Human?

The Goblin King turned and walked deeper into the ruins, with Lu Heng following behind.

The more he circled, the stranger it became. He passed through the collapsed metal frame, bypassed the fractured rock layers, crawled into a narrow crack, and emerged from the other end, only to circle back to where he had been before. At first Lu Heng could still remember the directions, but after circling three or four times, his sense of direction was completely disrupted. The surrounding air grew hotter and hotter, the ground began to scorch, and the black water seeping from the cracks turned dark red, carrying a sulfurous smell.

He was heading towards the volcano.

Lu Heng's hand stealthily reached for the Wristband. The scroll was inside, along with the Mist Talisman. He could tear the scroll away and go back at any time, or throw out the Mist Talisman to create chaos. Although the Goblin King was strong, Lu Heng felt he could escape as long as he wasn't hit hard in one go.

He remained in this position, his fingers resting on the Wristband, his eyes fixed on the Goblin King's back.

The Goblin King neither turned back nor sped up, but walked on at a leisurely pace, his hammer dragging on the ground, leaving a trail of sparks.

After circling around for about ten more minutes, a stone wall appeared ahead.

It wasn't a natural rock face, but a man-made stone wall, made of gray-black stones piled up one by one, its surface covered with signs of weathering and cracks. The stone wall blocked the entire passage, with rock walls on both sides, leaving no way forward.

Lu Heng stopped in his tracks.

The Goblin King also stopped. It turned around, glanced at Lu Heng, then raised its right hand, clenched its fist, and slammed it into the stone wall.

boom.

The stone wall cracked, sending shards of stone flying. The Goblin King withdrew his fist and stepped inside.

Lu Heng peered through a hole in the stone wall and saw a cave inside, several times larger than the one he had found in the ravine. The cave ceiling was very high and inlaid with some luminous crystals, the blue light of which was brighter than what he had seen before.

The center of the cave--

Lu Heng was stunned by what he saw.

A dragon skeleton.

The skeleton resembled a Western dragon, a massive frame lying on the ground, its skull facing the depths of the cave, two curved horns extending from either side of the skull, and ribs arranged like arches, each taller than Lu Heng himself. The surface of the skeleton was covered with a thin layer of gray, but its immense size in life was still evident—its wingspan was at least ten meters, and its length from head to tail exceeded twenty meters.

Lu Heng entered the cave, stood beside the dragon bones, looked up at the skeleton, and his mind went blank.

The Goblin King walked to the dragon bones, gently touching one of the ribs, unlike the monster that had smashed everything before. It turned to look at Lu Heng and spoke.

"You must be one of the lucky survivors in this round."

Lu Heng suddenly looked up.

It wasn't Goblin language. It wasn't Green Demon's hoarse, guttural language. It was human speech, clear and articulate, exactly like his own.

"You..." Lu Heng's voice was a little tense, "How can you speak human language?"

The Goblin King looked at him, a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.

"I used to be human."

Lu Heng was stunned.

He stared at the Goblin King's dark green skin, protruding jaw, yellow teeth, and the iron hammer slung over his shoulder—it looked every bit the Goblin, and the king of Goblin at that. But those words, that tone, that look—it was definitely a human speaking.

"What's going on..." Lu Heng murmured.

The Goblin King didn't answer immediately. It walked to the dragon's skull, sat down, and placed its hammer beside it, its movements surprisingly weary. It looked at Lu Heng, remained silent for a few seconds, and then spoke:

"You'll understand when you reach Gold Tier. You're a favored person, though I don't know what kind of favor you have. But once you reach Gold Tier, you'll also undergo a transformation."

Lu Heng frowned.

"Convert? Convert what?"

The Goblin King did not answer directly. It raised its hand and pointed to its own face—its dark green, Goblin face.

"This..."

Lu Heng stared at it, his mind racing. The favored one, the Gold Tier, the transformation, the former human... these fragments pieced together, pointing to a conclusion he didn't want to believe.

"You mean..." Lu Heng's voice was a little dry, "Everyone who reaches the Gold Tier will become..."

"Become what you see now," the Goblin King continued. "Or something else. Not necessarily Goblin, it could be another race. But no longer human."

Lu Heng fell silent.

"Each Gold Tier must take over a small world," the Goblin King said. "In that small world, a race is raised, and based on that race, they fight against World Fragment. Only through victory can they continue to rise in rank."

It paused.

"I choose to become Goblin."

Lu Heng was stunned.

"I failed once." The Goblin King's voice was calm, as if he were recounting something from long ago. "The world is starting to crumble."

It turned around and looked at Lu Heng.

"Later, I found the Survival World you were in, and I was overjoyed. I never imagined that world had just devoured World Fragment, its power and resources had deepened. I had misjudged it."

Lu Heng frowned.

"Then why did you bring me here?" Lu Heng asked.

The Goblin King looked at him and remained silent for a few seconds.

"I hope you can contact the will you belong to," it says, "Give these lives a way out. Allow them to occupy a place and survive."

Lu Heng was stunned.

"These living beings?" He looked around. "You mean... Goblin?"

The Goblin King nodded.

"My race," it said. "They are now scattered throughout the wastelands, without a strong leader. If that world is willing to accept them and give them a place, they can survive."

"And what about you?" Lu Heng asked involuntarily.

The Goblin King shook his head.

"My life is bound to this world," it says. "If I die, this world dies, and I die too."

Lu Heng fell silent.

"They have no strong ones," Lu Heng said. "If they lived in that world, they would live a very meager existence."

"It's cheap, so what?" the Goblin King said calmly. "They survived."

It paused, then lowered its voice.

"Their reason for choosing me was simply to survive. To survive at all costs. That was their only reason. Their ancestors back then..."

It stopped, and didn't continue.

The cave was silent for a few seconds.

Lu Heng looked at it and suddenly realized something—the "ancestors" the Goblin King spoke of might not refer to the ancestors of Goblin, but rather to those who had entered this world with it and later transformed into Goblin. Those people chose to live, chose to become Goblin, and chose to follow it. And now, it wanted those people—those Goblin —to continue living.

Lu Heng didn't press the matter further. He turned and walked towards the hole in the stone wall. When he reached the entrance, he stopped and glanced back. The Goblin King was still sitting there, staring at the dragon bones, motionless, like a statue.

Lu Heng emerged from the cave, passed through the ruins, and headed towards the wasteland. The wind grew stronger, making his coat flutter loudly. He took out a scroll and tore it open.

A flash of white light, and he returned to the world inside the Wristband.

The wind of the wilderness had vanished, replaced by a familiar air filled with the scent of grass and trees. He stood at the edge of the forest, with his makeshift camp in the distance. Everything was just as it had been when he left—quiet and peaceful.

But he knew that some things had changed.

The Goblin King said he was a favored person, but he didn't know what kind of favor—what exactly was that inexplicable power within him?

Lu Heng raised his head and looked up at the sky.

The sky in the Wristband was blue, with clouds and the sun, but no stars. He remembered the stars he had seen during his time travel, those deep, star-filled skies. Perhaps those stars were really watching over him, watching over him.

What kind of force is that?

Lu Heng couldn't understand it.

But he knew one thing—he needed to become stronger. Gold Tier, World Fragment, slaughter... these words weighed on his heart like stones. He had to reach the Gold Tier as soon as possible, he had to figure out what was really going on in this world, he had to find the answers.

There was also the Goblin King's request—to contact that will and give the Goblin race a way to survive.

Lu Heng closed his eyes and tried again to sense the Forest Will. This time, he tried to transmit a thought:

There is a group of lives that want to survive.

Fluctuations reappeared.

This time, he sensed a hint of hesitation. Then, the fluctuations gradually subsided; he neither agreed nor refused.

Lu Heng opened his eyes.

He didn't know if that will would agree. But he knew he would keep trying. The Goblin King had waited so long; he couldn't let him down.

He turned and walked towards the camp.

The first step is to survive.

The second step is to become stronger.

The third step is to find the answer.