fantasy novels Chapter 118 Trial Clearance: Begin Building New Skills
Chapter 118 Trial Clearance: Begin Building New Skills
Lu Yan's gaze swept over the three coffins one by one.
Houtu, the land veins of the nine provinces, the foundation of the nation's destiny. This option lays the foundation for the next hundred years of China's development, subtly and gradually, but with the slowest results.
The risks and rewards for "her" in the Coffin of Starlight are immeasurable. The word "gamble" is not in Lu Yan's code of conduct. Especially since the stakes are the entirety of China.
His gaze finally settled on the ancient bronze war coffin.
The Lord of War, Chi You.
"I choose him."
Lu Yan's answer was concise and to the point.
What does China lack most right now? It's not resources, nor its cultural heritage, but top-tier combat power capable of delivering the decisive blow.
Houtu's blessings are good, but they can't quench immediate thirst.
As for the ultimate secret, it's worthless in the face of survival.
The Emperor of Fengdu did not comment on his choice, but simply nodded slightly, which was a tacit approval.
Lu Yan said no more. He walked towards the bronze war coffin, placed his hand on the cold coffin lid, and activated the [Void Disc] at his waist with a thought.
There were no earth-shattering phenomena, nor any surge of energy.
However, in Lu Yan's perception, the black wooden pendant trembled slightly and silently touched the law chains wrapped around the bronze war coffin.
Click.
The cursed chains... just like that, broke.
It was cut cleanly and crisply, like butter sliced by a red-hot knife.
The moment the curse dissipated, the entire bronze war coffin trembled violently, and the ancient battle marks on its surface seemed to come alive, lighting up and bursting forth with a soaring aura of iron and blood.
boom!
The heavy coffin lid was violently ripped off from the inside by a powerful force, spinning as it crashed into the distant pillars of the main hall with a deafening roar.
A figure slowly sat up from the coffin.
He was a burly man with muscles as bulging as rocks. He wore only the simplest animal skin battle skirt, and his bronze skin was covered with crisscrossing scars.
He didn't pick up any weapons, but just sitting there, his domineering and conquering aura made everyone almost breathless.
The Lord of War, Chi You.
He simply raised his head, stretched his neck which had been stiff for millennia, and a series of cracking sounds came from his bones.
His gaze pierced through the dome of the main hall, looking towards the present world beyond the secret realm.
"This era..."
He spoke, his voice hoarse, like two rusty iron plates rubbing together, yet carrying the clang of swords and spears.
"...There's too little blood."
Before he finished speaking, his figure vanished into thin air.
There was no farewell, no instructions, not even the slightest exchange. This oldest war god of China, after escaping his predicament, left only a single comment before departing.
Zhao Leiguang opened his mouth, then after a long pause, managed to stammer, "You're leaving already? Not even a thank you?"
The main hall returned to silence.
The figure of the Fengdu Emperor also became somewhat illusory. He took one last look at Lu Yan, his voice carrying a hint of weariness, yet also a sense of relief.
"Go. Remember your mission, and remember... your choice."
As His voice fell, the entire magnificent hall began to collapse and dissipate.
The next second, light pierced their eyes.
The first team of seven found themselves back on that familiar Gobi Desert, with the huge archway behind them leading to "Fengdu Ghost City" turning into specks of light and disappearing with the wind.
The blinding sunlight shone on me, and everything felt like a different world.
Xiao Qianyu raised her wrist and glanced at the time on the tactical terminal.
"We...we were only inside for an hour?"
"An hour?" Zhao Leiguang looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Are you kidding me? It felt like almost a month inside!"
The flow of time within the secret realm is completely different from that in the outside world.
The group exchanged glances, their eyes revealing shock and exhaustion. This journey to the secret realm had drained them of far more mental energy than physical strength.
……
Return to the Northwest Frontline Base of China.
Li Tianshan had been waiting there for a long time. He didn't ask about the process, but just watched everyone return. The lines on his usually stern face softened a bit.
"It's good to be back." He patted Xiao Qianyu's shoulder heavily. "Go and rest, and hand in the report after you've finished it."
"yes!"
Zhao Leiguang and the others fell asleep almost immediately, so exhausted that they didn't even have the strength to remove their armor.
Lu Yan, however, was wide awake.
The final warning from the Emperor of Fengdu, and the whereabouts of Chi You after his escape, made him realize that he must have the power to protect himself.
He can't forever remain just a halo master standing in the back.
The "Sever" ability of the [Disk of Nothingness] has been on cooldown for three days.
Back in his single dormitory, Lu Yan opened his military-grade encrypted computer and quickly recorded information about Fengdu, the ancient god's curse, and the three coffins, then sealed it away.
After completing all this, he did not rest, but instead directly accessed the most comprehensive equipment and skills database of the Chinese military.
On the screen, massive amounts of data flowed like a waterfall.
In Lu Yan's eyes, a black lotus mark quietly appeared. His brain started working at an extraordinary speed, disassembling, recombining, and simulating countless equipment attributes, skill effects, and talent combinations.
He was searching for a completely new way of fighting that would allow him to face danger alone.
That must be a combat system that... better suits his style.
Time passed second by second.
For a full eight hours, Lu Yan barely moved; only the light from the screen flickered on his face.
Just as he had gone through nearly 70% of the data in the database, a niche school of thought marked as "low value," "high cost," and "poor practicality" caught his attention.
Summoning style.
Summoning skills can be used by anyone, but the bonus is very weak on other classes.
The summoning system in this world is very weak.
Summoned creatures are not only fragile and have low attack power, but they also have short lifespans and consume a lot of resources, making them widely regarded as one of the most useless combat classes.
But in Lu Yan's eyes, these shortcomings, viewed from another perspective, are all mechanisms that can be exploited.
His fingers flew across the keyboard, and a bold, even somewhat crazy, idea gradually took shape in his mind.
He found the most basic summon that could be learned at level 1—[Summon Fire Elemental].
The only highlight of this fire element is its innate skill – [Self-Destruction].
[Paradox: When a fire elemental dies, it triggers a small explosion, dealing a fixed amount of fire damage to surrounding enemies.]
The conventional approach is to find a way to make the fire elemental survive longer and deal more damage.
Lu Yan's line of thinking was completely opposite.
He began filtering specific equipment terms from the database.
[Entry 1: 'Instant Annihilation' - Your summoned creatures' duration is reduced by 90%, but the number of summoned creatures increases by 2.]
[Entry 2: "Bloody" - Your summoned creatures' maximum health is increased by 500%, but their movement speed and attack speed are reduced by 80%.]
[Entry 3: Sacrifice - Your summoned creatures cannot attack, but their [Detonation] damage will no longer be a fixed value, but will instead deal true damage equal to 20% of their maximum health.]
These three equipment attributes, which were rated as "trash terms" and "have side effects that far outweigh the benefits," were perfectly pieced together into a closed loop in the eyes of Lu Min.
The reduced duration of existence is to ensure that the summoned creature enters a "death" countdown the moment it is summoned.
Increasing the quantity is for the purpose of expanding the market.
The inability to attack or the reduction in speed are irrelevant, because they don't need to move or attack at all.
The core of the strategy is to convert fixed damage into true damage based on a percentage of the target's health.
A fire elemental whose health is increased by 5 times due to the "bloated" affix will automatically die within a few seconds of its appearance due to the "instant death" affix, and then trigger the "sacrifice" affix, exploding into a ball of true damage equal to its own maximum health.
"It's built, this is it."
He doesn't need to change weapons; these attributes mostly appear on auxiliary equipment such as rings, necklaces, and amulets.
He found his own way of fighting.
Self-destruct summoning strategy.