Chapter 61: Torch Dragon

Zhang Long followed the Roza army to the opposite bank of the Yancheklak Bridge, where they indeed had a reinforcement mission.

However, with his hybrid eyesight, he could naturally see the majestic dragon with its head held high on the opposite bank, and opposite it, that figure that could hardly be recognized as human anymore.

Yet, he recognized him. Relying on the player interface of the Deep Sea game, he knew that the one confronting the dragon was Chen Lai!

On the chaotic battlefield, players existed among both the Prosen and Roza armies. They simultaneously fought and shitposted, active across the Deep Sea forums and Deep Sea live streams.

[White, huge, thick, and long: The truth behind the Golden-Eye War turns out to be this! (Trending)]

[How many times has Mighty Heavenly Dragon spammed the screen? Does this guy feel like he's cheating, getting MVP in every single game? (Trending)]

[Oh my god, a dragon! (Trending)]

It was the same familiar titles. Every time Zhang Long browsed the Deep Sea forums, he could feel his brain being ravaged by the players.

The image attached to the first trending post was actually the confrontation between Chen Lai and Manstein. The golden eyes of that cyan-white giant dragon were filled with mockery, while Chen Lai stood opposite it. Although both his hands were broken, the fighting spirit in his golden eyes remained undiminished!

Snowflakes, gunfire, a youth, and a dragon—this set of images was of a very high standard. The combat photographer's style was as sharp as ever; there were true masters among the Deep Sea players!

Zhang Long fired two shots at a Prosen soldier, squatted down to reload, and looked at the second post.

The attached image for this one was even more top-tier. It deliberately zoomed in on Chen Lai's ID [Mighty Heavenly Dragon], and then enlarged every frame of him from [The Shibuya Incident], [A Handsome Friend], and [The Golden Eye War], combining them into a picture set.

There was also a caption: Mighty Dragon has taken the MVP!

At this moment, a puppet-army player who had surrendered to Prosen tried to sneak closer, hoping to kill Zhang Long and loot his equipment, but he was caught by [Spirit Realm: Weasel]. With a casual shot, a bullet pierced right between his eyebrows.

"A beggar-version Deep Sea player actually dares to challenge a pro?" Zhang Long said speechlessly. He went forward to loot the corpse, but ended up empty-handed.

Inside the [Golden Eye War] instance, the only valuable things at present were the hybrid identity cards that activated Spiritual Realms. Players inside the instance could kill each other to loot them, and identity cards could be swapped.

As for the firearms bought with money, those were disposable items containing no supernatural power and would not be retrieved by the system.

"Bad luck!" Zhang Long spat, reloaded his weapon again, and looked at the posts.

He had a bad habit—a reloading obsession while gaming. Even if it only took one bullet to deal with the opponent, he still had to reload.

However, that wasn't the main point. Zhang Long was about to click on the third post for a laugh when a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the opposite bank!

On the opposite bank, Manstein, who had originally been watching with mockery as Chen Lai fought desperately for survival on the brink of death, was now struck with extreme horror. He watched with his own eyes as Chen Lai's health bar exceeded 50%, inevitably transforming into a Dead Servant.

He had seen plenty of hybrids walking the Path to Apotheosis, but it was meaningless. Human genes were like breadcrumbs; even if you ground them between your fingers a thousand times, remnants remained.

Those residual human bloodlines would, like a crazed cornered beast, bite back against the dragon blood, turning the host into a mindless Dead Servant.

Yet just moments ago, Manstein witnessed with his own eyes that even though Chen Lai's bloodline purity was infinitely close to that of a pure-blooded dragon, Chen Lai's golden eyes remained as clear as before!

How did he do it?

"Fushiguro, hold on a little longer, I've already found the way!"

Chen Lai widened his eyes, frantically urging Fushiguro Megumi to control the dragon blood.

If Fushiguro Megumi had any facial expressions, at this moment he would probably look just like the protagonist of Fire Punch.

While Chen Lai was making him let go of the dragon blood, he also needed him to "maintain" Chen Lai's spiritual existence so that he could experience the conditions of the final stage of the Path to Apotheosis.

Throughout history, there had been many hybrid berserkers whose minds were resilient enough to withstand the erosion of dragon blood, but when they reached the final step, they would always lose their minds.

The reason was simple: it was impossible to simultaneously maintain human rationality and a "Dragon's Heart." When the bloodline was refined to 99.9%, it brought the ultimate terror of "searching the heavens above and the underworld below."

However, Chen Lai could achieve this right now.

The torment of the Dragon's Heart was borne jointly by Chen Lai and Fushiguro Megumi. Fushiguro acted as the consciousness within his body, sparing him from the physical agony, allowing Chen Lai to seize the authority of the Dragon King in a human body!

Facing this situation, Manstein could no longer remain calm. The Path to Apotheosis was excruciatingly difficult, and almost no one had ever walked it to the end, but since this path existed, there was the possibility of success!

[Hybrid (Path to Apotheosis) (Unique): With a human body, seize divine power. Value: 10,000,000 Yuan]

[Bloodline Concentration: 99.99% (Sublimating)]

Chen Lai's body expanded almost instantaneously. His form was indistinguishable from a ferocious ancient dragon. Because his initial bloodline originated from the King of Bronze and Fire, his post-evolutionary form also resembled that of the Dragon King Norton.

His head bore formidable horns, and his golden eyes radiated majesty!

"You have 30 more seconds, I can't hold on much longer!" Fushiguro Megumi's voice sounded as if he were speaking through clenched teeth. Chen Lai's perfect form at this moment was built upon his suffering.

"Enough."

Chen Lai stood upon the earth, gazing into the distant moon. Manstein rushed toward him like a madman, using both claws and tail whip in a desperate attempt to engage in close combat and fight to the death.

To end all this using the Dragon King's physical body would take a long time, but using the Dragon King's Spiritual Realm would be extremely simple.

The higher-tier version of the Spirit Realm *Lord's Flame* was the high-risk Spirit Realm ranked as high as 114. Both historical events—the Tunguska explosion and the Wanggongchang explosion during the Ming Dynasty—were related to it.

Yu Zhengxie of the Qing Dynasty described it thus: The Candle Dragon is another name for the sun.

Chen Lai's heavy body defied gravity as it soared into the sky, dancing wildly in the night sky into a fierce posture.

That was power, that was beauty, that was the fire seed capable of burning down the entire world!

His golden eyes, shining as bright as the disk of the moon, stared fixedly at Manstein, chanting an ancient and arcane incantation in his mouth.

Spirit Realm: Candle Dragon!

...

How would future generations record that night by the Yancheklak Bridge?

From the perspective of the city of Donetsk, children there said a sun appeared in the west—a sun that was brief yet intensely bright, illuminating the entire night sky.

From the perspective of the Prosens, it was divine punishment, God's retribution for the sin of initiating the war. That night, nearly one-third of the troops in the Southern Army Group evaporated.

From the players' perspective, Mighty Heavenly Dragon was simply not human.

They watched with their own eyes as a mushroom cloud resembling a nuclear bomb rose from the ground. The sun in the sky shone as dazzlingly as Jehovah of Hosts, and the fatal heat completely erased the bridge and everything to its west, leaving only charred black traces to prove they had ever existed.

[Successfully killed Manstein, obtained Heart of a Secondary-Generation Species (Precious), unlocked mobile evacuation point]

[10, 9, 8...]

[Successfully evacuated, this settlement...]