Chapter 121: Familiar Old Rival

A faint orange glow covered his body, sacred power held in his hands.

Though flames already engulfed his skin, Li En felt no heat.

He felt only warmth.

But for his opponent, it was an entirely different matter.

"SOL."

Calmly uttering the Dragon tongue, he called forth the very essence of his subconscious ideal: the Holy Knight.

Ignite myself, illuminate the world around—if this world is pitch black, if no other light can be seen, then I shall become the beacon guiding those who come after.

One by one, the undead surrounding the flame were ignited.

They screamed in agony within the fire, gradually purified by the radiance.

"SOL." Li En spoke the word again.

But this time, the whispered name sounded suspiciously like a person's name.

He touched his heart, feeling its frantic pulse.

It pumped Dragon blood, yet also emitted light and heat.

Light, not borrowed from without, but born solely from within.

If there is no justice, no righteousness, no model—then let me create one.

Perhaps imperfect, perhaps scarred from head to toe—this is my life, my justice.

I will not hesitate, not wait, not forgive, not compromise.

"SOL."

This time, Li En no longer concealed it—he was chanting a name!

And the orange flame of the "Holy Sun" grew even clearer.

The Dragon tongue had become more complete.

"So this is Dragon Tongue magic—understand it, analyze it, embrace it, chant it."

Elements are not merely the simple natural forces of earth, fire, water, and air; concepts like "law" and "justice" are also elemental components of society.

The elements invoked by Dragon Tongue magic have never been limited.

"No, not infinite—yours entirely, what you create, what you comprehend."

His understanding of the spirit-soul SOL, all he knew of the Holy Knight's path, ultimately merged into the element "SOL," this Dragon rune.

Dragon runes evolve continuously—but from another perspective, it is not the Dragon tongue itself that evolves, but its user.

"Snap!"

Li En walked forward in silence; he no longer needed to chant the names of gods or elements.

This light and heat—were always mine.

I am the Sun.

Wherever he passed, undead were spontaneously ignited.

One ancient after another, even Li En could not clearly see them, turned instantly to dust.

"I am the Sun," Li En did not compare himself to the stars above.

That would require immense confidence—perhaps Kuku could do it; he merely accepted the "Sun" from ancestral memories, and became the "Sun Knight" he himself understood, capable of illuminating darkness.

It was not a perfect model of a Holy Knight; indeed, it was clearly biased and skewed.

But when facing the things lurking in shadows, it proved extraordinarily effective.

No undead could stand before Li En; they could not even reach him.

"Is this normal? Are Holy Knights really this absurd?"

"I've seen hundreds, even thousands of Holy Knights—never one like this. Not even Grand Holy Knights."

The spectators behind could not comprehend it, but were deeply shaken.

Sallyman, as the team leader, was also stunned, her face blank. She knew Li En was probably stronger than an ordinary Holy Knight—but this was ridiculous.

Weren't degenerates supposed to lose everything? This power level is insane—Grand Knights don't just vaporize undead like this!

Normally, such a level of supernatural ability would injure allies first—but even standing this close, his group felt only a gentle warmth.

She instinctively glanced at Larry, the so-called prodigy who had already reached the fourth-rank Holy Knight—perhaps he understood.

"No wonder, Senior Li En!" The spider-knight's six eyes sparkled; the young prodigy looked like a fangirl.

Sallyman turned to her aunt—the magic girl should know something, right?

"No wonder, little Li En!" Her aunt's eyes sparkled with stars—can't you be a little more composed?! Are you deliberately teasing him with Larry?!

At that moment, Kuku suddenly stepped in front of Sallyman, standing on tiptoes, chest puffed out, as if awaiting praise.

"Uh, Lord Kuku, do you know…?" Sallyman, at least in reading expressions, was still competent.

"I know! I taught him! I'm the genius Kuku! This is the power of the spirit-soul! The power of Holy Knight SOL!"

This made it slightly understandable—after all, it was the power of an ancient hero; such overwhelming strength was not entirely incomprehensible.

Her expression toward Li En grew complex; she had heard fragments of the spirit-soul SOL's story from the Princess.

He seemed to have been a remarkable ancient hero; Li En appeared to have been his disciple, but after becoming a degenerate, he was forced to restart the selection for the next successor.

But this meant Li En, once a Grand Knight, was indeed the inheritor of a hero who had once ended a deity.

If this was an inheritance from the last or even the previous age, the power system might differ entirely—her inability to recognize it was understandable.

But still—was this power not too abnormal?

She stared at Li En, wondering if the scales on his "lizard skin" were too resilient—could the Sudar bloodline really be this powerful?

Finally, the slow-witted girl vaguely sensed something was off.

"We're here."

At this moment, Kuku's compass had leveled, pointing straight ahead.

The corridor narrowed; ahead were no longer passageways, but complete rooms.

It seemed they had reached the base's residential and storage zones—the first floor.

The path ahead became much smoother; most storage rooms had rotted away.

Not far ahead, the target of their mission should lie.

"Crash!"

Doors didn't even need unlocking—just a light touch turned them to ash.

Even if traps or magical seals lay inside, time had rendered them meaningless.

Only the metal walls remained stubbornly sturdy—likely remnants of ancient ruins. Kuku ran excitedly around, only to touch piles of ash and burst into tears.

Finally, he gave up on these unattainable "treasures" and urged Li En to hurry.

"Crash!"

Another shattered door opened; this time, the treasure compass pointed directly at the target.

Behind a pile of metal racks and machinery lay a half-destroyed metal automaton, missing one arm and one leg, faint electric sparks crackling across her body.

Though separated by an entire warehouse, the distance was great, but Li En's Dragon eyes saw her clearly.

"Found—" Li En's words cut off mid-sentence.

He saw something floating—a skeletal undead, but only half its body remained, suspended in air.

"Such a thick storm of negative energy."

He instinctively felt intense revulsion; if previous undead skeletons were mere specks of darkness, this half-skeleton, wreathed in blue flames, was a complete night.

"Lich." At that moment, Li En understood everything.

But as Li En drew his sword, ready to fight to the death, he realized something was wrong.

That lich seemed… unusual.

His elongated finger bones poked at the automaton's candidate body, occasionally clicking his jaw shut—as if laughing.

The next instant, the lich's attention was drawn to a rolling object he had pushed, and he instinctively chased after it.

"Ha!" He floated helplessly, unable to catch it, growing frantic.

His hollow eyes shot out heat rays, vaporizing it instantly!

Then he happily spun in midair, clearly delighted.

Is this a wise and evil lich? Or just a panting lapdog?

"Crazy," Kuku muttered, as if it were perfectly normal.

"Yeah, crazy," the Violet Rose replied casually, as if used to it.

But madness was indeed the inevitable fate of most liches.

These undead, transformed from high-rank spellcasters, long immersed in negative energy, inevitably grew obsessive, aggressive, even insane—it was only a matter of time.

Sometimes, it wasn't just the negative energy; most liches isolated themselves from society for years. Memories of their past as social, living beings tormented them endlessly, driving them further to extremes.

"It's not just that he's been cooped up too long—he seems injured; his soul isn't whole."

"The transformation may have failed, or he wasn't the one who initiated it. Or perhaps he died too many times—his soul is damaged."

The two top spellcasters concluded: this lich was truly insane.

But that made things more troublesome.

Liches are hard to fight because of their accumulated power as top-tier spellcasters and undead—but a truly insane lich, even if he retains spellcasting ability, becomes far easier to handle.

What makes spellcasters hardest to fight is always their reason and wisdom—a perfectly timed spell can turn the tide.

But a spellcaster with nothing but raw magic? That's just a fireball caster—isn't that a completely different battle difficulty?

"That automaton probably can't withstand collateral damage..." But the twitching, sparking, unfortunate automaton before them looked like it couldn't take another second.

After some thought, Li En came up with an idea.

More than ten minutes later, as the floating lich mindlessly chased a rolling gear, a voice suddenly rang out from afar.

Li En, holding a blue-boned skeleton, stepped out from a distant corridor.

The instant the lich turned its gaze toward him, he surged forward with force.

"Crack!" The blue bones snapped outright in Li En's hands, then he slammed them down, shattering them into fragments that scattered across the floor.

"Sorry, your family's all over the ground. Were they your parents?" The unscrupulous paladin delivered the most heartless mockery.

Did it work?

"Boom!" A sudden burst of thermal rays revealed everything.

The floating skeletal lich shot straight out from the shelves.

The mocker had become a fugitive, turning to flee.

"Come on, little lich, catch me and I'll return your grandparents to you." Even his hidden companions couldn't hold back—this filthy thing was really a paladin? And a Classical Oath Paladin, no less, the very model of moral conduct?

"Bold and unrestrained in action, unorthodox in tactics—truly worthy of being Senior Li En!" Nuo's sister covered her face, unable to watch, while her starry-eyed stare at Larry sister proved she was beyond saving.

(End of Chapter)