Chapter 117: Merging the Purple-Gold Bone

Li Ren placed the Blood of Madness into the ashes as well, then looked at his current level, only level eighty-eight, and could not help giving a bitter smile.

For years, he had consistently been more than ten levels above the players. Now, however, he had actually been overtaken by a group of players who were more than ten levels ahead of him. Under the normal progression of the game, a boss of his level would already be considered something players could safely ignore.

After all, when there was an entire major level between them, the benefits he could provide players were no longer very substantial.

The situation before him made it imperative that he level up quickly and close the gap between them.

What was more, the enemies he was about to face were not merely these players, but the existence behind them—the thing known as Heavenly Evil.

At first, Li Ren had simply thought this was a game, and had never felt particularly driven to fight for anything.

No matter how powerful one might be in a game, it ultimately did not truly belong to oneself. In the end, everything remained firmly in the system’s grasp.

Once one left the system, one would become nothing.

Besides, every game, no matter what kind, had a lifespan. Even the finest game could not remain open forever.

That was common sense. In other words, his future existence within the game was not especially promising.

Perhaps his initial confusion had also stemmed from that reality.

But after learning the true nature of the Land of the Gods, all those concerns had been swept away and no longer mattered.

Whether experience or attributes, everything increased his soul power. This was worlds apart from merely existing inside a game, especially since he had a genuine need for these powers.

For the sake of those who had already passed away yet whom he wished to protect, possessing strength was clearly not a bad thing.

While a man still lived, who did not wish to fight his way toward glory?

Driven by this conviction, Li Ren took Mao Mao into the Illusory Forest and began another slaughter.

Levels and experience poured into their bodies like flowing water. Under such circumstances, time had already lost all meaning.

The levels of the two creatures rose rapidly, and their strength naturally increased just as quickly.

The monsters in the Illusory Forest were far from easy to kill. After all, this was considered one of the final destinations players would reach, and the levels of its monsters were absurdly high.

Only someone like Li Ren, relying on the advantages of his attributes, skills, and talents, could leap across such a vast level gap to hunt monsters. For anyone else, confronting such a tide of monsters without an entire team would simply be suicide.

Of course, even with a team, players still needed to be around the same level.

No one knew how much time had passed. In any case, Li Ren and Mao Mao had already moved through three different areas.

Every place they had abandoned had been slaughtered by the two of them several times over, only to be discarded once the experience and attributes it provided were no longer worthwhile.

In truth, even the places they had abandoned could be considered extraordinarily dangerous.

After all, this was the central region of the Illusory Forest. Not a single area here contained monsters below level one hundred.

Another wave of monsters fell. Mao Mao began devouring their corpses while Li Ren took two purple-gold bones from the Ash Ring.

One was a fist, and the other was a pair of wings.

The two objects appeared in Li Ren’s hands, but it was immediately obvious that neither was an appropriate size.

The fist was too large, while the wings were too small.

If he replaced one of his own fists with that thing, it would be larger than his head. The reason the Suicide Punch had carried him forward directly was precisely because the fist was so enormous.

The wings were even more ridiculous.

If this world had a tiny angel like Cupid, the wings on its back might have been roughly the same size as the object in Li Ren’s hand.

The entire pair of wings was barely as wide as his chest. Even if he spread them, they were nowhere near the span of his arms. Whether anyone standing in front of him could even see that he had wings on his back would have been questionable.

Li Ren sighed.

The Purple-Gold race was clearly an existence of unparalleled strength, yet for some unknown reason, he always seemed to encounter its most useless oddities.

They could only be held and admired, never actually used. The situation was truly frustrating beyond words.

He silently stared at the two objects. The powerful energy radiating from the purple-gold bones seemed like a tiny claw, constantly scratching at his heart and making it itch unbearably. He could not bring himself to put them down.

The feeling of being able to see something yet not consume it was truly unpleasant.

Just as he was still standing there in a daze, a stream of information suddenly appeared in his mind.

The information struck Li Ren so abruptly that he felt dizzy. He hurriedly steadied his mind, quickly calming the agitation brought on by the sudden influx before carefully examining it.

The more he examined it, the more excited he became. By the end, he could not stop himself from laughing aloud.

“Truly, Heaven is helping me. No, wait—rather, a bird is helping me!”

Li Ren laughed heartily. With a flick of his finger, a thread of golden-yellow flame appeared in his hand.

That’s right. This golden-yellow flame was naturally the little Vermilion Bird that had inexplicably entered his body after he underwent the tempering of heavenly fire within the Boundary Tower, only to disappear without a trace.

After the Vermilion Bird vanished, he had thought of countless ways to summon it back. Yet no matter what he did, the creature seemed to have truly disappeared, remaining completely silent. Even within his own body, he could not detect the slightest trace of it.

Now that it had suddenly appeared and brought him such wonderful news, all of Li Ren’s earlier resentment vanished in an instant.

From the information it had transmitted, Li Ren unexpectedly learned how to make full use of the two pieces of purple-gold bone in his possession.

The answer was simple.

Burn them.

Temper them.

Temper them without end.

As the legendary divine beast Vermilion Bird, the progenitor of all flame-wielders, the fire contained within it was truly terrifying.

This golden-yellow flame was known as Vermilion Bird Golden Fire. Though it looked ordinary on the surface, it had drawn all its heat inward. Its temperature was astonishingly high, yet the outside world could not sense it at all.

Only upon coming into direct contact with the flame could one possibly perceive the terrifying heat contained within it.

Even the bones of the Purple-Gold race had to yield before this flame.

Li Ren held the tiny wings in his hand and looked at them again. He was still somewhat uneasy about the little flame. After all, these were objects of the Purple-Gold race. From Lantis’s solemn expression alone, he had been able to sense how extraordinary that race was. Could such a tiny flame truly solve the problem?

Although he thought this, his hands did not stop moving.

The wings were so small that even if the flame proved ineffective and they were damaged, he would not feel particularly disappointed. What use was there in keeping something he could never use?

The wings drew closer and closer to the Vermilion Bird Golden Fire, while Li Ren stared intently at the narrowing distance between them.

Even Mao Mao, who had still been clearing the battlefield nearby, was drawn to the powerful fluctuations emanating from Li Ren’s hand. Its two enormous dragon eyes fixed upon what he held, and time seemed to freeze in that instant.