Mind Palace

Combat mission "Escape Alive" completed!

You have received a mission reward: Skill Evolution uses +1 (below S-rank)

After their group escaped the monsters' encirclement and had just hidden themselves away, the system panel once again notified Lin Yan that he had completed the combat mission and received its reward.

To Lin Yan, this mission reward was far better than an SS-rank movement technique. SS-rank movement techniques had a price; if he accumulated enough merit points, he could likewise exchange them through the military's secret manual exchange system.

But opportunities for Skill Evolution were rare.

He hesitated slightly. He did not know whether "below S-rank" included S-rank itself. He also had high expectations for the passive skill Sword Mastery, feeling that it still had great potential.

However, he did not try it. In the end, he decided to use this opportunity on Data Hit, a skill that was extremely important to him.

Skill Evolution differed from skill upgrades. It produced further changes to the original skill. It might not raise the skill's rank at all, or a single evolution might bring astonishing improvement.

As for using this opportunity on those A-rank sword techniques, Lin Yan had never even considered it. Although they might very well evolve directly into SS-rank skills or even higher, he was not so shortsighted.

It was only a sword technique.

If its rank was not high enough, he could simply replace it with a new one.

Besides, he had already gained some insight into the Po Jun Sword. It was likewise an SS-rank sword technique and could greatly increase his combat strength.

Confirm evolution of Data Hit (E-rank)?

Confirm!

Lin Yan's vision suddenly went black. Though his eyes were wide open, he could not see anything. His mind twisted with pain as though it were about to explode, as if something were brewing within it. At that moment, even his heart seemed to stop beating.

His body swayed as he gasped for breath, nearly collapsing to the ground.

"Lin Yan!"

"What's wrong with you?!"

Chu Wei caught him and cried out in alarm.

Lin Yan could no longer answer him. At that moment, his five senses gradually drifted away from him. He could not see, could not hear, could not speak, and even the physical sensation of his body vanished. It was as though he were floating through boundless space, trapped in endless darkness.

Strands of gray lines appeared.

They linked together, weaving into a net. More and more lines appeared upon it, growing denser and denser until they seemed to form a piece of cloth.

The cloth spun ceaselessly, extending and unfolding into a gray sky above his head.

Gray clouds gathered above the sky.

A long, lightning-like gray streak Flew Past through the clouds. His hearing returned, and thunder roared in his ears.

The sound of pouring rain followed.

Yet what fell from those clouds was not a torrential downpour, but crude strokes like those drawn by a novice painter. As the lines descended, the earth appeared, followed by a city of steel and the outlines of humans walking along its streets.

A hall rose into the heavens!

His consciousness leaped into the clouds with it!

Those crude lines revealed themselves as translucent, raindrop-like shapes, while the clouds deepened into an inky black. Everything in the world was painted with color!

Yet the hall shed its tangible form, as if it were merely an outline traced in colorful lines. But with a thought from Lin Yan, those lines could become anything!

"Take my form."

At Lin Yan's thought, lines wove themselves into a human figure. A blue radiance lit up from head to toe, and it became his likeness.

"Become a GTOE-43 precision-guided missile."

His self within the Virtual Hall extended a hand. Lines flowed, manifesting a steel-framed device more than a hundred meters tall in the space. Within it was installed a black-and-white missile, with the words "gtoe-43" painted upon it.

"Launch!"

At his command, the missile's booster engine ignited, propelling it into the sky. Once it soared into the heavens, it suddenly exploded!

A massive blaze and billowing smoke!

A shocking energy reaction!

The shockwave was about to reach Lin Yan within the Virtual Hall, but a wall of light appeared before him. All that energy poured into the wall, yet it remained unchanged.

Countless streams of data assembled, deciphered themselves, and vanished before his eyes.

He smiled faintly, and his figure disappeared from the Virtual Hall.

"Lin Yan!"

"What's wrong with you?!"

It felt as though a long time had passed, yet when his consciousness returned to his body, he discovered that not even one-thousandth of a second had gone by.

Data Hit (E-rank) evolution successful!

Data Hit in the skill list turned transparent, then disappeared. A golden radiance appeared in the skill list. All his other skills were written in white, but this new skill was golden.

Mind Palace (rank unknown)

Lin Yan's consciousness touched the golden Mind Palace, and he sensed a special message.

No permission at present. Skill rank can be viewed after the System Update.

This was not bad news.

It meant that the Mind Palace skill had already surpassed the existing skill rank classifications and entered an entirely new level, reaching toward the vast Universe.

Furthermore, System Update indicated that the system itself still had room to improve—or rather, that it had only revealed the tip of the iceberg so far.

Lin Yan's heart burned with excitement.

The path of a martial artist was the path of evolution.

If he continued onward, what sort of scenery awaited him?

"I'm fine."

Lin Yan steadied himself. Seeing the concerned looks they gave him, he felt somewhat moved.

Liu Mingxuan was covered in blood himself, yet he said to Lin Yan, "If you feel any discomfort, tell us."

Lin Yan smiled. "I know. Don't worry. I'm just mentally exhausted."

Using Mind Palace consumed his mental power, with the amount depending on how it was used. Simulating the explosion of the GTOE-43 precision-guided missile within the Mind Palace had nearly drained all his mental power.

He truly was in an extremely exhausted mental state now.

In fact, the data calculations of Data Hit had also consumed mental power before, but under normal circumstances, the expenditure had not been great.

Now, his data calculation ability had reached an even more terrifying level. Yet if he only used it for auxiliary calculations in combat, the consumption was roughly the same as before.

Lin Yan looked at the System Reward for being Promoted to General level: the opening of the Mental Master path. Once that happened, he would be able to strengthen his mental power and better bring out the value of Mind Palace.

At that thought, his eyes lit up. Could he use Mind Palace's ability to master the Po Jun Sword?

It seemed possible.

But his mental power was already nearing its limit. He had to rest and recover before he could use it again.

Seeing that Lin Yan showed no abnormalities and truly seemed only mentally exhausted, Liu Mingxuan relaxed. "Today's battle was thanks to you. Everyone is exhausted today, so let's rest first. We can talk about anything else after we've recovered."

"The seventh shot."

They all recalled those softly spoken words over the combat headsets on the battlefield.

It had been a technique beyond human imagination, close to divine.

They could not imagine how this handsome eighteen-year-old youth had remained calm enough to pull the trigger amid such fierce combat, seizing a possibility that existed only in theory and creating such a miracle.

Perhaps.

They thought, he was a miracle himself.