Chapter 262 – [Origin Heart Sutra], Phoenix Feather

In the gray silence of the sky, tens of thousands of crows silently appeared.

Death energy surged from between Lu Yuan’s five fingers.

The death energy gathered into mist, the mist condensed into smoke, and the smoke formed into clouds.

The dense black clouds of death energy merged with the massive crow flock.

After merging with the death energy, the crow flock acted as if they were injected with adrenaline; each crow’s size grew, and their temperament became exceptionally violent and ferocious.

They swooped down towards the figure below, competing with each other to peck and feast, as if participating in a long-awaited, bountiful and bloody night banquet.

The figure was instantly swallowed by the dense crowd of crows.

But it didn’t take long before beams of dark blue energy shot out from within.

Large swathes of crows were torn to shreds by these beams, and in a short period, the once massive crow flock became sparse.

With a casual motion, Lu Yuan dispersed the crow flock, and in the moment the figure below reappeared, his clear and profound eyes were covered with death energy, turning into pure black.

A small point of scarlet expanded in the middle like a vortex, and an eerie spiritual fluctuation transmitted through his gaze.

“Underworld Sight!”

The figure clad in dark blue, stylish exoskeleton armor suddenly froze in mid-motion.

But it only lasted a few seconds before they returned to normal.

The figure seemed about to take off into the sky, but was halted by the snapping sound Lu Yuan casually made.

“Pause.”

Lu Yuan showed a look of mild contemplation on his face as he pressed the Pause Button.

He had just tested two new skills-

[Night Banquet] was the advanced skill of [Crow Language], and [Underworld Sight] was the advanced skill of [Eye of Doom].

The former was not worth mentioning; against a level SS opponent, it would probably only serve to obscure their vision somewhat, with almost no damage potential.

But considering it evolved from a purely supportive skill and was still only a Basic Profession Skill, it was normal for it to have limited Effect.

The latter, [Underworld Sight], however, gave Lu Yuan a pleasant surprise.

“In terms of mental power, it should be similar to an illusion Effect. Under the enhancement of my 28 intelligence points, it can make a level SS opponent, who has already refined the mental light, lose focus for a few seconds. That’s quite impressive…”

Don’t underestimate those few seconds.

In a few seconds, Lu Yuan could crush the “credit-seeker” Lan Chen, who he uses as an imaginary enemy, several times over, and it would even prevent him from deploying the nuclear bomb he hides in his pants. Very practical.

“But…”

Lu Yuan activated [Night Banquet] again, summoning a dense crow flock of several tens of thousands.

This time, he didn’t let them attack but had them surround him like loyal servants.

“The Effect for making a dramatic entrance is truly outstanding!”

At this moment, Lu Yuan’s back sprouted four wings, and the upgraded “underworld garment” he wore had not only become more durable but also featured many patterns resembling the Red Spider Lily, making it exceedingly ornate.

Coupled with the surrounding crow flock, he looked like a sovereign of crows emerging from the underworld-mysterious and noble.

Lu Yuan condensed his death energy wings into four wings partly for this reason.

The flight speed between four wings and two wings was almost the same.

But four wings looked cooler.

If conditions allow… Lu Yuan plans to go for twelve wings in the future.

If he can scare off the enemy just with his appearance… why bother fighting?

“With the [Elephant Deity: Emissary Stance] and level 7 underworld garment… I can barely withstand Lan Chen’s nuclear bomb wash attack.

However, his flight speed is much faster than mine. The death energy wings are not a proper flight skill, which makes a significant difference…”

As Lu Yuan thought about this, the wings on his back and the underworld armor on his body began to crumble inch by inch…

He reverted to his normal state and descended from mid-air.

Before his body touched the ground…

“Boom!”

A majestic aura suddenly burst from within him.

A nearly 200-meter-tall phantom of an elephant man appeared behind him.

The terrifying aura spread outwards, immediately stopping Lu Yuan’s downward momentum, lifting him firmly upwards.

After a brief suspension for dozens of seconds, Lu Yuan gently floated to the ground like a feather.

“If my mental power makes another qualitative breakthrough, perhaps I could achieve flight using mental power alone! That’s something even a pure martial artist Grandmaster can’t accomplish.”

Lu Yuan relished the sensation of landing, his expression peculiar.

In terms of quantity, his mental power was exceedingly abundant.

It’s exactly twenty times that of an average pure martial artist at the True Intent level!

With the 200-meter-tall Dharma Form of the elephant deity hovering above his head, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but marvel, “This really has the feeling of martial arts Dharma Form… as if heaven and earth themselves manifest through martial arts!”

However, correspondingly, the difficulty for Lu Yuan to break through to the Grandmaster Realm is more than twenty times greater than that of an average pure martial artist.

“Instead of blindly trying to figure out how to clarify the mind and see one’s true nature on my own, I might as well consult with a Grandmaster.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flashed as he pondered in his heart.

He looked up at the awe-inspiring Dharma Form of the elephant deity above him, pondered for a moment, and then shifted his thoughts.

The massive Dharma Form of the elephant deity instantly dispersed.

Immediately following, a huge phantom of a black crow with a hundred eyes gradually materialized.

“The second extraordinary True Intent of extraordinary martial arts… no, it should be the legendary level True Intent!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes were ablaze with zeal as he recalled the doomsday-like image of the “Hundred-eyed Nether Crow” in his mind, and he couldn’t help but yearn.

“A martial arts True Intent based on the legendary underworld creature, the Hundred-eyed Nether Crow… How powerful could it be?”

…

Warm sunlight illuminated Lu Yuan’s smooth, fair cheeks.

He opened his eyes and exited the Consciousness Space used for his imaginary enemy.

Glancing at the time, he realized that despite the extensive experimentation in the Consciousness Space, only five minutes had passed in reality.

“Is the settlement complete?”

Lu Yuan checked the review status of the secret realm exploration summary report he had previously submitted and found that it had indeed been successfully settled.

[Thank you, esteemed Golden Bear “Divine Blood,” for contributing 47% exploration progress to the Wailing Ruins’ secret realm of the evil deity. The information you provided is highly valuable. Keep up the good work!]

[Esteemed Golden Bear “Divine Blood,” your secret realm exploration rewards have been issued, please check them.]

The two messages had been sent just a minute and a half ago.

“47% exploration progress…”

Lu Yuan was somewhat surprised by this result.

Lu Yuan recalled that before entering the restricted area of the Wailing Ruins, his exploration progress was only around 19%.

Moreover, that was a preliminary estimated progress, which often deviates from the final audited settlement, usually being lower.

Even after clearing the restricted area and “transcending” Ancient Brent’s sovereign Jocklus, he estimated it wouldn’t exceed 40%.

“It seems that the truth about the formation of the Wailing Ruins secret realm, along with the history of the Ancient Brent civilization, the Holy Light sect, and the crow deity sect, is highly valued by the higher-ups of Yellow Bear…”

As Lu Yuan pondered, he casually checked his merit points balance.

Generally, the rewards for secret realm exploration are issued in the form of equivalent merit points.

What he saw nearly made him think he was seeing things.

“A million?”

Lu Yuan counted it twice, ultimately confirming that he received a whopping one million merit points as a reward for this secret realm exploration task.

“They must have credited me for the merit of taking down Jocklus. The commotion that guy caused was indeed significant, even drawing the attention of Han Xun, a Four-Wings Flying Bear…”

Lu Yuan blinked, and the first thought that flashed through his mind was-spend!

Spend as much as possible!

An S-rank new martial art or an S-rank Mechanical Modification typically only costs tens of thousands of merit points.

Combined with the merit points from the last task of eliminating the Elephant Deity Emissary and obtaining the “key” to the Elephant Deity secret realm for Yellow Bear, Lu Yuan now had enough merit points to purchase over ninety-five percent of the items in the merit shop.

Feeling financially robust, Lu Yuan directly chose to sort “all items from highest to lowest price.”

Immediately, a list of SSS rank and above items filled his screen.

“SSS Rank [Flame Deity Battle Body], SSS Rank [Cold Hell Battle Body], SSS Rank [Magnetic Light Battle Body], SSS+ Moon-Devouring Mecha Modification…”

Lu Yuan quickly skimmed over the new martial arts and modification system items.

When switching categories, he habitually skipped the pure martial artist section.

He had combed through the pure martial artist section countless times and recalled that it didn’t even contain any SSS rank martial arts.

However, just as he was about to scroll away, something caught his eye.

Lu Yuan’s gaze was suddenly drawn to an item in that section.

[Origin Heart Sutra (The First Three Stages)], Stage: ???, Exchange Price: 10,000,000 merit points!

“Origin Heart Sutra?!”

Lu Yuan stared, stunned, at the mysterious martial art. Beyond its name and price, all other details were marked with ???. His mind reeled.

He distinctly remembered that the pure martial artist category never had this cultivation technique before.

Why did it suddenly appear now?

“Was it recently added? Or was it hidden before and just now unlocked for me?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered as thoughts surged through his mind.

Wasn’t the path of pure martial artists already considered a dead end?

Everyone agreed that Grandmaster was the limit, and pure martial arts were on the decline, inevitably to be phased out.

So why would something as grandly named and ambiguously graded as the Origin Heart Sutra suddenly pop up now?

And just the first three stages require a whopping… ten million merit points!

“Ten million? I can’t afford that…,” Lu Yuan remarked to himself, his expression calm.

But the intense curiosity and desire boiling within him were clear.

Switched.

[Special Category].

[Phoenix Feather, Stage: ???, Exchange Price: 999,999,999 merit points]

[Moon-Eating Fang, Stage: ???, Exchange Price: 999,999,999 merit points]

…

Just seeing the first two items made Lu Yuan’s eyes widen.

“Phoenix Feather! Moon-Eating Fang!”

“Legendary level! These must be on par with the Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather!”

“The merit shop is hiding such treasures!”

But…

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but grit his teeth. Staring at the exchange prices of these items, his fists clenched tightly.

Ten billion merit points!

Is this an amount any human could ever collect?

“If I could get my hands on these two items, my legendary level panel would likely be unlocked.”

“Twenty billion merit points… even if I worked for Yellow Bear my entire life, I might never save that much.”

“It seems like…”

“I’ll have to consider taking some shortcuts.”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath, calming himself completely.

Then, with a serious expression, he focused on the two potentially legendary level materials in front of him…

He clicked to add them to his cart.

He also added the [Origin Heart Sutra] that had caught his eye earlier.

Waiting quietly for thirty seconds.

Removed items from the cart.

Waited another thirty seconds.

Added items back to the cart…

Repeating this process seven or eight times.

Finally, the next step was…

Lu Yuan pulled up his friends list, looking at the one positioned right at the top.

With a heart full of hope and reverence, he silently called out:

“Manifest, generous [Lord Tongtongtong]!”

“It’s time to show the power of intimate payment!”