Chapter 130 – Interview and Inheritance

Liu Daoyuan?!

As soon as he heard the voice, Lu Yuan’s mind immediately conjured up the name.

He fixed his gaze on the two points of blue light that had just appeared, straining to see.

Through the faint, bluish glow, he could barely make out an old face.

Hair, eyebrows, and beard were all long, and the face was expressionless.

Those two points of blue light were actually his “eyes,” embedded in his eye sockets, completely replacing his eyeballs.

At first glance, Liu Daoyuan’s appearance reminded Lu Yuan of a character from a game he had once played.

“Come closer, quickly, come closer…”

The voice, like the sound of a rusty blade being scraped, urged on.

This time, Lu Yuan saw clearly that the voice was indeed coming from Liu Daoyuan’s mouth.

“Why don’t you turn on the lights?”

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and took two steps forward.

Liu Daoyuan, with his bulb eyes, froze for a moment, seemingly unsure of how to respond.

But now Lu Yuan saw—

Liu Daoyuan’s body beneath his head was missing both arms and his right leg.

He only had one limb left, a left leg.

Even this remaining left leg was incomplete, ending at the knee.

His whole body was so thin that he looked like a skinny bamboo pole topped with two blue light bulbs, making him appear both eerie and strangely comical.

Lu Yuan stopped moving forward.

He wasn’t sure if the expression on his face had unintentionally provoked Liu Daoyuan.

“Click—”

The only source of light in the room, the two blue bulbs, suddenly went out.

The instant loss of light caused Lu Yuan’s pupils to contract, rendering him momentarily blind.

However, his Mental Power was still radiating outward, keeping him aware of his surroundings.

But in the next moment, something seemed to suddenly break into Lu Yuan’s mental field.

It moved with incredible speed!

Even with his neural reaction speed of 16 agility points, he couldn’t catch it. His back was struck hard.

It felt like a solid object had hit him forcefully, sending him stumbling forward.

“Damn!”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but curse inwardly, but more than that, he felt a chill run down his spine.

His body, honed through Skin Training and Muscle Training, had been struck so hard that his back caved in, causing excruciating pain.

He didn’t need to look to know that it was definitely bruised, with severe skin and muscle damage.

Before he could recover from the pain, he was hit hard again, this time under his left ribs.

“Crack—”

This time, Lu Yuan even heard the faint sound of his ribs fracturing.

“Damn it!”

After two heavy blows, Lu Yuan’s face turned grim in the darkness.

He could roughly guess Liu Daoyuan’s purpose in attacking him. A flash of ferocity appeared in his eyes, and he decided not to hold back any longer.

Lv2 [Special Exertion]!

Lv3 [Absolute Concentration]!

Activate!

“Crack, crack—”

Lu Yuan’s entire body rapidly expanded like a balloon, his muscles undulating like waves, with veins bulging out…

“Buzz—”

A formless, violent aura spread rapidly from Lu Yuan’s center outward.

He panted heavily like a giant beast.

The “sinking feeling” brought by Lv3 [Absolute Concentration] made his mind clear and calm, like an icy lake on a winter’s night.

“Whoosh—”

Without warning, Lu Yuan suddenly threw a punch to his right front.

The punch tore through the air, accompanied by a series of explosive sounds.

“Bang!”

Lu Yuan’s punch landed directly on the floor of the room.

The high-quality wooden floor splintered with a loud crash, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Lu Yuan propped himself up on the ground with his left hand, expressionless as he pulled his right hand from the cratered floor.

He stood with his feet apart, his Mental Power highly concentrated, entering an unprecedented state of focus.

But Liu Daoyuan, hidden in the darkness, seemed to have stopped attacking him.

“Click—”

Two beams of blue light suddenly shone on Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan looked down, watching the faint blue beams scan back and forth over his body as if conducting some sort of scan.

Following the direction of the blue beams, he saw—

Liu Daoyuan, with his bulb eyes now lit, had somehow returned to his original seat.

The old face showed an expression of inexplicable excitement.

The almost feverish gaze Liu Daoyuan directed at him made Lu Yuan’s skin crawl.

“Hit me!”

Liu Daoyuan suddenly spoke.

“Huh?”

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

“I told you to hit me. In your current state, use your most powerful attack and hit me!”

Liu Daoyuan’s voice carried a hint of irritation and impatience as he continued to urge, “You don’t want to get hit a few more times yourself, do you, kid?”

A sharp glint flashed in Lu Yuan’s eyes.

He quickly took a deep breath.

“As you wish.”

“Boom!”

In the next second, the floor beneath Lu Yuan exploded and collapsed…

His massive body suddenly appeared just a few meters in front of Liu Daoyuan, as if he had teleported.

His arm, as thick as a giant python, was raised high.

Aiming at Liu Daoyuan’s bamboo-like body.

Lv2 [Special Exertion] Phased Power Exertion!

Lv1 [Crane Power]!

Lv1 [Crane Shadow Float]!

A mysterious energy was generated from the collision between muscle and bone membrane.

As his fist descended…

Under the blue light, it compressed the air into visible blue and white shockwaves.

In his mind, a Spirit Crane soared into the sky, its cry piercing through the heavens.

Liu Daoyuan’s beard and eyebrows were blown in all directions by the terrifying punch wind, but he showed no sign of dodging. Instead, he smiled, as if eagerly anticipating something.

“Bang!”

Lu Yuan’s punch landed solidly on Liu Daoyuan’s withered body.

With the addition of Crane Power, the pure force of this punch was likely well over three tons.

Lu Yuan was almost confident he could smash and overturn a small truck with this punch.

However, this terrifying power hitting Liu Daoyuan produced no visible effect.

Instead, Liu Daoyuan became suddenly excited, his long eyebrows and beard standing on end, and his mouth opened in an ear-piercing laugh.

“Good, good, good!”

“Palace of Flesh! It really is the Palace of Flesh!”

“Kid, from now on, you are the only true disciple of my crane style!”

Lu Yuan was stunned and hadn’t yet reacted.

With a “click,”

Liu Daoyuan’s figure vanished completely before him, and then the pitch-black hall… suddenly lit up brightly.

….

“It’s the Palace of Flesh, without a doubt.”

In the assessment room, a group of direct disciples stood in front of the video projection, staring at the frozen image on the screen with eyes full of wonder.

“Innate muscle control ability, incredible physical strength, flesh as magnificent and grand as a palace built by the heavens…”

In the frozen image, Lu Yuan’s ferocious physique and knotted muscles appeared to the direct disciples like a masterpiece left by a world-class artist, with every line exuding breathtaking beauty.

“…I remember the Hundred Refinement Sect once produced a Palace of Flesh. In ten years, they elevated the Hundred Refinement Sect from a third-rate sect to nearly top-tier. It’s said that at his peak, he dared to fight Grandmasters and could tear Rainbow Steel with his bare hands… Unfortunately, his arrogance led to his downfall, and he was besieged and killed by over a dozen mechas.”

Someone sighed, then paused and added.

“Who would have thought… our crane style would also have the chance to welcome such a talented genius!”

This remark caused the others to tremble slightly.

Then, a certain inexplicable glow appeared on their faces.

As if…

They had thought of something.

“The five legendary talents of the martial arts world.

Abyss of Skin, Palace of Flesh, Mountain of Bones, Immortal of the Five Viscera, and Brain Divinity…

Any one of these is a rare treasure in the world.”

Someone muttered softly, “Lu Yuan possesses the Palace of Flesh, and he mastered our crane style’s ultimate true skill in just three months of martial arts practice…”

“And he comprehended the ultimate true skill through the stance technique.”

The short-haired woman suddenly spoke, asking Lin Zhiqin beside her, “Am I right, Junior Brother Lin?”

Lin Zhiqin, lost in thought, was brought back to his senses by the short-haired woman’s words. He nodded instinctively, “Yes, Lu Yuan’s true skill was realized from the basic stance technique, but at the time, he only grasped the essentials…”

“Hiss—”

The room was filled with the sound of people taking sharp breaths.

Faces were full of astonishment.

To comprehend a sect’s core ultimate true skill through the stance technique alone—even if just a fraction—was enough to demonstrate Lu Yuan’s extraordinary talent in martial arts.

Coupled with his Palace of Flesh gift, his potential… couldn’t even be described as monstrous.

Even compared to that person who defected from the sect back then, Lu Yuan seemed far superior.

After a brief moment of shock and silence, someone finally spoke, “Junior Brother Lin, for recruiting such a person for the sect, the teacher will surely reward you. Congratulations in advance on returning to the ranks of direct disciples.”

“Senior Brother Lin, come have tea with me sometime.”

“Senior Brother Lin…”

The group of direct disciples all greeted Lin Zhiqin, hastily mending their relationships.

Each of them had a complex look on their face.

Among them, Qin Feng’s expression was probably the most intense.

He and Lin Zhiqin were both from Jiaoyan, a martial arts gym.

When Lu Yuan was training at Yuan Martial Arts Gym, Qin Feng had seen him countless times.

Yet, this genius right under his nose had gone unnoticed. It was as if all his martial arts practice had blinded him.

“Lin… Lin…”

Qin Feng opened his mouth several times to speak to Lin Zhiqin but didn’t know what to say. In the end, he turned and left with a dejected look.

The group of direct disciples, each with their recommended candidates, gradually left.

The middle-aged man with black hair, who had been silently facing away from everyone, was the last to leave.

He watched the entire video alone, then turned around, lightly patted Lin Zhiqin on the shoulder, with an unreadable expression, and said, “Junior Brother Lin, you’ve suffered a lot over the years…”

As the middle-aged man’s figure disappeared through the assessment room door, the large hall was left with only a bewildered Lin Zhiqin and the short-haired woman.

“Junior Brother Lin…”

The short-haired woman called out to Lin Zhiqin.

Lin Zhiqin looked up at her, stared for a moment, then said, “Senior Sister… I really didn’t know…”

The short-haired woman was momentarily stunned, then suddenly laughed.

“I understand.”

Then she turned to look at the young man on the video screen and said softly, “Who could have thought? You didn’t, I didn’t, Second Senior Brother didn’t… even the teacher… definitely didn’t think…”

The suddenly turned-on lights were a bit blinding.

Lu Yuan raised his hand to block the light from his face and squinted for a moment before gradually adjusting to the indoor lighting.

The entire hall was now fully visible to him.

Just as he had imagined.

Spacious and enormous.

Apart from a single chair placed in front of him, the hall was almost completely empty.

Not far away, there were a few spots where the floor had collapsed and shattered, with wooden boards and splinters scattered around.

Liu Daoyuan was nowhere to be seen.

Lu Yuan scanned his surroundings.

He noticed that the nearest door to the chair in front of him was dozens of meters away.

He couldn’t figure out how Liu Daoyuan, who moved like a wooden stick, had vanished into thin air.

“Strange, moody, and crazy old monster!”

Lu Yuan labeled Liu Daoyuan in his mind with a grim expression.

This “interview” experience had left him in a foul mood.

Lu Yuan relaxed his muscle control from the special exertion and his swollen body returned to its normal size.

The spots on his left rib and back where he had been hit still ached faintly.

While adjusting and recovering, Lu Yuan recalled the words Liu Daoyuan had just laughed and said.

“Palace of Flesh… what is that?”

“Why was he so happy, as if he had won the lottery…”