Chapter 245 – Praise…Death, Meteorite, and Catastrophe

“May the Holy Light grant Anscar abundance and prosperity…”

Lu Yuan recited again.

The first time was awkward, but the second time it flowed naturally, as if it were his second native language.

In fact, many of the characters on the pitchfork handle were so rusted that they were unrecognizable.

But for some reason, Lu Yuan naturally filled in the missing parts.

It felt as if…this pitchfork was originally his, and the inscription on it was carved by his own hands.

“The bead I just absorbed contained not only death energy but also a small part of the monster’s memories before it died…”

Lu Yuan arrived at a conclusion that baffled him.

He quickly opened his professional panel, and the information prompts that popped up made his pupils contract slightly.

[Congratulations, you have comprehended a new skill – [Ancient Brent language]!]

[Congratulations, you have obtained materials for advanced occupation. Do you wish to advance?]

[Prerequisites not met, advancement failed.]

[Do you wish to choose panel fusion?]

The first information prompt was from the [Ancient Language Expert].

On the [Ancient Language Expert] panel, there indeed appeared a lv1 [Ancient Brent language] skill.

The subsequent information prompts truly surprised Lu Yuan.

At this moment, both the [Ancient Language Expert] and [Student] profession panels were glowing faintly.

The panel’s prompt for fusion was likely indicating that these two professions had an opportunity to merge.

“Indicated that I obtained material? What material? The monster’s remaining memories in that black bead?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered rapidly as his brain raced.

The red bead from the Crow Deity Sect he absorbed before did not result in inheriting the owner’s memories.

But absorbing the black beads produced by the monsters wandering within the Wailing Ruins allowed him to inherit some of their pre-death memories.

This was something he could roughly make sense of.

Perhaps it was because the former possessed flesh, whereas the latter’s body had long been corroded by time, sustained only by lingering pre-death obsessions and death energy.

But why…

Why would inheriting the pre-death memories of the monsters in this secret realm trigger an opportunity for panel fusion?

Lu Yuan attempted to search the existing database for information related to “Ancient Brent” but found nothing.

Even the [Ancient Brent language] he had just learned showed no resemblance to any ancient languages recorded in the database.

“Existing within the secret realm of Wailing Ruins, the Wailing Ruins itself is a newly discovered secret of an evil deity. It makes sense for there to be no recorded information…”

The secret realms of evil deities are “paradises” created by ancient evil deities for their followers. An isolated ancient civilization existing there is unsurprising.

“But isn’t the common language of the Crow Deity Sect the Ancient Spirit Language?”

He had already self-taught this language up to lv2.

“And…what is the Holy Light?”

Beyond the Holy Light inscription on the pitchfork, in the memory, the farmer named Anscar also shouted “Holy Light protect” in Ancient Brent language just before being engulfed by the black fog.

Many doubts arose in Lu Yuan’s mind, but he ultimately decided to choose panel fusion.

A progress bar immediately popped up, showing the fusion progress: 0.1%.

Lu Yuan glanced at the Secret Realm Map, which also indicated the current exploration progress as 0.1%, still showing no reaction.

He reviewed his various professional panels again and found that on the [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] panel, the experience points for [Underworld Garment] had also increased slightly.

It was now lv1 (82/100).

Not far from leveling up to lv2.

Additionally…

“It seems like my intelligence points have increased…”

Lu Yuan deduced this from his mental power.

His total amount of mist-like mental power had increased, albeit very slightly-nearly imperceptible without his keen sensitivity.

Lu Yuan then crushed and absorbed the twenty or so remaining black beads in his hand one by one.

On the [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] panel, the professional experience and the experience points for [Death Energy Entanglement] and [Underworld Garment] continued to grow.

While absorbing the black beads, Lu Yuan was constantly bombarded with various memory flashes.

—Almost all of them were similar, scenes of being engulfed by black fog, surrounded by despair and fear.

Occasionally, a memory of a farmer laboring in the fields with a hoe would pop up.

It seemed like the village was inhabited entirely by impoverished farmers.

“Ding—”

Upon absorbing the seventeenth black bead, Lu Yuan received a notification that his [Underworld Garment] had leveled up.

lv2 [Underworld Garment].

Lu Yuan immediately tried to activate it.

In an instant, a significant amount of death energy gathered and condensed around him, enveloping his entire body in a thin, semi-transparent shroud.

It was noticeably thicker than the light membrane at lv1, and now adorned with faint patterns.

“Better than nothing.”

After a quick inspection, Lu Yuan continued to absorb the remaining black beads.

Once all the black beads were absorbed, he stood still with his eyes closed for a moment.

In the split second that he opened his eyes, Lu Yuan’s body moved swiftly.

He quickly plunged into the black fog ahead, moving through it with agility.

Soon, he came to a stop at a set of ruins.

A tentacle-like column of condensed death energy shot out, smashing and overturning several large boulders in the ruins.

Lu Yuan stepped forward and bent down, sifting through the rubble in a decayed corner of the ruins, until he found a palm-sized statue missing its upper half.

The statue was unrecognizable.

Turning it over, he found remnants of inscriptions.

“Praise…”

These two words were in [Ancient Brent Language], followed by another two words—”Death.”

“Death” was written in [Ancient Spirit Language].

Four words, written in two different languages, yet the handwriting seemed to be from the same person.

“Interesting…”

Lu Yuan stood up, his eyes gleaming as if he had caught a glimpse of the truth.

An idea began to form in his mind, but it needed further verification.

He had the statue scanned and recorded into the database and instructed a drone to package it up.

He also recorded the remaining inscriptions on the previous pitchfork.

These pieces of information were crucial for understanding the origin of the secret realm. Once he exited the secret realm and uploaded the data, if verified to be valuable, it would be converted into corresponding exploration progress.

Lu Yuan was currently in a small ruined village. It became quiet after he cleared all the farmer monsters.

Then he noticed the death energy lingering throughout the village starting to flow forward.

Correspondingly, the black fog in this area also became thinner.

“Death energy tends to linger in areas where monsters are present, and when the monsters die, the death energy dissipates…”

Lu Yuan roughly understood the principle behind it.

He continued to move forward.

Along the way, he encountered several similar ruined villages and killed about a hundred farmer monsters in total.

The farmer monsters weren’t particularly strong. Excluding the enhancement from death energy, their strength and speed were only slightly better than a first-rank professional-level martial artist’s.

One-on-one, even a martial artist master level fighter could easily defeat them, not to mention the Divine Servants of the Crow Deity Sect.

His exploration progress finally reached 1%, and several skills from his [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] profession also saw improvement.

What pleased Lu Yuan the most was that after a series of fragmented memories were infused, his attribute of intelligence points showed a noticeable increase.

His mental power, originally a mist, had increased by about 10%, expanding his detection range from 300 meters to approximately 330 meters.

“This is the first time I’ve encountered a method that directly increases intelligence points. Just for this, the trip to this secret realm was worth it…”

Additionally, Lu Yuan found a new clue from the memories of the farmer monsters:

It was a scene.

In the scene, a huge black meteorite fell from a blue sky, bringing with it a flock of crows that darkened the sky…

Recalling the scene from the memory, Lu Yuan closed his eyes and continually adjusted his body’s orientation.

When he moved to a certain spot…

He abruptly opened his eyes.

In front of him was a dense black fog. Comparing it with the Secret Realm Map, he realized it pointed towards-

The deepest part of the map, a bright red restricted area!

“Perhaps… I need to explore this so-called restricted area.”

Lu Yuan was now filled with curiosity about the stories that might have unfolded in these ruins.

The civilization known as Ancient Brent seemed to have suffered a massive catastrophe.

This catastrophe resulted in the formation of what is now known as the Wailing Ruins.

And the origin of this catastrophe… seemed to be linked to the Crow Deity Sect.

“Let’s continue to explore deeper. From what I gathered from the farmer monsters’ memories, there should be a city ahead.”

Lu Yuan glanced at the Secret Realm Map and quickly proceeded forward.

Two black death energy wings, each several meters long, sliced through the dense black fog like giant blades.

A drone, carrying a Resource Package and some trinkets Lu Yuan had scavenged from the ruins, followed him faithfully.

Throughout this exploration, Lu Yuan had improved his control over death energy significantly.

The newly manifested death energy wings were no longer as indistinct as before; they now had clear, recognizable outlines.

Lu Yuan even tried to condense death energy into the shape of a spear for throwing.

However, his [Death Energy Entanglement] level was still too low. The death energy density was insufficient to carry much of his Strength, and the spear dissipated shortly after being thrown.

“17:21.”

As Lu Yuan was approaching his target location, the images sent back by an undead crow revealed the silhouette of a Ruins City.

Checking the time, Lu Yuan realized nearly seven hours had passed since he entered the Wailing Ruins.

It was difficult to perceive the passage of time within the secret realm, but Lu Yuan’s long-formed routine reminded him that it was time to eat.

After some thought, he detached the Resource Package from the drone and was about to take out some food to replenish his energy.

Suddenly, Lu Yuan’s expression shifted. In an instant, he retracted all his death energy and stood quietly in place.

Soon, silhouettes of dozens of drones appeared in his view.

Then, five figures became visible.

They were walking slowly in his direction.

…

The five-person team walked confidently through the death-energy-laden wilderness.

Almost everyone was surrounded by a thin light shield, which isolated the death energy, allowing them to perform at full combat strength.

Leading the group was Xie Jun, with a superalloy long sword over a meter long strapped to each shoulder, both in dark blue.

Tiny electric arcs danced across the surface of the swords, making them appear extremely formidable.

“I can’t believe it went this smoothly. We wrapped up our first exploration site in less than five hours…”

In the team, a young man clad in deep red exoskeleton armor spoke while casually playing with a small, deep black bead the size of a thumb.

“An S-level evil power crystal… I heard the Research Group is currently developing a Crow Deity series of evil power suits. The value of this thing is skyrocketing…”

“Be careful not to crush it. Losing merit is one thing, but this bead contains a curse. Without having condensed mental light to level SS, you’ll go insane trying to resist it…”

Someone nearby couldn’t help but remind him.

The young man replied with a cheeky smile, then carefully put the bead away.

Unable to resist, he inquired, “Hey, Old Xie, since we’re passing by anyway, why not clear out this area as well?”

Xie Jun, who was leading the group, maintained his pace as he responded calmly, “The Ruins City contains multiple S-level evil energy waves. Our team’s combat strength is sufficient to handle it.

However, the evil energy field inside is very strong, and the death energy is especially thick. The protective shield’s energy might run out before the battle’s over, making it not worth the risk…”

The young man nodded thoughtfully.

As they conversed, Xie Jun suddenly came to a halt.

He seemed to have noticed something, his eyes narrowing slightly and his face displaying an unexpected expression.

The rest of the team looked on, puzzled.

Following Xie Jun’s gaze, they peered ahead.

The dense black fog in front of them split apart, revealing a figure gradually emerging from the shadows.