Chapter Ninety-Six: Grind to Bone Dust and Scatter the Ashes

In a flash of white light, the four of them and the egg appeared in the Death Wish Grounds.

The place had already changed somewhat from the way it had once been.

Even when Rania had been summoned last time, it had never displayed such a scene.

All through the Death Wish Grounds, wisps of dark aura seeped gradually from the black soil, rippling softly, yet lingering within the grounds so tightly that not a trace could escape.

To the naked eye, everything from the calves downward seemed nearly submerged in that faint black haze. If one walked through it, the darkness would part in two streams, like flowing water, though it possessed no substance at all.

"So these are the souls that were absorbed?" Li Ren asked.

"Yes, my lord," Shadow answered at once.

Looking at the number of souls within the Death Wish Grounds now, if he were to summon at this moment, he could at the very least call forth nearly six hundred of the highest-grade summons, each with power on par with Rania.

In other words, the souls gathered here had already reached a total sixty times a billion, a full six billion souls.

Rania seemed to know exactly how Li Ren was using that childish little arithmetic of his to estimate the terrifying number. Since Her Majesty had already once been reduced to a mere unit of measurement for this count, she did not bother quarreling over it this time. She only shot Li Ren a fierce glare.

He jerked, instantly realizing himself and hastily abandoned those strange calculations. Thus, no further chaos followed.

In truth, the number did sound frightening. It only seemed so because one viewed it from the perspective of an individual. If one counted the total number of players in the Land of the Gods, these so-called six billion truly meant little.

The reason was simple: as things stood in the Land of the Gods, at least three hundred million players were currently taking part together.

The number of monsters each person killed and the levels they gained every day already amounted to something staggering. And yet, what had gathered here was only six billion. If all the souls of the entire player world were to converge in one place, Falling Cloud City might already be able to rise into the existence of a super metropolis.

Li Ren took the shattered egg out from his ring. The moment it appeared, the surrounding souls began to fluctuate chaotically, as though they were facing a natural predator.

The boundless black haze began to retreat from beneath Li Ren's feet. Seeing this, he smiled and said, "So this egg must have once been the bane of the undead. Otherwise these souls would not be so terrified at the sight of it."

"Of course. If it were not so, there would have been no need to bury the egg here just to suppress the soul you released," Lantis said matter-of-factly.

Li Ren nodded. He remembered that when he had just released that soul, even the Vermilion Bird within him had reacted, and had filled this egg with hope.

Just as Li Ren was about to put the egg down and prepare to feed it souls, Shadow suddenly stopped him.

"Wait, hold on!" Shadow quickly blocked his movement and said, under Li Ren's puzzled gaze, "Since this fellow is still an egg, shouldn't we make some preparations first? What if, when it revives, it refuses to honor the bargain and instead throws a tantrum? We can't possibly waste so many souls and then kill the thing all over again."

Li Ren nodded. That did seem like a problem. The Holy Dragon Knight was the clearest precedent. If they could not solve this issue in time, then there really was nothing to be done.

Seeing everyone fall into a deadlock, Lantis ran a hand through her hair and said, "If you absolutely want this thing to acknowledge a master, it's not impossible. I happen to know a secret art that can forcibly bind it to one of you as its master. However, this technique has side effects. It may very likely transform away the abilities it once possessed, because the outcome is determined by the source of your own power. Only when the two sources of power neutralize one another can such an effect be achieved. But whether the result of that neutralization will be good or bad is truly hard to say, especially under current circumstances, when even its attributes cannot be determined."

When Li Ren heard this, his interest was piqued. "Then let me try. That actually sounds pretty good."

Shadow considered it and did not stop him. Judging by the egg's effects, it would hardly be weak. What if the fusion of the two really produced some kind of freakish monster?

And even if it did not, as long as Li Ren's absorption ability remained, what was there to fear?

No matter how one looked at it, Li Ren did not seem likely to suffer any harm, so Shadow relaxed and watched from the side.

Lantis thought for a moment. "But this secret art requires blood as a medium."

Li Ren stared at her blankly. He was nothing but bone all over his body. How was he supposed to produce something as ridiculous as blood?

"If you really want to try, perhaps you could scrape some powder off your body and use that?" Lantis said, utterly unconcerned. After all, it was not her doing the scraping. She was only offering a suggestion.

"Try it? Can that sort of thing even be tried?" Li Ren was at a complete loss.

"If you won't try it, then go find your own blood. If you have no blood, then shut up and stop whining," Lantis said mercilessly.

Li Ren hung his head dejectedly.

So he took out a small knife and slowly began scraping at his arm.

It had to be said that after being tempered by heavenly fire, his bones were extraordinarily hard. On those white-jade bones, trying to scrape off even a little bit of material was no easy matter.

So Shadow went over to help. No luck.

After a while, Rania was called over as well to lend a hand. Still no luck.

Watching them scrape for so long without managing to remove even the slightest fragment, Lantis finally could not hold back any longer.

"All of you get out of the way and let the professional handle it!"

With a roar long held in check, black light flashed wildly in her hand. With a delicate squeeze, it transformed into a pure black dagger.

She walked step by step toward Li Ren. The dagger radiated an utterly terrifying aura. Even from a great distance, Li Ren's skull had already gone slightly numb.

"Oh heavens, Queen, spare my life! Please, be careful. Don't cut off too much at once!"

Lantis, like a female god of war, gave a slight nod, and Li Ren grew even more afraid.

At that moment, he could not help but think of every past offense he might have committed against Lantis. After searching through his memory, he realized there really were some.

Women were absolutely, undeniably vindictive. It seemed the Queen was no exception. This time, he was surely going to pay back everything from before. Alas.

So he steeled himself, extended his arm, and prepared to receive the Queen's retribution.

Very decisively, he closed his eyes. Of course, he had no eyelids; the soul fire merely shifted into the skull above, leaving only darkness before him.

He waited, waiting for the searing pain to surge through him, for the agony that would pierce him to the heart.

Time seemed to slow to a crawl at that instant. He even felt as if five full minutes were about to pass. Why was the Queen still not finished?

"Stop playing dead. Look at you, such a spineless fool," Lantis's clear voice came from ahead.

Li Ren opened his eyes and saw that Lantis had already withdrawn the little sword from her hand.

"You're done?" he asked.

"Done."

"Done already?"

"Obviously."

"Oh, all right then..." Li Ren settled down at last.