The People

Even withered, the Giant Tree was still extraordinarily huge.

Two enormous ceramic hands thrust out of the dead tree's trunk and tore it open!

Even the Giant Tree's ghostly face was ripped in half as a terrifying Ghost Infant the size of a skyscraper crawled out of its trunk!

Each of its bizarre plastic eyes was as big as a room. Its limbs were still made of broken ceramic, making everyone worry that those fragile supports could not bear such an enormous body.

The livestream chat erupted in wails and screams, and some impatient viewers even started cursing, demanding to know what the Dragon Kingdom's leaders were doing.

Then the giant Ghost Infant suddenly shrank and leaped onto a Blood Sparrow. The bird carried it onto the aircraft carrier, and only then did everyone realize that the Ghost Infant actually had an owner!

The Ghost Infant belonged to the Dragon Kingdom!

Like Pikachu, the Ghost Infant climbed onto Qing Feng's shoulder and lay there quietly. Possessing the tree seemed to have exhausted it, and it slumped against its owner, fast asleep.

Those impatient viewers who had been spewing abuse were soon banned.

Many people from the Dragon Kingdom laughed until tears streamed down their faces. Their country was still as formidable as ever!

No matter how terrifying a creature was, once it entered the Dragon Kingdom, even a dragon had to coil up obediently, and even a tiger had to lie down!

Many viewers in the livestream began celebrating, but Xiao Hao avoided the surveillance cameras and walked helplessly into a wrecked menswear store.

The Giant Tree and the Flower Eagle might have differed vastly in size, but both were rare monsters. The Flower Eagle could not be much weaker than the Giant Tree!

It was too early to celebrate.

The three elite soldiers realized this too, watching the Flower Eagle circling overhead with deeply furrowed brows.

By now, Mu Saying's White-Eyed Eagle was covered in wounds, while the Flower Eagle remained completely unscathed.

The difference in strength was obvious!

Qing Feng's Ghost Infant had just finished possessing the Giant Tree and was in a weakened state. Having it possess the Flower Eagle next was unrealistic.

The Ghost Infant could not fly. Even if it rode a Blood Sparrow, the Flower Eagle might swat it to pieces the moment it approached.

And Ghost Shadow was not a Shadow Seahorse. He could not turn into an Aurora Shadow, nor could he fly. His illusions could hardly encompass the Flower Eagle, which could easily leave his skill's range.

In fact, even if Ghost Shadow successfully cast his illusions, they would have little effect on the Flower Eagle.

First, there was level suppression. Qing Feng's Ghost Shadow was only level four.

Second, illusions worked best on highly intelligent creatures. The Flower Eagle had only recently mutated, and its intelligence and memories were extremely limited.

Its powerful body gave it unparalleled confidence, leaving few psychological vulnerabilities for an illusion to exploit. Even conjuring a level-four wild monster would only get it killed in one hit.

Wu Ting's dinosaurs were even more useless. They could not so much as touch the Flower Eagle.

With its terrifying bite force, the Tyrannosaurus Rex might have been able to snap the Flower Eagle's neck in one bite, but only if it could get close! With its sheer weight, Mu Saying's Guardians could not possibly carry it!

The viewers were still celebrating when foreign viewers bypassed the firewall and threw cold water on their excitement.

"Seriously? Just two bosses reduced the Dragon Kingdom to this?"

"Ahem. As for top players like those few in the Dragon Kingdom, our Cow Kingdom has four times as many."

"Our Tiger Kingdom isn't much to speak of. We only have a little over three times as many."

"Aren't you celebrating a bit too soon? You only dealt with the Giant Tree boss. Didn't you see that enormous Flower Eagle?"

"If you ask me, those three top players from the Dragon Kingdom can't hold out either. They have no way to deal with the Flower Eagle."

"It's only the third day of the players' holiday, and the Dragon Kingdom is already about to collapse?"

"Unless they deploy heavy weapons on a massive scale, they can forget about hurting the Flower Eagle."

"This is the edge of a city. If they use weapons on that scale, are they planning to abandon the whole city?"

"For the empire's safety, they'll probably deploy them."

Any other country would have deployed them long ago.

To the leaders of other countries, if it meant saving an entire empire, "necessary sacrifices were perfectly justifiable."

As the foreign viewers mocked and discussed the situation, viewers from the Dragon Kingdom began to worry too.

They were right!

This Flower Eagle was on the same level as that Giant Tree!

Fighting a single Giant Tree had nearly exhausted everything they had. Even their fighter jets had almost all been smashed apart by its lashes. Now that they faced the agile Flower Eagle, who could stop it?

Foreign top players could still win through sheer numbers, but the Dragon Kingdom only had three!

At this stage, a top player was someone whose safe house and Battle General Guardian had both reached the maximum level of ten. That did not include their troop Guardians.

Not every top player could be like Xiao Hao, slaughtering every boss in the game, large and small, including a hidden boss over a kilometer away, and taking on three groups of wild monsters.

Most of their troops were only level three or four, with level five being the absolute limit.

Even a level-ten Guardian would not dare provoke a group of wild monsters lightly. Without a skill like Shadow Transformation that could both conceal them and help them escape, they could only stay well clear of any wild monster group they encountered.

The Blood Sparrows and the White-Eyed Eagle were gradually being overwhelmed. The dinosaurs on the ground could only stare up at the Flower Eagle, utterly useless.

One Blood Sparrow after another suffered severe injuries and was recalled by Mu Saying. Fewer and fewer Guardians remained to keep the Flower Eagle occupied, and the handful of other Dragon Kingdom players could only send their Battle Generals to buy time.

Right before the eyes of everyone in the Dragon Kingdom, the Flower Eagle brazenly flew into Blue Dragon City!

The foreign viewers nearly laughed themselves senseless at the sight. Furious and frantic, the Dragon Kingdom's viewers cursed those mockers and eighteen generations of their ancestors.

Once it entered the city, the Dragon Kingdom's aircraft carriers no longer dared fire their shells, afraid of accidentally harming civilians!

Leaders from other countries sent messages asking whether they needed support.

Naturally, they were not being kindhearted.

They had their eyes on the aircraft carriers.

To pressure the Dragon Kingdom's leaders, they even deliberately brought up the deal in the livestream chat.

"I heard our Cow Kingdom's players are ready to support the Dragon Kingdom, provided they give us an aircraft carrier."

"Our Tiger Kingdom can help too."

"The Turtle Kingdom is no exception."

"If the Dragon Kingdom gives each of our countries an aircraft carrier, we guarantee we'll help you through this crisis!"

"You're not that stingy, are you? Don't you care about the lives of tens of millions of citizens?"

"Is the Dragon Kingdom planning to abandon Blue Dragon City?"

"Probably. Look, they haven't said a word. They're just coldly watching the Flower Eagle fly into Blue Dragon City..."

The foreign viewers' mockery and accusations filled the Dragon Kingdom's viewers with fury.

"That's fucking bullshit! Every other country might abandon its people, but the Dragon Kingdom never would!"

"You open your mouths and demand an aircraft carrier? You really know how to ask for the moon!"

The Dragon Kingdom's viewers were no slouches in an online fight. Their colorful curses could make their opponents question their entire existence.

But with the crisis right in front of them, the foreign viewers could leisurely tap away at their keyboards, while the Dragon Kingdom's viewers had no heart to craft rebuttals from every angle. They were as frantic as ants on a hot pan.

"Oh, please. A special boss like the Flower Eagle can't be killed without large-scale weapons. Your players are useless, so it can turn Blue Dragon City into its own slaughterhouse to its heart's content!"

"If you don't want to abandon Blue Dragon City, your only option is to ask us for support."

Everyone feared death. Many citizens of Blue Dragon City even began pressuring the Dragon Kingdom to agree to the deal.

They did not want to die.

"Maybe we should agree?"

"Are you insane?! Did you learn nothing in history class?"

"Then what else can we do?! I don't want to die!"

"I don't have any answers either. I just want to live..."

"I haven't even had the chance to repay my parents. I left home and came all the way to Blue Dragon City. I've let them down..."

"Boohoo..."

"Please, save me..."

"My child is only five..."

The pleas from Blue Dragon City's citizens silenced the other viewers from the Dragon Kingdom.

Even the relentless online arguers seemed to have lost much of their fighting spirit.

Whatever else might be true, these were their compatriots. How could they harden their hearts and abandon them?

The Dragon Kingdom's culture was one in which help came from all directions whenever disaster struck one place. Even those living in other cities could not bring themselves to abandon their compatriots.

The Dragon Kingdom's leaders were caught in a dilemma. The best choice was actually to abandon Blue Dragon City.

The other empires were watching like predators. Could anyone truly believe that handing over aircraft carriers would buy peace?

History told them it would not.

Those who fell behind would be beaten.

No matter how much they gave, it would never satisfy those countries' appetites.

An aircraft carrier was worth hundreds of billions.

Keeping their aircraft carriers and retaining their status as a great power would make other countries wary, preventing them from casually invading the Dragon Kingdom.

"What comes from the people must be used for the people."

One of the Dragon Kingdom's leaders spoke those words, and all the senior officials seemed to age more than a decade in an instant.

They could give up anything, but never their own people.

On the secret video conference, the leaders of the other countries saw the Dragon Kingdom soften its stance. Their grins widened wildly, and they could barely resist throwing back their heads and laughing.

Oh, Dragon Kingdom.

They had lived under its shadow for far too long!

Even when they joined forces to suppress the Dragon Kingdom, it remained standing.

The Dragon Kingdom seemed to have no weaknesses. No matter how its leaders were pressured, threatened, or tempted, they always stood by their country.

Now, they had finally found the Dragon Kingdom's weakness-the people.

Inwardly, they mocked the Dragon Kingdom for not knowing what to sacrifice, while the Dragon Kingdom inwardly mocked them for not understanding that the people were a nation's foundation.

The commander of the Dragon Kingdom's Dragon Transformation Pool sighed. Just as he was about to agree, he suddenly noticed something unusual!

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