Chapter 231 – Clarifying the Mind and Seeing One’s True Nature

“You will be crushed… blasphemer!”

Accompanied by a grand and malevolent voice, a colossal figure shrouded in black fog danced atop Demon Mountain. With three bizarre elephant heads and six thick arms, it moved its massive body ominously.

The outline of a gigantic elephant head in the sky became increasingly clear. Its single scarlet eye, filled with wickedness, coldly stared at Lu Yuan.

Then the black Demon Mountain began to tremble.

“Boom”

Massive black boulders started rolling down from the mountain peak, quickly hurtling toward Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes, watching the approaching boulders. He didn’t evade.

Instead, he slightly spread his feet.

Inhaled deeply.

Then aimed at the first black boulder that came within inches…

And delivered a fierce punch!

“Boom!”

The black boulder shattered, and…

Suddenly, a large elephant trunk, with its mouth open, lunged out from inside!

Lu Yuan’s pupils contracted sharply in shock…

“Bang!”

The rural bus jolted violently, and Lu Yuan’s head lightly hit the glass window.

Beside him, Lu Jing’s amused murmur reached his ears, “A person who can smash rocks with a punch still falls asleep on a bus…”

Lu Yuan sat up straight with a calm expression, discreetly wiping the corner of his mouth. He said lightly, “What connection is there between the two?”

Lu Jing was just about to speak when a mischievous glint flashed in her eyes. She reached out her hand and said, “Give me your mobile phone to play with.”

Lu Yuan guessed she had probably taken a photo of him sleeping and wanted to use his phone to post it on Moments.

Without hesitating, he handed over the phone readily.

But before doing so, he quickly deleted all information related to Yellow Bear and locked the Moments posting feature.

Lu Yuan let Lu Jing fiddle with his phone, while he turned his face to watch the unhurried scenery passing outside the window.

He and Lu Jing were on their way to their grandfather Lu Yueping’s house in the rural area of Jiaoyan City.

Lu Yuan had exchanged a batch of cell repair potions through Yellow Bear, planning to take this opportunity to use them for his grandfather.

From Lu Yuan’s home to the village where his grandfather Lu Yueping lived, the intercity bus ride took nearly three hours.

With still about half the journey left, Lu Yuan took the time to bring up his professional panel.

Previously, after killing the elephant deity emissary, his [martial artist] class had leveled up, granting him 1 attribute point and 1 skill point.

He used the skill point to unlock the first core skill, [Panic Boiling (extraordinary)], under the [Death Messenger] class.

This skill was quite useful.

It could induce an overwhelming sense of fear within roughly a hundred-meter radius around him, achieving powerful crowd control effects.

During his previous battle with Pei Ye, this skill had effectively immobilized Pei Ye, saving Lu Yuan a lot of effort.

Successfully “hunting” Pei Ye also advanced his [Spear Bearer (extraordinary)] class by one level.

So currently, Lu Yuan had 2 attribute points and 1 skill point at his disposal.

“2 attribute points can increase 1 intelligence point, and this skill point…”

After pondering for a moment, Lu Yuan decided to upgrade the third core skill of his [martial artist] class, [Undefeated Instinct].

lv2 [Undefeated Instinct].

He closed his eyes.

Activated [imaginary enemy], entering the Consciousness Space.

A few seconds later.

He opened his eyes.

A strange glow of excitement lit up Lu Yuan’s face.

He couldn’t help but click his tongue twice, drawing a puzzled look from Lu Jing beside him, so he swiftly contained his joy and put on a nonchalant expression.

Being on the bus, he knew that increasing his attributes would cause some physical changes, so he decided to wait until they reached his grandfather’s house to find a suitable place to apply the points.

Putting away the panel, he focused his consciousness on his pupil membrane, and a faint blue light screen appeared before his eyes.

The [Flying Bear Technology] network startup interface popped up.

First displayed was the operating screen of his mobile phone.

Sure enough, Lu Jing was holding several photos of him sleeping, having edited a post and repeatedly trying to click the post button on Moments.

He could even hear Lu Jing muttering softly.

“Why is the network so bad… even though the signal is full… strange…”

Lu Yuan found the situation amusing but didn’t comment. Instead, he opened the message backend of his Golden Bear account.

He started reading the messages one by one from the “credit-seeker” Lan Chen.

First was an explanation about the concept of the mental light, a crucial factor in breaking through to Level SS within the non-pure martial artist system.

“…The concept of mental light is somewhat abstract and difficult to describe in words. It can be considered a process of discovering and developing one’s ‘true self.’ ‘True self’—think of it as a person’s subconscious, their deepest desires, and most authentic self…”

“Everyone’s mental light, formed when breaking through from S+ to Level SS, is unique, and the process of discovery and formation varies widely. Due to the personal strength and privacy involved, I can’t disclose my own process. All I can tell you is—try to do what you believe is necessary and live the life you truly want to live…”

Lan Chen’s explanation was detailed. Although he didn’t break it down fully, Lu Yuan understood the gist.

To verify his understanding, Lu Yuan specifically searched for the breakthrough methods of pure martial artists to the Grandmaster Realm.

With his access level, he found the information quite easily.

Indeed, as Lu Yuan speculated, the first step for a pure martial artist to break through to the Grandmaster Realm was—clarifying the mind and seeing one’s true nature!

“Recognizing one’s true heart, reflecting one’s true nature… This aligns with Lan Chen’s explanation.”

“So, if the pure martial artist system, the new martial arts system, and the modification route all use the same method to break through to Level SS, why is it that pure martial artists hit a ceiling? Is it merely because of the physical limitations?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flashed as he suddenly realized something—the upper limit of the pure martial artist Grandmaster might be much higher than he’d previously estimated!

“Possibly exceeding SS, reaching SS+, or even SSS…

But they couldn’t be compared to someone like Yuwen Tong at that level.

So pure martial arts declined, but Penglai has remained steadfast, even capable of causing trouble for Level SS Flying Bear…”

His thoughts became clear in an instant.

But Lu Yuan felt even more troubled.

He initially thought that Penglai was just an S-level dungeon, then discovered it was SS, and now… the difficulty had escalated to SSS.

“Thankfully, there’s no time limit for completing this dungeon. For now, I can take my time. When my strength improves, I’ll tackle it then…”

Lu Yuan comforted himself with these thoughts and scrolled up the chat log with Lan Chen. He found the link to the secret realm information Lan Chen had sent earlier and clicked on it.

[Secret Realm Classification], [Secret Realm Background], [Secret Realm Information], [Secret Realm Guide], [Secret Realm Exploration], [Special Secret Realm]…

A dozen or so categories popped up before Lu Yuan’s eyes.

He wasn’t in a hurry; he clicked on each one to check them out.

It wasn’t until the intercity bus came to a shaky stop at a fork in the road that Lu Yuan paused his browsing.

He glanced outside, realizing they had reached their destination, and called out to Lu Jing to get off the bus.

Lu Jing gave an “Oh” and stood up without even grabbing her backpack, her eyes still glued to Lu Yuan’s mobile phone. Her fingers danced quickly on the screen as she typed, a smile tugging at her lips as if chatting with someone.

While helping her carry her things, Lu Yuan felt puzzled.

He hurriedly checked the messages on his own mobile phone.

To his surprise…

Lu Jing had been using his chat account and was talking with [Quiet Bamboo Treasure].

The two had exchanged hundreds of messages.

He scrolled to the very top.

What greeted his eyes…

Were several candid photos of him sleeping, taken by Lu Jing.

After sending the photos to Xia Zhiqing, Lu Jing cheekily added, “Look, don’t I look handsome when I sleep?”

“Dammit!”

Lu Yuan felt a rush of blood to his head, his 21 intelligence points couldn’t suppress the intense embarrassment.

He shouted, “Lu Jing, stop right there!”

Lu Jing, who had just gotten off the bus, heard Lu Yuan’s voice and took off running, still clutching the mobile phone.

…

The night was cool and serene.

Lu Yuan strolled down a country path, with harvested rice fields on either side.

Everything was quiet, without a hint of insect or bird calls.

Only the occasional whisper of the night wind broke the silence.

The autumn sky was crisp and clear, and tonight the moon appeared especially large and bright.

The pure moonlight fell on the dried yellow leaves on either side of the path, looking like a fine layer of frost.

Lu Yuan exhaled, and he could clearly see the plume of white mist in the cold air.

Lu Jing was at home watching TV with Lu Yueping, and feeling bored, Lu Yuan decided to go for a walk and use his attribute points along the way.

He walked to a higher part of the field, overlooking the area. He could faintly see the outlines of distant mountains and the lights from the village they had come from.

It was late, and the fields were empty; the farming season was nearly at an end.

Lu Yuan quietly released his True Intent.

A luminous Spirit Crane spread its wings and soared into the sky.

The surrounding night wind circled around Lu Yuan, and he could clearly hear the sound of air currents sweeping past.

Three meters, five meters, seven meters…

The oversized Spirit Crane’s True Intent expanded to a height of nine meters before stopping.

Originally, it was only a little over six meters, but Lu Yuan experienced an unexpected breakthrough at home. Although his intelligence points on the attribute panel remained unchanged, his mental power surged, causing his True Intent to reach nine meters.

He opened the panel.

Two points of attribute points disappeared without a sound, and then his intelligence points on the attribute panel quickly changed from 21 to 22.

[Intelligence points: 22 (Limit Break 1)]

Immediately, the Spirit Crane’s True Intent began to expand rapidly.

From its original nine meters, it swelled to almost fifteen meters before stopping completely.

The massive white crane gently flapped its wings, bringing Lu Yuan a sense of agility and grace.

He quietly observed the white crane.

This was the true strength of his True Intent without any external enhancements.

With a single thought, the white crane dispersed instantly, transforming into a fifteen-meter-long white dragon, then a great whale, and finally, a swirling black vortex…

Switching between different True Intents back and forth, Lu Yuan eventually stopped.

He glanced at his [Martial Artist] professional panel and discovered something surprising.

[Spirit Crane True Intent], [True Essence of Dragon Form], and [Great Whale True Intent] were all showing skill levels of lv3 (max level) beside them.

Lu Yuan was slightly surprised but quickly understood.

“The True Intent level, ten meters of True Intent already counts as the limit. I’ve surpassed this limit through attribute points… I hadn’t noticed it before, but when my True Intent was nine meters, the panel probably showed lv2. Good thing I didn’t waste skill points on upgrading True Intent, otherwise, it would have been a big loss.”

Lu Yuan sighed.

Reaching this point, he was actually already qualified to attempt breaking through to the Grandmaster Realm of a pure martial artist.

“Clarifying the mind and seeing one’s true nature, during this process, the True Intent will continuously evolve, compress, and eventually integrate with the physical body.

This forms a unique force field of a pure martial Grandmaster…”

As he pondered over the method of breaking through to the Grandmaster, Lu Yuan stood on the ridge, practicing the [Heavenly Domineering Fury] and other external martial arts he had recently acquired.