Chapter 290 – Supreme Deity Martial Arts – Soaring Evil Phoenix, Hutian’s Secret

Lu Yuan hadn’t done anything yet.

The Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather, which was suspended between reality and illusion inside his chest, began to release its strength on its own.

Black flames ignited on the feather.

Once they touched the outer blood sphere, the entire sphere was instantly set ablaze by the black flames, turning into a blazing black fireball.

Soon, the flames spread throughout Lu Yuan’s body.

All the pores on his body suddenly opened, spewing out endless black flames.

In no time, he was completely enveloped by the blazing black flames.

At first, the Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather had absorbed most of the death energy from the Wailing Ruins, and now it was all being released.

The explosive force of the death energy was like a black evil energy sun rising abruptly on the island!

The radiance of the black evil energy sun illuminated the surroundings, causing the colorful lights in the sky to quickly fade, revealing the true appearance of the “False Wu Chao.”

A head, unusually large with sparse hair, bore twisted antlers resembling tree branches.

His facial features were ugly and deformed, with two mouths fused together, showing an expression of utter terror.

His body was equally misshapen, with limbs of uneven lengths and several beast and insect-like appendages hanging limply.

His wings, although still magnificent, looked completely out of place and only accentuated his overall monstrous and grotesque appearance.

This was by no means a perfect mythic life.

It was clearly a failed experimental abomination.

“False Wu Chao” was oblivious to the fact that his disguise had been seen through; he was completely consumed by immense panic and fear.

Screaming, he flapped his wings desperately, trying to fly towards the sky above.

Surrounded by the layers of death flames, Lu Yuan quietly watched “False Wu Chao” frantically flee.

The Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather inside his chest was pulsing vigorously like a heart.

He was quite surprised.

The death energy from the Crow Deity Sect was now perfectly harmonized with his body.

He could attempt to use this death energy to perform any martial arts technique.

In his current state, it felt like the “supreme evil martial arts” that the Evil Martial Alliance had always dreamed of achieving!

“Was it due to the blood sphere or the Hundred-eyed Nether Crow Feather?”

Lu Yuan pondered as he released a bit of his mental power, locking tightly onto the rapidly ascending “False Wu Chao” who was fleeing.

The death flames on his body converged towards his arms like water.

At that moment, Lu Yuan had a sudden epiphany.

“I almost forgot; I came here as the God Emperor of the Deity Martial Alliance…”

“So I should use the methods of the God Emperor to end this.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes sparkled brightly as he gently shook his arms.

In an instant, a massive amount of death flames surged out from his body, quickly forming an enormous black giant crow outline in his hands.

A faint trace of apocalyptic, world-ending aura began to spread from Lu Yuan.

With a slight movement of his arms, the colossal black flame giant crow let out a piercing shriek and soared into the sky.

In a flash, it created a billowing sea of black flames, like a rising black tide swallowing the sky above.

The “eternal night” descended for the second time.

But unlike the last time, which manipulated the martial arts will to affect consciousness, causing the onlookers to experience a distorted sense of darkened heaven and earth, this time Lu Yuan used a tangible, massive amount of death energy to obscure the daylight, genuinely plunging the area into temporary darkness.

Lu Yuan squinted his eyes, watching the giant Hundred-eyed Nether Crow engulf the nearly vanished “False Wu Chao.”

Then, the giant crow exploded, turning into countless fluffy black ashes that drifted down from the sky.

It was as if a thick black snow was falling.

Lu Yuan extended his hand, catching a black “snowflake” in his palm, thinking.

“I’ll call this move-Supreme Deity Martial Arts: Soaring Evil Phoenix!”

“What a perfect conclusion.”

He casually crushed the black snow in his palm, turned around, and saw the spectators below still in a daze, mesmerized by the grandeur of the “Soaring Evil Phoenix” and the falling black snow.

Without paying them any further attention, he moved, and in the blink of an eye, he was at the Ascend the Heavenly Ladder, at the entrance of the Hutian secret realm.

“Is something strange going to jump out from here this time?” Lu Yuan wondered, his eyes glinting as he stepped lightly into the entrance emitting a soft white radiant glow.

Much like when he first entered the Wailing Ruins, it felt as if he passed through an invisible barrier.

Before he could fully grasp the sensation, his attention was entirely captivated by the scene before him.

“This small?!”

That was Lu Yuan’s first reaction upon entering the Hutian secret realm.

The entire inner space of the Hutian secret realm was roughly the size of two football fields, small enough to see the boundaries at a glance.

Directly opposite him was a cascade of radiant glow.

Beneath it, various items were neatly arranged.

The most striking was a golden Mecha, towering over five meters tall!

Yes, a Mecha.

Its design was archaic, exuding a magnificent blend of mythology and technology.

“No wonder all the Grandmasters remain outside the Hutian secret realm-this place is so small. It must have been Wu Chao’s private abode,” Lu Yuan thought, descending the steps from the entrance while surveying his surroundings.

The space, though not large, was filled with books-of all sorts and in various states of organization, either neatly stacked or scattered about.

In one corner of the room, numerous culture chambers and Petri Dishes were arranged, making it look like a biochemical lab.

This space seemed to hold many secrets.

Lu Yuan wasn’t sure where to start exploring.

“Better start by finding Wu Chao’s belongings.”

He recalled Wu Chao’s specific instructions before his death and quickly made his way towards the radiant glow on the opposite side of the space.

Passing by the golden Mecha in the center, Lu Yuan couldn’t resist touching it briefly before reluctantly moving on.

Upon reaching the base of the radiant glow, Lu Yuan looked up and was greeted by a splendid, magnificent vision of a heavenly palace style within the glow.

White jade southward sky, Nine-Colored Rainbow Bridge, Langya Immortal Pavilion, Ascending Dragon Platform, Lofty Skies Hall…

The scene was almost identical to the heavenly palace style martial arts manifestations shown by Wu Chao.

Under the mysterious and beautiful ambiance created by the spilling glow, this heavenly palace seemed almost real.

The longer Lu Yuan gazed at it, the more it felt as if he were truly standing within the celestial palace among the clouds.

“This is… the true skill visualization diagram of the heavenly palace style martial arts!”

Lu Yuan blinked and took a step forward.

Passing through the radiant glow, he saw an incredibly exquisite and imaginative mural-[heavenly palace diagram]-on the stone wall behind it.

It was an utterly magnificent mural, showcasing limitless creativity.

In the lower right corner of the mural, the characters “Wu Chao” were inscribed.

“This was personally painted by Wu Chao,” Lu Yuan thought as he quietly admired the mural.

Shifting his gaze, he quickly found what Wu Chao had “left” for him beside the mural-

[heavenly palace way]!

Thousands of characters were inscribed, all in ancient Xian script.

The characters were etched three inches deep into the stone wall.

Each character’s strokes revealed Wu Chao’s two centuries of profound skill.

[heavenly palace diagram] + [heavenly palace way] represented the essence of Wu Chao’s martial arts, the crystallization of his life’s brilliance and effort.

Wu Chao, as the Lord of Heaven, had reigned over Penglai for two hundred years.

He lived through the golden age of martial arts to its decline.

Gifted beyond measure, an unmatched genius seen once in millennia, Wu Chao absorbed the essence of countless Grandmasters from Penglai and martial saints throughout the martial arts history of Xia State.

This eventually led to the creation of the unparalleled heavenly palace style martial arts.

“If these two pieces were to be released, the entire martial arts world of Xia State would be utterly shaken, causing chaos and bloodshed…”

Lu Yuan recalled a familiar line from Wuxia Novels and movies, feeling a surge of complex emotions.

He glanced at the mural and the inscriptions for a while, suddenly becoming deeply curious about the radiant glow.

He looked up along the glow and discovered that the waterfall-like glow originated from the top of this space.

Two pairs of black wings sprouted from Lu Yuan’s back, flapping lightly, propelling him upwards through the radiant glow.

The glow, seemingly splendid and beautiful, actually had no physical sensation upon touch.

It was entirely intangible, like an illusion caused by light refraction.

Lu Yuan ascended dozens of meters, finally reaching the end of the glow.

There, he found a hole about the size of a human head.

Silver light shimmered within the hole.

All the radiant glow emanated from this silver-lit cavity.

Lu Yuan blinked and was about to reach out to touch the silver light when a sudden, intense sense of danger welled up in his heart.

His intuition told him that this action could have severe, unbearable consequences, potentially even threatening his life.

His eyes flickered wildly with hesitation, but ultimately, he chose to abandon the idea.

He began to search around the hole carefully.

Before long, he found a mural surrounding the hole.

Lu Yuan’s eyes lit up as he quickly moved closer, noticing that the mural’s lines were simple, depicting a little figure.

The little figure was sitting cross-legged in a meditative posture with its palms facing upward.

Then, another mural followed, showing the little figure in a different pose.

“Whoa!”

Lu Yuan quickly scanned his eyes downward and saw a long series of densely packed little figure drawings, making his heart leap with shock and excitement.

“Could this possibly be a Secret Manual for some ultimate martial arts?”

He hurriedly examined the murals one by one.

Quickly, he realized he was mistaken.

This wasn’t a Secret Manual, but a “story.”

The initial series of murals seemed to describe the little figure’s “training” process.

Sometimes it was shown battling tigers and leopards in the forest, sometimes fighting sharks in the ocean depths, and sometimes contending with giant birds in the sky…

This training section spanned dozens of murals.

In the final mural of this sequence, the little figure stood on a high mountain, with countless similar little figures kneeling below.

“Is this mastery of divine martial arts, becoming number one in the world, invincible?”

Lu Yuan wondered as he continued to look at the next murals.

The subsequent murals depicted the little figure’s extraordinary feats after achieving mastery.

Things like one punch breaking a mountain peak and one palm stopping a flood.

“Isn’t this exaggerated? Can a pure martial artist be that strong?”

Lu Yuan thought, but in the next mural, the little figure suddenly encountered an opponent.

The little figure’s opponents came from the sky; some had horns growing out of their heads, others had wings on their backs-monsters.

“Oh, so after being invincible on earth, the enemies come from heaven?”

Lu Yuan commented, carefully observing the little figure’s opponents. The more he looked, the more he felt…

These entities looked similar to what the evil deity sect produced!

“Could this be the origin of the evil deity sect and the secret realm?”

Lu Yuan’s mind was struck with a revelation. He had always wondered about the origins of the Ancient Evil Deity and the evil deity sect’s secret realm.

Were they inherently part of this world, or did they appear later?

Now, the murals seemed to be explaining it all.

Lu Yuan felt as though he had inadvertently stumbled upon some deeply-rooted historical truth.

At that moment, the fusion progress on his professional panel for [Student] and [Ancient Language Expert] also fluctuated significantly.