Chapter 378: We Are the Protagonists

Hearing Ji Chen's slightly proud question, the Dragonkin's pupils contracted violently.

It slowly turned its head, its golden vertical pupils reflecting that familiar yet strange face.

Having been distracted by the shocking scene on the battlefield just now, it had completely forgotten this old friend who had suddenly appeared beside it.

Memories related to him flooded back like a tide at this moment.

Their first meeting had been in a prison built by Bai Yao, where all living beings imprisoned there were forced to cultivate a special method, becoming cauldrons for Bai Yao to draw power.

At that time, Ji Chen had curled up in the darkest corner of the prison.

His body was so thin it was almost skeletal, the contours of his bones clearly visible beneath his pale skin; chains of restrictions planted by Bai Yao wound around his wrists, his eyes dim, staring blankly at the outside of the prison like a living puppet.

Other newly arrived prisoners at least struggled, expressing their anger through roars and other means.

But Ji Chen at that time was as quiet as a dead man, seemingly having given up and accepted his fate of becoming an energy cauldron.

At that time, its position of imprisonment was right beside Ji Chen.

But sitting and waiting for death was never its nature.

Even as a prisoner, it had never thought it would be forever confined in this cage.

It regarded this merely as a challenge before entering the Monster World, viewing the cage as a new battlefield, and began to devise a plan to break the deadlock.

Relying solely on personal strength was obviously insufficient to break through the layers of blockade set by Bai Yao.

So it thought of the other prisoners in the team prison.

Ji Chen, imprisoned with it, became its primary target.

But Ji Chen at that time was depressed, having long given up hope of survival, believing he was destined never to leave the prison and could only become nourishment for Bai Yao to gain power for the rest of his life.

So it needed to inspire Ji Chen to ignite his fighting spirit and give him hope to live on.

Thus, one day, it actively asked Ji Chen:

"Hey, do you know the difference between a warrior and a beast?"

Ji Chen at that time looked at it with confused eyes, then shook his head in puzzlement.

Its answer was:

"A beast accepts its fate when tied up, while a warrior thinks about when it can bite through the enemy's throat."

When Ji Chen heard his answer at that time, he only slowly lowered his head, continuing to remain silent, unwilling to respond further.

But it did not give up, proving its determination to Ji Chen through action.

It began to actively resist the guards, even if it meant being tortured until it was covered in wounds.

It wanted Ji Chen to see that even in a desperate situation, one must never bow one's head.

During that time, it also mentioned the outside world in front of Ji Chen.

For example, the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas of the world it came from, those battlefields burning with free will, and those living beings still fighting.

These stories contained the dangerous places it had once conquered, as well as comrades-in-arms who fought side by side.

Finally, after a night of nutrient extraction, Ji Chen actively asked it:

"Why resist at all costs when there is clearly no chance of victory?"

At that moment, it knew a seed of resistance had taken root in the depths of Ji Chen's heart.

It smiled and told Ji Chen:

"Since pain is unavoidable, rather than rotting in shackles, it is better to burn for an instant in the flames; dying in the most spectacular way is not bad either."

Later, Ji Chen said that this sentence was like a sharp knife, cutting open the cowardice deepest in his heart.

It was also at that moment that he made the decision to join the resistance.

After this, they concealed their sharp edges, lay low in the cage, and constantly expanded the scale of the resistance alliance against Bai Yao.

It personally taught many living beings from the Ni Zhao Shi Jie how to strengthen their physique through breathing, and how to suppress the extraction of life force within their bodies by the cauldron method taught by Bai Yao.

After a long period of lying low, they finally waited for the opportunity to break free from their predicament.

Having figured out the guard shift times in advance, they launched a charge.

That night, blood and fire exploded in the darkness.

Chains were broken, cages were trampled, and prisoners who had once been treated as cauldrons roared and rushed out with it, sweeping everything away like a bursting flood.

The dragon breath it spat out turned into flames that burned the sky; one after another, Bai Yao's watchtowers collapsed in the fire, illuminating the path for the fugitives.

After escaping alive, they were like fish entering the sea, growing wildly under the shadow of Bai Yao's rule.

It taught the warriors of the resistance how to temper their physiques, making those backs that had been bent by oppression straighten again, and making numb eyes ignite with the will to fight.

Former slaves no longer hunched afterwards; through cultivation, they forged their muscles and bones into steel, able to draw upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth with every breath.

The rise of the resistance army thereafter was like a storm sweeping across heaven and earth.

They raided the ore veins of the Bai Yao clan, seized rare spiritual materials, and forged weapons capable of cutting through shackles.

They continuously captured prisons, liberated more slaves, and let the ranks grow like rolling snow.

Every raid, every bloody battle, made the flame of resistance burn brighter.

And that young man who had once curled up in the cage, full of despair in his eyes, transformed into a true warrior during this period.

He learned to control all things with telekinesis and how to make his spiritual power as sharp as a blade.

He learned tactical deduction, able to discern the flaws of the enemy army on a battlefield that changed in an instant.

He also understood better how to turn limited resources into the most deadly weapons, making every ounce of power exerted to the extreme.

He was no longer that cowardly prisoner, but had transformed into the sharp blade of the resistance army, and was the most reliable brother in its eyes.

On the battlefield of blood and fire, they fought back-to-back, their dragon breath and telekinesis weaving a net of death.

When breaking through desperate situations, they were as one in their tacit understanding, able to read each other's tactics with a single glance.

It clearly remembered that when they were surrounded by Bai Yao's elite forces in Duanhun Valley, it was Ji Chen who used his telekinetic power to forcibly hold up the collapsing cliff, buying the entire army a channel for retreat.

And when Ji Chen, exhausted, fell into the poison swamp, it was it who burned its life force to use its dragon body to block the rain of energy from the sky for him, successfully evacuating with him.

This friendship deepened through the long years of resistance.

They had shared the last piece of hard rations by the campfire, laughed heartily at the starry sky after a victory, and silently bumped fists at a comrade's funeral.

The hardships they crossed together, the life-and-death moments, tempered their brotherly bond into something deeper than blood.

And at the end of this "road of resistance," they fulfilled the oath they had made in that prison cell long ago, completely overthrowing the Bai Yao dynasty.

They crushed the once-lofty Bai Yao race into history.

By now, they had ascended to the pinnacle of power in Bai Yao Shi Jie.

But it had no interest in taking over the rule of this small world from the Bai Yao race, and chose to bid farewell to Ji Chen, preparing to return to its kin and continue the climb it had never finished back then.

And Ji Chen also chose to return to his homeland world, letting his burned-out body return to its roots.

This bond, the Dragon Descendant never forgot.

While in Monster World, he would occasionally think of that aged face full of white hair.

That was the good brother who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him, crossing life and death together.

Memories are like wind, sometimes gently brushing past the heart.

But it never thought to go look at Ji Chen again.

It believed some bonds should stay frozen in their most beautiful moment.

Ji Chen chose to rest in his homeland, while its journey was still ongoing.

Rather than break this perfect parting, better to let a good brother live forever in memory, still the dashing figure on the battlefield back then.

Nostalgia can be treasured, but it cannot become chains binding one's wings.

That is the best tribute to those glorious years.

……

The memories sealed in the Dragon Descendant's heart churned violently at this moment; seeing Ji Chen suddenly appear, its eyes could not hide the shock.

Many doubts were answered at this moment.

It suddenly realized that the reinforcements that had descended from the sky on the battlefield had come from this old friend.

Clearly this old friend knew it was falling into a desperate situation at this moment, and had led a mysterious army to help fight.

But new doubts kept welling up in its mind.

It carefully examined the smiling Ji Chen; his hair was indeed as white as in memory, yet differed in many ways from that memory.

On closer inspection, this whiteness was completely different from the look of life overdrawn back then — it seemed dyed by some kind of power, emitting a faint glow, merely a decoration.

What shocked it even more was that Ji Chen's face was clearly much younger, his skin taut, the fine lines at the corners of his eyes gone.

The weariness and twilight in his eyes had vanished entirely, replaced by a confidence that felt strange to it.

But it remembered clearly — when they parted back then, Ji Chen's flame of life was already like a candle in the wind; it had tried every method to heal him, yet none could stop Ji Chen's life from sliding toward decay.

Back then Ji Chen had said he was willing to go with it to the super world.

It had refused, because Ji Chen's life was nearly at its end and he simply could not establish himself in Monster World.

But now.

Standing before it, Ji Chen's aura was steady, the life waves emanating from his body brimming with vigorous vitality.

It could not understand what Ji Chen had actually been through.

Why he had become the way he was now.

And why had he appeared in Monster World?

Before parting, the teleportation array it had built in Bai Yao City had preset the spatial coordinates of Ji Chen's homeland world.

In its expectation, Ji Chen had long since returned to his homeland world, to rest where his leaves fell.

Having spent over 200 years together, they had shared their pasts with each other, so it understood Ji Chen's background very well.

What was clear was that before descending to another world, Ji Chen had originally been a being of Ni Zhao Shi Jie.

That world had no spiritual energy, let alone spiritual materials; technological development was capped by the limits of materials science, and no supernatural power existed.

Therefore, Ji Chen's future should have been eternal slumber in his homeland.

Also, why did Ji Chen have ties to a force in Monster World, and why would this mysterious army take orders from Ji Chen?

Even willing to suffer losses in men and generals, just to join this support war?

Finally, how did Ji Chen know it was in trouble…?

Questions welled up one after another, and the Dragon Descendant was thoroughly bewildered.

It simply could not figure these questions out, nor find a direction toward an answer.

"Ji Chen?!"

Its voice was hoarse, the shock in its heart beyond words.

"You're wondering, aren't I supposed to be dead?" Ji Chen grinned.

The joy of showing off in front of an old friend — he had finally experienced it.

Seeing the shock in the Dragon Descendant's eyes at this moment, he felt nothing but pure satisfaction.

"What on earth did you go through?"

"That's a long story; let's finish the fight first, then talk about the details… the real show is just beginning."

Saying so, Ji Chen's gaze swept toward the front of the battlefield.

Hearing this, the Dragon Descendant suppressed the surging emotions in its heart, and its gaze returned to the battlefield as well.

The clash between the battle formation's dharma idol and the giant shadow hand was unfolding fiercely; every strike of the dharma idol could tear apart swathes of shadow, but the giant shadow hand could always draw new power from the void, countless tiny shadow tendrils writhing at the wound, quickly restoring it as before.

Just then, the earth trembled.

A massive pitch-black phantom slowly rose from deep within the Shi Mie tribe's formation.

This giant, condensed from pure shadow energy, had a body over several hundred meters tall with no sense of solidity; as this body took shape, a terrifying pressure swept across the land.

When the head took shape, two flickering shadow ghost-fires ignited within its eye sockets.

As the tongues of flame licked out, the surrounding light was wrung into twisted threads.

Shadows wove and sketched, condensing into a bone armor covered in barbs; three throbbing dark-red hearts sat outside its chest, and with every beat, the light between heaven and earth dimmed by a fraction.

"Devouring Annihilation Dharma King…."

The four words squeezed out from between the Dragon Descendant's teeth, its golden slit-pupils contracting sharply.

The power displayed by the reinforcements had clearly made this hidden mastermind behind the curtain unable to sit still any longer, choosing to strike personally at this moment.

The instant the phantom fully manifested, a terrifying pressure descended like a canopy of heaven.

The Dragon Wing Clan warriors at the edge of the battlefield were bent over one after another, their bones creaking under the invisible force.

The blood within the Dragon Descendant began to boil, its scales standing on end.

It felt it could not let the reinforcements brought by Ji Chen face this terrifying existence alone; at this moment, it ought to join the battle.

Just as it gathered its strength and prepared to charge out, a hand gently pressed down on its shoulder.

"Stay calm and don't move." Ji Chen's voice was very calm.

"They are fighting to the death—how could I sit by and watch the reinforcements face a powerful enemy alone?"

The corner of Ji Chen's mouth lifted slightly as he gazed at the battlefield:

"Fighting to the death? Old Yi, you've clearly misunderstood. This is merely their game, and as for those who die in battle… they actually don't care at all. The game has only just begun."

Right at this moment, the great earth trembled more violently.

The Dragon Descendant whipped its head toward the battlefield, only to see a figure rise into the air from the center of the player army's main battle formation.

That figure was none other than the Divine King.

He raised his right hand at this moment, and a battle-formation command token rose above his head.

The ten-thousand-man-tier battle formation "Endless Yama Lord," purchased for 25 million Shou Shou Jili and capable of holding 10,000 to 99,999 players, activated.

"Brothers, I'll form the head—you all take your positions."

Along with the Divine King's shout in the battle-formation channel.

In an instant, the clouds above the battlefield were torn apart by an invisible force; hundreds of millions of glowing white spirit-runes surged from the token, weaving into a massive formation-diagram framework centered on the Divine King like a flowing river of stars.

Countless spirit-runes darted and combined rapidly, ultimately condensing into complex patterns that shrouded the earth; at the edges, golden-red flames suddenly ignited, as if turning the entire sky into a furnace for tempering divine weapons.

At once, the player legion fighting a bloody battle moved.

Three of the already-formed battle formations collapsed and disintegrated, and the figures within them sprinted at top speed toward the ten-thousand-man-tier battle formation the Divine King was forming.

Taking their places at the glowing node positions, just as they had rehearsed countless times in the early days.

As more and more players took their positions, the token above the Divine King's head erupted with dazzling radiance.