On the highway, Lu Yuan drove onward.
In the trunk,
the Wordless Stone Tablet lay quietly.
Longhu Mountain was in turmoil, and everyone there was busy.
So when Lu Yuan left, he had merely given them a brief notice, and no one paid him any attention.
"It's August 10. There are about twenty days until the anomaly arrives, and the meteor shower on the outskirts of Wuzhou City should happen around the twentieth. I should make it in time."
Lu Yuan spoke to himself. His next plan was to head to the farm he had bought in advance in Wuzhou City.
The Heavenly Sword Embryo contained within the falling star was a truly peerless divine treasure.
It was also
the last thing he absolutely had to obtain before the anomaly.
Fortunately, Wuzhou wasn't far from Shanghai City. Once he got his hands on it, he could hurry back as soon as possible.
As he made plans, Lu Yuan turned on the car radio to see whether there was any latest news.
But it was clear that all kinds of information about the anomaly seemed to have been suppressed.
Every station was going about its usual business.
They were either reporting on traffic conditions or playing songs.
There were, of course, a few scattered reports. One said that a hiking group had found the route up a certain mountain was much longer than before. What used to take two days had taken them a full week, as if the land itself had stretched.
Another report described a village where the mountain behind it had suddenly grown much taller overnight, lush with vegetation.
Some curious villagers went in and vanished. None of them ever came back.
There were also reports about Lop Nur.
Legend had it that this place had once been a vast marsh in ancient times, but after a thousand years of change, it had dried up completely.
Yet not long ago, someone had taken aerial footage and found a boundless sea had appeared in the area. Their drone lost contact and crashed before they could get any clear images.
Strange things were happening one after another, one case after the next, but most of the reports were just scattered fragments that were hard to piece together.
So even when they made the news, few people paid attention for long before moving on to the next trending story.
"The closer it gets, the more things can change."
Listening to the news, Lu Yuan couldn't help but sigh.
Fortunately, he had been preparing from the very beginning. Otherwise, it would have been hard to adapt to the new era.
He turned off the news and focused on driving. The trip from Longhu Mountain to Wuzhou City would take seven or eight hours, so he didn't plan to stop and rest.
But strangely, Lu Yuan eventually realized that the distance seemed to have grown longer.
It was just like what had happened to that hiking group.
Along the way,
many cars had run out of fuel and pulled over to wait for help.
But Lu Yuan had made ample preparations for this trip.
So after driving continuously for more than ten hours, he finally reached his destination.
"Boss Lu, you really acted fast."
"You might not know this, but not long after you bought my farm, a big company came to me and offered to pay more for it."
In a vast farm on the outskirts of Wuzhou City, two figures walked along. One of them, a middle-aged man, spoke. "But by then, I'd already signed the contract with you, so I turned them down."
The middle-aged man was the farm's previous owner. His surname was Zhang; he was dark-skinned and short, but looked very shrewd.
"Even if you hadn't turned them down, you wouldn't have been able to sell them this land."
Lu Yuan spoke in an even tone.
He understood what the man meant, but by then, the property rights already belonged to him.
The man simply felt he'd sold too cheaply and wanted to squeeze out a little more profit.
"Heh, look at you, Boss Lu. I was just joking. Come, let me show you around." Seeing that Lu Yuan had seen through him, Boss Zhang gave an awkward laugh and changed the subject to ease the embarrassment. Inwardly, he regretted it too.
He could have waited a little longer and made a fortune. Who could have known things would turn out like this?
But it was too late for regrets. The contract had already been signed.
The farm now belonged to Lu Yuan.
The farm wasn't very large, measuring around thirty or forty mu. After all, Wuzhou was a major city, and land even on the outskirts was expensive.
The land had originally been used to grow vegetables in greenhouses and raise livestock, but business hadn't been good in recent years.
So the owner had given it up and put it on the market, and it had ended up in Lu Yuan's hands.
"Boss Lu, that's the villa I built myself. It's small, but the interior's nice. You can stay there whenever you have time." Boss Zhang introduced all sorts of details. Since the deal was done, he figured he might as well be friendly.
Maybe if he left a good impression on Boss Lu, the man might think of him when some profitable business came along.
Lu Yuan had spotted the house long ago. He nodded, thinking he could stay there for the next few days.
Then he would quietly wait for the falling star and get to it at the first opportunity.
After that,
they completed the transfer paperwork.
Boss Zhang left, since the remaining payment would be transferred to his account.
Lu Yuan tidied up the rooms and carried the Wordless Stone Tablet inside. It was too precious to leave out of sight, so it was safer to keep it close until he went home, in case it got lost.
For the next few days, he stayed in the house and went nowhere.
But he didn't forget to train and strengthen his body.
The medicinal essence from the pills in the Zi Wu Bu Tian Lu had already merged with his flesh and blood. Now all he had to do was fully digest their effects.
That way, his physical abilities would continue to improve in every respect.
It was just that
during this time,
for some reason, Lu Yuan kept feeling that someone was nearby.
But whenever he tried to search carefully, there was no trace of anyone.
At first, he thought it was just his imagination. Later, he dismissed that idea outright. His five senses were now far beyond ordinary, and to some extent, he could even sense danger in advance. It was an instinct that had emerged as his body developed to a certain level.
The problem was that
he could clearly sense something was wrong, yet he couldn't find anyone.
It was very strange.
"Boss Liu said that after he signed the contract, a big company came looking for him but didn't get what they wanted."
"Could the people I've sensed be from that company?"
Lu Yuan considered the possibility, but couldn't be sure.
If they were ordinary people, they couldn't escape his search within a limited area.
Unless they were Awakened, or something like that. But the anomaly hadn't happened yet.
For now, beings like that couldn't possibly exist.
And if there really were people nearby, what was their purpose?
Could they also know about the Heavenly Sword Embryo hidden in the falling star?
Lu Yuan had plenty of questions, but no answers.
In the end,
he stopped thinking about it and chose to ignore it.
Whatever the reason, everything would become clear when the falling star came down.
So for the next few days, Lu Yuan carried on as usual, hardly ever leaving the house and keeping his strength hidden.
Even though he still felt as if someone was watching him, he paid it no mind.
Soon,
August 21 arrived.
According to his memories, today was the day the falling star would descend.
Lu Yuan was fully prepared and could act at any moment, but because he suspected someone was watching him, he chose to lie low.
Before you continue