Life Game In Other World
Chapter 1086: The Second Rong Guang Badge (Super Long - for Monthly Votes)

Chapter 1086: Chapter 1086: The Second Rong Guang Badge (Super Long Chapter for Monthly Votes)

"Stop her!"

Shouts echoed in the gaps between roaring flames.

Surging tongues of fire streaked by the woman’s hair and brushed in front of the lifeless eyes of the girl on her back.

This was the edge of a sea of fire, where spreading flames intertwined like streams in a swamp, enveloping the surrounding space.

Ruilin looked up at the surging sea of flames ahead and the towering obelisk beyond, turned around, and ran towards the edge of the sea of fire, where the flames were thinner.

Bang—

But she hadn’t run far when rapid gunfire sounded in front of her, and bullets piercing through the flames hit the ground before her, kicking up dust and smoke.

"She’s there, catch her!"

A group of guards in white uniforms emerged from the edge of the flames ahead, engulfed in a pale red aura, running towards the woman with their guns.

The woman turned her head back to look behind her; a group of soldiers, also covered in an aura, chased after her through the flames at her back, following her original steps and rushing towards her.

Facing enemies surging from both directions, Ruilin clenched her teeth, carrying the blonde girl on her back, turned around, and once again faced the intense sea of fire, heading in its direction.

Seeing her actions, the guards chasing from both front and back hesitated momentarily, then unhesitatingly quickened their pace, passing through the flames to pursue her.

"Catch her! Kill that beast! Protect the saint! Protect the saint!"

Loud shouts rose from the edge of the flames, echoing in Ruilin’s ears and growing ever closer.

The surging flames in the sea of fire brushed her cheeks, and the scorching air made her cheeks and eyes begin to burn.

She carefully watched the sea of flames ahead, trying to find areas that weren’t ablaze.

But what her eyes met, beyond the burning flames, was nothing but a flat expanse of ruins and the continuously burning tinder within them.

Many of the city’s buildings had wooden decorations to appear more luxurious and dignified, which now served as the best fuel for the flames.

The sky-high flames had ignited everything flammable in the ruins, forming the current sea of fire.

This ’ocean’ wrapped around the central obelisk of the city, like a scorching barrier, isolating the city center from the outside world.

Ruilin stared intently at the flames, her teeth clenched tightly.

The footsteps behind her were getting closer and closer, and the girl on her back had not spoken a word; even after leaving the sacrificial altar, she was like a soulless puppet, unable to speak or move.

Now, the only person Ruilin could think of who might awaken her sister was him.

"You have nowhere to run,"

A loud shout came from behind her, "Lay down the saint and surrender at once!"

Urgent gunfire sounded behind her, with many bullets directly aimed at Ruilin’s legs – a severe warning and a method to hinder her movement.

The sound of gunfire and footsteps behind her grew nearer and nearer.

The woman turned around to look at the white-robed guards chasing her.

If she were alone, she’d have many possible escape routes, but now, there was only one path she could take.

She had originally planned to run around the sea of fire, hoping to find a way through it to reach the other side, but it seemed there was no chance now.

She looked at the approaching guards, her feet stepping on the rubble of collapsed buildings, and suddenly kicked.

A spray of stones kicked up in an instant, blocking the guards’ view.

Then, without hesitation, she turned around, carrying the blonde girl, and dashed into the sea of fire behind her.

Perhaps she should have found a wet towel or something to shield from the fire, but clearly, she wasn’t that lucky; all she had around her were ruins and debris, nothing of use.

The scorching wave of fire swept over her cheeks and her blood-stained calves.

She didn’t know if she could survive.

All she could do was pray with the purest of thoughts,

Divine protection.

Buzz—

The raging fire raised tumultuous flames. The moment the woman stepped into the surging inferno, the seemingly all-consuming blaze trembled suddenly.

Then the sea of fire parted as if brushed aside by an invisible hand through bracken, as if the earth itself had torn open a mountain, abruptly separating to both sides, and a ’narrow’ pathway flanked by towering flames appeared before the woman.

This pathway extended to the other side of the sea of fire, leading to the heart of the city.

Under the towering Obelisk that touched the sun, a blood-soaked youth gently raised his hand, his gaze piercing through the pathway, looking towards the woman standing at this end of it.

Ruilin stared blankly at this scene.

The youth stood under that radiance, parting the fierce fire with his palm, and at this moment, he was like a Divine Being standing there.

Not just Ruilin, at this moment, even the Guards who were chasing her from behind, who had just regained their field of view through the pervasive dust, were dazedly gazing at the parted sea of fire, at the youth at the end of the flames.

The sun, tinged with a hint of red, hung high above the Obelisk, and the tri-colored radiance on the surface of the Obelisk formed the mystical and vast character ’K’.

The light reflected off the parted sea of fire, making everything seem like a Divine Miracle.

However, Ruilin quickly recovered from her shock. She looked at the trembling pathway and without any hesitation, leapt out with the fastest speed she had ever managed, rushing towards the youth on the other side of the pathway.

At this time, the Guards covered in the red glow behind her also snapped back to reality. They watched Ruilin rushing into the pathway and, after a brief hesitation, still raised their firearms.

Bang—

With the first gunshot, the Flower of Blood blossomed among the crowd, and then, one body after another fell to the ground.

But Ruilin could no longer see the scene behind her. Her feet stepping on the scorching earth, she ran forward with all her might.

She had only one thought now.

Get through! Get to the other side!

A metallic blood taste welled up from her throat, reaching her tightly clenched teeth.

The surging sea of fire closed behind her.

Finally, she crossed the last step, emerging from the fiery wreckage, setting foot upon the cracked marble floor.

Then her legs seemed to lose their strength, and her body lurched forward, tumbling onto the shattered marble floor.

He Ao retracted the Shadowless Sword and lightly braced her with the flat of the blade to prevent her from falling too heavily and getting further injured.

But the bronze sword she clenched in her hand flew out due to the fall, landing on the ground not far away, while the younger girl carried on her back rolled off and onto the ground.

He Ao withdrew the Shadowless Sword, allowing her body to naturally touch the ground.

Feeling the change in her body, Ruilin naturally realized what had just happened.

She lifted her head, struggling to prop up her upper body with her hands and knelt askew before He Ao, looking up at him, "Mr. Hao Yi, thank you,"

Her lips, smeared with blood, hoarsely spoke, "Could you please look at my sister?"

He Ao lowered his head to glance at Ruilin lying in front of him.

At this moment, her grey-brown garments were mostly torn, revealing the skin beneath that had been blackened by the flames.

Both of her lower legs were covered in blood, and bullet wounds could be vaguely seen.

Under her feet, only the molten edges of her boots were left, and both of her foot soles were blackened with ash and marks of being scorched by the flames.

This girl’s lower legs had been hit by bullets long ago, but she didn’t seem to have noticed herself, fully driven by willpower and adrenaline.

He Ao bent down to step aside from Ruilin’s kneeling form, then he turned his head, looking towards Ruilin who was lying on the ground beside him.

An orange-gray radiance flashed in his eyes.

With the help of the escaping energy of the Eye of Truth, He Ao finally saw the ’true state’ of the first girl he encountered upon entering the City of Rong Guang.

Beneath her crystal-clear, semi-transparent skin, a rich, violent, and bloodthirsty red energy was raging and swirling inside her like a flood.

A powerful and insane energy core was converging in the girl’s chest, pulsating like a heart.

Around this energy core, complex and thread-like powers were winding around it, like a net bag woven from energy threads, suppressing the red energy core.

He Ao’s gaze quickly followed these energy threads, discovering that they rooted in every inch of the girl’s flesh. More precisely, they extended out from the girl’s flesh, forming a dense network that enveloped all places where the red glow passed.

It seemed that these threads were akin to some kind of seal, and the red core was the object being sealed, with the girl before him serving as the vessel for the seal.

The person who laid down this seal is highly skilled in Mysticism. When He Ao first encountered Riley, even with the spread of the Eye of Truth’s power, he didn’t notice any obvious anomalies.

It wasn’t until now, the girl seemed to have gone through some kind of ’ritual,’ awakening the conflicting forces within her body, that he could roughly see the state within the girl.

At first, he had his suspicions about this girl simply based on instinct.

After taking a closer look at the girl’s condition, He Ao activated Super Memory and calmed himself to sense the girl’s current emotional state.

He had just used Ease Thought to change Tiger Cane’s decision, so the marker he initially placed on Tiger Cane was used up, and then he reabsorbed the marker he had on Riley and placed it on Tiger Cane.

If Tiger Cane had maintained his complete sanity, he would probably have been able to notice his thoughts being influenced by He Ao and realize that He Ao might be capable of ’Mind Reading.’

But in fact, as soon as he entered the Obelisk, he was directly overwhelmed by the corruption, and the remnants of his sanity were insufficient for him to ponder such details.

Thus, He Ao placed another marker on him.

Of course, even without the marker, with the current level of Super Memory, He Ao could still roughly sense some of the cruder thoughts of those around him.

For example, he could now sense that although Riley still had a vacant expression on her face, her thoughts had become much more active than when He Ao’s marker was still on her.

This indicated that she was not completely insensate to the outside world.

He Ao turned his head towards Ruilin and raised his hand; the Shadowless Sword supported Riley’s back, allowing the girl to sit up with difficulty, "You hold her hand and call her name."

"Okay."

Ruilin hurriedly nodded, reached out her hand, and grasped her sister’s hand.

She gazed at the golden-haired girl’s vacant eyes, tightly squeezing the hand in hers, "Riley, it’s okay, it’s okay, your sister is here."

Her vacant gaze flickered for an extremely brief moment.

He Ao could clearly feel that the golden-haired girl’s thoughts surged violently for a moment but were then blocked by some invisible force.

In the field of view of Super Memory, some barely visible blurry glows were entwining around the girl’s Soul.

He Ao raised his hand and pointed at the girl’s forehead, "Awaken."

The power of Super Memory brushed over the girl’s Soul, pushing her emotions to the extreme in an instant, as if a line in the void was stretched to the limit while the blurry glow also displayed its full state, being tightly strained by the violently surging emotions.

Mental Disturbance!

He Ao summoned a trace of Soul Power and struck it against the blurry glow.

Boom—

It seemed like the sound of a string being snapped echoed in the void as the blurry glow suddenly shattered.

The golden-haired girl’s vacant eyes instantly glimmered with light, finally focusing again.

"Cough—"

She coughed violently, reached out her hand, and hugged Ruilin, who was covered in ash and blood, her nose twitching as tears uncontrollably streamed down, "Sister!!!"

"It’s okay, it’s okay,"

Ruilin hurriedly extended her hand and patted her sister’s back, "It’s good that you’ve woken, it’s good that you’ve woken."

Then she turned her head to look at He Ao, "Mr. Hao Yi, what exactly is it with my sister?"

"What a touching sibling reunion,"

At this moment, a hoarse and deep voice rose up from the other side.

Ruilin raised her head to look toward the source of the sound.

All she could see was a large, broken mass of flesh crawling on the ground.

A mere gaze at the mound of flesh made Ruilin’s brain feel as if it was pierced by spikes, with some low noises ringing in her ears.

And the old and sharp voice also spread from that mound of flesh, "Young man, aren’t you wondering how to get into the Sky-Piercing Tower?"

He Ao lifted his head to look at the twisted ’Tiger Cane’ on the ground.

That mass of flesh that was desperately fighting for survival moments ago was now trembling, seemingly giving up the last struggle, draining its last thread of Life, and roared with a raspy voice,

"To enter the Sky-Piercing Tower, you need at least two Rong Guang tokens. You already have one, and the other is inside the body of the little girl in front of you."

He Ao calmly gazed at the Tiger Cane.

He wasn’t too surprised about the existence of a Rong Guang insignia within Riley.

After all, when he first entered the City of Rong Guang, he coincidentally opened the passage right next to Riley and met her, which seemed a bit too coincidental.

According to his past experiences, this often meant that there was some deeper, more powerful mystical connection between Riley and him.

Riley knew K, but her connection to K wasn’t any deeper than anyone else’s, so the problem likely didn’t lie with ’K’.

Thus, He Ao had long speculated that Riley might have some deep mystical connection with the yellow crystal he used to open the passage.

That is why he paid attention to Riley.

At this moment, the Tiger Cane was still speaking, his voice raspy and shaking, as if filled with a sort of crazed laughter,

"There are two methods to extract the Rong Guang insignia. One is to kill at least forty-nine ordinary people in a ritual as sacrifices, infuse their blood and souls into this young girl’s body, cut open her heart, and remove the Rong Guang insignia,

"The other is to kill this little girl’s most important person before her, and extract her Rong Guang insignia while her mind collapses."

The twisted mass of flesh quivered; he gazed upon He Ao, his voice growing weaker, as if his life was on the verge of ending, but his speech still carried an uncontrollable joy,

"Do you think killing me is the end? The city’s final expulsion mechanism has already activated. Those who are illuminated by Rong Guang will become the last defense system. With your current condition, running to the Sky-Piercing Tower, there might be a slim chance of survival, staying here means certain death."

Listening to his words, Ruilin beside him cast her gaze towards the bronze sword not far away.

He Ao, on the other hand, looked up at the sky.

The originally bright blue sky had been completely tainted blood red, the sun hanging high upon the Obelisk had utterly turned into a blood-red orb.

The dense sound of footsteps came from within the burning flames, He Ao turned around to look at the surging sea of fire around him.

One by one, figures of Guards wrapped in red radiance, dressed in uniform, slowly emerged from within the flames.

The fierce fire scorched their uniforms, revealing the distorted, writhing flesh beneath.

Their figures overlapped, emerging from the flames like monsters crawling out of purgatory, densely packed.

A deep, somewhat mocking voice echoed in He Ao’s ear, "Young man, how will you choose?"

That voice seemed quite pleased with itself for posing such a difficult question to He Ao at the very end, its tone growing lower and lower until it completely faded away.

He Ao turned back to look at the twisted mass of meat.

The energy circuits within that bloated body had completely shattered, leaving only a trace of escaping energy.

On the body, twisted shadows flickered in and out of existence.

"Sister!"

A sharp cry came from beside He Ao.

He Ao turned his head towards his side.

Ruilin had somehow picked up the bronze sword from the ground, placed it at her own throat, and looked at He Ao, "Mr. Hao Yi, my sister and I can’t repay your kindness, but my little sister is still young. If there is a chance, I hope you can save her."

With that, she unhesitatingly drew the sword across her throat.

She was very clear that she and ’Hao Yi’ were in the same boat if ’Hao Yi’ died, they would not live either.

By voluntarily seeking death and offering up the ’Rong Guang insignia,’ helping ’Hao Yi’ to survive, there might be a chance for this mysterious strong man to save her sister’s life.

Since Divine Beings very likely existed in this world, cutting open one’s heart might not necessarily lead to death.

"Sister, don’t!"

Riley, whose brain was already blank, quickly reached out her hand, trying to grab the bronze sword in Ruilin’s hand, but her strength was nowhere near enough.

He Ao: ?

Do I look like someone who’s cold-hearted and murders without blinking?

He raised his hand, and the Shadowless Sword directly knocked the bronze sword out of Ruilin’s hand, embedding it into the nearby marble on the ground.

Under Ruilin’s perplexed gaze, He Ao raised his head, looking towards the densely approaching figures within the raging flames, looking towards the blood-red sky above the fire.

The blood-colored sunlight and the blazing firelight simultaneously reflected on the young man’s cheeks, and he slowly spoke, his tone calm,

"Don’t rush."