Chapter 42: Resolution! The Sealing of Little Seven-Color!

After greeting A-wei and the others, I decided to go into solo seclusion to grind for levels before completing the "Princess's Last Will" quest. The imperial palace's wooden puppet formation, which Princess Xiuling—who had witnessed grand spectacles aplenty—had repeatedly warned me about with utmost solemnity, must undoubtedly possess extraordinary might. If my strength proved insufficient and led to failure, how could I ever face their decades of enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens? Furthermore, the Dragon Spring sword in my hand would never be able to purge its monstrous grievance, and the righteous soul of the sword would remain slumbering forever. Uncle Zhang and his wife concluded their restaurant business and, under Xiaoxue's guidance, officially embarked on their fantasy journey; once they reached level 11 and completed their class advancement, they would be able to learn cooking skills.

Wandering alone with my sword, I once again arrived at the seldom-visited Crimson Glow Mountain. Lizard meat and fire feathers were things I could never have too much of, as all of these would eventually be converted into heavy gold coins in my hands. The volcanic rocks remained scorching red and the magma still boiled, yet the surrounding atmosphere was overly oppressive. A formidable aura suddenly enveloped the entire Crimson Glow Mountain, causing monsters near and far to cower in submission, not daring to make the slightest sound.

A fire raven, unable to withstand the overwhelming pressure, took to the air in panic, desperately eager to leave this bizarre place. Before its wings had flapped more than a few times, it plummeted straight down, struggled for a few moments, and breathed its last. With that cautionary example before them, no creature dared to make a rash move; all held their breath, keeping even their heartbeats down to a minimum. The entire Crimson Mountain plunged into absolute silence. The wild, tyrannical aura and terrifying presence stunned all living things, and even the arrogant, scorching heat of the glowing rocks seemed to restrain itself, while the churning magma grew almost still. Every unusual phenomenon was conveying a single message: a super boss was about to appear!

A storm was brewing, and the wind filled the pavilions! Even after having experienced the oppressive pressure of the Dead Spirit General's enhanced coercion, I found it difficult to breathe in such a harsh environment. The strength of this unknown boss was definitely beyond my scope of comprehension, and even the righteous mental cultivation technique seemed pale and impotent under its pressure, failing to bring me the slightest sense of security. Not far ahead of me lay the bizarrely slain fire raven, yet I did not dare to approach and harvest its corpse, fearing that a moment of carelessness would draw out the boss's devastating kill move. I initially wanted to return to the city and escape this inexplicably terrifying place, but the town portal scroll could not be used. In my heart, I fiercely cursed Fantasy, thinking that a scroll costing 25 gold coins actually turned out to be a shoddy product—this was truly a grave insult to a player's intelligence.

Just as I was pitying myself for becoming meat on the boss's chopping block, an unrivaled pressure, completely distinct from the previous aura, appeared over Crimson Glow Mountain. If the earlier presence had been the tyrannical majesty of a king looking down upon everything, then the one descending now was a noble, holy, and graceful aura of peace and auspiciousness.

How could one mountain accommodate two tigers? The intersecting auras instantly collided to spark fierce vortices of energy. Gusts of wild wind rose from the flat ground, and massive sheets of red clouds appeared without warning in the skies above Crimson Glow Mountain. The low-hanging fire clouds emitted a searing heat, no different from adding fuel beneath a boiling cauldron. The mountain rocks began to tremble violently, and the magma leaped frantically. The dormant monsters grew anxious and uneasy; fire-armored lizards darted about amidst the flying sand and stones, and fire ravens beat their wings swiftly, circling in the air, yet none of them could escape the bounds of Crimson Glow Mountain. A lizard that had been the first to crawl to the foot of the mountain, seeing that it was about to cross out of the fiery boundary, was instantly shattered into tiny fragments. A mist of blood filled the air, and flesh and skin flew in all directions. That scene was truly horrifying.

Crimson Glow Mountain was like a volcano on the verge of erupting; the earth cracked, stones flew, and the lava boiled. To one's astonishment, all these abnormal phenomena manifested only within the borders of Crimson Glow Mountain. Players and monsters outside the fiery boundary felt no unusual pressure whatsoever; they were merely shocked by the bizarre phenomenon and successively abandoned their leveling territories to rush here. Experienced players knew that a major boss must have appeared, or else there would not be such a terrifying spectacle. Soon, large numbers of troops appeared in nearby towns, and members of various faction organizations rapidly mobilized toward this place. The various roads leading to Crimson Glow Mountain were in complete chaos as everyone wanted to arrive the fastest, organize manpower, seize the opportunity to fight the boss, and snatch treasures. However, the access routes to Crimson Glow Mountain were limited, and one could only advance from the East Road of the West River Plain. For a time, dust flew and heads crowded together; even a road wide enough for twenty people to walk side by side suffered a traffic jam.

Dong Ping squeezed out of the crowd with great difficulty and said to Thirteen Young, who was busy tinkering with his already disheveled hairstyle, "Young master, most of our men have already closed in. Only two or three hundred brothers are stuck behind."

Thirteen Young swept a cold glance over the chaotic crowd, a wicked smile appearing on his face as he said, "Tell those brothers not to rush over anymore. If we wait for everyone to gather before setting off, I'm afraid we won't even get to drink the leftover broth. Have them stay blocked right in the middle of the crowd and stir up some trouble—the messier, the better!"

Dong Ping had followed the young master for many years and could grasp his intentions most of the time. Understanding tacitly, he said, "Young master, rest assured! Our brothers aren't much for anything else, but when it comes to fighting and making a scene, that's their specialty!"

...

"Damn it, if you're on your the verge of dying, stop blocking my way!" Player A shouted aggressively at Sting, who was jammed in front and unable to move.

"Crap, are you blind? If I could walk, would I still be staying here?" Sting was not one to be easily pushed around. Having already felt extremely depressed from being blocked here, how could he endure being cursed at? He immediately hurled insults back.

Player A had received orders from his boss and deliberately intended to create chaos; the opponent's reaction played right into his intentions. He barked harshly, "If you dare to push back at me one more time, I'll have my brothers in the back tear you to pieces!"

The players surrounding Sting were evidently his confederates. Seeing their brother being berated, anger welled up from their hearts, and they cursed, "Son of a bitch, are you looking to die?! Who the hell do you think you are? Asking for a beating!"

Player A drew his longsword and called out to several players behind him, "Brothers, go up and rip him apart to take down this kid's arrogance!" The cold longsword instantly plunged into the chest of Sting right before him. Sting's HP was not high, and with his heart pierced, he was killed in a single strike before he could even react. The white light of his vanishing soul provoked his nearby brothers, who successively drew their weapons and charged forward. Pity those players in the rear who didn't know Player A at all; they were inexplicably drawn into the attacks of others.

In order to self-preserv, they called upon their own brothers to join the battle. The same scenario played out in multiple places within the crowded mob, and the melee began to spread from a small scale. The West River Plain had now become a Shura purgatory. Several thousand players inexplicably suffered unknown attacks and then inexplicably joined the chaotic battle. For a time, the flashes of blades and shadows of swords flew, crossbows twanged and arrows soared, countless streams of blood splashed, countless screams echoed, countless white lights of vanishing souls faded, and countless crisp sounds of equipment dropping rang out. The brown earth had already been stained dark red.

A blade-monk had just killed an opponent with PK value and had yet to pick up the dropped equipment when an assassin's dagger from behind pierced his vital spot, turning him into a white light in resentment as he vanished.

A scholar and a beast-tamer had just joined forces to kill a warrior and had yet to see the dropped equipment when the beast-tamer turned around and thrust a beast-fork into the scholar's chest. The chaos spread, the contention reached fever pitch, and the players went wild. No one cared whether those around them were friends; they hacked at whoever they saw and grabbed whatever equipment they laid eyes on.

When this incident was later reported on the forums, people tried to trace the cause of the melee, but after investigating thousands of players involved, the answers they received were all about being inexplicably drawn into it. Just as numerous players felt wronged about dying without knowing why, a wood-element Taoist stood forward and bravely confessed his mistake: because he held a grudge against a warrior who had forcibly seized his equipment, he had gathered a large number of brothers to wait at the location where the warrior's trace was discovered—namely, the West River Plain—and ambushed him. During the battle, they accidentally killed a boss, which dropped a precious gold-grade weapon that in turn sparked contention among other players and thus triggered the melee. Meanwhile, that warrior also published a post on the forums admitting that this matter was indeed true.

This explanation garnered intense attention from numerous players. They forgot that they themselves had once snatched equipment and unanimously demanded that the two players who had instigated the melee apologize to everyone. Out of caution, the forum administrator investigating the matter interviewed this wood-element Taoist. When the Taoist stammered out his in-game nickname, it turned out to be a mere level-15 novice Taoist, and the "equipment-snatching" warrior was only level 16; the two of them were actually good friends. Their monstrous lies were soon exposed with righteous severity by numerous players who successively denounced their irresponsible remarks to vent their frustration, and the truth of the melee was ultimately left unresolved. Later on, the little Taoist revealed his motive for doing this: to become famous! Of course, all of these were matters for later.

At this moment, I was flat on the ground, feeling as though my entire body was about to crack apart. The intertwined violent energies were tearing at my muscles, the scorching air was roasting my skin, my HP kept dropping, and my health potions were constantly diminishing. Meanwhile, the lizards and fire ravens that had previously been panicked and fleeing in all directions now littered the ground as corpses, and a rich, roasted aroma permeated the mountain peak. With a resounding "Boom!", the red clouds in the sky suddenly pulled the plug like sand clogged in a funnel, rushing down in a torrent as an eye-piercing firelight burned my eyes with pain. The fire clouds descended upon the peak of Crimson Glow Mountain, and an even more violent explosion echoed across the heavens. The summit of the mountain was suddenly blown away, and crimson magma surged upward and spewed out in all directions. Wherever it flowed, the monster corpses instantly evaporated, emitting puffs of burnt stench, while huge volcanic rocks rolled rapidly down from the peak. At this moment, the pressure on my body abruptly lightened as the two terrifying auras vanished.

I tried my best to dodge the roaring giant boulders and the rolling magma. The town portal scroll should be usable now, but I was unwilling to leave just like that. Without even catching a glimpse of the boss's shadow, I had miserably consumed more than half of my health potions; it was truly humiliating. "Fortune favors the bold!" was also one of the principles I believed in within the game—how could you enter a tiger's den if you didn't brave its lair? I activated my mana shield, leaped among the flying stones and molten lava, and hurried toward the mountain peak along the gentler slope. As I drew close to the crater where the magma was erupting, unusual tremors shook the ground, and from time to time, scorching hot air currents swirled out from a narrow cave entrance right before my eyes that could only accommodate a single person. There had to be something strange inside—perhaps it was even the dwelling place of the boss.

Staring into the fiery red cave, where blazing firelight flashed and a wild, tyrannical ferocity seemed ready to devour people, I gritted my teeth, drew my sword, hardened my heart, and cautiously ventured inside. The cave entrance was winding and torturous, seemingly reaching a dead end at times, only to turn into a small path extending straight forward into the heart of the mountain. Strangely enough, the stone walls inside the cave did not possess the unbearable, scorching heat of the rocks outside; a gentle touch brought only a mild warmth. Although I knew that encountering a boss possessing such an aura would result in being instantly killed without even a chance to strike back, I, being habitually cautious, still advanced step by step with the utmost preparedness.

Following the winding cave forward, after delving deep for a stretch, the cave gradually grew broader. A pale firelight entered my vision, revealing a spacious platform standing abruptly within the lava pool at the inner mouth of the volcano. The cave finally reached its end, and further ahead lay only a stone path barely a foot wide leading directly to the platform. Yet at this moment, I was utterly stunned by two exotic beasts locked in a life-or-death battle upon the platform.

A colossal and incomparably gorgeous avian creature hovered in the air, its cloud-like, fiery red giant wings spanning dozens of yards. Every single red feather resembled a fine sword, and its nimble, ethereal tail feathers trailed and swayed gently. Auspicious and noble, with an elegant temperament, its holy aura was enough to cleanse the dark souls of even the most evil people, making one want to prostrate in worship. Its crest was blood-red, emitting a mesmerizing crimson glow, and its golden eyes rivaled the brightest stars in the heavens as it fixedly stared at the giant beast below, which was the size of a lion and encircled by flames. I saw that this monstrous beast, standing over a yard tall and covered in a mass of crimson scales, had a pair of turquoise dragon horns protruding from its forehead, fully displaying a king's majesty and dominance, while its copper-bellied giant eyes also locked fiercely onto its opponent.

Good heavens! Aren't these the legendary Phoenix and Qilin? Wife, come quickly and look—immortal beasts!