76: Chapter 76 What I'm inhaling isn't fire, it's a debt of life.

The molten staircase glowed with a deep gold light beneath Chen Fan's feet. Every step felt like treading on boiling quicksilver. Lava bubbles popped and cracked, and waves of heat carrying a sulfurous smell stung his face.

Carrying Su Shuang on his back, he could clearly feel that her forehead pressed against the back of his neck was alarmingly hot. Her normally soft fox ears had shrunk into balls of fluff, and her tail had long since vanished—a sign that her fox demon bloodline was completely depleted.

"Shuang, just bear with it a little longer," Chen Fan glanced down at the copper coin tied with a red string in his embrace. This was the 'Safety Talisman' Su Shuang had strung together herself. Its flowing cyan light was now flickering, its frequency perfectly synchronized with her faint, intermittent breathing.

His Adam's apple bobbed as he suppressed the surging critical hit energy within his meridians, channeling it toward her back using the residual heat of the Law Fire. "Twelve hours... I can walk ten thousand steps."

The sight at the end of the staircase made his pupils contract sharply.

A bronze altar floated in the center of the lava lake. Seven chains as thick as water buckets pierced up from the earth, wrapped around a pool of churning deep gold liquid—the earth core flame marrow pulsed like a living thing. With every beat, seven beams of light shot through the lava layer, straight into the sky, sketching the phantom image of the Starlight Tower in the clouds.

A system announcement suddenly exploded in the air in blood-red characters: [Seal Stability: 98%. Sacrificing one New Player per hour can extend the lock for 72 hours.]

Chen Fan's fingernails dug deeply into his palm—this damn thing wasn't a seal; it was clearly using New Players' lives as fuel!

As long as the Flame Prison Court didn't stop, even if he managed to break six chains, the seventh would just be replenished by fresh lives.

"The main formation eye is beneath the altar," Blue Scale's voice came from a dark passage in the side wall. Half of his face was scorched black, and the other half was still oozing blood. "But it's protected by a 'Life Fire Barrier.' Anyone who isn't the sacrificer touching it will be instantly turned to ash." As he spoke, he tossed over an ink pellet engraved with crooked numbers—a mold of New Player identification numbers. "Reverse Fire Talisman. It can disrupt the barrier for three seconds... I took this from Tongue Burner. It's the only one."

Chen Fan caught the ink pellet, his fingertips brushing over the etchings, which were so hot he almost pulled his hand back—half a drop of black blood, the resentful soul of a sacrificed person, was condensed within every line.

He suddenly laughed, his eyes turning red from the force of it: "They use lives to burn the fire; I'll use my life to smash the chains."

He gently placed Su Shuang on a stone platform at the edge of the altar, his fingertip stroking her cold wrist.

Su Shuang's fox blood runes had faded so much they seemed about to melt into her skin. The ear tips, which originally glowed pink, were now white and transparent, and she lacked the strength to even twitch her eyelashes.

Chen Fan bit his tongue tip; the pain made his mind clearer.

The critical hit system interface unfolded across his retina, five orbs of light shining in the charge meter—Cooldown Reduction at 50%. This was the first time he had fully charged his energy since breaking through the 'Critical Charge' mode.

"Watch this," he told Blue Scale, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping against a metal plate. "Are three seconds enough?"

Blue Scale didn't speak, only nodding forcefully.

Chen Fan began circling the altar, his footsteps making dull thuds on the bronze bricks.

The tremor of the lava traveled up through the soles of his feet, resonating with the critical hit energy inside him—system prompts flooded his mind: [Earth Vein Frequency Match: 87%... 92%... 98%].

He closed his eyes, feeling the trajectory of the energy flow until he heard his own heartbeat completely coincide with the pulse of the earth core flame marrow.

"3... 2... 1..."

The first punch slammed into the ground!

The aura of [Visible Critical Hit × 3] exploded along the earth veins. The lava lake surged up into a three-meter-high wave of fire, and the shockwave struck the base of the chain. The thinnest chain emitted a metallic hum.

Chen Fan didn't stop. As he circled to the east side of the altar for the second time, the charge meter filled up again.

He leaped up and stepped onto a chain, his right fist clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white. Energy condensed on the peak of his fist into a deep gold orb—this was his 'Mountain Splitting Fist,' reinforced with the 'Power Soul Stones' dropped by three dungeon bosses.

"Hidden Critical Hit × 4!"

The moment his fist struck, a dazzling blue light erupted from the surface of the chain. The prompt [Environmental Resonance × 2] almost burned his retina.

The chain vibrated violently. Fine, web-like cracks appeared on its previously seamless body, and fragments 'clinked' as they fell onto the altar.

Chen Fan landed on one knee, blood foam trickling from the corner of his mouth—he had forcibly compressed 20% of his critical hit energy, the price being three shattered ribs.

But there was no time for pain.

A 'hissing tear' suddenly came from high up on the altar. The charred remains of Tongue Burner crawled out of a dark recess, his blackened skin still flaking off.

His tongue had already been blown to ash, but he used his fingernails to slash open his chest, letting his blood drip onto the runic array at the edge of the altar: "Ult... imate... Sacr... ifice..."

The system alarm sounded piercingly!

The instant Chen Fan looked up, he saw a little girl with pigtails being dragged toward the sky by an invisible force three kilometers away, in the direction of the Newbie Village.

Her cry pierced through the roar of the lava, clear as if right beside his ear: "Mommy! Mommy, save me—"

A stream of light poured out from above her head and flowed along the data beam into the chains. All seven chains lit up with blood-red patterns. The seal stability, which was 98%, instantly snapped back to 100%, and even the cracked chains began to self-repair.

Chen Fan's pupils narrowed to pinpricks. Just as he was about to reactivate his charge, a sudden heat hit the back of his neck—it was Su Shuang's blood.

He spun around violently.

The last trace of fox blood overflowed from the corner of Su Shuang's mouth, that smear of red soaking into his clothes like a withered flower.

Her breathing was so faint it was almost inaudible. Her eyelashes trembled, but she lacked the strength to even open her eyes.

Chen Fan's hand was shaking as he reached for her pulse—it beat weaker than the cyan light of the copper coin, threatening to stop at any moment.

"Damn your mother!" he roared until his throat ached. The critical hit system throbbed wildly inside his body, all five energy bars full. "Today, I'll stake my life on this—"

Before the words finished, the earth core flame marrow pool suddenly churned violently!

The deep gold liquid formed a vortex, pulling the seven chains taut. The previously pitch-black chains began to glow with a strange scarlet.

The altar started to tremble. Dark red liquid seeped from the cracks between the bronze bricks—it was the blood of the sacrificed.

Chen Fan knelt beside Su Shuang, grasping her hand.

Her fingers were as cold as jade, but they moved slightly in his palm—like a dying butterfly giving one last flap of its wings.

A muffled sound came from beneath the altar. The seventh chain suddenly glowed with a blinding scarlet, as if something was climbing up along the chain.