The blood-red kagune writhed through the air, so dense that even the sky seemed stained crimson.
Adrian Vale's left eye burned with a scarlet glow as he stared fixedly at the Ancient Azure Dragon Incarnation before him.
The dragon, in turn, had locked its massive eyes onto Adrian. Its presence crashed over the battlefield like a mountain.
The clash between them could erupt at any moment.
Watching from the distance, Raven Shaw couldn't hide the tension on her face.
Kid… you have to win.
If you lose here, then everything we've done will have been for nothing.
The two of them had fought their way this far and seized resource after resource for one reason only—
for Dragon Nation.
They had already secured an enormous amount.
But if both of them died here, Dragon Nation would instantly lose a massive portion of everything they had earned.
And for a nation that had only just begun rising at full speed, that kind of loss would be catastrophic.
The countless Dragon Nation viewers watching the livestream were just as tense.
"Eat-Stream Adrian Vale is going to win. If he dares challenge that dragon head-on, then he must be confident in his own strength."
"If he loses here, every advantage Dragon Nation built up before this will be wiped out."
"I don't even care about the reward anymore. I just want Adrian to survive. Watching his stream has become part of my daily routine."
"Exactly. He's just one young man, but he's been carrying the weight of an entire nation on his shoulders. He's already done more than enough."
Back in Dragon Nation, inside the live studio for I Came to Watch the Divine Domain, Bingbing spoke in a heavy voice.
"No matter how this battle ends, Adrian Vale and Raven Shaw have already done more than enough for Dragon Nation."
Professor Luo nodded slowly.
"That's right. If you think about their age, the two of them are still just children."
"And yet they've managed to carry Dragon Nation this far. That alone is extraordinary."
"At this point, all I hope is that they can come back alive."
Captain Ryan Cole's gaze was steady and fierce.
"Those two have fought their way through crisis after crisis ever since the beginning."
"The people and soldiers of Dragon Nation are all standing behind them."
"If they can survive this and regroup with the rest of Dragon Nation's contestants, their overall chances of survival will rise dramatically."
"I just hope they can hold out until that day."
At that moment, all of Dragon Nation was praying for Adrian and Raven.
Because the gap between them and the dragon was simply too overwhelming.
The dragon's body blotted out the sky.
Its every movement radiated the crushing weight of an abyss.
And the endless sandstorm spiraling around it made it impossible for anyone to imagine how Adrian could possibly fight something like this.
But Adrian himself had no idea what the people of Dragon Nation were thinking.
He was busy studying the dragon's every movement.
"This thing has been here for a thousand years," he muttered, voice low. "It hasn't fought anyone for real in all that time. Its battle instincts have to be rusty."
"If that's true… then it definitely has an opening."
His eyes never left the Ancient Azure Dragon Incarnation, searching for the flaw that mattered.
The dragon, however, gave him no time at all.
With a sky-shaking roar, its colossal body surged downward like heaven collapsing, bearing down on Adrian and Raven.
Boom!
The sky turned pitch-black.
Layer after layer of dark clouds gathered overhead.
The temperature across the battlefield plummeted.
Every movement of the Ancient Azure Dragon made it look as if heaven and earth themselves were rallying to its side.
And then Adrian smiled.
"Found it."
The kagune on his body began to move at high speed.
His entire form spread outward like a gigantic blooming lotus.
Each kagune extension resembled a blood-red vein in that monstrous flower, all of them shooting toward the dragon in an instant.
When Dragon Nation's viewers saw that, every last one of them clenched their fists.
"You can do this, Eat-Stream Adrian Vale! You have to!"
"Everything can still work out—you just have to make it through!"
"That dragon is all show! Adrian can beat it!"
"Old Adrian, you're carrying the hopes of all Dragon Nation! We're behind you forever!"
At the same time, viewers from other countries were already celebrating.
"It's over. He's definitely going to die here."
"Hahaha! Once that guy called Adrian Vale dies, Dragon Nation won't have anyone left who can hold things together."
"The decline of Dragon Nation starts now. Only Miracle Nation deserves to stand at the top of the world."
"Everything is moving exactly the way we expected."
Boom!
A deafening collision shook the wasteland.
The dragon's massive claw slammed into the giant crimson lotus formed by Adrian's kagune.
The resulting shockwave exploded outward from the point of impact, sweeping across the entire desert.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Enormous craters opened one after another across the wasteland.
Even though the yellow sand absorbed much of the force, the sheer violence of the clash still left the battlefield in ruins.
"Just the aftershock from their collision did this to the entire wasteland…"
"How strong are those two, exactly?"
"Are they actually fighting on equal footing?"
The same thought rose in countless hearts.
Then the battle truly entered its fiercest stage.
From within the giant crimson lotus, one pale-red kagune suddenly shot forward.
With a flicker of Adrian's will, it lengthened at blinding speed and drove straight toward the dragon's forehead.
The dragon's eyes showed open contempt, as if mocking Adrian's arrogance.
Clang!
A metallic ring echoed through the air.
The kagune had struck the dragon squarely in the forehead—
but failed to break through its defense.
Only the faintest white mark appeared.
Adrian's heart tightened.
Without hesitation, he twisted his body and vanished from where he stood.
In the very next instant, a gigantic dragon claw tore through the space he had just occupied.
Had he remained even a fraction of a second longer, he would have been crushed where he stood.
Far away, Raven bit down hard on her lip, her eyes locked on the battle.
Inside, she kept repeating the same thing to herself.
That kid is going to win. He's never lost to any creature he's faced.
He can't lose here.
And besides, this dragon only has one-seventh of the original's power. There's no way it can beat him.
At first, she had only been telling herself that silently.
But before she realized it, the words had already escaped her lips.
"Don't die, you stupid kid!"
Boom!
A bolt of lightning split the sky at that very moment.
Her voice rang out even louder than the thunder.
In the middle of the battle, Adrian's expression shifted slightly.
Then the corner of his mouth curved upward.
"Old woman," he muttered, "are you already acting like you can't live without me?"
"That's not happening. Not in the Divine Domain."
And of course, every bit of that had been faithfully broadcast by the Will of Blue Star.
Dragon Nation's viewers, who had been on the verge of panic, immediately burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Of all times for this kind of moment?!"
"I swear, all I can see right now is pink!"
"We were all scared out of our minds, and now these two go and say something like that? I'm done!"
"Single people, avert your eyes! Do not open this stream!"
"Too late. I clicked in by accident. I now offer three kowtows in apology."
Viewers from other countries, meanwhile, immediately began mocking them.
"What is this nonsense? At a moment like this, they're still wasting time on romance? Looks like they've already given up."
"There's no way they survive this."
"Dragon Nation's contestants are literally getting distracted at the most critical moment. Even they know they're dead."
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Divine Domain: Forbidden Zone, Zhang Qilin let out a slow breath.
At his feet lay the massive body of the Ironhide Tuskboar.
"Damned beast," he said coldly. "You made me waste more time than I should have."
The corpse before him was indeed the Ironhide Tuskboar—
the strongest creature in that entire oasis.
The Will of Blue Star immediately announced the result.
[Congratulations! Dragon Nation contestant Zhang Qilin has defeated the ruler of the oasis, Ironhide Tuskboar.]
[Dragon Nation has obtained Oasis Resources.]
At the same time, back within Dragon Nation's territory—
lush green oases began appearing one after another in the middle of the wasteland.
Viewed from satellites in space, Dragon Nation's desert now held fresh green patches scattered across it like emeralds.
Compared to the total scale of Dragon Nation's deserts, those new green patches were still tiny.
But they were a beginning.
And a tremendously good beginning.
Out among those desert regions, countless men and women who had devoted their entire lives to desert reforestation stared with tears in their eyes.
"So this is what Dragon Nation's contestants can do…"
"With this kind of miracle, our dream of turning desert into oasis really can come true."
Across the horizon, the newly formed oases linked naturally with the man-made greenery the reforestation workers had planted over the years.
And within every oasis, a small lake had appeared.
Their surfaces shimmered under the light.
To the people who had spent their lives opening up the desert, that water was hope itself.
As long as the lakes remained, the oases would never dry out.
For them, it was impossible to overstate how good this news was.
All across Dragon Nation, people erupted in celebration.
"Zhang Qilin just gave Dragon Nation a perfect start! He's literally creating oases for us!"
"With enough of these, our desert reclamation plan is definitely going to succeed someday!"
"Dragon Nation's overall green coverage has already started rising. One day we'll hit eighty percent!"
"And when that day comes, even our great cities of steel and concrete will be surrounded by greenery."
"And with that, everyone's health and lifespan will rise too."
"This is what real growth looks like! What our contestants can achieve in the Divine Domain is worth more than years of investment at home!"
Viewers from other countries looked on with burning envy.
"Why is Dragon Nation taking the lead again?"
"What are Miracle Nation's contestants even doing right now?"
"This is ridiculous! Miracle Nation's contestants should never be lagging behind another country!"
"This has to be fake! Only Miracle Nation should be first!"
When people shifted their attention, they discovered that Eddie Brock and Venom had only just left their safe zone.
Eddie wore a bright grin and said to his audience,
"This Divine Domain is full of danger. The best contribution I can make to Miracle Nation is to preserve my life as much as possible."
"So Miracle Nation, don't panic."
"Just leave everything to me."
"From here on out, this is my stage."
But over on the wasteland battlefield, Adrian's kagune had already driven deep into the dragon's body.
One blood-red kagune after another wrapped around the front half of the dragon like giant veins, binding it in place.
A roar of pain and fury exploded into the air as the dragon's enormous body began twisting violently.
Howling winds filled the sky.
The Ancient Azure Dragon Incarnation had clearly fallen into a berserk rage.
Its body thrashed wildly, its roars coming one after another.
"I'll tear you apart!"
"I'll chain your soul in the deepest abyss forever!"
At last, the old voice rang out again—
the same voice that had been threatening Adrian and Raven from the shadows the entire time.
Shhk!
Adrian ripped his kagune out of the dragon's flesh in one brutal motion.
"You've never done anything but talk big," Adrian said with naked disdain. "I've been waiting for you this whole time, and you still don't even dare show your face."
At the same time, inside the Dreamlike Forest, the first Divine Tree suddenly began to blaze with dazzling light.
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