Chapter 324 – Mysterious Perception, Lucky Emissary

Lu Yuan walked over to the cold weapon rack.

He casually grabbed a large hammer.

The superalloy hammer, weighing several hundred kilograms, felt as light as a feather in his hand, producing a “whooshing” sound as he swung it.

The swinging hammer stirred the air, quickly forming howling Hurricanes around the arena.

Hurricanes swirled around Lu Yuan, expanded outward, and then slowly dissipated.

However, before one Hurricane completely disappeared, new ones would form immediately.

Before long, the large martial arts arena was filled with countless Hurricanes, creating an astonishing scene.

After swinging the hammer for a while, Lu Yuan switched to a deep black alloy mace and continued practicing.

He kept switching between different cold weapons in his hands.

Knife, sword, staff, axe, spear, hammer…

They were predominantly heavy weapons.

Sometimes, Lu Yuan would practice wielding two weapons simultaneously.

This had become a regular part of his routine.

Firstly, it was to level up his Master of Arms profession, and secondly, it was to boost his combat power when in the Ming King Stance.

In the Ming King Stance, Lu Yuan had six arms, and mastering the combat techniques of six different cold weapons would undoubtedly enhance his combat effectiveness significantly.

…

[You focused on professional training for ten minutes, professional experience points +5]

[You focused on professional training for ten minutes, professional experience points +4]

[…]

[Profession: Master of Arms lv6 (257/3200)]

After several hours of practice, Lu Yuan put down his cold weapons and checked his professional panel.

He found that his cumulative professional experience from the past few hours was just over two hundred points.

In fact, the professional experience gained from each session had not decreased; it had slightly increased. However, as his professional level advanced, the experience required for leveling up surged, making training a less efficient method for gaining professional experience.

“The next batch of experience points should come primarily from actual combat. Luckily, I have already mastered the basic usage techniques of most cold weapons…”

Lu Yuan glanced at the Master of Arms panel. There were a total of thirteen basic professional skills listed, with over two-thirds already at max level and extending into corresponding advanced skills.

He planned to start bringing Lin Protector and Hawk Protector as sparring partners beginning tomorrow.

Those two were of average strength, but at this stage, Lu Yuan couldn’t find more suitable partners, so they would have to do.

Over the past five days, Lu Yuan’s professional level in Master of Arms had increased by two levels.

He accumulated 5 attribute points and spent 2 skill points to further enhance The Three Flowers.

Standing in the center of the arena, Lu Yuan calmed his mind.

On the Martial Arts Grandmaster (Extraordinary) professional panel, the lv3 Three Flowers quietly activated!

“Crack crack crack-“

With the sound of countless steel cables tightening, blood lines surfaced all over Lu Yuan’s body, converging at his chest to form a luxuriantly beautiful blood flower.

“Boom boom-“

Thunder-like sounds emanated from Lu Yuan’s chest as the blood sphere expanded, and a crystal-clear blood flower blossomed.

Finally, a golden light point in his mind burst to its limit.

A faint golden illusory flower appeared, its petals made of liquid mental power. In the center floated a tiny golden sphere the size of a green bean.

The golden sphere radiated light, bathing the entire illusory flower in splendid golden hues, dazzlingly beautiful.

The Flesh Flower, Qi Flower, and… the Divine Flower!

The three flowers bloomed together.

In this state, Lu Yuan’s body was as powerful as a dragon, his energy and blood surged like a vast ocean, and his eyes glowed with divine light…

Overall, his combat power surged by about six to seven times.

However…

Lu Yuan wasn’t satisfied.

“Based on the trinity of essence, energy, and spirit, if I can achieve the gathering of three flowers at the apex, I should theoretically gain a 3x3x3, twenty-sevenfold increase in combat power…”

Recently, Lu Yuan had been trying to fuse the three flowers.

He aimed to achieve a qualitative transformation.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t succeeded yet.

But the fusion of two flowers was beginning to take shape.

After the fusion, his combat power indeed soared as he had anticipated…

After some contemplation, Lu Yuan dissipated the state of “the three flowers bloom together.”

He then slowly walked to the edge of the martial arts arena, towards a majestic Mecha over five meters tall, and leapt into it.

Opening the cockpit of the Mecha, he saw a space that could accommodate three or four adult men, currently filled with various items.

Cushions, pillows, a variety of books, and some random snacks and drinks.

Lu Yuan deftly slipped inside, pushed the clutter aside with his foot, and found a comfortable spot to sit down in the cockpit.

This Mecha, belonging to the Lord of Heaven, Wu Chao, had been transported from Penglai by Lu Yuan. Initially, it was just a collectible, but it had since been modified into his personal sanctuary-his lounge.

Whenever he felt tired from his training, he would lie down in there, read a book, browse the internet, or just think about things… It was quite enjoyable.

There was a touch of romance, akin to sleeping under the starry sky.

His slender, white index finger slid along an orderly row of books, finally stopping on one.

He pulled it out.

Lu Yuan glanced at the title of the book he had chosen-Adventure of Apops’ Myth.

It was a mythological fantasy novel.

He casually flipped through two pages but wasn’t very interested in the content.

However, he hadn’t picked the book for reading-it had another purpose.

“Let’s begin.”

Without delay, Lu Yuan placed the book he had drawn on his lap and started his divination exercise for the day.

Chaos Divination had become one of his daily essential skills.

Initially, Lu Yuan had strong doubts about the reliability of the results from Chaos Divination.

But ever since he gained insights about “The Fusion of Two Flowers” from using Chaos Divination and successfully fused two flowers, he began to view the skill as a “divine technique.”

“Chaos Divination, Chaos Divination… It means consulting the legendary omniscient and omnipotent chaos deity. If the chaos deity favors you, you can get any answer you want…”

Lu Yuan interpreted the so-called chaos deity as a “mysterious encyclopedia.”

Divination was akin to querying this encyclopedia.

The only problem was that the search difficulty was very high, with the vast majority of attempts resulting in failure.

“As a skill levels up, Chaos Divination should theoretically have a higher success rate… So why does it feel like it’s still mostly dependent on luck?”

Lu Yuan silently grumbled in his heart as he looked at his Chaos Divination skill, which had leveled up to lv3.

Only by successfully divining an outcome through Chaos Divination can one gain experience. Lu Yuan had spent a considerable amount of time divining various issues, which pushed his Chaos Divination to lv3.

But the success rate remained frustratingly low.

Just like today, he had failed over thirty consecutive attempts.

However, this might also be because of the difficulty of his query-he was praying to the great omniscient and omnipotent chaos deity, seeking the current whereabouts of Xia Zhiqing.

Lu Yuan pondered whether he should change his questioning approach next time.

“Let’s do one last divination.”

Giving up on divining anything about Xia Zhiqing and the daughter of the nightmare, Lu Yuan decided to end today’s divination practice with a routine question.

The daily question-how is my luck today?

Gray mist swirled in his clear eyes, forming a vortex.

The mental power in his mind poured out like water, causing the pages of the book in his hand to turn automatically…

“Did I just succeed with the divination?!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes regained their clarity, and he was slightly surprised.

Looking down at the pages in his hand, he saw an image imprint itself into his mind-it was a bird.

Perched on the branch of an Oak tree, with black and white feathers, and a long orange crest on its head, resembling a radiant flame crown.

Lu Yuan’s expression froze momentarily.

“A Hoopoe?!”

In many cultures, the Hoopoe is known as the “bringer of luck,” symbolizing good fortune and prosperity.

Legends say that the Hoopoe is the incarnation of the goddess of luck, and seeing one often heralds a favorable turn in one’s fate.

“It seems like my luck will be pretty good…”

Although Lu Yuan generally didn’t believe in luck, a good omen from divination was certainly more uplifting than a portent of doom.

[You concentrated on professional practice for ten minutes, gaining +3 professional experience]

[Congratulations, your professional level for [Scholar of the Mysterious Department (Extraordinary)] has leveled up!]

Just as Lu Yuan finished his divination, he habitually glanced at his professional panel and was surprised to find that his [Scholar of the Mysterious Department (Extraordinary)] had leveled up because of the last divination.

It had advanced to lv2 (0/200), and he gained 1 skill point and 1 attribute point.

“Is this the beginning of my good luck?”

Lu Yuan laughed at himself and then decided to use the newly acquired skill point to unlock the second basic professional skill for the [Scholar of the Mysterious Department (Extraordinary)].

This time, the skill unlocked was-lv1 [Mysterious Perception].

“It seems to be a mysterious capability related to information acquisition…”

Lu Yuan roughly sensed the effect of this skill and came to a conclusion.

Upon attempting to activate this skill on the book in his hand, fragments of information immediately flooded his mind, providing insights into the book’s origins and its contents.

“The next time I encounter murals or unknown patterns in the secret realm of an evil deity, I might not have to rely on guesswork to interpret them. [Mysterious Perception] could help me obtain more accurate information…”

This skill was quite useful to Lu Yuan; the skill point was well spent, and he felt pretty good about it.

After finishing his divination, Lu Yuan went through his usual routine, preparing to browse the internal network of Yellow Bear for the latest news and visit forums to catch up on the latest developments regarding the “Embers Mountain” secret realm.

Recently, Yellow Bear had dispatched another batch of people to the site, and the exploration progress in “Embers Mountain” seemed to have reached a critical point.

On Yellow Bear’s internal network, the official team published a daily “list of martyrs.”

Though most people on the list had undergone consciousness uploads and had the opportunity to “resurrect,” one could still sense the difficulty and brutality of this exploration mission.

After all, even if the elites of the new martial arts system and the modification system did not value their physical bodies, which could be quickly restored as long as resources were available,

there were no shortcuts in the training of mental will; one had to start from scratch.

Moreover, many individuals, after experiencing “death” once, were left with psychological scars of fear, making it difficult for them to return to their peak even after starting over.

Lu Yuan glanced at today’s “list of martyrs,” noticing that several Twin-winged and even four-winged level members of Flying Bear had fallen.

Underneath the list, the comments were filled with somber condolences, conveying a solemn atmosphere.

Suddenly, Lu Yuan’s gaze sharpened as he caught sight of a name-Kang Jiancheng.

This name was buried among many others on the “list of martyrs,” but Lu Yuan distinctly remembered it. When discussing the Supernova organization, Xiao Rui had sent him a ranking list on behalf of Yuwen Tong, which included most of the organization’s members.

In that list, “Kang Jiancheng” was ranked quite high, supposedly fifty-third on the global supernova ranking!

“A case of the same name?”

Lu Yuan pondered, his eyes flickering. He decided to message Yuwen Tong to verify this.

Yuwen Tong responded promptly, sending over an encrypted casualty list.

This list was more detailed and alarming than what Yellow Bear had officially posted on the forum.

“Supernova members fallen: four (ranked from high to low: 53, 70, 89…)

SSS-level combat power losses: thirty-two…

Third-stage combat power deaths: ten…

Fourth-stage combat power fallen: one…

Earth level combat mecha destroyed: two…

Sky level combat mecha…”

As Lu Yuan reviewed the heavy data on the list, his expression grew increasingly grave.

Before he could fully process the weight of this information, Yuwen Tong sent another message.

-[Still daring to go, Lu Yuan?]

“Wow!”

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

“Are you challenging me, woman?”

His eyes gleamed with determination as he quickly replied, -[Of course! No one understands secret realm exploration better than I do!]