Hearing that, Adrian Vale answered calmly,
"Old woman, I already knew you wouldn't be able to handle them."
"So now you owe me an even bigger favor."
Raven Shaw shot him a helpless look.
"At this point, I've probably racked up enough favors to last a lifetime," she said. "What exactly are you planning, kid?"
"Don't tell me you expect me to—"
Before she could finish, Adrian cut her off without mercy.
"Oh, please. I'm not interested in you at all."
"And stop entertaining those messy thoughts when you're around me."
"I'm not about to let you take advantage of me."
The livestream exploded.
"Hahaha! So Adrian knows more than just food, huh?!"
"Adrian is saving himself for all of us beautiful girls—girls, work harder and claim him when he gets back!"
"I'm not even joking anymore. I've completely fallen for Adrian and Zhang Qilin."
"Same. Every night when I try to sleep, those two keep showing up in my head!"
"The person above needs to wake up before I introduce you to the taste of an eighty-two-year-old sock."
Adrian ignored the nonsense in the chat, unfolded the Rustic Peerless Treasure Map, and continued toward the final marked point.
His expression was cold and steady.
What exactly is hidden at the end of this? he thought. We've already wasted too much time on this map.
If the final treasure isn't worth it… then I'm really going to settle accounts with whoever set this whole thing up.
Raven was thinking along similar lines.
They had paid too much to get this far. If the treasure at the end turned out to be meaningless, then all the time, effort, and danger they had spent along the way would have been for nothing.
And that was something neither of them could accept.
While they had been chasing this map, contestants from other nations had continued gathering resources.
Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone was vast, yes, and full of opportunities.
But the pressure was still real.
Heavy.
Because what rested on their shoulders wasn't just their own survival.
It was Dragon Nation itself.
And all of Dragon Nation's expectations had already been placed squarely on the two of them.
Not long after, they stepped into a stretch of forest so lush it looked almost unreal.
At the far edge of their vision stood a towering Divine Tree, so tall it seemed to pierce the sky itself.
Unlike the previous ones, this tree glowed with a deep green radiance.
And in that same instant, alarm bells rang in Adrian's mind.
From the area around that Divine Tree, he could feel a terrifying presence.
Raven had already entered cell burn, her expression icy and perfectly controlled.
"So," she said quietly, "you feel it too. This should be its territory."
Adrian nodded.
A faint blood-red gleam had already appeared in his left eye.
"Now this is getting interesting," he said. "Looks like we've finally run into a real opponent."
"Come on. Let's go meet it."
With that, Adrian and Raven stepped directly into the forest.
At once, the voice of Will of Blue Star echoed in the hearts of every viewer.
[Warning! Dragon Nation contestants Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw are encountering a legendary Divine Domain creature. Analyzing...]
[Analysis complete!]
After a brief pause, the announcement continued.
[Name: Ancient Azure Dragon!!!]
[Threat Rating: SSS-rank]
[Traits: A Divine Domain creature that has lived since ancient times. Its lifespan cannot be measured. Its origins are equally unknown. This is a colossal azure dragon. Do not attempt to defeat it through direct confrontation.]
The world froze.
Then the livestream detonated.
"What?! That's the first time Will of Blue Star has ever given a warning like that!"
"Even against the strongest enemies before, it never said they were impossible to beat!"
"So this thing really can't be defeated?"
"That can't be right! How can something unbeatable appear in front of Dragon Nation's contestants?!"
"Wait—Adrian and Raven got here by following the treasure map. Does that mean this is the Dreamlike Forest's real face?"
"So the Dreamlike Forest was a trap from the very beginning?!"
Foreign viewers, meanwhile, burst into celebration.
"Hahaha! Even Will of Blue Star is basically announcing Dragon Nation's doom!"
"They're finished. There's no way they can beat that dragon."
"At last! I've been waiting forever for Dragon Nation's contestants to hit a wall."
Inside the forest, both Adrian and Raven were staring straight ahead in shock.
Fortunately, Raven was still in cell burn, so her mind remained crystal clear. No panic. No breakdown. Just a cold, focused assessment.
Even so, she instinctively glanced at Adrian.
By now, he had become the pillar holding the two of them up.
That fact was impossible to deny.
Adrian, however, only grinned.
"Hahaha. I don't believe in unbeatable enemies."
"And Will of Blue Star only said we can't beat it head-on."
"If we haven't tried, I'm not accepting that."
"And even if head-on doesn't work, then there'll be another way."
"Come on. Let's go see what kind of monster this thing really is."
The next instant, Adrian burst forward in a blur.
He had never feared the so-called impossible.
He had come into this world to force open a path of his own. A few words from Will of Blue Star were never going to scare him into retreat.
Seeing Adrian charge ahead without the slightest hesitation, Raven instantly felt her own resolve settle.
She followed right behind him.
Soon, the two of them reached a massive clearing.
And there—
coiled across the open ground—
was an enormous figure.
It did not look exactly like the divine dragons of Dragon Nation's myths.
In a more direct sense, this creature resembled the colossal winged dragons of Western legend.
Its body was vast and long, with a pair of tremendous wings folded across its back.
Its four dragon claws rested on the ground, each one gleaming with a deadly edge under the light.
Its total length stretched well beyond a hundred meters.
Its scales were a deep azure, brilliant under the sun, making its entire body look like some gigantic living work of art.
Standing before it, Adrian and Raven looked tiny.
Dust.
At this moment, the giant dragon was asleep.
It seemed completely unaware that two outsiders had already stepped into its territory.
Its long whiskers stirred gently in the air, as though even in sleep it were dreaming some ancient dream.
The moment the dragon was fully shown on-screen, Will of Blue Star thoughtfully provided a complete close-up.
The entire world was stunned.
Then the discussion erupted.
"How can a living creature this huge even exist?!"
"Compared to this thing, every monster we've seen before was a joke!"
"Over a hundred meters long—only a place like the Dreamlike Forest could support something like that!"
"Exactly. Anywhere else, food alone would be a problem."
"If something like this existed on Blue Star, only the deep ocean could support it."
"And the scariest part is that it probably wouldn't have any natural enemies at all."
"If a creature like this showed up on Earth, the food chain in that entire region would collapse."
And if the food chain collapsed, humans wouldn't last there for long either.
Inside the studio for I Came to Watch the Divine Domain, Bingbing sat frozen, mouth slightly open, looking more stunned than composed.
"How can something like this exist?"
"And if even Will of Blue Star says it can't be defeated directly… then what are Dragon Nation's contestants supposed to do?"
For the first time in a long while, even Bingbing's professional composure cracked.
Professor Luo took a deep breath and forced down his own unease.
"This is difficult to judge now," he said gravely.
"At this point, all the people of Dragon Nation can do is trust Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw."
Captain Ryan Cole nodded firmly.
"Dragon Nation has endured countless hardships throughout history and still remained standing."
"I believe Dragon Nation's contestants can do the same."
"If anyone can face disaster head-on and keep moving, it's them."
At the same time, over in the Blue Star Deathmatch, Zhang Zhiwei and Magneto had already entered the arena.
Magneto floated above the ground, standing on a specially forged slab of metal, his red cape billowing behind him. He looked every bit the overwhelming superhuman.
Opposite him stood Zhang Zhiwei in a simple Daoist robe, white-haired, loose-skinned, looking for all the world like an ordinary old man.
The contrast between them was enormous.
The foreign audience immediately began jeering.
"Hahaha! Dragon Nation is definitely losing this one!"
"Magneto controls metal—his attack power and mobility are insane!"
"And Dragon Nation sends out an old man? Are they out of people?"
"If I punched that old man once, he'd probably die on the spot."
"He may be good at close combat, but against Magneto? He'll never even get close."
Even though Zhang Zhiwei had already shown terrifying hand-to-hand ability in earlier battles, most people still didn't rate him highly.
The visual gap was simply too extreme.
Dragon Nation viewers, however, were completely unfazed.
"These foreigners are idiots, every single one of them."
"They have no idea how terrifying Longhu Mountain's old Celestial Master really is."
"Let them yap for now. Reality is about to slap them."
Inside the arena, Magneto frowned at the old man.
"In your earlier fights, you didn't use your real strength."
"I hope you won't hold back now."
"I want a proper fight."
Zhang Zhiwei nodded slowly.
"I've also been quite interested in your metal-manipulation ability."
"I hope you won't disappoint me either."
Then he casually raised one hand.
Crackling blue lightning began to gather and coil in his palm.
The moment Magneto saw it, his face darkened.
"So you really can control lightning."
He understood the problem immediately.
Electricity could travel through metal.
Metal, however, could not stop electricity from propagating through it.
From the moment the lightning appeared, the matchup had already tipped against him.
But Zhang Zhiwei only shook his head.
"In this world, all attacks are ultimately just forms of energy."
"There is no such thing as absolute restraint."
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