[Level: 81]
[Spirit Schedule: 8/10]
[Free Allocation Years: 288,000 years]
[Spirit Ring] —
[Eighth Spirit Ring] 100,000 Years
Gold Element Control: Increases affinity with the gold element by 100%.
...
Now that Li Yu's spiritual power was sufficiently strong, absorbing a spirit ring with only fifty thousand years of age took little time.
With the protection of the power of "Eternity", it only took a few breaths for him to fully absorb it.
Of course, he had already allocated fifty thousand years from his free allocation to the eighth spirit ring, which was why the panel before him showed it as one hundred thousand years.
As expected, after absorbing the spirit ring from the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, he gained the ability: Gold Element Control.
Metal...
The gold element certainly wasn't limited to metal, but that was its most iconic representation.
Even in the current timeline, metals were widely used in every city.
Blacksmith shops could be found in every city.
Which meant, after gaining Gold Element Control, in every city—or even in the wild—he would never lack "weapons"!
Everything could become his weapon.
Moreover, with a 100% elemental affinity, he could even craft items that didn't exist in this world.
Of course, he lacked theoretical knowledge of firearms. In his previous world, he had never paid much attention to such topics—he had only seen various weapon designs through certain "channels".
Otherwise, he might have actually managed to handcraft a nuclear bomb.
Uh...
But the core of a "nuke" was likely still beyond his reach.
Even so, without that knowledge, using his multi-element control, he could inject unstable elemental energy into a "shell" and still achieve a similar effect.
However, at his current strength, doing such a thing wasn't meaningful.
It would be time-consuming and inefficient—he might as well directly lock the target in "space," which would be far faster and more devastating.
Still, the gold element was very meaningful to him.
Borrowing some principles from a grenade, he could add gold-element steel beads into a spatial structure.
This way, when an explosion occurred, it would naturally result in even more terrifying damage.
Moreover, since these were formed by condensed elemental power and imbued with spirit energy, their durability would far surpass that of regular grenade shrapnel.
"Hidden weapons? What a joke!" Li Yu suddenly thought of Tang San's famed hidden weapons.
We're already in the age of hot weapons, and you're still playing with darts?
Isn't that ridiculous?
But at that moment, Li Yu suddenly felt a bone-chilling sensation.
Outside the tree hollow.
Numerous spirit beasts still glared at the hollow, ready to charge in and devour whatever was inside.
They were there because the one known as Ah Man, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, was an old rival.
Ah Man's current miserable state was due to a bloody battle with their king.
Now that the king was wounded, they were tasked with guarding this place.
At the same time—
They knew well that Ah Man was of the extremely rare Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear lineage, and under the protection of the Bear Lord.
But the rule laid down by that Lord was: "The Lord shall not interfere with the people."
Even the Bear Lord could not break this rule.
Thus, they guarded this place without fear.
Yet, they began to feel puzzled—why was Ah Man still not dead after all this time?
What the heck?
If it were anyone else, they would've long rushed in to finish the job.
But Ah Man was too vicious—even while dying, none of them could match him. Fear held them back. They had no choice but to wait for Ah Man to die naturally.
Swoosh—
Suddenly, the sound of wind slicing through the air echoed, and a figure abruptly appeared in front of the gathered spirit beasts.
"Hmm~"
Some of the spirit beasts immediately growled in protest.
But that figure merely turned his head, and every spirit beast present collapsed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
The Bear Lord had arrived!
"Leave." The Bear Lord said calmly.
The spirit beasts scattered at once.
"What's going on? Ah Man was clearly dying…" Doubt flashed in the Bear Lord's eyes. "Could he have turned things around…? No, what am I thinking—that's impossible!"
The Bear Lord didn't immediately use his perception, so for now he remained confused.
In fact, in this sealed space, no humans had entered for a long, long time. Thus, the Bear Lord never even considered the possibility of a human intrusion.
With doubt in his heart, the Bear Lord approached the tree hollow, his aura finally starting to spread.
Pop!
Like something being pierced, Ah Man's near-death aura instantly dissipated, replaced by a dense aura of death.
The Bear Lord's expression changed—finally realizing something was wrong.
With a flicker, he appeared inside the tree hollow—and his eyes widened in fury: "A human!"
Li Yu had sensed danger the moment things felt off. He immediately triggered his spatial power, aiming for the "rift" he'd used to enter.
But to his surprise, the rift was gone!
"The rift is moving!" Li Yu instantly grasped the severity of the problem.
With the growth of his spiritual power and his increasing familiarity with spatial elements—
Now, executing a spatial teleport no longer required as much preparation.
When heading toward familiar "nodes", he could even achieve instantaneous travel with just a thought.
But now that the "rift" had vanished, it meant he needed time to locate it again.
Until then, he couldn't easily leave this sealed space.
The "barriers" here were far too tough for him to break through on his own.
Luckily, his spiritual power was strong enough. He eventually managed to locate the rift, and initiated his teleportation, even stepping one foot into it.
But then—
The Bear Lord appeared.
That one shout—"Human!"—was filled with shock and rage. A terrifying aura burst forth, interrupting Li Yu spatial teleportation!
The rift vanished again.
This time, Li Yu had no time left to search for it.
"Damn it!" Li Yu expression darkened.
"Human, how did you get in here?" The Bear Lord's aura bore down on Li Yu, but he didn't strike immediately.
In his eyes, Li Yu was too weak.
More important right now was figuring out how Li Yu found and entered this place.
At the same time, the Bear Lord's gaze swept the area—and locked onto Ah Man's corpse.
The "spirit", the full power of his body, and the Dark Gold Terrorclaws—all gone.
"You ended Ah Man's life!" The Bear Lord narrowed his eyes, his aura growing even more dangerous.
Had Ah Man merely died, his "spirit" and power wouldn't have been completely drained like this.
Although the Bear Lord had already accepted Ah Man's inevitable death, he was still consumed by rage.
Because—Ah Man still had a sliver of hope!
As long as the spirit beasts outside retreated and the civil battle concluded, the Bear Lord could intervene without breaking the rules—there might have been a chance to save Ah Man.
It was a slim chance, almost nonexistent—
But still… a chance!
Most importantly—How dare a human defile the noble lineage of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bears!