A mutation within

"If I wanted money, getting it would be fairly easy with my current strength."

“But I can't do anything too blatantly lawless, like robbing banks...” Yang Yu considered his options. It wasn't that he had any particularly lofty principles; he simply didn't want to invite too much trouble. After all, even if he was now as powerful as a monster, his current strength still didn't allow him to challenge the machinery of the state with impunity.

Running wild without restraint would only leave him with fewer and fewer paths forward.

If he made enemies everywhere, even a fortune in his hands might become impossible to spend, let alone use to purchase large quantities of rare, exotic materials that were conspicuous enough to begin with!

He needed a more discreet, more reliable way to make money!

And it had to earn him an enormous fortune in a short time!

"Hmm."

“If I think it through, there has to be a way.” Yang Yu slowly turned the matter over in his mind.

His brain had also been greatly enhanced, so his ability to think had improved dramatically. The moment he began considering the problem, countless ideas sprang up.

Good ones and bad ones.

Becoming an assassin, plundering underworld kingpins, working as a bodyguard for wealthy merchants, and so on... Countless possibilities occurred to him!

But Yang Yu quickly rejected them one by one.

Every one of these ideas had something that made it unsuitable.

Possibility after possibility flashed through his mind.

After several minutes, Yang Yu stopped thinking.

By then, he had already made his decision.

He would return to his old line of work.

He was an expert in archaeological exploration, after all!

In that case...

He would rob tombs!

He could steal large quantities of antiques and unusual treasures, then sell them off to make a fortune with ease!

He had done this before, but very rarely, and each time he had been extremely cautious, taking away only a tiny share of the spoils.

As a result, all those years of accumulation had earned him only a few million.

Tomb robbing and archaeological exploration were dangerous, especially in valuable imperial tombs such as the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor... Their interiors were often riddled with mechanisms and traps that could easily kill a person!

They were also extremely difficult to find!

Yang Yu had extensive experience searching for things. Now that his physical strength rivaled a monster's, he no longer feared ordinary blades, and even a normal small-caliber handgun could only inflict minor injuries on him.

He had gained some confidence in his ability to protect himself against traps left behind in ancient times.

So, after weighing his options, he finally decided.

Tomb robbing!

It was the best choice available to him.

And the most suitable.

At the same time, Yang Yu had a few other thoughts.

"Robbing tombs and obtaining valuable antiques won't just let me amass an enormous fortune quickly. Ancient generals, ministers, nobles, and emperors often had rare treasures buried with them. Perhaps... while I'm exploring tombs for antiques, I'll make some unexpected discoveries too."

"I discovered the legacy of the Insectoid Civilization during an archaeological expedition. If I find anything else like it, I certainly wouldn't mind getting my hands on a few more."

“These things can increase my strength, so naturally, the more the better.” Yang Yu murmured under his breath.

“Hm?” While he was thinking, Yang Yu suddenly frowned.

Without warning, Yang Yu sensed a change inside his body. A burning heat filled his chest, centered on his heart!

The change came very suddenly!

"What's going on?"

Along with a faint stabbing pain in his heart, Yang Yu felt as though a scalding hot spring had appeared there. An unending stream of fiery power churned both inside and around his heart!

Yang Yu's expression grew grave.

"Sink!"

He closed his eyes and held his breath with all his might. His five senses warped, and a breath or two later, the world that had gone dark behind his closed eyes began to emit a faint glow!

A strange world of dazzling, brilliant colors appeared before Yang Yu.

This was the inside of his body!

At that moment, his organs, muscles, bones—everything inside him—looked completely different, appearing before his eyes in an incredibly abstract form!

This was Inner Vision!

While testing his strength earlier, Yang Yu had already noticed that he had gained this ability.

He had no way of knowing exactly where it came from. Perhaps it was an additional ability granted by enhancing his five senses to a certain degree. It allowed him to examine and "see" the condition of his body from an entirely new perspective!

The human body had five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth!

Metal governed the lungs!

Wood governed the liver!

Water governed the kidneys!

Fire governed the heart!

Earth governed the spleen and stomach!

The five elements corresponded to the five brilliant colors inside his body. As Yang Yu swept his gaze across them, he turned toward the blazing, fiery-red region!

That was his heart!

The region of fire!

It was precisely where Yang Yu had just felt a mutation occurring inside his body!

Now, as his gaze swept through the vast, fiercely burning sea of illusory flames, Yang Yu easily discovered the source of the change.

“What is this?” Yang Yu focused his gaze directly on the center of the illusory sea of fire.

A gap had been forced open there. Within it, a liquid sphere the size of an adult's fist hovered quietly, shining an icy blue as spikes continually protruded from its surface.

It was rooted there as firmly as a mountain. No matter how the billowing illusory flames outside the gap battered it, they could not move it in the slightest!

Boom!!!

After Yang Yu stared at the icy-blue sphere for a second or two, a layer of icy-blue flames abruptly flared across its surface.

The icy flames danced like eerie, storm-tossed waves upon the ocean!

An immense surge of vitality swept outward with them!

As that vast vitality flooded through him, Yang Yu felt every part of his body, down to each individual cell, sink into utter bliss. The sensation was so intense that even in his state of Inner Vision, with his body half dormant, he let out a moan of pleasure.

At the same time, subtle changes occurred within Yang Yu's body as the tremendous vitality washed through it. The process was slight, and his strength barely increased, but minor imperfections within his body were corrected to their optimal state by the cleansing surge.

Only now had Yang Yu's body truly reached its most perfect condition at his current level!

"Life Energy."

"It can provide endless vitality and nourish all things. It can also modify and engineer all kinds of ferocious insects and beasts!"

"It can even be used to create an endless Insectoid Legion!"

"This is the foundation upon which the Insectoid Civilization prides itself!"

"This very power."

"This is the greatest benefit the legacy of the Insect Codex can offer! Compared with it, the increase in my physical strength is nothing more than an insignificant side benefit!"

Yang Yu murmured to himself. As that sudden surge of vitality flooded his body, the memories and information he had inherited along with the power from the first page of the Insect Codex automatically unfolded in his mind!

He instinctively knew that the icy-blue power now residing in his heart was the Insectoid Civilization's most important source of strength.

Life Energy!

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