The undercurrents kept rushing towards Liu Yuan, leaving him no choice but to raise his sword against those currents. With the help of the spiritual energy as well as the sword, he managed to block the water for now.
This was probably just the beginning…
Liu Yuan bitterly thought to himself as he blocked the surging undercurrents.
He was full of regrets. He really shouldn’t have gone back.
Whatever the thing sealed here was, if it was really huge, then just a slight movement of it would be enough to turn this whole place upside down.
‘Damn it, a level-50 area? It was no kidding.’
‘I was just a level-20 newbie, so why the hell did I come here? What am I thinking?’
‘I’ll be damned!’
This was suicide!
Liu Yuan swallowed his saliva and looked warily into the depths of the darkness while slowing moving backward.
The monster had just been awakened, so maybe he still got time. Maybe, since he had not been discovered yet, he could still run away. He was not far from the surface anyway. If he hurried up, he would probably make it…
Just as he was slowing backing off, suddenly, he felt a chill behind him.
He had bumped into something!
Liu Yuan instantly froze.
The chain…
Shit! He forgot about the chain.
Liu Yuan turned around in extreme terror, only to find that the golden symbols on the chain had all been lit up!
Like a burning flame in the darkness!
It also lit up Liu Yuan’s face, ashen from fright.
In despair, he could only stare at the chain as the rest of it got lit up at lightning speed.
Just like a burning blaze.
Within a short while, the entire chain was lit up, gradually lighting up the secret realm at the bottom of the icy lake.
The running water gradually died down.
The thunderous noise in the darkness gradually became clearer, as if something was breathing heavily.
Liu Yuan froze on the spot, not daring to move at all.
He felt that something was staring at him.
Sure enough, the surrounding chain began to make creaking sounds — the metal was cracking and something was trying to break free!
In the darkness, a pair of huge, yellow eyes like gas lamps flashed open.
The enormous thing at the bottom of the lake raised its head and stared at Liu Yuan.
In the undercurrents, it slowly stretched its body, which was covered with hard scales, and the dark shadows wiggled like tentacles, making the underwater world look like an alien realm.
Part of the chain had passed through its body and nailed it firmly to the bottom, while the rest of the chain shackled all of its joints, making it unable to move at all.
Liu Yuan also noticed that underneath it was a complex and enormous ancient formation carved on the stone wall.
However, with its movement, part of the chain had already collapsed, and the metal parts were slowly drifting in the water. The carved ancient formation had also corroded.
Besides, the monster had recovered its strength thanks to the blood from Liu Yuan.
Therefore, one thing led to another, and…
This ancient devil dragon was about to break free.
‘Shit…’
Liu Yuan cursed in his heart.
The name of this chapter of the game story was [Serpent in the Cup], which was a classical allusion to the story about someone mistaking the bow shadow in the cup for a snake.
Now, the icy lake was just like the cup, the serpent referred to the devil dragon, and the entire devil realm would be the bow.
Later on in the game, the players would no longer be divided into different sects, but rather into three large factions, namely the three realms in the Upper Central.
Unfortunately, except for some implicit clues, the maps of the other two realms had not been officially opened to public yet.
This part of the story was an example of the devil realm’s invasion into the human realm.
The only thing he knew was that this devil dragon had been sealed here since the ancient era. Now, however, with the seal formation loosening and stimulated by the blood mist, the devil dragon was about to come out.
Liu Yuan was full of regrets at the moment.
‘What a fool I am! I only know that there supposed to be fortuitous encounters in the Jiuyuan Mountain Range, but I haven’t really thought about the potential risks!’
He held on tight to his sword and stared at the devil dragon, ready to fight for his life.
After a moment which seemed like ages…
Neither Liu Yuan nor the dragon made a move.
…
Hmm? What now?
A few minutes had passed, and the fear in Liu Yuan’s heart was gradually replaced by impatience.
The devil dragon just gazed at him with a searching and aggressive look. Only after a while did it say in an old and hoarse voice, “You are a special human being.”
‘What? The dragon is not going to attack me?’
Liu Yuan was stunned for a minute and quickly calmed himself down. He fixed his eyes on the devil dragon again and noticed that the shackles on its body were still there and all intact, and the dragon hadn’t broken free yet. He thus heaved a long sigh of relief.
“Dammit! It’s just a false alarm!”
He believed he was lucky. Probably the blood just now was not enough for it to break free from the shackles, so now the dragon was trying to talk him into letting it out.
“Ha! I know that I’m very special, but whatever. Thanks and bye-bye!”
Liu Yuan sneered at the devil dragon and said without hesitation.
Not in the mood to stay here any longer, he immediately turned around and ran, and he even activated some escape skills to make himself faster.
He even started to miss those monkeys!
The devil dragon’s voice rang out behind him again, “You’re from another world, right?”
Liu Yuan paused. He restrained himself from looking back while replying, “No! I was born and raised here, in Upper Central!”
“Do you want power?”
Liu Yuan cursed inwardly, “Power your ass! I know what you are up to. You just want me to get you out! And once you are out, you will kill me! You think you can fool me?”
In the world of Upper Central, danger and traps were everywhere; one wrong move, and the players could die.
This was exactly what made this game so fascinating and thrilling.
This dragon could be very convincing, so Liu Yuan decided to simply ignore it.
“Do you see the desires in your heart? Money, strength, fame… No, none of these are what you want. What you really want is to control people, to manipulate their emotions. You crave this power, just like a blind man craving to see the world, because —”
“You don’t have it.”
Liu Yuan kept his mouth shut and focused on swimming toward the surface.
He was getting closer and closer.
“It’s alright.” The devil dragon had a meaningful smile on its face, “You’ll be back…”
Splash!
Finally, Liu Yuan reached the surface. He wiped his face and cursed his luck. Then he slowly swam to the shore. The place was still dead silent, as if nothing had happened.
However, the last words of the devil dragon were still echoing in his ears.
“This is your fate!”
“I don’t believe in fate!”
Liu Yuan drew out the Flying Star Sword and slashed it on the water fiercely.
Swoosh!
The sword Qi swept across the lake, and water splashed everywhere.
He was panting furiously, his eyes bloodshot and his hands trembling. Since he had exerted too much force, even his hand was scraped and blood was dripping down.
“No, something’s not right. I shouldn’t have been so furious. That thing is manipulating me. I must be more careful — it is a level-50 monster after all.”
Liu Yuan tried hard to calm down.
He put the sword back into the sheath.
Then he took a deep breath and left.
What he didn’t see was that, in the icy lake, the blood from his wound just now was slowly sinking down into the depth of the lake.