Blood-Red Source Crystal

After that, Aier leaped onto the Crimson Flame Beast King's neck, raised his fist, and brought it down on the beast's head.

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

"Thud!"

With every blow Aier landed, fragments flew everywhere, and the Crimson Flame Beast King's struggling gradually weakened.

Admittedly, this Crimson Flame Beast King had already reached god-level strength.

However, its most threatening traits were its body, which was as strong as a Low-God Artifact, and the Blood-Red Source Crystal between its brows, which could unleash deadly soul attacks.

Aier's body was no weaker than the Crimson Blood Beast King's, and with the boost of divine power, he was far stronger.

As for the Crimson Flame Beast King's soul attack, it relied on the Blood-Red Source Crystal between its brows. With Aier riding on its neck, the beast couldn't attack him at all.

"Boom!"

In the end, Aier smashed the Crimson Blood Beast King's head apart, and its life force faded away.

"Phew..."

He let out a quiet breath, stepped forward, and removed the Blood-Red Source Crystal from the Crimson Blood Beast King's brow. Then, with a thought, he said,

"Equip!"

In an instant, the Blood-Red Source Crystal vanished from Aier's hand, and he gained its abilities through the Equipment Slot.

First, the Blood-Red Source Crystal greatly enhanced Aier's soul power.

Second, it gave Aier a soul attack technique: Soul Burning!

The Crimson Blood Beast King could release soul attacks from the Blood-Red Source Crystal to continuously burn its enemies' souls.

After Aier put it in the Equipment Slot, he could unleash soul attacks from his eyes, with an added scorching effect.

"Not bad!"

Judging by these two effects alone, the Blood-Red Source Crystal was worth at least as much as a Low-God divine spark.

And considering how rare Soul Defense Artifacts were, the crystal might even be worth more than ten thousand Inkstones. It could easily get Aier a Mid-God divine spark.

After hesitating, Aier ultimately decided not to refine the Blood-Red Source Crystal.

As long as he found more treasures in the future, he wouldn't lack soul attack techniques.

The Equipment mode also let Aier benefit from the Blood-Red Source Crystal's abilities, so he could still use Soul Burning.

The next time the tribe went to the city, Aier could sell the Blood-Red Source Crystal and trade it for more items to increase his strength.

"Lord Aier."

At that moment, Kero arrived with several members of the patrol team.

Seeing that Aier had already killed the Crimson Flame Beast, Kero breathed a sigh of relief.

But when he saw the wounds on the beast's body, he couldn't help shaking his head inwardly.

That was what a god who had refined a divine spark was like: too weak. He'd only managed to kill one Crimson Flame Beast after smashing its head to pieces.

This only strengthened Kero's resolve.

He was determined to become a god independently!

Otherwise, he'd been a leader in the Saint Realm, only to become the weakest after ascending to godhood. How could he accept that?

Aier might currently outrank him in status, strength, and position, but once Kero became a god independently, he'd at least be a squad leader in the guard corps, commanding people like Aier who had refined divine sparks.

"Kero, can you keep this under wraps?"

After putting the Crimson Blood Beast King's corpse into his Space Ring, Aier asked Kero.

"After all, you know what might happen if Lord Olga finds out that a Crimson Flame Beast appeared in this mining area. We don't know what Lord West will do."

"But the two of us will probably be punished pretty severely."

"Lord Aier, what are you talking about?"

Kero looked up at Aier, bewildered. "Lord West personally inspected this mining area. It couldn't possibly produce a Crimson Flame Beast for at least thirty thousand years."

"Didn't we come down here to deal with the collapsed mine tunnel?"

As he spoke, Kero looked at the mine wall smashed by the Crimson Flame Beast and sighed. "Sigh, I never expected those fellows to be so careless. They didn't even notice that the ceiling of the mine tunnel was unsafe..."

"That's right, that's right, Lord Aier. Should we give these miners more safety training? That way they won't cause any more dangerous incidents that could affect mining efficiency."

The other patrol members chimed in as well.

Clearly, none of them were fools.

"Sure, handle it as you see fit."

Aier nodded with satisfaction.

Once the matter was covered up, no one would discover that the beast he'd killed had been a Crimson Flame Beast King. That meant the beast's corpse and the Blood-Red Source Crystal were his private property.

Even if this came to light later, the worst he could get was a fine. It wasn't as if they could make him hand over the Crimson Flame Beast's corpse.

Only after returning to his home atop the mine did Aier take out the Crimson Flame Beast King's corpse and refine it.

The Crimson Flame Beast King was huge. Even after refining it, the materials he obtained would be enough to make a physical-defense armor and a longsword.

Then, Aier bound the two Artifacts to himself with his blood, stored them inside his body, and began tempering them directly with his divine power.

This was another experiment for Aier.

Previously, when he refined Crimson Blood Essence Ore, he could use the essence he obtained to strengthen his body.

If all went as expected, refining the Crimson Blood Beast King's corpse would also increase Aier's physical strength.

As it happened, the Crimson Blood Beast King's body was as strong as a Low-God Artifact. The weapons Aier crafted from it were already the finest Artifact-grade materials.

He only needed to soak and temper them with divine power to promote the armor and longsword into true Artifacts.

Aier wanted to see how the boost from refining the finished products differed from the boost from refining the raw materials.

This would determine how Aier could use the Equipment Slot more efficiently in the future.

Ten years passed in a flash!

"Finally, it's done!"

A flash of delight crossed Aier's eyes. A red suit of armor instantly covered his entire body, making him look far more imposing, as if he'd gone from a frail scholar to a decisive, battle-hardened general!

After ten years of effort, Aier had finally tempered the Crimson Blood Armor and Crimson Blood Sword into his own Artifacts.

"Equip!"

With a thought, the Crimson Blood Armor vanished from Aier's body, and a red crystal appeared in his hand.

After putting the Blood-Red Source Crystal into his Space Ring, Aier began to assess the changes in his body.

"My physical strength has doubled."

"Especially my defense..."

Aier curled his index finger and tapped himself. He could clearly feel that his defense was a notch stronger than his attack.

Even his full-power attacks couldn't make him feel pain.

Clearly, after equipping the Crimson Blood Armor, his defense had surpassed his attack.

"Replace!"

Aier replaced the Crimson Blood Armor in the Equipment Slot with the Crimson Blood Sword.