Chapter 139: Split in Two

An abrupt, foreign presence manifested within the violent fluctuations, fueling the Skull King’s rage. He had not expected the delay to be so protracted, allowing that accursed Fan Yunshan to reach Li Ren’s side. If things continued this way, not only would he lose the chance to seize all of the blue spirit fire, but he would struggle to retain even the portion he had already secured.

The Skull King let out a roar, his voice brimming with fury and resentment. His fingers, resembling withered tree branches, shimmered with a dark, sinister glow as he slashed at the partially emerged blue light. In an instant, the manifested half-portion solidified into a brilliant sphere of blue flame before him.

The black rune formed by the core life-spirit vanished simultaneously.

The half-portion of blue spirit fire that had been suspended in the void disappeared in a blink. Beside Li Ren, Fan Yunshan’s expression turned icy. He stared at the spirit fire, which had clearly been reduced by more than half, and cast a piercing gaze toward the direction of Skull Mountain.

"Since you are courting death yourself, you have only yourself to blame."

Fan Yunshan murmured to himself. As the words faded, he looked at Li Ren, who was still floating in mid-air, and waited silently for him to awaken.

Agony and exhaustion washed over Li Ren; it felt as if his body had been torn apart by force. That was the sensation that greeted him when he regained consciousness.

He surveyed his surroundings with a sense of bewilderment, his confusion deepening when he saw the scattered bone fragments and Fan Yunshan standing alone nearby.

"What… what happened to me?" he muttered, as if talking to himself. The blank, lost look in his eyes only served to intensify the murderous intent already simmering within Fan Yunshan.

"First, take a moment to feel if anything is wrong," Fan Yunshan said, turning to Li Ren with clear concern. Regardless of who it was, having half of one's soul torn away would be an excruciating experience.

"I think I’m alright," Li Ren replied after carefully sensing his own body, though he sounded uncertain. "It feels like something is missing, but at the same time, it feels like something has been added."

"Hmm?" Fan Yunshan was stunned by the response.

Under normal circumstances, losing half of one's soul would at least result in the loss of half of one's memories. Yet, looking at Li Ren, there were no signs of memory loss; if anything, he seemed to have gained something.

"It feels as if… there is an extra soul inside me, one that seems to belong to Mao Mao?" Li Ren peered into his own body at the now faint, dim, dragon-shaped soul. It flickered with a pale white light, drifting aimlessly within his perception, as if it had suffered grave injury.

"What exactly happened?" Li Ren was completely oblivious to the events that had just transpired. As the victim, bound by the powerful constraints of his own life-spirit core, he had fallen into a deep soul-slumber. Had it not been for Mao Mao and the intervention of that purple-gold flame, the Skull King would likely have stripped away his entire spirit fire instantly.

Suppressing his rage, Fan Yunshan recounted what had occurred. Much of it was based on his own deductions, but those deductions were, in fact, the reality.

With every word, Li Ren’s heart surged with turmoil. That damned Skull King had harbored such intentions from the very beginning. Although the loss of half his spirit fire did not seem to have caused him immediate, catastrophic damage, he felt an inexplicable sense of having lost something of vital importance.

Looking at Mao Mao’s broken form lying nearby, Li Ren silently gathered the remains into his Ash Ring. His anger toward the Skull King for the treacherous blow only grew.

Though he had initially felt an instinctive, deep-seated fear of the Skull King, he now realized that it was merely the involuntary dread of his own life-spirit core being held captive by another.

Now that he understood the situation and realized his life might be held in the palm of the enemy’s hand, Li Ren knew he could never find peace.

"I will reclaim my life-spirit core, take back my half-spirit fire, and kill that Skull King!" Li Ren spoke with chilling calm, but the intense murderous intent radiating from him caused the very air around them to drop in temperature.

"Let’s go. Shadow and the others should be on their way already. I’ll take you there." Fan Yunshan nodded, having no intention of stopping Li Ren. He himself was deeply incensed by the Skull King’s actions, and the target was the very individual he had identified as the most likely culprit.

If his suspicions were correct, hunting down the Skull King and grinding his bones to dust would not be an excessive retribution.

The two men suppressed their raging intent and boarded Fan Yunshan’s Dragon Hawk. Sensing its master’s murderous drive, the beast erupted with a ferocious aura.

They soared into the sky, heading directly toward Li Ren’s birthplace—that place he had always found so terrifying: Skull Mountain.

Outside Yuxiao City, the Vampire Legion and the Yuxiao Legion occupied the vast majority of the plains. Such a massive movement was bound to attract the attention of many players.

But at this moment, no one cared about the thoughts of those players.

The two massive legions charged like sharp blades straight into the Phantom Mountains. Shadow, Landis, Lania, and the others took the lead, summoning their flying mounts and streaking toward Skull Mountain like meteors, vanishing in the blink of an eye from the sight of the astonished onlookers.

The repeated actions of the Falling Cloud City faction had already agitated the players, and this large-scale mobilization made many—especially those with guilty consciences—tremble with anxiety.

However, once they realized the forces were charging directly into the Phantom Mountains with no intention of bothering them, their curiosity peaked.

Following in the wake of the Falling Cloud City forces, countless players succumbed to their curiosity and began trekking toward the Phantom Mountains, a place they would normally have needed to level up for a long time to reach.

Everyone shared the same thought: since they were following the Falling Cloud City forces, the monsters ahead would surely be cleared out, so they could just tag along and take a look.

Besides, if they were traveling with this crowd of idiots, wouldn't they be able to run if something actually happened?

With this mindset, none of them realized that they were, in fact, just another one of those countless idiots. Perhaps this was the legendary sense of superiority. The journey was lively, chaotic, and bustling with activity.