78: Chapter 78 Before the Calamity Lightning Arrives, I'll Burn Your Debts First

The sound of the boiling magma lake gradually weakened, and Chen Fan could clearly hear his own violent heartbeat.

The body of Su Shuang in his arms was warming up inch by inch from the icy chill of a sculpture to the warmth a living person should possess.

As he looked down, he glimpsed the faint pink fox tattoo at the corner of her eye, like peach petals blown open by the wind, gently trembling with her breathing.

"Su Shuang?" His Adam's apple bobbed, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper had scraped rusted iron.

His fingers hovered half an inch before her eyelashes; he ultimately dared not touch them, fearing he might shatter this hard-won spark of life.

It was only when her eyelashes brushed against his collarbone, like a small beast that had just basked long enough in the sun, that he suddenly held his breath.

"I... I dreamed of my clan," Su Shuang's voice was as light as the steam floating above a teacup. Her silver hair shifted as she raised a hand, and half a pale gold fox tail emerged from her tailbone, trembling slightly at the tip before retracting into her clothes.

Her fingertips caressed the burns on Chen Fan's cheek. The moment her skin made contact, a faint glow appeared, and the charred wounds visibly scabbed over and fell off at a speed visible to the naked eye. "They were shouting, 'The fire seed is not extinguished.'"

Chen Fan suddenly remembered what Blue Scale had said at the volcano crater before dissolving into light particles: "Touch her head."

He clasped her hand in return; the shallow marks she had just made were still imprinted on his palm. Warmth seeped through the gaps between their clasped fingers and drilled into his bones: "I touched her head for Blue Scale. He can rest easy now."

Su Shuang's pupils contracted slightly, and the light on her fingertips suddenly flared brightly.

Only then did Chen Fan notice the watery sheen in her eyes, yet she stubbornly refused to let the tears fall: "You aren't absorbing fire... you are absorbing their karmic debt."

"Too much debt is no longer a worry," Chen Fan grinned, blood foam coagulating into dark red scabs at the corner of his mouth. "Anyway, I plan to—burn it all, principal and interest included." He pulled out the ink pellet left by Blue Scale from his embrace. The object glowed a faint blue in his palm, like a gem wrapped in resentment.

The moment he applied pressure with his fingertips, the ink pellet cracked open with a 'ka' sound.

Dozens of New Player numbers floated out from the fragments, drifting toward the ground like stardust scattered by the wind, spinning as they went.

Chen Fan looked at those points of light, recalling what Blue Scale had said: "They are marked by the system as 'data redundancy.' Burning the book of fate will erase their records..."

"Master!"

A semi-transparent phantom suddenly drilled up from the ground.

It was a young girl in a cyan dress, with a piece of qingqiu jade pinned in her hair—the spirit body of the jade statue from Su Shuang's Teahouse.

She spun around anxiously, the jade pendant in her hair tinkling: "The earth core flame marrow has returned!

The Blue Scale bloodline is resonating. A Little Girl in the Southern Territory just suddenly grew fox ears, and the old hunter in the Western Desert said he heard a fox cry in his dreams—but if that 'Calamity Thunder' falls..."

Her voice suddenly choked off. "All those resonating will be marked as 'non-compliant entities.'"

Su Shuang gripped the qingqiu jade at her neck, her knuckles turning white.

Chen Fan could feel the temperature in her embrace heating up a few degrees more, like a fire being stoked brightly: "Then we must ignite more life furnaces before the thunder falls."

She looked up at him, the fox tattoo spreading from the corner of her eye to behind her ear. "The Northern Territory, the Western Desert, the Southern Forest... there are seven sealed locations. Each life furnace suppresses a system 'book of fate.'"

"Sounds good," Chen Fan hoisted his broken saber onto his shoulder. The critical hit system inside him suddenly began to pulse, like a small drum beating in his blood vessels.

He could feel the accumulated critical hit energy heating up, surging from his dantian to every limb and bone. "My critical hits are just the right kindling."

The remains of the altar continued to sink, emitting a dull 'thud' sound.

Chen Fan dragged his injured leg toward the wreckage and pressed his palm onto the scalding rock.

The residual heat of the earth core flame marrow seeped through his fingers, mixing with the system's crimson-gold energy.

He closed his eyes, recalling the last speck of light that was Blue Scale, recalling the names of the children burned in the magma—and then he slammed a fist into the ground.

"[Critical Hit Charging x 3]!"

The moment the system prompt exploded, earth fire erupted from beneath his fist.

The crimson-gold flames, wrapped around the list left by Blue Scale, drilled into the rock face like a carving knife.

Xiao Lin, Gray Tongue, Ye Pao... dozens of names slowly emerged, forming a continuous line in the firelight, their radiance shooting straight toward the sky.

Somewhere on the ground, a Little Girl who had just emerged from the Newbie Village was looking up, wiping sweat from her brow.

She saw the light in the sky and stood on her tiptoes to reach it. When her fingertip touched that brightness, she suddenly remembered the boy from her team who had been erased by the system three days ago—his number was identical to one of the digits in the light. "Xiao Lin..." she whispered, tears plopping onto the muddy ground. "So you weren't just data..."

"Non-compliant behavior has been recorded."

The projection of the Calamity Appointer suddenly appeared in mid-air.

This time, he had coalesced into a human form, but he still lacked facial features. His voice ground like rusted gears: "Calamity Thunder countdown: 71 hours and 59 minutes.

It is advised that all players above Diamond rank apply for encirclement authority to prevent..."

"Boom!"

A stream of Fox Fire suddenly shot up from beneath the earth, precisely piercing his data stream core.

Chen Fan stood within the fire, his fist still smoking.

He looked up at the phantom that was currently reassembling itself, smiling hotter than the magma: "Tell your Life Recording Division—I don't draw lots, I don't bow to fate, and I certainly don't fear thunder.

These seventy-two hours are my period of... reckoning for you."

The Calamity Appointer's projection paused, and its data stream suddenly twisted violently, disappearing like scraps of paper scattered by the wind.

As Chen Fan turned, Su Shuang was already sitting up on her own.

Her fox tail was fully manifested, its pale gold fur radiating a warm light in the firelight.

Seeing him look over, she raised an eyebrow: "Carry me?"

"You got it," Chen Fan bent down and steadily lifted her into his embrace.

Su Shuang looped her arms around his neck, her nose brushing against his earlobe: "Where to next?"

Chen Fan looked toward the north.

There was a snow-covered wasteland there, which he had seen on the system map a few days ago—at the edge of the snowfield was a stone temple, its gate carved with the ancient characters for 'Western Desert life furnace.'

He grinned, his Adam's apple brushing past the top of her head: "Let's go burn the second book of fate."

The wind on their return journey swept fine sand past them.

As they passed the remains of the altar, the names carved on the rock wall suddenly glowed faintly.

An extremely thin stream of Fox Fire crawled out from between the characters for 'Xiao Lin,' tracing the earth veins outward in all directions—like a seed buried underground, waiting to sprout.

And on the edge of the northern snowfield, the accumulated snow suddenly made a light 'crack' sound.

Deep underground, a crimson-gold fissure was slowly spreading, following the earth core flame marrow energy Chen Fan had injected...