Chapter 31: A Sea of Golden Fire
Dong Li’s lips were bright red, even slightly swollen.
The corners of his eyes were faintly flushed too, making his skin look even paler and his violet eyes almost mesmerizing.
Lufiel couldn’t resist.
He bent down and kissed him again before taking out a small bottle of ointment.
With gentle movements, he spread a thin layer over Dong Li’s lips.
It was just an ordinary recovery ointment from the game. Almost every player carried some, though it usually sat forgotten in their inventory.
For once, it had found a very appropriate use.
Dong Li stood obediently and let Lufiel finish applying it.
Then he deliberately leaned in and kissed him.
“You need some too…” he mumbled.
Compared to Dong Li, Lufiel looked relatively normal.
But there was still a small red mark on his lip where Dong Li had accidentally bitten him.
Lufiel wrapped an arm around Dong Li’s waist and gently rubbed his palm over him.
“We should leave first.”
He never used to do this either…
Dong Li forced himself to calm down and nodded.
“Mm.”
By now, the Taotie’s Domain had shrunk again, which meant there were fewer players left inside.
No one nearby dared approach yet, and Maidong City was in chaos as well.
But they couldn’t stay here much longer.
After rescuing their companions, the half-demons had no intention of returning to the Illusion Forest.
Leaving their old home behind was painful, but if they stayed, they would only be forced to repeat the same battles over and over until players eventually captured them.
Dong Li understood how they felt.
After all, he didn’t want to stay in the Fuling Region either.
Lufiel sent Liufeng a message.
A short while later, several explosions sounded one after another in the outskirts beyond the Illusion Forest.
They came from explosives Liufeng and Liuye had planted on their way to Maidong City.
The devices contained powdered Illusion Snake smoke.
The moment they detonated, thick multicolored smoke poured out and instantly obscured everyone’s vision.
Inside the Domain, Heidan heard the signal.
It stopped hiding, transformed, and swallowed every remaining player in one enormous bite.
There was still one injured player left in a corner.
Sharp-eyed Yuanbao noticed him and flicked several shards of ice over, killing him on the spot.
Then Heidan shrank again, dismissed its Domain, and burped.
Together with Rongrong and Yuanbao, it happily ran back toward Dong Li.
Dong Li gathered all three into his arms and followed Lufiel along an empty path through the colored smoke.
Both of them wore masks.
Dong Li had put his hat back on as well, hiding his conspicuous golden hair.
[Liufeng: The underground mines are about to open.]
Maidong City’s underground mine system was sprawling and complicated.
They could take the half-demons inside to hide.
The tunnels would also make it easy to plant a few devices to throw off any players trying to track them.
Once they were inside, they could decide where to go next.
Now that Dong Li was out of the forest, his excitement gradually returned.
He stared eagerly at the player equipment scattered all over the ground.
One of the Illusion Snakes had given him a type of spice similar to the badge Lufiel had pinned to his collar before.
It protected him from the colored smoke and kept his vision clear.
Dong Li quietly asked Heidan,
“How many did you eat?”
Heidan burped again and shook its head.
Too many to count.
When they reached the city gates, Heidan opened its mouth and swallowed the newly arrived patrol NPCs too.
That way, none of them could spot Lufiel and report his wanted coordinates again.
Inside the city, everything was just as chaotic.
After successfully breaking in, the half-demons had headed for the dungeon where their companions were imprisoned.
On the way, the leading Titmouse had also released several other half-demons they happened to pass.
Those half-demons weren’t Titmouse or Illusion Snakes.
Most were species like Horned Oxen, kept by various shops as laborers and forced to forge metal, carry ore, and do similar work.
Dong Li had spent an entire day making medicine, so there were plenty of pills left.
The Titmouse kept two for himself, crushed them into powder, mixed them with water, and poured the mixture into the Horned Ox’s mouth.
The Half-Demon Horned Ox had no idea what was happening.
All it knew was that the chains restraining it suddenly broke—and its strength surged back.
It punched the furious shopkeeper NPC rushing toward it and knocked him unconscious in one blow.
Some players hid and watched the excitement.
Others considered helping.
But most of the players with high combat strength had already gone to the dungeon, while another group simply couldn’t care less and were waiting for the underground mine to open.
A number of patrol NPCs arrived.
They were no match for the half-demons either.
The attack had come too suddenly.
No one had expected the half-demons to dare invade the city in broad daylight.
Lufiel couldn’t let the patrols see him.
Dong Li nervously shielded him as they hurried forward.
Rongrong secretly poked its head out of his arms and spat a tiny ball of golden fire at a horned sheep by the roadside.
The horned sheep had been knocked to the ground.
The instant the golden flame touched it, it sprang back up and rammed the player in front of it with tremendous force.
The player screamed as he went flying.
The surrounding area became even more chaotic.
Dong Li took the opportunity to slip away.
He and Lufiel hurried toward the underground mine.
At the same time, the half-demons successfully rescued all their imprisoned companions.
The Titmouse gave each of them water mixed with powdered medicine.
The Illusion Snakes released even more clouds of colored smoke.
Very few players remained nearby.
Seeing their vision obscured, they began retreating one after another.
Liufeng and Liuye quietly appeared at just the right moment and led the half-demons toward the mine.
Meanwhile, Rongrong had breathed out golden fire several times along Dong Li’s route.
Dong Li had also witnessed plenty of exciting fights.
Little by little, his excitement completely replaced his nervousness.
It was a pity he hadn’t seen the half-demons storm the dungeon.
That must have been even more thrilling.
There were still a few colored-smoke bombs left.
Dong Li took the opportunity to toss several into groups of players, then grabbed Lufiel and hurried away.
Since Lufiel couldn’t reveal the Crimson-Gold Sword right now, it really did feel as though Dong Li was protecting him.
By the time they finally reached the coordinates Liufeng had sent, all of Maidong City began to shake.
Dong Li stopped.
A crack split open in the ground before them.
Some players were already waiting in this area for the mine to open.
Several stood on the other side of the street nearby.
They were clearly in a party.
Their attention was fixed on the trembling ground beneath them, and they didn’t care what was happening around the city.
“Today’s really something,” one of them said. “Half-demons attacking the city, Lufiel getting wanted again… He was in the Illusion Forest when his bounty went up. Maybe he’ll come to the mine too.”
“Doesn’t matter.”
Another player drew a long saber.
“If we run into him, we’ll deal with it then.”
Their objective was the mine.
Nothing else was going to distract them.
The ground shook harder and harder, making the surrounding buildings sway.
Lufiel drew Dong Li into his arms protectively.
Several sections of ground collapsed nearby.
Each collapse formed a dark hole, with faint red light glowing from inside.
Dong Li peered curiously into one.
“Is that the mine?”
“Yes,” Lufiel said. “Like the Trial Grounds, it only opens for two days.”
The mine contained several types of rare ore, including top-tier weapon materials.
As he spoke, a swarm of fireflies crawled out of the nearest opening.
Lufiel drove them away with sword aura, then jumped into the mine with Dong Li.
Dong Li buried himself against Lufiel’s chest.
After a brief falling sensation, he opened his eyes again.
The sight before him immediately made him gasp.
“Wow…”
From aboveground, the mine entrances looked narrow.
But underground, the tunnels were vast and intricate, with countless passages connecting to other entrances.
There was no telling where each path led.
Everywhere Dong Li looked, stone walls glowed red, bright enough that they didn’t need extra lighting.
The walls glittered as though covered in a thin layer of sugar crystals.
Dong Li leaned closer and touched one.
It was hot.
The two demonic beasts in his pockets had never been here either.
They poked their heads out curiously.
Yuanbao breathed out a puff of icy mist, lowering the temperature around them.
Lufiel checked the coordinates Liufeng had sent and took Dong Li’s hand.
“This way.”
The half-demons had entered the mine too.
They weren’t far away.
All they had to do was meet up.
Holding Rongrong, Dong Li followed him.
The floor of the mine was uneven.
The tunnels alternated between wide and narrow, making them difficult to navigate.
Lufiel supported Dong Li as he ducked through a low passage.
It was getting hotter and hotter, so Dong Li simply took off his hat.
After walking for a while, they ran into two NPCs coming toward them.
Both were very short.
Each had a mole spirit beside them and carried an identical long-handled hammer.
“Hey! You two!”
The NPCs hurried over.
“What are you doing here?”
“They’re mine patrols,” Lufiel murmured.
The mine and Maidong City counted as separate regions.
He was just about to knock the patrol NPCs unconscious before they could identify him when Dong Li warily stepped in front of him.
Then he pulled out Heidan.
Heidan opened its mouth and swallowed both NPCs.
The tunnel was too narrow for its head to fully enlarge, though.
Bang!
It smacked its head against the wall.
When its head shrank again, Dong Li immediately rubbed the sore spot in distress.
The two continued forward.
Before long, they found Liufeng, Liuye, and the half-demon group.
The half-demons clustered close together, constantly watching their surroundings.
The Titmouse hurried over the moment he saw Dong Li.
“My Lord Fox Spirit!”
Tears of excitement filled his eyes.
“Thank you for helping us! We rescued our companions!”
All the Titmouse and Illusion Snakes were here now.
There had also been half-demons of other races imprisoned in the dungeon.
Those had been released as well.
Some left on their own.
Others didn’t want to remain in Maidong City and had followed them here.
At this point, the half-demons practically regarded Dong Li as their savior.
Every one of them looked at him with worshipful respect.
Dong Li had no idea how to handle that.
He hurriedly backed away.
“You don’t have to thank me…”
Lufiel stepped in at the right moment.
“Where are you planning to go?”
The Titmouse hesitated.
“We haven’t decided yet. As long as we can leave this place, anywhere is fine.”
“Try the area around Asura City,” Liufeng suggested. “There’s a huge forest outside the city. Some half-demons already live there.”
As he spoke, he quietly observed their reactions.
If the half-demons made a decision based on his suggestion, it would be even stronger evidence that this wasn’t some scripted storyline.
It was simply a chain reaction caused by Dong Li.
Sure enough, the Titmouse considered it for a moment, then turned to consult the others.
After they exchanged a few words, he nodded.
“All right.”
“Asura City…” Dong Li took out the metal plate and opened the World Map.
They couldn’t stay in the mine for long.
Once the group had chosen a direction, they quickly set out again.
Lufiel and the others walked at the front, with the half-demons following behind.
If they encountered NPCs or other players, someone could deal with them immediately.
Dong Li moved slowly.
Every now and then, he stopped to inspect the crystals growing from the stone walls.
“Why are there so many tunnels here?” he asked curiously.
“It’s probably a natural mine system,” Lufiel said while driving away more fireflies. “Be careful. There are plenty of small creatures here too.”
Dong Li grew even more interested.
“Small creatures… Are they demonic beasts?”
“No,” Lufiel explained. “There aren’t any demonic-beast-level bosses in this mine.”
“But there is a magma monster,” Liufeng added, taking out a homemade detector. “That’s the hardest thing to deal with. There are also Flame-Armored Turtles, Volcanic Rats… Though with this many half-demons around, they probably won’t dare come near us.”
Only low-level creatures like the fireflies kept darting everywhere.
They weren’t much of a threat.
“Magma monster…” Dong Li murmured. “Can I feed it a pill?”
Maybe if it ate enough, it would become obedient.
That was more or less how Dong Li viewed creatures like demonic beasts now.
“These things seem to eat ore,” Liufeng explained this time. “Supposedly, if you kill fifty magma monsters in a row, you can find the entrance to the central dungeon. But no one’s managed it yet.”
Dong Li turned toward him, his face full of curiosity.
Since Lufiel didn’t stop him, Liufeng continued.
“Normally, a place like this should have a demonic-beast-level boss guarding it, plus a proper central dungeon.”
But magma monsters weren’t even technically creatures.
They were formed from underground magma and somehow given life.
In that sense, they were a little like the Illusion Snake’s puppets.
“And I’ve been looking into this game lately,” Liufeng went on. “Apparently, there were rumors right after the closed beta first launched that an Energy Stone was hidden somewhere in these mines.”
Dong Li blinked.
“Energy Stone?”
This time, even Lufiel looked at Liufeng.
“What’s an Energy Stone?”
Liufeng stared at him in surprise.
“You don’t know either? Everyone on the forum was talking about it when the closed beta first started.”
But the Energy Stone had always been nothing more than a rumor.
Supposedly, it was the most valuable item in the entire game.
If a player obtained it, not only would their combat strength increase dramatically, even their mental energy in the real world could supposedly be strengthened.
Lufiel frowned.
“How could that be possible?”
But Liufeng was thinking of Dong Li’s pills.
Those pills could increase the half-demons’ combat strength.
Still, no one even knew whether the Energy Stone was real.
Making that connection was far too speculative.
Liufeng turned to Dong Li.
“Have you ever heard of an Energy Stone?”
Dong Li shook his head blankly.
The words meant nothing to him.
“I kept digging afterward,” Liufeng continued. “The earliest records of the Energy Stone actually come from the Xinen people. And they do have some connection to the Tal people.”
Among the major star systems, the Xinen were the strangest race of all.
They had no physical bodies.
Instead, they could store their consciousness inside machines, which was why some people called them the Machine Race.
Their technology was highly advanced, and their strength was terrifying.
There weren’t many of them, but they had extremely long lifespans.
Many star systems feared and rejected the Xinen, regarding them as emotionless mechanical intelligences.
Yet over the past decade or so, the Xinen had almost completely disappeared from public sight.
No one knew what they had been doing.
The Energy Stone belonged to the Xinen.
It was said to be the source from which their race was born and was extraordinarily precious.
As for the Tal people—the NPCs in the game world were based on them.
The Tal possessed spirit forms, but their technological development had been relatively primitive before their extinction.
Dong Li froze.
“Extinction…?”
“Yeah,” Liufeng said. “That happened a little over ten years ago too. There was only one habitable planet in the Tal star system, and the whole planet was destroyed.”
He continued casually, “Rumor says the Xinen did it. They probably had some kind of feud…”
Dong Li said nothing.
He was still completely confused.
These things seemed related to the game, yet somehow also unrelated.
He couldn’t understand any of it.
Now that Liufeng had started talking, he kept going, partly for Lufiel’s benefit.
“But personally, I think the Energy Stone inside the game is probably the game’s energy terminal. If we find it, we should be able to hack into the game itself…”
Lufiel asked, “How far have you gotten?”
Liufeng opened his mouth.
Then he spread his hands helplessly.
The terminal’s power source was hidden far deeper than he had expected.
Still, he was working on another approach too.
And now they had conveniently entered the underground mine.
With the most unusual NPC in the entire game traveling beside them…maybe they really could find the so-called Energy Stone.
Liufeng stopped talking.
The group continued forward.
The tunnel gradually widened until they entered a much larger cavern.
The ground trembled from time to time.
Then a roar suddenly echoed from somewhere ahead.
Liuye went to investigate.
She returned shortly afterward.
“There’s a magma monster blocking the way.”
The temperature nearby was rising rapidly.
One of the Titmouse stepped forward.
“I’ll go.”
Liufeng shook his head.
“You can’t fight a magma monster head-on. You either lure it away or go around.”
Those creatures couldn’t truly be killed.
As long as magma was nearby, they could regenerate endlessly.
They feared almost nothing.
Except fire.
The Titmouse looked confused.
“Fire?”
“That’s right.” Liufeng nodded. “And it has to be fire stronger than the magma fire they’re made from.”
The last time he and Lufiel had come here, they had used several Asura Fire items and managed to burn away half of one magma monster.
Only after reaching a cooler tunnel had they finally shaken it off.
Liuye opened her inventory.
“I’ve still got one Asura Fire left.”
“One won’t be enough.”
Lufiel was already preparing to summon the Crimson-Gold Sword.
“I’ll lure it away.”
Dong Li looked from one person to another.
Then he hugged Rongrong a little tighter and hesitantly said, “I have fire… Can I try?”
Everyone looked at him.
Lufiel’s first instinct was to refuse.
He didn’t want Dong Li taking risks.
But Dong Li’s violet eyes were full of anticipation.
He tugged on Lufiel’s hand.
“Lulu, just let me try… If it doesn’t work, we’ll do something else.”
He had never seen a magma monster before.
He was incredibly curious.
He would just try burning it with his golden fire.
If it didn’t work, he could run away immediately.
Lufiel remained silent for a long time.
Eventually, he compromised.
“All right. But you’re not getting too close.”
He told Liufeng and the half-demons to stay where they were, then brought Dong Li toward the magma monster.
Liuye followed behind them with the Asura Fire from her inventory.
They passed through a narrow stretch of tunnel.
A wave of heat struck them head-on.
Dong Li carefully peered ahead.
Not far away ran a narrow stream of thick, red liquid.
Beside it stood an enormous creature.
The magma monster.
Its body was made of ore, while two burning flames served as its eyes.
It paced back and forth beside the stream, occasionally letting out threatening roars.
Dong Li watched it for a moment.
Then he lowered his head.
“Rongrong?”
The little fox’s flames were much more stable than his own.
Dong Li had planned from the beginning to let Rongrong try first.
But for some reason, ever since entering the mine, the little fox had seemed listless.
Perhaps it had used too much golden fire making medicine over the past two days.
It had also breathed fire several times on the way here.
Dong Li gently stroked its head.
Then…he would try it himself.
Dong Li fixed his eyes on the magma monster and began gathering his power.
The mine was extremely hot.
Fire-element energy seemed to fill nearly every inch of the place.
In an environment like this, Dong Li really did feel strangely restless and irritable.
If he couldn’t summon his fire, Lufiel would have to step in.
And if other players saw him—Dong Li’s thoughts wandered for just a moment.
Suddenly, an inexplicable heat surged through his body.
Rongrong’s eyes snapped open in his arms.
Its violet pupils lost focus.
The next second—a thunderous explosion rocked the mine.
BOOM—!
Golden flames erupted into the air.
They spread rapidly across the cavern ahead, blazing fiercely until they nearly filled the entire space.
At the exact same moment, the game server went down.
Every player was forcibly disconnected.
Lufiel vanished from Dong Li’s side.
Dong Li stared blankly at the sea of golden fire.
Then his eyes closed, and he collapsed unconscious.
—
Dong Li had no idea how much time passed before he finally woke.
The stone walls around him were still glowing red.
Everything was silent.
The golden fire was still burning, but it hadn’t spread to where he lay.
The temperature inside the mine had dropped considerably.
It was as though every trace of fire-element energy in the area had been completely suppressed.
Dong Li sat up in confusion.
Instinctively, he called, “Lulu?”
Lufiel wasn’t there.
Even Rongrong was gone.
Dong Li looked down.
Heidan and Yuanbao were still in his pockets, both fast asleep.
He had no idea what had happened.
He felt even more lost.
And after waking up…something about his body felt strange too.
Dong Li raised a hand.
His fingers touched a pair of fox ears on top of his head.
He froze.
Then, after several blank seconds, panic flooded his face.
Dong Li hurriedly hid himself inside a narrow mining crevice.
