Ch. 21The Ninety-Thousand-Year Desolate Beast Awakens in the Depths
Key plot points and events
- Lu Yuan continues driving Big Luck through the Star Dou Great Mountains, defeating increasingly powerful Spirit Beasts with little effort.
- A thirty-thousand-year Flame Demon Tiger attacks with fire, but Big Luck’s protection disperses the flames. Lu Yuan rams it, kills it, and lets the Cargo Box collect its corpse without absorbing its Spirit Ring.
- The next day, Lu Yuan uses Big Luck’s National Highway spirit skill against a fifty-thousand-year Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear. The road traps the beast, Big Luck’s speed doubles, and the truck’s impact buries the bear beneath a collapsed mountainside. Its body is collected.
- Scouts from three factions, who expected Lu Yuan to be overwhelmed, are left frightened and bewildered. The witnesses realize Big Luck seems less like a hunting vehicle and more like a tool for clearing the forest.
- On the fourth day, Lu Yuan reaches a forbidden swamp in the mountains’ deepest region. He repeatedly honks Big Luck’s horn, stirring the swamp until the ninety-thousand-year Sky-Shaking Marsh Bull rises from it.
Character developments and interactions
- Lu Yuan remains calm and confident, treating formidable Spirit Beasts as manageable obstacles. His casual dismissal of the Flame Demon Tiger and satisfaction after defeating the bear underline his growing assurance.
- The scouts, including Yan, Xie Yue, and Hu Liena, shift from mockery to alarm. Xie Yue recognizes how poorly he would fare against the bear, while Hu Liena decides not to approach Lu Yuan or risk using her Charm Technique on him.
- The Sky-Shaking Marsh Bull emerges with a trace of displeasure at Lu Yuan’s persistent noise, setting up a confrontation.
Significant themes
- Power and expectation: Lu Yuan’s simple, vehicle-based approach overturns the scouts’ assumptions about what a two-Spirit-Ring cultivator can do.
- Escalating spectacle: Each encounter raises the stakes, moving from a thirty-thousand-year beast to a fifty-thousand-year predator and finally to a near-hundred-thousand-year monster.
- Disbelief and fear: The observers’ reactions show how thoroughly Lu Yuan’s strength unsettles the established understanding of combat and danger.