Chapter 551: The Bone Servant Le Le'er's Ring — Upgraded!

Foolish Game of the Gods

The Screaming Earl was, indeed, waiting to die — and was nearly done waiting.

After personally witnessing Cheng Shi's conversations with various people and gods, he had been crushed by his own favorite thing: fear.

Now numb, he was like a goose force-fed to bursting, passively allowing the unswallowed fear to wrap around and compress him, shattering and grinding away his will to survive bit by bit. His consciousness gradually became chaotic and mechanical, a blank slate — stupidly waiting for death.

He even had a moment where he believed he'd already died, and what he was hearing and seeing now was merely the final judgment inside the hall of Death's authority.

The giant skull understood what Cheng Shi meant.

Honestly, He hadn't planned for things to be this complicated. In Death's original plan, He'd intended to simply extinguish this last remaining branch of Prosperity's bloodline — reducing it to an ordinary skull in the hall, eternally crushed beneath His feet.

But upon seeing Cheng Shi's "request," He hesitated.

It was an outrageous request, to be sure. The Bone Servant Le Le'er's Ring already exceeded the item-grade ceiling a player was supposed to have. Layering additional divinity on top would make the ring's power potentially violate the game's balance...

Yet, considering that Cheng Shi had made considerable contributions on His behalf, He did feel that perhaps this employee deserved a reward.

An excessive reward would mean He was using faith to endorse Cheng Shi. And right now, Death didn't want to get too entangled with Void.

However, speaking of Void...

"..."

The boiling green flames in the giant skull's eyes flickered inexplicably. He realized that if He didn't compensate Cheng Shi — yes, compensation, not a reward...

He realized that if He didn't offer compensation, then after this affair, He might have to face Void... alone.

Twice!

At this thought, the giant skull cast a long, drawn-out glance at the ring in Cheng Shi's mouth. He heaved a tremendous sigh, green light flashing through His eyes as He magnified the ring infinitely and fused it with the tendrilled ball that was the imprisoned Dizel.

Cheng Shi heard Dizel emit a blood-curdling shriek. Within seconds, under his increasingly fevered gaze, the entire dagger — "BOOM" — exploded.

A torrent of Decay intermixed with Prosperity's chaotic aura erupted outward. Luminous fragments scattered in all directions like a tidal wave, staggering Cheng Shi.

But he refused to miss this universe-rare spectacle of a Herald's demise. So he raised his head against the enormous pressure and watched as this legendary oathbreaker, this former offspring of Prosperity, this blasphemous would-be assassin of Decay, died without surprise in Death's Fishbone Hall. He completed his atonement for his mother's crimes — and followed in her footsteps, trailing after Prosperity into oblivion.

But Cheng Shi wasn't particularly concerned about Dizel's death. Right now, the only thing on his mind was whether his ultimate work-slave ring had gotten even stronger!

The answer was a resounding yes — though Death's forging of the ring was still in progress.

Flashes of green light streaked through the air. Scream after scream echoed all around. Countless whispering bones sang out in unison throughout the hall. In an instant, every skull in the entire Fishbone Hall erupted upward in a reverse torrent.

The white bones in the flood howled to the heavens while fixing their collective gaze on the ring hovering in midair. From their mouths spilled streams of deathly pale light, tendril after tendril, one wave after another crashing against the ring — painting its already ghastly white surface an even more harrowing shade of bone-white.

Before long, the sky-filling skulls cascaded down like snowfall. The thunderous Fishbone Hall fell silent in an instant. And in that moment, a ring bearing only partial resemblance to the old Bone Servant Le Le'er's Ring drifted slowly down from above, landing right next to Cheng Shi's jaw.

Cheng Shi was utterly transfixed. His empty eye sockets stared directly at the ring, and he could see that the transformation was dramatic.

The most obvious change was that the bewitching red glow that had once swirled across the ring's surface had been gathered and compressed into five pairs of crimson eyes, embedded into the band.

At the same time, the five crude screaming mouths had metamorphosed into five screaming faces, merging with the crimson eyes to form twisted, contorted visages of horror.

The ring's overall tone had become even more deathly white, but against that pallid base, one could clearly see black fracture lines spreading like vines — coursing through both sides of the band, intertwining and converging. They lent this ring of Death a shattered quality reminiscent of Decay.

At a glance, it was impossible to tell how many faiths had been fused inside.

Cheng Shi was euphoric beyond coherent thought. He fought the urge to immediately pop the ring into his mouth, instead channeling every ounce of trembling joy into demonstrating the boot-licking excellence befitting a star employee.

"M-My lord! Please bestow a name upon this epoch-defining Sub-God Relic once more!"

Upon hearing this, the giant skull on the Bone Throne instantly shed his earlier hesitation and became... "lively?"

For one brief instant, Cheng Shi could have sworn he saw the corners of the massive skull's mouth curve upward.

?

'Bizarre — impossibly bizarre. How does a jawbone even twist like that?'

The vast, majestic Fishbone Hall went instantly silent. It seemed all the chattering little skulls had clamped their mouths shut — none daring to disturb His moment of creative inspiration.

The giant skull deliberated for a very long time. Only when a sudden flash of inspiration struck did He begin to nod — rather satisfiedly — and bestow upon this brand-new ring a legendary name.

"It shall be called...

The Bone Servant Redeemer's Offspring Ring."

"..."

'Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.'

'Only at moments like these does Your loyal employee dare roast You, great boss.'

'This is categorically not a name any human being could come up with.'

'But regardless, at least it sounds better than the Bone Servant Le Le'er's Ring... actually, not really.'

Cheng Shi froze in embarrassment, but quickly fell to vigorous nodding.

"Your aesthetic sense remains, as always, unparalleled across the universe...

I believe that no matter what vicissitudes this world may endure, future generations will surely remember this ring. Not for how devastating its power is, but because it bears a name that can only be called... legendary.

All praise to You. All praise to the great... God of Death (and Naming)."

Throughout all his previous flattery, no matter how creatively he'd embellished it, the lord upon the Bone Throne had always snorted with contempt.

But only this time — only now — did His expression shift into something subtly peculiar. He seemed to accept this "sincere" praise with a certain equanimity, yet restrained himself from showing it.

His gaze toward Cheng Shi grew ever more peculiar. But at this moment, Cheng Shi — heart ablaze — had no bandwidth left to reciprocate his boss's attention.

His eyes held only the ring.

This Bone Servant...

'Forget it. Why torment myself...'

'Let's just keep calling it the Death Fun Ring.'

...