The curt reply of Cruel broke down Lin Fan's plan.
"Cruel, even though I'm of the Human race, but heroes appreciate other heroes. Let us hug together as a form of mutual respect for one another." Lin Fan said.
"Haha! Hug? We of the Ancient race are powerful beings are born savage by nature! It's either live or die for us! There's no such thing in our lives as a disgusting hug that you living beings of the thousands of races do." Cruel scoffed coldly.
"Smelt!"
"ARGH!"
'Ding…Eternal God Body Experience Points +150,000.'
Without any warning, what followed the moment he spoke out was a wave of smelting, and his body shuddered with it. Even now that his physical body state had strengthened, it did not help the issue at all. The pain was still ever so intense.
"Cruel, I revere you and would wish to hug you. Yet, you refuse my invitation. This means that you're not giving me face! And since you don't give me face, then I'll just have to continue smelting!" Lin Fan was angered.
Cruel looked at Lin Fan and burned with equal wrath within his heart. How could there be a living being like this in this world that would want to hug an Ancient race being?
At the same time, Cruel could not break through this barrier within his heart of having to hug an ant-like living being. That was a humiliation for himself.
"You're dreaming!"
The Utmost Being Cruel rejected once more. As an Utmost Being of the Ancient race, he was a supreme existence! How could he hug an ant-like living being? Even if he were to die, it would be impossible!
However, under the power of refinement and the immense torment, Cruel's heart was starting to waver.
"Hmph! Yours Truly has already given in. Yet, you refuse to do what's good for you. This is courting death. So what if I were to die with you? At the very least, Yours Truly can be proud to say that I'll be dying with an Utmost Being of the Ancient race. As for you? Everything you own shall be given away and you'll turn into the laughing joke of all Utmost Beings for eternity."
Lin Fan was attacking the heart of Cruel. Even though the Ancient race beings were brutish, they were full of emotions. Though, it was also true that most of those emotions are negative.
Even though the relationship between the eight Utmost Beings of the Ancient race might seem amicable from the outside, it was full of strife and plots.
If they were truly so united, Saint wouldn't have insulted Cruel like that, and neither would Cruel bear such hatred towards the former.
"Hmph! Damn it! Don't think that you'll be able to rile Your Utmost Being here just by saying those things!" Cruel yelled out. However, he bore a grudge in his heart over it.
He felt indignant about his situation right now. If he were to truly die here, everything that he had ever possessed would disappear instantly overnight.
"Yours Truly is not trying to rile you up. All I'm doing is speaking of the facts. Take a look. Saint is taking a jab at you outside once more."
At this moment, a big war was breaking out outside the Heaven and Earth Smelt. Saint, on the other hand, was still spouting nonsense.
"In the eyes of Your Utmost Being here, all of you, just like Cruel, are mere ants!"
The moment Cruel heard these words, he spat out in rage with bloodshot eyes, "SAINT…!!!"
Lin Fan sighed helplessly in his heart as well. Were Saint and Cruel some foes in their past lives or something? To think that Saint would continue to mock him so mercilessly.
But, that was good as well. It was helping Lin Fan out after all.
"Cruel! How can you continue to endure this? If you were to die with Yours Truly here, you would be left with nothing! If it were me, I would definitely bear with it and bide my time so that I can kill Saint in one fell swoop." Lin Fan goaded.
"Are we hugging?" Looking at how the situation was about to fall into place, Lin Fan asked.
"N-no…! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Cruel shrieked out shrilly.
"Smelt!"
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
"Hug?"
"N-no…!!!"
"Smelt!"
Time passed by the second and minute. Lin Fan was truly close to breaking down right now. His body had long been destroyed to a pitiful state, and the situation was the same for Cruel. So what if he were an Utmost Being of the Ancient race? He was still having a hell of a time.
As for Lin Fan, he was truly hating this Heaven and Earth Smelt of the system right now. What kind of dogsh*t strongest system was this? This Heaven and Earth Smelt should be his own treasure! And yet, it did not distinguish between him or and anyone else! If only he could separate the smelting, how good would that be?
The tragic cries were relentless. So sorrowful and bitter!
Lin Fan had never experienced something as such.
Within his mind, all sorts of memories recalled back his previous experience back in the Xuanhuang World when he was completely smelted away. However, that time around, his physical body state wasn't all that great. So, he did not have to suffer as much. But this time around, his physical body state was much stronger than before. Naturally, he had to keep increasing the power of refinement so that Cruel would bow down in defeat.
For Lin Fan, this was an unimaginable pain.
"Hug?"
"NOOOOOO…!!!"
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
Cruel was half kneeling on the ground right now as the pain was intolerable. Even that hand of his that was gripping tightly onto the Universal Elixir was starting to quiver.
"Smelt…!!!"
"S-STOP…!!!" Cruel could no longer hang on anymore.
"You're agreeing?" Lin Fan looked at Cruel and smirked.
Cruel did not say anything much as he eventually nodded his head silently.
However, the vengeance within his heart was surging up like tidal waves. He even swore that as long as he could get out of this place, he would definitely kill this human harshly.
"You should have said so earlier. Say, why do you think we had to endure this much pain together? Even though you're an Utmost Being of the Ancient race, heroes acknowledge one another. A hug will mean that our affinity of knowing one another is not wasted." Lin Fan said.
At that moment, the entire world fell silent.
This was a scene of a miracle.
An Utmost Being of the Ancient race hugging with a being of the Human race… This was a historical moment that had never ever happened before in the world.
When Lin Fan and Cruel were hugging with one another, Lin Fan shut his eyes gently. He could only feel that all his efforts had not gone to waste.
"Is this the feeling of hugging?" Even though Cruel was hating in his heart, his face changed ever so slightly at this moment. It was as though he was feeling a sensation he had never once felt before.
This feeling of hugging was one that was really distant to Cruel. In fact, he had never felt this before.
The birth of the Ancient race beings was decreed by the Heaven's Will. Every single Ancient race being took the Heaven's Will as their parents.
This was a feeling that Cruel could not describe in words.
Lin Fan felt the thumping heart of Cruel calm down a bit. Suddenly, a hand of Cruel placed itself on Lin Fan's back.
This was an improvement!
"How does it feel?" Lin Fan asked as he placed a hand on the back of Cruel's head.
Cruel did not reply as though he had gone silent.
'Heroes acknowledge one another?'
Cruel acknowledged that he was a true hero, a hero of all the Ancient race beings.
"Very…"
Piak.
Cruel had wanted to say something, but he was cut short as his mind swirled all over the place before he fainted over.
Wielding the Nine Five Legendary Brick in his hand, Lin Fan knocked out Cruel with a single slap.
At that moment, Lin Fan raised his head. His face was full of tears as his lips twitched endlessly.
"Cruel, Yours Truly knows that this hug was wonderful. But, I'm sorry. I am a Human."
At this moment, Lin Fan truly cried out.
Was this life of his easy?
Without any absolute power or gale to push him forth, he was still always treading on the path forward. This was a lifetime of dominance!
"And with that, the first Utmost Being of the Ancient race has been subdued by me."
Even though this Utmost Being of the Ancient race he had defeated was the weakest one, it was a form of improvement for Lin Fan.
Lin Fan pushed Cruel away while that shimmering golden Universal Elixir floated back freely within his Inner World.
"That was risky. This time around, it was really way too dangerous. If he had really stolen my Universal Elixir, I would have turned into one hell of a tragedy!" The moment Lin Fan thought of that, his goosebumps rose up.
"As an Utmost Being of the Ancient race, Cruel would have immense uses. And not only that, he's an Eternal God state being who has obtained the Eternal God Seat. While killing him may bring about tons of benefits, it would be quite the pity to do so as well."
Lin Fan tossed Cruel directly into his Paradise, then churned his powers as the life force within him began to heal up his body.