Chapter 328 – A Fortunate Beginning

Lu Yuan remained silent, his eyes fixed on the ranking list displayed on the light screen.

In the top twenty, Xia State had secured three positions, with the highest being a man named Ding Can, who ranked fourth on the embers ranking.

Javier occupied four positions, and two other strong countries, just behind the three dominant nations, held two spots each. The rest were all from the Distant Star Federation.

Xiao Rui had previously sent Lu Yuan an incomplete supernova ranking list, with the top thirty names concealed.

Ding Can was obviously one of the top thirty on the supernova ranking, and Lu Yuan was scanning the list for familiar names.

He easily spotted Lan Chen’s name, ranked in the six hundreds.

Lan Chen’s level SSS strength only earned him a spot in the six hundreds, which surprised Lu Yuan a bit.

But then he realized that the embers ranking wasn’t solely based on strength; factors like exploration time and luck also played a role.

Noticing Lu Yuan’s gaze, Lan Chen offered an explanation, “I originally cracked the top five hundred, but then I received orders to pick you up. That trip cost me my rank…”

Lu Yuan ignored him, scanning the light screen from the top to bottom, noting that there were over thirteen hundred names in total.

At first glance, it seemed like a lot?

But considering that the extraordinary organizations participating in this joint exploration of Embers Mountain exceeded a hundred, it wasn’t that significant when divided among the countries.

This list had already excluded a large number of “martyrs”; there were even more names when the exploration first began.

Even during the brief time Lu Yuan was looking at the list, several changes occurred in the top fifty, indicating intense competition.

Lan Chen hurried Lu Yuan into Yellow Bear Base, where he received a record chip specifically designed for this joint exploration, loaded it into his portable auxiliary brain, and picked up some necessary supplies. They then passed through several layers of protective measures, heading out of the headquarters.

“Three hours ago, a Lord Flying Bear of the Six Wings level just led a team out. Too bad we missed them; it would’ve made this journey much safer…”

As they left the base, Lan Chen kept sighing. Unable to resist, Lu Yuan asked who that lord was.

Lan Chen responded with a name that was very familiar to him-Yin Muqing.

“…A One in Ten Thousand supernova member, incredibly strong, young with boundless potential, and a top-tier appearance and figure…”

Lan Chen sighed wistfully, “It’s a shame we missed that ride. Having such a beauty in the team would have been a feast for the eyes.”

Lu Yuan glanced at Lan Chen, finding his remarks hard to agree with.

In his opinion, Yin Muqing’s strength, figure, and looks were all quite average. She couldn’t truly be considered a beauty; it was purely the supernova halo effect.

It’s not like he hadn’t seen real beauties. Only those like the Crow Deity and Yuwen Tong could be considered in that league.

Once they stepped out of the base gates, they were greeted by a dense, towering primeval forest.

There were many traces of people who had passed through the forest before. As Lu Yuan and Lan Chen paused to decide on their direction, a few humanoid mechanical bodies flew overhead with a rumble.

“You’re new to the Secret Realm, so for your first exploration, the main goal is to get familiar. Let’s choose a safer route…”

Lan Chen said as he studied the Secret Realm map, giving Lu Yuan instructions, “Once we get inside, you absolutely have to follow my lead. This place is too strange; sometimes you won’t even know how you died.

If something happens to you, it would be hard for me to explain to Lord Tong…”

As Lan Chen kept nagging, Lu Yuan thought he should amend the note he had for him to include something like “Credit-Seeker” with an additional “Annoying” label at the end.

Lu Yuan kept surveying the surroundings.

Suddenly, his gaze fixed on a particular spot.

His eyes flickered, and he pointed in the direction he was looking, saying, “How about we head that way?”

“Hmm?”

Lan Chen looked up and compared the direction Lu Yuan pointed with the map, frowning, “Why go that way?”

“No reason…

Just a feeling that we’ll have better luck if we head that way.”

As Lu Yuan spoke, his eyes remained fixed ahead, a faint, curious light flickering within them.

Lu Yuan saw a small orange bird with a crest on its head perched on the treetop at the edge of the embers forest.

A Hoopoe!

Before coming to Embers Mountain, he had performed a [Chaos Divination] to predict his upcoming fortune, and the result was a hoopoe, a symbol of good luck.

Though such things might seem superstitious, in a world where deities truly exist, who’s to say this wasn’t a subtle hint from the goddess of luck?

Maybe it was just his imagination, but Lu Yuan thought he saw the hoopoe glance at him purposefully before flapping its wings and disappearing into the forest.

Lan Chen hesitated for a moment but eventually decided to respect Lu Yuan’s choice.

“All right, this route is relatively safe, anyway…”

Without further ado, the two headed into the primeval forest.

In the Secret Realm of Embers Mountain, there was no distinction between day and night. There was no sun, but it wasn’t dark.

Lu Yuan followed Lan Chen into the forest, surrounded by ancient trees so thick it took several people to encircle them. A thick layer of fallen leaves covered the ground.

Occasionally, they caught glimpses of insects and small animals. Despite their strange appearances, the overall atmosphere was relatively relaxed.

Especially for Lu Yuan.

The evil deity factor in the primeval forest was two to three times denser than outside.

As soon as Lu Yuan stepped into the forest, he felt an unusual “excitement,” constantly sensing the blood sphere within him growing.

On his attribute panel, this translated to the four basic attributes gradually and steadily increasing.

Lu Yuan felt that even if he did nothing else, just staying here and absorbing the natural attribute boosts would make this trip worthwhile.

“…We are now in the ‘Safe Zone,’ which stretches about ten kilometers.

Don’t let the current calm deceive you; when we first arrived, this place was crawling with man-eating evil deity creatures…

It took a lot of effort just to clear a path…”

Lan Chen was walking ahead of Lu Yuan, the prismatic gem on his chest emitting a faint blue light.

Lu Yuan felt Lan Chen’s second-stage mental power spreading out, with multiple modules within his subtly modified body in a state of readiness, indicating a high level of caution.

Lu Yuan had a general understanding of the path Lan Chen was taking, which was a more advanced modification route.

The core of this system was the exoskeleton armor, with an implanted energy field and numerous auxiliary combat intelligence modules.

This path diverged into two branches at higher levels: one being “Human-Machine Integration,” where one completely transforms their body into a combat mecha, and the other “Human-Machine Separation,” following the pilot route.

Both paths required reliance on a large organizational force since individual resources couldn’t support gradual progression.

Regardless of the path, mental power was a strict requirement.

“My 31 intelligence points provide a mental power much higher than an ordinary second-stage but not yet at third-stage…”

Lu Yuan internally compared the mental power between him and Lan Chen.

His mental power wasn’t particularly outstanding; in his skill set, mental power didn’t weigh heavily, with most of his bursts coming from technique and pure strength.

However, Lu Yuan felt that catching up wouldn’t take long. Each time he increased his intelligence points, his mental power experienced a significant jump.

He estimated that just a few more intelligence points would push his mental power into the third-stage.

After all, intelligence didn’t solely represent mental power; it covered a wide range of capabilities.

As he followed Lan Chen, Lu Yuan kept trying to spot the hoopoe he had seen at the forest’s edge earlier.

But he couldn’t find it; the bird seemed to have flown away.

“If we go further, we’ll enter the ‘Non-Safe Zone.'”

Lan Chen suddenly stopped and seriously warned Lu Yuan, “This area hasn’t been fully explored and still harbors a lot of danger. Stay close to me. If something happens to me, don’t try to save me… Just return the way we came…”

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered for a moment. He nodded silently without saying a word.

“Creak, creak-“

After Lan Chen finished advising Lu Yuan, the prismatic gem on his chest lit up, as if he had pressed a power button. Blue alloy armor pieces began to emerge from various parts of his body, tightly protecting his joints and vital areas.

“First-stage activation…”

With that done, Lan Chen cautiously took a step forward.

His level of caution increased significantly from that moment on. He frequently paused to carefully consider the next step.

Their pace slowed considerably.

Lu Yuan wasn’t in a hurry either. He silently absorbed the evil deity factor from the surrounding environment, taking every moment to strengthen himself.

After walking for about ten minutes, covering roughly a kilometer or two, they suddenly heard a rustling noise from a nearby bush.

Lan Chen’s nerves instantly tightened. He whipped around, aiming his hands in the direction of the sound.

Blue energy orbs glowed faintly in the palms of both his hands.

Almost simultaneously, two figures sprang from the bush. They were wearing white combat suits with a black diamond symbol on the chest, looking quite different from typical Xia State people.

Lu Yuan recognized the symbol as the mark of an extraordinary organization named “Black Spirit.”

They were also members of an exploration team…

The two Black Spirit members emerging from the bush had expressions just as tense as Lan Chen’s. The two groups exchanged a glance.

Lu Yuan’s eyes instinctively displayed the brief identity information of the two individuals.

Names, nationality, organization, embers ranking…

There was no verbal exchange between the unexpectedly encountered parties. After a brief face-off, they tacitly went their separate ways.

“Two people ranked over 700…”

As soon as the two Black Spirit members left, Lan Chen breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Lu Yuan, “The recently installed data chip has a great benefit. It immediately allows you to check someone’s embers ranking as soon as you spot them. This can provide a good estimate of their combat power…”

Lu Yuan did not comment.

After the brief scare, they continued on their way.

At a certain moment, Lu Yuan glimpsed a flash of orange out of the corner of his eye, swiftly flitting through the forest.

A Hoopoe?!

Lu Yuan extended his mental power rapidly, but he couldn’t catch sight of the figure.

His eyes flickered, and after thinking for a moment, he grabbed Lan Chen’s arm, pointing in the direction where the Hoopoe had seemingly appeared. “How about we head this way?”

“Why are you, a first-time secret realm novice, giving such odd suggestions?”

Lan Chen gave him a strange look but then took a couple of steps in the direction Lu Yuan indicated. As he pushed aside the obstructing vines, he said, “Is there something special here? Why are we heading this way-huh?!”

Before Lan Chen could finish speaking, he suddenly trembled violently.

His eyes locked onto a specific spot ahead, filled with a mix of shock and elation.

“Incredible…Such strong energy fluctuations! The chip indicates there’s a high-value wondrous item within five kilometers! My God, Lu Yuan…it seems we’ve hit the jackpot this time!”

Without saying anything, Lu Yuan also took a couple of steps forward.

When he reached Lan Chen, the exploration chip within him indeed displayed a similar alert.

Upon seeing the alert, Lu Yuan felt an inexplicable sense of relaxation and inevitability.

He thought to himself that maybe he had indeed guessed right this time.

Could it be that the elusive Hoopoe was truly his lucky messenger?!