Chapter 632: The Yanshen Clan

Caressing the palm-sized black metal plate in his hands, its cold and smooth texture felt just like jade.

“Feng, do you know what this black metal plate is?” Xu Xin asked curiously.

Luo Feng shook his head slightly.

He had never seen this kind of black metal plate before. Even within the vast inherited memories of the Golden-Horned Giant Beast, he had thoroughly studied F-class and even G-class metals. Yet, not even the Golden-Horned Giant Beast’s memories contained any knowledge of this material.

“Barbara, do you know anything about it?” Luo Feng mentally inquired.

“It has already been scanned. The scanning instruments cannot detect any information or penetrate it. I have never seen this black metal plate either,” Barbara’s slightly puzzled voice echoed in Luo Feng’s mind.

Suddenly, Luo Feng gripped the black metal plate with both hands.

“Heh!”

His eyes flashed with a sharp gleam. With a low shout, he forcefully tried to bend it. As a Domain Lord at the ninth stage, he possessed enough strength to cause mass extinction on an entire living planet. Yet, the immense force he exerted on this small metal plate had absolutely no effect—it was as if his strength were nothing more than an ant trying to shake a mountain.

“What a strange metal plate,” Luo Feng frowned in confusion. “Let’s go back inside first.”

With that, Luo Feng took his wife and left the treasure vault.

…

On the balcony of the bedroom, Luo Feng sat silently. It was already deep into the night, around three or four o’clock in the morning. The moon hung high in the sky, and the cool summer breeze blew gently through the window.

“With my current access rights, I’ve briefly scanned through all the records of extraordinary materials in the Virtual Universe Company. Additionally, I’ve reviewed the inherited memories of the Golden-Horned Giant Beast, which contain knowledge about various rare metals and substances,” Luo Feng said while caressing the black metal plate. “But there’s no information at all!”

“It must have some kind of origin,” Luo Feng’s eyes gleamed with excitement.

He knew clearly that although his status was high, among the human race alone, there were many who ranked far above him. For example, his privileges as a member of the Original Secret Realm were impressive, but above that were the immortal kings’ privileges. His teacher, Zhenyan King, likely had even greater authority.

Above them were the Lords of the Universe.

In short, even among the 1008 Universe Nations of humanity, Luo Feng was only considered part of the upper echelon—not the true elite. Naturally, he had access to limited information.

“But even the inherited memories of the Golden-Horned Giant Beast across countless generations contain no record of this. That means this black metal plate is truly unique,” Luo Feng stared at it intently.

It was definitely a treasure.

Absolutely a treasure!

“The patterns on the broken surface of this black metal plate seem quite ordinary,” Luo Feng observed. His eyesight was so sharp that he could clearly see the nucleus inside a cell when dissecting specimens. Yet even so, he couldn’t find anything unusual.

“If my eyes can’t detect anything, I’ll try using my mental energy. It can probe much more thoroughly,” Luo Feng thought.

Hiss~

Invisible, colorless, and extremely fine threads of mental energy gently swept across the black metal plate.

“Hmm?” Luo Feng’s expression changed, then lit up with surprise.

“Haha! So that’s how it is. It really is special!”

Excitement shone in his eyes.

As his mental threads swept over the black metal plate, they didn’t actually ‘touch’ it. It was as if the plate were made of air. Instead, the threads directly penetrated into its interior and encountered layers of resistance.

“Metals usually have some resistance to mental energy,” Luo Feng said excitedly. “But this metal plate feels like air to my mental energy. It might not even be metal at all—it could be some other substance with unimaginable hardness. Or perhaps it’s a very special kind of metal. Either way, my mental energy can penetrate it!”

“What’s inside?”

Luo Feng manipulated his mental energy.

Hundreds of fine mental threads, like sewing needles, drilled through the layers of resistance inside the black metal plate.

Moments later—

“Hmm?” Luo Feng’s expression shifted slightly. He felt his mental energy unable to penetrate any further.

“Can’t break through?”

“I refuse to believe it!” Luo Feng narrowed his eyes.

Inside his inner world—

Across a vast continent, the Golden-Horned Giant Beast, as large as a mountain range, raised its head and let out a mighty roar. The runes on its four horns simultaneously lit up—

The innate ability ‘Enhancement’!

Not only was the Golden-Horned Giant Beast’s physical body enhanced, but its soul within the Core was also strengthened!

“Go!”

Back on the balcony, Luo Feng’s eyes blazed like lightning.

His human body was at the ninth stage of Domain Lord, and so was the Golden-Horned Giant Beast. Since they were at the same level, the enhanced mental energy from the Core could be channeled through his human body without causing it to collapse.

If his human body were only at the ninth stage of Cosmic level, the mental energy from the Core would be too powerful to channel through.

Generally, a difference of two or three stages was manageable for the physical body to handle.

“Hisss!” Influenced by unknown cosmic laws, the power of his mental energy surged. Instantly, it pierced through the layers of resistance within the black metal plate.

“Boom~~~”

“My child!” A grand, gentle voice echoed in Luo Feng’s mind. In an instant, his consciousness was drawn into a vision woven by that voice…

A long time later—

Sitting on the balcony, Luo Feng suddenly shuddered. His face twisted with fury as he clenched his teeth and abruptly opened his eyes.

“Damn it! I’ve never encountered a vision like that before!” Sweat dripped from his forehead. This was the most bizarre illusion he had ever faced. Unlike the illusion techniques of human schools, which usually preyed on a person’s desires and inner thoughts, this illusion was purely oppressive.

With that mysterious voice, illusion after illusion formed endlessly. Every time Luo Feng broke free from one, countless more illusions emerged. It felt like he was sinking endlessly into an infinite abyss, unable to escape.

“I broke through nearly ten thousand illusions before the endless chain finally collapsed,” Luo Feng exhaled deeply. His mental energy continued to probe deeper into the black metal plate. Suddenly, streams of text began to flow into his consciousness.

After a while, the transmission of information ended.

“Hmm?”

“This is actually a unique item for storing inheritance information,” Luo Feng murmured while touching the black metal plate. “But these characters… I don’t recognize a single one.”

Each character was a block-like glyph.

There were a total of 36,923 characters in the message.

Unfortunately, Luo Feng couldn’t recognize a single one.

“They resemble some ancient Chinese characters from ancient Huaxia culture, but they’re not the same,” Luo Feng thought. His mind processed information at an incredible speed, and he had some knowledge of the mysterious scripts of ancient Huaxia. Yet these characters, though similar, were not.

“Barbara,” Luo Feng called.

“Hmm? Did you find anything?” Barbara asked eagerly.

“Do you recognize this character?” Luo Feng selected a very complex one, with a total of 92 strokes, and wrote it in the air.

“This… this…” Barbara was shocked. “This is the language of the Flame God Clan!”

“The Flame God Clan?” Luo Feng asked in confusion and surprise.

He quickly searched the inherited memories of the Golden-Horned Giant Beast and found records about the Flame God Clan.

The Flame God Clan was one of the countless races in the vast universe, a powerful race not to be trifled with.

The records in the inherited memories were scarce, only emphasizing one thing: “Do not provoke.”

“Barbara, how much do you know about the Flame God Clan?” Luo Feng asked.

“I had never even heard of the Flame God Clan when I was with my previous master,” Barbara replied. “However, after you became a member of the Original Secret Realm, I, as your virtual assistant, naturally helped you access the network. With your privileges, I’ve collected and stored a vast amount of information.”

Luo Feng smiled.

Barbara often got bored while he was training, so it made sense that it had spent time gathering data.

“Tell me about the Flame God Clan,” Luo Feng pressed.

“There are countless races in the universe, and each one that survives cannot be underestimated,” Barbara began. “Of course, the humans, insect race, mechanical race, and beast clans are all considered Peak Clans. These Peak Clans stand at the pinnacle of the universe, possessing terrifying power.”

“For example, the insect race is extremely united, their minds can merge into one. Powerful insect hives can mass-produce immortal insect warriors…”

“An endless swarm of insects—any hive can easily conquer an entire star region.”

“The mechanical race—each member is an intelligent being. The higher their rank, the more terrifying they become. Many high-tech weapons can even kill immortal deities…”

“Humans, on the other hand, can develop independently, and their numbers are vast. From such a massive population, many geniuses can be selected and cultivated into legendary warriors capable of dominating the universe,” Barbara continued. “Perhaps individually, humans may not be as strong as the peak warriors of the insect or mechanical races, but the sheer number of powerful individuals among humans is unmatched.”

“In short, the Peak Clans have two main advantages: supreme combat power and the ability to deploy swarms—be it insect swarms, mechanical swarms, or human armies.”

“Besides the Peak Clans, there are also some races that are small in number but extremely powerful individually. These races still hold significant positions in the universe, though their status varies.”

“The Flame God Clan is one such powerful and mysterious independent race.”

“They have a small population, so their territory isn’t large.”

“However, since the Flame God Clan has many powerful beings and doesn’t occupy much territory, even the human race, insect race, and other Peak Clans avoid provoking them, as it wouldn’t be worth the cost.”

Luo Feng nodded. Based on the inherited memories he had reviewed, races could roughly be categorized as Peak Clans, Powerful Clans, Common Clans, and Weak Clans.

Humans belonged to the Peak Clans.

The Flame God Clan belonged to the Powerful Clans.

The Golden-Horned Giant Beast Clan was slightly weaker than the Flame God Clan, mainly because Golden-Horned Giant Beasts were extremely rare.

An elephant versus a hundred million ants—obviously, the ants would be stronger.

“The character you wrote earlier is indeed from the Flame God Clan,” Barbara said. “The Flame God Clan has a very ancient history, possibly existing since the earliest days of the universe. Considering that this black metal plate has existed on Earth for 600 million years, it makes sense, as the Flame God Clan’s history far exceeds 600 million years.”