Chapter 6: The Fall

  Something is wrong.

  Whether it was Rode or Carter, they both had the same idea at this moment. The Wind Snake Lord was really troublesome. Although the floating ship was rapidly descending and the forest not far away could already be seen clearly, if things continued like this, the floating ship would probably disintegrate in mid-air before it even landed on the ground!

  "Cheers!"

  Karter flew forward, the twin swords in his hands slicing through the air with a cold glow, stabbing straight at the giant claws of the Wind Snake Lord. However, just as he was about to succeed, the Wind Snake Lord suddenly opened its mouth, and Karter felt a pungent breath wash over him. He didn't even have time to react before rolling on the ground to avoid the snake's bite, although this also meant that his attack had failed. Just as Karter stood up and tried to create some distance, the Wind Snake Lord seemed to think that this little insect was too annoying, and suddenly struck out with its claws. Unprepared for the snake to release its grip on the ship, Karter was caught off guard, and he subconsciously raised his twin swords to defend himself. However, he was still heavily knocked back, sliding several meters across the deck before finally coming to a stop against the mast.

  It can't go on like this.

  Rode furrowed his brow and then looked towards the girl standing not far behind him with a worried expression.

  "Lijie, I need your help!"

  "Huh?"

  "I'll draw its attention away, and when it attacks me, I hope you can give me a protective shield!"

  "Alright!"

  When Lisha heard Rod's words, she nodded without hesitation. She clenched her fists tightly, and a bright, soft light floated above her body. Seeing this scene, Rod didn't say anything more, he just turned his head, then raised his long sword and stabbed forward fiercely.

  Shattered Blade.

  Dazzling, snow-like blades of light once again slashed through the air, heavily striking the Wind Snake Lord's body. Although this time Rod didn't consciously concentrate the blades of light and instead let them scatter and attack randomly, so their power was somewhat weaker than before, thus unable to pierce the Wind Snake Lord's scales once more. However, the scattered attacks tore open several bright red gashes on the Wind Snake Lord's wing membranes, causing it to involuntarily cry out in pain and rage.

  "Hiss!!!!"

  The Wind Snake Lord's movement suddenly stopped, it quickly turned its head back, the two bright red eyes burning with angry flames, staring tightly at the young human on the deck, and then it opened its mouth again, flying quickly towards Rode.

  The speed of the Wind Snake Lord was indeed not slow, and in just a blink of an eye, Rod could see its open blood-red big mouth appearing above his head. This also made Rod tense up his nerves, as this was a very adventurous choice. He deliberately did not use Shadow Flash, but instead maintained a relatively slow speed to advance, precisely to lure the Wind Snake Lord into making the first move. Although this would make the danger much greater, when the enemy was in full-force attack mode, its weaknesses would also become more apparent - and that was exactly the opportunity Rod wanted to seize!

  The Wind Snake Lord's massive jaws were right in front of him, and if he didn't do something within the next few seconds, Rod would be swallowed whole.

  However, it still failed to achieve its goal.

  At this moment, a faint, white-glowing egg-shaped barrier suddenly appeared on Rode's body, blocking the Wind Snake Lord's sharp fangs. Although the Wind Snake Lord's movement slowed down for a moment, in the next instant it completely crushed this layer of barrier, but it didn't bite anything.

  At the moment when the Guardian Shield enveloped him, Lode had already activated Shadow Flash.

  He was like a ghostly shadow, dodging the Wind Snake Lord's bite, and then raised his pure white long sword, slashing it from its throat.

  This is exactly the weakness of the Wind Snake Lord, and it's also the most vulnerable place on its body. However, previously it always had its neck shrunk in, making it very hard to be attacked. But this time, the enraged Wind Snake Lord completely let loose with its attack, and precisely because of that, it no longer had any time to protect its own deadliest weakness.

  “———！！！”

  A sharp, mournful cry echoed out, and the Wind Serpent's head jerked up as if it had been electrocuted. At its throat, a gout of foul blood spurted out, splashing across the entire deck. Then its body went limp, crashing heavily to the deck, devoid of any further signs of life.

  At this moment, Rod also saw a deep green rapidly expanding in front of his eyes.

  BOOM!!!

  Then he only felt the ship's body suddenly shook, his own body as if in an instant floated to the air. After that, Luo De's eyes turned black, and he completely lost consciousness.

  When he woke up again, the first thing he felt was the biting cold wind.

  "This is mine..."

  Open your eyes, the first thing that comes into view is a beautiful night sky. Unlike ordinary nights, the nights here are very "bright", with soft moonlight shining down, casting shadows of every leaf on the ground. And in the night sky, apart from the twinkling stars, there are also strips of light floating among them, condensing and gathering to form a ribbon of light that stretches out in all directions.

  This is the characteristic of Long Soul Continent - according to ancient legend, this was originally a chaotic and dangerous space. Later, five giant dragons came here, they used their bodies to create heaven, earth and all things in this originally empty space. And in order to suppress the evil chaos, after creating the world with their bodies, the five giant dragons also threw their souls into it, to suppress the evil chaos power and protect the order of this world.

  Each of the giant dragons' dragon souls has its own unique form, just like the sky above Rode's head right now, which represents that this is the protection area belonging to the light dragon soul. Its characteristic is that even in the dark night, there will be a bright glow. In contrast, the protection area of the dark dragon soul is where, even during the day, it is pitch black and no shadow of light can be seen.

  It is also because of this that the distribution of species on the mainland is quite regular.

  In the area protected by the Dragon Soul of Light, various green plants can be seen thriving. However, in the area of the Dragon Soul of Darkness, only the silhouettes of nocturnal plants can be seen. Of course, this characteristic also affects the distribution of various races on the continent. Humans are mostly gathered under the protection of the Dragon Soul of Light, followed by elves and angels. The undead, vampires, and nightmares, naturally became residents of the Dark Kingdom.

  There are no gods on this continent. If one had to say, the five giant dragons that created heaven and earth would be their objects of worship. Similarly, this also includes the holders of dragon souls.

  Every soul has its core existence, and even the giant dragons that created the world are no exception. The core of their souls will be hosted in a certain person's body, and this person can adjust the dragon soul's protection for the mainland by using this power.

  To put it simply, if chaos is a virus and the dragon soul's power is a firewall, then the person holding the soul core is equivalent to the CPU. As long as the CPU can still operate, the firewall will not malfunction, and all chaotic forces can be completely repelled from this world.

  These holders of the soul cores are also seen as the successors of the giant dragon souls.

  But this kind of thing doesn't make sense for Luo De now.

  Rod slowly got up, a severe pain sweeping his body, especially the wound on the left side of his chest, which now seemed even more serious. Before, Rod could still barely move his left hand, but now he couldn't even move it at all, and even just wiggling his fingers would make him feel as if his entire arm was immersed in a sea of fire.

  But this instead made Rode feel at ease, having some feeling meant that his arm was still there, if he had no feeling at all, that would be a big problem.

  Lifting his head, with the help of the bright moonlight, Rod first saw the wreckage of the airship, and the tall trees surrounding them showed that they were in a forest. And so, what had happened was clear. Although Rod had killed the Wind Snake Lord, the airship, which was already weak, had been destroyed by the intense impact during its descent.

  At this moment, the forest was silent, and even the sound of insects could not be heard. Rod looked around and saw that there were bloodstains and corpses everywhere on the ground, including those of wind snakes and humans. And near Rod's side, a small figure lay motionless.

  "Lily!"

  Rude hastened to the girl's side, bent down to carefully observe her condition. Fortunately, although the girl looked pale and had tightly clenched fists, her breathing was still even, and under Rude's calls, it didn't take too long for the girl to open her eyes.

  "I... I am... this is..."

  Lijie slowly opened her eyes, staring at the man in front of her. After a while, she seemed to have regained consciousness, apparently she didn't fall lightly.

  "Am I still alive?"

  "That's right."

  Seeing Lijie answer her own words, Rode finally put down his heart, and the girl slowly stood up, shaking her head, tightly biting her lips, as if she had not fully recovered yet. However, for the girl, there were more important things to do at the moment.

  "What about everyone? What about the team leader? How are they?"

  “……”

  Luo De didn't respond, but Lijie didn't need to either, because at this moment, she had already clearly seen the situation around her. That originally pale little face now had an abnormally stiff expression.

  "What...?! Kriet! Shaal! Battalion Commander!"

  The girl rushed to the bodies of those mercenaries, desperately calling out their names, but no one responded. However, Lijie did not give up, she squatted down and carefully checked the mercenary in front of her, after confirming that he was dead, she did not cry painfully, but bit her teeth and ran towards the next person.

  However, the girl's efforts did not receive the deserved harvest.

  Facing those already cold and stiff corpses, she could do nothing. Although Lige had been insisting, when she saw Carter's figure, her legs still softened involuntarily, and she sat down on the ground.

  The mercenary captain, who was once full of vigor and vitality, had also become a cold corpse. Half of his body was stuck in the gap between the deck boards, with a broken wooden stake piercing through his abdomen.

  "Head of the group......"

  Witnessing this scene, Lijie sat blankly on the somewhat damp grass, the spark of hope had completely extinguished from her eyes, replaced by bewilderment and sorrow. In the end, the girl lowered her head, although she didn't speak, but the faint sobbing sound carried by the night wind still reached Rode's ears.

  Looking at the blonde girl's slightly trembling shoulders in front of him, Rude could only stand silently behind her, unable to say a word. Before, during the battle, he hadn't paid attention to these things because it was a matter of life and death. But now that everything had ended, looking around at the corpses scattered all over the ground, Rude couldn't help but feel complicated emotions. He wasn't someone who hadn't seen corpses before, but those were just simulated scenes in the game, where people could revive with magic or their souls would run away from their bodies. But this wasn't a game, and people wouldn't come back to life, nor would they run away from their bodies.

  Dead is dead.

  At this moment, Luo De seemed to recall the night seven years ago. He could only watch with his eyes open, but he was powerless - death walked firmly past him, and he couldn't even stop it.

  Just as he was about to say something to comfort the girl in front of him, suddenly, a faint cry for help came.

  "Hey... is anyone there? Help..."