79: Chapter 79 Sakura is causing trouble

Just as Lin Muyang was officially starting the phoenix egg incubation process in the deep-sea cave, a highly classified secret meeting was being held in Jingdu City, the capital of the Xia Kingdom, thousands of miles away.

There were only a dozen attendees, but every single one of them was a figure who could cause the entire Xia Kingdom to tremble with a single stomp—they were all top-tier Nation-Guarding Level Experts! The meeting had been urgently initiated by Sword Saint and Zhou Wenyuan, who had just returned from Huangque City.

The atmosphere in the dim and solemn meeting room was heavy.

Sword Saint stood before the head of the table, his expression solemn, and stated the situation in a low, clear voice:

"Everyone, I have summoned you all today to report and discuss a major matter concerning our nation's destiny." He scanned every familiar face in the room. "Recently, a peerless genius who cannot be measured by existing standards has appeared within the country. This matter has been preliminarily verified by myself and Elder Zhou, and it is now classified as top secret."

"Sky-Level?" someone in the room whispered. This was the highest classification in the Xia Kingdom, usually reserved only for strategic weapons or ultimate plans involving the survival of the nation.

Sword Saint nodded and continued: "This genius first appeared in Zhongnan City, Jiangnan Province. Their specific identity, appearance, and talent details are currently unknown. The only information that can be preliminarily confirmed is that they are highly likely to be a female Class Transferee."

Top-level meetings require rigor. Even though the other party had demonstrated superior stealth abilities, they would not arbitrarily assume they were an Assassin or Thief-class profession; this was basic analytical literacy. It was just that based on some indirect information and circulating rumors, they were inclined to believe the person was female.

"The following is public intelligence that has been circulating in a small range in some areas: This person has soloed multiple diamond-grade Dungeons around Zhongnan City and Tianhai City. They are suspected of having assisted a team in clearing a level 97 Sovereign-rank secret realm in a very short time, playing a decisive role. Observed abilities include but are not limited to: high-level stealth of at least level 28, large-scale group deceleration of up to 90%, and large-scale group silence of the same range..."

Upon hearing this, the Nation-Guarding Level Experts in the room had different expressions; some were surprised, some were thoughtful, but none were shocked yet. Although such abilities were rare and powerful, they had encountered similar geniuses or special equipment effects in their long careers.

However, Sword Saint's next words plunged the entire meeting room into dead silence.

"However, that is not all." Sword Saint's tone became heavier. "Just this evening, the 45-level, 13-person epic-level secret realm that newly appeared outside Huangque City—'Scarlet Altar'—was solo-cleared by this person."

He paused and spat out the time that made everyone's scalp tingle, word by word: "The entire process took thirty-one minutes."

"Thirty-one minutes? Solo? Epic team Dungeon?" An old man with a cold face and a long spear on his back suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with sharp light. "Old Ghost Sword Saint, are you sure you didn't get the time unit wrong? It should be thirty-one hours, right?"

"The video recording, energy monitoring data, and on-site investigation report are all here." Zhou Wenyuan spoke in a deep voice from the side, breaking the silence. "I saw it with my own eyes. The entrance to the secret realm completely dissipated, and the area returned to normal. Those five little guys led by Wang Jie were almost wiped out by two mobs at the entrance and had to use a replica Void Exile Scroll to escape. And that person, from entering to the secret realm being purified, only took thirty-one minutes. It is absolutely true."

There was a collective gasp in the meeting room. Everyone's complexion became extremely heavy, even carrying a hint of unbelievable shock.

Thirty-one minutes to solo a 13-person epic-level secret realm! This completely exceeded their cognitive limits regarding geniuses and even the current power system! This was no longer something that could be described as "powerful"; it was simply a subversive existence!

"In addition, during the investigation process, we also noticed a related situation in Zhongnan City." Sword Saint changed the topic and pulled up a video. "Among this year's Class Transferees in Zhongnan City, a young man named Lin Muyang appeared. His profession is Summoner. Just a few days after changing classes, he publicly defeated an s-rank talent swordsman from Tianhai City who had already changed classes for over a month."

"Although this matter itself is surprising, it is not the main point." Sword Saint froze the image. In the picture, Yan Zhengshan was frozen into a golden sculpture by Astral Stasis, unable to move. "The point is, according to our investigation, there seems to be a mysterious person behind this Lin Muyang who has been secretly protecting or paying attention to him. The abilities shown by this mysterious person are very strange."

He pointed to the screen: "Causing people to lose their hair in a short time, being unable to control diarrhea in public, and completely freezing an experienced veteran expert of over level 100 in a way we cannot understand, for a long duration. The freezing was only lifted after another level 100 expert came forward to plead."

The video ended, and the meeting room fell silent again. These abilities looked like some kind of high-level curse or control skill, but everyone present was knowledgeable. They knew very well that in the Xia Kingdom, they had never heard of anyone who could do these things so effortlessly, with such weird and hard-to-prevent effects.

"Whether this person is related to the genius who soloed the epic-level secret realm is still inconclusive." Sword Saint said, "But both appeared in Zhongnan City and showed extraordinary abilities, which is worthy of high attention. I have sent people to try to contact this mysterious person protecting Lin Muyang, hoping to establish a connection."

The meeting finally made several resolutions: classify all intelligence about the "genius who soloed the epic-level secret realm" as top secret and strictly control the scope of knowledge; launch a highest-level protective investigation; attempt to contact the mysterious person behind Lin Muyang; create a nine-day strategy illusion at the original site of the secret realm in Huangque City to cover up the truth; and strengthen the secret protection of all suspected top genius seedlings in the country.

The meeting lasted until late at night. Every Nation-Guarding Level Expert who left felt heavy-hearted, both excited by the appearance of such a monster and deeply worried about the potential risks that might follow.

...

Almost at the same time, in Zhongnan City, Ziyun Mountain Villa villa area.

A man and a woman, dressed in casual clothes but with capable and sharp temperaments, came to the door of Lin Muyang's villa. They rang the doorbell and waited for a long time without a response.

"Looks like he's not home," the man whispered.

"Wait and see. Marshal Sword Saint ordered that we must try to make contact," the woman replied.

Just then, Su Qingyue from next door came home. Seeing these two lingering at her neighbor's door, she stepped forward to ask.

"Are you looking for Lin Muyang?" Su Qingyue looked the two over, and from their standing posture and eyes, she vaguely guessed their background.

"Yes, there are some things we want to ask him about," the man said politely, without revealing his specific identity.

Su Qingyue nodded and took out her mobile phone to call Lin Muyang.

"Sorry, the number you dialed is temporarily out of service area..."

"He didn't pick up. He might not be in the city, or he might be in a secret realm where the signal is isolated," Su Qingyue shook her phone.

"Then we will wait here. Sorry to bother you." The two were very persistent and did not leave. Instead, they found an inconspicuous spot nearby and waited quietly.

Lin Muyang, who was in a deep-sea cave thousands of meters underwater, naturally knew nothing about what happened on the ground. However, he could guess that the commotion he caused this time was a bit big, and it was very likely that he had already entered the sight of the national high-level officials.

But he was not too worried. As long as he did not actively expose himself, with the concealment ability of the God-Tier Aura, no one could find him. What's more, he was now in the deep sea, which was like a forbidden zone for humans.

...

Underwater cave.

Within a radius of one hundred meters, under the continuous effect of Blazing Domain, the water temperature had stabilized between 1500 and 2000 degrees Celsius, boiling violently and forming a high-temperature, high-pressure isolation zone. The golden-red phoenix egg floated in the center of the cave, the flame patterns on the eggshell flowing slowly like living magma, emitting increasingly strong life fluctuations and scorching energy. The incubation countdown proceeded steadily.

Lin Muyang naturally would not just wait. He instructed Elabess and Ao Qingyan to radiate from the cave to the surrounding waters while maintaining stealth, hunting monsters and gaining Origin Skill experience.

Killing monsters in the wild does not provide conventional experience points, nor will items drop. But killing with an Origin Skill can stably obtain the Origin experience points needed to upgrade that skill. This is the main way for many top-tier experts to increase their Origin Skill level—finding areas with dense monsters for "bitter cultivation."

The deep sea is undoubtedly an excellent place. There is an almost infinite number of monsters here, with high levels and many varieties.

With the blessing of the two God-Tier Auras Infinite Firepower and Super Speed Comprehension (ten times Origin experience), the monster-grinding efficiency of Elabess and Ao Qingyan was shockingly high.

Black Hole Vortex engulfed an area, Dark Starfall covered and bombarded.

Peerless Sword Formation sword energy crisscrossed, invincible.

As long as they didn't encounter an Epic-Rank Monster with a level exceeding 150 and special resistance, the two girls could basically instantly kill a group with one move.

"This upgrade speed..." Even Lin Muyang himself was a little surprised.

Ao Qingyan worked hard for many days before raising Peerless Sword Formation to level 20. However, after coming to the seabed, only one hour had passed, and with crazy monster grinding and the infusion of massive Origin experience, this skill had actually risen two levels, reaching level 22!

You know, after level 20 for Origin Skills, the experience required to upgrade each level is double that of the previous level! According to the progress of previous Dungeon grinding, upgrading these two levels would take at least two or three days. And now, in front of the almost infinite deep-sea monster "experience packs," combined with the terrifying bonus of the Aura, the efficiency has increased by more than ten times?

Lin Muyang was overjoyed. This seabed trip could not only hatch the phoenix but also significantly upgrade the young ladies' Origin Skills, which was killing many birds with one stone.

With Divine Concealment Aura and Void Body, their safety was also guaranteed. Lin Muyang himself sat in the center of the cave, guarding the phoenix egg while monitoring the sea area within a hundred kilometers through the Monster Detection Aura, giving warnings at any time. Occasionally, he could leisurely taste the food made by Elena using the Angel Cuisine skill, which could add buff states, or tease the curious Lilia. Life was quite comfortable.

A short three days passed.

Elabess's Black Hole Vortex and Ao Qingyan's Peerless Sword Formation both broke through to level 32!

Elabess's newly learned single-target skill Shadow Erosion, also rose to level 24.

The slowest to improve was Lilia's defensive Aura skill Impenetrable Fortress. After all, it was a passive support type, and the way to gain experience was more special. But even so, after the teammates killed a massive amount of monsters (enjoying its Aura effect), this skill steadily improved to level 15.

Level 15 Impenetrable Fortress provides a 225% defense bonus. Coupled with the 150% effect increase of Lilia's SSS-Rank Talent "Light Element Affinity," the actual defense bonus provided to the team is as high as 562.5%!

This is already equivalent to more than half the effect of Lin Muyang's Holy Shield (ten times defense) God-Tier Aura! With the two superimposed, Lin Muyang's current defense attribute has reached an extremely exaggerated level.

He glanced at his attribute panel:

[Physical Defense: 7350 (+ 441,000)]

[Magic Defense: 8920 (+ 548,000)]

The values in parentheses are the final values after various bonuses.

Four or five hundred thousand defense! This means that even a level 100 expert like Shen Yanshan attacking with full force would probably find it difficult to break his defense! And he is only level 46! The perverted nature of the God-Tier Aura is fully reflected.

Just when Lin Muyang thought he could spend the remaining four days safely, the Monster Detection Aura suddenly sent a strong warning!

"Huh? A high-energy reaction has entered the 100-kilometer range. It's a level 139 Epic-Rank Monster, 'Frost Blue Whale'?" Lin Muyang became instantly vigilant. This level of deep-sea giant beast is usually the core BOSS of a deep-sea epic-level secret realm. I don't know why it left the secret realm and is wandering in the ocean.

This in itself is not strange. The deep ocean is not cleared by anyone, and it is normal for monsters to run around. Lin Muyang didn't care at first, as long as it didn't come towards the cave.

However, immediately after, the detection feedback showed that behind this panicked Frost Blue Whale, there were actually dozens of human energy reactions following closely! They were systematically chasing and attacking this giant whale!

"Humans? At this depth of the deep sea?" Lin Muyang became alert immediately. He activated the Divine Sight Aura, and his God's-eye view instantly locked onto that sea area.

Through the gloomy seawater and chaotic energy fluctuations, he saw the attire, weapons, and fighting style of those pursuers—not the common style of Xia Kingdom Class Transferees. They wore special deep-diving combat suits, their weapons mostly carried curved blades, and their skill releases carried a certain unique swiftness and weirdness. The formation they coordinated was also quite unique.

"This style is from Japan?" Lin Muyang frowned. Japan is separated from the Xia Kingdom by the sea. Its domestic Class Transferee system is a school of its own, especially since they have a notorious "Whaling Team" that specializes in hunting high-level marine monsters to obtain rare materials. Their style of conduct is domineering and unscrupulous.

"Trouble." Lin Muyang's heart sank. Looking at the escape direction of the Frost Blue Whale, although it was not directly facing the cave, there was a high probability that it would pass through the nearby sea area. Once this group of Japanese whalers started a big battle with the giant whale here, the resulting commotion and energy turbulence would likely affect his incubation location, or even interrupt the incubation process!