"Damn it, where exactly are we?"
Bruce stood up, supporting his aching body. The temperature of the ground was terrifyingly hot; if he continued to lie there, he estimated he would be cooked soon.
The surrounding environment was extremely strange, with boiling magma everywhere. Golden-red and blazing black swirled together, splashing fire rain several meters high. The sound of the surging lava was like the low growl of a giant beast, faintly revealing an intensely unsettling sensation.
How could there be such a place in Frostspine Ridge, which was known for its extreme cold?
Bruce felt a bone-deep terror, and his intuition told him he had to leave immediately!
He looked up, remembering that he had fallen from above.
But above him was a completely sealed mountain wall; the hole he and Andrew had fallen through earlier was as if it had never existed!
This eerie scene made Bruce's heart stop. With a terrified expression, he spotted Andrew's figure in his panic.
He quickly ran to Andrew's side and helped him up. The high temperature of the magma crust had burned Andrew's skin, and flames were burning upon his blood.
"Andrew, wake up!" Bruce shouted.
"Bruce, where is this?" Andrew rubbed his head. "I feel so much pain."
At this moment, Bruce was in no mood to look after Andrew. He looked around frantically and said in a hurried, uneasy tone, "Andrew, something is very wrong here. We have to leave here quickly."
Hearing Bruce's words, Andrew finally looked around blankly, but what met his eyes was a strange scene he had never seen before.
"Where is this?" He gripped Bruce's arm in fear.
Bruce opened his mouth, but before he could speak, a blurred and deep voice suddenly came from a distance.
The syllables contained in that voice were ones they had never heard before; it was so foreign and hollow.
Yet it possessed a kind of magic that was influencing their spirits and bodies.
With a distorted expression of pain, Bruce covered his ears and looked toward the end of the crust, where a hell gate stood tall!
And those strange syllables were being emitted from within it.
"Andrew, cover your ears! Don't listen!" he roared.
As both of them felt their heads splitting with pain, another very peculiar syllable came from within that deep and terrifying hell gate.
"How wonderful. I have never seen such a perfect vessel!"
Behind the hell gate, the Bloodflame Demon Dog laughed hideously, and in its eyes, there was only the boy named Andrew.
...
Andrew remembered now. He had been deluded by the voice behind the hell gate, and his consciousness was gradually being invaded.
Just as his consciousness was about to be completely occupied by the thing behind the door, a much greater existence suddenly appeared in his mind. It repelled the thing behind the door and preserved his consciousness.
The familiar feeling in his mind made Andrew recall that it was the very gaze from a god he had felt while crossing Frostspine Ridge!
It was He who had saved him!
But... where was Bruce?
Andrew used all his strength, but his body was not under his control at all; he could only observe his surroundings from the corner of his eye.
Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a charred body at the bottom right of his vision.
"Is that... Bruce?"
His consciousness froze, and in the next second, his emotions collapsed. The intense emotional surge even broke through the restraints of his body, and tears couldn't stop flowing from his mechanical-looking eyes.
"Alright, stop thinking about those annoying things. Regardless, life has to go on."
A hazy voice suddenly popped into his head. The voice was very gentle, as if it were comforting him.
He was stunned.
The god was actually comforting him?
"I've paid such a heavy price, don't you dare disappoint me." The voice sounded again.
The price... yes, in order to repel the existence within the gate, the Great God must have paid a huge price, and His purpose in doing so was merely to save him.
Andrew felt it was unbelievable.
For a useless waste like himself who could do nothing, was it really worth it for the Great God to pay such a huge price?
Was a small figure like him truly worthy of the Great God's favor?
He asked himself, but every answer he got was that it wasn't worth it.
He was just a waste, a good-for-nothing waste who could do nothing and save no one...
In the next second, the god's voice echoed in his ear.
"How impressive, Andrew Wayne."
Just that simple sentence made him burst into tears instantly.
Strength returned to his limbs, and the Great God seemed to have disappeared from his mind.
But he did not dare forget the Great God's favor toward him.
"Bruce, it turns out that besides you, there is someone else who believes in me so much."
He supported himself and stood up. The stinging pain in his palm made him look down.
It was a word carved from light. Although Andrew wasn't very literate, he still recognized it because he remembered that the most elite and powerful warriors in the tribe all had such a word in their palms.
They called this a Life Crown title, saying it was a gift bestowed by the gods.
This was a gift bestowed by the Great God...
He clenched his palm and looked at the charred body again.
"Bruce, I will live on well, carrying your share with me."
"You don't have to worry about me anymore, because there is another person in this world who believes in me just as much as you do!"
He said softly.
...
【Bloodflame Dog Emperor: Andrew Wayne (lv10)】
【Beastkin · Male · 15 years old】
【Weapon Type: Spear】
【Talent: 90 (Bloodflame Demon Dog bloodline activated)】
【Illuminated Life Stars: None】
【Innate Talent · Bloodflame: In combat status, all attacks can apply an infinitely stackable mental interference to enemies; enemies affected by mental interference will slowly lose health, their movement will slow, and their attack and defense will decrease.】
This was the first time Lu Xun had seriously observed the Bloodflame Dog Emperor's data panel, and it had to be said that he was stunned.
This guy's talent and various stats were simply terrifyingly exaggerated. Setting aside his broken innate talent, just his basic stats alone were far beyond the Peerless Fencer he had painstakingly cultivated!
And this was while the Bloodflame Dog Emperor hadn't even broken through yet!
If he let this guy break through, wouldn't his basic stats go off the charts?
The gap between a gold character and a purple character was simply too huge.
Lu Xun narrowed his eyes, focusing on the words "Bloodflame Demon Dog bloodline activated."
Was this guy so strong because his bloodline had been activated?
In that case, Lu Xun naturally couldn't mistreat him. He immediately spent 1200 Source Crystals in the shop to buy 60 Primogems and directly let him break through.
Watching the other's stats rise to nearly twice those of the Peerless Fencer, Lu Xun clicked his tongue:
"How impressive, Andrew Wayne."
He murmured the Bloodflame Dog Emperor's true name with a bit of envy.
At the same time, he was also very curious about the situation with the Peerless Fencer.
After also being left to her own devices for a day, the Bloodflame Dog Emperor had given him such a big surprise. The Peerless Fencer was someone he had seriously cultivated, after all; she couldn't be worse than the Bloodflame Dog Emperor, right?
Thinking this, he exited the Bloodflame Dog Emperor's perspective and switched over to the Peerless Fencer.
Rate on N.U.
