99: Chapter 99: Giving up top-tier divine office fragments? I'll choose the most unorthodox one!

Commander Xiao Lie was not surprised to see Lin Yuan's indifferent reaction to the [Flesh] and [Desolation] Godhood Fragments.

He simply assumed the young man's horizons had not yet been broadened.

He led Lin Yuan further inside and stopped in front of two other force field spheres.

"If those two don't catch your eye, look at these two." Commander Xiao Lie pointed to a prismatic crystal with a metallic luster on the left.

"[Mechanical Ascension] Godhood Fragment. It comes from a high-ranking Warlord of the Mechanical Race."

"Your Divine Domain has a foundation of living metal. If you fuse it, your kin can directly achieve a semi-mechanical transition, becoming immune to most mental control and conventional physical attacks."

Next, he pointed to a mass of eerie green flames sealed within a force field on the right: "[Abyssal Poison Flame] fragment."

"It's not only poisonous, but it also comes with Soul-burning properties. It's a divine skill for large-scale area clearing."

Commander Xiao Lie turned around, his expression becoming serious, adopting the posture of a commander instructing new recruits:

"Lin Yuan, don't think that just because you can rely on the number and mutations of your units to take shortcuts in the Demigod stage, you can do the same when you reach the True God stage."

"Godhood Fragments are the only key for a Demigod to cross the barrier to become a True God; their effect is primarily realized in the Late Stage of the Demigod Realm."

He reached out and tapped the Void Realm: "Take that little girl from the Su Family, Su Yueying, as an example."

"Her performance in the Streaming Exam was indeed inferior to yours, and she was even completely overshadowed by your limelight."

"But she fused with a Six-Winged Angel's Godhood Fragment early on. The closer she gets to the Late Stage of the Demigod Realm, the more adept she becomes at achieving a Breakthrough."

"The amplification that Godhood Fragments provide to the Divine Domain environment and units is a continuous, exponential explosion."

"This is the confidence of the children of elite Families." Commander Xiao Lie looked directly into Lin Yuan's eyes. "Your foundation is thin, and your Divine Domain environment is extremely poor."

"You must choose the most stable and compatible fragment to lay a solid foundation for your future assault on the True God Realm. Avoid the mistake of biting off more than you can chew."

Commander Xiao Lie spoke at length.

The core meaning was simple: play it safe, don't be reckless.

Lin Yuan stood where he was and nodded obediently.

He knew very well that Commander Xiao Lie was warning him, fearing that his youthful arrogance would lead him astray.

However, looking at these Godhood Fragments that others would dream of obtaining, Lin Yuan only felt bored.

The Desolation Godhood? It could cause enemies entering the Divine Domain to lose their life force and Divine Power tenfold.

The Flesh Godhood? It could grant kin the embryonic form of the rules for regeneration from a drop of blood.

These two attributes seemed to fit the Wasteland well.

But the problem was, the Liquid Metal Blood-Devouring Demon Tree at the center of his Divine Domain already possessed similar functions.

Not to mention, he had just recently stuffed two Divine-Grade entries extracted from the Demon God core fragments into the Demon Tree.

Once the Demon Tree finished its dormant metamorphosis period, the rules it controlled would be far more domineering than these incomplete Desolation and Flesh Godhoods.

The Divine Domain can nourish the deity.

With the transformed Demon Tree, fusing these Godhoods with slightly overlapping attributes would be a waste of precious resources.

It would be a waste of this Opportunity to select top-tier resources paid for by the military.

As for the two introduced later, they sounded just mediocre.

They were tasteless to eat, but a pity to discard.

Lin Yuan's gaze drifted past Commander Xiao Lie, sweeping over the force field spheres in the deepest part of the treasury.

Suddenly, his gaze locked onto a transparent sphere in the most remote corner.

His heart skipped a beat for no reason.

The [Creation Extraction] talent hidden deep within his Soul produced an unprecedented tremor at this moment.

That feeling was like a madman who had been starving for half a month suddenly smelling an unparalleled delicacy.

Temptation.

A fatal temptation!

Back in the [Ember-07] plane, when facing the core of an Abyssal Demon God, Lin Yuan had only felt excited, thinking he could make a big profit.

But now, facing this inconspicuous fragment in the corner, he had an instinctive urge to devour it at any cost.

The temptation it exuded was a full ten times greater than the Demon God core!

Lin Yuan suppressed his wildly beating heart, stepped past Commander Xiao Lie, and walked straight to the force field sphere in the corner.

Inside the force field sphere, an irregular grey-black polyhedron was suspended.

It had no luster and did not emit even the slightest fluctuation of Law.

It looked just like a broken stone picked up from the side of the road.

"Commander Xiao, what is this?" Lin Yuan asked, pointing to the grey-black polyhedron.

Commander Xiao Lie walked up, took a look, and frowned.

"You kid always has such an ominous eye for things." Commander Xiao Lie shook his head. "The origin of this thing is unknown."

"Three years ago, the Spark Legion dug it up from an ancient alien ruin on the outskirts of the Starry Sky defense line."

"Several old guys from the military research institute studied it for a whole year and used True God-level Laws to analyze it, but they couldn't figure out anything."

"It's like a black hole; it neither repels any Law nor absorbs any Law."

"Because it was taken from the core position of the ruin's altar, it was barely classified as an unknown Godhood Fragment."

Commander Xiao Lie looked at Lin Yuan: "This thing has no reference data. Fusing it might be a heaven-defying Opportunity, or it might directly extinguish your Divine Fire and turn you into a cripple. I don't advise you to choose it."

"I'll take it." Lin Yuan did not hesitate at all, his tone resolute.

Commander Xiao Lie was stunned for a moment and looked at Lin Yuan deeply.

He did not try to persuade him further.

Back in the underground Abyssal storage vault, Lin Yuan had chosen three extremely dangerous pollution sources, and he hadn't stopped him then either.

As a result, not only was the kid still alive and well, but he had also rubbed the elite Prodigies of the entire Tianhai Province into the ground during the Streaming Exam.

"Fine, choose your own path." Commander Xiao Lie entered the highest authority password of the military district commander.

The force field sphere slowly opened.

Lin Yuan reached out and grabbed the grey-black polyhedron.

It felt ice-cold to the touch, with no abnormalities.

Lin Yuan quickly put it into a specially made lead box.

Commander Xiao Lie watched him put the item away and suddenly chuckled.

"You kid have really been in the limelight lately." Commander Xiao Lie crossed his arms and teased, "The military district's intelligence network has been pushing news about you to me every day."

"Things like 'Light of the Commoners,' 'Jiangcheng Counterattack Myth,' 'Family Terminator.'"

"The people from the Tianhai Province Education Department are just about ready to enshrine you on a pedestal as a mascot."

Thinking of the ridiculously exaggerated media reports outside, and looking at the young man before him who was ruthless and specialized in picking dangerous items, Commander Xiao Lie found it all quite funny.

Lin Yuan was also a bit helpless: "It's all the Education Department's arrangement; I'm just responsible for taking the prize money."

The two turned and walked out of the treasury.

As they approached the spatial rift, Lin Yuan suddenly stopped.

He remembered the mysterious and evasive look on Bai Ye's face when the Streaming Exam ended.

"Commander Xiao, there's one thing I still haven't figured out." Lin Yuan looked at Commander Xiao Lie. "Do I still need to participate in the upcoming province-wide college entrance exam?"

Commander Xiao Lie was stunned by his question.

Then he slapped his forehead: "My fault. I've been fighting in the dark on the front lines these past few days and forgot about this."

Commander Xiao Lie turned around, his expression becoming serious.

"The so-called Streaming Exam is essentially an early batch of the college entrance exam. Its purpose is to screen out the mediocre and the Geniuses from the three hundred thousand candidates in advance."

"The mediocre are assigned to logistics, while ordinary talents are left to continue preparing for the official college entrance exam a few months later, to prevent assessment failures due to bad luck."

"As for monsters like you and Bai Ye, who are at the top of the pyramid."

"Your strength has far exceeded your peers. Participating in the regular college entrance exam is purely a waste of time and is also bullying ordinary students."

"You don't need to play these house-games anymore."

Commander Xiao Lie patted Lin Yuan's shoulder: "This world is far broader than you imagine. Tianhai Province is just a corner."

"In the depths of the starry sky, there are real battlefields of ten thousand races, countless Abyssal planes, and the top-tier Starry Sky academies of the entire Federation."

"When the time is right, after you finish fusing this Godhood Fragment. The admissions office of Starry Sky University will be coming to snatch you up."

Lin Yuan rubbed his chin.

As expected.

It was just as he had guessed.

The pond of Jiangcheng could no longer contain the scale of his current Divine Domain.

It was time to change to a new environment and farm higher-level resources.

Commander Xiao Lie watched Lin Yuan's thoughtful appearance, his eyes gradually becoming deep.

He raised his hand, and the sound-insulation array patterns lit up on the surrounding walls.

"Lin Yuan, why do you think I signed the S-rank special approval for the Dark Night Sequence for you back then?"

Lin Yuan looked up, waiting for what would come next.

"The infiltration mission in the Red Mist pollution zone was just the first level of testing for you." Commander Xiao Lie's tone carried a cold, murderous intent.

"The war situation on the Abyssal front line is far more rotten than what is reported in the news, and the alien races in the starry sky are also stirring."

"Those elite Families and conglomerates in Tianhai Province, on the surface, shout about the great cause of humanity, but in secret, they are all trampling on each other to preserve their own Family strength."

Commander Xiao Lie pointed to Lin Yuan's chest.

"The military needs a blade. A dark blade that does not belong to any Family, has no Family interest entanglements, is absolutely sharp, and is greedy enough."

"The ultimate mission of the Dark Night Sequence is aimed at those thrones at the bottom of the Abyss, as well as the tumors within the starry sky."

Commander Xiao Lie looked into Lin Yuan's eyes. "I give you resources, I give you privileges. I want you to go to the highest academy and trample those monsters meticulously cultivated by the elite Families, one by one."

Lin Yuan was silent for a moment.

"As long as the resources are in place, the blade will always face outward." Lin Yuan gave his answer.

Commander Xiao Lie let go and nodded with satisfaction.

"Alright, everything that needed to be said has been said."

Commander Xiao Lie raised his hand, his index finger cutting a spatial rift in mid-air.

"There is still a mess on the front lines waiting for me to deal with."

"This time, I rushed back to personally take you through the back door specifically to prevent anyone from tampering with your Godhood reward."

"Go back and fuse this fragment well. Don't let me down."

Commander Xiao Lie did not stay long, stepping into the spatial rift, his figure disappearing from the treasury.

The rift slowly closed.

Lin Yuan stood where he was, his palm pressed against the storage box containing the grey-black polyhedron.

He did not leave the treasury immediately, but closed his eyes, feeling the waves of hunger coming from the [Creation Extraction] within his body.

Starry Sky University, Red Mist pollution zone, alien battlefields.

The road ahead is getting more and more interesting.

...

The next second, Lin Yuan stepped onto the carpet in the living room on the first floor.

As soon as he stood steady, he saw Old Lin standing by the coffee table.

Old Lin was beaming with red light, his hands constantly rubbing against his trouser legs, and fine beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

That expression was just like a fanatical fan who had suddenly been invited home for tea by a top-tier interstellar superstar, so excited that he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.

Seeing Lin Yuan walk out of the spatial rift, Old Lin hurriedly went up to him, lowered his voice, his tone full of excitement.

"Yuanzi! What did Commander Xiao want with you? This is the supreme commander of our Spark Legion! A living one!"

Lin Yuan looked at Old Lin's appearance and found it a bit funny.

"Nothing much, he just took me for a tour of the military district's treasury and let me pick some resources for Cultivation." Lin Yuan explained casually.

He glanced at the wall clock; from following Commander Xiao Lie to leaving and coming back, it had been less than half an hour.

Old Lin did not doubt Lin Yuan's words at all.

For a big shot of Commander Xiao Lie's level to spare a few minutes to meet was already a huge honor.

Being taken to pick resources naturally meant he valued Yuanzi to the extreme!

"Good! Good!" Old Lin slapped his thigh, so excited that he spun around twice on the spot.

He grabbed the jacket hanging on the coat rack and threw it on haphazardly.

"Yuanzi, I won't be back for lunch today! Solve it yourself!"

Old Lin strode towards the villa door, adjusting his collar as he walked.

"Dad, where are you going?" Lin Yuan asked.

Old Lin pushed the door open and shouted without looking back: "I'm going to the nursing home! Old Zhao, Old Li, and those other old guys don't know that Commander Xiao personally came to our house today! I have to go and tell them all about the scene!"

Bang.

The door closed.

The sound of Old Lin's footsteps faded away, carrying an air of triumph.

Lin Yuan stood in the empty living room, looking at the closed door, and couldn't help but chuckle.

Since coming here, this old man had more and more of the feeling he had back in the day.

This was what life should look like.