Chapter 63: Dragon?

Under the pale red moonlight, the square altar stood there in solitary isolation.

The steps built from antique-yellow stone bricks exuded an indescribable sense of antiquity. Soldiers with wide-open, angry eyes and silver armor were carved into both sides of the steps, their lifeless yet vivid eyes fixed intently on Li Chenqiu.

After pausing briefly in front of the altar, Li Chenqiu stepped onto the stone stairs, completely ignoring the murals carved on either side.

Perhaps because no one had visited for a long time, the stone steps were covered in dust, with spiderwebs filling every corner. Each time Li Chenqiu's soles touched the ground, they kicked up a large cloud of dust.

However, what Li Chenqiu failed to notice was that whenever he passed a step, little specks of crimson appeared in the eyes of the carved soldiers, and their eyeballs turned rigidly to follow Li Chenqiu's departing back.

The flight of steps was not long, and Li Chenqiu soon reached the end, greeted by a broad platform.

Gurgle~

The sound of churning intestines came from before Li Chenqiu, and small blood-red characters slowly materialized.

[Please insert the five keys into the five keyholes in the center of the platform. The five individuals who insert the keys will enter the final assessment.]

After reading this, Li Chenqiu pulled five keys from his pocket, walked to the center of the platform, and indeed found five keyholes.

Without hesitation, Li Chenqiu inserted the five keys into their corresponding keyholes.

Click!

As the last key was inserted, the platform suddenly began to shake.

Li Chenqiu frowned, pushed off the ground with both feet to leap to the edge of the platform, and looked toward the center with a vigilant gaze. His sixth sense told him that place was extremely dangerous.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~

In an instant, the space in the center of the platform rippled like a piece of cloth. Accompanied by a tearing sound, space instantly fractured, and a slender crack appeared before Li Chenqiu.

"Hahahaha, finally... I've finally come out, hahahahaha!"

Manic laughter echoed from the crack, and the terrifying sound wave whipped up a fierce gale across the platform.

"This is..." Li Chenqiu frowned. He had heard this voice earlier at Beiding Mountain.

Before Li Chenqiu could ponder further, a claw covered in black scales and gleaming with a cold light stretched out from the crack, hooked the edge of the crack, and gave a gentle pull. That patch of space shattered and broke like tofu, rapidly spreading outward in all directions.

The purest black devoured all light like a ravenous monster.

Realizing something was amiss, Li Chenqiu kicked backward and plummeted toward the ground.

One hundred meters... Seventy meters... Fifty meters... Thirty meters...

Just as Li Chenqiu was about to hit the ground, he calmly uttered, "Ride."

In an instant, water molecules drifting in the air rushed wildly toward Li Chenqiu's back as if summoned, then condensed.

When he was still one meter away from the ground, a strong gust of wind swept from behind Li Chenqiu, and the dust filling the sky was pushed aside to both sides like ocean waves.

"Rise." With a thought from Li Chenqiu, his body soared like a bird, tearing through the air straight up into the nine heavens.

Under the illumination of the red moon, those water-condensed wings, stretching five meters wide, looked breathtakingly stunning.

Li Chenqiu stood suspended in the air, the cold night wind blowing his hair backward, his tattered security guard uniform flapping loudly in the wind.

His eyes lowered, quietly gazing at the platform, deep in thought.

On the platform, darkness instantly occupied every spot above the altar, and a pair of deep blue eyes slowly opened from within the darkness, their cold gaze looking down upon everything in heaven and earth like a monarch.

The soldiers carved beside the stone steps began to writhe bizarrely, as if responding to a summons.

Awoo—

A horn blast with incredible penetrating power sounded across the heavens and earth. The soldiers in the murals actually stepped out of the walls and rushed toward the platform under Li Chenqiu's astonished gaze.

Pitter-patter...

The dense footsteps sounded like muffled drums, and hundreds of soldiers in silver armor rushed toward the platform like a silver torrent, fearing neither death nor danger.

"Ridiculous!"

A light chuckle came from the darkness, followed immediately by heavy, mountain-like footsteps from within. The stone-brick altar began to collapse from the inside out like sand.

Before those soldiers could even step onto the platform, they were buried deep within it, struggling in the gaps between wood and stone bricks.

In an instant, the tall altar turned into ruins.

At the same time, a massive figure slowly emerged from the darkness.

It was over a hundred meters long, its two deep eyes resembling burning embers, and its huge nostrils spewing blue flames with every breath. Its entire body was covered in scales like obsidian, each scale gleaming with metallic luster.

Strong and powerful limbs hung beneath its body, and its wide, powerful wings beat continuously, stirring up gusts of wind.

Li Chenqiu frowned, his eyes filled with doubt: "A dragon?"

At this thought, he sized the creature up and down, ultimately discarding his own idea.

The behemoth before him merely looked somewhat like a dragon, but it should not be the dragon of his impression. After all, how could a dragon possibly have wings?

While Li Chenqiu was sizing up the dragon-like creature, the creature was also sizing up Li Chenqiu.

Neither side spoke. After dozens of seconds of silence, Li Chenqiu spoke first: "What is the final assessment?"

"The final assessment?" A trace of mockery flashed across the Black Prison Dragon's slender eyes. "Are you talking about the small blood-red characters?"

Just as the Black Prison Dragon finished speaking, a long string of small blood-red characters appeared before Li Chenqiu.

[Congratulations on enduring hardships to obtain the five keys and breaking my seal. I am very satisfied with you, so I plan to take your physical body.]

When Li Chenqiu saw the last character, his expression instantly turned gloomy: "You tricked me?"

"Hahahaha, when did I trick you? The Spirit Xuan Artifact is real, the five keys are also real, everything is real!" the Black Prison Dragon laughed loudly, the terrifying sound waves shattering the clouds into disarray.

Whether from being cooped up too long or something else, seeing Li Chenqiu stand there in gloomy silence, the Black Prison Dragon continued excitedly:

"This place was used to seal me and my Spirit Xuan Artifact, and those five keys were the key to lifting my seal. Thank you for helping me break the seal! I've seen your strength, and I am very satisfied with you, hahahahaha!"

Upon hearing this, Li Chenqiu said, "So you're saying you're behind all of this?"

"Yes and no. The giants and mirror images you saw—their purpose was to prevent others from breaking the seal. I could only interfere slightly, such as adding a 'selection' setting to the mirror images so they wouldn't kill everyone, and tampering with the small blood-red characters.

You have no idea, when I saw you preparing to fight the mirror image on the bridge, I was truly terrified. I was so afraid you'd get yourself killed, but... but... you were just too brilliant!"

The Black Prison Dragon's voice was filled with excitement, and its deep blue eyes were brimming with mania.