Chapter 187 – Heavenly Ultimate Physique, Praise the Generous Lord Tong

Amitabha Golden Garment!

Alongside the Heavenly Domineering Physique, it is hailed as one of the strongest protective martial arts in the world of Ancient Martial Arts!

Lu Yuan had read about the “Amitabha Golden Garment” in Xiang Lei’s notes at the Hundred Refinement Sect and had always kept it in mind. Unexpectedly, it was available in Yellow Bear’s merit shop.

“Amitabha Mountain’s top-tier legacy, an SS+ rating says it all…”

Excitement surged in Lu Yuan’s heart.

But the hefty exchange price of sixty thousand merit points for the [Amitabha Golden Garment] was a cold shower.

He didn’t have enough merit points.

Lu Yuan had earned over twenty thousand merit points in the new blood assessment. After the assessment, Yellow Bear had rewarded him with an additional ten thousand, and he had earned another ten thousand by providing his hair and tissue samples for Yellow Bear’s research.

In total, he had accumulated just over forty thousand merit points, not even reaching fifty thousand.

He had thought it was quite a lot, but it turned out it wasn’t even enough to exchange for a single cultivation technique.

Even though it was an SS+ top-tier ancient martial arts legacy technique.

“Is there any discount event? Even a thirty percent discount would be enough…”

Lu Yuan browsed through the shop and indeed found a discount event related to the [Amitabha Golden Garment].

The SS+ rated [Amitabha Golden Garment] + S-rated [Amitabha Palm] + S-rated [Kesa Skill], bundled together for just seventy-eight thousand eight hundred merit points…

“Damn…”

Lu Yuan furrowed his brows.

Either don’t let him see it, or let him see it but not afford it… This feeling was incredibly frustrating.

He thought for a moment, added the [Amitabha Golden Garment] to his cart, and then directly searched for [Heavenly Domineering Physique].

Initially, he was just trying his luck, but to his surprise, a result actually popped up, something he hadn’t expected.

[Heavenly Domineering Physique Style Legacy (Incomplete), Rating: S, Exchange Price: 10,000 Merit Points / 100,000,000r]

“Incomplete?…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered as he clicked into the product details page, finally understanding what was going on.

“It’s only a part of it, a weakened version of the [Heavenly Domineering Physique] known as the [Heavenly Ultimate Physique].

Just a single character difference, but the actual disparity is significant…”

Years ago, the Holy Fist Sect split due to internal conflict, and the renowned first external power martial art in the ancient martial arts world, the [Heavenly Domineering Physique Style], was divided into three parts.

These parts respectively led to the formation of the current Overlord Fist Sect, Steel Bone Sect, and Celestial Pole Sect.

Lu Yuan had already learned the part of the legacy from the Steel Bone Sect, and now the part being sold in Yellow Bear’s merit shop should be from the Celestial Pole Sect.

“If I buy this part, I’ll have two out of the three parts of the legacy. It’ll bring me closer to mastering the complete Heavenly Domineering Physique Style…”

The price for the [Heavenly Ultimate Physique] was reasonable, so without hesitation, Lu Yuan added it to his shopping cart.

Then, Lu Yuan browsed through other external martial arts legacy cultivation techniques. As long as they were related to external martial arts and rated A+ or above, he added them to his cart.

Level S [Kesa Skill], Level A+ [Iron Shirt Skill], Level S+ [Whale Body Ocean Encompassing Style], Level S- [Glazed Pagoda Body]…

“If I can’t afford the SS+ [Amitabha Golden Garment], I’ll learn several lower-tier external martial arts instead. Combined, I bet the effect will be just as good!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes sparkled as he added seven or eight external martial arts techniques to his cart in one go.

He nearly emptied the merit shop of all external martial arts techniques rated S and above.

Finally, he glanced at the total price—200,000 merit points!

“Crunch, crunch—”

Lu Yuan gulped down his lemonade, the ice cubes crunching loudly between his teeth.

His face remained expressionless.

But after finishing the ice, he still had to face reality and figure out which ones to keep.

“Even if I remove the [Amitabha Golden Garment], there’s still a gap of nearly 100,000 points. I need to cut at least six techniques… which means, along with the [Heavenly Ultimate Physique], I can only keep two more.”

Which two should he keep?

Lu Yuan hesitated, torn between the S and S+ rated external martial arts legacies…

Before he could make his first decision, suddenly—

“Ding—”

[Congratulations to the esteemed Golden Bear Lu Yuan, your order has been successfully placed. Your items will arrive within three to five business days. Please be ready to receive them!]

“Uh…”

Lu Yuan was stunned.

He immediately checked his merit points balance and found that it hadn’t changed at all.

“Did it glitch?”

Lu Yuan scoured the backend messages and finally found the answer—

[Your friend, Lord Tongtongtong, has made the payment on your behalf. Go thank her!]

“Yuwen Tong?!”

Lu Yuan blinked, momentarily stunned.

He stared at the successfully placed order page, where his coveted [Amitabha Golden Garment] and all the other external martial arts techniques lay quietly.

Lu Yuan fell silent.

After a while, he opened his chat app, found the contact [Lord Tongtongtong], and sent a direct message—

“When are you playing games, Lord Tong? I’ll dual-box to assist you!”

Lord Tong didn’t reply.

But… praise the generous Lord Tong!

The Golden Bear position, eight red beads from the Crow Deity Sect, and external martial arts worth 200,000 merit points…

Lu Yuan had been with Yellow Bear for less than half a day and had already received so many benefits.

He had to admit, Yuwen Tong was truly generous and easy to get along with!

Feeling relieved, Lu Yuan continued browsing the merit shop.

Having satisfied his desires in the pure martial artist system, he casually explored other categories.

Lu Yuan initially thought that cultivation techniques in the pure martial artist system would be the cheapest and least sold.

But after browsing through various categories, he found that this wasn’t entirely the case.

For items rated Level B and below, the modification system was the cheapest and had the highest purchase numbers.

The pure martial artist system was mid-range, while the new martial arts system had the highest prices and lowest sales in the same tier.

This trend started to reverse at Level B and above. Sales for the new martial arts system surged, the modification system’s sales halved, and the pure martial artist system plummeted.

In terms of price, both the modification and new martial arts systems were almost ten times more expensive than the pure martial artist system.

Once past the Level S threshold, the new martial arts system dominated.

The modification system trailed slightly behind, while the pure martial artist system’s sales dropped to near zero.

An occasional “1” would pop up, which was due to Lu Yuan’s recent orders.

“The pure martial artist system’s combat effectiveness takes too long to develop, has a low cost-performance ratio, and heavily depends on talent. Even mastering an S-rated legacy can’t compare with S-rated techniques from the new martial arts or modification systems.

Mid- and low-tier pure martial cultivation techniques are popular because many following the new martial arts path use them as a foundation and transition before transplanting new martial arts…”

It’s almost a consensus within Yellow Bear that a solid pure martial foundation is crucial for advancement in the new martial arts path.

Lu Yuan had seen numerous mentions of this while browsing the forum.

“Is Yuwen Tong following the modification or new martial arts path?”

Lu Yuan suddenly realized this point.

When he met Yuwen Tong, he hadn’t noticed any traces of new martial arts or modification techniques on her.

A thought crossed Lu Yuan’s mind, and he wanted to activate [Imaginary Enemy] to enter the Consciousness Space and test it out.

At that moment, he received a reply to his previous query, using his access level, about the ID “White Glowing Grass”-

[Bai Ying (Irina Galigos), female, 28 years old. Second-level Academician at Javier Archaeological Institute, primarily involved in archaeological projects and research achievements including: …]

“A woman? And the youngest second-level Academician at Javier National Archaeological Institute…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered with surprise.

A national-level Archaeology Academician willing to travel a great distance to meet an online friend like him…

It seemed Bai Ying’s interest in the elephant deity sect wasn’t as simple as she had claimed.

“She probably knows some insider information, something even the Yellow Bear organization isn’t aware of yet.”

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment and decided to use his access level to check on the missing and deceased archaeology professor, Xia Weimin, from Lu Jing’s archaeological team.

This time, the result came quickly.

The detailed investigation report on Xia Weimin’s death was presented before Lu Yuan.

“… Suspected to have lost five elephant deity sect artifacts, currently under investigation. Case importance level: Level C.”

Lu Yuan frowned as he read the report.

It seemed the Yellow Bear organization did not place enough importance on the elephant deity sect matter.

However, upon further reflection, Lu Yuan understood why.

Incidents involving the elephant deity sect were not new; many similar cases had occurred abroad before. Even if it did involve the elephant deity sect’s secret realm, it might be just as he had read in a reply on the Forum—

The Yellow Bear already had numerous known Evil Deity secret realms to explore. A newly surfaced, yet-to-be-confirmed “pseudo-secret realm” naturally wouldn’t garner much attention.

“This matter might involve Lu Jing, so I can’t ignore it.”

Lu Yuan pulled up the list of Yellow Bear members in the Old City Circle that Xiao Rui had previously sent him. He found several White Bears near Xia Weimin’s death location and issued a direct order in his capacity as Golden Bear.

—Investigate the exact cause of Xia Weimin’s death and retrieve the lost elephant deity sect artifacts!

He escalated the task level directly to A+.

He then issued another order to members of the Yellow Bear organization near Jiaoyan, assigning them to provide round-the-clock protection for his Dad, Mom, and Lu Jing.

After taking these actions, Lu Yuan felt somewhat relieved.

He had to admit, the identity of Golden Bear was quite useful.

Issues that had previously caused Lu Yuan considerable “anxiety” could now be resolved with the flick of a finger, as a myriad of subordinates would rush to handle them.

It was inexplicably satisfying.

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but wonder how those White Bears and Red Bears, who had sprung into urgent action at his command, would feel if they knew that the one issuing orders above them was merely a seventeen-year-old senior year student.

Amused by the thought, Lu Yuan casually checked the shuttle’s route.

By now, the shuttle he was on was about to leave the Xiabang region.

Indeed.

He had departed from the Silver White Tower at the center of Xiabang and had been flying for nearly twenty minutes, only now about to exit Xiabang.

Xiabang was truly vast.

The travel itinerary indicated that there were still more than three hours left before reaching his destination in Jiaoyan.

At this moment, the shuttle was passing over the Shengli Medical and Health Center in Xiabang.

Lu Yuan instinctively glanced out the window.

He saw a white building resembling two clasped hands quickly receding beneath him.

As he gazed at the building with its large, red neon cross symbol, Lu Yuan suddenly thought of Lin Zhiqin.

Last month, Lin Zhiqin brought his daughter, Lin Mo, to Xiabang for surgery. There hadn’t been any updates since, and he wondered how things were going.

“If Coach Lin knew that I have now comprehended True Intent and can even defeat True Intent level opponents instantly, he would be very surprised… very surprised indeed.”

Lu Yuan mused to himself, drawing his gaze back and continuing to browse the Yellow Bear internal network.

…

A snow-white, pristine corridor.

Blue and green medical lights flashed rhythmically in front of the doors.

Lin Zhiqin sat on a bench in the hallway, gazing absentmindedly at the silent flow of shuttles in the sky outside the window, lost in thought.

After a while, he slowly withdrew his gaze.

He lowered his head again, focusing his attention back on a notebook resting on his knees.

He picked up a pen and continued to write, the pen tip quivering slightly, revealing a corner of the cover.

One could faintly see a line of neatly written characters—[Martial Arts Reflections, To Little Senior Brother—Lu Yuan].