am-books Chapter 657 The sky is falling, but the tall ones will hold it up.
Chapter 657 The sky is falling, but the tall ones will hold it up.
boom--
As soon as Qinglong spoke, the entire sky began to tremble.
It was as if those revered beings, like gods, were mocking this foolish human being.
They also do not believe that humans can rise to the level of laws.
It's absolutely impossible, even for just a moment.
Qinglong ignored the abnormality in the sky and simply looked at Wu Wang and the others.
Blood trickled down his chiseled jawline from the corner of his mouth, staining his slightly messy stubble like sharp needles.
Yet his face still held that resolute expression, and his smile was as reassuring as ever.
However, in his smile, Qin Shusheng and the witch saw a trace of his former self.
That was the smile Chen Xi would have had before he joined the Bureau of Extraordinary Events, or even before he became a Spirit Disaster player.
At that time, he was arrogant and lawless, and only gradually restrained himself after being recruited by the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.
Now they understand perfectly.
The once arrogant Chen Xi has not disappeared; he has simply hidden himself beneath the body of Qinglong, the director of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs.
As the director of the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs, he cannot be frivolous in the slightest, because he needs to have the authority to manage and protect everything.
After returning to reality from the abyss, he ruthlessly eliminated all the corrupt elements in the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs. This decisiveness could even be described as the indifference of a strong person towards life.
This air of authority made his unpretentious demeanor seem approachable.
What does it mean to be approachable?
Only those of lower status who look up to others will find someone approachable.
The Azure Dragon will always stand atop everyone's head.
This is the respect he deserves for his strength.
But that doesn't mean he'll always be just that fearsome Azure Dragon.
At least, not at this moment.
At this very moment, those who challenge established laws, question the status of gods, and tear open the dawn from a dark future.
His name is Chen Xi.
"I've been competitive since I was a child, and this innate talent has enabled me to climb to the top in any field. No, my climbing has no top!"
"As its name suggests, 'Limitless,' its talent effect is singular—"
Breaking Through Bottlenecks and Limits
Qinglong clenched his fist and took another step upward.
boom--
In an instant, the surrounding space seemed to crack under the strain.
What's most terrifying is that Wu Wang's [Sight of Truth] didn't see any special effects or skills on him.
In other words, this was just the purest power unleashed by the Azure Dragon's physical body.
But is this really a power that humans can possess?
Ignoring the shocked Wu Wang and the others, Qinglong felt his memories being peeled away from his soul.
It's not forgetting, but a process even more cruel than forgetting.
Those memories were torn from his soul like pages from a book, each page still connected to his flesh and blood.
He saw his parents holding his hand as they walked down the street when he was ten, only to fall into their graves in the same year, both succumbing to illness; he saw himself being robbed at knifepoint late at night during his homelessness at fifteen, and how he and the other children killed someone in the struggle, vomiting uncontrollably afterward; he saw the girl he met while fleeing, her eyes crinkling into crescent moons when she smiled, and now she was still standing opposite him, but it seemed he hadn't seen her smile in a long time, only filled with worry…
These images flew out one by one, burning in the air with eerie blue flames that illuminated the path beneath his feet.
"When I was an ordinary person, I reached the peak of my physical body through training, but this so-called peak was just a bottleneck for me."
"Without any external assistance, I can still continue to climb upwards."
"Back then, even ordinary players from the Calamity faction couldn't beat me."
At this point, Qinglong shook his head and smiled.
It seems as if he is laughing at the absurd things he did when he was young and reckless, amidst burning memories.
Wu Wang was already somewhat numb upon hearing this.
He certainly knew what that meant.
Because Wu Wang himself was one of the few people who had honed his physical body to the peak that humans could achieve before becoming a Spirit Disaster player.
If I remember correctly, when converted to the numerical values of the Spirit Disaster game, all attributes are around 10 points.
In other words, even if Qinglong has not yet become a Spirit Disaster player, he will not be restricted by these 10 points.
They can still continue to hone their physical abilities and gain more power.
Not to mention the other powers gained after becoming a Necromancer player.
However, this kind of thing sounds simple.
In fact, the difficulty of constantly breaking limits is simply unbelievable.
Wu Wang was able to survive because of the existence of "immortality," allowing him to commit suicide at any time to refresh his status. This enabled him to ignore the problems that most normal people would face when tempering their bodies or gaining power, allowing him to climb upwards without stopping.
However, Qinglong's [Limitless] only provided him with the opportunity to break through the upper limit, but did not give him any help in climbing.
The fact that Qinglong was able to repeatedly reach the upper limit of power was entirely due to his own efforts.
The truly powerful one is not talent, but the Azure Dragon itself!
Before the public beta, everyone thought that the level cap for players in the Calamity was only 30.
"But when I reached level 30, I realized that wasn't the limit for me, and I could continue to level up."
"During this process, I was already thinking about whether I would eventually be able to break the limits of living beings."
At this moment, Qinglong seemed to have become even weaker, and speaking became somewhat difficult.
But this was a rare moment when he spoke freely; in the past, Qinglong had only ever focused on efficiency.
"In fact, in my prediction, if I have another three years to climb and explore step by step, I am confident that I will be able to take this step smoothly."
"Perhaps one day, we might even surpass them!"
"Unfortunately, humanity no longer has those three years, not even three days."
"I have to try it now, just to challenge the limits of my 'limitless' limit."
Qinglong's words were arrogant yet tinged with helplessness.
Yet it still gave Wu Wang, Qin Shusheng, and the others a huge shock.
He actually has the confidence to step onto it?!
Not only that, it might even surpass it?!
However, as Qinglong said, it will take some time.
Wu Wang's expression became increasingly complicated.
In fact, Qinglong didn't have to be in such a rush.
He could have easily followed the Fireseed Project's plan and escaped the real world as well.
Traversing dungeon worlds is certainly not a difficult task for Qinglong.
Under normal circumstances, those Venerables wouldn't deliberately cause him trouble. The Azure Dragon is a troublesome problem for Venerables, and even the Desire Sea Spirit Venerable probably wouldn't go looking for trouble for no reason. It would be a thankless task.
Years later, when Qinglong successfully takes that step, or when he truly surpasses it, he will be able to unleash the wrath of humanity to attack all the Venerables.
However, if this happens, the current real world will certainly be run rampant by the Venerable One, and the vast majority of humanity will perish in this disaster.
Therefore, Qinglong would rather give up his destined future of success than try to create a brighter possibility right now.
He wouldn't watch humanity suffer annihilation for the sake of his own future!
Martyrs
This was the first word that came to Wu Wang's mind as he listened to Qinglong speak.
The other party is like a fearless martyr, willing to endure suffering and even sacrifice his life and future to uphold his beliefs.
However, his faith was not in any specific deity.
Rather, it is humanity itself.
He firmly believed that humanity could break free from that invisible shackle.
It's not just the oppression of the Venerable Ones, but even the control of the Spirit Disaster Game.
"No...no more..."
Stop now.
The witch choked on the last few words, unable to utter them.
She didn't want the Azure Dragon to continue burning like that.
But she couldn't bring herself to actually speak up and clearly dissuade the other person at such a time.
Because she knew what kind of person Qinglong, or rather Chen Xi, was—once he made a decision, no one could dissuade him. The witch had only one attitude towards Qinglong's past actions—unconditional support.
It was like that before, and it remains so now.
She felt heartache, worry, and even fear, but she wouldn't actually try to stop it.
"Shi Hui, don't be sad. This is something I decided a long time ago." Qinglong said, panting heavily, trying to keep his tone steady. "If I succeed, the future of humanity will be brighter. Even if I fail, I will still show humanity this possibility."
“Wu Wang, you and Xie Zhi are both good comrades. You can continue on the path I have opened up and stride forward, or you can open up new paths until you drag them down from their altars.”
"The future belongs to you."
"As for now..."
"Now, stand behind me and live well!"
The flames in the dragon's eye grew even more intense.
His body, which should have become frail, burst forth with almost inexhaustible power.
Both its momentum and its level are rising rapidly.
His ascent to godhood has not yet ended!
In a daze, Wu Wang seemed to truly feel the same sensation he had when he first saw the Desire Sea Spirit Lord from the Azure Dragon.
“The arrogant venerable ones believe that all space and time belong to them, and all things are their playthings.”
"But I insist on saying no! Listen carefully, Venerable Ones!"
"This moment belongs to me, Chen Xi! It belongs to humanity!"
Boom—Boom—Boom—
Amidst the mocking colors filling the sky, the Azure Dragon took three consecutive steps upwards!
No one knows how many steps it will take to stop, but anyone who witnesses this scene can feel the qualitative change that transcends all living beings.
His skin began to peel off.
It doesn't shed its skin completely like a snake shedding its skin, but rather breaks into small pieces like weathered rock.
New skin emerged from beneath the skin; it wasn't how a human should look.
It was translucent, and it seemed as if thousands of galaxies were flowing inside.
His bones began to remodel.
The sound was so dense it was like a downpour hitting roof tiles. His spine twisted and broke repeatedly inside his body, each break causing his body to hunch over.
But he never bent down.
The legs seemed to take root in the void, the roots as thin as hair, piercing through space itself and sinking into the unknown.
A new rhythm resonated in his chest—
That wasn't a heartbeat, but some kind of grander pulse, like the tides, like the seasons, like the movement of the stars!
His blood began to evaporate.
Every drop of blood seeped from his pores, turning into a red mist that swirled around him.
His entire past is contained within that blood mist—
The blood shed while crawling through the mud, the blood shed while fighting in dungeons, the blood shed while tending to wounds alone in the abyss...
The blood mist clung to him like a lingering ghost, or perhaps like his most loyal guardians, shielding him from the increasingly violent constraints before his last vestiges of humanity faded away.
The Azure Dragon's body is no longer entirely human-shaped.
His outline became blurred, transforming into a form beyond human comprehension.
There were no pupils in her eyes anymore, only two nebulae slowly rotating, and the paleness of her hair turned into a pure white, shimmering like the aurora borealis, flowing with colors that did not belong to this world.
The colors that had disrupted everything in the real world seemed to have been paused.
They began to realize that something was wrong.
Under normal circumstances, the Venerables can only invade other worlds to a degree of equal strength.
Even seemingly weak "Pain" or newly born "Despair" can still fight on par with the Venerable Ones such as "Desire".
Because the world can only withstand so much; even despair can reach this limit.
If more power were to be injected, the Venerable One himself would have to pay a certain price.
Invading a world comes at a price that is entirely not worth it.
This is why, in the real world, colors are constantly pulling at each other, yet no single color ever truly gains the upper hand.
Rather than invading the real world out of mutual hostility, they were more inclined to divide it up.
No one can claim to have taken everything for themselves, and no one can gain more advantage than others.
It's just that each of the Venerable Ones gained something.
This evenly matched situation will only slightly change under one circumstance—
That is to invade a world that has been thoroughly established by a certain Venerable One.
The more profound the defilement of a certain venerable one is to the world, the stronger His power becomes within it.
If other venerable beings only attempt to invade at this point, they will appear relatively weak.
In such a weak position, if one were to contend with a venerable being who has been established for a long time, one would basically gain no advantage and might even have to sacrifice something.
It would be more convenient to find an unclaimed world and invade it first.
This is why dungeons that have clearly been imbued with the aura of a certain Venerable One almost never contain the power of other Venerable Ones.
Even if there are any, they are caused by the opposing side of this Venerable One.
After all, they are opposites, yet they share the same origin.
But for a fleeting moment, they began to feel their power being subtly suppressed in the real world.
In other words, the real world is being imbued with the aura of a certain revered being.
Clearly, this Venerable One does not belong to any of them.
This discovery stirred up all the venerable ones.
This moment truly belongs to the tiny humans before us.
A lowly being is infinitely approaching the level that belongs to them.
It's like how humans discovered that insects were starting to try to build airplanes and cannons, and have already made some progress, showing that they are beginning to approach the level of human civilization.
That's how the Venerable Ones felt at that moment.
How can we avoid surprising people?
Even... fear?
At this moment, they actually had the idea of stopping the Azure Dragon from moving forward.
However, the Azure Dragon completely ignored the changes in the colors of the sky at this moment.
His gaze was fixed on the direction of the sea.
In a daze, he vaguely saw a blurry outline there, overlapping with someone from his memory.
That was the previous director, the man who brought him into the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs and guided him onto the right path.
During his tenure, the other party did not accomplish any earth-shattering feats. Even among the events recorded in the Bureau of Extraordinary Affairs' documents, the most praiseworthy thing was probably bringing Qinglong into the Bureau and appointing him as its director.
However, this is not the case for the Azure Dragon.
No one knew that their current faith in humanity was entirely bestowed upon them by this bureau chief.
Having witnessed the darkness of humanity, the other person allowed him to rediscover the beauty of humanity, ultimately leading him to choose to believe in and protect humanity.
Otherwise, he would probably just be a demon king who makes all players of the Calamity tremble at the mere mention of his name.
The previous director can be considered his mentor and benefactor.
A teacher is one who imparts knowledge, instructs in skills, and resolves doubts.
Only in his presence did Qinglong not see himself as a tall man who had to shoulder heavy responsibilities, but as a student and junior.
Unfortunately, the students have grown up now.
It's my turn to shoulder the responsibility and hold up the collapsing sky.
Qinglong grinned.
Even though his current appearance no longer reveals his facial features or smile, he can still make those around him feel that his smile comes from the heart.
"Teacher, I haven't let you down, have I?"
"Am I still able to continue climbing?"
That was something only he could see, and even Qinglong knew very well that it was mostly just a blurry outline of an illusion as he slowly raised his hand.
Pointing to the turbulent sky, he boldly addressed the vibrant colors:
"Charge forward without hesitation!" (End of Chapter)