Ancient Ring of Life — Bronze-grade. Equip Requirement: None. A ring the No. 60001 novice village chief chanced upon out in the wilds in his early years, its root origin unknown; later, through the meticulous forging of the No. 60001 novice village blacksmith old Wang, its capabilities have been substantially raised. Attributes: HP +200, automatically restores 5 HP per second.
It really was a Bronze-grade item — and its attributes now were actually more than double yesterday’s!
Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Ye Tianxie slipped the Ring of Life onto his hand, his HP shooting up by nearly double at once, and said politely, “Thank you, blacksmith. Your forging has been a huge help to me.”
“Heh heh, it gladdens me to hear you say so.” Blacksmith old Wang nodded with a smile.
Buying a few more of the currently most cost-effective Steamed Buns at the shop to keep on him, Ye Tianxie hurried off straight to the north, his target still Fierce Wolf Valley. At the very least, no players would be venturing into the blood wolves’ territory yet; it would still be a domain belonging to him alone.
After a night’s “rest,” the blood wolf territory Ye Tianxie had cleared out empty was once again roamed by packs of wolves. Perhaps because of the powerful enemy’s intrusion yesterday, they moved in groups of three to five, or seven to eight; at a glance, not a single lone blood wolf could be found. This actually suited Ye Tianxie just fine. He set one foot into the blood wolves’ territory, then charged the wolf packs without a pause, and at once the once-quiet little valley rang again with the screams belonging to blood wolves.
Before long, the fairly dense wolf packs had thinned out to scattered stragglers again. Because this was the novice village, new blood wolves respawned very slowly, their respawn rate lagging far behind Ye Tianxie’s pace of extermination. And the blood wolves’ mournful howls before death finally woke the soundly sleeping Guoguo. The Hour of Eternal Fate in Ye Tianxie’s hand flickered with an instant of white light, and Guoguo’s body took shape beside his shoulder. Eyes half-lidded, she gave a lazy stretch. “Oh la, what a comfy sleep that was.”
The Hour of Eternal Fate swung, and with a shhk, four blood wolves Ye Tianxie had lured together toppled before him at once. Ye Tianxie turned around and said, “Guoguo, haven’t you forgotten something?”
Guoguo blinked her big, innocent eyes, still hazy. “Mm? Have I…? Don’t remember.”
“Yesterday you seemed to say that if I bought you lollipops to eat, you’d tell me what the Fate Core is. I’m not fond of little girls who welsh on their debts.” Ye Tianxie raised an eyebrow and thrust a strike into a blood wolf that had just respawned before him.
Guoguo rubbed her eyes and giggled. “Oh la la, I remember now — I did say that. Hehe, the lollipop master gave me was really delicious; no wonder big sister said… mm, what’s the Fate Core again… mm, I seem to have forgotten a bit, let me think it over first.”
Ye Tianxie: “…”
Ye Tianxie’s figure wove constantly under the blood wolves’ attacks, at times switching through several body positions in the span of a single second, incredibly. Guoguo floated behind him like his little shadow, never leaving his side, her bright eyes gazing upward, one snow-white little hand pressed to her chin, as if straining to recall something. But a good while passed, and Ye Tianxie still hadn’t gotten her answer.
“Mm… I really don’t seem to be able to remember it… don’t be impatient, master, I’ll definitely recall it bit by bit.” Guoguo said with an embarrassed smile. Behind Ye Tianxie, she gave her little hand a flick, and a lollipop appeared in it. Having had one experience eating a lollipop, this time she easily peeled off that thin layer of wrapper and, straining to think all the while, licked away at it gently.
…Under the lollipop’s stimulus, it was as if Guoguo’s intelligence suddenly shot up by a wide margin. All at once she let out a loud shout right by Ye Tianxie’s ear, sending a jolt through his whole body and nearly getting him bitten by a blood wolf. Guoguo cried out happily, “Master, I remember now — the Fate Cores are the power cores of the Hour of Fate in master’s hand, and there are seven of them!”
Ye Tianxie, somewhat flustered, cleared away the blood wolves around him and turned back. “Power cores?”
“Mm-hm, power cores. Look, master… the seven gaps on the Hour of Fate originally held seven Fate Cores. Then somehow they went missing, so the Hour of Fate’s power became very, very weak… let me think… there are seven Fate Cores in all, and these seven are… oh, the first one seems to be red, called Blood Feather… then the second one… I can’t remember it… I only remember the color was orange… then yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple…” Guoguo thought as hard as she could, saying what she could come up with in fits and starts, her little tongue licking unconsciously at the lollipop in her hand all the while.
Ye Tianxie held his patience and didn’t interrupt her, his gaze falling on the Hour of Eternal Fate in his hand — clearly, by what Guoguo said, the seven strangely shaped gaps of differing form on the Hour of Eternal Fate had originally been set with seven Fate Cores, each holding formidable power within it. The Hour of Eternal Fate was the vessel for the power of these seven Fate Cores; a Hour of Eternal Fate without its Fate Cores was one without true power, scarcely even worthy of being called the Hour of Eternal Fate at all.
Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple… and the seven gaps on the Hour of Eternal Fate reflected, from top to bottom, exactly these seven dim glows. These colors were unmistakably the seven scattered colors of sunlight!
The first Fate Core — the red Blood Feather.
Blood Feather? A blood-colored feather?
Ye Tianxie’s gaze traveled upward, and the topmost gap was indeed a shape resembling a feather. Ye Tianxie had long been more than familiar with the shapes of the seven gaps on the Hour of Eternal Fate; before today, he’d always assumed that one was the shape of a slender tongue of flame.
“Where are these seven Fate Cores?” Ye Tianxie looked up at Guoguo — and no sooner had he asked than his expression suddenly stalled, his pupils visibly contracting, as if he’d seen something inconceivable.
“Dunno. But I know the Hour of Eternal Fate is really, really something. A long, long time ago, the Hour of Fate suddenly appeared on the Lost Continent, and no one knew where it came from… and then later, the highest deity of the Lost Continent used the Hour of Eternal Fate to defeat those most terrible evil demons, and those most terrible evil demons were sealed by the Hour of Fate inside the Tower of Fate. But then the Hour of Fate seemed to suddenly vanish… and then it showed up in master’s hands, so strange.” Guoguo said, her face full of curiosity… the one thing she wasn’t curious about being… why she had come out of the Hour of Eternal Fate!
“No matter what happened, the Fate Cores won’t have vanished. If master can find these Fate Cores, you’ll definitely be able to become really strong… Huh? Master, why are you looking at me like that… Huh-huh-huh-huh? Does master want to eat a lollipop too… No, no! Lollipops are for the cutest, best-behaved little loli Guoguo to eat, master can’t have any.” Seeing Ye Tianxie’s gaze resting dazedly on the lollipop cradled in her hands, Guoguo, as if suffering some terrible fright, hurriedly clutched the lollipop in her hands and even carefully shifted her body a good distance back, her two eyes watching him warily.
(End of Chapter 30)