Chapter 329 – Encounter

Whether it was luck or not, Lan Chen was incredibly excited right now.

He immediately grabbed Lu Yuan and hurried towards the direction from which the energy fluctuations were coming.

However, he still remained cautious, only slightly increasing their pace compared to before.

“You really are something, Lu Yuan. Even Lord Tong has taken notice of you. You must have some skills…”

Lan Chen cautiously led the way ahead, all the while showering Lu Yuan with praise.

Lu Yuan patiently followed him for about two kilometers. He couldn’t help but remind, “If we keep going at this pace, the items might be taken by someone else.

Don’t forget, we are not far from the safe zone. A second group could discover it any moment…”

Lan Chen shook his head stubbornly, “No matter how good the wondrous items are, they are not worth more than our lives. I’ve seen too many examples where people rushed to grab treasures without watching their step, only to fall right in front of them. In the legendary secret realm, there are plenty of wondrous items, but we only have one life…”

Lu Yuan had no choice but to follow his lead.

They slowly advanced another two kilometers and finally caught sight of the wondrous item in their view.

It was a cluster of rocks wrapped in vines, the thick, dark green vines looked like giant pythons. Amidst these vines, a small section of golden vine was glowing brilliantly.

Even from several hundred meters away, the misty light was faintly visible. Lu Yuan felt the evil deity factor in the surrounding environment grow much stronger.

Every breath he took seemed to enhance the blood sphere within him, and he could hear the sound of flesh and bones being strengthened and grown.

“Good stuff! This is absolutely good for me!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes shone brightly, staring unblinkingly at the glowing golden vine.

Lan Chen was even more excited than him, his breath becoming rapid.

The exoskeleton armor on his body switched to second-stage mode, with blue armor almost entirely covering his body.

As the armor activated, he kept mumbling something under his breath.

Lu Yuan listened carefully and found out that he was calculating the possible embers value of this golden vine.

“Let’s go!”

Lu Yuan called out and swiftly dashed past Lan Chen, racing towards the location of the golden vine. Lan Chen followed closely behind.

However, before they could get far, suddenly…

“Whoosh!” Out of nowhere, two formidable figures sprang out from several hundred meters to their right.

Both figures were clad in exoskeleton armor similar to Lan Chen’s; one was black and the other deep red. Their bodies were a fusion of technology and machinery, with energy fields glowing in various parts.

Their exposed faces, with deep-set eyes and high noses, were filled with excitement and joy.

As they charged forward, they shouted out in exhilaration.

Through the automatic translator built into his auxiliary AI, Lu Yuan could hear phrases like, “We’re rich!” and “We got so lucky, mate!”

They were speaking the language of the Distant Star Federation, and their exoskeleton armor was marked with the Federation’s emblem of a shining star and leaves.

Their target was identical to Lu Yuan and Lan Chen’s, and as they charged forward, they almost instantly noticed each other’s presence.

Their gazes met, and information rapidly appeared on their heads-up displays, fed by their implants.

The expression on Lan Chen’s face darkened as he read the data about the two figures. In contrast, the expressions of the two men from the Distant Star Federation shifted from bewilderment to seriousness, and then slowly to relaxation.

Their eyes bore a mocking and playful glint as they looked at Lu Yuan and Lan Chen.

It didn’t take long for the two explorers from the Distant Star Federation to make a decision.

The man in deep red armor continued moving towards the golden vine, while the man in black armor turned and charged directly at Lu Yuan and Lan Chen.

His exposed face was filled with contempt and coldness.

Lan Chen witnessed this and his pupils contracted. He urgently shouted:

“Lu Yuan, stop! Stop now!”

With flames erupting from several joints of his exoskeleton armor, Lan Chen rocketed forward to try and grab Lu Yuan.

As he did, he urgently and quickly whispered, “Both of those guys rank within the top three hundred on the embers ranking!

Their armor materials and modules are also a whole grade higher than mine, so they’re undoubtedly third-stage combat power!

We probably can’t even break through their energy shields… We need to retreat now. Forget the wondrous items…”

Lan Chen’s lengthy plea was abruptly interrupted when he suddenly felt his grip slip and his vision blur.

Before his eyes, Lu Yuan turned into a blurry afterimage, darting forward like a slippery fish.

Lan Chen was instantly horrified.

He never expected that Lu Yuan, who had seemed “quite compliant” along the way, would suddenly become so “recklessly impulsive” at this critical juncture.

Not only did Lu Yuan refuse to retreat, but he even dared to charge forward.

Lan Chen couldn’t hold him back even if he tried.

“Damn it!” Lan Chen couldn’t help but swear out loud.

“The guys from the Distant Star Federation are the most brutal, always going for the kill without hesitation. You’ve just doomed us…”

His expression rapidly changed, and after gritting his teeth, he steeled himself and charged ahead as well.

However, before he got far, he came to an abrupt halt.

What unfolded before his eyes left him wide-eyed, with an exaggeratedly shocked expression as if he’d seen a ghost in broad daylight.

“This… how is this possible?!”

…

“Boom!”

A sound akin to thunder suddenly reverberated through the jungle.

Following that, Lu Yuan’s entire body erupted with steam from his pores.

Enveloped in the white mist, he resembled a snow-white dragon, tracing an astonishingly elegant trajectory through the air.

In almost an instant, he was right in front of the man in black armor.

The man in black armor was also startled by the sudden appearance of this white figure.

His exoskeleton armor instantly lit up with many micro-lights.

Blazing, highly condensed beams of energy shot out from his body.

These beams rapidly interwove into a dense, complicated network in front of him.

In the air, countless minute waves twisted beneath this network, displaying the terrifying power contained within.

This was the perfect killing field calculated by an advanced combat module.

It was enough to shred any intruder attempting to breach it; even a moth would be sliced into tiny fragments by the crisscrossing beams of energy.

However, faced with this terrifying death domain, the figure enveloped in dense white mist seemed utterly unfazed.

Without even the slightest hesitation, it passed right through the intricate energy network.

The process was like light passing through fog, dreamlike and illusory.

It was almost as if the figure was a phantom, not part of reality, effortlessly phasing through.

“Huh?!”

The black armored man’s eyes widened in shock, scarcely able to process what he was seeing.

Instinctively, an almost translucent energy shield, one finger thick, materialized around him.

But just as the energy shield popped into existence, there was a flash of platinum thunder within the white mist.

“Boom!”

In a sound akin to thunderclap mixed with the roar of a furious giant, a fist enveloped in intense platinum light suddenly emerged from the mist. The air before the fist seemed to twist and collapse.

It struck the energy shield with a solid, no-frills punch.

“Crack-“

The one-finger-thick energy shield shattered in less than half a second, like a transparent bubble burst by a finger.

Unhindered, the platinum fist continued its unstoppable momentum, plunging straight into the black armored man’s chest…