Start from the God of Death and break through the world.

Chapter 945 Renewal
Lu Li pondered that with such a significant change in his strength, he should be able to spar with the projection in the ultimate training arena. This would be a good opportunity to test his strength and hone his skills.

But after a moment he calmed down. He couldn't fly even if he was stuck in his own hands, so he might as well use up the time he spent in the space this time, strengthen himself to the peak, and then try again. That would be more cost-effective.

With that thought in mind, he greeted Aizen in the group chat and then went out.

After settling the accounts, Lu Li had a clear strategy for strengthening his equipment. First, he would upgrade the gems on his equipment. Then, once Chu Chu's new equipment arrived, he would strengthen all his Immortal-grade equipment.

In particular, his Evil God Mask and Starry Sky Ring, both of which are growth-oriented equipment, have been upgraded to the Immortal level and require a new round of enhancement and attribute selection.

Lu Li first went to the eighth-tier trading market. He didn't bother Chu Chu with finding gems, because Chu Chu had only acquired a lot of rare metal ores this time, which didn't mean that crafting equipment only required those materials. Besides, gems are unique inlays.

Given Chu Chu's previous financial resources, she probably wouldn't have been able to purchase and hoard immortal-grade gems, so Lu Li would have to do this himself.

Moreover, setting gemstones doesn't require any special skills. He just needs to find gemstones that meet his needs and then use heritage crystals to set them in.

Currently, his Demon Prison has four openings, which are inlaid with the Hogyoku, Killing, End Blood, and Death Echo. Because the Hogyoku is bound to him, it also benefits from the improvement of his personal strength. Therefore, in terms of energy level, the Hogyoku is already an immortal-level gem.

After the Demon Lord was upgraded to an Immortal-grade equipment, the Killing Gem was devoured by the Demon Lord, but its functions and properties were retained, and the hole was now empty.

Lu Li had only purchased this gem for convenience during the transition period. It allows the Imprisoned Demon to automatically increase its sharpness during its growth. Only after the Imprisoned Demon advances can it enjoy the gem's maximum effect, which is an upgrade that does not occupy a socket.

Looking at the Blood of the End on the Demon Prisoner, although it was the first Celestial-level gem he embedded on the Demon Prisoner, its effects can still be partially effective. However, Lu Li's actual tests revealed that the Blood of the End's killing effect was reduced to a 15% kill threshold for powerful eighth-tier beings.

It's barely usable. Lu Li thinks that if he can't find a perfect replacement for the Blood of the End, he can make do with another world.

The final Celestial-grade gem he inlaid, Death Echo, is the highest-level Celestial-grade gem, so its effect reduction is not strong at present. It is just a scratch-like stacking of true damage, and its effect was not very obvious in the previous world.

If the Mother of Compassion weren't a monster with a special mechanic, Lu Li could use the characteristics of Death Echo to add 0.1% of the enemy's maximum health as true damage with each attack, and the subsequent damage would accumulate, which would be enough to kill the Mother of Compassion. A difference of five or six points in attributes wouldn't be a problem.

Therefore, Lu Li does not plan to replace this gem for the time being. Even if the damage ratio is reduced, the effect of this special gem mechanism is still powerful. It just takes a little longer to stack.

After analyzing the main weapon, let's look at his Soul Eater Ring. The mythical-level Killing Intent Stone within it has long lost its effectiveness. This has nothing to do with the enemy he's facing; it's simply because after the Soul Eater's level has advanced, the gem's energy level is no longer sufficient to trigger a Soul Eater critical strike that deals double the true damage.

Therefore, Lu Li could only remove the stone and try to find another gem with a similar function or one that could increase his output.

The other source energy stone, although it is of the Celestial Spirit level, has a special effect, mainly to facilitate the growth of the Soul Eater. It is still effective for now, and Lu Li does not plan to replace it for the time being.

As for his independent damage-boosting core equipment, the Crimson Jade from the Evil God Mask was removed by Lu Li after he returned, so it's completely useless now.

Actually, it's quite a loss when you think about it carefully. Because he was too powerful, he basically never triggered the function of the Scarlet Gem. And once the gem is taken out of the setting hole, it will break and can't be sold again.

Thinking of this, Lu Li couldn't help but sigh and lament that being too strong also brings troubles and losses.

The other gem embedded in the Mask of Evil God, the Heart of the Heavenly Demon, is also temporarily effective even at the Immortal level.

At least its effect of reducing Lu Li's charm by 2 points is still in effect, but the ability of the deterrent skill to double its effect has been greatly reduced, especially in the last world, where the effect was quite poor.

Lu Li analyzed that the main reason was that his charm was too high. Compared with the ancient gods, he was still not good enough, so he could not make the Evil God Mask work in full.

As for whether to replace the Heart of the Heavenly Demon, Lu Li was prepared to leave it to fate. If he couldn't find a suitable one, he could make do with what he had for now.

The other ring on his hand, with only one opening on the starry sky pattern, was actually the one he usually neglected the most. But this time, he got a great upgrade on the continent of Compassion.

Because the continent of Compassion is full of metals with the power of stars, this piece of equipment directly ascended from the initial stage of Immortal Spirit to the highest level of Immortal.

If it weren't for the fact that the growth efficiency of continuously absorbing similar metals would decrease, Lu Li felt that Starry Sky might even be upgraded to a Chaos-level equipment on the Continent of Compassion.

The Soul Eater's growth rate didn't actually increase much during this journey through the original world. This was mainly because the strange energy that Lu Li couldn't fully absorb after the monsters died was devoured by his Soul Eater. Currently, its growth rate is over 50%, and perhaps if it's matched well in the next world, it will have a chance to advance.

The setting on the starry sky ring has become ineffective, and Lu Li plans to look for a suitable replacement on the market.

Finally, there's his special growth equipment, the scabbard Scarlett. Lu Li had previously inlaid Spirit Dewdrops into Scarlett in the hope that her internal organs would become more lubricated.

Scarlett was a great help to him in the last world. The combination of the Blade Moment with the smooth acceleration of the draw slash, plus the dash of the Myriad Realms Divine Travel, made the damage multiplier of that slash so high that Lu Li couldn't even calculate it for a moment. In short, it was extremely violent.

Therefore, Lu Li felt that a lubricating gem was very necessary. However, as his strength increased and the enemies he faced became stronger, the lubrication of this immortal-level gem would become increasingly insufficient to meet Lu Li's needs. So he wanted to see if there were any more lubricating gems.

Lu Li pondered this as he wandered around the market. The gem market was quite different from the equipment market.

Because gems can be socketed across different levels. For example, Lu Li once socketed a Celestial-level gem into a Mythical equipment. As long as the level difference isn't too outrageous, you can force the gem to be socketed by paying more money in the space.

Therefore, gems are not like equipment where you need to study the energy level of the same quality. Generally speaking, the higher the score, the higher the energy level. A gem with a full score basically means that the gem is the limit of that quality, and it can still be effective for a period of time even if it reaches the next tier.

Therefore, high-rated Immortal-grade gems are quite expensive, with market prices ranging from one hundred million to two hundred million End Coins.

After seeing the prices of these gems on the market, Lu Li instantly realized that he wasn't as wealthy as he had imagined.

High-quality Immortal-grade equipment of medium to high energy level is priced at around 200 million to 300 million, but top-tier Immortal-grade gems can sell for a sky-high price of 200 million.

Furthermore, in the Tier 8 trading market, people prefer bartering to trading with End Coins. This is because sometimes, even with a lot of common currency, it's difficult to find the items they want. Therefore, many stall owners display signs saying "Buying XXX".

If you have something the vendor wants, you can exchange it directly with that item to save some End Coins.

Lu Li browsed around for a while and spotted a few gems he liked, but either the vendors' prices were outrageous, or they only wanted to exchange them for what they actually wanted, which frustrated Lu Li. Frustrated, he opened Fatty Dragon's chat group, hoping the all-knowing members would have some good ideas.

As soon as he posted, the group chat became lively, with a bunch of people surrounding him and asking about the previous space competition.

Many group members joked that Lu Li seemed to have cheated, and that he was the player with the biggest gap between his initial strength and the upper limit of the world difficulty. As a result, he cleared the world at level 77 difficulty in just a few months. Doesn't this mean that Lu Li is already a mid-to-late stage explorer of the eighth tier?

However, those who egged him on were ultimately just those who frequently interacted with Lu Li. Some of the newer, lower-level explorers didn't dare to interrupt, because Lu Li's avatar already had a level icon, meaning he was an eighth-level explorer.

Without realizing it, Lu Li had also become a 'gang leader'.

Looking back, he will find that his peers who once competed and exchanged ideas with him have been left far behind.

The most obvious example is Luo Mojuancai, whom he initially clashed with in the World War. Luo Mojuancai has only just reached the seventh rank, while he is already a pioneer in the mid-to-late stage of the eighth rank.

"Stop making a fuss. This time it wasn't easy for me either; it was a bit of a close call."

Lu Li said in the group, "I wanted to ask if any of you experts have any suitable gems? I want to upgrade my equipment."

[My Big Stick is a Bit Thick (Chaos): I really envy the Demon Slayer, he has money to upgrade his equipment every day.]

Immediately afterwards, a group of people copied and added "+1", leaving Lu Li speechless.

Fortunately, there were also reliable people. After waiting for a while, someone messaged Lu Li privately. It was the grumpy older sister from the End Space.

"What type of gem do you want? I'll find it for you. The vice-captain is very satisfied with your performance this time."

The grumpy older sister said in a private voice message that she was in a good mood and probably received some reward from the group.

“I’ll send out the demand list and try to find as many as I can, but I might not even have enough money on hand.”

As Lu Li spoke, he sent over the requirements he had summarized. He had 900 million End Coins, and if they were all the particularly expensive gems, he wouldn't be able to afford to upgrade them.

"Tsk, your requests are pretty weird. Wait, let me go ask around for you."

After saying that, the short-tempered older sister closed the chat window, and Lu Li could only wait for her reply.

During this period, Lu Li went to the arena for a while. Speaking of which, he hadn't won an arena title for a long time since he was ranked seventh.

The main problem is that when you're stuck in the middle, you can't beat the top explorers. After they enter the world and level up, they break through the rank directly within the world, so they can't get the peerless title of the previous rank.

There are quite a few eighth-tier explorers; there are over 13,000 in the End Space alone. Lu Li spent an entire afternoon raising his ranking to 2031. The explorers ahead of him have such high stats that they are difficult to kill, and he would be instantly killed while trying to "scrape" them.

As he walked out of the arena, he saw his grumpy older sister leaning against the arena entrance, waving at him.

"Miss Xisun."

Lu Li greeted the other party. Before he joined the group, the other party was already a top-tier explorer of the eighth rank. Now that he was also at the eighth rank, the other party was still at the eighth rank.

However, this does not mean that Xi Sun is weak. Rather, it is quite difficult for the eighth-tier to advance to the ninth tier. There are quite a few eighth-tier explorers in the End Space, and they are replenished every natural month, but there are very few ninth-tier explorers. I heard from the group members that there may only be a few hundred.

Xi Sun has been stuck at the eighth rank for a year or two before advancing to the ninth rank. Lu Li looked at the rankings in the eighth rank arena and found that Xi Sun is currently second in the eighth rank arena of the End Space, so she is definitely not weak.

Therefore, Lu Li did not become arrogant just because he was already at the late stage of the eighth rank. He still respected the woman in front of him. Besides, without her help, he would not have been able to participate in this lucrative competition in the original world.

"Not bad. I didn't expect you to be able to break through that kind of world. I underestimated you, kid."

Xi Sun scrutinized Lu Li from head to toe, using her scouting skills without any hesitation to assess his current situation. She couldn't help but marvel at how fast this kid was leveling up, thinking to herself that it was like he was riding a rocket.

As expected, the vice-captain's judgment was spot on; the Demon Prisoner is practically overpowered.

"There was an element of luck involved. If I hadn't gotten to the crucial stage in the end, it might have backfired."

Lu Li wasn't being modest when he said this; rather, he felt that there was an element of luck involved in breaking through the world this time, and it was indeed too risky. He felt that this was a manifestation of his own insufficient strength.

He didn't want unstable, explosive power; instead, he wanted to have stable strength. So he wanted to study carefully how to keep himself in that divine forbidden state.

Forget Versailles, a win is a win, and luck is also a part of skill.

Xi Sun said, then took out a small bag, "Here, these are the gems you wanted, take a look."

After Lu Li took the small bag, he opened it and was surprised to find that the bag looked like an ordinary small cloth bag from the outside, but there was something else inside.

Looking inside, the space is at least a dozen cubic meters in size, and it is filled with all kinds of gems, just like a mountain of gold and gems in a fairy tale.

Lu Li opened his mouth, "That's an exaggeration?"

Xi Sun leaned against the wall and lit a women's cigarette produced in the space. "It's precisely because it's so extravagant that I'm too lazy to choose. You can see for yourself."

(End of this chapter)