Chapter Ninety-Five: The Mystery of the Purple-Gold Clan

“By the way, does anyone know what kind of race the Purple-Gold Clan is?”

Li Ren sat casually in the lord’s seat at the center of the hall, staring at the lone quest in the usually empty quest log, and feeling rather troubled.

It had taken them three full days just to sort and organize all the equipment he had brought back, and to set up a schedule for releasing it little by little. By then, everyone was already too exhausted to go on.

At first, Li Ren had planned to leave the work to Shadow and the other two alone, but the sheer volume of things proved too much even for Shadow. With Her Majesty the Queen’s approval, Li Ren was forcibly dragged over as extra labor.

Only now had they finally finished.

“The Purple-Gold Clan? Never heard of them.” Shadow, who always prided himself on being well informed, gave such an answer, which surprised Li Ren a little.

“Aren’t you...”

“Yes, but precisely because of me, aren’t things like this changing right now?” Shadow replied with complete ease.

Li Ren rolled his eyes. Wasn’t that just the butterfly effect? What was there to get so smug about? Honestly.

Lania also shook her head to show that she did not know.

That left only Landis, who was lazily curled up on a comfortable sofa.

“If it’s the Purple-Gold Clan, I’ve heard a little about them. I just don’t know why you’re asking after them, my lord. If I remember correctly, looking into that race is no pleasant business.” Landis stretched languidly, and her graceful curves, together with the weariness that briefly surfaced in her, were a sight to behold.

Seeing that Li Ren was already obviously distracted, Landis did not know whether to laugh or be exasperated.

She flicked a finger, and a streak of black light instantly shot into him. Li Ren gave a violent shudder and snapped back to attention.

“Hm? Ah? Yes, okay.” He stumbled over his words, and yet still tried to act as though he had been listening intently.

Shadow turned away awkwardly, and Lania pressed a hand to her forehead, her face full of black lines.

At last Li Ren realized his mistake. Fortunately, he had no pride to speak of, so he could not even blush. Thus, with a face as unchanging as ever, he went on asking, “So, Landis, what were you saying just now? The wind was too strong, I didn’t catch it.”

Shadow promptly rolled his eyes. “Damn, even that excuse works. My lord really does have a gift.”

Landis had no patience left either. Since this fellow was already shameless to this extent, what more could anyone do to him?

Helplessly, she repeated herself once more, and everyone grew serious.

“So that’s how it is. Still, the quest I received is to search for the Purple-Gold Clan’s whereabouts, and to find their origins as well.” After hearing Landis’s explanation, Li Ren also felt that this was not an easy matter. But it was obvious that the quests he could obtain, though their rewards were not written out directly, would certainly not be rubbish. Even if he were given a set of purple-gold bones to modify as he pleased, that would still be far more interesting than anything else.

“How did you receive this quest?” Landis asked, somewhat curious.

In her impression, the Purple-Gold Clan was an unimaginably terrifying existence. That was a true land where the gods had fallen.

“Just this thing.” Li Ren took out from the Ashen Ring the fist he had kept inside all this time. The purple-gold fist, as large as a washbasin, was indeed visually overwhelming.

As he spoke, perhaps feeling that it was not dramatic enough, he detached his own hand and fitted the fist onto it.

The sight nearly made Landis and the others’ heads explode. They had never imagined that anyone could play with bones in such a way.

“How about it? Pretty awesome, right?” Li Ren lifted that enormous fist with obvious pride.

By unanimous agreement, everyone decided they could not be bothered to respond to him. So Li Ren set his hand back down and removed the giant fist once more.

Landis reached out and took the fist from him, examining it closely in her hands.

Then she tossed it to Shadow, and after it passed around the circle, it finally returned to Li Ren’s hands.

“That’s right. It is indeed the skeleton of a Purple-Gold Clan member. Since you have this thing, receiving a quest like that is certainly not impossible. However...” Landis became very serious, and in her eyes there was a certainty that seemed to carry a faint unease.

“However, even if you want to search for them, it cannot be now. No matter who it is, to face those fellows at present is still too much. Too weak.”

As Landis said this, Li Ren also caught a trace of solemnity in her tone.

“Once our strength is sufficient in the future, let us all go together. There may be things there that can further strengthen us. But absolutely not now. You must all remember this!”

Landis repeated herself again, and everyone nodded in unison.

After thinking it over, Li Ren went on: “Right now, only Landis has a mount. The rest of us still don’t have one. Shadow, I’ll leave this to you. Put together some materials so everyone can choose.”

He said this to Shadow.

Shadow nodded and said nothing more. These materials ought to have already been in his mind to begin with; now he was only being asked to organize them.

“Oh, right! On this trip I also got hold of something else. Can someone help me take a look?”

He took out the huge egg from the Ashen Ring. It still looked the same as before. Inside the cracks, only a thin membrane remained, obscuring whatever lay within.

Still, at a glance, the egg seemed already completely useless.

“I found this while completing a side quest. It said something about releasing someone’s soul, but after destroying that Cosmic Guardian, this was all I found. It shouldn’t be too bad, right?”

Landis took the giant egg, which already looked battered and broken, and examined it carefully, her brows knitting deeply.

“You mean you released the soul of something you didn’t even know what it was?”

“Yes. The system’s quest was to have me release that soul, and under that stone tablet, there was only this egg.”

“Then that’s right!” Landis handed the egg back to Li Ren.

“If I’m not mistaken, this egg should be the legendary dragon egg. But at present, it has completely lost all vitality.”

Her first sentence made Li Ren extremely excited, but his dream was soon shattered.

“So it’s useless?” Li Ren still refused to give up. After all, this was a dragon egg!

Landis shook her head. “Perhaps you could try it in the Death Wish Arena. Given the number of souls we have now, it should be enough to attempt it once.”

Thinking of the Soul Wish Arena, and then looking at the giant egg before him that might very well be a dragon egg, Li Ren hesitated. On the one hand, there was the need to upgrade Falling Cloud City as soon as possible; on the other, there was a legendary dragon race said to be unimaginably powerful. It was truly difficult to choose between them.

“My lord, give it a try. If you can truly hatch this egg intact, then the might of a giant dragon would be worth far more than those souls we could earn again and again!” Shadow offered.

At last, Li Ren made up his mind.