Chapter 128 Demonic Sacrifice 9

Xia Qi was awakened by Sister Hong. He set the food down on the ground and instead asked Ding Xiang, "Mr. Ding, do you have any medicine? He's injured."

The demon dragon had saved him at the royal city's execution grounds, where he was hit by the dragon bow crafted by Judge Lin. His body was covered in dense wounds, and when Xia Qi climbed onto his back, he was still stained with a lot of blood.

"Sure, sure, sure," Ding Xiang exclaimed joyfully, handing the medicine over without a second thought.

When he went upstairs to prepare water and food, he had taken quite a bit of medicine while he was at it.

"Roar—"

The demon dragon let out two breaths, clearly a little unhappy.

These superficial wounds were no big deal to him; he usually just waited for them to heal on their own. The reason Ding Xiang kept nagging about applying medicine was because once he had been hit by an overpowered player's giant dragon bow, collapsed from exhaustion on Dragon Island, and that had given Ding Xiang a chance to apply medicine.

Seeing that Xia Qi refused to eat first, Sister Hong hurriedly picked up the food and water from the ground and earnestly advised, "Xia, you should eat something first. How can you climb onto the dragon's back to apply medicine if you have no strength?"

The thing was, this demon dragon was incredibly resilient. Xia Qi needed to regain some stamina, right?

"Roar," the demon dragon grunted again, seemingly in agreement with Sister Hong.

With the combined persuasion of the demon dragon and Sister Hong, Xia Qi had no choice but to take the tray and eat the dry bread first.

The bread Ding Xiang provided seemed to have been stored for a long time. It was extremely uncomfortable to swallow, needing water to wash it down. Even worse, there was a strange musty smell to the bread. Xia Qi, worried that the demon dragon would notice something was off, quickly finished all the bread.

After finishing, Xia Qi felt a deep pang of sympathy. It seemed that the life of the demon dragon and Ding Xiang was really tough...

After replenishing his energy, Xia Qi picked up the medicine jar from the ground and began to apply ointment to the demon dragon's wounds.

The ointment was a red solid that needed to be melted in the hand first, and it smelled faintly of gunpowder.

Seeing Xia Qi constantly sniffing the ointment in his hand, Ding Xiang explained, "This is made from the alkaline basaltic magma produced in Demon Dragon Mountain—basalt and gabbro crystals. I just went up and ground them into powder, then added some preserved magic medicine."

Xia Qi thought to himself, no wonder the medicine felt strange. It was another specialty from the dungeon.

They didn’t have any brushes or tools. After melting the medicine in his palm, Xia Qi climbed onto the demon dragon's back, lying on him to clean the wounds and then slowly applying the medicine.

Xia Qi's hands gently caressed the dragon's scales, carefully piling the ointment on the wounds, trying his best not to touch the injured flesh.

Being tended to so patiently, the demon dragon's eyes squinted comfortably.

It felt absolutely amazing.

The ointment was already slightly warm, and once melted, it became even hotter. Every inch of his back that Xia Qi covered felt like it was smeared with a layer of molten lava, burning fiercely.

"Woo..." The demon dragon suddenly lowered his head, his entire body trembling slightly, letting out a sound that was both satisfying and dissatisfying.

Hearing the dragon’s trembling roar, Xia Qi felt a shiver run down his spine.

He quickly moved away from the demon dragon and went to discuss something important with Ding Xiang. "By the way, Ding Xiang, what exactly is this dungeon about?"

After dealing with the largest wound on the demon dragon's back, Xia Qi slid down and began to treat the wounds on his legs.

When Xia Qi mentioned the dungeon, Ding Xiang looked embarrassed and admitted, "Actually... this dungeon is my single-player challenge to become an overpowered player."

He used to live on the 17th floor of the Central Space. During the last dungeon, he accidentally failed, preventing him from becoming an overpowered player. He came to the 18th floor alone to get another shot at challenging the top-difficulty single-player dungeon.

"What?" Xia Qi was stunned, unable to help but ask, "If this is your personal challenge, why is the dungeon so huge?"

Just flying from the Southern Continent to the frozen Dragon Island took them half a day. Xia Qi couldn't even imagine the full extent of this dungeon.

"This dungeon is so large because it was cobbled together by a group of overpowered players," Ding Xiang sighed and said, "They wanted to control the number of overpowered players in Sinful Game, intending to keep the promoted overpowered players here, preventing others from advancing to the 18th floor—or higher levels."

Xia Qi had once visited the villa area on the 17th floor with Xiao Ou and found that many overpowered players were stuck on the 17th floor and unwilling to leave. This group of overpowered players purchased match vouchers to participate in primary and intermediate dungeons, extending their survival time in the main game area and avoiding the dungeons above the 18th floor.

Based on Ding Xiang's statements, Xia Qi suspected that Judge Lin and others also lived on the 17th floor. The reason Judge Lin caused such a big commotion this time was probably because he wanted to ascend to the 18th floor and, while at it, kill off the other players on the 17th floor.

However, Xia Qi really couldn't understand why Judge Lin always liked to do underhanded deeds.

"Why are they stopping others from going further up? Is there something valuable or secret on the floors above the 18th?" Xia Qi continued to ask.

If he passed this challenge, he too would be able to advance to the 18th floor.

"They want their people to enter the 18th floor… Perhaps there's the greatest treasure or secret in the entire game? Of course, that's just my guess since I've never been to the 18th floor or beyond." Ding Xiang smiled.

What exactly lies on the 18th floor, and what's beyond, remains a mystery to all current players.

Of course, the real issue with the 18th floor can only be discovered by going there yourself. Only then would you understand why Judge Lin is preventing others from ascending.

It was rare for Xia Qi to have a conversation with a player of Ding Xiang's level. In fact, players at Ding Xiang's level were already overpowered players. They were either trying to kill him or ambushing him.

Xia Qi steered the conversation back, "What was your dungeon originally like? And how did the overpowered players who arrived later piece together this dungeon?"

"It's a long story… Originally, my dungeon was an escape-the-palace dungeon," Ding Xiang said.

The initial setting of the entire dungeon was a terror-filled royal capital full of power struggles. His initial identity was that of a palace servant, tasked with helping ensure the smooth succession of the throne and maintaining the kingdom's long-term stability.

Of course, he never really understood what was so great about this royal lineage since the emperor's family was the notorious werewolf clan. On nights of the full moon, the nobles in the palace would transform into wolves and need to feed on human flesh.

He had been trembling in fear inside the palace, planning to help the young emperor ascend the throne and then escape. However, after the young emperor married Queen Mary, the power struggle shifted dramatically.

When Queen Mary began favoring an overpowered player, the emperor could no longer transform into a human, and the power of the kingdom fell into Queen Mary's hands. Later, to further destabilize the world, the other terrifying realms under the kingdom's rule began to emerge. Since the rulers of these four nations were not human, they constantly conflicted under the control of overpowered players, causing the dungeon's structure and rules to become complicated. This was evident when half of the players' system inventory slots were locked, and eventually, the entire system inventory shut down, leaving them unable to even hear the system's voice.

Once the dungeon became large and chaotic, Ding Xiang could no longer leave because he couldn't unify the four nations.

After listening to Ding Xiang's explanation, Sister Hong asked in confusion, "How many years have you been in the dungeon? Have you aged so much?"

"The time passes differently in this dungeon compared to others. In fact, I've been here for over 20 years," Ding Xiang grabbed his facial hair and stomped his foot, "That's why I look 50! But I'm actually only 25 years old!"

"Ha, you've been stuck for so long?" Sister Hong crossed her legs, folded her arms, and said indifferently, "Then I'll just settle down here and live out my days. After all, a prison is a prison, no matter where it is."

Ding Xiang had never seen anyone so nonchalant and widened his eyes, saying, "They won’t let you off easy. I’ve been hunted by them, which is why I ended up on Dragon Island..."

As Sister Hong and Ding Xiang continued to digress, Xia Qi cleared his throat and pulled the topic back, "So, this dungeon, based on yours, was turned into a domination dungeon by overpowered players?"

Ding Xiang chuckled helplessly and nodded, "Yes, someone needs to unify the four nations and restore the dungeon's rules to set us free. We can only leave if that happens. Alternatively, you could try to destroy the entire dungeon, though I believe that would be even more difficult."

He blamed his own lack of ability for being unable to resist the overpowered players' invasion, watching helplessly as they transformed a single-player dungeon into a nightmare-level challenge.

"Unify the four nations? And they're monster-ruled lands?" Sister Hong gasped, "Do you think we're superhuman conquerors or something?"

Xia Qi: "..."

Xia Qi forcing himself to ask, "First, tell me what the four nations are."

"I've been to all four nations," Ding Xiang detailed, "They are the Rose Kingdom to the west, the Sea Kingdom to the east, the Cannibal Nation to the south, and Moon Valley."

He had once hidden in these nations for a while, but in the end, he was chased by overpowered players and NPCs, forcing him to hide on Dragon Island.

"Listening to the descriptions of the Rose Country and the Sea Country, Xia Qi couldn't shake the feeling that something was off. He asked, puzzled, 'Who is the lord of the Rose Country?'"

"'The Rose Country is ruled by Duke Oss, who became the lord and duke after the Rose Castle dungeon was integrated into this dungeon,' Ding Xiang said."

"Hearing the familiar name of the old count, Xia Qi took a step back, his eyes widening in surprise."

"'What about the Sea Country?' Xia Qi clenched his fists tightly, wondering if it would be another old acquaintance."

"'The Sea Country is ruled by a half-human, half-mermaid woman named Daisy. They are extremely exclusive and hate humans; no human who enters has ever come out alive... Oh, and they are always clashing with the Rose Country for some reason,' Ding Xiang explained."

"Xia Qi felt a wave of dizziness hit him hard. 'Go on...'"

"'When I passed by Demon Dragon Dungeon, I discovered an ancient, sleeping royal bloodline within the dungeon—that is His Majesty!' Ding Xiang puffed out his chest proudly as he mentioned his discovery. 'Once I assist His Majesty in reunifying the four countries, we can leave!'"

"'Roar—'"

"The demon dragon let out a burst of dragon fire and rolled its eyes, clearly amused by Ding Xiang’s grand plans."

"In fact, it had woken up entirely because of His awakening!"

"As for those running around, the dragon couldn’t be bothered with them."

"'But right now, His Majesty is still a dragon...' Xia Qi glanced towards the demon dragon. The dragon, seeing Xia Qi look over, quickly widened its eyes and let out a low howl at him."

"'I’ve been trying to find a way to turn His Majesty back into a human—it’s my only hope,' Ding Xiang said with a sad expression. 'Unfortunately, I can’t beat the overpowered players or the NPCs, so I’m stuck here on Dragon Island, waiting to die.'"

"Xia Qi had to admit, Ding Xiang’s unconventional approach—running off to the Arctic to wait things out—was impressive." "Sister Hong, after hearing Ding Xiang’s story, suddenly stood up, winked at Xia Qi, and said with a smug smile, 'No... you’re definitely cooking on a hot stove.'"