand, the [Crow Language] skill, through his frequent training and interactions with his crow assistants, had smoothly advanced to level 2.

…

A quiet afternoon.

Clouds obscured the sun, casting a much-diminished light.

The air was heavy with a restless humidity and heat, signaling the approach of a storm.

Lu Yuan stood on his balcony, a book lying open on the ledge.

It looked as if he was on the balcony memorizing English vocabulary or something.

In reality, his Mental Power was connected to a crow assistant perched on the window of the opposite building, giving it a command.

“Find me a pink sock!”

The crow flapped its wings and quickly flew off.

A moment later, it returned with a pink sock with cartoon patterns, which seemed to be unwashed.

Lu Yuan then issued another command, instructing the crow assistant to return the “stolen” sock to its original place. He looked at his professional panel, deep in thought.

[Crow Language lv2 (3/200)]

The level 2 [Crow Language] skill not only made the visual information returned by the crow assistants clearer but also significantly improved their understanding of Lu Yuan’s commands.

This didn’t mean that the crow assistants became smarter.

Rather, the level 2 [Crow Language] skill translated Lu Yuan’s intentions into a form that the crow assistants could better comprehend.

This made the communication between them much smoother.

“So, my previous deliberate training seems somewhat pointless. As long as I level up the skill, the crow assistants will naturally become ‘smarter.'”

Lu Yuan thought, glancing at his professional panel.

This time, he was looking at the information for the [Ancient Language Expert] panel.

[Profession: Ancient Language Expert lv3 (398/400)]

Through daily studying, both as a hobby and a task, he had nearly maxed out the experience points for [Ancient Language Expert].

With only 2 experience points left, Lu Yuan estimated that he could reach the next level by simply memorizing and understanding a few more words.

Standing on the balcony, he activated [Absolute Concentration], and as the first raindrop fell onto the page of his book, he finally received the level-up notification for [Ancient Language Expert].