Chapter 146 – Ethereal Penglai

The news from Liu Si disrupted the calm that Lu Yuan had finally settled into.

He tossed the skewers of two grilled sausages he had finished eating into the trash can next to the bus stop.

When the bus home arrived, he got on and spent the entire ride thinking about the archaeological team.

It wasn’t until he got off the bus that he suddenly remembered he hadn’t swiped his card or paid the fare.

No wonder people on the bus had been looking at him strangely, and an Old Lady had seemed like she wanted to say something several times but didn’t.

Lu Yuan instinctively stopped in front of a store selling handmade accessories and looked at himself in the clean, bright window.

There’s no need to describe his body again; what stood out now was his aura, which had indeed become quite imposing.

During the grueling training of a martial artist, both the body and the will are constantly tempered.

It’s like a piece of raw iron being continuously sharpened on a whetstone until it gleams with a cold light.

The natural sharpness that radiated from his every move made ordinary people on the street instinctively steer clear of him.

Their innate sense of self-preservation kept warning them this person is not to be trifled with.

“In a few days, school will start. I hope I don’t scare the security guards into calling the police… My aura has been too intense lately. Even Dad and Mom seem a bit afraid to speak loudly around me…”

Lu Yuan mused, then tried to gradually restrain his aura.

This wasn’t particularly difficult for him; with 18 agility points, he could easily do things that others couldn’t when it came to controlling himself.

The sharp sword slowly sheathed itself.

When Lu Yuan had fully retracted his martial artist’s aura, finally… people started to brush past him as they walked by.

“Just a little more…”

Lu Yuan leaned closer to the window and looked into his eyes.

His eyes were very “pretty.”

Clear, deep, and especially spirited.

There’s a saying that you can tell if someone is smart, wise, and spirited just by looking into their eyes.

Lu Yuan’s intelligence points attribute was as high as 17, and he had even awakened the ability of Mental Power.

His thoughts were lightning-fast, his comprehension extraordinary, and solving a complex higher mathematics problem from university took only a few seconds…

So his eyes were far more captivating than those of ordinary people.

“Maybe I should get a pair of glasses…”

Lu Yuan recalled the appearance of Sun Zhihua when he saw him at Suchuan Airport.

Sun Zhihua wore a pair of gold-rimmed glasses, which he took off before a fight.

His skills were mediocre, but he was indeed a show-off.

Lu Yuan just wanted to slightly obscure his eyes, which would also better fit his identity as a senior high school student.

Having made up his mind, Lu Yuan continued walking home with his backpack.

After restraining his aura, he blended naturally into the crowd, no longer standing out so much.

When he arrived at the entrance of his family’s Small Shop, he saw that Lu Jing, who had “clocked out” early, was sitting with Mom at the counter, eating sunflower seeds and watching TV.

The two of them occasionally commented on what they were watching.

“Ugh, this guy is so disgusting, so heartless.”

“Yeah, totally… huh?!”

Curious, Lu Yuan glanced at the TV screen and saw it was an ancient costume romance drama.

It was good to have Lu Jing back.

At least Mom wouldn’t be so bored, and sometimes Lu Jing could even help with cooking.

He decided not to tell Lu Jing about what Liu Si had discovered regarding the archaeology professor Xia Weimin for now.

Lu Jing had just recovered, and he didn’t want this news to make her anxious again.

“By the way, Xiao Yuan, you have a package. It arrived this afternoon, and I signed for it.”

As Lu Yuan grabbed a drink from the freezer at the door, Lu Jing called out to him, pointing to a small blue parcel placed on top of a few rice bags.

Lu Yuan paused for a moment, quickly realizing who had sent it.

He nodded, indicating he understood, and picked up the package before heading upstairs.

Lu Jing seemed curious, her eyes following him…

Back in his bedroom on the second floor, Lu Yuan inspected the package.

He noticed there was no sender’s name or return address.

He pressed it with his hand, then slowly began to open the parcel.

What lay before Lu Yuan was a folded piece of paper.

Opening it, the first page bore the title—Rules for the New Blood Trial (Latest Edition).

As he had expected, this was the information on the Yellow Bear new blood trial that Gao Qing had mentioned to him earlier.

But what surprised him was that it was in paper form, which seemed a bit out of character for Yellow Bear…

Lu Yuan continued reading.

He found that the information was far more detailed than he had imagined.

[First Stage of the Assessment: Strength Test Stage]

Twenty strength targets will appear. Hit them one by one (Note: It’s best to shatter them to significantly boost your evaluation).

After hitting all the targets, twenty moving strength targets will appear. Same as above…

The primary focus of the first stage is strength. The speed of completion will contribute to the final score, but not significantly.

Maximize individual explosive power. Certain strength augmentation methods can be used, recommended as follows: PVX Muscle Enhancement Liquid, invisible micro exoskeleton, single-use muscle blood enhancement injection…

[Second Stage of the Assessment: Speed Test Stage]

This stage primarily tests the explosive speed of the new blood. However, a very important and often overlooked point is neural reaction speed (hidden points are high).

Specific rules are as follows…

[Third Stage of the Assessment: Strategy Test Stage]

…

Lu Yuan quickly read through the entire document, which was more than forty pages long and contained over thirty thousand words.

On the last page, there were four large red characters—[Burn After Reading!!!]

He couldn’t help but frown.

“What is Gao Qing up to?”

Lu Yuan’s gaze turned cold.

“This isn’t just an assessment rule document… it’s practically a detailed guide to the assessment, a super comprehensive nanny version.”

It even listed in detail which methods counted as violations and which did not.

“Isn’t this considered cheating?”

Lu Yuan’s mood soured.

Being forced into this kind of cheating situation was very frustrating for him.

After all, he was a “top student” in both academics and martial arts. When did he ever need to rely on leaked exam questions to get good grades?

“No, I need to keep this document and find an opportunity to report Gao Qing later…”

If this “guide” had been given to him by Zhou Ling, who had saved him once, Lu Yuan might have hesitated.

But Gao Qing… he wouldn’t hold back at all.

“For someone like her, who is a scourge within the Yellow Bear organization, she should be exposed as soon as possible!”

With a blank expression, Lu Yuan carefully stored the guide and made a mental note.

…

“Whoosh—”

A massive figure, shrouded in a violent aura, suddenly appeared before the well-proportioned short-haired woman.

A leg as thick as a doorpost was raised abruptly, tearing through the air. The leg wind created a ripping sound as it swiftly kicked towards the woman’s face.

The woman, expressionless, shook her fair, well-proportioned arms.

Two short, scarlet-glowing knives fell into her hands, hissing as they touched the air.

The woman crossed her hands, the red blades “snipping” towards the doorpost leg that was close at hand.

But the leg suddenly vanished.

It reappeared next to her temple, bypassing her blades.

“Bang!”

The woman’s head tilted, her temple deeply dented by the terrifying kick, and her body was flung aside like a rag doll.

But before she could hit the ground, a figure blocked her trajectory.

Another kick.

“Crack, crack—”

Accompanied by a series of bone-cracking sounds, the woman’s full chest caved in, her body contorting.

But a breath later, she was intercepted again…

“Bang!”

“Bang, bang!”

The woman’s body, like a ball, was kicked around by the ghostly figure, finally landing on the ground.

What was once a well-proportioned body had turned into a heap of unrecognizable flesh.

Lu Yuan calmly walked forward and picked up one of the still-warm short knives from the ground.

Looking at the blood-red, serrated blade, he almost instinctively grabbed it with his hand.

“Hiss—”

The smell of charred flesh filled the air.

Lu Yuan released his grip and saw that his palm, which had held the knife, was slightly scorched. The skin on his palm was already ulcerated, leaving a shallow cut.

“Pure bodily defense is still inadequate against this new martial arts technology. I wonder if things will improve once I master channeling my inner strength through my body…

Cyborgs and new martial arts have a significant advantage over Ancient Martial Arts; their attack methods are on a completely different level…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered as he quietly contemplated, “But it’s not entirely impossible to counter them. Just like now… neither Zhou Ling, who follows the cyborg path, nor Gao Qing, who excels in new martial arts, are my match.

The combat instincts and skills honed by a martial artist through countless trials can’t be entirely negated by a few pieces of high technology.”

Lu Yuan glanced at Gao Qing, who lay on the ground in a heap of flesh, then exited the Consciousness Space.

Opening his eyes, he was greeted by the deep blue night sky.

The moon was obscured by either clouds or the city’s smog, rendering it hazy.

The sound of car horns reached his ears. At this moment, Lu Yuan was standing on the rooftop of his own building.

“I need to find an opportunity to sell those houses and shops… Practicing martial arts on the rooftop all the time isn’t ideal.”

It used to be fine, but now, as Lu Yuan’s strength increased, the rooftop felt too small to practice effectively.

Moreover, it drew too much attention.

Standing on the edge of the rooftop, feeling the cool night breeze, Lu Yuan’s mind slowly reviewed the battles he had just experienced in the Consciousness Space.

First was Zhao Qiancheng, then the Powerful Divine Servant of the Crow Deity sect, followed by Zhou Ling, and finally Gao Qing…

As the memory of Gao Qing flashed through his mind, Lu Yuan suddenly had an epiphany.

A switch in his mind quietly flipped, and the once gentle flow of inspiration surged countless times over.

“Whoosh—”

Lu Yuan’s figure suddenly vanished from the rooftop edge.

Then, the entire rooftop seemed to be swept by an inexplicable gust of wind.

Leg shadows appeared continuously in every corner of the rooftop. Upon closer inspection, they seemed to convey a sense of fleeting and elusive movement.

“Bang!”

The concrete block under the rooftop water tower suddenly exploded, sending the upper half flying several meters away.

The loud noise echoed through the quiet night, lasting only a few seconds.

Lights in nearby apartment buildings flickered on sporadically, and the sound of security doors opening and hurried footsteps ascending the stairs could be heard.

Lu Yuan silently slipped into the shadows of the rooftop.

Amidst the brief commotion, his eyes shined brightly.

“Finally, I’ve unlocked the last ultimate true skill!”

Lu Yuan’s gaze fell on the professional panel he had brought up.

In the killer move skill section of the [Martial Artist] panel, a new skill had appeared—Sky Water Stream Crane Style Leg Techniques Ultimate True Skill

[Spirit Crane Technique: Ethereal Penglai]!

“Ethereal Penglai…”

Lu Yuan whispered the name to himself, suddenly recalling how Liu Daoyuan had once spoken to him about “Dominating the Martial World, Unifying the Martial World, Overturning Penglai,” and had mentioned “Penglai” as well.

He wondered if this Penglai was the same as the one Liu Daoyuan mentioned.

Regardless, Lu Yuan had now comprehended all three great true skills of the Crane Style.

The only thing left was to gradually improve and then unlock the True Intent.

From the time he first started practicing Crane Style martial arts to reaching this point, it had only been a little over two months.

If this progress were to be known, it would truly be astonishing.

“Should I… find someone to test the power of this new killer move?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes suddenly fell on a crow perched on a resident’s balcony not far away. His eyes flickered slightly as he thought to himself.