38: Chapter 38 Re-exploring the Forbidden Zone

The night before the duel.

Wang Pingan didn't cultivate.

He lay on the bed, tossing and turning like a pancake, unable to fall asleep soundly.

Scenes played in his mind like a movie; one moment it was Li Moran's punchable face, and the next it was the unattainable threshold of Xuan Yuan Galaxy First Martial Arts University.

Finally, the image froze on the West City Scrap Yard.

It froze on that massive, dilapidated, and strangely sinister starship wreckage.

His heart felt as if it were overgrown with weeds, itching with restless curiosity.

Over five thousand pay-to-win points sounded like a lot.

But Wang Pingan knew in his heart that this bit of savings would only be enough for him to get by for a few days.

If he wanted to make a name for himself among that bunch of monsters in Galaxy City, this amount of money wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between his teeth.

That starship was an untapped gold mine.

Last time, just picking up a piece of scrap metal from the periphery had netted him eight thousand pay-to-win points.

What if he went further inside?

Wouldn't he be dripping with wealth?

As soon as this thought surfaced, it was like a lit gasoline barrel, exploding with a 'boom' in his heart.

He suddenly rolled out of bed and sat up.

His eyes shone terrifyingly bright in the darkness.

Go.

He had to go.

That kid Li Moran was just a flea; no matter how high he jumped, he could be crushed with a single finger.

But the special recruitment for Xuan Yuan Galaxy First Martial Arts University—that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

The more resources he could get his hands on now, the more confidence he would have to establish a foothold in Galaxy City in the future.

Fortune favors the bold.

Let's do it.

He no longer hesitated, quickly changing into his most inconspicuous gray tracksuit, slinging that worn-out canvas bag over his shoulder, and slipping out of the dormitory silently like a rat out for a midnight snack.

The night was his best cover.

...

The West City Scrap Yard Forbidden Zone.

Eye of Truth.

"Activate."

He muttered in his heart.

Buzz.

The world before his eyes changed instantly.

He began to search within this chaotic storm for the only existing "path of life."

Soon, he found it.

Just like last time, this was an extremely narrow and constantly shifting passage formed by regions where the energy flow was relatively calm.

This is it.

He no longer hesitated and stepped inside.

As soon as he entered the range of the forbidden zone.

Boom.

That familiar pressure, heavy as a mountain, swept over him once again from the direction of the starship wreckage deep within the forbidden zone.

Wang Pingan was already prepared; he gave a muffled groan, pushing his mental power to the limit to firmly guard his mind.

He felt as if he were walking with a mountain on his back.

Every step was exceptionally difficult.

Under this pressure, the circulation speed of the blood and qi in his body slowed down by thirty percent.

He gritted his teeth, moving inch by inch toward the depths of the forbidden zone along the constantly shifting safe passage seen through the Eye of Truth.

The further he went, the more terrifying the pressure became.

The surrounding energy storms also became increasingly violent.

"Sizzle—"

A dark red turbulent energy current flew past, grazing his arm.

The sleeve of his training uniform instantly turned to ash.

A charred mark was left on his arm, burning with a sharp pain.

Wang Pingan broke out in a cold sweat.

If his reaction had been half a second slower, he would have lost his arm right here today.

He became even more cautious.

His mental power was highly concentrated, and he didn't dare relax the Eye of Truth for even a moment.

After moving forward another few dozen meters.

He finally reached the periphery of the massive starship wreckage.

Up close, he truly felt the sheer scale of this starship.

The dilapidated hull was like a mountain range of steel crouching upon the earth, filled with an aura of coldness and deathly silence.

The surface of the hull was covered with countless ancient and eerie runes that he couldn't understand at all.

These runes seemed to possess life.

They were flickering slowly and rhythmically.

With each flicker, they would absorb a trace of the violent, chaotic energy from the surroundings.

Then, they would convert it into a purer form of energy carrying an aura of extinction, feeding it back into the starship itself.

This ship... is "breathing"?

Wang Pingan was startled by his own thought.

He suppressed the shock in his heart and began to search cautiously around the outer wall of the starship.

Time passed, minute by minute.

Beads of cold sweat had already broken out on Wang Pingan's forehead.

The pressure was getting stronger and stronger.

He felt his bones creaking.

Just as he was about to give up and prepare to retreat.

His pupils suddenly constricted.

Found it.

In an inconspicuous indentation on the outer wall of the starship.

That area was also covered in dense runes.

And right in the center of those runes, a palm-sized, ordinary-looking metal block was quietly embedded there.

The surface of the metal block shimmered with a faint but extremely pure blue halo.

It looked completely out of place against the surrounding hull, which was filled with an aura of decay and deathly silence.

Wang Pingan's heart pounded wildly.

He could feel that this small metal block contained energy even more majestic and pure than the fragment he had found last time.

He painstakingly reached out his hand toward the metal block.

At the moment his fingertips were about to touch the metal block.

A cold mechanical voice exploded in his mind like a thunderclap.

[Detected 'Starship Rune Energy Core Fragment'!]

[Contains extremely pure Cosmic Origin Energy and faint Rune Law Power!]

[Convertible pay-to-win points: 18,000 points!]

Eighteen thousand points.

Wang Pingan's breath stopped for a moment.

A surge of immense joy instantly overrode his reason.

Without thinking, he reached out to pry the fragment loose.

But at that moment.

The system's cold, emotionless warning tone sounded once again.

[Warning! Warning!]

[This fragment is in resonance with the starship's core energy; absorption may trigger core activation, posing a significant risk!]

[host, please proceed with caution!]

Wang Pingan's outstretched hand suddenly froze in mid-air.

The joy on his face also solidified, bit by bit.

Core activation?

He subconsciously looked up at the starship wreckage, which emanated an endless aura of death like a prehistoric behemoth.

He had no doubt.

If this thing were truly activated.

Let alone a mere Second-Rank Martial Artist like him.

Perhaps the entire Shen City would be turned to ash in an instant.

A chilling coldness rushed from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head.

He broke out in a cold sweat.

Greed is a good thing.

It can provide motivation.

But if one is blinded by greed, it becomes a death warrant.

Wang Pingan's mind cleared instantly.

He took a deep look at the 'Core Fragment' that was so close yet seemingly worlds away.

His eyes were full of reluctance and dread.

In the end, he gritted his teeth and slowly withdrew his hand.

A wise man does not stand under a crumbling wall.

This thing was not something he could touch for the time being.

He suppressed the urge to pocket this precious treasure.

He knew that his good luck for today had come to an end.

Who knew what kind of monsters he might encounter if he stayed any longer.

He took one last look deep into the forbidden zone shrouded in dense energy, his eyes filled with awe and longing.

Then, he turned around and left without looking back.