Chapter 666: The Peak of Mount Buzhou, Torch Dragon! (Happy May Day, Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Jiajia Baomihua)

Su Tianji was in the middle of her live stream when she suddenly gasped, "Ah?! The Demon Sword?! Isn't this Xiao Kui?!"

Tang Yu was also watching the stream at that moment and instantly leaped up from his seat. "Why on earth is my Xiao Kui here?!"

A certain venerable Funny-Ball was likewise filled with wonder. "How did the Demon Sword end up here? Care to wager, everyone, on whether Red Kui or Blue Kui emerges first? Place your bets in the bottom right corner of the stream, all bets are final once the hand leaves the table!"

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"Please… do not come near the Demon Sword. Xiao Kui does not want to harm anyone else…"

A faint, fragile voice drifted out from within the blade.

"Oh my goodness, it really is Xiao Kui!" A chorus of gasps erupted from the throng of players who had journeyed through Legend of Sword and Fairy 3.

"This looks like Blue Kui!"

"Xiao Kui! It is I, your brother, Jing Tian!" Before she had even begun to properly explore the Mount Buzhou ruins, Su Tianji was already teasing the sword, steering Yun Tianhe to bellow aloud.

To think that venturing into the desolate Mount Buzhou would yield such a marvelous surprise.

Every single person watching Su Tianji’s stream froze in a collective silence: "…"

Across the scrolling barrage of comments:

Song Qingfeng: "(Contempt) I may not be an Asura main, but did you honestly think I couldn't tell you're playing as Yun Tianhe?"

Zong Wu: "To the blind bat right above me, stay right where you are."

Tang Yu: "Make way, make way! I am the true Jing Tian here!"

Big Boss Fang: "Red-eyes trade for cars, Grand Masters trade for houses, but Asuras trade for stainless steel washbasins (Contempt)."

Dong Qingli: "Look, we've caught a wild boss!"

Nalan Mingxue: "Trash boss, instead of streaming yourself, you spend your days loitering in other people's channels?"

Zong Wu: "??? Trade for a bloody stainless steel basin?! Today, we Asura mains shall thoroughly crush the boss!"

"…" The live stream chat dissolved into utter chaos.

"Oh, come on, stop bickering! What is actually happening here?! How can the Demon Sword be in this place!?" A great many spectators were equally astonished, desperate to forbid Boss Fang from derailing the topic any further.

Within the lore of Legend of Sword and Fairy 3, Solanum had languished inside the Demon Sword for nearly a millennium, a portion of which was spent in the company of Murong Ziying, leading to this very chance encounter.

Yet, that particular tapestry of fate belonged to an entirely different tale.

Having secured the Demon Sword, the party resumed their flight, soaring on their blades toward the heart of Mount Buzhou.

At that precise instant, a sudden bolt of dry thunder tore through the heavens!

Above, dark clouds gathered in thick, suffocating layers; across the vast desolation, mist and rain seemed to coalesce out of thin air. Accompanied by the deep rumble of celestial thunder, from the high, unfathomable depths where the clouds met the downpour, a voice of peerless majesty thundered down like a lightning strike: "Mortals, for what reason have you trespassed upon Mount Buzhou?"

"Holy crap?!"

"What on earth is that?"

"Is it a monster?!"

Both in Su Tianji’s stream and within the channel of that venerable Funny-Ball, the comments erupted into a frantic, blinding blur.

Meanwhile, the players currently immersed in the game found themselves breaking out in a cold sweat. Though the speaker remained unseen, an invisible, crushing pressure weighed down upon them from the unseen void—a sensation akin to a deity looming over a mortal, or a giant elephant regarding an ant.

"Be on your guard! Danger is imminent!" Nalan Hongwu spoke with a heavy gravity, clearly streaming his own perspective as well.

In that tense silence, only Yun Tianhe shouted at the sky, "We came to find a way into the Ghost Realm! Who are you, and where are you hiding?"

"…Tianhe seems a bit simple-minded…" the viewers murmured in the chat.

"What is that?!"

"Inside those clouds, it looks like something is about to emerge." Over at the new shop, several spectating elves cried out in astonishment.

Clouds and rain collided in the sky, and violent streaks of lightning detonated one after another, momentarily bleaching the entire cosmos into a stark, blinding white.

Just then, a form grander and more colossal than the mountain ridges themselves manifested before their very eyes!

It possessed antlers like a stag, a neck like a serpent, a belly like a sea monster, scales like a fish, and talons like an eagle… infinitely divine, radiating an absolute and boundless majesty.

"What creature is this?!" The elves, knights, and mercenaries in the new shop all shrieked in sheer terror.

To call it a monster felt blasphemous; it resembled far more the divine beasts of myth. Or perhaps, this was the very deity of legend itself!

The wind follows the tiger, and the clouds follow the dragon; from within the overwhelming shroud of mist, a magnificent dragon, its sinuous body coiled like a vast mountain range, revealed its true form to the world!

"A divine dragon?!" Murong Ziying gasped.

Though the trio's cultivation was by no means lacking at this stage, standing before this true dragon, they felt like nothing more than a solitary drop of water in a vast, boundless ocean.

Legends spoke of the Torch Dragon: when it opened its eyes, day broke; when it closed them, night fell. Its breath out brought the heat of summer, and its breath in conjured the freeze of winter.

Because of the sunless land of the underworld situated in the frozen wastes of the extreme north, the Torch Dragon would perpetually "hold a torch in its mouth to illuminate the dark," hence its name (and within the game's lore, it served to light the northwestern wasteland of the underworld).

To the cultivators of the Cultivation Dalu, dragons were sacred entities of myth, the closest auspicious creatures to their reality, given that descendants of the dragon lineage could still occasionally be found.

Immortal gods, by contrast, were far too distant a concept for them to grasp.

They had only ever read of or glimpsed depictions of dragons through the fragmented whispers of ancient ruins, but they had never gazed upon a living, breathing dragon.

In all his long years of life, Nalan Hongwu had never experienced such profound awe and emotion; it was his first time standing before such an entity, feeling that immense grandeur and earth-shattering splendor.

Before them, the Torch Dragon spoke with a voice like rolling thunder—its joy brought clear skies, its wrath plunged the world into darkness, and its breath stirred furious gales!

"Is… is this a true dragon?!" Nalan Hongwu cried aloud.

"Is it truly a real dragon?!" The comment sections across multiple live streams completely erupted into a frenzy of scrolling text.

Jiang Xiaoyue was utterly spellbound. "Ah! So our ancestors looked this magnificent and divine?"

Beside her, the great white deer covered its head with its hooves. "Oh my! Scared the deer to death! Scared the deer to death!"

Not to mention the beast, even a certain venerable Funny-Ball was nearly frightened into becoming a literal, frozen ball.

"This is actually… an authentic dragon?!"

And not just any dragon, but the ancient Torch Dragon itself!

"The Ghost Realm? Mere mortals are naught but ephemeral grains of sand within the Six Realms. Do you truly comprehend what manner of place the Ghost Realm is?" The Torch Dragon's voice boomed like continuous explosions right beside their ears.

"I don't know what the Ghost Realm is like, but to find a friend, we must go there!" Yun Tianhe shouted back against the roaring thunder.

Yun Tianhe still possessed a simple innocence that was ignorant of the world’s ways, and it was precisely this naivety that spared him the calculating thoughts of ordinary men. He knew only that he must seek his friend; whether a divine dragon blocked his path or the Ghost Realm harbored deadly perils, he lacked the conventional terror that would paralyze others.

An ordinary person facing an existence as terrifying as a true dragon would have found their legs turning to jelly, unable to utter a coherent phrase.

But Yun Tianhe was different. Even if his fearlessness stemmed from ignorance, to stand before such a supreme being and deliver such words required an immense, extraordinary courage.

"This deity does not despise bold mortals, but I detest those who speak empty boasts. If you possess the courage, step onto the Coiling Dragon Pillar and prove it!" Thunder clashed in the heavens as the Torch Dragon's voice struck like a physical blow. "Lest you find yourselves stripped of life, never to leave Mount Buzhou alive!"

"My goodness… what is Yun Tianhe trying to do?! Could he actually be intending to challenge a divine dragon?!" This crowd from an alternate world felt their minds grinding to a complete halt from the sheer intensity.

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This marks the fifth update today, please consider dropping a monthly vote, and happy May Day!

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