Chapter 261 – Unprecedented Exploration Progress, [Night Banquet]!

Ten minutes later, after completing a medical check-up, Lu Yuan was seated on a bench in a small garden.

He had already changed out of his hospital gown. This place was a top-tier sanatorium located at Yellow Bear Base, No. 8 Yangcheng, Xiabang.

It was four in the afternoon, but the sunlight filtered and adjusted through the canopy was still warm and pleasant.

The surroundings were lush with fragrant flowers and trees, showing no signs of the late autumn season.

“Han Xun…”

Lu Yuan silently mouthed the name.

The medical staff had informed him that the person who brought him back was named Han Xun, a top-tier Flying Bear General with four wings.

Due to insufficient access level, Lu Yuan couldn’t find any information about this name in the internal network of Yellow Bear. However, he did see a friend request from Han Xun in his own message inbox.

Accepting the request, Lu Yuan sent over a “thank you” message and received a “you’re welcome” reply within half a minute.

Both of them weren’t the talkative type. After a few simple exchanges, they tacitly ended the conversation, thus achieving a small success in expanding their social circle.

All the items Lu Yuan collected in the Wailing Ruins were regarded as his personal belongings and were quietly placed beside him.

Lu Yuan counted them; not a single “junk” was missing, even the number of black beads from the death energy monsters matched up.

“I should deal with these things first…”

Thinking about the pile of stuff at his side gave Lu Yuan a headache.

He sorted through them slightly; apart from the black beads, the rest were prepared to be submitted as exploration credentials to exchange for merit.

The “summary report” is also a crucial aspect of secret realm exploration.

Strictly speaking, Lu Yuan hadn’t completed this exploration of the Wailing Ruins yet.

Because he hadn’t written his report.

Using the information he recorded in the Wailing Ruins and the pile of “junk” he collected, Lu Yuan began to leverage his top student expertise, meticulously describing how the Ancient Brent civilization had turned into the current Wailing Ruins.

He did not intend to conceal this information.

Because he was equally curious about how much the Yellow Bear Base knew about the secret realms of the various evil deities.

The origins of the evil deity secret realms and the true purpose of exploring them—after experiencing one, Lu Yuan felt that the value of the evil deity secret realms for those who follow the technology side’s new martial arts and modification routes wasn’t that high.

However, the fact that Yellow Bear established a dedicated mystic deity group to continually explore these secret realms was intriguing.

There certainly had to be things he didn’t know about.

Of course, Lu Yuan definitely wouldn’t mention anything about the “Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather.”

This item was highly significant and seemed to have already integrated into his body. Trying to extract it would be impossible, and revealing it would only bring unnecessary trouble.

Five minutes later, a vivid and moving “Epic of the Ancient Brent Kingdom” was born under Lu Yuan’s pen.

He admired it, feeling that the quality of his report could easily win a national emerging young writer’s first prize, so he directly chose to submit it.

After submission, the words “exploration progress settlement in progress” immediately appeared on the light screen before him.

Soon afterwards, drones dispatched by the secret realm management center arrived to collect his pile of junk one by one.

The review of the materials would take some time, so Lu Yuan didn’t wait around. Taking advantage of this break, he unlocked the two pending skills on the [Death Messenger (Extraordinary)] panel.

Then, he closed his eyes and entered the [Imaginary Enemy] Consciousness Space to test his current combat strength.

…

“Old Song, do you think what Lord Han told us is true?”

A dark blue shuttle stopped, and two figures emerged as the hatch opened.

Standing at the entrance of the sanatorium, with a bunch of fruits and health supplements in his hands, Su Zhaohui couldn’t help but ask Song Cong beside him for the nth time.

Song Cong, empty-handed, had a complicated expression on his face.

If this had been in the past, upon hearing Su Zhaohui’s question, he would have sneered and retorted, “What do you think?”

“To doubt the words of a four-wing Flying Bear level Big Shot, Su Zhaohui, you really dare!”

But now.

Song Cong was also confused.

“I don’t know.”

Song Cong shook his head.

Under normal circumstances, a person of Lord Han’s stature, like Han Xun, would neither feel the need nor stoop to lying to two small-time S-level Golden Bear members like them. But the content of his statement was simply too astonishing. No, not astonishing—terrifying!

An unprecedented level SSS evil energy riot had even alarmed top-tier big shots at the four-wing Flying Bear tier.

Those who rushed for the rescue, besides the two of them, were all Flying Bear Generals with strength above SS level.

And the result?

The riot turned out to be quelled and pacified by a “newbie” who had just entered the secret realm for the first time and had joined Yellow Bear less than half a year ago!

Who could believe such a thing if it were told?

Even the two “participants” found it hard to believe!

“Lu Yuan only participated in the new blood trial a few months ago, and back then, his strength was just barely at the S-level.

Even if his strength had made significant leaps in these past few months under Lord Tong’s guidance, the idea of him single-handedly pacifying an SSS-level evil energy riot is still way too exaggerated.”

Song Cong analyzed in a low voice, “I suspect that Lu Yuan played some crucial role in this riot, and Lord Han casually mentioned it was him who pacified it…”

“That analysis makes sense.”

Su Zhaohui nodded in agreement, “Lord Han indeed has no reason to take credit in front of small fries like us.”

Having analyzed the situation, they felt a bit more balanced at heart and proceeded to enter the sanatorium for the visit.

Song Cong had just taken a couple of steps when he noticed that Su Zhaohui hadn’t followed.

Turning to look, he saw Su Zhaohui standing there, dumbstruck, as if staring at something.

“What’s the matter?”

Song Cong asked with a frown.

Without looking at him, Su Zhaohui, his voice trembling slightly, said, “Old…Old Song, look at the mystic deity group’s forum…the pinned message.”

Song Cong, confused but curious, opened the forum that Su Zhaohui had mentioned.

As soon as he logged in, a thread with a bright red title jumped out at him—[Shocking! First S-level secret realm cleared—Wailing Ruins! Exploration progress reaches 98%!]

The exploration progress of the Wailing Ruins pushed to 98%?!

Song Cong was stunned, but considering the SSS-level evil energy riot had been quelled and the original restricted area no longer existed, such exploration progress seemed logical.

He clicked on the thread for more details, and what he saw made his pupils contract sharply.

[Wailing Ruins Contribution Ranking:

First Place—Lu Yuan, Golden Bear Level, Code Name: “Divine Blood,” Contribution Exploration Progress: 47%

Exploration Contribution Breakdown: 1. Annihilation and Exploration—Solo kill of level SSS Crow Deity Representative 1 (suspected), Solo kill of SS-level Crow Deity Emissaries 5, Solo kill of S-level…]

Song Cong stared at the post for a long while.

Then he suddenly reacted and quickly opened the official platform’s secret realm information section and found Wailing Ruins…

“Exploration progress 98%!”

After confirming that the information was accurate, Song Cong felt like a deflated balloon, suddenly slumping in despair.

His mind was flooded with various stats about Lu Yuan’s achievements that he had just seen in the post.

Whether or not the part about independently pacifying the level SSS evil energy riot was true, he was unsure for the moment.

But the achievements of solo killing multiple level SS Crow Deity Emissaries were thoroughly validated.

“Five level SS Crow Deity Emissaries…”

Song Cong muttered in a daze, his eyes filled with shock and bewilderment accidentally meeting Su Zhaohui’s.

Then he heard Su Zhaohui’s choked voice mumbling.

“Goddamn it, Old Song… Compared to this kid… I really feel like my decades with Yellow Bear were a waste… Lu Yuan is truly a monster!”

…

“Old Xie’s phone is unreachable!”

“Neither is theirs.”

At the entrance of a Yellow Bear base, two individuals clad in Golden Bear uniforms, but exuding a noticeably weak presence, walked out with grim expressions.

If Lu Yuan were present, he would definitely recognize these two as members from Xie Jun’s five-person team, who had once crossed paths with him.

The two had met their demise at the hands of the Crow Deity Emissaries in the secret realm of Wailing Ruins, their consciousnesses reloaded into cloned bodies for “resurrection”. They had just completed their first round of basic body strength enhancements.

Failing the mission and dying had been tragic enough.

But what made their mood even worse was that they couldn’t contact any of their remaining three teammates.

“I’ve checked; Xie Jun and the other three left Wailing Ruins a few days ago…”

“Could they be healing?”

“That wouldn’t explain why they’re not even picking up the phone.”

The round-faced Golden Bear spoke with a dark expression, “I suspect those three saw us ‘die’ once, thought our strength was crippled, and now they want to swallow the rewards that should have belonged to us.”

The other’s expression flickered and then he shook his head, “Old Xie… doesn’t seem like that kind of person.”

“You can’t judge a book by its cover!”

The round-faced Golden Bear snorted coldly, continuing to try contacting Xie Jun and the others with a stern face.

But he had barely tried for a moment when he heard his companion let out a series of urgent, low exclamations.

The round-faced Golden Bear turned quickly, “Did you reach them?”

The other shook his head slowly, not speaking a word.

His eyes were wide open, his mouth slightly ajar, his expression shocked and incredulous, as if someone had just punched him hard in the gut.

“What happened?”

The round-faced Golden Bear frowned and asked.

His companion slowly turned his head, casting a look filled with a sentiment he couldn’t understand, then silently forwarded him a message.

The round-faced Golden Bear, puzzled, opened it to read.

Half a minute later, a similar exclamation of shock escaped his mouth.

The two stood there as if struck, their exaggerated, bizarre expressions and rigid bodies causing passersby at the base entrance to gather around and stare.

Who knew how long had passed.

Finally, a slightly trembling voice broke the silence.

“The kid we used to disdain… 47% contribution exploration progress on his own… even killed five emissary-level Crowmen… possibly even took down a level SSS Crow Deity Representative?? Are you sure this is true?”

No one answered.

But at this moment.

Both of them seemed to understand why they couldn’t get through to Xie Jun and the other two.

Similar scenes were unfolding in various places simultaneously.

Due to the unexpected level SSS evil energy riot incident, the secret realm of Wailing Ruins had already garnered significant attention within the Yellow Bear’s mystic deity group circles.

Now, with the specific details of the Wailing Ruins being cleared and the Contribution Ranking being made public, it caused an almost seismic effect within these circles.

Many people were left astonished by the almost surreal data.

The name “Divine Blood” Lu Yuan made its first significant appearance in many people’s awareness.

A deeper dive into this name turned up even more unbelievable results.

Seventeen years old… joined Yellow Bear less than half a year ago… and nothing more!

In no time, Lu Yuan’s name became a hot topic within the small circles of those at Golden Bear Level and above in the mystic deity group, with countless posts about him soaring to the top of the discussions every day…

Of course.

Lu Yuan himself was completely oblivious to all this.

Consciousness Space.

With four large black wings spreading behind him and clad in exquisitely crafted full-body armor as if forged from black crystal, Lu Yuan looked like a sovereign of the night, exuding an aura of mysterious grandeur.

Facing a figure at his feet, Lu Yuan extended his long fingers wrapped in an underworld garment and quietly uttered, “[Night Banquet]!”