Craftsman Tomb Secret Realm!

That evening, Jiang Chuan logged off.

He took off his helmet and walked out of the bedroom to find Wang Xiulan busy in the kitchen.

The spatula crackled against the wok as it stir-fried, while the scallions sizzling in oil gave off a rich fragrance that filled the entire living room.

Jiang Mingyuan sat on the sofa with a remote in hand, watching the news on TV.

Carrying the exquisite wooden box, Jiang Chuan entered the living room and set it on the coffee table.

Jiang Mingyuan looked up, his gaze landing on the wooden box.

The box was exquisitely crafted from premium rosewood, with its edges wrapped in silvery-white metal. At a glance, it was clearly not something an ordinary family could afford.

"What is this?"

Jiang Mingyuan set down the remote.

Jiang Chuan did not answer immediately. He first went into the kitchen and pulled Wang Xiulan out. She was still holding a spatula, her face full of confusion. "What are you doing? The food in the wok is going to burn!"

"It won't burn. Mom, come out first. I have something to tell you."

Wang Xiulan was dragged into the living room. When she saw the wooden box on the coffee table, she froze as well.

"Mom, sit down first."

Wang Xiulan sat down skeptically, still gripping the spatula in her hand.

Jiang Chuan opened the wooden box.

The items inside gave off a warm sheen beneath the living room's incandescent light.

Snow spirit ganoderma, black ginseng, Dragon-Tiger Pills—each item was laid out on the table. The fresh scent of medicinal herbs mingled with the faint bitterness of the pills, spreading through the small living room.

Wang Xiulan was stunned. The spatula slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a sharp clatter.

"Th-These... what are these?"

Her voice trembled. The couple had never seen such things in their lives, but she recognized ganoderma and ginseng. Just from their quality, she could tell they were outrageously expensive.

Jiang Mingyuan rubbed his eyes, picked up the box of Dragon-Tiger Pills, and carefully examined the label.

A familiar symbol was printed on it.

Three water-drop patterns formed a circle around a tiny sun.

Fountain of Youth, the most elite pill supplier in the Source Realm. Even its lowest-grade pills were priced in the tens of thousands, and they were often unavailable no matter how much money one had.

He put the Dragon-Tiger Pills back in the box, then looked up at Jiang Chuan with a heavy gaze. "Where did all this come from?"

Jiang Chuan did not explain right away.

He sat down across from his parents, considered his words, and then spoke. "Dad, Mom, I need to tell you something. Don't get too excited."

Wang Xiulan and Jiang Mingyuan exchanged a glance, each seeing unease in the other's eyes.

"I'm actually not an F-rank talent."

Jiang Chuan said.

The living room fell silent for two seconds.

Wang Xiulan laughed. "What nonsense are you talking about? Your father and I are both E-rank talents. If you're not F-rank, what could you be?"

"I really am not. Dad, Mom, the talent I awakened is SSS-rank!"

Jiang Chuan raised his hand, palm up. Golden light lit up from his fingertips, like a miniature arrow forming in his palm. The light grew brighter and brighter, illuminating the entire living room as if it were daytime.

The shape of the light shifted constantly in his palm before finally settling into the phantom of a golden longbow.

Its bowstring was taut.

It seemed as though it would fire an invisible arrow the next second.

Yi!

The phantom of the SSS-rank talent flickered in his palm.

That supreme energy fluctuation, originating from the source of life itself, needed no explanation.

Anyone who saw it would instinctively understand that it was power beyond mortal comprehension.

Wang Xiulan covered her mouth as tears immediately welled up in her eyes.

Jiang Mingyuan's hand trembled slightly.

An SSS-rank talent—he had never even seen one. He had only heard scattered fragments about them in distant rumors that had nothing to do with his life.

He had never imagined that his son, the child of an E-rank warrior and an E-rank tailor, would possess an SSS-rank talent!

"This..."

Jiang Mingyuan's voice was hoarse. "How is that possible?"

"The law of bloodline decline isn't absolute." Jiang Chuan withdrew the light, his tone calm. "There are always exceptions, and I'm one of them."

Jiang Mingyuan was silent for a long time. He reached out and picked up the box of Dragon-Tiger Pills, holding it in his palm with an unreal, dreamlike feeling.

"You mean..."

"I mean, you two can retire now."

Jiang Chuan smiled. "From now on, I'll support this family. Dad, your back isn't good, so stop going down into the mines. Mom, you too. You've worked hard your whole lives. It's time you enjoyed yourselves."

Tears welled up in Wang Xiulan's eyes again.

"No."

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Mingyuan said, "If the two of us suddenly quit our jobs, it'll definitely draw unnecessary attention. We need to take this slowly and avoid making anyone suspicious."

Jiang Chuan was helpless, but at least his parents had accepted his proposal, so he let them have their way.

Early the next morning, Jiang Chuan arrived at the Artisan Pavilion. Yuan Ziyi had already prepared everything in advance.

The two set off at once.

The secret realm was located within a hidden mountain valley.

Its entrance was actually a furnace. As Jiang Chuan stepped inside, raging flames immediately ignited within it, gradually swallowing his figure.

[Prompt: Challenge Craftsman Tomb Secret Realm (Normal Difficulty)?]

[Yes!]

Whoosh!

Scorching air rushed at him.

The moment he entered the secret realm, Jiang Chuan felt as if he had stepped into a furnace. He opened his eyes and looked around.

It was a desolate, blazing plain. The sky was gray-black, with no sun in sight. Only a dark-red curtain of light covered the entire world like an inverted furnace lid, trapping all the heat inside.

"No wonder dozens of people died here without gaining anything."

Jiang Chuan wiped away his sweat.

A first-rank class holder would have, at most, a few dozen points of physique. In this environment, simply standing still would continuously drain health, let alone fighting and exploring deeper inside.

Of the newcomers Yuan Ziyi had sent in, half of them had probably not been killed by monsters, but had been roasted to death alive.

However, Yuan Ziyi had prepared for this as well.

Jiang Chuan took out a thumb-sized bead from his backpack. It was pure white and cool to the touch.

Cold Jade Pearl, polished from high-grade ice-element material. Carrying it would continuously release cool air and resist high-temperature environments.

Its effect was not absurdly powerful.

But it was enough to let him move normally through the secret realm without being affected by the heat.

"A good thing that costs twenty thousand per bead. This dungeon run really is extravagant."

Jiang Chuan tucked the Cold Jade Pearl into his collar. Coolness spread from his chest, and he instantly felt much better.

He took out his golden longbow, nocked an arrow, and walked deeper into the secret realm across the cracked earth.

Before he had gone far, the first monster appeared.

It was a wandering humanoid monster.

Its muscles were powerfully built, its flesh a blue-black color. It wielded a huge iron hammer, and dark-green ghostly flames burned in its eyes.

[Artisan Soul: ???]

The level gap was too great.

Jiang Chuan could not even inspect its most basic information.

He drew his longbow into a full moon.

Then released it.

Whoosh!!

The arrow tore through the air, trailing golden light like a falling meteor as it pierced straight through the center of the monster's chest!

-104829!!

True damage!

The monster was torn apart directly down the middle, letting out a soundless howl.

[Prompt: Killed Artisan Soul (Level 52), Experience +3000! As your current level experience is full, experience can be converted into skill and talent proficiency!]

"Experience can even be converted into talent proficiency... Can it raise the level of Universal Extraction?"

Jiang Chuan's heart stirred.

[Upgrade failed. This talent has reached its maximum level!]

"Fine, then."

Jiang Chuan's second target was Yi, his SSS-rank talent. This time, it did not fail. The experience converted successfully, but it was still short of raising the talent to two stars.

He first walked over to the monster's corpse.

Universal Extraction, activate!

Whoosh!

A wisp of pale-blue energy visible to the naked eye entered Jiang Chuan's palm.

[Extraction successful! Intelligence +30!]

[Extraction successful! Obtained item: Artisan Spirit Crystal (D-rank) ×1!]

Jiang Chuan picked up the crystal in surprise.

According to the information Yuan Ziyi had provided, this item was supposed to have an extremely low drop rate. Her subordinates took an average of two or three months of farming to get one.

Yet he could obtain one with a one hundred percent chance through Universal Extraction.

"Looks like I can make a fortune here too."

Jiang Chuan was delighted.

He continued onward.

Along the way, he encountered twenty to thirty Artisan Souls.

After killing them all, not only did his Intelligence reach the Extremum of 1,500 points and earn him a large number of Artisan Spirit Crystals, his SSS-rank talent Yi finally reached two stars.

[Yi · SSS-rank]

[Level: Two Stars]

[Effect ①: Passive. Your ranged attacks can ignore target defense and distance, and will always hit.]

[Effect ②: Passive. Every attack additionally deals damage equal to 15% of your maximum health.]

[Effect ③: Passive. After attacking the same target nine times, 100% of the target's maximum health will be forcibly deducted.]

[Description: Ten suns were born, and Yi shot down nine. The divine bow with which the legendary god Yi shot down the suns later fell into the mortal world...]

After the talent leveled up, not only had the additional damage from Effect ② risen to 15%, it had also gained a third effect.

Nine arrows guaranteed death.

This effect...

Would only show its value against enemies with massive health pools.

Among the enemies Jiang Chuan had encountered so far, very few could withstand even two of his arrows. Let alone nine—by then, they would have long been reduced to ash.

An SSS-rank talent required one million proficiency to reach three stars.

He might not be able to gather that much in this dungeon run.

So Jiang Chuan shifted his target and began upgrading his A-rank talent Emperor's Oath, wanting to see what changes it would undergo after gaining stars.

At the same time.

His exploration of the secret realm continued without pause.

After crossing a ridge, he encountered the second type of monster in the secret realm.

They were broken weapons scattered across the ground—blades, spears, staves, and bows. These weapons had developed intelligence within the secret realm and would automatically attack once living beings approached.

[Weapon Soul: ???]

He still could not see their attributes.

However, that did not stop Jiang Chuan from one-shotting them with a single arrow each.

He walked over to the completely shattered weapons.

Universal Extraction, activate.

Whoosh!

[Extraction successful! Strength +30! As your Strength has reached the Extremum, it has automatically converted into 15 Agility!]

[Extraction successful! Obtained item: Meteoric Iron ×1, Refined Gold ×1, Mithril ×2!]

"Artisan Souls can yield Artisan Spirit Crystals, while these Weapon Souls yield rare metals."

"The drops in this secret realm are all quite valuable."

Jiang Chuan understood.

No wonder Yuan Ziyi had been willing to offer an academy admission slot in exchange for his help.

Meteoric Iron, Refined Gold, and Mithril were all core materials for equipment of Gold grade and above. Outside, they were sold by the gram, and were often unavailable no matter how much one paid.

Any monster in the Craftsman Tomb could drop piles of them. This place was practically an open-air treasure mine.

Even in the hands of ordinary people, this would be an inexhaustible mountain of gold.

With this secret realm, even without the Artisan Pavilion's business, the Yuan Family could stand firm for centuries.

However.

These valuable treasures all belonged to him now.

Jiang Chuan pushed onward, encountering almost no danger.

The effects of an SSS-rank talent were simply too overpowered.

Guaranteed hits allowed him to snipe targets from afar, killing them before they even entered the monsters' field of vision.

Moreover, bolstered by Yi's passive effect, every one of his arrows dealt true damage.

Every arrow ignored defense!

If it had been anyone else—even a seventh-tier class user—they might not have had it this easy in this secret realm!

Half an hour later.

Jiang Chuan arrived safely before a massive rift.

The chasm split across the earth, roughly a hundred meters wide. Dark-red magma flowed along its bottom, radiating surging light and heat.

"Hm? Why is there an extra lava river here?"

Jiang Chuan opened the map and compared it repeatedly.

He quickly confirmed it.

This section of the area was not on the map Yuan Ziyi had given him.

She probably was not stupid enough to lie to him, so this must have been a change that appeared after something happened to the secret realm.

Jiang Chuan looked across the rift. If he wanted to keep moving forward, he had to cross this lava river.

But he did not have a heat-resistant vehicle.

How was he supposed to get across?

Jiang Chuan followed the edge of the rift down to the bottom.

At this moment.

He was less than ten meters from the lava river.

The Cold Jade Pearl's chill was working desperately, but against the heat of an entire lava river, the item's effect was already negligible.

Yet Jiang Chuan's expression suddenly became somewhat strange.

This magma...

It did not seem as terrifying as he had imagined?

To verify his suspicion, he stepped closer to the lava river bit by bit. Suddenly, sparks flew from his body—his pants had spontaneously caught fire from the intense heat.

Jiang Chuan simply took off all his clothes.

Then, naked as the day he was born, he walked up to the lava river and reached out to touch the scorching, flowing magma.

-100.

-100.

-100.

A string of numbers rose above his head.

Jiang Chuan only felt hot, but it was still within his tolerance.

Sure enough, after his Constitution attribute reached 1,500 points, his body had become inhumanly strong. Even magma, which was deadly to ordinary people, dealt extremely limited damage to him...

Then what was there to hesitate about? He would just treat it as a free hot bath!

Splash!

Jiang Chuan leaped into the lava river.

As his entire body came into contact with the magma, the rate at which his health fell began to increase.

But for Jiang Chuan, who possessed a full one million health points.

It was still barely worth mentioning.

What was more.

He had the Rapid Healing talent.

The automatic recovery granted by 1,500 Constitution alone, amplified by Rapid Healing, was enough to let him endure in a pool of magma until the end of time!

"Phew..."

Jiang Chuan touched the hair on top of his head. It had not burned away. Hair was also part of his body, so naturally it benefited from his physical attributes as well.

He even scooped up some magma and rubbed it over himself.

"Comfortable!"