Unfortunately, he came up empty-handed.
Setting aside the Crow God Sect’s nest, the site of the incident the night before last was just an ordinary house in a rural area surrounding Burnt Rock City. News of a rural house fire wouldn’t be of much value to the media.
With a frown, Lu Yuan closed the webpage, his expression showing considerable puzzlement.
Zhou Ling of the Yellow Bear and the Divine Servant of the Crow God Sect were dead. Logically speaking, the Yellow Bear should have traced the events back to him afterwards. After all, he was a significant participant in this incident. He had even prepared to face interrogation. However, strangely enough, there was no movement whatsoever from both the Yellow Bear and the police. An incident of this magnitude, with no subsequent ripple effects, seemed unbelievable.
Is this possible? Lu Yuan couldn’t understand and couldn’t figure out which part of the process had gone wrong.
In the past two days, Lu Yuan had found a lot of information about the Crow God Sect online. After filtering, he felt the most reliable and useful data was about a foreign god.
Lamashtu, the death goddess in Havel’s folk mythology.
Legend has it that she was born from a crow on the banks of the Netherworld River, and her original form is also a crow. She lingered on the banks of the Netherworld River all day. When she turned into a crow, she would speak in human language, guiding the confused souls lost in the Netherworld River to find their way out. She would also often transform into a beautiful woman, enticing some conscious souls into eternal damnation.
This is a temperamental Evil God.
Lamashtu has many names; besides the Goddess of Death, she is also called the Evil Raven God, the God of the Netherworld River...
She represents peering and omens of death...
The powers and characteristics of this legendary god called Lamashtu closely resembled those of the Crow God Sect. Especially when Lu Yuan recalled the Crow Dreamscape he experienced, where he clearly saw a multitude of crows transform into a woman.
Could it have been her?... Lu Yuan murmured in confusion.
According to the legends, it is most dangerous when the death goddess Lamashtu transforms into a woman. When she approached me in female form, was she trying to entice me? If I hadn’t resisted and had walked towards her, what would have been the end result? Would I have eternally fallen into the abyss of damnation and never woken up, just as the legend describes?
Lu Yuan didn’t know. He shook his head, not wanting to linger over the meaningless question.
He reached for his phone buried in a bucket of rice by his side. After a day and a night, the residual moisture inside the phone was absorbed by the dry rice, and it started up smoothly.
Many unread messages popped up on the screen. Lu Yuan glanced at them hurriedly. Ignoring some irrelevant and boring messages, he sent a message to Cheng Yue at the library, asking her to borrow some books about the "Death Goddess Lamashtu."
Cheng Yue replied quickly. A second after Lu Yuan’s message was sent, her "OK" gesture emoji arrived.
Lu Yuan couldn’t help but smile and chatted casually with her for a couple of sentences.
Just as he was about to put down his phone, a crisp knocking sound came from the window.
Lu Yuan’s expression flickered; he quickly got up and walked towards the window. He opened the blinds, then the window, only to see a crow standing obediently outside, looking at him.
Lu Yuan did not open the window but activated his Crow Language skill, connecting with the crow’s consciousness. His brain immediately received some fragmentary pieces of information and images.
A few moments later, Lu Yuan grabbed a handful of rice, sprinkled it on the windowsill for the crow, and gave the order to "eat then explore" before sitting back down at his desk.
Yesterday’s arrangements were starting to show some results. His Crows that he had dispatched were slowly bringing back information. Although the majority of the messages were not what Lu Yuan was after and were discarded after a glimpse, at least things were moving forward. It was certainly better than passively waiting as before.
CLICK—CLACK—CLICK—CLACK—
In the dark and quiet hallway, footsteps slowly approached.
Lu Yuan stood at the corner of the staircase, calmly watching the direction from which the sound was coming.
"One...two...three..."
When he counted to "five," Lu Yuan’s expression turned grim, and he instantly leaped downwards.
At the same moment, a bright light suddenly burst forth from below.
The floor where Lu Yuan had just been standing shattered. An orb of faint blue light broke through the floor, pierced the cement wall behind it, and then disappeared into the dark night sky outside.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuan had already leaped to the lower part of the stairs. Stomping his right foot hard against the wall behind him, without any hesitation, he lunged neatly and decisively towards the figure below who held a gun in both hands, the glow at its muzzle rapidly dimming.
In mid-air, he inhaled and threw a punch. His well-proportioned and slim body suddenly expanded, the muscles on his right arm surging like waves, layer upon layer, ultimately converging at the peak of his fist.
BOOM! The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NoveI-Fire.ɴet
His straightforward punch landed heavily on the figure’s head. The other didn’t even have a chance to make a sound before being violently knocked backward. His head exploded like a watermelon.
Lu Yuan stood up from a pile of rubble and concrete fragments, exhaling lightly. His inflated body rapidly shrunk back to normal.
Looking at the unrecognizable figure on the ground—or rather, Number 13, who had completely lost his combat power—Lu Yuan displayed a hint of satisfaction.
Fifteen points in physique means perfect control over Special Burst’s two-fold power amplification. As long as I can evade the attacks of a Modified Human, it’s a sure-kill against ordinary Yellow Bear Members like Number 13. Even if I don’t dodge... I can barely manage a one-for-one trade!
Lu Yuan subconsciously looked at his chest. In his previous mental combat simulations, he had tried being hit by Number 13’s energy gun. He had been shot directly through, blasting a large hole in his chest and back. But with 15 points in physique, his super-strong vitality had astonishingly allowed him to endure such a grievous injury and still throw another punch, killing his opponent.
Against ordinary Yellow Bear Members, it’s basically an instant kill. But facing Zhou Ling is a real struggle...
Lu Yuan had fought Zhou Ling four or five times as an [Imaginary Enemy]. He hadn’t won a single one. The only difference between the fights was how miserably he died.
Zhou Ling’s strength is truly terrifying. Almost his entire body—flesh and bones—has been modified. His combat skills are superb, and he has an endless arsenal of high-tech killing methods!
In the five battles against Zhou Ling, Lu Yuan had only managed to land a hit once, and that was merely a brush against him. In the remaining four battles, he was vaporized by Zhou Ling’s energy beams before he even got close.
It was disheartening to fight this guy. Fighting bare-handed against a gun was inherently unfair. Moreover, Zhou Ling himself was much stronger than Lu Yuan; it was simply unwinnable.