Chapter 97 – The Ultimate Punch, [Killer Move—Spirit Crane Technique!]

Lu Yuan slowly opened the express delivery.

Inside the brown cardboard box was another box.

Silver-grey, with a matte finish, it looked quite high-end.

This box wasn’t locked; a light press on the switch opened it.

Inside, there were two items.

A tablet and a palm-sized black box.

Lu Yuan picked up the black box and examined it, but couldn’t find a way to open it further.

It was tightly sealed and quite heavy, probably around five or six pounds. He had no idea what was inside.

He could only turn his attention to the tablet.

The tablet was sleek, with no symbols or letters on it.

A light tap on the screen and it powered on automatically.

Then a video started playing.

Two minutes later, after watching the entire video, Lu Yuan’s expression turned a bit peculiar.

The video wasn’t long and mainly discussed two things.

First, Zhou Ling briefly explained that he wasn’t dead. Second, it provided detailed information about the black box now on Lu Yuan’s lap.

This thing turned out to be a “bomb”! A high-tech “trap” device developed by the Yellow Bear organization.

Its targets were large beasts or mutated monsters infected with Evil Power.

“Evil Power.”

Lu Yuan learned a new term.

He guessed that it was a general term used by the Yellow Bear organization for the death energy of the Crow Deity sect and the grey aura from the Ratman.

Once activated, this device would release a “trap signal,” attracting the target to approach voluntarily.

When the target got within a certain range, then—

“Boom,” it would explode, killing the target instantly.

Simple and brutal.

“Anything below the Divine Servant level has no chance of survival. Before using it, find a suitable place to set it up.”

Lu Yuan watched the entire video again, carefully memorizing the whole operation process.

His fondness for Zhou Ling was growing.

Zhou Ling actually remembered the “Ratman” issue he had mentioned and sent something to help him solve this problem even after “dying.”

It felt like Zhou Ling considered him a friend.

“Saved me a lot of trouble, truly a timely help.”

Lu Yuan took out the tablet and put the black box back into the packaging.

In a good mood, he stood up from the bench, carrying the box.

He held the box in one hand and the tablet in the other as he walked out of the park.

At this moment, the tablet displayed an open map app.

Unlike a regular mobile phone map, this map had a particularly noticeable red area.

This was the activity area of the Rat Monster that the Yellow Bear organization had detected for Lu Yuan.

The entrapment device had to be placed within this area; otherwise, the signal wouldn’t reach the target and the device wouldn’t have the intended effect.

Lu Yuan zoomed in on the red area on the map and compared it with the locations his crow assistants had scouted.

None of them matched.

He was secretly grateful that Zhou Ling’s express delivery arrived in time; otherwise, it would have been a lot of wasted effort.

He then found a suitable location on the map—

An abandoned vehicle lot in the east district outskirts.

“Not many people, the terrain is relatively flat and open, and if an explosion happens, I can blame it on the cars.”

With his mind made up, Lu Yuan didn’t delay.

He immediately hailed a taxi and headed straight to the location.

“Helping my bro pick a budget car under three thousand.”

“Congrats to my bro from 2008 for getting a 1989 Xiali!”

“In the age of interstellar migration, yet you don’t even have a car? Come to my live stream.”

Upon arriving, no one stopped him, and Lu Yuan saw a few people holding their mobile phones, seemingly filming short videos.

Despite the blazing sun, these people were full of enthusiasm.

Lu Yuan paid them no mind and walked straight into the depths of the scrapyard.

Walking among the Scrap Cars felt like navigating a forest of decaying steel carcasses.

He finally reached a very secluded spot where he could see the farmlands on the outskirts of Jiaoyan City in the distance. Only then did Lu Yuan stop.

He checked the time; it was now 9:49 AM.

The sun was getting harsh.

Lu Yuan walked to the center of a sunlit clearing, carrying the box. He opened it and, following the instructions from the video, found the corresponding “activate” and “detonate” buttons on the tablet, pressing the activate button.

The device was quite smart.

Even if the operator accidentally pressed the detonate button, it wouldn’t explode suddenly.

It had a unique identification program inside to prevent accidental detonations.

After activation, there wasn’t any noticeable effect.

However, Lu Yuan’s Mental Power keenly sensed that the black box in front of him was emitting special frequency mental waves.

It was similar to when he used the [Crow Language] skill to summon his crow assistants.

“So that’s what the so-called entrapment signal is—a mental thing. No wonder.”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel a bit amazed, not expecting the Yellow Bear’s technology to have reached this level.

Decoding the extraordinary?

It was hard to imagine how they managed to do it.

After the device was activated, a flashing red dot quickly appeared in the red area of the map on the tablet.

No doubt, it represented the Cavern Monster that Lu Yuan was looking for.

It was rapidly approaching Lu Yuan’s current location.

“Entrapment successful.”

Lu Yuan watched the dot continuously moving closer on the screen.

In about ten minutes, there was a sudden commotion from the direction directly in front of him.

It started with a “thump” sound.

It seemed like it was still far away.

But it quickly got closer.

“Bang—”

“Thump—”

It sounded like something heavily striking a metal sheet.

With each strike, the sound got closer.

In Lu Yuan’s mind, an image formed—

A creature similar to a Ratman.

Running and leaping on the tops of Scrap Cars, each burst of strength propelling it a significant distance forward.

Finally.

“Boom!”

A loud thud echoed from about a few dozen meters in front of Lu Yuan.

He instinctively looked up.

Then he saw a tall stack of four or five Scrap Cars, piled like a small tower, slightly shaking.

Then, from the back of a Scrap Car at the top of the stack, a creature slowly emerged.

It was a hideous, enormous monster.

Its face protruded forward, with a deformed head resembling a Rat that hadn’t been fully skinned.

Its eyes were unusually large, glinting with a savage, bloodthirsty light.

Its mouth had blood-red gums that turned outward, revealing rows of sharp, interlocking teeth from which semi-transparent saliva dripped.

With a sudden leap from the top of the four or five-meter-high car stack, it landed on the ground with a “thud.”

Its grotesque body was now fully visible.

Standing over two meters tall, its muscles were extraordinarily developed.

Its forelimbs, naturally hanging down, had claws as sharp as knives, with tendrils of grey aura visibly entwined around its body.

A fierce, violent aura spread out in all directions like a flood.

Feeling the increasingly oppressive atmosphere, Lu Yuan’s heartbeat quickened, and his blood surged through his veins.

A strange emotion rapidly spread through his chest.

“All that’s left is for it to step into the device’s detonation range, then press the detonate button.”

“This thing will be blown to pieces, reduced to nothing.”

“All it takes is a simple press of a button.”

“No risk involved.”

“Easy, isn’t it?”

Lu Yuan murmured to himself, looking at the tablet in his hand.

A strange gleam began to rise in his eyes.

As it completely took over his gaze, Lu Yuan’s expression calmed.

He closed his eyes.

A few seconds later, he opened them again.

As the Rat Monster continued to approach the black box, Lu Yuan slowly took off the backpack from his shoulder.

He placed it on the ground along with the tablet.

He stepped forward, moving entirely into the sunlight.

The mid-morning sun bathed him in golden light.

It was blinding and brought with it a slight burning sensation.

Something hidden beneath Lu Yuan’s skin seemed to ignite as well.

Lu Yuan casually twisted his neck and limbs, producing a series of light bone-cracking sounds, much like a machine slowly coming to life with a “click-clack” noise.

Step by step, he walked forward, heading towards the Rat Monster.

He muttered to himself.

“Why rely on external forces?”

“It’s not like I can’t handle it myself.”

“The surgery is expected to take a total of one hour and twenty-three minutes. You can find something to do, maybe watch some shows or something.”

In a spotless room, a doctor dressed in a pristine white sterile suit casually spoke to Zhou Ling, who was lying on the operating table.

Zhou Ling nodded, feeling the anesthesia gradually spreading through his body, quickly rendering his entire left leg numb.

Over the next hour or so, the surgeon would completely open up his left leg, remove the remaining bones, and complete the second phase of the left leg’s transformation.

Body modification is a cumbersome process, especially full-body modification.

The overall cycle is quite lengthy.

Adding in the recovery, familiarization, and integration of the new body, it would take Zhou Ling a considerable amount of time to fully regain the strength and condition of his previous body.

But who could blame him for “dying” once?

Having the chance to recover was already extremely fortunate.

Many White Bear Guards, like him, who “died” due to their own mistakes, couldn’t afford the high costs of a second modification after being revived.

They either had to start over from the bottom or choose to quietly exit.

They lived with their cloned bodies like ordinary people until they aged and died naturally, their consciousness stored in the data bank becoming an unnoticed piece of code.

He was lucky; he could “reload the save” and start again.

He had even made significant progress towards advancing to the rank of Red Bear Guard.

Compared to the merits gained from completing this mission, the cost was negligible.

“I wonder if Lu Yuan has received my express delivery?”

Zhou Ling instinctively thought of someone, a slight smile forming on his lips.

He then gently tapped a spot on his left forearm, and soon a blue light shot out from beneath his skin, projecting a virtual screen in front of him.

An image appeared on the screen.

A junkyard filled with abandoned vehicles.

In the shadow of a distant corner, a young man stood, head lowered, checking a tablet.

During non-execution periods, Zhou Ling couldn’t access the Old City’s surveillance satellite footage.

But the black box he sent to Lu Yuan was equipped with a video monitoring function. As long as the device was activated, it could capture the scenes within a hundred-meter radius.

“Team Leader Zhou is truly on his way to becoming a Red Bear Guard,”

The surgeon, who was shaving Zhou Ling’s leg, glanced at the virtual screen suspended in front of Zhou Ling and casually remarked, “Even on medical leave, you’re still guiding your subordinates.”

“Haha.”

Zhou Ling responded with a dry laugh, then continued to focus on the screen.

“Lu Yuan is already using it. Seems like he’s been pretty anxious lately.”

Zhou Ling casually brought up two files.

One was simple, displaying a photo of a middle-aged man with a kind face, accompanied by a few brief lines.

“Xu Shumin

Male, 42 years old, resident of Fudong District, Jiaoyan City

Accidentally consumed mutated rat meat from the Cavern Sect, infected by Evil Power

Power Assessment Rating: D”

The other file was much more detailed, showing a photo of a handsome young man with clear eyes.

“Lu Yuan

Male, 17 years old, currently residing in Fuxi District, Jiaoyan City, and studying at No.4 Senior High School.

Power Assessment Rating: D-

Potential Assessment Rating: B-

Evaluation: Potential New Blood”

Zhou Ling glanced over Lu Yuan’s file quickly, having reviewed it many times before.

His main focus was the information in the first file.

“Mutated for less than two months, Power Rating D. This basic entrapment device should be sufficient to handle it.

Once the kid finishes, I’ll call the Jiaoyan police to handle it promptly.”

Zhou Ling’s eyes flickered slightly as he calculated in his mind.

“Pssh—”

A soft sound came from below. Zhou Ling looked down to see his left leg’s muscle had been sliced open like sashimi.

He turned back nonchalantly and continued watching the screen in front of him.

At this moment, the screen began to change.

A hideous and terrifying figure appeared.

It looked like a monster straight out of a sci-fi movie, leaping and bounding across the rooftops of scrap cars.

With each jump, it covered dozens of meters.

With each landing, it smashed the cars beneath it, leaving huge dents.

Even through the screen, one could feel its wild, destructive aura.

Zhou Ling stared at the approaching monster for a few seconds, his brows gradually knitting together.

“This isn’t the power of a level D!”

“Reassess the power rating!”

Data streamed rapidly across the virtual screen.

Soon, the information on the first file changed.

In the Power Assessment Rating section, a glaring “+” appeared next to the original level D.

Zhou Ling’s eyes narrowed, but he remained composed.

“There’s a discrepancy in the power assessment. Was it due to insufficient data collection last time, or has its mutation deepened over this period?

It’s possible. That batch of smuggled rat meat totaled two pounds. Maybe it hadn’t fully digested it last time.”

Zhou Ling thought for a moment, “It hasn’t reached level C, so the basic entrapment device should still work, as long as Lu Yuan doesn’t mess things up.”

Zhou Ling instinctively glanced at the boy on the screen.

The boy had put down his tablet and was staring intently at the approaching Cavern Monster.

“He’s calm and steady. He shouldn’t make any mistakes.”

This was one of the reasons Zhou Ling dared to send the device directly to him.

Just as he was thinking this, the Cavern Monster on the screen suddenly let out a low roar, and its aura became violently intense.

A grey aura surged around it, making its already grotesque form even more menacing.

Zhou Ling’s expression grew serious, and he instinctively reassessed the power rating.

As data flashed by, the information on the first file changed again.

The original D+ rating silently transformed into C-!

“Damn it!”

Zhou Ling slammed his hand against the bed rail, prompting a reminder from the surgeon.

“Team Leader Zhou, please don’t move too much. It affects my work.”

“Oh, sorry.”

Zhou Ling’s expression shifted rapidly before he made a decision and dialed a number.

The call connected.

A cold female voice answered.

“What’s up? Speak.”

“I need another favor.”

Zhou Ling’s eyes remained glued to the virtual screen as he quickly spoke, “Send someone to coordinates xxx, xxx immediately. There’s a Cavern Monster there with a Power Rating of level C—huh?!”

Before he could finish, his voice abruptly stopped.

His eyes widened, staring intently at the screen.

“What? Why aren’t you talking?”

The woman’s voice on the other end sounded impatient.

Zhou Ling seemed oblivious, fixated on the screen.

In the display, the boy who had been standing in the shade, remotely controlling his tablet, was now calmly removing items from his hands and back, placing them on the ground.

Then,

With a serene expression, he began walking step by step toward the Rat Monster.

His body swayed slightly as he walked, as if warming up.

“What’s this kid trying to do? Doesn’t he see the danger?”

“Is he crazy?!”

Thick grey aura swirled around the Rat Monster like waves, forming columns of energy that it inhaled through its mouth and nose.

The Rat Monster’s state was abnormal.

Its eyes were bloodshot, veins bulged under its skin, and it clutched its head with its front paws, appearing in extreme pain.

“Is this caused by the entrapment device?”

Lu Yuan glanced at the black box he had just stepped over, somewhat surprised.

“It seems stronger than when it was an imaginary enemy during practice.”

“No matter.”

Lu Yuan’s expression remained calm as he meticulously adjusted his muscles.

He felt he was in an incredibly peculiar and subtle state.

His mind was at peace, thoughts active, ears filled with the sounds of cicadas and wind from a hundred meters away.

He smelled the rust and faint blood and stench emanating from the Rat Monster.

In his heart, there seemed to be an ice lake.

And beneath that ice, molten lava constantly churned.

Tranquility and chaos, extreme stillness and extreme movement.

This was undoubtedly the best state Lu Yuan had ever been in during his martial arts practice.

Now, all he needed to do was throw his punches without distraction.

“Roar!”

At that moment, the Rat Monster let out an enraged howl.

The ground beneath it exploded, and it shot towards Lu Yuan like an arrow released from a bow.

Its violent momentum was like a flood, driving the air into a frenzy, carrying a thick stench that blew Lu Yuan’s hair back.

In that instant,

Time seemed to stretch infinitely.

Lu Yuan’s pupils quietly expanded.

“Whoosh—”

The sound of tides surging.

His muscles rippled violently like waves, and Lu Yuan’s entire body appeared to swell slightly.

As he entered a state of absolute concentration, all his focus, will, belief, and strength converged to a single point, like mercury.

Even the air seemed to grow thicker.

It was as if a bowstring had been drawn to its limit.

Tightening.

Tightening.

Tightening to the utmost extreme.

Finally,

An explosion!

“Bang!”

Lu Yuan suddenly threw a punch.

His dark green fist created visible white ripples in the air.

As his arm extended to its fullest,

It struck the oncoming Rat Monster squarely.

The creature didn’t even have time to make a sound before its head exploded like a punctured water balloon.

Foul-smelling blood sprayed everywhere, falling like mist onto Lu Yuan’s face and body.

Lu Yuan, however, closed his eyes, seemingly oblivious, with a faint smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

In his mind, the cry of a crane resounded, echoing through the heavens and earth.

The mist that had obscured his vision for so long dissipated entirely at that moment.

A graceful and agile white crane soared, maneuvered, and cried out joyfully.

Deeper within, on the professional panel belonging to the martial artist,

A grey dot, suspended in the darkness, shone like the morning star.

A notification quietly appeared—

[Congratulations, you have unlocked the professional killer skill: Sky Water Stream Crane Style Boxing Techniques Ultimate True Skill—Spirit Crane Technique: Crane Shadow Float!]

The feeling of breaking through was truly wonderful.