"I heard you were injured recently?"

In a bright, clean room, Song Cong and Su Zhaohui sat facing each other. Outside the large floor-to-ceiling window was a never-ending river of Fly Shuttles, seemingly without end, eternally in motion.

Song Cong nodded and said faintly, "The Vine Whale Sea is the sub-Legendary Secret Realm closest to the Legendary Level. It's normal to get hurt; coming out unscathed would be strange..."

Wearing a black casual denim jacket with an open collar, Su Zhaohui looked particularly casual and unrestrained today. He picked up the square wine glass beside him, took a light sip, and sighed, "Old Song, we're both getting on in years. Why push yourself so hard? Why not just wait for retirement like me?"

"I'm different from you. I still want to break through to SS-rank in this lifetime..." Gazing out the window, Song Cong spoke in a low, melancholic voice, "Actually, this time in the Vine Whale Sea, I was on the verge of condensing the Light of Spirit, but unfortunately..."

Song Cong shook his head, not finishing his sentence.

Su Zhaohui's eyes flickered. He remained silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Do you know that the nine Legendary Secret Realms are about to open?"

Song Cong's expression shifted subtly, and he nodded. "I've heard."

"I received some news. The higher-ups are taking this upcoming exploration of the Legendary Secret Realm very seriously. It seems to involve something extremely important. The joint task force might even adopt a cooperative-competitive format. Besides the rewards from the Secret Realm itself, those who rank high in the competition will receive additional rewards... The Distant Star Federation has always been more advanced in their research on the Light of Spirit than we are. If we could obtain their breakthrough technique, it might be a great help to you."

"They'd be willing to offer up such a core technique?" Song Cong couldn't help but frown.

Su Zhaohui said lightly, "A method to condense first-grade Light of Spirit hardly counts as a core technique... To put it bluntly, it's just a resource exchange. After this Legendary Secret Realm exploration, a large number of high-level experts will likely emerge..."

Song Cong nodded thoughtfully. "I understand."

"Old Song, I'm rooting for you. This is all the help I can offer. If you get promoted to Flying Bear, don't forget about me! Let me ride your coattails!" Su Zhaohui raised his wine glass to Song Cong in a toast, making a gesture of premature celebration, and said half-jokingly.

After a moment, as if recalling something, he casually asked, "Speaking of which, last time I asked you to take in that fellow... Zhou Zhou, was it..?"

"Zhou Ling."

"Right, taking in that 'White Bear' Zhou Ling, and cultivating him carefully. Did you manage to establish a connection with Lord Tong?"

Song Cong remained silent. With a nonchalant expression, he opened the contact list on his communicator, selected a chat history, and showed it to Su Zhaohui.

The moment Su Zhaohui glimpsed the name "Divine Blood Lu Yuan," his pupils constricted, and he instinctively sat up straighter.

"Not bad, Old Song! You've certainly got your methods, managing to connect with him so quickly. And he even calls you Senior!" Su Zhaohui gave Song Cong a thumbs-up, looking at him with newfound respect.

The corner of Song Cong's mouth twitched slightly as he said modestly, "Actually, it was just a coincidence. Lu Yuan wanted to train in the Lament Ruins, and it just so happened that Xie Jun was forming a team to go there, so I had Xie Jun take him along..."

"Xie Jun really lucked out this time..." Su Zhaohui couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement. "If he knew Lu Yuan worked for Lord Tong, Lord Tong would owe him a favor for taking Lu Yuan along just once. Wouldn't he be overjoyed?!"

"Let me finish." Song Cong exhaled lightly and said with a hint of regret, "Xie Jun didn't want to babysit and delay his own mission. And Lu Yuan, well, he's also proud and arrogant... so it didn't work out in the end."

"Hah!" Su Zhaohui slapped his thigh. "That's a relief. That Xie Jun, his abilities are average, but he's notorious for his bad temper. Seeing him get lucky is worse than being unlucky myself... This Xie Jun, he really can't seize an opportunity even when it's handed to him, can he?"

Song Cong looked speechlessly at Su Zhaohui's gloating expression.

Su Zhaohui chuckled for a moment, then turned back to Song Cong and said with a smile, "Although it didn't work out, you genuinely put in the effort. If Lord Tong knew, he'd have to commend you for being so considerate. By the way, who did Lu Yuan end up entering the Secret Realm with?"

"No one. He went in by himself."

"By himself? Alone? For his first time?" Su Zhaohui's eyebrow twitched, his gaze flickered, and his expression suddenly turned serious. "Did you tell him about the forbidden zone inside the Lament Ruins?"

"Of course," Song Cong nodded. "I specifically warned him many times, telling him he absolutely must not go near it."

"That's good." Su Zhaohui nodded, his expression relaxing slightly, only to become somewhat complicated again.

"The Lament Ruins... I remember Old Zhao died in that forbidden zone, didn't he? Later, the higher-ups even organized three Flying Bears to go in again, but only one came out..." Su Zhaohui seemed to be stirred by past memories, his voice tinged with deep emotion.

Song Cong also nodded, his expression complex, and said in a low voice, "Fortunately, that forbidden zone has shrunk now, and the method of entry has become much more complicated. Unless someone is incredibly unlucky and stumbles in by accident, an ordinary person couldn't get in even if they wanted to... The danger level in other areas is about the same as a typical S-rank Secret Realm. With Lu Yuan's strength, moving freely might be difficult, but self-preservation definitely won't be an issue..."

"That's good." Su Zhaohui raised his wine glass, took a sip, and sighed softly.

「 」

WHOOSH—

Lu Yuan's arms spun like windmill blades. His figure, moving through the dense Death Qi, left a dragon-shaped trajectory—a black streak tinged with a faint red tail flame. His left and right hands clamped down fiercely on the heads of two Crow God Knights.

He brought his hands together in front of him, grabbing the two over-two-meter-tall, stalwart figures and violently smashing them into each other.

BOOM!

Lu Yuan watched as their heavy armor, condensed from Death Qi, buckled and shattered from the impact like porcelain. He clapped his hands together, lightly crushing the two heads, still encased in their Death Qi helmets, between his palms.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH!—

Lu Yuan landed softly. His black wings, over five meters long, unfurled behind his powerful frame, Death Qi flaring around him like magnificent, untamed fireworks. His hands hung naturally at his sides. The black sand, all that remained of the two perished Crow God Knights as their bodies weathered away, trickled slowly through his fingers.

He calmly regarded the figure straight ahead, enveloped in a large black cloak. He watched as two withered, slender black arms extended from beneath it, holding a massive black tome. Waves of eerie mental fluctuations emanated from the figure. Lu Yuan tried to decipher them but couldn't make out a single syllable.

All I can tell is... it must be chanting!

"I'll give you time for your skill to charge..." Lu Yuan remarked nonchalantly.

His gaze then shifted downwards, casually scanning his surroundings. He soon spotted a greatsword lying discarded on the ground—the weapon of one of the two Crow God Knights he had just slain. Lu Yuan picked it up casually.

This cross-shaped, two-handed greatsword was nearly two meters long, its hilt almost half a meter. It was broad and heavy. The blade bore numerous rust stains and its edge was riddled with nicks; inscriptions seemed to have once adorned the hilt, but they had been deliberately erased.

Lu Yuan gripped the longsword in a reverse hold, its tip aimed at the "chanting" black-robed figure. His eyes narrowed slightly. The muscles in his right arm, which held the hilt, began to swell, and blue veins bulged like earthworms across its surface. The black wings on his back spontaneously disintegrated, transforming into streams of Death Qi that coursed over his body and converged upon the longsword in his hand.

After successive battles, Lu Yuan's control over Death Qi had reached a new realm. He couldn't condense a weapon purely from Death Qi that was strong enough to withstand the immense power of his physical body. However... if he had a solid, physical weapon to serve as a core, then it was possible.

As the black-robed figure "chanted," a vast amount of Death Qi in the square began to converge on it, gradually forming an enormous vortex of Death Qi. The Death Qi within the vortex churned violently, as if some terrifying entity was about to crawl out. Meanwhile, the Death Qi around Lu Yuan's hands was also gathering, seemingly vying with the figure for control over the Death Qi in the area.

The longsword he held was now completely obscured, its original contours invisible beneath the accumulated Death Qi. Large amounts of Death Qi converged and solidified on the sword, even taking on a faint, crystalline luster. Once Lu Yuan had channeled all the Death Qi mobilizable by his Lv. 9 [Circulation of Death Qi] skill onto the longsword, his entire aura surged to a new peak.

On his back, the blood-red lotus eye hidden beneath his deep blue combat suit twitched and then snapped fully open.

SNAP!

Lu Yuan's body shot forward like a bowstring stretched taut to its limit and then suddenly released. On his [Weapons Master] panel, the Lv. 4 [Basic Throw] skill flared with light.

In that instant, Lu Yuan's arm vanished. The "black lance" in his hand—over three meters long and half a meter thick, wreathed in Death Qi—tore free with the roar of an angry dragon. It left a long, clearly visible, transparently distorted trail in its wake.

Finally...

BOOM!

The chant-like mental fluctuations ceased abruptly. The vortex of Death Qi above the square froze for an instant, then gradually dispersed.

Lu Yuan gazed straight ahead. Over a hundred meters away, a black robe was impaled against a gray wall by the broken shaft of the sword. The massive black tome fell from the black-robed figure's grasp. Its entire being, like paper consumed by fire, rapidly disintegrated into flakes of black ash and dispersed...

"I said I'd give you time for your skill to charge, but I never said I'd let you finish..." Lu Yuan spread his hands lightly, the battle concluded, and casually glanced around.

By now, the square was littered with the black sand remains of Death Qi Monsters. He couldn't recall how many he had crushed in this battle; he had just kept killing, like mowing grass, until no new monsters appeared before him. It seemed he had likely cleared out most, if not all, of the Death Qi Monsters wandering within Maple Dew City, this so-called City of Ruins.

Lu Yuan activated [Crow Language], summoning a large flock of Dead Spirit Crows to help him collect the black beads left behind by the Death Qi Monsters among the remains.

He glanced at his panel, as usual. His [Fighter] class experience had increased by nearly 30,000.

This is the best part about group battles, he thought. You can really rack up the [Fighter] class experience.

However, Lu Yuan had a faint, inexplicable feeling—

The [Fighter] panel... it feels like it's about to max out...

This sensation was incredibly strong, much like the mysterious "wall-touching feeling" often described in novels when one is about to reach the limit of a particular realm.

Once the [Fighter] class reaches max level, going further... should be class advancement, right?... Lu Yuan's eyes flickered as he mused silently.

The Dead Spirit Crows quickly finished clearing the battlefield, ultimately delivering a total of 231 black beads to Lu Yuan. Adding the three black beads from the two Crow God Knights and the black-robed figure, the grand total was 234.

It was an unprecedented haul.

The black beads from the Crow God Knights and the black-robed figure were noticeably larger than those from ordinary Death Qi Monsters—about the size of a thumb and a deeper shade of black.

If I absorb all these black beads, how much will my intelligence increase?

Lu Yuan gazed at the handful of black beads before him. After a moment's thought, he picked up just one of the three larger beads and gently crushed it.

A deep black, viscous liquid flowed down his fingers and seeped into his skin.

On his [Death Teller (Extraordinary)] panel, the Experience Points for several skills instantly skyrocketed.

Simultaneously, a flood of memory fragments surfaced rapidly in Lu Yuan's mind.

The "main storyline" he had been anticipating... had begun.

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