Chapter 330 – Shatter, New Idea, Anticipation

“Crack, crack, crack-“

A continuous series of fine cracking sounds emanated from the burly man.

From the spot where the platinum-colored fist landed, a web of cracks began to rapidly spread across the surface of the black exoskeleton armor on the man’s body…

The man stood there, staring in disbelief at the rapidly spreading cracks, his mind seemingly frozen.

In his vision, which only he could see, a network of glaring red warning signals flashed incessantly…

“Boom!”

In the jungle, a black explosion erupted violently.

A massive energy shockwave, mixed with countless black metal fragments, spread in all directions, sending dirt and wood chips flying everywhere.

Before the chaos even settled,

A white figure from the explosion center sharply pivoted and dashed towards another dark red figure.

This dark red figure was already close to the golden vine, preparing to pick it.

Hearing the noise, he turned around, his eyes reflecting a white figure arriving as swiftly as a dragon.

The man’s pupils contracted abruptly, and a huge dark red energy shield suddenly expanded from his deep red armor.

Immediately following an energy light mass, dense enough to resemble an egg shell, began to diffuse from within the armor.

But before the energy light mass could expand, a fist wrapped in thunderous momentum came crashing down hard…

“Boom!”

A small platinum-colored sun rose within the jungle.

The sun quickly extinguished, followed by an explosion of deep red fireworks.

The violent shock wave and fragments concealed everything…

Lan Chen’s bright blue exoskeleton armor gleamed like a huge glowing blue bulb.

This was an indication of the exoskeleton armor being pushed to its limits.

He hung motionlessly in mid-air, his mouth agape, his expression frozen as he blankly stared at the scene before him.

In the dazed and unfocused gaze of Lan Chen, from the aftermath of the explosion, a tall and handsome figure walked out calmly from the smoke and dust.

In his hand, he held a piece of the brilliant golden vine.

Lu Yuan walked up to Lan Chen, glanced at the golden vine in his hand, then looked at Lan Chen and asked, “What were you just shouting about?”

“Uh…”

Lan Chen opened his mouth, his mind buzzing with a persistent ringing in his ears, but he couldn’t utter a single word.

Lan Chen was bewildered.

He looked at Lu Yuan, who stood there calmly as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn’t done anything at all.

Then he looked at the two Distant Star Federation men lying unconscious not far away, surrounded by scattered fragments of their shattered armor…

Flashes of Lu Yuan’s recent punches, each one obliterating an opponent, replayed in his mind.

If it weren’t for the intense legendary aura emanating from the nearby golden vine, which was making it hard for him to breathe, Lan Chen would have suspected he was dreaming.

What just happened?

Lu Yuan had just defeated two third-stage combat power experts from the Distant Star Federation, smashing their exoskeleton armor to pieces?!

Lan Chen felt dizzy.

He remembered that when he first met Lu Yuan, the guy had struggled to fight an SS-level elephant deity emissary.

Despite Lu Yuan’s impressive talent and potential, his combat power was just average back then.

How long had it been since then?

Now, Lu Yuan could effortlessly trample third-stage combat power experts?

And after defeating them, he acted as if nothing had happened, clearly holding back some of his power.

So, just how strong had Lu Yuan become?

Comparing himself to Lu Yuan, Lan Chen suddenly felt that all his years of struggle with Yellow Bear seemed pointless.

“Whoosh-whoosh…”

Lan Chen took a deep breath to calm his turbulent thoughts, swallowed hard, and then tried to speak calmly, though his voice trembled slightly, “Is Starry Sky martial arts really this powerful? Or is your talent just exceptionally brilliant?”

Seeing the eager curiosity in Lan Chen’s eyes, Lu Yuan was silent for a moment before replying, “Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?”

Lan Chen gritted his teeth, “What do you think?”

Lu Yuan shook his head and said, “Honestly, I don’t know if Starry Sky martial arts are really that strong… My talent for Starry Sky martial arts is pretty average… because…”

Lu Yuan shrugged helplessly and said, “I’ve never even started learning it.”

“Uh?”

Lan Chen’s expression froze.

“Don’t joke around. You don’t have any signs of new martial arts or modifications on you. If it’s not Starry Sky martial arts, then how did you manage to defeat those two…”

Lan Chen paused midway through his sentence before emphasizing, “With their third-stage exoskeleton armor?!”

He put special emphasis on the words “third-stage.”

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, he would have scoffed at anyone telling him that someone could shatter third-stage exoskeleton armor with their bare hands.

Do you know what materials third-stage exoskeleton armor is forged from?

Do you comprehend how terrifyingly powerful the maximum defense of its built-in energy shield is?

You don’t know anything. And yet you dare say you don’t practice Starry Sky martial arts?

“I follow the path of traditional pure martial arts.”

Lu Yuan held his thumb and forefinger close together, indicating a tiny amount, and explained earnestly, “It’s just that my mastery of traditional pure martial arts is slightly higher than others… so I might be just a little bit stronger…”

Lan Chen shot Lu Yuan a look that said, “Do you think I’m an idiot or are you the idiot?” His face was full of disbelief.

Lu Yuan couldn’t be bothered to elaborate further.

To be honest, he wasn’t surprised by the outcome of the recent battle.

His four basic attributes were nearing a second limit break, his blood sphere was as large as a wheel, and he had mastered the level 2 [Grandmaster Exertion] technique combined with the Grandmaster divine elephant style martial arts…

His approach perfectly united skill and power in a peak performance.

The [Grandmaster Instinct] also granted him near-demonic combat awareness and intuition, allowing him to easily identify and exploit fleeting weaknesses and vulnerabilities during combat.

Third-stage energy shields are strong, and third-stage exoskeleton armor is tough, but…

Even the strongest, hardest things have weak spots, don’t they?

“It didn’t seem all that difficult…”

Light flickered in Lu Yuan’s eyes as he reminisced about the sensation of smashing those two sets of third-stage exoskeleton armor. He looked at his white, slender hands, which were almost flawless, and thought that with time, tearing apart a super divine level mecha with his bare hands wouldn’t be just a dream.

Lu Yuan pulled himself out of his endless daydreams and finally focused his attention back on the golden vine in his hand.

The entire vine was about twelve centimeters long and as thick as two fingers. Its surface was smooth, adorned with numerous intricate and incomprehensible patterns. The outer skin of the vine was a pale-golden color, and the natural golden glow it emitted flowed seamlessly from these patterns.

An unprecedentedly dense evil deity factor enveloped Lu Yuan. With each breath he took, his blood sphere grew more robust. The rich aura of the vine infused his body, causing his vital energy and blood to surge, heightening and washing over his entire being like tidal waves.

He could feel his physique growing stronger every moment.

“If just absorbing it brings such benefits, what kind of effect would I get if I actually consumed this thing? Could this golden vine have once harbored a real Phoenix?!”

As Lu Yuan’s eyes glimmered with thoughts, he shifted his gaze to Lan Chen and asked, “How should we divide this?”

Lan Chen, his eyes filled with envy as he stared at the golden vine in Lu Yuan’s hand, shook his head resolutely, though his expression was brimming with reluctance. “Divide it? I didn’t contribute to the fight. You earned this yourself; it’s all yours…”

This credit-seeker isn’t asking for credit this time?!

Lu Yuan was taken aback by Lan Chen’s magnanimity.

But in the next moment, Lan Chen, after some deliberation, continued, “However… I have been diligently leading you here, sharing all my experience along the way. I’d say that’s some contribution, even if just a little bit… If you really feel guilty about it, you could consider giving me a tiny share…”

Lan Chen rubbed his hands together and looked at Lu Yuan expectantly, as if waiting for him to peel off a strip from the golden vine and toss it to him.

Lu Yuan was speechless but didn’t argue. After all, Lan Chen had come all this way to fetch him and led him through the journey, which was indeed some effort.

“How about I break off a piece for you…”

Lu Yuan said, about to exert force on the golden vine in his hand.

Lan Chen panicked, quickly stopping Lu Yuan’s action and whispering urgently, “Don’t be rash! You should keep it for yourself. Breaking it might ruin it… If you truly want to help me, just transfer some merit instead…”

Lan Chen glanced at the two members of the Distant Star Federation exploration team lying on the ground in the distance. He looked at Lu Yuan with a complex expression and sighed lightly, “I still haven’t accumulated enough merit to upgrade my exoskeleton armor to second-stage… Never mind, I’ll go gather some scrap and exchange it for merit. I’ll share some with you later.”

With that, Lan Chen headed straight towards the battlefield, beginning to collect the scattered broken armor fragments on the ground.

Lu Yuan didn’t bother with him. Instead, he checked his current position on the embers ranking. He discovered that his rank had skyrocketed from over 1,300 to over 300.

The golden vine in his hand, once scanned and evaluated by the chip, had granted him over 20,000 embers value.

But Lu Yuan had zero interest in embers value. He was wondering if he could simply consume this vine.

“What happens if a wondrous item gets converted into embers value but you can’t produce the item at the end of the exploration?” Lu Yuan asked Lan Chen, who was not far away.

Without turning his head, Lan Chen replied, “If you can’t produce it, they’ll deduct the corresponding embers value… Each wondrous item can only be recorded once.”

“Is that all? Then it’s not a big deal.”

Lu Yuan’s eyes brightened slightly upon hearing the response.

While embers value was significant for other explorers to exchange for merit, it held no value for him. On the contrary, the wondrous item itself was of greater use to him. Instead of keeping it to exchange for merit, consuming it directly seemed more beneficial.

“If the higher-ups ask where the item went, I’ll just say I lost it, or it got stolen…”

As Lu Yuan was devising excuses, an important thought occurred to him.

“If my wondrous item can be stolen… why can’t I steal someone else’s?!”

Suddenly, everything became clearer.

Given that this was a joint exploration action, Lu Yuan believed that the official authorities must have implemented measures to prevent the possibility of mutual robbery within the secret realm. For instance, Lan Chen mentioned that each wondrous item could only be recorded once. There might even be rules about having to return the items after exiting the secret realm if they were taken.

However, the specifics of the rules didn’t matter to Lu Yuan at all. He operated on a different wavelength from everyone else…

Because he had no intention of taking any wondrous item out of the secret realm!

“Alright, alright, that’s a great idea.”

Lu Yuan casually placed the golden vine into his mouth, cautiously chewing as he cheerfully mused to himself, “This significantly boosts my enthusiasm for exploring the secret realm.”

“Those top-ranked individuals on the embers ranking, with tens of thousands of embers value, what treasures might they have?”

“Really… it’s thrilling to think about.”