Chapter 399 – Planet Confrontation, Above the Tenth Stage

The spaceship had been flying through the vast, boundless Starry Sky for three full days.

During this time, Lu Yuan stayed alone in his assigned resting room, receiving his meals three times a day delivered punctually by a robot.

Yuwen Tong had shared news about the Distant Star Federation with him right after they boarded the spaceship but hadn’t shown herself since.

In the small room of just over thirty square meters, Lu Yuan was focused on practicing his martial arts moves.

Inside his body, the First Transformation Blood Pill slowly rotated, its powerful blood circulation moving back and forth, washing and refining every corner of his body like a tide.

This process was almost like hearing the cells in his body sprouting roots and growing like seeds.

After a series of activities, Lu Yuan stretched his body, his muscles and bones resonating together.

His pores opened all over, emitting steam and slight sweat.

With his current constitution points at 38 after his second limit break, this amount of exercise was barely a warm-up for him; the sweating was purely due to the need to expel waste gases and impurities produced during training.

Lu Yuan walked to the corner of the room where the shower was, rinsed his body briefly with water, then sat down casually on the floor, browsing the database on his auxiliary Light Brain.

After he had emerged from Embers Mountain, he was soon ambushed by the Distant Star Federation and Yuwen Tong arranged for him to “fake his death and lay low,” forcing him to be “offline” for a long time.

As a result, after Yellow Bear’s access level was greatly increased, he missed out on many common knowledge updates related to cultivation.

It was also because his strength had increased too rapidly during this period, skyrocketing from level SSS (second-stage) to ninth stage in a few jumps, leaving a significant gap in his knowledge.

Now was the time to “cram” this information.

The path Lu Yuan took and the system for upgrading his strength were completely different from ordinary people.

These things might not be suitable for him, but learning by analogy, they could still be helpful.

Lu Yuan wiped his damp hair with a dry towel while searching for the information he wanted to understand.

“Is this how the New Martial Arts Modification System enhances mental power?” Lu Yuan had always been curious about how other systems improved mental power.

Originally, Lan Chen had told him that the method to refine first-stage Mental Light was by clarifying the mind and seeing one’s true nature, purifying the mental will to achieve a qualitative transformation.

However, after the Mental Light was refined, Lu Yuan had not delved into how to enhance it further.

Only now did he realize that the currently prevalent methods of cultivating mental power in the world mainly consist of three types.

One is through drugs and certain special procedures to stimulate, deeply excavating the potential of human will to enhance the intensity of mental power.

The second is consciousness modification.

The third is Meditation.

Of these methods, the first has the most stable effect and is the most technologically mature, but it carries certain risks.

The second is demanding, costly, and carries the greatest risk, but if successful, the results are the best.

The third carries the least risk and costs almost nothing, but it also has negligible effects.

“Medication, surgery, and… psychological suggestion?”

Lu Yuan blinked, surprised at how different the reality was from what he had expected.

It turns out that the majority of Experts on this planet are “manufactured.”

Of course, not everyone is.

Some individuals have extraordinary Talent and possess their own unique methods, allowing them to stimulate continuous growth in their mental power without the need for “drug modification.”

For example, as recorded in the data, a Flying Bear following the New Martial Arts path had his mental power skyrocket instantaneously after personally killing all his blood relatives…

“Good heavens, achieving enlightenment by killing one’s kin, huh…”

Lu Yuan was secretly astonished.

This method was prominently marked in big red letters- “Not Recommended.”

He flipped through more, discovering a collection of bizarre and unconventional methods to stimulate mental power.

“Isn’t there a single reliable one?”

Actually, there was.

A method that was stable, highly effective, and carried minimal risk for cultivating mental power.

However, this method was only applicable to “Supernova” practitioners of the Starry Sky Martial Arts, a unique technique within this martial arts system.

The specific operation involved visualizing the universe and one’s own natal star diagram.

The aforementioned third method-Meditation-was inspired by this…

After poring over a pile of data, Lu Yuan found that his own method of “adding skill points” was still the best approach.

Finding nothing else, he decided to continue exploring the information on Starry Sky martial arts.

This time, he came across a little bit of useful information.

The data showed that most “supernovas” practiced cold weapon combat techniques.

This was because the cosmic energy accumulated in the star acupoints, which were activated by the Starry Sky martial arts, could be unleashed through cold weapons to a much greater extent than by bare hands.

Since unlocking the [Master of Arms] professional panel, Lu Yuan had developed a certain interest in cold weapons martial arts techniques.

Previously, the cold weapon techniques he could access in the Yellow Bear internal database were mostly derived from Ancient Martial Arts.

Now, with elevated access levels, he discovered that the cold weapon techniques practiced by supernovas actually originated from Extraterrestrial sources.

There were two techniques, one blade technique and one spear technique, both named “Origin.”

“[Origin Blade Technique], [Origin Spear Technique]…”

Lu Yuan remembered why the supernovas he had encountered before either used a blade or a spear; it was for this reason.

“Unfortunately, without entering the doorway of Starry Sky martial arts, I cannot fully practice these two techniques…”

Lu Yuan sighed lightly and opened his [Master of Arms] professional panel.

He had already advanced this profession to level 7.

On the panel, he had mastered about a dozen cold weapon techniques to the initial stage, and some even to an intermediate level.

His highest achievement was in spear technique, having mastered a killer move-[Seize the Initiative].

This move involved going all in by fiercely throwing the spear in his hand.

Axe technique had taken the most time and effort, having reached an advanced level.

He had not mastered any killer moves with the axe, partly because axes were a less common weapon, and the axe technique legacies he found were sparse and either incomplete or of limited potential.

Furthermore, Lu Yuan had not followed the traditional path of study but rather intended to create an axe technique that truly suited his own combat system based on the legacies of his predecessors.

This was quite challenging, mainly due to the scarce reference materials available, making it difficult to innovate without the necessary resources.

“I’ve now grasped Level 2 of the Ultimate Skill Strength, and the best cold weapons for this skill are either the axe or the hammer. It would be great if I had access to something like the [Origin Axe Technique] or [Origin Hammer Technique] for reference…”

Lu Yuan silently lamented this, then proceeded to record the details of the [Origin Blade Technique] and [Origin Spear Technique] that he had looked up.

These combat techniques were also incomplete, and it was unclear whether it was due to insufficient access level or if they were inherently incomplete.

On the [Master of Arms] professional panel, the first professional core skill could now be unlocked.

However, Lu Yuan was reluctant to use his skill points, so he never did.

Lu Yuan then looked up information about the Extraterrestrial Trial.

There was very little information on this topic, with hardly any useful data after much searching.

While Lu Yuan was still sorting through this chaotic information, suddenly, he felt the “Sky Bear” spaceship beneath him emit a buzzing tremor.

The overall speed of the spaceship seemed to have slowed down considerably.

Lu Yuan’s expression changed slightly, and he quickly got up from the floor and walked out of his room.

He went straight to the corridor’s porthole outside his room. The cuckoo bird nestled in his arms stirred, but he ignored it and looked out the porthole.

The unchanging pitch-black scenery outside the window finally underwent a change.

Lu Yuan saw a glowing area, composed of numerous scattered light spots, emitting a hazy, dreamlike brilliance, particularly eye-catching in the starry sky.

The “Sky Bear” was now heading towards that glowing area.

Lu Yuan tried to extend his mental power outside the spaceship’s porthole and noticed several dazzling streaks of light around the “Sky Bear”.

Like the “Sky Bear”, they were all heading towards the glowing area.

Lu Yuan knew these were spaceships similar to the “Sky Bear”, traveling at such high speeds that his mental power couldn’t capture their exact appearance, seeing only streaks of light.

“Beep beep beep-“

The sound of the communicator alerted him.

Lu Yuan looked down and indeed, it was a message from Yuwen Tong, informing him that the spaceship was about to reach the trial location and advising him to prepare for disembarkation.

Lu Yuan had nothing special to prepare and was always ready to go.

So he continued to stand by the porthole, watching outside.

The saying ‘counting on what’s out of reach may leave you stranded’ is especially true in the starry sky.

Lu Yuan had seen the trial site in the distance for quite some time, but it took nearly half a day for the “Sky Bear” to fully approach it.

By the time the glowing area nearly filled the entire porthole, Lu Yuan realized that the number of spaceships surrounding the “Sky Bear” far exceeded his estimate.

Moreover, some of the spaceship designs were quite unique, completely shattering his aesthetic perceptions.

“Are there so many of us in this batch?”

Lu Yuan frowned slightly, pondering.

“Buzz-“

The “Sky Bear” spaceship that Lu Yuan was aboard continued to decelerate, then slowly entered a huge black passageway.

Following the passageway for about several more minutes, the spaceship finally came to a complete stop.

At this point, Lu Yuan didn’t have time to check the specific situation outside and quickly headed towards the exit of the spaceship.

By the time he reached the exit, Yuwen Tong was already there waiting.

In addition to her, there were many of Lu Yuan’s old acquaintances-Chen Wu Hao, Yang Nan, Ding Can…

Members of the supernova from the Embers Mountain secret realm, whom he had seen a few times before, were there, including Yin Muqing and some faces Lu Yuan had not seen before.

Lu Yuan’s arrival caused a slight stir among these supernova members, as gazes converged on him.

Lu Yuan walked up calmly and consciously stood next to Yuwen Tong, while Chen Wu Hao nodded at him in greeting.

Besides them, there were two middle-aged men, about as powerful as Chen Wu Hao, around the eighth stage, who looked at Lu Yuan with a peculiar expression.

The spaceship’s door slowly opened, and the group followed Yuwen Tong down the passageway, no one speaking.

Lu Yuan followed behind Yuwen Tong, and it wasn’t long before they walked out of the spaceship.

What appeared before him was a super massive black platform.

The platform extended outward, forming about a dozen floating bridges, each connected to a smaller platform, with a spaceship similar to the “Sky Bear” docked on each.

Lu Yuan looked to the left and immediately spotted the people from the Distant Star Federation.

Then those from Javier’s side.

And then, some uniquely auraed strangers.

“Take a good look, remember their faces…”

Yuwen Tong’s voice suddenly rang in his ear.

Lu Yuan turned towards the sound and saw Yuwen Tong slightly tilting her face to speak to him.

“The extraterrestrial trial is not just open to our planet, but involves a total of four planets. Each planet’s contingent has tenth stage powerhouses, and some even have more than one.”

“Once we enter the trial grounds, they will be our real opponents. Don’t just focus on the Distant Star Federation…”

Four planets… each with tenth stage powerhouses…

Hearing Yuwen Tong’s words, Lu Yuan was slightly taken aback.

He nodded immediately, his gaze becoming deeper and more serene.

Their group walked along the floating bridge to the central black platform, where they naturally joined up with people from the Distant Star Federation and Javier’s group, still led by Yuwen Tong.

As Yuwen Tong had said, the extraterrestrial trial was overseen by the starry sky advanced civilization, a competition between planets.

Once away from their planet, these individuals were truly unified. In the face of interplanetary competition, terrestrial grievances had to be set aside for the moment.

People from the other platforms also naturally grouped into three distinct factions, each planet’s contingent having no significant differences in appearance, but their styles of dress and demeanor were distinctly different, making them easy to distinguish.

Lu Yuan noticed the contingent from a planet directly in front of them.

Leading them was a man dressed in black armor-like combat suit, his fiery gaze fixed on their group.

This man was about two and a half meters tall, with a broad back and a bear-like girth, his red hair cascading over his shoulders, his presence fiery and commanding, like a star about to explode.

Lu Yuan observed the man for a while and realized he was staring at Yuwen Tong.

Feeling a stir in his heart, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but quietly ask Yuwen Tong, “Lord Tong, does he have a grudge against you?”

Yuwen Tong glanced indifferently in the direction of the Red-haired Man and said lightly, “Not really… It’s just that after I beat him up twice, he’s been clinging to me like a fly, very annoying.”

“Uh…”

Lu Yuan opened his mouth, momentarily at a loss for words.

People from various forces stood on the platform, communicating in the languages of their respective planets and nations, creating a rather noisy scene.

It was hard to tell how long they had been waiting.

Suddenly, the center of the platform seemed to tear open like paper scorched by fire, abruptly revealing a growing, mottled gap.

Following that, a person walked out from it.

Instantly, the vast platform fell silent; all noises ceased as every eye turned to the figure that had just appeared.

Lu Yuan looked up and saw a young man, about twenty years old.

He was strikingly handsome, with not a single flaw visible on his body.

It was clear that his appearance and physique had been genetically modified, but the work was so skillfully done that it didn’t give off an artificial feel.

The young man was dressed in a light blue robe of an odd yet magnificent style, with a silver ornamental band featuring a cut-out pattern on his forehead.

He smiled gently, exuding a soft and warm demeanor, yet his eyes betrayed a deep sense of experience they could not fully conceal.

However, what truly captivated everyone was not his appearance, but the invisible mental waves emanating from him.

They were immense, overwhelming.

These subtle waves, seemingly emitted without his conscious control, made Lu Yuan feel as if he were facing the undulating vastness of an infinite ocean.

Compared to the young man’s mental power, Yuwen Tong seemed utterly insignificant.

“Could this be… a realm beyond the tenth stage?!”

As Lu Yuan watched the other, his emotions surged violently, unceasingly shaken.