Chapter 141: The Evolution of the Skeleton King

The battle was fierce from the very beginning. According to their original plan, they intended to approach Skull Mountain and charge directly toward the Skull Cave. However, the conduct of the Skull King took them by surprise. Perhaps the emergence of Shadow had altered the world significantly; in the original timeline, although the Skull King had once harbored designs on Li Ren, the sheer force of the Luoyun City legions had prevented such a dire situation from ever arising.

Compared to that past, their Luoyun City had since grown immensely powerful. Yuxiao City remained in the hands of players, with Fan Yunshan still serving as its lord, while Landis was hidden away somewhere watching from the sidelines. Only Shadow and Lania had ventured forth. Perhaps the Skull King had previously underestimated their elite forces, which was why, when he attempted to absorb the Spirit Fire, he had been ill-prepared, allowing them to narrowly snatch it back.

Yet, looking at the spectacular scene atop Skull Mountain, it was clear that with the addition of powerhouses like Fan Yunshan, Landis, and Moran to their current ranks, the Skull King had become extremely protective of his own security. Relatively speaking, this made the situation even more difficult than before.

Shadow’s face was grim. He was calculating the time, but no matter how he reckoned, if they did not pick up the pace, the Spirit Fire would be lost forever by the time they arrived. If they failed to retrieve it, Li Ren would undoubtedly face a grave crisis—a scenario Shadow refused to witness. This had to be prevented!

Driven by Shadow’s frantic momentum, Landis and Lania seemed to sense his anxiety. Though they did not ask for the reason, they unleashed their power with greater intensity. Facing the mutated skeletons before them—each one at least equivalent to a level 110 elite monster—the pressure on the army behind them, which averaged only level 100, was immense. This was not even considering the level 130 elite Skeleton Guards, which had become even more formidable and aggressive under the stimulation of the Skull King’s shadow energy.

Shadow clearly recognized this disadvantage. Indeed, these events were unfolding far too early. He had once believed it would take much longer for Li Ren to truly evolve into a Blue Spirit Fire, but in this timeline, Li Ren’s power had grown too rapidly while Luoyun City’s own strength had yet to reach the necessary stage. The current legion was simply struggling to contend with a power as formidable as the Skull King. They knew that in the past, only an army with an average level of 140 could have crushed their way through Skull Mountain, and even then, it had come at a staggering cost to retrieve the Spirit Fire.

Despite the bleak outlook, Shadow never considered giving up. He poured his auxiliary abilities into every soldier. Fueled by his powerful buffs and led by the sheer individual prowess of Landis and Lania, there were no immediate signs of a collapse. Yet, it was evident that as they pushed deeper into the front lines and encountered higher-level monsters, the soldiers behind them would inevitably buckle under such crushing pressure.

"Now, it is up to fate. I only hope we are in time!" Shadow murmured, his eyes narrowing as he gazed at the entrance to the Skull Cave atop the mountain.

Within the third and deepest level of the Skull Cave, screams echoed, one louder than the last, adding a terrifying atmosphere to the ghostly hall. Blue flames burned continuously over the Skull King’s body, turning him into a living torch. In the throes of agonizing pain, he could barely endure it, and even his original dark red flames began to flicker and wane. If this continued, the Skull King might be incinerated by the fragment of Blue Spirit Fire he had severed from Li Ren before Shadow and his party could even arrive.

But would the Skull King make such a mistake? He had waited for this day and was undoubtedly well-prepared. Just as his dark red flames seemed on the verge of collapsing, the Skull King, enduring the tremors of his own body, flipped his hand and produced a mass of red Spirit Fire from out of nowhere! Even Li Ren had only been lucky enough to obtain one such flame in the Black Earth Region, with all others being merely green. That the Skull King, already at the peak of the red tier, had secretly hoarded such a pure and potent flame was a testament to his caution—or perhaps a reflection of how truly difficult it was for the Skeleton race to ascend.

No one truly knew the answer. The moment the red Spirit Fire appeared, the Skull King absorbed it entirely into his body. The flickering, dimming dark red flames stabilized under the influx of this new power. The heat of the blue flames consuming him began to subside, and a faint blue radiance started to converge toward his source flame.

The moment that trace of blue light touched his core flame, the Skull King’s trembling body abruptly went still. It was as if he had been frozen in place, a sight both eerie and unnatural, as if the very space around him had solidified. He remained in that posture in the empty hall for a long time.

Only after a long while did fierce blue flames erupt from within his eye sockets. He slowly stood up. Though his appearance had not changed, anyone looking at the Skull King now could clearly perceive the difference. He radiated the natural, overbearing aura of someone born to rule. He stretched his body, joints popping like snapping beans. The Skull King let out a deep breath, sat back down upon his throne, and stared into the void, lost in thought.