I can receive unlimited protection; my parents handed me over to the state.

Could it be that, Master Lu, you intend to...

They dared not think any further.

Because, the next second, they witnessed a scene they would never forget.

The boy who had been leisurely sitting atop Pangu slowly stood up. He gently extended his right hand towards the giant Kraken octopus below, which was barely clinging to life, and then clenched his fist tightly!

"[Pangu], activate the 'Life Energy Siphon' mode!"

"Target--"

"The deep-sea monster, the Kraken!"

As his cold command was given, the enormous, silver-white Pangu, which had been silently floating in mid-air, seemed to transform into a colossal cosmic beast awakened from endless hunger! Countless invisible energy absorption ports on its silver-white spherical shell opened simultaneously once again!

"Buzz—!!"

A terrifying suction force, even more terrifying and domineering than when it devoured the Abyssal Moss, suddenly erupted! This time, the suction force was no longer invisible, but transformed into billions of dazzling golden energy threads visible to the naked eye, like the most magnificent golden rainstorm, instantly engulfing the mountain-sized Kraken!

"Hiss hiss hiss—!!"

Each golden energy thread was like the sharpest straw, piercing precisely into every cell of the Kraken's massive body, and then began to frantically extract the vast, boundless life energy within it!

"roar--!!"

The Kraken, which had been in a "dormant" state, was instantly awakened from its slumber by the terrifying suction that was enough to drain its soul! It let out the most mournful and painful cry since it was summoned! Its battered body began to struggle and writhe violently, trying to break free from the golden threads that were like a leech!

However, it was all in vain.

Faced with the terrifying suction power of Pangu, comparable to a "rule," all its resistance seemed so pale and powerless. It could only watch helplessly as the vast life energy accumulated within its body over thousands of years was slowly drained and squeezed dry by those billions of golden straws!

Its massive, mountain-like body is rapidly shrunken and shrinking at a visible rate; its deep blue, tough skin is gradually losing all its luster, becoming dry and fragile, like tree bark that has been dried for thousands of years.

"This...this...this..."

Gu Tianye and Xiang Batian, standing in the distance, were utterly speechless at the terrifying scene before them, a spectacle akin to the "Star-Absorbing Technique." They felt their minds were completely overwhelmed.

If Lu Yuan's previous devouring of the Abyssal Moss only shocked them, then now, Lu Yuan's act of "sucking" a terrifying behemoth far exceeding S-rank right before their eyes has instilled in them a fear that comes from the depths of their souls!

What kind of monster is this man?! Is he really a blacksmith? Why can he always do things that are completely beyond their comprehension?

On the flagship, Odin, who was engaged in fierce battle with Ye Cang, widened his golden eyes the instant he saw this scene! A shock and fear a hundred times stronger than when he saw Kraken being dismembered erupted from the depths of his heart!

"No--!!"

"stop!!"

"You damned devil!!"

"What exactly did you do to my Kraken?!"

He let out a heart-wrenching, frantic roar!

The Kraken was Atlantis's greatest masterpiece! It was the ultimate weapon of war they had cultivated with countless resources and effort! It was their greatest asset in conquering this world! But now, it had been used as a "power bank" by some human kid who appeared out of nowhere, and had been "sucked dry" right in front of him?

How could he possibly accept this?!

"devil?"

Lu Yuan heard his roar but just smiled disdainfully. He turned his head and looked at Odin, who was almost driven mad with rage, with an expression that suggested he was looking at an idiot.

"No, no, no, you've got it wrong again."

"I am not a devil."

"I'm just a thrifty and hardworking young man."

"Such a highly nutritious 'raw material,' wouldn't it be such a waste to just let it go to waste?"

Lu Yuan spoke as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and his frugal and thrifty demeanor made anyone who didn't know better think he was picking up rotten vegetable leaves that others didn't want at the market.

"puff--!"

Upon hearing this, Odin could no longer contain himself! He felt a sweetness in his throat and spat out a mouthful of golden divine blood! He was so angry that his Dao heart almost wavered! The enormous phantom of the sea god behind him also became somewhat illusory due to his loss of composure.

"A great opportunity!"

Upon seeing this, Ye Cang's deep demonic eyes instantly lit up! Without hesitation, he seized this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and the [Asura] in his hand transformed into a black lightning bolt capable of slicing through everything!

"Pfft—!"

A dull thud as a blade pierced flesh! The pitch-black demonic sword, carrying an unparalleled demonic power that would make even gods and demons tremble, plunged fiercely into Odin's back!

"ah--!!"

Odin let out a painful howl! He looked down in disbelief at the black blade protruding from his chest, his golden eyes filled with endless resentment and unwillingness.

He never dreamed that he, the dignified fleet governor of Atlantis, would be so enraged by a human boy that he vomited blood, thus revealing a fatal flaw that allowed another human boy to launch a sneak attack.

This was simply the greatest disgrace of his life!

"You...you all..."

He turned his head with difficulty, staring intently at Lu Yuan and Ye Cang with eyes filled with deep-seated hatred.

"My king... Poseidon... will not let you go..."

"The entirety of Atlantis... will absolutely not let you get away with this..."

"Just wait, you will face the final judgment amidst endless despair and fear..."

Having said that, his golden eyes completely lost their luster. The phantom of the sea god behind him shattered with a crash, turning into countless golden specks of light. His towering body fell helplessly from mid-air, finally plunging with a "plop" into the cold, blue-tinged seawater.

Odin, the governor of the North Sea Fleet of Atlantis and an SSS-level powerhouse, has fallen!

At the very moment of his death, the Kraken, which had been sucked into a "dried octopus" by Pangu, finally let out its last mournful cry of unwillingness. Then, its massive, mountain-like body completely turned into a cloud of grayish-white ash, which drifted away with the wind, leaving only a fist-sized, deep blue life core radiating immense life energy, quietly suspended in mid-air.

Thus, the surprise invasion launched by Atlantis came to a dramatic end in a way that no one expected.

As Odin's towering figure and Kraken's massive remains vanished one after another into the azure sea, the entire East Sea battlefield fell into an eerie, deathly silence.

Whether it was the distant Chinese fleet or the surviving Atlantean soldiers on the flagship, everyone was frozen in place, staring blankly at this scene that was completely beyond their comprehension.

Won?

Just like that... they won?

That aggressive Atlantis vanguard fleet, which seemed poised to conquer the entire world, and that god-like SSS-class governor who summoned a cataclysmic tsunami and deep-sea monsters, were all easily wiped out by a group of young people who looked to be under twenty years old.

Is this...is this a dream?

Li Qingcang, the "Sea Dragon King" who had guarded the East Sea for decades, was also in a daze. He looked at the cold-blooded youth who had killed Odin, who had been fighting him for a long time, with just a few strikes, then at the two peerless warriors who had skinned S-class or higher biological weapons alive like "seafood," and finally, his gaze fell on the lazy youth who had simply sat on that silver-white iron ball and controlled the entire battle with just a few words.

In his heart, only endless bitterness and regret remained.

"The Yangtze River's back waves push the front waves, and the front waves die on the beach..." he muttered to himself, feeling as if he had really grown old, and that this era no longer belonged to old guys like them.

"Hey, you there, old man Li."

Just as Li Qingcang was still filled with emotion, Lu Yuan's unreliable voice rang in his mind once again.

"Stop standing there, hurry up and clean up the battlefield. Those merfolk's biological warships look like they're made of pretty good materials, don't let them get away. Also, get that Odin's corpse up too. His golden armor and that trident he's holding are good stuff! Take them back, melt them down, and make a new weapon, perfect!"

Li Qingcang: "..."

He watched as the boy enthusiastically directed Pangu to carefully collect the deep blue Kraken life core and Odin's golden trident, and his lips twitched uncontrollably.

He finally understood what Lu Yuan meant by "recycling raw materials." So, in this kid's eyes, this epic naval battle, worthy of being recorded in history, was just a massive "scrap metal recycling" operation?

……

Half an hour later, when the reinforcements from the East Naval District arrived at the battlefield, the battle was already over. All that remained was a devastated sea, an Atlantean prisoner fleet that had been stripped of all its weapons and equipment, with even its flagship reduced to an empty shell, and a group of young "monsters" gleefully "dividing the spoils."

"Master Lu! Master Lu! Look! This main keel I took from that Orca warship! Is it tough? Is it tough enough to add an 'armor-piercing' attribute to my [Thousand Transformations]?" Gu Tianye carried a huge bone, thicker than himself and gleaming with metallic luster, and ran up to Lu Yuan with a treasure-like expression.

"Get out of my way! Your broken axe, it doesn't matter what attributes you add! It's just a flashy, useless thing!" Xiang Batian kicked him aside, then held up a huge tortoise-shell shield he had taken from the sea turtle transport ship in front of Lu Yuan. "Master Lu! Look at this! The defense, wow! If I could integrate it into my [Opening Heaven], wouldn't my [Earth Barrier] be able to withstand a nuclear bomb?"

"Senior Lu, I analyzed the crystal core of their warship and discovered a special energy frequency that can amplify the affinity of water elements..." Mu Bingli also came over, holding a blue crystal that shimmered with a dreamlike light.

In an instant, everyone surrounded Lu Yuan, each one like a child waiting for candy from their parents, offering their "treasures" scavenged from this "waste recycling" event to their one and only "god".

Lu Yuan accepted all offers without hesitation. While commenting on these Atlantean biological materials he had never seen before, he was rapidly devising in his mind how to integrate these new materials into their existing artifacts for their next upgrade and enhancement.

Watching this incredibly harmonious yet surreal scene of "spoils distribution," Li Qingcang and the high-ranking officers of the East China Sea Military Region behind him exchanged bewildered glances, speechless. They felt as if they were somewhat out of touch with the world.

Just then, the highest-level communication request from the Celestial World came in. On the screen appeared the two old faces of Su Lie and Qian Sen, filled with shock and ecstasy.

"Lu Yuan! You little brat!!" Su Lie roared first, but his voice held no reproach, only boundless excitement and pride. "You've fucking messed up again!!"

"Do you know who you just killed?!"

"That's Odin, the Governor of the North Sea, one of the four fleet governors under the Seven Kings of Atlantis!"

"Do you know what that means?!"

"This means that we are now at war with Atlantis, a prehistoric civilization that has been hidden for countless millennia!!"

Su Lie's voice, like a rolling thunderclap, exploded in everyone's ears!

Everyone who heard this felt a chill run down their spines! They then realized that they had just done something truly remarkable.

However, facing Su Lie's roar filled with excitement and worry, Lu Yuan looked completely innocent. He picked at his ear and then said in an extremely calm tone, "Let's start a war. It's no big deal. Besides, I'm short quite a few 'seafood' type forging materials. Let them send some over, that would be good."

Su Lie: "..."

Qian Sen: "..."

Li Qingcang: "..."

All the bigwigs present were collectively petrified upon hearing this. Looking at the nonchalant young man, only one thought remained in their minds: this world might truly be driven utterly insane by this unreasonable kid.

"We're lacking...we're lacking seafood-based forging materials?"

On the other end of the communication screen, Su Lie felt his blood pressure spike as he listened to Lu Yuan's confident reply. His weathered face flushed red, and his finger trembled as he pointed at Lu Yuan on the screen.

"You little brat! Do you...do you even know what you're saying?!"

"That's Atlantis! The legendary prehistoric super-civilization! An unknown enemy that we don't even understand!"

"You, you actually think the 'materials' they've delivered to your door aren't enough?"

Su Lie was so angry his mustache almost stood on end. He'd lived so long, fought so many battles, and had never seen anyone as arrogant as Lu Yuan! Treating a highly advanced civilization with unfathomable power like a "seafood market" for delivering packages? If word got out, it would probably infuriate even the Seven Seas Kings!

"Grandpa Su, please don't get agitated." Lu Yuan looked at Su Lie, who seemed on the verge of a stroke, and spread his hands innocently. "You see, the feud is already set in stone, and a fight is inevitable. Since we're going to fight sooner or later, why can't we take the initiative?"

"Instead of waiting for them to prepare and then catch us off guard, it's better for us to take the initiative and 'stock up' on their 'seafood market.' This way, we can weaken their manpower; secondly, we can replenish our valuable strategic resources; and most importantly," Lu Yuan said, a very "friendly" smile spreading across his face, "I'm also running out of things to practice on. See, isn't this killing three birds with one stone?"

Lu Yuan's words were reasonable, well-reasoned, and clearly articulated, leaving Su Lie and Qian Sen on the other side of the screen stunned. Upon reflection, they realized it actually made perfect sense! After all, they had already killed the fleet commander, and the enmity was now sealed.