A full moon, the Black River, and fields of Other Shore Flowers swaying in the wind, covering the mountains and plains.

And...

A woman bathing in the Black River.

Is she waiting for me in the river this time?

Lu Yuan watched the alluring woman in the black dress standing silently in the Netherworld River, her back to him, and wondered.

He was now amidst a lush patch of Other Shore Flowers.

Having been mentally prepared, he didn't find it too surprising.

Could she be the legendary Death Teller goddess, Lamashtu?

With his previous experience, Lu Yuan had no intention of wading into the Black River this time.

He simply sat down where he was, gazing at the woman in the Black River and letting his imagination run wild.

The woman in the black dress had her back to him, making it impossible to see her face.

But her figure was incredibly seductive.

Her long hair and the black, openwork-patterned dress were soaked by the river water, spreading gently on the surface.

The bright moonlight shattered on the river surface into silvery fragments, which the woman scooped up with her hands, lifted high above her head, and then let flow slowly down her arms.

She repeated this action, as if she were bathing.

Or perhaps she was dancing in the river...

He didn't know how much time had passed.

CLICK!

Lu Yuan jerked his head up, startled awake at his desk.

The small alarm clock beside him was ticking rapidly, displaying 03:23 AM.

Has so much time passed already?

Lu Yuan was stunned. He remembered watching the black-dressed woman, possibly Lamashtu, bathing in the river in his Crow Dreamscape.

He had been waiting for her to turn around.

Waiting and waiting...

Then he suddenly woke up.

Forget it, this dreamscape isn't important.

Lu Yuan shook his head, temporarily pushing the matter of the Crow Dreamscape to the back of his mind.

He then pulled up his Occupation Panel.

[Occupation: Death Teller (Extraordinary)

LV3 (132/400)]

Occupation Experience increased by more than a hundred points...

Lu Yuan saw the gain in Experience Points on the panel and found it roughly matched his estimate.

The "Experience Pill" this time was too small, not even a third of the last one.

Lu Yuan was quite surprised to have gained over a hundred Occupation Experience Points.

He glanced at his four basic attributes; none had changed.

But it seems like my Intelligence has increased; it just hasn't hit a full point, so it's not showing...

Lu Yuan tried using his Spiritual Power and found its detection range had expanded somewhat compared to his earlier experiments outside.

It was about 12 meters now.

Sitting at his desk, he could extend his Spiritual Power to the second-floor homes across the street.

The higher the Intelligence, the greater the detection range of Spiritual Power, and the stronger the effects of several skills linked to Spiritual Power.

For example, LV2 [Crow Language].

After the increase in Intelligence, Lu Yuan could more easily control crows to do things and detect the information and images flowing in his crow underlings' minds, even from a great distance.

Very convenient.

The potency of [Crane Shadow Floating in the Air] also seems to have increased...

Lu Yuan wasn't entirely sure about this.

His judgment was based on the increased clarity and detail in the visions that rolled through his mind after each activation of [Crane Shadow Floating in the Air], following the increase in Intelligence.

The only thing that puzzled him, whether it was good or bad, was that the illusions from the Crow Dreamscape were increasingly interfering with Crane Shadow Floating in the Air.

For example, with the punch he threw when killing the Crow Divine Servant tonight, he could barely distinguish if his punch was Spirit Crane Drill Sky or Crow Raiding the Moon.

This always happened when he used [Circulation of Death Qi] in combination with [Crane Shadow Floating in the Air].

If this continues, could these two skills really merge into a new one?

A small sense of anticipation filled Lu Yuan's heart.

Suddenly, he remembered that his [Circulation of Death Qi] had already risen to almost LV3.

He hadn't tried it yet.

"[Circulation of Death Qi]!"

Lu Yuan immediately tried to activate the skill.

Very quickly, a large amount of black Death Qi condensed on his body.

It was much denser than at LV1.

All gathered together, the rich Death Qi completely enveloped one of Lu Yuan's arms.

He lightly moved his fingers.

Watching the black qi—like smoke and mist, like silk yet also like flames—twining and flowing around his pale fingers, the image was incredibly striking.

It was like an awakened protagonist in a comic or the special effects after unlocking premium equipment in a game.

It was... incredibly cool.

Totally badass!

Lu Yuan stood before the mirror, letting the Death Qi flow over him, admiring the effect for a while before deactivating the skill.

The LV2 [Circulation of Death Qi]'s added defense-piercing effect is much stronger now...

These were more or less the gains on the [Death Teller (Extraordinary)] panel.

The rest was the increase in Experience Points on the [Fighter] panel.

Advanced Fist Skills, Advanced Leg Skill, and so on all increased a bit. The largest increase was in Occupation Experience, nearly four hundred points.

It was more than when Lu Yuan had defeated Power King.

If these two fought, Power King might not necessarily be a match for the Crow Divine Servant. A ton of Fist Strength might not break through the Death Qi defense, and if the Crow Divine Servant could fly, Power King would have no chance at all...

Lu Yuan glanced and saw his [Fighter] LV6 Experience Points were now (2066/3200).

Unconsciously, he was much closer to the next level.

BEEP.

Switching off the air conditioner, Lu Yuan reopened the tightly closed windows and curtains.

The cool night breeze and moonlight streamed in together.

Lu Yuan went to the window, looking at the quiet, lamplit street below, and silently pondered: That one in the west of the city... should I go slaughter it too?...

「Later.」

BANG! BANG, BANG! BANG, BANG, BANG!

Dull thuds, like a club striking a rubber tire, echoed in the room.

Lu Yuan, holding a specially made iron rod, continuously struck various parts of his body, sometimes lightly, sometimes heavily.

He wore only a pair of black boxer shorts, his muscles slightly bulging. In the stuffy little room, he seemed to be radiating heat.

His body was covered in purplish-red welts from the rod.

Yet, he seemed unaffected, continuing his routine.

Once he had struck himself sufficiently, Lu Yuan put down the iron rod and immediately began practicing the Spirit Crane Body movements.

Under the strain of the Spirit Crane Body movements, his well-defined muscles flowed like mercury.

He didn't know how many movements he had practiced when, suddenly...

TWANG—

It sounded like a bowstring suddenly drawn taut.

While practicing the Spirit Crane Body, Lu Yuan's figure trembled, and then all his muscles began to ripple and contract.

They became increasingly firm and dense.

Through the surface of his skin, one could faintly see muscle fibers underneath, seemingly coiled like steel wires.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK—

Accompanied by a series of crisp bone-popping sounds.

Sweat suddenly poured from Lu Yuan's body, dripping and trickling like rain, forming large puddles on the floor.

When all the changes had ceased, Lu Yuan seemed completely transformed.

CREAK—

Lu Yuan slightly twisted his neck and immediately heard an unnerving, grating sound from his neck muscles.

It was as if countless steel springs were being slowly stretched.

Other parts of his body felt much the same.

He lightly flicked his fingers.

SNAP!

Easily, he produced a crisp crack in the air.

So powerful...

Lu Yuan looked at his own hands, impressed despite himself.

This strength didn't refer to power, but to pure physique!

Just now, he had finally broken through to LV3 of [Spirit Crane Body], initially completing the Muscle Tempering Realm cultivation.

The result was that his Constitution increased by another point, and his Agility... increased by a full 2 points at once!

Now Lu Yuan's attribute panel read—

[Strength: 15]

[Agility: 16]

[Constitution: 17]

[Intelligence: 15]

[Spirit Crane Body] was a breakthrough skill. The gap between LV2 (199/200) and LV3 (0/400) seemed to be only 1 Experience Point, but in reality, the difference was immense.

But Lu Yuan hadn't expected the difference to be this big.

Setting aside the direct increase in attribute points, he could clearly feel an exaggerated improvement in his muscle density and strength.

Furthermore, the muscles throughout his body felt like a single, solid unit, like an iron plate.

I'm getting closer and closer to the physique of Lin Zhiquin and Qin Feng. If I continue with Cultivating Bone and Practicing Organs, sooner or later I'll be like them, or even stronger...

Because Lu Yuan's constitution could be infinitely enhanced through allocating points, it had no upper limit; his potential was boundless.

[Spirit Crane Body] providing two points of Agility all at once was unexpected... Has the Agility-focused body tempering style of the Crane Sect finally begun to manifest, starting from the Muscle Tempering Realm?

Lu Yuan, stepping on the sweat splattered on the floor, strode to the full-length mirror.

In the mirror, after the 2-point increase in Agility, he had once again returned to a slender and well-proportioned physique.

Moreover, he looked even better than before.

He seemed to have gained a trace of nimble and vigorous temperament.

Like a crane?

WHOOSH—

Lu Yuan briskly pulled open the curtains and opened the window to ventilate the stuffy room.

HONK—

Car horns blared from the road below, and pedestrians hurried to and fro.

Lu Yuan watched this scene, his expression becoming slightly peculiar.

He found that whenever he looked at moving things, it was like watching a slow-motion scene in a movie, or a video playing at 0.5x speed.

The image was unbearably slow.

Is it because my nerve reaction speed has increased so much all at once that I haven't adjusted yet?

Lu Yuan quickly figured it out.

It was even more novel.

He used to read descriptions in those fantasy novels where the protagonist gets a "golden finger" at the start, undergoes a complete transformation, and then, when fighting some thugs, sees them attacking with a knife in slow motion, just like in the movies. He had always scoffed at such plots. He never expected it to actually happen to him one day. It was exactly like that, true movie slow motion! Those predecessors described it so well...

I wonder if I could dodge bullets?

Lu Yuan looked at the "slow-motion scene" before his eyes—which was gradually returning to normal as his brain and nerves self-adjusted and adapted—and this thought suddenly popped into his head.

He carefully analyzed the feasibility of this idea.

The final conclusion he reached was—with preparation, he could definitely try. His current explosive speed and nerve reaction speed had already reached a level where dodging bullets might be possible. What he mainly lacked... was actually courage and experience.

Lu Yuan stood by the window, waiting until the "scene" before his eyes completely returned to normal.

Only then did he get dressed and leave the bedroom.

First, he went to the kitchen, took a kitchen knife, and aimed a chop at his own arm.

TWANG—

With about thirty percent of his strength, the sharp edge of the kitchen knife struck Lu Yuan's tensed muscles, only to be deflected, sliding away. Only a faint white mark remained where it had hit.

His ability to disperse force was much stronger than during his skin tempering phase.

Lu Yuan was quite satisfied.

Following this, he quickly left the house.

He went up the stairs to the rooftop terrace.

Standing on the edge of the rooftop, he looked down at the narrow road below and the pedestrians who appeared like black dots.

He considered whether to jump. Lu Yuan wanted to test what level his current Agility had reached—whether he could perform qinggong like in martial arts novels, scaling walls and leaping across rooftops with ease.

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