Chapter 228 – Opportunities for Advanced Professions and Profession Integration

“Wait!”

Just as the hawk-nosed old man’s eagle claw was about to grab Pei Ye’s face, causing the latter’s body to tremble and almost convulse.

Lu Yuan spoke calmly, “No need to rush, I’ll handle it later myself.”

“Understood.”

The hawk-nosed old man immediately withdrew his hand and stood quietly to the side.

Lu Yuan wasn’t feeling sorry for Pei Ye, he simply didn’t want to make the scene too bloody and messy.

“Ding—”

A notification came through, and Lu Yuan casually opened it to check.

It was from Yuwen Tong.

It was rare for Yuwen Tong to take the initiative to message him.

Lu Yuan hurriedly looked it over carefully, a look of surprise and astonishment appearing on his face.

In Yuwen Tong’s message, she actually told him to spare Pei Ye’s life for now, saying he would be useful.

“Yuwen Tong knows I’m fighting with the evil martial alliance?!”

“So, everything I just said about being the demon emperor was seen by Yuwen Tong?…”

A sudden feeling of unease swept over Lu Yuan, but he couldn’t help but consider.

“What does Yuwen Tong want Pei Ye for? To experiment on him?”

Unable to find an answer, Lu Yuan dismissed his thoughts and gestured for the three Protectors in front of him to continue.

“Go on, introduce the evil martial alliance…”

“Understood.”

The horse-faced middle-aged man continued, “After the former evil emperor passed away, the evil martial alliance was mainly led by eight Protectors. However…”

The horse-faced middle-aged man lowered his voice, “Many Protectors have their own agendas, which has turned the entire evil martial alliance into a chaotic mess…”

Listening to the accounts of the horse-faced middle-aged man and the hawk-nosed old man, Lu Yuan gradually understood the internal situation of the evil martial alliance.

It turns out the people of the evil martial alliance aren’t having a good time either.

Walking the path of evil, the power mainly comes from hunting various disciples of the evil deity sect.

But the evil deity sect members aren’t easy prey, where there’s hunting, there’s revenge.

The vast majority of evil martial artists either end up being recruited by the evil deity sect or…dying at the hands of strong retaliators from the evil deity sect.

The people who end up corrupted by evil power and move towards self-destruction, as Lu Yuan had previously thought, were actually in the minority.

In the world of Ancient Martial Arts, the seemingly glamorous evil martial alliance is actually being chased around by the evil deity sect all the time in secret.

When the Evil Emperor was around, things were a bit better.

With the position of Evil Emperor vacant, the situation took a drastic turn for the worse.

Within the evil martial alliance, the Protectors were constantly scheming for power or aiming to become the Evil Emperor themselves…in short, it was a mess.

“We previously nominated Pei Ye as the new Evil Emperor, hoping to stabilize the alliance’s internal situation…but the other Protectors either didn’t care or obstructed us in every possible way. Truly, the hearts of people have changed!”

The hawk-nosed old man spoke emotionally about this matter, his face showing deep sorrow and righteous indignation.

But soon, his expression shifted to genuine joy and excitement. He respectfully said to Lu Yuan, “Thankfully, the demon emperor has emerged. We in the evil martial alliance finally have hope.”

The horse-faced middle-aged man beside him also nodded in agreement repeatedly, while the elephant protector remained silent.

“I think you guys are the weakest in terms of power and influence among the eight Protectors, which is why you’re eager to support a new Evil Emperor…”

Lu Yuan looked at the two men in front of him, resting his face on one hand, thinking to himself somewhat speechlessly.

After listening to the introductions from these men, Lu Yuan felt that the evil martial alliance was now an utter mess.

An Evil Emperor?

Externally, he had to withstand attacks from the evil deity sect, and internally, he had to guard against rebellion from his subordinates.

It was pure bad luck.

Lu Yuan already started to regret calling himself the demon emperor rashly.

“Alright, I already have a rough understanding of the evil martial alliance’s situation. If there’s nothing else, you can leave now.”

Lu Yuan had no interest in staying any longer. He casually picked up Pei Ye and walked away.

Seeing that Lu Yuan was about to leave, the hawk-nosed old man exchanged glances with the others and quickly spoke, “When will the demon emperor have time? We can escort the demon emperor back to the evil martial alliance to reclaim leadership!”

“Let’s talk about it next time…”

Lu Yuan laughed it off, walked out the villa door, boarded the shuttle, and quickly left.

The three men were left looking at the chaotic battlefield, staring at each other in dismay.

“What do you think?”

After a long while, the hawk-nosed old man slowly opened his mouth.

The horse-faced middle-aged man squinted his eyes, looking in the direction where Lu Yuan had left, and replied, “This young man has extraordinary martial arts talent and a natural evil martial arts constitution. His personality is domineering, decisive in killing, and in every aspect, he surpasses Pei Ye a thousand times over. He is indeed the best candidate for the new Evil Emperor.

However…”

The horse-faced middle-aged man paused, frowning as he said, “He is also connected to the Yellow Bear. If we support him as the Evil Emperor, it won’t be long before our Deity Martial Alliance becomes a vassal of the Yellow Bear, nothing more than their lackeys…”

“That would still be better than running for our lives every day!”

The hawk-nosed old man snorted coldly and said, “I actually think this is a great opportunity.

Those surnamed Lei have arrogantly taken over the legacies of several past Evil Emperors. If we let a member of the Lei family take the position of Evil Emperor, we will eventually be devoured, leaving nothing behind.

I heard that the Lei family recently had dubious dealings with the evil deity sect…”

After chatting a bit, the hawk-nosed old man and the horse-faced middle-aged man turned their gazes to the silent elephant protector.

“What does the elephant protector think?”

Shrouded entirely in a mask and black robe, the elephant protector remained silent for a moment before slowly speaking, “Whoever is strongest, I acknowledge as the Evil Emperor.”

“…”

The two looked at each other in silence.

…

At the Yellow Bear Branch Base.

Lu Yuan stood in front of a pristine treatment pod, speaking softly to Liu Daoyuan, who was floating in the healing fluid.

“Look. This one… this one… and this one…”

Lu Yuan held a mobile phone, showing its screen to Liu Daoyuan as he swiped through a series of photos.

“How about it? Did I beat him up badly enough? Do you think even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him?”

“This guy is now sent off to be used for human experimentation, just making use of waste.”

“Do you feel avenged now, Old Liu?”

Liu Daoyuan was conscious, floating in the semi-transparent healing fluid, but he couldn’t speak yet.

The mechanical electronic eyes shone brightly, but he looked at Lu Yuan more than at the photos on the mobile phone screen, a strange light in his eyes.

Lu Yuan showed Liu Daoyuan all the photos of Pei Ye one by one. After that, he stood up and looked at Liu Daoyuan in the healing pod, saying, “Old Liu, just focus on recovering. I’ve already taught lessons to those people who bullied you. For those I haven’t gotten to yet, there will be opportunities in the future.

I heard people say that you have a chance to break through to the Grandmaster level… Don’t worry, I’ll come up with a way to help you take that final step.”

After finishing speaking, Lu Yuan gently patted the front cover of the healing pod, offering some comfort, and then turned and walked out of the room.

Lu Yuan didn’t go far; he sat down on the bench right outside the door of the treatment room. With a wave of his hand, he dismissed the Yellow Bear standing guard, and then he quietly pondered over his thoughts.

With the matters of the stone ball, the Hundred Cities Martial Arts Tournament in the south, and Pei Ye from the evil martial alliance settled, Lu Yuan felt a sense of relief.

It was as if a huge weight that had been hanging over him for a long time had finally been lifted, and he could finally catch his breath.

During this period, he had felt like a spinning top, continuously driven by others without a moment of rest.

“It’s time to think about my own path ahead.”

Lu Yuan thought as he pulled out the “Overlord Fist Sect’s General Principles” that Old Liu had exchanged his life for, from the inner pocket of his jacket.

Now that he had this cultivation technique in hand, the legacy of “Heavenly Domineering Fury” that he had longed for was finally complete.

All that was left was to train and comprehend it.

After the battle with the elephant deity emissary, Lu Yuan had felt the inadequacy of his strength.

“The pure martial artist system is still too weak. My current strength mainly comes from the martial artist panel. Martial artist, after all, is just a basic profession, so it’s normal for its potential to be limited.

But I’ve invested most of my energy and resources into this panel, so I can’t abandon it.

Therefore… extraordinary martial arts are the real solution!”

Lu Yuan had a mind to carve out a path from the pure martial artist system that could genuinely compete with other extraordinary professions.

He already had some inspiration and ideas, but to fully implement and refine them would take a lot of time and effort.

What Lu Yuan was considering was whether he could achieve this directly through other means.

For example—profession advancement or profession fusion!

“Super killer moves like ‘[Thousand Crows Salute the Moon]’ and ‘[Death Message on the Way to the Underworld]’ are great examples that show it’s still possible for [martial artists] to resonate and fuse with other extraordinary professions for a synergistic effect…

But this requires a significant opportunity or… meeting certain specific conditions.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered with a hint of thoughtfulness.

He began to gradually map out his next steps in his mind.

First, the path of the [martial artist] couldn’t be abandoned and he needed to continue progressing, aiming to advance to the Grandmaster level as soon as possible.

It’s often said that Grandmaster is the ceiling for pure martial artists. Beyond Grandmaster, the road is practically cut off.

His [martial artist] panel was nearly fully unlocked, and most of the skills were reaching their limits.

For the super killer moves, there was just one slot left that hadn’t lit up yet.

Lu Yuan speculated that one of the conditions for profession advancement might involve maxing out a particular profession.

“Then there are the two extraordinary professions that need significant attention as well. [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] and [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)] both possess strong abilities. Previously, I mainly used them for boosts and support, which somewhat underutilized their potential…”

As for how to quickly enhance these two extraordinary professions, Lu Yuan already had a plan in mind.

Exploring the secret realm of the evil deity seemed to be the best path.

[Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] could be advanced by absorbing red beads from the Crow Deity sect.

For [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)]…

After activating [Hunting Perception] and taking down Pei Ye, Lu Yuan discovered that his [Spear Bearer (Extraordinary)] profession had advanced by one level.

The [Hunting Perception] skill had also leveled up to LV2.

“Combat and the Deity of Hunting… So, the way to level up the Spear Bearer is to keep hunting. The stronger the target, the more experience points I can earn?”

Lu Yuan ruminated for a moment before deciding to open his contact list to ask someone about the secret realms of the evil deity.

Suddenly, the icon for [Lord Tongtongtong] started flashing continuously.

Opening it quickly, Lu Yuan saw only one line—”Log in, I need to discuss something with you.”

“!?”

Five minutes later, Lu Yuan was sitting in a separate room.

In front of him was the highest-spec optical computer processor in the entire Yellow Bear branch, with the fastest network speed.

A semi-transparent light screen floated before his eyes, displaying the game’s login screen. He could hear Yuwen Tong’s usual leisurely voice in his ear.

“How’s the internet speed at the place you chose today?”

Lu Yuan glanced at a certain fluctuating number in the top right corner of the screen and naturally replied, “Average, the network connection is pretty unstable, and there’s some lag on the interface… but it’s fine, I’ll do my best.”

“Ha—”

Yuwen Tong on the other end of the network seemed to chuckle softly.

She didn’t say much more.

Soon, the two of them entered the game.