Lu Yuan walked over to the melee weapon rack nearby.

He casually picked up a sledgehammer.

The super-alloy sledgehammer, weighing hundreds of kilograms, felt weightless in his hand as he swung it, creating a WHOOSHING sound.

The swinging sledgehammer caused the air to flow rapidly, soon forming a series of howling whirlwinds on the field.

The whirlwinds glided around Lu Yuan, spreading outward, then slowly dissipating.

Yet, before one whirlwind completely dissipated, a new one immediately appeared.

Soon, the vast Martial Arts field was filled with countless whirlwinds; it was a shocking sight.

After practicing with the hammer for a while, Lu Yuan switched to a deep black alloy spiked mace and continued his training.

In this way, various melee weapons passed through his hands in rotation.

Blades, swords, staves, axes, spears, hammers...

Mostly heavy weapons.

Sometimes Lu Yuan would also try to use both hands simultaneously...

This had been his routine for some time.

Melee weapon practice had long since become his daily regimen.

Firstly, to level up his [Weapons Master] profession, and secondly, to enhance his combat power in his Ming King form.

In his Ming King form, Lu Yuan had six arms. If he could master the combat styles for six different melee weapons, his combat power would undoubtedly see a significant increase.

...

[You focused on profession training for ten minutes. Profession Experience +5]

[You focused on profession training for ten minutes. Profession Experience +4]

[...]

[Profession: Weapons Master Lv6 (257/3200)]

After several hours of practice, Lu Yuan put down the melee weapon in his hand and checked his profession panel.

He found that from these few hours of training, the total profession experience he had gained was only just over two hundred.

Actually, the amount of profession experience gained per session hadn't decreased; it was even slightly more than before. However, as his profession level rose, the experience points required to level up also increased. Relying solely on training to gain profession experience had suddenly become inefficient.

I should mainly obtain the next batch of experience through actual combat.

Conveniently, I've already mastered most of the basic techniques for most melee weapons...

Lu Yuan glanced at the [Weapons Master] panel. It showed as many as thirteen Basic Professional Skills, more than two-thirds of which were already maxed out and had branched into corresponding advanced skills.

Starting tomorrow, I'll ask Guard Ying and Guardian Lin to be my sparring partners.

Those two are only of average strength, but right now, I can't find anyone more suitable for sparring. They'll have to do.

In these five days, Lu Yuan's [Weapons Master] profession had risen by two levels.

He had accumulated 5 attribute points, and the 2 skill points were used directly to further enhance [Three Flowers].

Lu Yuan stood in the center of the field, his mind calm and tranquil.

On the [Martial Arts Master (Supernatural)] profession panel, the Lv3 [Three Flowers] quietly activated!

KRAK—KRAK—KRAK—

Accompanied by a sound like countless steel bars twisting tight, crimson lines surfaced all over Lu Yuan's body, then converged at his chest, forming an alluringly beautiful blood-red flower.

BOOM—BOOM—

A rumbling like thunder echoed from Lu Yuan's chest. The blood orb there swelled violently, and a translucent, crystalline blood flower bloomed.

Finally, a speck of golden light in his mind bloomed to its fullest radiance.

A pale golden, ethereal flower materialized.

Its petals were formed from liquid Spiritual Power, and at its heart, a tiny golden orb the size of a mung bean floated quietly.

The golden orb emitted a golden light, suffusing the entire ethereal flower with a brilliant golden hue; it was breathtakingly beautiful and magnificent.

The Flower of Flesh, the Flower of Qi, and... the Flower of God!

The Three Flowers bloomed in unison.

In this state, Lu Yuan's body was like a dragon's, his vitality and blood surged like mighty rivers and seas, and his eyes glinted with divine light...

His overall combat power... had soared by roughly six to seven times.

However...

Lu Yuan wasn't satisfied with that.

According to the principle of the trinity of essence, qi, and spirit, if I can achieve the Three Flowers Gathering at the Top, theoretically I should get a 3x3x3, or twenty-seven-fold, increase in combat power...

During this time, Lu Yuan had been continuously trying to fuse the Three Flowers.

He wanted to achieve a qualitative breakthrough.

Unfortunately, he hadn't succeeded yet.

However, he had made some headway with the Double Flower Fusion.

After the fusion, his combat power had indeed skyrocketed again, just as he had anticipated...

After contemplating this for a moment, Lu Yuan dispersed the "All Three Flowers Blooming" state.

Then he slowly walked to the edge of the Martial Arts field, towards the magnificent and imposing God General Mech that stood over five meters tall. With a swift movement, he jumped inside.

Opening the cockpit of the mech, there was a small space inside that could accommodate three or four adult men.

At this moment, it was filled with miscellaneous items.

Soft cushions, pillows, all kinds of books, along with assorted snacks and drinks.

Lu Yuan deftly climbed in, moved the clutter around his feet, and found a comfortable position to sit in the cockpit.

This God General Mech, belonging to Heaven Lord Wu Chao, had been transported back from Penglai by Lu Yuan. Initially, he kept it as a collectible model, but now it had been converted into his personal little sanctuary, a rest room.

Usually when he was tired from training he would lie down in it for a while, read books, surf the internet, think about things... it was very cozy.

It had a certain romance, like sleeping beneath the Starry Sky.

His fair and slender index finger slid over a long row of neatly arranged books, finally stopping on one of them.

He picked it out and looked at the title—Adventure of Abobos Mythology.

It was a mythological fantasy novel.

Lu Yuan casually flipped a couple of pages, not very interested in its content.

However, the reason he took this book out was not for reading, but for another use.

Let's begin.

Lu Yuan didn't delay. He placed the selected book—his prop—on his lap and officially began his divination practice for the day.

[Chaos Divination] had already been added to his list of daily required skills to cultivate.

Lu Yuan originally had great doubts about the credibility of the results divined by [Chaos Divination].

But ever since he used [Chaos Divination] to gain insight into "Double Flower Fusion" and subsequently succeeded in merging two flowers, he had begun to think of this skill as a "god-tier skill."

Chaos Divination, Chaos Divination... It means asking the legendary, omniscient, and omnipotent God of Chaos for guidance. If the God of Chaos shows favor, one can obtain any answer desired...

Lu Yuan interpreted the so-called God of Chaos as an "Encyclopedia of the Mysterious."

And divination was essentially the process of searching within this encyclopedia.

It's just that the search difficulty was very high, with the vast majority of attempts ending in failure.

Logically, an upgraded [Chaos Divination] skill should have an increased success rate... So why does it still feel like success mainly depends on luck?

Lu Yuan gazed at his [Chaos Divination] skill, now Lv3, and silently grumbled to himself.

Only by successfully divining a result with [Chaos Divination] could he gain experience. Lu Yuan had divined many questions during this period, grinding [Chaos Divination] all the way to Lv3.

But the divination success rate was still pitifully low.

For instance, today, he had failed more than thirty consecutive divination attempts.

However, this might also be related to the difficulty of his questions—he was praying to the great, omniscient, and omnipotent God of Chaos, seeking Xia Zhijing's current whereabouts.

Lu Yuan considered changing his questioning approach next time.

Just one last divination.

Lu Yuan gave up on divining about Xia Zhijing and the Lady of Nightmares, intending to end today's divination practice with a routine question.

His daily question: What is my fortune for today?

Grey mist churned in his clear eyes, swirling into a vortex.

The Spiritual Power in his mind gushed out like water, causing the pages of the book in Lu Yuan's hands to flip open automatically...

The divination succeeded?!

Lu Yuan's gaze cleared, revealing a hint of surprise.

He looked once again at the page of the book in his hand, and saw a drawing that came into his view—

It was a bird.

Perched on an oak branch, its feathers were black and white. On its head was a crest of long, narrow, orange-yellow feathers, resembling a splendid, fiery crown.

Lu Yuan was momentarily stunned.

A Hoopoe?!

The Hoopoe is known in many places as the "Harbinger of Good Luck," symbolizing auspiciousness and good fortune.

Legend has it that the Hoopoe is the incarnation of the Goddess of Luck. Those who see it often meet with a turn of fate.

Looks like my luck is about to take a good turn...

Although Lu Yuan had never much believed in luck, divining a good omen was certainly more heartening than receiving a prophecy of ill fortune.

[You focused on profession training for ten minutes. Profession Experience +3]

[Congratulations, your profession [Mysterious Scholar (Supernatural)] has leveled up!]

Lu Yuan had just finished his divination. He habitually glanced at his profession panel and was surprised to find that [Mysterious Scholar (Supernatural)] had leveled up because of that last divination.

It had risen to Lv2 (0/200), giving him 1 skill point and 1 attribute point.

Is this the start of my good luck?

Lu Yuan chuckled self-deprecatingly, then decided to use the newly gained skill point to unlock the second Basic Professional Skill of [Mysterious Scholar (Supernatural)].

The skill he unlocked this time was called— Lv1 [Mysterious Perception].

It seems to be a Mystic-type ability related to information gathering...

Lu Yuan briefly sensed the effects of this skill and came to a conclusion.

Because when he tried activating this skill on the prop book in his hand, fragmented pieces of information immediately surfaced in his mind.

These were related to the origin of the book and its contents.

Next time I encounter murals and unknown symbols or patterns in an Evil God's Secret Realm, I might not have to rely on guesswork to interpret them. [Mysterious Perception] can help me obtain more, and more accurate, information...

This skill was quite useful for Lu Yuan; the skill point hadn't been wasted. He was in a good mood.

After finishing his divination, Lu Yuan prepared, as usual, to browse Yellow Bear's internal network: check the news, visit the forums, and catch up on the latest developments regarding the "Ash Mountain" Secret Realm.

Recently, Yellow Bear had requisitioned another group of people to go there, and the exploration progress of "Ash Mountain" seemed to have reached a critical juncture.

On Yellow Bear's internal network, the official site would release a daily "Casualty List."

Despite most people on the list having undergone consciousness upload, meaning they have a chance to be "reborn," the difficulty and brutality of this exploration mission was clearly evident.

After all, even if experts of the New Martial and Modification System didn't place much importance on physical bodies—since a destroyed body could be reconstructed in a very short time if resources were sufficient—there was no shortcut to tempering one's spirit and willpower; that had to be rebuilt from scratch.

Moreover, many who had experienced "death" once were left with psychological scars of fear, making it difficult to return to their peak condition even after retraining.

Lu Yuan scanned today's "Casualty List" and saw news of several fallen Two-Wing, and even Four-Wing rank Flying Bear members.

Below the list, a stream of "condolence" comments created a somber atmosphere.

Suddenly, Lu Yuan's gaze focused on a name on the list—Kang Jiancheng.

The name, hidden among the other "casualties," was inconspicuous. However, Lu Yuan distinctly remembered that when the Supernova organization was mentioned previously, Xiao Rui had sent him a ranking list on Yu Wentong's behalf, which included most members of the Supernova organization.

This "Kang Jiancheng" was on that list, and his rank wasn't low; he was apparently fifty-third in the global Supernova rankings!

The same name?

Lu Yuan's eyes gleamed as he pondered. He sent a message to Yu Wentong, seeking to verify this fact.

Yu Wentong was quite prompt in her reply.

She directly sent over an encrypted casualty list.

This list was far more detailed and shocking than the one Yellow Bear officially published on the forum.

"Supernova Members fallen: 4 (ranks from highest to lowest: fifty-third, seventieth, eighty-ninth...)...

SSS-rank combatants lost: thirty-two...

Third-Order combat power: ten casualties...

Fourth-Order combat power: one fallen...

Earth-Level combat mechs destroyed: two...

Sky-Level combat mechs..."

Lu Yuan looked at the sobering figures on this list, his expression gradually turning grave.

But before he could recover from the weight of these figures, he saw Yu Wentong's next message.

—[Still dare to go, Little Lu Yuan?]

"Ah!"

Lu Yuan was taken aback.

"Are you challenging me, woman?"

A glint flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes as he quickly typed his reply—[Of course! No one... understands Secret Realm exploration better than I do!]

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