Chapter 368 – The Crown, Revelation, Meteor, and Yuwen Tong’s Depth

Lu Yuan’s mind attempted to follow the flight paths of those Phoenixes, delving deep into the heart of the tree.

In a trance, he seemed to see a gigantic, blazing golden crown.

The crown was so magnificent, so regal.

Adorned with sparkling stars along its rim, it was surrounded and worshipped by countless Phoenixes.

It floated silently within the heart of the ancient tree, symbolizing some kind of supreme power, eternal and unyielding through the passage of time.

It called to Lu Yuan, irresistibly drawing him in.

However, the next moment, this golden crown suddenly shrank quickly, fitting snugly onto the head of an orange bird.

“Cuckoo-“

The orange bird emitted a cuckoo sound at Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan was startled, before he could react, the orange bird transformed into a human figure.

With a crown of flames on its head, draped in luxurious robes, it sat high on a majestic purple-gold throne.

Surrounded by countless stars, it looked down at Lu Yuan with a cold, superior gaze.

There was an indescribable, utmost nobility about it.

The more Lu Yuan stared into the figure’s eyes, the more the appearance seemed familiar to him.

At a certain moment.

He suddenly realized.

The figure was none other than himself!

However, in the next second, the throne, the crown, and the person on the throne all disappeared.

A woman appeared in front of Lu Yuan.

No matter how hard he tried, Lu Yuan couldn’t see the woman’s face clearly; he could only see her lips moving continuously.

She seemed anxious, desperately wanting to convey some information to Lu Yuan.

But she couldn’t make even the slightest sound, and her figure kept moving away from Lu Yuan.

There was a familiar scent about her that Lu Yuan could recognize.

Lu Yuan wanted to hold her back.

Yet, all the surrounding scenes and objects were rapidly disappearing.

The countless Phoenixes, the brilliant stars, the ancient tree-they were all engulfed by endless gray mist in an instant.

Suddenly and silently, the woman who had disappeared earlier reappeared in front of Lu Yuan.

She stood in the gray mist, very close to Lu Yuan.

This time Lu Yuan finally saw the woman’s appearance clearly.

Her almost perfectly contoured face was smooth and had no features.

The woman “stared” directly at Lu Yuan, her slender shoulders suddenly began to twitch slightly up and down.

She was “laughing.”

And her “laughter” grew sharper and louder, shaking the surrounding gray mist into violent turmoil, morphing into shapes of “Nightmares.”

“Daughter of the Nightmare!”

“Phew!”

Lu Yuan jolted awake from his bed, covered in sweat, and gasping for breath.

The sheets underneath him were completely soaked with sweat.

Clearly, he had just experienced a nightmare.

With the opening of the new professional panel, it wasn’t unusual to have strange dreams due to the power of the evil deity inherited through the panel. Lu Yuan was used to this.

But the latter part of the dream he just had was evidently invaded by something else.

“Beyond the Starry Sky, within a star area that resembles an ancient tree, a large number of Phoenixes reside. There is a supreme golden crown calling out to me, seemingly connected to the origins of the cuckoo bird.”

Lu Yuan climbed out of bed and walked slowly to the window, pushing it open casually.

It was January, and today’s lowest temperature was below freezing.

The cold air from outside rushed in, clearing Lu Yuan’s mind a bit.

He had slept for quite a while, and it was now nighttime. The clock on the wall read 1:08 a.m., and there wasn’t a soul on the street below, only the dim street lights were on.

A few crows perched on a nearby street lamp, obediently watching Lu Yuan.

Lu Yuan thought for a moment, then stepped lightly out of the window.

Thick death energy wrapped around his body like smoke, forming exquisite black wings behind him.

He flapped his wings and flew straight up.

“I’ve absorbed quite a bit of Phoenix essence, perhaps gaining a trace of Phoenix bloodline because of it.

That’s why I can feel this calling from across the Starry Sky.

That golden crown, without a doubt, would greatly benefit the fire chaser professional panel, likely being some kind of sacred relic of the Phoenix race’s legacy.”

Lu Yuan gently pressed his hand against his chest, feeling the process of blood and qi flushing through the Phoenix essence within his thoracic cavity, while continuing to sort through the contents of his dream.

He ascended quickly, and Jiaoyan City beneath him rapidly shrank in size.

The city’s day-long output of polluted exhaust had formed a warm and murky “protective layer” in the sky above.

Lu Yuan swiftly broke through it, and his vision instantly became clear and fresh.

The stars and moon in the night sky above seemed particularly sharp and bright.

Lu Yuan flapped his wings and continued upward.

“The latter part was definitely disrupted by the daughter of the nightmare.

The familiar figure I first saw should be Xia Zhiqing; it looked like she wanted to tell me something. The one who manically laughed at me later was the daughter of the nightmare herself.”

“But what exactly was Xia Zhiqing trying to convey to me in the dream?

She appeared in the Phoenix dream; does that mean her current location, along with the daughter of the nightmare, is related to the Phoenix, the ancient tree star area, or even that golden crown?”

Lu Yuan pondered and analyzed, the cold air at high altitude clearing his mind. Gazing up at the Starry Sky gave him a feeling of mental and physical purification.

But soon, a look of helplessness and frustration crossed Lu Yuan’s face.

Even if everything was as he predicted and he guessed it all correctly, what difference would it make?

Everything revealed in the dream was located at the other end of the Starry Sky. Right now, he was too insignificant, and the universe was too vast.

He couldn’t reach it, let alone touch it.

“Whether or not the path of Starry Sky martial arts can be traversed seems to have become meaningless.

Yuwen Tong has ascertained that my qualifications are doomed. Even if I decipher the enigma of [chaos divination], overcome the conflict between pure martial arts Grandmasters and Starry Sky martial arts, and successfully get started, I have no future to speak of.”

Lu Yuan looked at the vast Starry Sky above, an inexplicable sense of melancholy welling up from the bottom of his heart.

He didn’t know how high the ceiling was for the pure martial artist system. Now he could only hope that the various professional panels of the evil deity system had enough room for significant advancement.

Lu Yuan pondered that the Phoenix essence still not fully digested within his body might be enough to support his [fire chaser: azure flame (legendary)] professional panel to reach perfection.

Using the drop of mysterious blood from the giant axe, it’s possible to upgrade the elephant deity panel to “legendary level” as well.

With two more pieces of legendary level materials, he could unlock a third legendary level profession.

If the other legendary level secret realms around the world are similar to Embers Mountain, he might be able to unlock several legendary level professional panels.

But…

“Would a max-level legendary panel be enough to support me leaving the planet and traveling through the Starry Sky?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes reflected the light of the stars as his thoughts wandered, seemingly merging with the vast and brilliant sky above.

“It’s useless to think so much right now. Even if the power of the evil deity system can’t achieve it, I can still rely on the power of technology. At the current rate of technological progress, it might not be long before interstellar travel becomes a reality.”

Lu Yuan comforted himself.

In fact, he wasn’t entirely prepared to leave this planet either.

His family and friends were all here, and he didn’t even want to go to Xiabang. Every time he completed an Instance, he had to return to Jiaoyan.

As Lu Yuan continued his musings, suddenly, three Meteors rapidly streaked across the night sky in his vision.

Lu Yuan’s gaze was drawn to them, and an unusual expression appeared in his eyes.

It wasn’t just because they quickly streaked across the night sky; those light spots didn’t look like ordinary meteors at all.

They looked more like some kind of aircraft.

And not an ordinary aircraft either-it should be the kind capable of breaking free from the planet.

Aircrafts limited to ground-level operations couldn’t produce such brilliant tail flames.

The three light spots vanished in a flash, and it was unclear where they eventually landed.

Lu Yuan didn’t dwell on it too much. He stayed quietly at high altitude for a while before descending.

“[Dual Lotus Rotation: Divine Energy]!”

In his Consciousness Space, Lu Yuan’s whole body glowed, and his pupils split into two, transforming into two rapidly rotating golden lotuses.

At the peak of this amplified state, Lu Yuan locked his gaze on a stunning and perfect silhouette not far ahead and chose to enter the consciousness!

“Boom!”

Countless times he had entered the consciousness.

Countless times he had been forcibly melded away.

But this time, Lu Yuan finally succeeded, able to thoroughly explore the landscape within Yuwen Tong’s body.

Galaxy!

The Starry Sky remains as brilliant as ever!

However, Lu Yuan could finally see clearly what those dazzling light spots forming the galaxy truly were.

“This…”

Upon seeing the internal landscape of that “galaxy,” Lu Yuan was momentarily overwhelmed by an immense sense of shock.

Countless brilliant light spots converged to form a galaxy.

Each light spot represented a star acupoint.

Lu Yuan meticulously counted the total number of light spots and was astounded to find nearly five hundred of them!

Now he finally understood why Yuwen Tong said his Cultivation in Starry Sky martial arts had no future.

Comparing his seven-stars natal diagram to Yuwen Tong’s five hundred stars, his was indeed pitifully inadequate!

“This is the Talent gap between me and the top prodigy on this planet?”

At this moment, Lu Yuan experienced a profound sense of defeat.

All the while, the [origin heart sutra] claimed that a seven-star natal diagram would give him a slightly below average Talent.

This was the difference between a mortal and a god!

“So why am I still struggling, risking my life to cultivate Starry Sky martial arts? With my Talent, even if I switched to Starry Sky martial arts, I’d die before I even saw Yuwen Tong’s figure from afar.”

Yuwen Tong had almost illuminated all her natal stars on her star diagram, and all her star acupoints seemed interconnected.

They appeared to be flowing and rotating, making it look like a circulating galaxy.

But after staring at it for a while, Lu Yuan felt this gleaming movement more closely resembled the shape of a giant eye.

“Is that Yuwen Tong’s natal star diagram pattern?”

It looked far more advanced than his Big Dipper-like ladle star diagram.

“This is the woman who even makes a tenth stage super divine level mecha wary?”

“She’s too formidable; it’s almost despair-inducing.”

Lu Yuan opened his eyes, exited the Consciousness Space, and revealed a complex look in his gaze.

“At least we’re not on the same track.”

In some ways, Lu Yuan also felt the immense difference between tenth stage and ninth stage combat power.

It was far greater than he had imagined.

With combat power defined by geometric progression, the disparity between each stage grew even more exaggerated the higher you went.

“Above that are even higher realms, which I can’t even begin to fathom. What levels could those possibly be…”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and stood up from his desk.