Chapter One Hundred and Nineteen: The Iron Saw Centipede

Ever since Li Ren forged the Purple-Gold Wings with Vermilion Bird Goldfire, his efficiency at killing monsters had risen dramatically.

After being refined, the weapon Li Ren had named the Purple-Gold Winged God usually rested upon his right arm. Purple patterns coiled across it, radiating an air of mystery and nobility. To an ordinary observer, there would be nothing unusual about it.

Once battle began, however, the Purple-Gold Winged God could transform into all manner of weapons under the control of Li Ren’s spiritual power. Since the original purple-gold material had been rather limited, it naturally could not become anything too enormous. Besides, Li Ren was currently most skilled with single-handed blades, so it changed into one of those two forms.

The bones of the Purple-Gold race were indeed extraordinary. After Li Ren forged them into a weapon, even the system was unable to determine its attributes.

Though it came with no description of its properties, Li Ren’s experiments had shown that it was countless times more powerful than any weapon he had ever used.

What was more, the Purple-Gold Winged God was essentially an extension of his own arm. It moved as naturally as his fingers, and its agility and force were entirely different from those of an ordinary weapon held in the hand.

With such a weapon at his disposal, Li Ren began taking Mao Mao to the outskirts of the Illusion Forest to challenge the lords.

Not a single lord-rank boss was weak, and those stationed within the Illusion Mountains were even more formidable.

Li Ren first went directly to the Centipede Cave, where he and Shadow had once trained together. The ordinary monsters there had been slaughtered by the two of them countless times.

When Li Ren and Mao Mao returned, the entire Centipede Cave was already destined to suffer its second downfall.

Along the way, Li Ren did not need to lift a finger against the ordinary centipedes. Mao Mao was an eighty-fifth-level member of the dragon race—or at least, one could generously classify that all-bone creature as a dragon. How could those ordinary centipedes, barely level eighty, possibly be his match?

Mao Mao merely combined the skills Soul Storm and Devour the Heavens and Earth. One skill released, the other absorbed. Centipedes fell in swathes, disappearing into Mao Mao’s maw and transforming into experience and attributes that flowed into Li Ren’s body.

Compared with the experience and attribute points they had absorbed in the central region of the Illusion Mountains, the rewards here were somewhat meager. But even the smallest scrap of meat was still meat. Besides, the experience and attributes they could absorb now were hardly on the level of a mere mosquito.

They crushed everything in their path until they reached the territory of the Iron-Saw Centipede Lord on the lowest level. Only then did Li Ren leap down from Mao Mao’s back and become serious.

The centipede before them gleamed with a silvery-gray metallic luster. More terrifying still were the two enormous foreclaws protruding from its body. Their sawlike teeth flashed with a chilling radiance, and it was easy to imagine what would happen if someone were caught between them and held fast.

Naturally, upon seeing Li Ren and Mao Mao appear, the Iron-Saw Centipede did not simply roll its eyes and lie down to be trampled. It was a lord, after all—and lords possessed the strength to match their title.

An invisible roar issued from within the Iron-Saw Centipede. A rustling sound suddenly rose all around them. Li Ren turned his head and saw that the entire region occupied by the Iron-Saw Centipede had been covered by elite centipedes.

Countless centipedes crawled across the surrounding stone walls, their scarlet eyes glinting coldly in the darkness.

A powerful, fishy stench spread through the cavern.

Whenever the faintly black vapor approached within three meters of Li Ren and Mao Mao, it was blocked by a thin white barrier before dissolving into wisps of green smoke.

That white barrier was naturally the heavenly fire contained within Li Ren’s body after he had undergone the tempering of heavenly flames.

Mao Mao had also fused with Li Ren during its hatching, and as a result, its body likewise carried that fire.

The poison emitted by these tiny centipedes was utterly insignificant before the heavenly flames.

Even so, faced with the sheer number of centipedes before him and the lord watching them like a tiger stalking its prey, Li Ren became slightly more cautious.

The two of them could certainly kill the entire troublesome swarm, but doing so would still require considerable effort.

And besides, how could any lord lack a trump card?

Even when Li Ren himself had first served as a lord, the system had equipped him with unique skills.

By any measure, the level-one-hundred-and-forty Iron-Saw Centipede placed considerable pressure on the two of them, possessing an overwhelming advantage in both level and attributes.

Li Ren waved a hand, and the Purple-Gold Winged God transformed into a massive blade in his right hand.

Against this troublesome swarm, a sword was naturally the more comfortable weapon to use.

The battle erupted with unusual ferocity the instant Li Ren swung his first blow.

Although Mao Mao possessed the evolved innate skills Soul Storm and Devour the Heavens and Earth, even it struggled to keep up against the vast tide of centipedes surging toward them.

After all, skills still required a cooldown before they could be released again.

Moreover, the Iron-Saw Centipede would never allow them to harvest its underlings so easily.

Seeing the Iron-Saw Centipede charge toward Mao Mao, Li Ren swung the Purple-Gold Winged God in a Five-Star Cluster Strike, cutting down every centipede in the surrounding area. Then, seizing an opening, he flashed behind the Iron-Saw Centipede.

At that moment, the Iron-Saw Centipede was preparing to attack Mao Mao. Under Li Ren’s command, Mao Mao abandoned the elite centipedes around it and brought its enormous body crashing down toward the Iron-Saw Centipede.

Although the Iron-Saw Centipede saw Li Ren appear behind it, Mao Mao blocked its path from the front. It was too late to turn around, leaving it no choice but to direct an even more powerful attack at Mao Mao.

Li Ren, naturally, did not remain idle. How could he possibly waste such an opportunity?

The level-one-hundred-and-forty lord truly lived up to its reputation for overwhelming superiority in level and attributes. When Li Ren’s Purple-Gold Winged God struck the Iron-Saw Centipede, it produced nothing more than a trail of sparks. Its scaled armor was as hard as steel.

Although his first strike had failed, Li Ren’s expression did not change. Against a boss of this level, it would have been strange if one blow had been enough.

With a furious roar, Mao Mao sent Soul Storm crashing repeatedly into the Iron-Saw Centipede. Combined with its hard claws, the attack allowed it to hold its own against the monster for the time being.

But Li Ren could see clearly that if the battle continued like this, Mao Mao would soon lose.

After all, it was not fighting only the Iron-Saw Centipede. The lord also had a whole host of elite centipede underlings harassing it from every side.

By now, Mao Mao had no energy left to deal with those elite centipedes and could only allow them to attack.

As a result, its health continued to fall.

Li Ren immediately moved his right hand. The massive blade formed by the Purple-Gold Winged God began to transform rapidly, changing in an instant from a greatsword into a long sword.

A cold gleam flashed across the blade, thin as a cicada’s wing. The Iron-Saw Centipede seemed to sense something and hurriedly contracted its body.

But with Li Ren holding the weapon, would that do any good?