Chapter 460 – Power Enhancement

The morning sunlight streamed through the half-opened blinds, casting a warm glow on the solid wood table adorned with creamy white floral patterns.

As the fresh scent of grass and trees wafted through the window, Lu Yuan was in a pleasant mood, ready to enjoy his breakfast.

Of course, it would have been perfect if not for the noisy clatter of machines nearby.

Breakfast was prepared by the robot housekeeper: poached eggs, ham, bread, and a bowl of thick soup made from fresh vegetables.

As he casually put a piece of ham together with a fried egg into his mouth, a soft knock sounded at the door.

Lu Yuan slowly chewed his food, his eyes slightly narrowed, and said calmly, “Come in.”

Although the breakfast tasted quite good, Lu Yuan found it strangely hard to swallow.

When it came to eating, Lu Yuan had never been particularly picky.

But ever since inheriting the Talent of the Spirit Devourer Clan, he felt his standards for food seemed to have risen significantly.

This wasn’t too apparent when he was with the Lu family.

After last night’s restoration of his main body and the subsequent drop in living standards since arriving on Planet Lirva, it became especially noticeable.

“This fork seems to make me even hungrier…”

Lu Yuan examined the metal utensil in his hand, subconsciously swallowing a bit of saliva.

He could feel a stronger craving for metallic substances than for ordinary food.

Perhaps it was due to the [Spirit Devourer. God and Demon Species (Transcendent Mythical)] panel.

Lu Yuan casually glanced at his professional panel and noticed that the black progress bar extending rightwards from his level 3 [Devour] skill had almost reached one-third completion.

Far surpassing the red progress bar on the left side.

In other words, if he completed the remaining two-thirds of the progress, he could officially unlock the first advanced skill of the Transcendent Mythical Spirit Devourer panel.

It should be related to the unique Demon God Mech Legacy of the Spirit Devourer Clan.

“Good morning, Young Master.”

A slightly hoarse voice broke into Lu Yuan’s thoughts.

Lu Yuan pulled himself back from his musings and looked up at the person standing before him.

Lu Feng.

Compared to a day ago, Lu Feng appeared to have lost a significant amount of weight.

His demeanor had also changed, becoming more somber and reserved.

Although Lu Feng’s complexion wasn’t haggard, his eyes were filled with bloodshot veins, giving him a rather unsettling appearance.

It was evident that the night hadn’t been pleasant for Lu Feng, who had just been implanted with the [seed of misfortune].

“The beginning is always a bit painful…”

Lu Yuan looked at Lu Feng with a gentle expression and said, “Once your body has been completely modified by the [seed of misfortune], you will realize that the pain you endured was worth it.”

“Understood,” Lu Feng replied quietly.

Lu Yuan’s eyes flickered slightly, and he revealed a fully relaxed and satisfied smile.

Though it seemed he was comforting Lu Feng, there was a hint of probing in his words.

He openly admitted that the transformation in Lu Feng was his doing, and Lu Feng showed no emotional disturbance.

It seemed that Lu Feng’s mental will had begun to be successfully modified by the [seed of misfortune], naturally starting to show loyalty to him.

“I have a task for you today…”

Pushing his breakfast aside, Lu Yuan picked up a napkin and gently wiped his mouth.

“I need you to visit the nearby bismuth metal mining site. Let them know that any waste ore contaminated by Source Worms can be sold directly to us without processing…

Any live Source Worms they capture can also be considered for sale to us, for a price slightly higher than the market rate; it’s not a problem…”

After Lu Yuan finished speaking, Lu Feng pondered for a moment and said, “If Young Master needs bismuth metal waste ore, you can actually go directly to a Waste Ore Processing Company.”

“Do you have any contacts there?”

Lu Yuan’s eyes narrowed slightly, satisfied with Lu Feng’s new thinking habit of offering a better solution rather than questioning why he wanted to acquire bismuth metal waste ore.

Never questioning the master’s orders and wholeheartedly seeking to alleviate the master’s concerns.

Lu Feng was beginning to show the potential to become a loyal servant.

“Every mining site needs to process waste ore, and our site is no exception.

You just need to ask the person responsible for this at the mine.”

Lu Feng replied calmly.

Lu Yuan nodded and said, “Go handle it. Use both avenues simultaneously. I just need to acquire as many Source Worms and waste ore as quickly as possible.”

“Understood,” Lu Feng nodded, and was about to leave when Lu Yuan suddenly called him back.

“What about your mecha? Are you planning to get it repaired?” Lu Yuan asked Lu Feng.

In last night’s battle, Lu Feng’s level 5 Storm Chaser Mecha was nearly destroyed, with even the cockpit torn open. It was no longer in a drivable condition.

Now that Lu Feng was part of his team, Lu Yuan had to consider the fact that Lu Feng’s combat power was severely compromised.

“I’ve contacted the nearest repair center. They should be sending someone to pick up the mecha for repairs in the next few days. During this time, I might not be able to help much in battle…” Lu Feng hesitantly replied.

“Okay,” said Lu Yuan, understanding the situation, and waved him off.

After Lu Feng left, Lu Yuan was alone in the room once more.

He lost his appetite for breakfast and assigned the house-cleaning task to the Housekeeper, then headed outside.

The place Wolf arranged for him to stay was quite far from the mining site and even farther from where the miners lived. It was unclear whether it was to keep the noise from disturbing him or to prevent him from being too near the mining site.

Not far from the house was a dense, primeval forest.

As Lu Yuan slowly strolled along a small path into the forest, he brought up his professional panel to check it.

He had already organized his main achievements from the previous night, so he was now looking at some improvements he hadn’t paid attention to before.

For instance, the [Pilot (Extraordinary)] profession.

After last night’s battle with Lu Feng, his [Pilot (Extraordinary)] professional level had jumped from LV2 to LV4.

He gained 2 attribute points and 2 skill points.

Additionally, the [Pilot (Extraordinary)] professional panel showed a newly unlocked advanced skill: LV1 [Wind Demon Frenzied Axe Style].

During last night’s battle with Lu Feng, Lu Yuan spontaneously used the [Wind Spirit Sword Shadow Style], a mecha combat technique passed down through the Lu family that he had been practicing for about a month.

Because he was used to wielding axes in the transformative asura form of the elephant deity, he had modified the pair of training broadswords originally equipped with the Blue Falcon Type 4 into a more suitable dual axes form.

While practicing this [Wind Spirit Sword Shadow Style], Lu Yuan continuously tried to integrate his own knowledge of axe techniques and the martial arts of the divine elephant style Grandmaster.

During the fight with Lu Feng, he also managed to patch up some of its less mature aspects, thereby naturally creating the prototype of his original [Wind Demon Frenzied Axe Style].

“Although it’s just a rough draft now, the fact that it can easily overpower Lu Feng’s [Wind Spirit Sword Shadow Style] in terms of technique proves that my dual axes style combat method has quite a bit of potential.

With further refinement, it might even have the chance to ascend to the ranks of top-tier mecha combat styles…”

Lu Yuan prudently considered himself a martial arts Grandmaster, not a master of cold weapon techniques.

He wouldn’t boast beyond his capabilities.

If it were unarmed combat techniques, he indeed had the confidence to rank among the best in the current era.

Unfortunately, mecha battles don’t involve unarmed combat.

Controlling a mecha in hand-to-hand combat is akin to swinging a Barrett as if it were a metal club.

“If possible, I should spar more with other pilots. Although it seemed like I overwhelmed Lu Feng throughout the fight last night, in reality, there were still several mistakes and mishaps. My experience with real mecha combat is too limited, which is a significant shortcoming at this stage.”

Lu Yuan preferred to view mechas in the context of martial arts.

Different mecha combat styles are akin to various martial arts legacies, different types of mechas equate to varying constitutions, and various styles of martial artists.

Back when he was learning martial arts, a crucial phase was accumulating substantial combat experience in Mosa’s fight arena, where he encountered numerous diverse martial artists.

Thinking of this led Lu Yuan to reminisce about Lin Zhiqin.

Lin, a heavily smoking and traditional middle-aged man whom Lu Yuan always called coach, was his guide into the world of martial arts.

He hadn’t seen Lin since taking his daughter to Yellow Bear for treatment. And there was also his teacher, Liu Daoyuan…

Lu Yuan exhaled a light sigh, pushing away the swirling thoughts that came to his mind with his reminiscences.

Some say that attachments are obstacles to reaching greater heights.

But Lu Yuan felt that his concern for these people and things was actually his greatest motivation to keep moving forward at this stage.

“I wonder how Lord Tong is doing now?”

The name brought a deepening worry to Lu Yuan’s mind.

He stopped on a dewy grass patch, inhaling the blends of grass and earth scents with closed eyes.

He focused his mind inward.

Inside his mind, he envisioned two mental power cores – the golden whirlwind representing [Rhythm of the Wind] and the transparent sphere symbolizing the [Zero-Style] cultivation method.

With a subtle shift of thought, the golden whirlwind in his mind trembled slightly.

Then, it suddenly expanded to over three times its original size.

The transparent sphere representing [Zero-Style] split into two, producing a new transparent sphere. The two spheres seemed to be connected by a white thread.

He checked his professional panel.

Both [Rhythm of the Wind] and [Zero-Style] mental power cultivation methods had advanced to level 4.

Lu Yuan wasn’t surprised by these changes.

His intelligence attribute had increased to 25 points after last night’s devouring and absorption, granting him level 2 mental power strength.

Revisiting and enhancing these mental power cultivation methods naturally led to such improvements and transformations.

Lu Yuan tested out his enhanced mental powers.

[Rhythm of the Wind] now offered a noticeably stronger boost to speed, roughly doubling what it was at level 1.

[Zero-Style] was similarly improved, although its enhancement remained broad and somewhat unremarkable.

“Lu Feng practices [Rhythm of the Wind] too, and he’s reached level 5.

Yet, when we fought last night, I felt that his peak speed while controlling the mecha was only seven to eight times the speed of sound, not as exaggerated as I’d expect.”

Lu Yuan furrowed his brow.

He realized that back when his mental power was at level 1, he could control the Blue Falcon to over three times the speed of sound. For Lu Feng to be at level 5 and only reach double that speed felt inconsistent with his strength.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Yuan quickly figured it out.

“Ah, that’s it.”

“Lu Feng is controlling a Level 5 Mecha, and the precision, complexity, and control difficulty of a Level 5 Mecha are far greater than those of a Level 1 Mecha.

Moreover, the higher the speed, the harder it is to increase.

I’m not an ordinary person, but Lu Feng isn’t exactly an extraordinarily talented pilot either.

When comparing the upper limits and lower limits, the gap naturally seems smaller…”

Lu Yuan realized he often habitually overlooked a crucial issue.

Because he achieved complete “Human-Mecha Integration” through his mecha transformation, he didn’t have to consider resonance degree like other pilots.

For other pilots, controlling different types of mechas yields entirely different resonance degrees.

And this resonance degree is key to determining how much of their strength a pilot can deploy.

“The Storm Chaser Swordsman is just a Level 5 standard mecha, not a custom-made exclusive, and it doesn’t perfectly match the Lu family’s [Wind Spirit Sword Shadow Style]. Considering that, Lu Feng has probably done quite well…”

Lu Yuan’s advantage with mecha transformation became apparent here.

Although after some devouring and conversion, most abilities originally inherent in the mecha were lost, leaving it as just a rigid shell.

It’s akin to reducing a sophisticated, multifunctional item into a mere iron slab, sacrificing everything only to boost defense.

However, this also means that Lu Yuan’s unique mental power amplification effect can directly apply to himself.

Just like in last night’s battle with Lu Feng, even with Level 2 mental power and before [Rhythm of the Wind] was upgraded, his speed was nearly comparable to Lu Feng’s Level 5 [Rhythm of the Wind].

The reason lies in his dual-layer speed enhancement.

One layer comes from Grandmaster-level muscle exertion.

The other is the effect of [Rhythm of the Wind].

Together, they allowed him to achieve speeds comparable to Level 5 scout-type mechas.

Going forward, he can continue doing so.

As long as the strength of his mecha body can withstand it, any level of mental power he attains can perfectly showcase its amplification effect in battle, without needing to consider resonance degree.

This gives him a significant advantage over other pilots.

“Just based on this alone, I already have a solid footing in this world where Mechas reign supreme.

Not to mention the future possibility of unlocking the exclusive Demon God Mech of the Spirit Devourer Clan.

I wonder what kind of power the Demon God Mech will possess…”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation.

After adjusting his mental power, Lu Yuan silently cultivated his Star Martial Arts for a while longer.

With his mental power boosted to level 2, his efficiency in using star acupoints to absorb cosmic energy had increased several times over.

Although compared to directly absorbing the Life Energy contained in waste ore, this improvement still seemed insignificant, it was at least an upgrade from a mosquito’s leg to a fly’s leg. There’s hope that one day it might evolve into a grasshopper’s leg-thicker, sturdier, and meatier…

“Hurry up! Move faster! Didn’t you all have breakfast?”

As Lu Yuan was strolling and practicing in the forest, taking it as his morning exercise,

suddenly, he heard a commotion in the distance.

Among the noise were loud shouts and the faint roar of engines.

Lu Yuan’s expression changed slightly as he cautiously moved towards the source of the sound…