MMORPG: Birth of the World's Luckiest Player

Chapter 507: The Ring Hidden Inside the Jade

Ever since Marcus began cultivating the Human Rock technique, the Celestial Prismatic Jade resting in his lower core had remained completely silent. It had never reacted, never displayed any power, and never even reminded him of its existence.

If he hadn’t witnessed it fuse into his body in a blaze of seven-colored light that day in the mountains, he might have eventually convinced himself he’d imagined the whole thing.

Yet at the very moment death had been within arm’s reach, the Celestial Prismatic Jade had awakened without warning. Its golden power had burst forth, shattered the strange green jade bead, and saved him from suffocating.

Talk about good timing.

Marcus let out a long breath, his racing heartbeat finally beginning to settle. A crooked grin spread across his face. "Guess the saying’s true," he muttered to himself. "The good die young, but bastards live forever." He chuckled under his breath. "Looks like I’m sticking around."

His gaze shifted toward the spot where the jade bead had been destroyed. As the golden light faded, he noticed a faint emerald glow lingering within the empty space where the bead had shattered. A dark green jade ring slowly emerged, suspended in midair as though it had been hidden inside the bead all along.

The bead itself had been completely annihilated, leaving behind nothing but drifting motes of golden light. The ring, however, hadn’t suffered so much as a scratch.

It floated silently before him, wrapped in a dim green radiance that contrasted beautifully with the remnants of the golden glow. There was something strangely captivating about it: ancient, quiet, mysterious.

Marcus immediately realized something: the bizarre presence he had sensed from the bead all this time hadn’t belonged to the bead itself, it had come from this ring. So this was the real culprit.

The bead had merely been a shell, hiding the true object within. It was this dark green jade ring that had been absorbing his inner energy and nearly drained the life out of him.

But now... a smile tugged at the corner of Marcus’s mouth. Whatever it had tried to do before, the Celestial Prismatic Jade had reduced its hiding place to dust, and now the ring stood alone.

"What exactly are you?"

Despite nearly dying because of it only moments earlier, Marcus wasn’t overwhelmed by fear. He remained cautious, but his curiosity easily won out. Whatever this ring was, it had survived the Celestial Prismatic Jade’s overwhelming power completely unharmed. That alone made it extraordinary.

Slowly, he reached out. The instant his fingers moved... Whoosh. The jade ring spun once in the air before streaking toward him in a flash of emerald light, landing gently in the center of his palm as though it had answered his call.

Marcus blinked. ’So you can respond to me...’ He hadn’t expected that. The ring almost seemed... alive.

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, another memory surfaced. This feeling... it was strangely familiar. Then it clicked: Dominion.

Back in the game, whenever a player unlocked the seal on a Divine Artifact, it would react exactly like this before automatically recognizing its owner. A system notification would usually pop up right afterward.

Ding!

[Congratulations! You have unlocked the seal of the Divine Artifact! The artifact has acknowledged you as its master!]

Marcus almost laughed. "Too bad real life doesn’t come with helpful pop-up windows." Otherwise, he would’ve already known the ring’s name, its abilities, and probably even its rarity. Instead, he’d have to figure everything out the old-fashioned way.

Holding the ring carefully, he examined it from every angle. The moment it had landed in his palm, the emerald glow surrounding it and the remaining golden light from the Celestial Prismatic Jade suddenly stirred.

Whoosh. Like two streams flowing into the same river, both energies entered his body together.

Marcus instinctively held his breath. The two currents circulated through his meridians for a brief moment before settling naturally inside his lower core. They didn’t clash; instead, they merged peacefully with his existing inner energy.

His eyes lit up. ’Did my cultivation just improve?’ Without wasting another second, he immediately circulated the Human Rock technique, carefully inspecting every change inside his body.

A few moments later, his excitement cooled: nothing. His cultivation hadn’t advanced at all. He was still firmly at the third level, Overlord.

The only noticeable differences were that his inner energy circulated more smoothly than before, his senses had become sharper, and his control over his power felt noticeably more refined. Beyond that, there was no increase in the amount of inner energy he possessed.

Marcus frowned. ’What about all that golden light...?’ The explosion from the Celestial Prismatic Jade had been so overwhelming that he’d instinctively assumed it would significantly increase his cultivation.

Instead... nothing. Well, almost nothing. He scratched his head, unable to hide his disappointment. "What a rip-off."

’After risking my life, I don’t even get a breakthrough?’ He sighed before shaking his head. "Guess I got greedy."

What Marcus didn’t know was that the Celestial Prismatic Jade had already given him something far more valuable than a temporary increase in inner energy. The treasure, a unique miracle born from heaven and earth, had used that burst of golden light to complete the first transformation of his body.

From this moment onward, he would be able to wield golden light as naturally as his own inner energy. More importantly, once the first transformation had been completed, the Jade could eventually awaken additional forms of light, each representing a new stage of cultivation and a new evolution of both body and spirit.

With Marcus’s extraordinary aptitude, he should have awakened a second type of light long ago and already begun laying the foundation for a third. The problem wasn’t talent. It was the way he trained.

Ever since obtaining the Human Rock technique, Marcus had cultivated in isolation, relying entirely on meditation and peaceful practice. He had never experienced prolonged combat, desperate struggles, or genuine life-and-death battles that forced a cultivator beyond their limits. Because of that, the hidden potential sleeping within the Celestial Prismatic Jade had never been stimulated. It was like possessing an unrivaled weapon but never drawing it from its sheath.

Today’s brush with death had changed everything. The jade bead’s relentless drain had pushed Marcus closer to death than ever before, forcing his body and spirit beyond their natural limits. That single moment of extreme danger had finally awakened the Celestial Prismatic Jade’s dormant power, unleashing the golden light and allowing him to complete his first true breakthrough.

Naturally, Marcus had no way of knowing any of this. Had someone explained it to him, he probably would’ve marched straight to the nearby islands, picked fights with every bio-engineered monster he could find, and used life-or-death battles to force even faster breakthroughs. Fortunately, ignorance spared him from making such a reckless decision.

His current approach, steadily building his foundation through disciplined cultivation, was slower but far safer. Once that foundation became solid enough, future breakthroughs would come naturally, like water flowing downhill. Its greatest weakness was simply the time it required.

Then again, Marcus had never had a master. No teacher had ever corrected his mistakes or pointed out the flaws in his training. Everything he knew had been learned through experimentation, deduction, and countless hours of solitary cultivation. The fact that he had reached this point entirely on his own was nothing short of remarkable. In a word: talent.

There was something else Marcus remained completely unaware of. The Celestial Prismatic Jade, a heavenly treasure that had existed for nearly a hundred million years, had acknowledged only a single master throughout its unimaginably long existence: him. There had never been a predecessor, no ancient records, no forgotten manuals. No mentor could have guided him because no one before him had ever walked this path.

Still feeling a little disappointed that his cultivation hadn’t risen, Marcus pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the jade ring once more. Now that both the emerald aura and the Celestial Prismatic Jade’s golden radiance had completely faded, he could finally examine it properly.

The ring was surprisingly plain. It bore no carvings, gemstones, or elaborate decorations. It was simply an ancient-looking band of semi-transparent dark green jade, its surface smooth from end to end. At first glance, there was nothing remarkable about it at all.

And yet, after everything that had happened, Marcus knew better than to judge it by appearances. Something capable of surviving the Celestial Prismatic Jade’s power without the slightest mark was anything but ordinary.