Chapter 462 – Restarting the Inner World

In less than two hours, over 500 tons of waste ore were completely transported.

Containers full of waste ore were stacked at the entrance of Lu Yuan’s small residence, forming a cube-shaped mountain dozens of meters high.

Lu Yuan extended his mental power, scanning each container, a satisfied expression appearing on his face.

The two groups that delivered waste ore this time were quite decent. In addition to the bismuth metal waste ore contaminated by the Source Worms that he specifically requested, they had also sent him several dozen tons of other miscellaneous waste ore.

While these waste ores didn’t contain Life Energy, the metals present in them could still be devoured and used by Lu Yuan.

Of course, for those delivering the waste ore, it was a win-win situation. After all, disposing of these waste ores cost money, so giving them to Lu Yuan for free saved them some disposal fees.

Lu Yuan switched to his Mecha form and began moving the containers into his house one by one.

He filled every corner of his small home and then instructed Lu Feng to keep watch outside.

His mental power had already detected Wolf’s men lurking nearby, their curiosity piqued by his inexplicable decision to purchase a large quantity of waste ore.

This was actually understandable. Aside from Lu Yuan himself, probably no one in the world knew what he intended to do with all this waste ore.

“The amount of waste ore this time is much greater than what I devoured from the Xiao’s Mining Company’s waste ore warehouse before…”

The two mining companies supplying Lu Yuan were much larger in scale compared to Xiao’s Mining Company, so naturally, they had accumulated much more waste ore over time.

“Once I finish devouring this batch, my strength will recover significantly…”

With great anticipation, Lu Yuan stood inside the house filled with ore boxes, spreading his arms wide.

In the next moment, his entire body seemed to melt like water, silently transforming into a large pool of thick, black liquid that seeped into each of the boxes.

“Sh-sh-sh-“

The sound of ore shattering.

Along with the waste ore, the containers holding them also crumbled and disintegrated.

In the room, a large amount of alloy material dissolved into a murky “sand flow,” but was pulled by a strong force, forming a huge and spectacular black vortex around the center.

The vortex greedily devoured everything, making it appear as if an endless black hole had opened on the floor, continuously sucking in everything around it.

Moments later, the vortex ceased.

The once cramped and filled-to-capacity small room became empty, with all items vanished, leaving only the bare floor.

At the center of the black vortex, Lu Yuan, completely naked, emerged slowly as if rising from beneath the water.

He opened his eyes, a vibrant expression on his face.

Without any delay, he switched into his Mecha form, went out, and brought in a second batch of ore containers.

Then repeated the cycle.

This continued for a full three days.

Apart from eating, sleeping, and going out to move boxes, Lu Yuan spent almost all his time on devouring and absorbing waste ore.

He kept the doors and windows tightly shut, with the privacy Protective level at its highest.

No one knew what he was doing alone in his room.

They could only see the mountain of boxes outside the door steadily decreasing… until there was not a single one left.

Three days later.

Inside the small house.

In the pitch-black room, Lu Yuan sat quietly cross-legged on the bare floor, naked.

In the darkness, only his eyes glimmered faintly.

[Name: Lu Yuan]

[Age: 17]

[Strength Points: 25 (Limit Break 1)]

[Agility Points: 26 (Limit Break 1)]

[Constitution Points: 24 (Limit Break 1)]

[Intelligence Points: 29 (Limit Break 1)]

This was the current information on Lu Yuan’s attribute panel.

However, his focus was entirely elsewhere, concentrated within his body, at the core blood and flesh tissue located at his heart.

Compared to three days ago, his core blood and flesh tissue had grown several times larger.

Countless vein-like structures spread throughout Lu Yuan’s entire body from it.

The proportion of this core flesh within his body had increased, and the “degree of takeover” had become greater.

Yet, at the center of the core blood and flesh tissue, a mass of gray mist churned.

Lu Yuan’s attention was consistently focused on this.

“This is…”

Under Lu Yuan’s mental power perception, the gray mist at the deepest part of his core flesh contained a realm of chaos.

“The inner world of a martial arts grandmaster?!”

Lu Yuan’s eyes sparkled, unsure of how to describe his feelings at this moment.

He was very familiar with this chaotic gray mist.

It represented the martial arts grandmaster’s realm after the gathering of three flowers at the apex and the convergence of five qi to the origin-the next level of activating the inner world.

The gray mist had appeared in his body after the grandmaster blood pill shattered.

But because he was severely injured at that time, even his martial arts grandmaster professional panel had fragmented and disappeared, making it impossible to successfully open the inner world.

Later, with the destruction of his physical body, the mist vanished as well.

Since opening the inner world wasn’t possible then, Lu Yuan hadn’t given it much thought.

Unexpectedly.

With the gradual recovery of his original form, this mist representing the extraordinary realm of a martial arts grandmaster had reappeared.

And looking at its current state.

It seemed his chances of successfully opening his own inner world were much greater than before.

“The Life Energy contained in this batch of waste ore was originally enough to restore my original form to the extent of making a second limit break in the four basic attributes.

But the appearance of this gray mist diverted a significant portion of that energy, resulting in a recovery effect far below expectations…”

However, Lu Yuan wasn’t upset by this; instead, he felt quite pleased.

If the restoration of his original form was a bit slower, so be it. The opportunity to advance into the inner world wasn’t something that could be sought at will.

Not to mention the benefits that would come after successfully opening his inner world, at the very least…

His [Martial Arts Grandmaster (Extraordinary)] professional panel could be regained.

This was undoubtedly great news for him.

“Excellent, once the martial arts grandmaster professional panel is recovered, my strength system will have a backbone. The dual practice of Star Martial Arts and pure martial arts, which I once longed for but couldn’t achieve, might really become a reality…”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel elated.

This time, Lu Yuan absorbed approximately ten times the amount of waste ore as last time, yet his overall strength improvement was not very significant.

The four basic attributes saw a slight increase, and the hardness of his Mecha body also slightly enhanced.

Aside from the expected increase of the [Devour] skill from lv3 to lv4, which improved devouring efficiency, there was also the formation of a new [Seed of Misfortune], and…

The first advanced skill above [Devour] was about to be unlocked.

The progress bar was just shy of completion, and Lu Yuan estimated that absorbing another few dozen tons of waste ore would be enough to fill it.

To Lu Yuan, however, these gains were far more significant than the last time.

The future appeared increasingly hopeful.

He rose from the floor, dressed, and stepped outside.

It was midday, and the bright sunlight made him squint slightly.

Lu Feng, who had been guarding the door for three days, quickly approached and greeted him, “Master.”

“Mm.”

Lu Yuan nodded with satisfaction.

It was evident that during the three days, Lu Feng had become even more thoroughly modified by the [Seed of Misfortune]. Even his address had changed.

“In front of others, continue to call me Young Master,” Lu Yuan said calmly.

Lu Feng responded affirmatively and subtly glanced in a certain direction.

Following Lu Feng’s gaze, Lu Yuan noticed a figure flashing by in the woods dozens of meters away from his dwelling.

It didn’t take much to guess that it was Wolf and his gang.

“Ignore them.”

Lu Yuan glanced indifferently in their direction before withdrawing his gaze, not giving the prying much thought.

Wolf didn’t even count as an insect in Lu Yuan’s eyes. If he wished, he could crush him at any moment.

He simply tolerated their presence for now out of laziness.

“Anything to report during my three-day seclusion?”

Basking in the sunlight, Lu Yuan stretched leisurely and casually asked Lu Feng.

Lu Feng replied, “In the past couple of days, several companies have approached us, offering to supply waste ore at a very low price…”

“Oh.”

Lu Yuan nodded, showing little reaction.

Three days ago, the initial transaction with the first two suppliers was successfully completed. Those who were skeptical or merely observing were undoubtedly eager to take action.

It was almost inevitable that more people would come knocking, seeking collaboration.

Lowering the price proactively was only natural given the supply-demand dynamics.

Lu Yuan had anticipated this, which is why he agreed to set the initial purchase price at 100 Duoling Coins per ton.

However, Lu Yuan wasn’t planning to engage with these new potential suppliers just yet.

Firstly, with the emergence of the inner world vortex, his need for waste ore would significantly increase.

He wanted a stable source of acquisition, rather than collecting piecemeal bits here and there.

Secondly, his funds were running low!

Lu Yuan originally had over 200,000 Duoling Coins.

This included several thousand left by his predecessor, Lu Qiyuan, and 200,000 in pocket money secretly given by his mother before he left Planet Dadu.

After the last waste ore transaction, he now had only about 100,000 Duoling Coins left.

This might suffice for the current transaction.

But next time, he definitely wouldn’t have enough money for procurement.

Therefore, he planned to resolve his funding issue before proceeding with a second round of purchases.

As for the solution to this problem… Lu Yuan already had an idea in mind.

“When did that person named Dongmu arrange to meet us?” Lu Yuan asked Lu Feng.

Lu Feng replied, “7 PM; we have about six hours. If we set off for Red Diamond City now, we should make it in time.”

“Alright.”

Lu Yuan nodded, squinting his eyes as he looked beyond the primeval forest ahead, gazing at the distant sky. He said calmly, “Let’s head out as soon as possible.”

Five minutes later.

A small light blue aircraft slowly rose from the dense forest and, after accelerating, swiftly disappeared into the sky.

Below, Wolf and a dozen miners stopped their work, silently watching the aircraft fade into the distance.

Once it was completely out of sight, Wolf, expressionless, coldly instructed his subordinates.

“Send a couple of people to check their rooms. Then, get me in touch with the demon grease pirates…”

“Understood.”

Planet Lirva is vast.

According to the data, Planet Lirva is three times larger in volume than Planet Dadu, No. 2045.

Yet, this enormous life-sustaining planet has a permanent population less than one percent of that on No. 2045 Planet Dadu.

The description “vast lands and sparse population” fits Planet Lirva perfectly.

Red Diamond City is the nearest modern city to Lu Yuan.

It’s also the only destination for leisure and entertainment for personnel from hundreds of surrounding mining companies.

There aren’t many native inhabitants on Planet Lirva. Instead, most of the city’s permanent residents in places like Red Diamond City are miners who have worked on Planet Lirva for decades and chose to settle here.

Additionally, there are the mixed group of outsiders who’ve come looking to strike it rich, following the spaceships to Planet Lirva.

The small aircraft flew for over three hours before finally reaching its destination.

From a distance, the silhouette of Red Diamond City appeared before Lu Yuan’s eyes.

It was almost completely different from what Lu Yuan had imagined.

From afar, Red Diamond City looked like an advanced and bustling modern metropolis.

A huge energy barrier enveloped the entire city.

In the sky, various small and medium-sized aircraft crisscrossed ceaselessly.

Below, hover car caravans formed long lines.

Neon lights of a gem-like red color swayed and flickered above the whole city.

And this was just the afternoon. It’s hard to imagine how extravagant and fantastical this dreamlike city would become once night fell.

“The housing prices aren’t high, given that most of the population are outsiders. Not many would truly commit to settling here…” Lu Yuan thought casually as he glanced over the introduction of Red Diamond City.

Cities like Red Diamond City have only developed within the past few years.

All the changes on Planet Lirva can be credited to that jewelry-bedecked fat man, Gem Lord, whom Lu Yuan had seen at the spaceship landing site.

This guy was indeed remarkable.

Ambitious, highly capable, and key point… incredibly wealthy.

Following the guidance of the sky track, the small aircraft carrying Lu Yuan and his companion joined the “traffic” and slowly entered Red Diamond City.

The city had numerous temporary parking spots for aircraft, but with their spatial capsule, Lu Yuan and Lu Feng didn’t need to use them.

They landed on a massive white disc-shaped square, and after putting away their aircraft, Lu Yuan was planning to have Lu Feng hail a hover car to head to Dongmu Manor.

However, before they could take more than a couple of steps, a luxurious extended hover car slowly pulled up in front of them.

The car door opened, and a short, bald, and rotund middle-aged man, dressed in a suit, quickly emerged with a hearty laugh.

“Lu Qiyuan’s son, Lu Lingfeng’s offspring. My dear nephew, you’re finally here…”

The short, bald middle-aged man rushed up to Lu Yuan in a few quick strides, grasping Lu Yuan’s hand and arm tightly, his eyes scanning him up and down, his face lit with joy and admiration.

Dongmu’s overwhelmingly warm greeting left Lu Yuan feeling a bit “overwhelmed.”

He couldn’t help but wonder.

Was there more to the relationship between this amiable, beaming man and Lu Lingfeng than he had initially thought?

Were they truly the close friends he had assumed them to be?

Perhaps the lack of contact until now was just because Dongmu hadn’t known Lu Yuan would be arriving.

“Excellent, excellent, just what I’d expect from Lingfeng’s son. Indeed, a paragon among men, a truly outstanding young man…”

Dongmu held onto Lu Yuan’s hand firmly, his eyes radiating genuine appreciation, with words of praise flowing generously from his mouth.

And Dongmu wasn’t just being polite.

After two rounds of devouring and absorption, and the recovery of his core, Lu Yuan’s appearance and demeanor had already changed significantly from the original Lu Qiyuan.

His physique and features were increasingly resembling what he used to be, and having been one of the top-tier powerhouses and an exceptional talent on a planet… Even if he tried to conceal it, a trace of extraordinary aura would inevitably shine through.

Calling Lu Yuan “outstanding” was not an overstatement in the least.