Lu Yun felt helpless as he watched the modification value climb at a snail’s pace.
Fifty points.
The king-grade ginseng, Lingzhi, and Polygonum multiflorum he consumed daily would have been enough to bankrupt most people. Yet, all he got in return was a paltry few dozen points for his modification value.
At this rate, saving up enough for the next modification would take forever.
’I’ll have to rely on Immortal Flesh and those monsters possessed by Outer Celestial Demons!’
A piece of Immortal Flesh the size of a pebble could provide hundreds of points for his modification value.
The Yellow Heaven Corps madman in Nanfu City who was possessed by a Celestial Demon, and later those strange Westerners at the Consulate—every one of them had brought him a massive amount of modification value.
Unfortunately, Immortal Flesh was something one could only stumble upon, not actively seek. Besides, you needed Immortality Crystals to find it in the first place.
The problem was, nearly all the Immortality Crystals had already been found. Lu Yun had learned as much from the records in the Celestial Secret Pavilion.
Since the founding of his dynasty, the Yinting Ancestor had established a secret organization called the "Dark Wind Shadow Luo Guard."
Their name was derived from their purpose: "Dark winds whisper all secrets into their ears, and their net of shadows blankets the world, leaving nothing to escape."
The duty of these Dark Wind Shadow Luo Guards was to scour the world and collect Immortality Crystals for the Emperor.
They were stationed all over Daxia, their reach all-pervasive. Each time an Immortality Crystal was found, it was secretly sent back to the imperial court.
And why did no one dare to keep any for themselves?
Because the high-ranking leaders were all death-sworn agents, trained from childhood and forced to ingest slow-acting poison. Thus, their very lives were in the hands of the Emperor Yinting.
To keep one for yourself? That was simply courting death.
Generation after generation, year after year, the Yin Court collected Immortality Crystals for hundreds of years.
By the time the Yin Dynasty collapsed, nearly all the Immortality Crystals within the borders of the Daxia New Country had been found.
The people Lu Yun had encountered from the Daxia Cultural Relics Department a while back were mostly descendants of the Dark Wind Shadow Luo Guard.
As for the experts of the Yin Court who had consumed Immortal Flesh—the Grandmasters of Huajin, those at the Peak of Anjin, all the so-called "powerhouses" whose strength was artificially inflated by it...
When the Western Countries invaded, every single one of them grew complacent, believing themselves to be invincible.
And what happened? The moment guns and cannons roared, they all fell. Forget a mere Grandmaster of Huajin; even a Grandmaster of Divine Intent could be killed by a single tiny bullet if they weren’t careful. Of course, the odds of the latter actually getting hit were near zero.
Could Lu Yun block a bullet? Yes. He was a Grandmaster of Divine Intent who had practiced Horizontal Martial Arts Training.
After mastering the 3rd Floor of his "Hard Qigong," his defenses were impregnable. His physical body was nearly perfected, making him impervious to fire and water, while ordinary poisons, malevolent energies, and sinister forces struggled to affect him.
A pistol bullet wouldn’t even leave a white mark on his skin. As for a rifle bullet, as long as it wasn’t fired from just a few meters away, it would only leave a tiny gash.
This was a true peak human—a Grandmaster of Divine Intent in his perfected state.
But the question remained: how many people like Lu Yun were left?
Horizontal Cultivation Techniques required decades of unwavering daily practice, sometimes even a century, just to get started.
An ordinary person could practice until death and still fail to grasp the fundamentals. Even a prodigy with exceptional talent would have to spend the better part of their life to achieve mastery.
They would likely die of old age before they could develop a powerful physique, which was why Horizontal Martial Artists were becoming increasingly rare in the Daxia New Country.
A Grandmaster of Divine Intent like Lu Yun, who also practiced Horizontal Training, was now an extreme rarity.
Ultimately, the tide of the new era had swept everything away. The world, both now and in the future, would belong to the guns, planes, and warships of the Western World.
It was as the saying went: flesh is weak, and the machine will prevail. Those hunks of iron certainly weren’t going to play nice.
A single artillery shell would blow them all to smithereens, whether they were a Grandmaster of Huajin or a Grandmaster of Divine Intent.
A Martial Artist, with their body of mere flesh and blood, was just a slightly larger piece of cannon fodder.
Just as Lu Yun was lost in these reflections, footsteps sounded from outside, and two figures strode into the living room.
Lu Jingteng and Lu Jingwu walked over and stood before Lu Yun. Lu Jingwu spoke first, his voice low. "First Uncle, there’s been an incident at the company."
"A new employee... was eaten by a monster."
Lu Yun’s gaze sharpened. "A monster? What kind of monster?"
Lu Jingwu nodded. "According to the people at the company, it looked like the creature from the old folks’ stories—a Water Monkey."
’A Water Monkey?’ Lu Yun fell silent for a moment. Of course, he knew what that was.
It was a type of river demon, what the older generation often referred to as a malevolent creature.
These fiendish things specialized in dragging people underwater. Legend had it that they were incredibly strong and faster than fish. Not even the strongest swimmer could hope to escape.
But that was just a legend. Besides, the Water Monkey of folklore was only the size of an actual monkey.
The only reason the creature could kill people was by using the water to its advantage, preying on the weaker people of ancient times.
But this era was different. Everyone had a Western gun, and even a peerless master could be killed by a bullet.
’So how could a Water Monkey still manage to kill someone?’
After all, in the face of "Truth," anything with a physical body was little more than a target.
Besides, there were plenty of workers at the docks. If each of them had a gun, they could have riddled the Water Monkey with holes.
Lu Yun looked at Lu Jingwu, waiting for him to explain. Lu Jingwu hesitated for a moment before speaking again. "First Uncle, this Water Monkey... it’s a little different."
"Different?" Lu Yun’s eyebrow twitched.
"The people at the company said it’s as big as an elephant," Lu Jingwu replied without hesitation.
"And the Western guns don’t seem to do much damage. The bullets just break the skin and draw a little blood. It’s like... it’s impossible to kill."
A brief silence fell over the living room.

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