Chapter 84: The Egg Is the Egg of All Eggs

Three seconds left!

Li Ren raised his left hand, the purple-gold fist clenched tightly. Once more, he summoned every ounce of strength in his body, pouring it all into that fist without reservation.

“Ah! Charge! Suicide Fist!”

The name “Suicide Fist” was what Li Ren called the move when he swung the Voodoo Lord’s Fist with all his might. That name was entirely due to the nature of the attack. Once the fist was thrown, the whole body followed—whether you wanted to or not. If there happened to be a truly powerful opponent ahead, this punch would deliver you straight to their doorstep, a reckless lunge that was nothing short of suicide.

Just like the first time he’d used that accursed fist, he’d smashed himself into a crowd of players, his hand stuck in the wall. Had those players been a little higher in level, or had they managed even the slightest bit of organization, that first punch might have made him a mere footnote in history.

Yet, at certain moments, the Suicide Fist was incredibly effective!

The overwhelming impact and force of the attack were exactly what Li Ren had planned for. With three seconds left on his Blink cooldown and the three knights charging in, Li Ren decisively unleashed another Suicide Fist, hurling both fist and body straight at his foes.

Thankfully, the fist was massive, and the energy it unleashed was formidable. Just as Li Ren anticipated, the three knights leveled their lances at his fist, the sharp tips gleaming with cold light, reflecting against the approaching purple-gold bone—a sight as striking as it was deadly.

Clang! Clang! Clang! All three lances struck at once, and Li Ren’s health bar plummeted by more than half in an instant. Even with the purple-gold fist deflecting the lance tips, he couldn’t fully withstand the combined power of the three fearsome knights!

But so what? He had achieved exactly what he intended—the knights, forced to receive that devastating blow, were badly shaken. The intense collision made their mounts falter, their health bars dropping further as planned.

Just as they readied to withdraw and thrust again, three seconds were up! Li Ren gave a cold, grim smile. Without sparing a glance at the lances now mere inches from him, his body blurred and vanished—the lance tips stabbed nothing but air.

Another Suicide Fist! This time, Li Ren launched his attack from above; a Blink had carried him over the knights’ heads, seizing the perfect gap in their defenses just as they finished their attack motions.

The timing was impeccable—exquisite, even!

The force of a high-speed descent combined with the acceleration of the Suicide Fist created an even more devastating attack. Even before the fist landed, the sheer pressure immobilized the three knights, pinning them in place.

With a thunderous crash, Li Ren’s fist hammered into one knight, the impact so immense that the mounts beneath the remaining two knights were instantly reduced to a bloody pulp.

As the force from his left fist lingered, his right hand, which had held a longsword behind his back, swept forward in a spray of chilling light.

Rain Beyond Dust! Countless sword energies crisscrossed the confined space, weaving a dense, deadly net. The remaining two knights absorbed all the damage with their bodies alone, and as Li Ren landed, he delivered a finishing Five-Star Strike—though that was merely for insurance, as the two knights had already died the moment Rain Beyond Dust was unleashed.

In less than twenty seconds, he had ruthlessly slain four Earth-Dragon Knights. The watching players didn’t even have time to react, to weigh their options, or to shout—Li Ren’s battle was already over.

Though it all seemed simple, in reality, orchestrating this string of attacks had cost Li Ren immense mental effort. In those fleeting moments, he had crafted the perfect situation to his advantage. He’d been gambling—betting on his own damage output—and, this time, his gamble had paid off.

So the onlookers fell silent again, their only response to edge even farther away from Li Ren.

Li Ren paid them no mind. He turned once more to the stone stele, unleashing Five-Star Strikes one after another. At last, three minutes later, the stele shattered beneath his final sword strike, revealing its true form.

Beneath the ruins, a pitch-black cave came into view. A chilling, sinister energy erupted from the darkness, and Li Ren, standing closest, involuntarily burst into a flare of searing white flame. After a brief moment, the ominous aura faded, but it left a knot of unease buried in Li Ren’s heart.

His quest instructions had clearly stated that he was there to release a suppressed soul—but what exactly was that soul, and to what end, he still had no idea. All he knew was that, in the instant the soul emerged, it provoked the Vermilion Bird’s flames within his own body—a clear sign of the soul’s formidable power.

At the moment the stele shattered, Fan Yunshan, still within the city lord’s mansion, seemed to sense something. He glanced back just once, then forced his attention forward again. Yet the turbulence in his heart was invisible to any outsider.

Far beyond the city walls, the land’s only dragon also felt the tremor as the stele broke. Its eyes narrowed sharply, those draconic pupils fixed upon the sky above the city, but the sun blazed overhead, and nothing seemed to change.

Meanwhile, Li Ren—

“Congratulations on completing the Yuxiao City siege side quest. You have gained three skill points, freely assignable. Fifty minutes remain until the end of the siege. Please act quickly. If you fail, twenty thousand attribute points will be deducted.”

Li Ren listened to the system prompt with a complex expression. He was uneasy again; though he’d gained three skill points, there was a real risk of losing all his attributes—or even dropping into the negatives in one fell swoop! What would he do then?

Driven by curiosity, Li Ren approached the stone stele and peered into the cave that had been sealed below.

He actually discovered something of note.

A massive egg filled the entire cave. Its shell was veined with gray cracks, beneath which a faint white membrane could be seen—though whatever lay beneath that was completely obscured. Slightly disappointed, but unwilling to pass up such a mysterious find, Li Ren resolutely stored the egg in his Ashes inventory.

Now that his side quest was complete, Li Ren cared little for the original purpose. Since no massed city guards had appeared to hunt him down, it seemed he could pursue many other objectives. After all, the siege was far from over—and it was certainly not his battle alone!