74: Chapter 74 The International Image of the Dragon Kingdom

Blood stained the white altar red.

Three headless corpses lay quietly on the ground, soon turning into light particles and dissipating into the air.

The remaining players were huddled in the corner like quails,

with their heads buried low, terrified that the god of slaughter might get annoyed and wipe them out too.

Li Taiping glanced at the small amount of loot dropped by the people he had just killed; it was all good grade junk he didn't care for,

then he walked over to Anna.

This blonde beauty with wavy hair was standing quietly to the side.

The knight's longsword in her hand was stained with a trace of blood, looking exceptionally bewitching under the sunlight.

She didn't sheath the sword immediately, but instead pulled a white handkerchief from her bosom and elegantly wiped the blade.

Sensing Li Taiping's approach, Anna looked up.

Those blue eyes, as deep as Siberian glacial lakes, stared straight at Li Taiping,

with a hint of inquiry and an indescribable strangeness in her gaze.

"Why are you looking at me? Is there a flower on my face?"

Li Taiping touched his face subconsciously.

"You are not quite the same as the Asian players in my impression."

Anna spoke suddenly, her voice cold and clear, with a unique magnetic quality.

With a crisp "clang," she sheathed the clean longsword, her movements sharp and efficient.

"Oh?" Li Taiping raised an eyebrow, intrigued,

"In your impression, what are we Asians like? Hardworking? Brave? Or good at math?"

Anna shook her head, her expression serious:

"No. On our forums, Asian players... especially Long Country players, are usually described as 'indescribable horrors'."

"Huh?" Li Taiping was stunned.

Anna explained calmly:

"It is said that once you possess strength, you turn into emotionless grinding machines.

Wherever you go, not a blade of grass grows, and if anyone dares to speak ill of you, you wipe out their entire family.

Even a passing earthworm would be split in half vertically.

You seem to call this... 'decisive killing'?"

She paused, her gaze sweeping over the pools of blood on the ground that hadn't completely dried yet, and added:

"But you are different. Although you are ruthless, you don't kill the innocent indiscriminately."

"Pfft—"

Li Taiping almost spat out a mouthful of blood.

What the hell is this!

What the hell with splitting passing earthworms in half vertically!

Which wicked, smoke-belching jerk is spreading rumors out there?

This is blatant slander!

It's a stereotype!

It's malicious smearing of the simple image of our Long Country players by international friends!

"Slander! This is absolutely slander!"

Li Taiping jumped in anger, rolled his eyes, and said irritably:

"This must be a rumor deliberately fabricated by those Western media to demonize us! We Long Country people have always been a nation of etiquette, focusing on convincing others with virtue!"

He cleared his throat, straightened his back, and began his "popular science lecture" with a righteous face.

"Listen up, Foreign Girl. We believe in the peace principle of 'If others don't offend me, I won't offend them.'

Look at those weaklings huddled in the corner just now; they didn't provoke me, they pose no threat to me, so why would I kill them?

I'm not a psycho killer, nor do I eat human sashimi."

Anna nodded thoughtfully, seemingly finding it reasonable.

"But!"

Li Taiping's tone changed abruptly, his eyes instantly becoming sharp, and a chilling aura emanated from him.

"'If others offend me,' then there's the second half: 'cut the weeds and eliminate the roots, grind the bones and scatter the ashes'!"

He extended a finger, pointing it into the air a few times, his tone grim:

"We believe in repaying kindness, and for grudges... it's a tenfold return!

If anyone dares to have crooked thoughts about me, I won't just kill them, I'll scatter their ashes, and by the way, I'll check if they have resurrection coins. If they do, I'll camp their corpse until they delete their account!"

"That is what is called 'eliminating future trouble'! Understand?"

Li Taiping spoke righteously and impassionedly, as if reciting some sacred dogma.

To increase the persuasiveness of his words, he even decided to cite classics to show the breadth and depth of Long Country culture.

"Just like our Supreme Sage Confucius, who once said a famous quote..."

Li Taiping stood with his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky, assuming the posture of an unfathomable master:

"When friends come from afar..."

Anna blinked, waiting for the continuation.

Li Taiping's eyes hardened, and he continued murderously:

"...they must be punished, no matter how far away they are!"

The air suddenly went quiet for a second.

The few survivors in the corner were so scared they almost knelt down.

Li Taiping also felt something was wrong; why did the flavor seem off?

He quickly coughed twice and forcibly changed his words:

"Pah! Wrong, wrong! It's 'what a joy'! What a joy!"

He touched his nose awkwardly, cursing himself for a slip of the tongue.

How did he say his inner thoughts out loud?

Looking at the man in front of her who was murderous one second and awkwardly trying to make up for it the next,

Anna's beautiful face, which was usually as cold as ice and frost all year round, actually showed a rare crack.

She pursed her lips slightly.

"Pfft."

She covered her mouth with the back of her hand and laughed softly.

This laugh was like melting ice and snow, and even the biting cold wind around them seemed to become a bit gentler.

"You Long Country people are really interesting."

Anna's beautiful blue eyes sparkled with a sly light, like a Persian cat that had discovered a new toy.

"Who told you to be so special, and unique in the survival world?"

She teased, "There's a joke about you circulating outside."

"What joke?" Li Taiping had an ominous premonition.

"It says you Long Country players are divided into two factions."

Anna held up two slender fingers,

"One is the radical faction, advocating for emptying all resources on the map, even scraping three layers of topsoil; the other is the conservative faction..."

"What about the conservatives?" Li Taiping asked subconsciously.

Anna looked at him with a smile that wasn't quite a smile:

"The conservatives criticize the radicals every day, saying they are too conservative and should also clear out all the creatures on the map to prevent them from wasting air."

Li Taiping: "..."

The corners of his mouth twitched violently.

Good grief.

So our international image has evolved into "locusts passing through" plus late-stage "fear of insufficient firepower"?

What kind of messy stereotypes are these!

"Rumors stop with the wise."

Li Taiping waved his hand powerlessly, not wanting to dwell on this topic anymore,

"Anyway, you just need to know that I'm a good person, and that's enough."

After saying this, he turned around and scanned the "quails" still shivering in the corner with an unkind gaze.

The few people, upon being scanned by Li Taiping's gaze, were struck by lightning, their faces turning deathly pale and their legs trembling uncontrollably.

"Big... Big Boss..."

One of them, slightly braver, stammered, his voice shaking like a sieve,

"We... we..."

"Get lost."

Li Taiping only spat out this one word.

Simple, direct, and effective.

For those few people, this word was simply the sound of nature, God's pardon!

They exchanged glances, not even daring to say a word of thanks, fearing they might waste even a single second.

"Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

Several figures instantly shot off, rolling and crawling, wishing they could grow two more legs.

Some even activated their desperate burst skills just to run faster, greasing the soles of their feet and slipping away faster than rabbits.

The pathetic look on their faces was as if a hundred thousand hungry ghosts were chasing them for their lives.

In less than three seconds, apart from Li Taiping and Anna, not a single person could be seen on the huge altar.

Watching their backs as they fled in panic, Li Taiping couldn't help but rub his chin, muttering to himself with some self-doubt:

"Sigh, am I that scary? I'm clearly so gentle."

He shook his head and soon threw these insignificant people to the back of his mind.

His gaze returned to the center of the altar.