"You mean the Fire-Eye Orbs?" If the System hadn’t reminded him just now, Ryan Ling would’ve almost forgotten about those two mysterious, eyeball-like things entirely.
"Exactly! Hurry up and take out the Fire-Eye Orbs—use the heat from the Hell Furnace to melt them, then slap them on your eyes, now!" the System urged, almost shouting.
"Got it!" Ryan didn’t hesitate for a second. If the System said so, he was absolutely going to do it.
Without delay, Ryan whipped out the two Fire-Eye Orbs and immediately placed them on the Hell Furnace. Instantly, something miraculous happened—the two ‘eyeballs’ actually started to melt, and they melted fast.
You gotta know, Ryan had tried refining these two things more than once before—he’d run all kinds of experiments and never got a single reaction. They were insanely tough. But now, in just a few seconds, they cracked and melted. The speed was unreal!
This whole process gave Ryan a brand new respect for just how scorching the Hell Furnace really was.
The System had just warned him not to lift the lid, and honestly, that was smart advice. If the heat coming off the outside was this intense, who knows how terrifying it was inside? Totally unimaginable.
"Now do you get how powerful it is? This is a super-artifact straight out of Oil Cauldron Hell. Don’t even think about opening it unless you’ve got the strength to control it. Hurry up and spread the Fire-Eye Orbs around your eyes—refine your pupils, now!" The System was getting impatient too.
"Understood!" Ryan didn’t waste another thought—he immediately smeared the melted Fire-Eye essence all around his eyelids. Instantly, a burning sensation flared around his eyes, like his eyeballs had just been dunked straight into a deep fryer.
Agony!
No, at this point, "pain" didn’t even begin to cover it!
It was like his whole body was being crushed to pieces.
Ryan almost couldn’t help clawing at his own eyeballs!
"Hold on!" The System grabbed Ryan and shouted, "If you want to awaken the Fire-Eye Orbs, you have to get through this!"
"But—it hurts too much, ahhh!" Ryan screamed like he was dying.
"Hang in there! You have to! Hold out for ten minutes and you’ll be done!" the System yelled.
"I—I can’t even last half a second! Just gouge my eyeballs out already!" Ryan was totally breaking down, shouting at the top of his lungs, almost completely losing it.
Right now, even the System and Granny Soul couldn’t help sighing. Granny Soul turned her head away, almost unable to watch.
Meanwhile, Tsuyoshi Fujita, who’d been forced back by the scorching heat, suddenly burst out laughing outside. "You little bastard, even I couldn’t handle that heat—how do you expect to survive? Come out now or get roasted alive!"
"Tsuyoshi Fujita!" Just then, a voice exploded right next to his ear.
"M-Master!" At that, Tsuyoshi Fujita froze, suddenly tense.
"I haven't even given him my most precious body yet, or had mind-blowing sex with him—there's no way he's dying now!" Anqi Chen said, sticking her finger in her mouth and sucking hard, drool running down her chin. She looked as shameless as it gets.
"Are you fucking brain-dead?!"
"Can you stop being horny for one damn second?!"
"Keep it up and I’ll get a male dog to fuck you, you crazy bitch!"
...
Lin Zhan and the others nearly lost their minds. Even Gabriel Xue, who’d been torn up inside, was left speechless by her antics.
Outside, the tension was sky-high. Deep in the cave, the System froze, sensing Tsuyoshi Fujita’s strange aura getting closer.
"Kid, you still alive?" The System was getting anxious.
Ryan didn’t respond at all, like he’d been killed by the pain—he lay there motionless, smoke still curling from his eyes.
"Say something!" The System was getting flustered and looked to Granny Soul, who was just as lost. Honestly, Fire Eyes might be too much for a rookie like Ryan—if something really went wrong, nobody could say for sure.
Just then, Tsuyoshi’s footsteps grew closer—the System could see his big frame now. Chiba Shrine’s trick was legit; it blocked all the Hell Furnace’s heat.
"Well, well, you little bastard, hiding out here? You sure can take the heat, but you’re out of places to run—time to hand over your life!" Tsuyoshi’s killer stare swept over, and with his master’s orders, he didn’t hesitate; his wild saber slashed straight for Ryan.
In an instant, he poured out all his strength—a green-realm grandmaster unleashing every ounce of gang-qi.
But at that critical moment, Ryan suddenly snapped his eyes open—twin beams of molten gold shot from his gaze. Tsuyoshi’s saber melted instantly; his face froze, hands instinctively blocking, but the golden fire blasted him out of the tunnel like a rag doll.
"What the hell? Tsuyoshi Fujita looks like he’s done for!"
"Was that Master Hashimoto?"
"No, it had to be Master Ling—I told you he wouldn’t die!"
...
Warren Yuan, Anqi Chen, and the others were shouting with excitement. At the same time, Ryan strode out from the depths of the cave—his eyes glowing, flames swirling around him, looking down on the world like a god. And in his right hand, he lifted the massive bronze Hell Furnace high overhead—pure, unfiltered swagger.
"M-Master!" Tsuyoshi Fujita froze, nerves shot.
"Doesn’t matter how strong that punk is, he’s already been sacrificed—why haven’t you finished him? Do I have to do everything myself?" The speaker was none other than Ryuichi Hashimoto.
Tsuyoshi nodded furiously. His master’s temper was even nastier than his own—cold words, but if he exploded, you’d wish you were dead.
But just as Tsuyoshi was about to step forward, the heat hit him and he stammered, "Master, it’s still blazing in there—no living person could survive!"
Tsuyoshi, usually a big brute, sounded so timid he could barely out-whisper a girl.
"Idiot! Can’t even handle a tiny job? You’re making Water-Breaker look pathetic!" Hashimoto roared. Tsuyoshi’s tough-guy act shattered—he dropped to his knees with a thud.
"Hashimoto, don’t bully your disciple. The bottom of this island connects to a submarine volcano—it’s tough for him to get in. Here, I’ll give you a yin-yang script to help!" A Chiba Shrine onmyōji fired a green script straight into Tsuyoshi’s head.
Suddenly, Tsuyoshi seemed blessed by the gods—the heat waves curved around him, leaving him untouched.
Meanwhile, Lin Zhan and the others had boarded Gabriel Xue’s warship. Shark-Hook Island was back, but Ryan’s fate was still unknown. The latest drone tracker showed Tsuyoshi’s sudden change inside the cave.
"Chiba Shrine is nuts! Tsuyoshi Fujita looks like a whole new man—he walked through the last heat barrier like it was nothing. Master, you’re in real danger! Commander Xue, you have to save him!"
"Yeah! If this keeps up, Boss is doomed! Commander Xue, don’t you have any ideas?"
"No way! I want to die with Boss—I’m heading to that island right now!"
...
"Enough! I want to save Master Ling too, but all comms are down. Even if we got through, reinforcements won’t arrive in time. And if we launch missiles, he’ll die even faster!" Gabriel Xue yelled helplessly.
"So we’re just supposed to watch him die?" Lin Zhan, always loyal, was shouting even louder than Gabriel.
Gabriel sighed, his usual military swagger wiped away.
His eyes glistened with tears—deep down, he was hurting more than anyone. East River State, perched on the East Sea, had long been a mess beneath its bustling surface. Now, with foreign invaders outside and the Azure Dragon Society corrupting things inside, they desperately needed a hot-blooded youth like Ryan to clean house and turn the tide.
But now, watching that future hope about to die here, Gabriel felt his heart breaking—his grand ambitions seemed ready to burn away with Ryan.
Suddenly, Anqi Chen, who’d been silent, blurted out, "Relax, Master Ling isn’t going to die!"
"What did you say?" Everyone, wound tight with anxiety, was shocked by Anqi’s sudden outburst.