"You shall be crushed... God's Defiler!"

Accompanied by a majestic and malevolent voice, atop the black fog-shrouded Demon Mountain, a grotesque figure with three elephant heads and six robust arms danced its colossal body. The massive elephant-head silhouette in the sky grew increasingly distinct, its single, evil-filled crimson eye coldly gazing at Lu Yuan.

Then, the black Demon Mountain began to tremble.

RUMBLE...

From the summit of Demon Mountain, enormous black boulders commenced their descent, rolling down one after another and hurtling towards Lu Yuan at an alarming speed.

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes, watching the boulders approach. He did not evade.

Instead, he slightly widened his stance.

He inhaled.

Then, aiming at the first massive black boulder that was mere inches away...

He unleashed a fierce punch!

BOOM!

The massive black boulder exploded, and then...

An enormous Elephant God Walk, trunk raised and mouth open, lunged out from within!

Lu Yuan was instantly stunned, his pupils contracting sharply.

BANG!

The regional bus jolted violently, and Lu Yuan's head gently knocked against the window.

Lu Jing's amused mumble reached his ears, "A guy who can smash rocks with one punch still falls asleep on the bus..."

Lu Yuan sat up straight, his expression unchanged. He nonchalantly wiped a corner of his mouth and said coolly, "Is there any necessary connection between the two?"

Just as Lu Jing was about to speak, a mischievous glint flashed in her eyes. She extended her hand towards him and said, "Let me play with your phone."

She probably took photos of me sleeping and wants to post them on WeChat Moments using my phone. Lu Yuan guessed.

He didn't refuse and readily handed over his phone.

However, before doing so, he quickly deleted all information related to Yellow Bear from his phone and locked the WeChat Moments posting feature.

Lu Yuan let Lu Jing fiddle with the phone, turning his head to gaze at the scenery drifting by at a leisurely pace.

He and Lu Jing were currently on their way to their grandfather Lu Yueping's home in the countryside of Burnt Rock City.

Lu Yuan had acquired a batch of cell repair potions from Yellow Bear and planned to use this opportunity to give them to his grandfather.

The bus ride from Lu Yuan's home to his grandfather Lu Yueping's village took nearly three hours.

Now, with less than half the journey remaining, Lu Yuan took the opportunity to open his profession panel.

He had killed an Elephant God Walk earlier, so his Fighter level had increased by one, earning him one attribute point and one skill point.

The skill point had been used to unlock the first core skill of Death Teller (Extraordinary): Panic Boiling.

This skill was quite useful. It could induce intense fear in opponents within a radius of about a hundred meters, achieving a forced crowd control effect. During his previous battle with Pei Ye, this move had completely suppressed Pei Ye, saving Lu Yuan considerable effort.

Successfully "hunting" Pei Ye had also caused his Spear Holder (Extraordinary) profession to level up.

So now, Lu Yuan had two attribute points and one skill point available.

I can use the two attribute points to increase my Intelligence by one, and this skill point...

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, then upgraded the third core skill of the Fighter profession, Unconquerable Instinct, by one level. Unconquerable Instinct was now Level 2.

He closed his eyes.

Activating Imaginary Enemy, he entered the Consciousness Space.

A few seconds later.

He opened his eyes.

A peculiar light shone in Lu Yuan's eyes. He couldn't help but click his tongue twice, drawing a puzzled glance from Lu Jing beside him. He immediately suppressed his delight and feigned nonchalance.

Because they were on the bus, and an attribute increase would inevitably cause some physical changes, Lu Yuan decided not to apply them yet, thinking he would wait until they reached his grandfather's place and find a suitable spot.

He closed the panel and focused his consciousness. A pale blue screen immediately appeared before his eyes.

The words "Flying Bear Technology - Network Initializing" flashed.

The first thing displayed was his phone's operating screen.

Just as Lu Yuan had expected, Lu Jing, having taken several pictures of him sleeping and edited a caption, was repeatedly tapping the "Post to Moments" button.

He could hear Lu Jing muttering beside him.

"Why is the network so bad... The signal is full... Weird..."

Lu Yuan found it amusing but ignored her, opening his Gold Bear message interface instead.

He found several messages Lan Chen, the "Merit-seeking Boy," had sent and began reading them one by one. The first was about the Light of Spirit, the key for non-Pure Martial systems to break through to double S-rank.

"...The concept of Light of Spirit is relatively abstract and difficult to describe in words.

"Essentially, it's a process of excavating and developing one's 'Id.'

"'Id'—you can understand it as a person's subconscious, what they desire most, their truest form...

"Every S+ who breaks through to double S-rank condenses a unique Light of Spirit, and the process of excavating and condensing it varies wildly.

"Due to matters of personal strength and privacy, I cannot disclose the details of my breakthrough process to you.

"I can only tell you this—try to do what you believe you should do most, and live the life you most want to live..."

Lan Chen's explanation was quite detailed. Although he didn't break it down completely for Lu Yuan, Lu Yuan could grasp the general idea.

To verify his understanding, Lu Yuan specifically searched for the breakthrough method of a Pure Martial Grandmaster. With his current access privileges, he found it quite easily.

And indeed, just as Lu Yuan had thought, the first step for a Pure Martial practitioner to break through to the Grandmaster Realm was—Enlightenment of the Mind!

'Understanding one's true heart, revealing their true nature'... this aligns with what Lan Chen said.

If Pure Martial, New Martial, and Modified paths all have the same method to break through to double S-rank, but New Martial and Modified paths have further progression, why has Pure Martial reached its limit? Is it solely due to the limitations of the physical body?

A thought flickered in Lu Yuan's eyes. He suddenly realized that the upper limit of a Pure Martial Grandmaster might be far higher than he had initially estimated!

It might exceed double S, perhaps reaching double S+, or even triple S... But it still wouldn't compare to beings on Yu Wentong's level.

The reason Pure Martial had declined while Penglai remained steadfast, even capable of tripping up a double S-level Flying Bear, instantly became clear.

His line of thought was clear in an instant.

Yet, Lu Yuan's headache intensified.

He had originally thought Penglai was merely an S-rank instance, then discovered it was double S, and now... the difficulty had escalated to triple S.

Fortunately, there's no time limit to clear this instance. I'm not in a hurry at this stage. I'll just wait until my strength improves and then proceed with the strategy...

This thought comforted Lu Yuan. He scrolled up his chat history with Lan Chen, found the link to the Secret Realm introduction he had sent earlier, and clicked on it.

[Secret Realm Classification], [Secret Realm Background], [Secret Realm Information], [Secret Realm Strategy], [Secret Realm Exploration], [Special Secret Realms]... More than a dozen such categories appeared before Lu Yuan.

He wasn't in a rush, clicking on each one to examine its contents.

Lu Yuan only stopped when the bus jostled to a halt at a fork in the road.

He glanced out the window, realized they had arrived, and called out to Lu Jing to get off.

Lu Jing just said, "Oh," stood up, and started walking, not even taking her backpack. Her eyes remained glued to Lu Yuan's phone. Her fingers flew across the screen, typing rapidly, a smile playing on her lips as if she were chatting with someone.

Lu Yuan found it puzzling as he picked up her bag.

He hurriedly checked his phone's screen via his own interface.

The result was...

Lu Jing was actually using his chat account to chat with Quiet Zhu Bao.

The two had already exchanged hundreds of messages.

He scrolled to the very top.

What met his eyes...

Were, unexpectedly, several photos of him sleeping that Lu Jing had sneakily taken.

After sending Xia Zhijing the photos of him sleeping, Lu Jing had cheekily added, "See? Isn't my brother handsome when he sleeps?"

Damn!

In that instant, Lu Yuan felt a flush of heat rise to his face; even his 21 points of Intelligence couldn't suppress the intense embarrassment. He roared, "Lu Jing, you stop right there!"

Lu Jing, who had just stepped off the bus, heard Lu Yuan's shout, clutched the phone, and bolted.

「Later that night.」

The night air was cool as water.

Lu Yuan strolled leisurely along a country path, flanked by harvested rice paddies.

All around was quiet; no sounds of insects or birds could be heard.

Only the occasional soft sigh of the night wind whispered past.

The autumn sky was clear, and the moon appeared unusually large and bright. The brilliant moonlight dusted the yellowed leaves on both sides of the country road, making them look as if they were covered with a delicate layer of frost.

Lu Yuan exhaled, his breath forming a visible white plume in the cool air.

His elder sister, Lu Jing, was at home watching TV with their grandfather, Lu Yueping. Feeling bored, Lu Yuan had decided to go for a walk and, while at it, allocate his attribute points.

Lu Yuan walked to a relatively high embankment overlooking the fields. He could vaguely make out the silhouette of distant mountains and the lights from the houses in the village they had come from.

The fields were deserted in the dead of night; it was nearly the agricultural off-season.

Lu Yuan quietly released his True Intention.

A vibrant, snow-bright Spirit Crane spread its wings and soared into the air.

The night winds seemed to converge on Lu Yuan, and he could clearly hear the currents of air flowing past.

Three meters, five meters, seven meters...

The massive Spirit Crane True Intention expanded to a height of nine meters before stopping.

It had originally been just over six meters, but Lu Yuan had experienced an unexpected breakthrough at home. Although his Intelligence on the attribute panel hadn't changed, his Spiritual Power had surged, pushing his True Intention to a height of nine meters.

The panel opened.

The two attribute points silently vanished. Then, on the attribute panel, the original 21 points for Intelligence quickly changed to 22.

[Intelligence: 22 (Break the Limit 1)]

Immediately following this, Lu Yuan's Spirit Crane True Intention began to expand rapidly.

From the original nine meters, it swelled to nearly fifteen meters in height before finally stopping.

The gigantic white crane flapped its wings gently, imbuing Lu Yuan with a sense of lightness and agility.

He quietly observed the white crane.

This was the true strength of his True Intention, without any buffs or status enhancements.

With a thought, the white crane instantly dispersed, transforming into a fifteen-meter-long White Dragon, then a great whale, and finally a black hole-like vortex...

He played around, switching between several True Intentions for a while before stopping.

He glanced at his Fighter profession panel and was surprised to find something.

The skill levels for [Spirit Crane True Intention], [Dragon Form True Intention], and [Giant Whale True Intention] on the panel now all read LV 3 (Max).

Lu Yuan was surprised for a moment, but then understanding dawned.

At the True Intention stage, ten meters is considered the limit for a True Intention. I only broke this limit by allocating attribute points... I didn't notice before; the panel probably already displayed LV 2 when the True Intention reached nine meters. Luckily, I didn't waste skill points upgrading True Intention; otherwise, that would have been a huge loss.

Lu Yuan mused.

Having reached this stage, he technically qualified to attempt breaking through to the Pure Martial Grandmaster Realm.

During 'Enlightenment of the Mind,' the True Intention continuously transforms and condenses, ultimately merging with the physical body, creating a Power Field unique to a Pure Martial Grandmaster...

As he mulled over the breakthrough method for a Grandmaster, Lu Yuan stood on the field ridge practicing the [Heavenly Domination Extravaganza] he had recently acquired, along with other Transverse Martial Arts techniques.

He planned to first brainstorm how to create the defensive techniques for the Martial God Atlas.

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