Chapter 186 – Amitabha Golden Garment SS+

“This shuttle is a personal gift from Lord Tong to you. Even within the Golden Bear Guard, few can afford something of this caliber. The annual maintenance and upkeep costs will be covered by the organization. Lord Tong truly values you…”

Xiao Rui saw Lu Yuan off onto the shuttle above the sea of clouds.

With a trace of regret on her face, she said, “It’s a pity. I wanted to show you around Xiabang. Looks like we’ll have to wait for another time…”

Lu Yuan nodded, indicating he remembered.

As he boarded the shuttle and was about to close the hatch to leave, Lu Yuan looked at the exquisite and outstanding Xiao Rui in front of him. Suddenly, he felt a stirring in his heart and couldn’t help but ask, “Xiao Rui, are you single?”

Xiao Rui, standing beneath the shuttle, was stunned.

Moments later, the shuttle slowly ascended and disappeared into the sea of clouds.

Xiao Rui watched the shuttle depart, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and chuckled to herself, “A seventeen-year-old kid asking if I’m single-does he want to pursue me?”

Shaking her head, she turned around.

But her mood inexplicably lifted, her hands clasped behind her back, and her steps seemed much lighter.

…

Lu Yuan found a random seat in the shuttle. The fully enclosed yacht-like white interior was far more luxurious and advanced than any shuttle he had ever taken.

Xiao Rui’s parting words reminded him of Zhou Ling.

So, on an impulse, he asked a question.

But he immediately realized how pointless it was.

Zhou Ling was nice, but he fell short compared to Xiao Rui in many ways.

One was a white bear, the other a golden bear.

Moreover, Zhou Ling was fully modified.

Even if he introduced Xiao Rui to Zhou Ling, she might not be interested.

Xiao Rui’s enthusiasm towards him was entirely because of his similar Golden Bear status, level S strength, and immense potential.

“I’ve already forwarded your information to all the white bears and red bears in the Old City Circle. The contact list has been sent to you. Feel free to reach out to anyone on the list if you need anything.” Just as Lu Yuan sat down, a message from Xiao Rui popped up.

It came with a moderately-sized attachment.

Lu Yuan replied with an acknowledgment, opened the attachment, skimmed through it briefly, and then put it aside.

Golden Bears in the Yellow Bear organization were already considered mid to high-level. Most of them operated in the new world. It was rare for someone like Lu Yuan to return to live in the Old City Circle after becoming a Golden Bear.

Golden Bears had enough authority to mobilize most of the official forces in the Old City Circle, with a status much higher than that of a provincial governor.

With just one new blood trial, Lu Yuan had transformed from an ordinary senior high school student to a high-ranking “leader” within the system.

Sitting down now to reflect, it all felt surreal.

“From now on, I can really spread my wings in the Old City Circle. With a sudden influx of resources and power, everything will be much easier than before…”

Praise be to Lord Tong, Lu Yuan thought with gratitude.

As he pondered this, he pulled up his chat contacts.

A read message caught his eye.

[Back in Xia State, I have a day free tomorrow. Where are you? We can chat. PS: Only free tomorrow.]

The message was from White Glowing Grass.

She was the archaeology community netizen who had previously provided Lu Yuan with valuable leads on the Elephant Deity Sect.

Compared to a day trip to Xiabang, Lu Yuan felt it was more necessary to meet with her.

“Until the matter with Lu Jing is resolved, I always feel like there’s something weighing on me…”

With this in mind, Lu Yuan decided to use his Golden Bear account to log into the Yellow Bear’s internal network and search for information on the Elephant Deity Sect.

[Level Four Access Logged In]

With the login prompt, some information quickly popped up.

[Xixu Elephant Deity Sect Temple Ruins, New Secret Realm Opened? Continuously Updating]

The first piece of related information caught Lu Yuan’s interest.

His eyes flickered at the word “secret realm” in the title, then he clicked into the post to check it out.

To his surprise, the main content of the post was a summary of the archaeological team’s experiences in Xixu, including Lu Jing’s team.

There was detailed information on the monsters that had emerged from the Elephant Deity Sect temple ruins, including videos.

Lu Yuan clicked on each video one by one.

The monsters in the videos indeed matched Lu Jing’s descriptions-they had elephant-like heads, octopus-like mouths, and bodies resembling giant beetles.

Even though Lu Yuan had encountered many extraordinary beings, seeing these monsters, which looked like they belonged in a sci-fi horror movie, still filled him with shock and amazement.

No wonder Lu Jing had been so terrified at the time.

However, these monsters didn’t seem particularly powerful. They didn’t have any special extraordinary abilities, just considerable strength.

In the videos, several light mechas, combined with a few Red Bears, easily wiped out large groups of these creatures.

The last monster in the video was as big as a tank and looked quite intimidating. However, whether it was killed or captured wasn’t shown in the video.

Lu Yuan scrolled to the bottom of the post to read the comments.

“Elephant Deity Sect? This Evil Deity Sect seems ancient. I’ve never heard of it before.”

“No news about a new secret realm being released. PS: Coordinates to the Mystic Deity Group.”

“We can’t even explore the existing secret realms. The higher-ups won’t open a new one so easily. The poster is just clickbait.”

“I want to earn merit by pioneering but am afraid of dying in a secret realm. Any big shots willing to take me along? I’ll immediately apply to transfer from the Field Operations Group to the Mystic Deity Group!”

Most of the comments were just noise.

In fact, the post itself wasn’t very popular, with only a few hundred views. The original poster hadn’t updated it after the initial post, making the “continuously updating” in the title seem like a joke.

Lu Yuan exited the post and scrolled down the search results.

He discovered that information on the Elephant Deity Sect, even with his level four access, was scarce in the Yellow Bear’s internal database.

It seemed this sect was indeed obscure or simply not given much attention.

It looked like he still had to rely on White Glowing Grass. Meeting her was definitely necessary.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment and decided to use his access level to investigate the background of the ID “White Glowing Grass” through the Yellow Bear’s internal system. He wanted to get a better understanding of who this person was in advance.

While waiting for White Glowing Grass’s background information, Lu Yuan searched for keywords like “secret realm” and “Mystic Deity Group” that he had just encountered in the post.

This gave him a rough idea of the Yellow Bear organization’s structure.

“So, the Mystic Deity Group is a department specifically for exploring Evil Deity Sect secret realms. Correspondingly, there’s another department called the Star Deity Group, which is responsible for exploring outer space… The Yellow Bear’s scope of work is so broad…”

Lu Yuan murmured in amazement as he read.

Aside from a few service robots, he was the only person on this shuttle.

He tapped his finger, signaling the robot butler to bring him a glass of lemonade.

“Evil Deity Sect secret realms are essentially the strongholds of various Evil Deity Sects? Not exactly. Many secret realms are so dangerous that even the followers of these sects dare not enter. There seem to be many valuable items inside, attracting all sides to explore actively…”

“Most of these secret realms are hidden in deserts, rainforests, swamps, and even deep-sea areas within uninhabited regions.

Currently, within the Xia State, there are a total of one hundred and ninety-eight known Evil Deity Sect secret realms.

Forty-two have been explored, but only five have been explored more than seventy percent…”

“Generally, only those with strength at Red Bear level B+ or above are eligible to join secret realm exploration tasks. The merit rewards for these tasks are extremely high, but so is the mortality rate…”

Lu Yuan sipped his lemonade, clicking his tongue in wonder.

It felt like another door to a new world was slowly opening before him.

He was now a Golden Bear, with strength already at level S.

Logically, it was only a matter of time before he would be assigned to similar Evil Deity Sect secret realm exploration tasks.

“This might be a good thing for me…”

Lu Yuan stroked his chin, his eyes flashing as he thought, “Evil Deity Sect secret realms must contain many rare materials like the Crow Deity Sect’s red bead. Perhaps through this path, I can unlock more extraordinary professional panels.”

These places could also serve to enhance the levels of these extraordinary professions.

Different Evil Deity Sect secret realms could be seen as different professional experience dungeons for Lu Yuan!

“Right.”

Thinking of the Crow Deity Sect’s red bead, Lu Yuan suddenly remembered that Yellow Bear had a specialized merit shop.

During this new blood trial assessment, he had earned quite a bit of merit.

If items similar to the Crow Deity Sect’s red bead were available in the merit shop, he wouldn’t even need to enter dungeons to gain experience and unlock new professional panels.

Feeling hopeful, Lu Yuan navigated to the merit shop on Yellow Bear’s internal forum.

He clicked on it.

Four categories immediately popped up:

“New Martial Arts System”

“Pure Martial Artist System”

“Modification System”

“Special System”

Lu Yuan’s eyes quickly scanned and locked onto “Pure Martial Artist System.”

Without hesitation, he clicked on it.

Immediately, a large number of product listings appeared densely packed on the screen.

[Wolf Slaughter Rock Shatter Stream Legacy (Complete), Rating: A-, Exchange Price: 2000 merit points/20,000,000 Xia currency]

[Ten Thousand Seas Azure Waves Palm Legacy (Complete), Rating: A+, Exchange Price: 6000 merit points/60,000,000 Xia currency]

[Snake Crane Sky Water Stream Legacy (Complete), Rating: S, Exchange Price: 10,000 merit points/100,000,000 Xia currency]

Lu Yuan quickly found his own Sky Water Stream among the various martial arts style legacies.

Here, it was called [Snake Crane Sky Water Stream], seemingly encompassing both the Snake Sect and Crane Style legacies.

Its rating was quite high, reaching level S.

“Ten thousand merit points or one hundred million Xia currency to exchange, that’s quite steep…”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but frown.

However, he remembered that he had spent twenty million just to barely secure a chance to participate in the Crane Style’s direct disciple assessment. So, a complete Snake Crane Sky Water Stream legacy for one hundred million didn’t seem too expensive.

After all, according to the description, this legacy included true skill visualization diagrams.

In other words, once you exchanged for it, you would also get to see the true skill visualization diagrams of Sky Water Stream’s Snake Crane techniques.

Of course, the secret ointments required during the cultivation process would have to be bought separately.

Lu Yuan certainly didn’t have one hundred million Xia currency, but he did have ten thousand merit points.

“Get the Sky Water Stream legacy together and take it back to make Old Liu happy?”

The thought crossed Lu Yuan’s mind, but he dismissed it the next second.

“Does Old Liu care about a complete legacy? What he cares about is face, the reputation of the Sky Water Stream Crane Style! One day, I need to go to the Snake Sect and take back the Sky Water Stream’s reputation with dignity. Only then will he be happy. This bought legacy… he’d definitely look down on it.”

Given Lu Yuan’s current strength and system, whether he completed the Sky Water Stream legacy or not wasn’t that important to him.

He decided to skip over it and keep looking.

Soon, he saw the Dragon Sect martial arts legacy of You Long. Its rating was even higher than the Sky Water Stream, reaching S+, and naturally, the price was higher as well.

Scrolling down further, Lu Yuan’s eyes scanned through the listings.

Suddenly, his gaze fixed on a particular legacy, and his eyes gleamed with excitement.

[Amitabha Golden Garment Legacy (Complete), Rating: SS+, Exchange Price: 60,000 merit points/600,000,000 Xia currency]!