273: Chapter 274 Heaven-Opening Level Equipment

For Aodega, being able to see Lin Muyang with his own eyes and have such close contact with him was like a miracle descending, a supreme grace. His heart was filled with awe and satisfaction; he dared not harbor any improper thoughts or make any overreaching demands.

Aodega was born in an obscure small town in South America. During his youth, before he had awakened his class talent, that city—which held all his childhood memories—was reduced to ruins under the rampage of two suddenly appearing legendary-grade demonic creatures. He lost his home and kin, struggling to survive amidst the debris and death. That unforgettable experience of suffering created a near-obsessive desire for power and protection deep within him, which he manifested as a devout faith in the divine.

During his years of wandering and difficult growth, this faith was the sole pillar of his soul. Now, Lin Muyang's appearance, along with the casual display of his great power—akin to both creation and destruction—completely filled the void of the divine image in Aodega's heart. To him, Lin Muyang was a true god walking the earth, the only sovereign he believed in and was willing to sacrifice everything for.

After Lin Muyang took Elabess and teleported away to the entrance of the secret realm, Aodega did not immediately return to his hidden observation station. He remained suspended in mid-air, facing the direction where the blood-colored light soared into the sky. Slowly and with utmost solemnity, he knelt on both knees in the void and closed his eyes. He began to pray fervently, not for power or wealth for himself, but that he might discover more valuable clues to mythic-rank secret realms in the future, or obtain precious secret realm scrolls, so that he could continue to serve his master, Lin Muyang, and contribute his meager strength.

As for Lin Muyang's safety after entering the secret realm? There wasn't the slightest worry in Aodega's heart. In his eyes, his master was an absolutely invincible existence. Mythical-grade Demonic Creatures or human schemes were nothing more than dust and ants before the Lord's divine might.

Inside the secret realm, it was a different scene entirely.

Carrying Elabess, Lin Muyang stepped into the massive, slowly rotating vortex that emitted an ominous blood-red light. The slight dizziness brought by the spatial transition vanished instantly, and the two found themselves in a completely different environment.

Recalling Aodega's near-fanatical posture of devotion, Lin Muyang was lost in thought. He didn't enjoy the feeling of being treated as a god, but he clearly recognized that as his strength expanded rapidly, his image in the minds of ordinary people in this world was inevitably becoming dehumanized.

“Master~ it seems your prestige on this planet has already reached a rather terrifying height.” Elabess affectionately took Lin Muyang's arm, tilting up her world-bewitching face. She smiled slightly, her purple eyes swirling with cunning and pride.

“Blue Star is, after all, just our starting point.” Lin Muyang shook his head slightly, his gaze scanning the unfamiliar world of the secret realm before him. His voice was calm but carried an air of looking down from above. “Our level is fundamentally different from most people in this world. You come from the Dark Abyss, Lilia comes from the Elven Royalty, Qingyan comes from the Dragon Clan's homeland, Daji... behind every one of you is a world in urgent need of a solution or facing a crisis.”

He paused, his tone becoming even more determined: “I cannot, and will not, bind you to Blue Star forever. So, no matter what problems your respective worlds face—whether it's being surrounded by powerful enemies, resource depletion, or the collapse of laws—I will do everything in my power to help you solve them. I will take you home, or rebuild your homes for you.”

Elabess tilted her head, her soft silver hair sliding over her shoulder as she blinked. “It sounds like the most troublesome thing should be the situation on Big Sister Wan's side, right? From her description, that sister of hers... seems ridiculously strong.”

“Indeed.” Lin Muyang did not deny it. “Gui Wanwan's sister's strength is unfathomable; she is one of the greatest known challenges currently. Then there's Qingyan's world. Trying to make a world in its Dharma-Ending Age, which is on the verge of withering and whose spiritual energy is exhausted, glow with life again... the difficulty is likely no less than facing a supreme deity. Both of these matters require careful, long-term planning.”

Thinking of these things, Lin Muyang also felt a trace of pressure. The former was an absolute gap in power levels, while the latter was more like the repair and reshaping of world laws; currently, he hadn't even figured out a specific direction.

Fortunately, hope was right before his eyes. As long as he cleared this mythic-rank secret realm and collected enough sky-opening grade elemental essence, he could push toward the Level 100 mark. Once he successfully broke through, Gui Wanwan's power would be further restored, and she would then have the ability to open a stable world channel. Whether it was going to the dangerous world of Gui Wanwan's sister to investigate or sending Ao Qingyan back to her homeland to find clues to save her world, the operations would officially begin.

Pulling his thoughts back to reality, Lin Muyang began to observe the environment of this mythic-rank secret realm. It was like a magnified, distorted primordial jungle. The sky was dark red, like congealed blood. The trees were exceptionally tall with charred black bark, yet the leaves were an eerie dark green, emitting a faint phosphorescence. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur and a restless Aura of lightning; the low howling of wolves could be heard faintly in the distance.

On the ground around the secret realm entrance, the skeletons and shattered carapaces of massive creatures were scattered. Judging by the shapes, they were the very Demonic Scorpions that Elabess had wiped out with a single Black Hole Vortex earlier. Clearly, the exit of this secret realm in the real world happened to open within the territory of that Demonic Scorpion swarm. One could imagine that if Lin Muyang and the others hadn't cleared them out in advance, a massive clash would have inevitably broken out between the demonic creatures inside the realm and the scorpion swarm outside once they emerged.

Judging from the traces and Auras left on the scene, the main demonic creature swarm within this secret realm seemed slightly inferior in overall strength to the scorpions outside. First, their average level was likely a bit lower, and second, the population size seemed smaller. This was perhaps because the internal space of the secret realm was limited, making resource competition even more brutal.

“Let's get to work. First, let's evict the residents here,” Lin Muyang gestured to Elabess.

Elabess nodded in understanding, letting go of Lin Muyang's arm as the expression on her beautiful face turned focused.

With a thought from Lin Muyang, several invisible God-Tier Auras centered on him and rippled out instantly like water, covering an area of dozens of kilometers! [Life Suppression], [Strength Weakening], [Speed Sluggishness], [Mental Erosion]... multiple negative effects were applied like the heaviest shackles onto every hostile lifeform in the secret realm.

In an instant, countless terrified, angry, and helpless roars and whimpers echoed from deep within the jungle. Those demonic creatures lurking in the shadows or wandering about, regardless of their strength, all felt as if they had fallen into an invisible mire. Their limbs felt heavy, their strength drained rapidly, and even their thinking became sluggish.

Almost the moment the Auras took effect, Elabess made her move. She didn't even need to move her position; she simply raised her fair right hand elegantly, fingers splayed, and gave a gentle squeeze toward the depths of the jungle.

[Shadow Grip]! [Withering Nova]! [Soul Siphon]!

Several powerful dark-element skills were unleashed by her with ease in a mixed release. Pitch-black shadows spread from the ground and tree shadows like living things, entwining around giant wolf-like demonic creatures the size of elephants with blue electricity dancing over them—these were the primary demonic creatures of the secret realm, the Thunder Dreadwolves. Dark green halos representing decay and death exploded among the wolf packs, frantically stripping away their vitality. Invisible soul chains reached out from the void, directly attacking their mental cores.

These Mythical-grade Demonic Creatures, originally fierce enough to easily tear apart human experts of the same level, were as fragile as paper under the suppression of Lin Muyang's Auras and Elabess's devastating strikes. They didn't even manage to charge into visual range before falling in swathes kilometers away, their powerful bodies shriveling and decaying rapidly into fly ash.

The entire process was efficient and cold, like a farmer harvesting ripe wheat.

Lin Muyang wasn't idle. While Elabess cleared the demonic creatures, he activated [Loot Extraction]. As this heaven-defying talent's passive effect kicked in, brilliant and dazzling sacred golden light began to burst from the ashes left by the Thunder Dreadwolves!

The light quickly condensed, transforming into pieces of equipment and materials emitting majestic Auras, suspended in mid-air.

Lin Muyang raised his hand, and the nearest piece of equipment flew into his palm. It was a ferocious-looking bracer covered in thunder patterns, dark gold in color. Holding it, he could feel the violent lightning power and a higher, more profound Aura of laws contained within.

[Heaven’s Punishment Thunder-Pattern Bracer (sky-opening grade)]

[Level Requirement: 188]

[Attributes: Strength +???, Constitution +???, Lightning Resistance +???, Attacks attach Heaven’s Punishment Lightning Strike effect...]

[Special Effect 1 (Sky-Opening): Sovereign of Thunder (Greatly increases damage and effect range of all lightning-element skills; attacks have a chance to trigger heavenly thunder to strike the target)]

[Special Effect 2 (Sky-Opening): Indestructible Thunder Body (Upon receiving fatal damage, there is a chance to trigger lightning elementalization, negating the damage and restoring a large amount of health; long cooldown time)]

“It really is sky-opening grade equipment!” A sharp light flashed in Lin Muyang's eyes. He quickly compared the attributes of this bracer with the mythic grade equipment he was currently wearing, which was below Level 100.

The result startled him. Setting aside the gap in base attributes brought by the level difference, the mere presence of Sky-Opening special effects made this Level 188 bracer far more valuable than his mythic equipment. His mythic equipment usually only had one mythic grade special effect, whereas sky-opening grade equipment consistently possessed two powerful Sky-Opening special effects! Whether it was the violent output boost of [Sovereign of Thunder] or the life-saving capability of [Indestructible Thunder Body], they far surpassed the single special effect of mythic equipment of the same level.

“The base attributes are more than twice as strong, plus an extra Sky-Opening special effect... the gap is too large.” Lin Muyang assessed privately. Unfortunately, the Level 188 requirement meant he could only look at it with a sigh for now.

“Pick out the sky-opening grade equipment with particularly excellent attributes and rare special effects to keep; maybe they'll be useful later or for the right person. As for the rest...” Lin Muyang instructed Elabess, “Decompose them all on the spot and extract the sky-opening grade elemental essence.”

He knew very well that by the time he actually reached Level 188, he would likely have better options. Blue Star's resource output had a limit; with only a few mythic-rank secret realms a year, the sky-opening grade equipment produced could be counted on one's fingers. But his gaze was no longer limited to Blue Star. The home world where Alice came from had developed for hundreds of years; its secret realm system and resource abundance would surely far exceed the current Blue Star. The refresh frequency of mythic-rank secret realms would definitely be higher, the level thresholds might be lower, and the ways to obtain high-level equipment would naturally be more numerous.

The immediate priority was solving the breakthrough problem from Level 99 to Level 100. Theoretically, if he could enter a sky-opening grade secret realm, he might obtain equipment and essence of an even higher grade than sky-opening, which would be better for the breakthrough. But that was too passive; it required waiting for an unknown amount of time. Besides, if there were levels even higher than sky-opening grade, was he supposed to wait indefinitely?

“Directly breaking through is the proper path,” Lin Muyang quickly decided. “Although the attribute bonuses from breaking through are considerable, they aren't the core for me. The key is the enhancement of class traits.”

He recalled information regarding the class trait boosts a Summoner might obtain upon breaking Level 100, his brow furrowing slightly: “The most common ones are either a percentage boost to all attributes of summons, or directly increasing the talent grade cap of summons. The former is useful to me, as it can directly strengthen all the partners by my side. But if it's the latter...” He shook his head.

The starting points of the talents of the young ladies under his command were already ridiculously high; many had already reached or approached god-tier or Demigod Level. The talent grade enhancement effect from a Summoner's breakthrough might have negligible or even no effect on them.

“However, there's no need to be too conflicted.” Lin Muyang thought of what Gui Wanwan had once mentioned, and his mood relaxed a bit. “Xiao Wan said that once her power is further restored, she has ways to refresh or recast things that are fixed after the fact, like breakthrough traits and talent quality. If I'm unsatisfied with the trait obtained from this breakthrough, I'll just ask her for help to refresh it for a better one then.”

It was just that Gui Wanwan had been vague at the time and hadn't clearly explained to what extent she needed to recover to achieve this. But as long as that hope and method existed, Lin Muyang didn't need to be too worried about the gains and losses of his breakthrough choice.