Chapter 43: Decapitation Day Part 3

Ye Jingqiu leaped forward to catch Shi Zui. This time, no tears fell—there was no point in something that wouldn’t help.

“Xiao Qiu…?” Shi Zui stirred, but pain had blinded her. She still clutched the Celestial Stem Bronze Sword tightly in her hand.

“It’s me, Captain… I’m here to help you kill this dragon.” Ye Jingqiu’s voice was low. She repeated the restoration command, and Shi Zui’s faltering heart suddenly pounded with renewed vigor!

Whether a moment or a minute passed, Shi Zui felt her dying body awaken. Her condition skyrocketed back to full strength!

“A handy instinct,” Shi Zui said, opening her eyes. Her wounds healed at an unbelievable speed—organs realigning, flesh regenerating. She marveled at the power coursing through her veins. “Words become law… so this is what it feels like?”

Unfortunately, Ye Jingqiu couldn’t hear the Captain’s murmur. She now stood beneath the High Heaven White Jade Throne. The exotic beasts in the hall had either fled or been devoured. A few Shu Si cowered behind her, too terrified to approach.

The Candle Dragon lowered its head with a wary roar. Ye Jingqiu looked up at its massive form as a cold, solitary Azure Flame materialized out of thin air.

“Azure Lamp.”

She spoke.

In the next instant, the Azure Flame surged upward. The Mirror Domain’s image reappeared. The Candle Dragon recoiled in fear, but when Ye Jingqiu’s right hand touched the white jade throne, the flames erupted in a brilliant blaze identical to when Xu Xianyue unleashed her ability!

The Candle Dragon froze. Staring at Ye Jingqiu’s Azure Flame, it suddenly understood. It let out a booming laugh:

“So it was you! All along! That half portion of the Will Source was…”

The Candle Dragon’s voice cut off abruptly.

Shi Zui, gripping the Celestial Stem Bronze Sword, had silently appeared behind the dragon. A sharp draconic keen rang through the air as the bronze blade pierced its tail once more, pinning the beast to the Heavenly Seat of white jade!

The Azure Flame roared into a blazing inferno, engulfing the dragon like a sea of fire. Ye Jingqiu didn’t hesitate. The Earth Kun Profound Sword followed with a sickening crunch of blade into bone, embedding the second divine sword into the dragon’s spine.

The Dragon Trapping Box hummed with excitement. The Celestial Stem Bronze and Earth Kun Profound swords resonated together, forming deadly horns on the dragon’s body.

In an instant, the battle had flipped—victor and vanquished reversed. The dragon’s earlier arrogance was now repaid in double.

Ye Jingqiu flicked her wrist, drawing the third sword from the Dragon Trapping Box. The master craftsman Pu Yuan had once forged the Shu Lord’s Eight Swords from the iron of Gold Bull Mountain. The foremost of those eight would now sever this dragon’s head.

Shi Zui drew the fourth. Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, had forged the Illuminating Gall Sword from gold, silver, copper, iron, and tin. Whether it had ever pierced the Candle Dragon’s liver and gall… well, only history knew for sure.

Ye Jingqiu and Shi Zui leaped as one! Their enhanced bodies shattered human limits. Gold Bull and Illuminating Gall Sword crashed down with mountain-shattering force, one on each side, nearly severing the dragon’s claws.

Jade shards exploded from the throne in batches as the Xun Wind and Thunder Shock positions activated. The scorched Candle Dragon roared, desperate to flee, but its hind claws were nailed to the white jade base. A torrent of blood gushed from the sword wounds, turning in moments to silvery, steaming mist.

Shi Zui was fully restored to her peak. Hurricane Blade summoned the fifth ancient sword. The Purple Lightning Azure Frost, born in the Tang Dynasty, was real enough—and some in the Dao Talisman Department even believed the Tengwang Pavilion Preface was a coded chronicle, a epic tale of humanity’s fifth sealing of the Candle Dragon.

A crisp ring echoed as Purple Lightning Azure Frost shattered the dragon’s spine at its center. Nerves ruptured from head to tail. The Candle Dragon’s body slumped onto the Heavenly Seat like so much refuse. It was paralyzed. Its earlier mocking words now seemed utterly ridiculous.

Next came a sword unlike any other—more precisely, an arrow. Yelu Abaoji had once presented a quiver of Elemental Arrows to the Candle Dragon as its final curtain call. Loteria had spent seven days and seven nights trekking through Changbai Mountain before digging up this divine artifact.

Ye Jingqiu grasped the arrow. Its drifting tail feathers remained pristine white, like a dove streaking across the lofty blue sky. This time, she didn’t wield it like a sword. Instead, she held the fletching and flicked it forward with a light swing—

The arrow, infused with the power of the earth element, slid effortlessly into the dragon’s neck.

Kan Water and Li Fire fell into place!

The Eight Gates Soul Lock Dragon Trapping Array was now more than halfway complete. A faint illusory shadow coalesced around the Candle Dragon atop the Heavenly Seat, as if the impatient aether elements couldn’t wait to claim its soul.

The Dragon Trapping Box was already raring to go. The mere prospect of tasting dragon blood had it trembling with excitement. The seventh Western Xia Sword and the eighth Yongle Sword practically leaped out of the box on their own.

Ye Jingqiu seized both swords at once. She leaped along the Candle Dragon’s tailbone, the blades clashing against its scales in a buzzing friction like swarming bees. Shi Zui watched the thrashing, roaring beast from below, the Yinghuo in her right hand fading instinctively into nothingness.

“It’s finally over,” Shi Zui murmured softly.

The instant her words faded, Ye Jingqiu had already sprinted to the Candle Dragon’s iron-hard head. She hoisted the two divine swords high. In a flash, cold, merciless azure flames erupted along the blades. The mirror-polished sword bodies reflected Ye Jingqiu’s eyes—eyes even icier than those flames.

A torrent of scenes flashed through Ye Jingqiu’s mind: the Candle Dragon rising from the Huangpu River Mouth and spewing black flames, Xu Xianyue plummeting into an endless inferno and whispering an apology, Shi Zui impaled by dragon claws with droplets of blood pattering down…

In that moment, she saw the world for the grandest lie of all, its shadowy boss harboring a vendetta against her very soul. Why should the friends she cherished endure such agony, all at the whim of so-called fate?

But Ye Jingqiu needed no reason now. Fate had dragged her here. Everything had led to this Candle Dragon. So she would end it.

She was a woman without memories or a past. All she had was this fragile warmth, this semblance of home. Anyone who dared destroy it—

Ye Jingqiu thrust Western Xia and Yongle forward without hesitation. In an instant, the twin blades shattered the Candle Dragon’s head. The final pieces, Gen Mountain and Dui Lake, snapped into position. The Eight Gates Soul Lock Dragon Trapping Array was complete.

The eight ancient swords that had once banished the Candle Dragon had crossed millennia to reunite. Each one was forged from the blood and tears of countless Awakeners. The eerie Eight Trigrams shadow took form, crushing the Candle Dragon mercilessly onto the Heavenly Seat and ensuring it could never raise its vaunted head again.

The Candle Dragon slumped, too feeble even to roar its torment. Its body coiled atop the Heavenly Seat, where it would perish as the sovereign of exotic beasts.

The Eight Gates Soul Lock Dragon Trapping Array hummed steadily as the Candle Dragon’s life force ebbed away, bit by bit. Once the Divine Artifact Nail was driven home, there was no salvation. Humanity had returned this dragon to its Golden Hall eight times before. But this time, the Awakeners chose to slay it in its own lair.

The entire Golden Hall began to quake. Her goal achieved, Ye Jingqiu released the sword hilts and tumbled shakily from the dragon’s body.

Truth be told, she was utterly spent. As her foe teetered on the brink of death, the surge of energy that had fueled her battle dissipated alongside it. Slipping from that heightened state, she felt bone-deep drowsiness, a longing to simply close her eyes and sleep.

Her head swam. Had she chugged fake medicine?

Ye Jingqiu pondered hazily, her gaze drifting like a drunkard’s.

“Xiao Qiu? Xiao Qiu?” Shi Zui shook her urgently, words tumbling out in a rush. “Don’t sleep yet, okay? Just hold on a little longer.”

No response. Ye Jingqiu’s eyes suddenly fluttered shut, her head lolling to the side. Before our unbreakable, ever-stoic Captain Shi could even blush with unshed tears—

Even, contented breaths filled the air, proclaiming just how soundly its owner slumbered.

Shi Zui: “?”

Seriously—asleep?

Sleep was good, though. Rest was what the body needed. Shi Zui let out a relieved breath. She was just reaching for a Candle Dragon scale to take with them when footsteps echoed from behind.

It was Olivia and Xie Pingzhi.

The Candle Dragon had devoured most of the exotic beasts in the hall; the survivors outside had been swiftly dealt with by the base members. With silence reigning, Olivia and Xie Pingzhi had activated their instincts in tandem to enter the heterodimensional space.

Spotting her familiar teammates, Shi Zui eased a fraction. Cradling Ye Jingqiu, she started to rise—only for the pair to freeze in unison, their faces contorting in synchronized horror and grief. They staggered back in sync, wailing in unison:

“Xiao Qiu—”

Shi Zui couldn’t even look at these rivals and their uncanny rapport. Having likely burned through Captain Shi’s daily ration of emotions on Xiao Qiu already, she replied flatly:

“She’s asleep.”

“Oh,” Xie Pingzhi said, enlightenment dawning as she schooled her features in a heartbeat and shot up a vigorous thumbs-up. “Our Xiao Qiu’s got nerves of steel!”

Olivia, tears still welling: “……Did you go to drama school or what!!!”

The Golden Hall shuddered on. The base members knew next to nothing about this Alchemy Space—who could say it wouldn’t collapse now that the Candle Dragon was dead? Xie Pingzhi and Olivia hoisted the scarcely breathing Xu Xianyue onto their backs, and the group hurriedly triggered their instincts to escape.

The passage yawned open. Shi Zui threw one last glance at the battlefield. That dim-witted little dragon was still bounding about, clutching its busted game console, apparently baffled at the disappearance of its playmates.

Pity tugged at Shi Zui’s heart, but pity changed nothing. Wars between races never truly ended. She drew a deep breath, turned away, and refused to look back.

Atop the Golden Hall’s white marble Heavenly Seat, the Candle Dragon’s breaths grew shallower, fainter… until they stopped altogether.

ID SY-000007: Candle Dragon. Declared dead.

The group’s silhouettes faded into the distance. The very moment the Awakeners fully vacated the heterodimensional space, a torrent of pure golden light surged from the dead Candle Dragon’s eyes.

It gathered into a tiny flame, which silently burrowed into Ye Jingqiu’s back.

But no one noticed.