Chapter 132: Phoenix Mountain Manor

After sending the drunken He Dongsheng to a hotel, Lu Yan took a cab back home. His thoughts were anything but calm.

He Dongsheng’s response had completely caught him off guard.

In this Urban Version, He Dongsheng had no contact whatsoever with Zhao Huowang.

That was absolutely abnormal!

In both the Xianxia and Cyber Versions, He Dongsheng had interacted with Zhao Huowang. He had even passed on items left behind by Zhao Huowang to Lu Yan.

Even if Zhao Huowang hadn’t left anything behind in the Urban Version, the resonance of prior versions should have still influenced He Dongsheng. There should have been at least some residual memory.

But He Dongsheng knew nothing.

That could only mean there was a hidden truth behind this.

Still, just as always—secrets born from version changes were too many to unravel. Lu Yan simply didn’t have the time or means to get to the bottom of all of them. For now, he could only store this anomaly in the back of his mind.

Sitting on the sofa, Lu Yan focused his mind. A familiar version update interface popped open before him, and finally, there was progress on the update bar.

[Version Update Progress: 1.1%]

That number allowed Lu Yan to roughly estimate that the Urban Version would remain active for six months, which he found quite satisfactory.

The Urban Version posed little danger and was the best version for building foundation and networking. Six months was enough time for Lu Yan to accomplish many things.

Now that everything concerning the Federal Archaeology Association was settled, Lu Yan didn’t plan to invest any more effort into climbing the ranks.

Even if he made a name for himself in the Association, once the world reverted to the Xianxia Version, without cultivation to back him up, all that status would be nothing more than a castle in the sky.

As for becoming part of the main branch like He Dongsheng? That didn’t hold much appeal for Lu Yan.

Joining the main branch meant becoming part of the Taiyi Sect’s inner circle—and that would bring stricter scrutiny. Lu Yan had no intention of exposing his secrets.

More importantly, the main branch placed a high demand on disciples mastering feng shui techniques. He Dongsheng could turn his study of archaeology and I Ching classics in the Urban Version into feng shui knowledge after a version update.

But Lu Yan couldn’t.

No matter how many archaeological skills Lu Yan picked up now, they would become useless after the version changed.

Unless he immediately acquired large amounts of feng shui knowledge and began cultivating it, he wouldn’t be able to keep up—and would eventually reveal his true nature.

Given all that, Lu Yan decided to focus entirely on strengthening his own cultivation and the soul banner.

“Now that I have a secure identity, it’s time to move on to the next phase.”

Opening his personal terminal, Lu Yan swiped across the virtual screen and began searching for secluded estates and manors in the forested regions around Luocheng.

After some careful filtering, Lu Yan set his sights on a location over a hundred kilometers from Luocheng—a place called Phoenix Mountain.

A wealthy tycoon had once built a manor on Phoenix Mountain, but he went bankrupt shortly afterward and committed suicide. The manor was repossessed by a bank.

Because the location was remote and construction unfinished, the place had remained abandoned for years with no buyers.

Lu Yan checked the price: four million Eastern coins, even cheaper than he had expected.

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In front of the abandoned manor on Phoenix Mountain—

After completing the paperwork with a bank employee, Lu Yan watched as the staff drove away.

Looking up at the massive estate halfway up the mountain, a satisfied glint appeared in his eyes.

The main buildings of Phoenix Mountain Manor were already constructed. Only a few features—pavilions, swimming pools, and the outer perimeter walls—remained incomplete.

After hearing Lu Yan was buying the property, the bank had even gone the extra mile and installed appliances and furniture so that it would be livable.

The only drawback was how remote it was, making travel up and down the mountain inconvenient.

But for Lu Yan, this remoteness was a major advantage.

With that in mind, he retrieved his soul banner from his storage pouch and planted it in the center of the estate.

A thin ghostly mist began spreading in all directions. One by one, fierce ghosts emerged from the fog, each kneeling respectfully before Lu Yan.

Dark shadows floated in the mist, turning the already desolate manor into a place of eerie horror.

Soon, the three main souls appeared and knelt before him as well.

“Main souls stay. The rest of you—search the surrounding area.”

Lu Yan gave the order, and the ghostly figures instantly dispersed into the estate.

He then pulled out his copy of Formation Mysteries, consulting its contents to begin setting up a Spirit-Isolation Formation. Mana surged from his body, weaving formation patterns through the air, and spirit stones were embedded at critical nodes.

Half an hour later, a Spirit-Isolation Formation large enough to cover the entire manor was beginning to take shape.

Only then did Lu Yan bring out five spirit-energy fission batteries from his storage pouch.

Each battery was the size of a car. This was the most advanced spirit-energy technology available in City-14. Just one of these batteries could power a sky battleship.

However, in the Cyber Version, where spirit energy was essentially limitless, a simple transmission system could extract power from the Spirit Sea itself. In that context, spirit-energy batteries were considered chicken ribs—useful, but inefficient and disposable.

Even after scouring all of City-14, Lu Yan had only managed to secure five of them.

Useless in the Cyber Version—but in the Urban Version, they were priceless treasures.

Lu Yan began writing spirit-energy code, linking the five fission batteries together.

As the code executed, sparks flew from the battery terminals. An instant later, a thick wave of spirit energy surged throughout the entire estate.

Blocked by the Spirit-Isolation Formation, not a single wisp of spirit energy leaked out. Everything was retained within the manor.

Lu Yan turned off the batteries and watched the spirit energy levels in the air with caution.

One minute later, the spirit energy hadn’t decreased at all. A relieved smile spread across his face.

“As I thought—Cyber Version’s spirit energy rules don’t apply to the Urban Version!”

In the Cyber Version, spirit energy couldn’t remain in the physical world. It constantly leaked into some unknown void. To maintain it, you had to keep extracting it from the Spirit Sea.

But in the Urban Version, where there was no Spirit Sea, Lu Yan had no alternative but to rely on spirit-energy batteries.

And if the spirit energy here also couldn’t stay stable, even the best batteries would be exhausted quickly.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen.

The version change was fair—not only had the Spirit Sea disappeared, but the spirit energy rules had changed too.

Lu Yan restarted the batteries.

Now that everything was in place, he could finally begin the long-planned operation:

Turn every fierce ghost… into a Soul Computer.

(End of Chapter)