222: Two dragons emerge from the sea

"Phew~ That went reasonably well."

Zhou Yan looked at the low-health Dragon Boat in front of him and revealed a smile.

Subsequently, he sent a mount invitation to the Dragon Boat.

Just as he sent the invitation, he jumped back onto his own boat.

As the Dragon Boat behind him vanished, a striking prompt popped up.

【Congratulations Player Zhou Yan, you have cleared Dragon Boat Surge】

【Game Settlement Rating: SSS】

"It really works."

In his past life, this Dragon Boat and the boatload of AI were all monster templates, and the Dragon Boat itself was a monster mount template.

Since it was a mount, being tameable at low health was a standard setting.

However, for the mounts of ordinary monsters, players could only go through the taming process but could not actually tame them.

At most, they could temporarily ride or steer them, but it was impossible to store them in the mount inventory or take them away.

But this Dragon Boat was different.

It only applied the mount model template, while still belonging to the mount category.

Due to a bunch of messy code limitations, it could actually be stored in the inventory just like a normal mount.

And because some of its code was the same as the gifted Dragon Boat mount, it would even be identified by the System as a normal Dragon Boat mount.

The original 1.0 version strategy was to defeat all NPCs and then run the entire course alone to obtain the reward.

While the 2.0 upgraded strategy was to beat the Dragon Boat until it was low health and then directly tame it; the enemy Dragon Boat would completely disappear, resulting in an immediate victory.

The former was faster, but the latter allowed one to obtain an additional special Dragon Boat mount, which would be very useful later.

Zhou Yan opened the clear rewards and claimed the basic rewards, the A-rating rewards, and the S to SSS rating rewards.

He obtained a pile of items and currency, a large amount of EXP, and most importantly, another Dragon Boat.

At this moment, Prince Kang and Zhang Feng outside were somewhat nervous, especially Zhang Feng.

Compared to Prince Kang, who knew nothing and was somewhat fearless due to ignorance, he knew all too well what kind of existence they were facing.

With enemies like that, they, two Soul Transformation Cultivators at low health, couldn't stop them at all; they could only help keep watch at best.

Fortunately, the opponent did not appear, and Zhou Yan opened his eyes at this moment.

The first thing Zhou Yan did after opening his eyes was to pull Prince Kang and Zhang Feng to the side of the flesh wall, then produce a twelve-meter-long Dragon Boat out of thin air.

Both of them were stunned.

It wasn't strange for anything to appear in a Cultivator's storage space, but keeping such a strange wooden boat in there was a bit odd.

This boat was really just an ordinary wooden boat, with rough craftsmanship, trying to be carved into the shape of a Dragon but looking nothing like one, as if the person who carved it had never seen a Dragon before.

"Brother Zhou, what is the meaning of bringing out this wooden boat?" Prince Kang couldn't help asking, "Is water burial popular in your hometown?"

Zhou Yan turned back and glared at him; why was this guy so talkative?

Subsequently, he didn't pay him any mind, but instead adjusted the direction of the Dragon Boat, pressing it against the edge of the flesh wall.

Then, he punched the Dragon Boat.

Just at this moment, both of them felt surprised, because in that instant, the wooden boat actually emitted an aura of life, albeit extremely weak.

And that wasn't all.

After being struck, the wooden boat actually floated up slowly, not far from the ground, yet its entire form appeared ethereal.

Subsequently, Zhou Yan used Iron Mountain Shoulder repeatedly, and through repeated impacts, gradually rammed the wooden boat into the wall.

They could clearly feel that the Dragon Boat was not being physically blocked by the flesh wall, but was being held back by an invisible force, only able to advance a little each time.

It wasn't until Zhou Yan had pushed the Dragon Boat halfway in that he stopped.

Immediately after, Zhou Yan took out another wooden boat and quickly sat on it.

"What are you still looking at?" He turned his head and said, "Get on, I'll take you out."

Seeing his cold expression, the two looked at each other again.

"Brother Zhou, what exactly is this boat? How can it pass through? Is it safe?" Prince Kang asked like a barrage of questions.

Zhou Yan felt a headache listening to him and was about to scold him and tell him to hurry up and get on.

But Zhang Feng's reaction caught him completely by surprise; he saw Zhang Feng push Prince Kang onto the boat, while he himself turned around and walked back.

"Hey."

Zhou Yan frowned and shouted at Zhang Feng.

"What do you mean? Why aren't you leaving?"

Zhang Feng turned sideways and looked at the two.

"I am different from Prince Kang, and also different from Duke Zhenguo."

"I have always known what I was doing, so I have never concealed it, nor have I ever regretted it."

"I am deeply sinful and should not have remained in this world to begin with."

Looking at Zhang Feng's calm face, Zhou Yan's pupils flickered, as if he saw a familiar figure.

"Are you stupid?"

"For the things you all have done, I wish you were dead, but can you distinguish the situation? Isn't it even more sinful to die here and serve as fertilizer for others?"

"If you still have any conscience, at least get out of here before you die!"

Zhang Feng turned around completely, but did not walk closer, instead bowing deeply.

"People always say, the fault lies in the present, but the merit is for all eternity."

"I do not know if what we have done for the revival of humanity can be considered merit."

"But at least in my view, people like me deserve to go down in history as a disgrace."

"I know that you, Fellow Daoist, are worried that the death of a Soul Transformation Cultivator will accelerate the hatching of this egg."

"But please rest assured, as a main promoter of the plan, I still have a trump card in my hand."

"I came here for this very purpose."

"And this egg will come to an end with my death."

"The only regret I have left is thinking that you two would die with me."

"Now that you two can leave safely, I should go back to fulfill my final duty."

"To perform the final cleanup of my work."

After speaking, Zhang Feng continued to walk into the depths, disappearing from their sight.

Zhou Yan felt somewhat gloomy.

Perhaps for a Cultivator, that experience in Langqi Village was just a small interlude.

But for him, that was the first time he felt the reality of this world after arriving here.

It was also the first time he realized that he had always carried a player's mentality, and was out of place in this world.

That was why he had draped his clothes over Chen Yan's corpse before letting her dissipate.

Because at that time, he was actually trembling inside, and he wasn't sure what he would become in the future, so he could only try his best to maintain the values he had back on Blue Star, doing some superfluous things to remind himself.

Since then, as long as he could kill an enemy, regardless of whether they were good or bad, he would try his best to dispose of the corpse, either by burning or burying it.

He thought that after a long time, he would change a lot.

But in fact, he was still that fresh college graduate; time had not changed his essence too much.

The fact that he often spoke Blue Star slang and used gaming terminology in his daily life was also a manifestation of his instinctive fear of change.

He was afraid that he would become closer and closer to the cruel tone of this world, becoming indifferent and no longer cherishing life.

Just like them, not bad by nature, yet able to become more ruthless than villains for a certain goal.

He also didn't want to become like some Seniors in the future, using corpses for corpse refinement or Alchemy after killing people.

"Brother Zhou, are you okay?"

Zhou Yan snapped out of it and looked at Prince Kang.

Prince Kang felt a chill from being stared at by him and hurriedly raised his hands.

"Don't look at me, why is all the pressure on me?"

"When the plan was executed, I only participated for my father's sake, and I didn't know anything; I slept through the whole thing."

"They were all righteous, and even when they committed crimes they admitted to it, and they had trump cards to fall back on, but that's their business."

"It shouldn't come to the point where I have to throw my life in too, right? I don't have any trump cards to turn the tide."

"Besides, looking at the whole picture, I didn't do anything, so my crimes shouldn't be punishable by death, right?"

"Sigh."

Zhou Yan sighed and didn't continue the conversation.

As expected, just as Li Wenbo said, this brat Prince Kang was the worst.

His reasoning was indeed sound, and he really hadn't done anything personally; from beginning to end, it was Kun Gou borrowing his body to act, and the use of his body might even have been instructed by his father.

Zhou Yan stopped looking at Prince Kang and steered the Dragon Boat slowly toward the Dragon Boat in the wall.

The moment they got close, the Dragon Boat they were riding seemed to be sucked in, and with a slight "pop", it floated steadily above the first Dragon Boat.

And the first Dragon Boat also suddenly straightened from its loose state.

At this time, more than half of the hull had merged into the flesh wall, and Zhou Yan also noticed the change in the mini-map.

The Dragon Boat below was the one he had captured earlier.

Although it was the same type as his own Dragon Boat, it was still a creature by nature, and would activate its biological state as long as it was attacked.

After being activated at the wall, the model would refresh, changing from horizontal to vertical, so half of the hull got stuck in the wall.

Then by pushing, he let the other half go in too, and it could connect the map and the air wall.

Also, because it was the same type as the other Dragon Boat, being close now would be judged by the System as the same hull model.

After the two boats overlapped, they returned to a drivable state.

Since they were sitting at the stern, as long as they adjusted the direction to let the stern extend outward, they could be taken out of the air wall together.

And the Dragon Boat itself, due to the wall-clipping BUG, was not considered an independent unit and would not be teleported.

Therefore, when the stern had just extended a sufficient distance, Zhou Yan refreshed the external map, and the map changed, confirming that the escape route was feasible.

Zhou Yan took one last look at the direction Zhang Feng had left in and said to Prince Kang behind him.

"Hold on tight, next I'll let you witness — Two Dragons Set to Sea!"

Prince Kang hadn't fully understood yet when he felt a violent tail whip, and then with a blur before his eyes, he was already in the outside world.

"Huh?"

"We... are out?"

Before he could react, a shout came from below.

"Sir! Sir, save me!"

Zhou Yan looked down, and it was indeed the young emperor.

He immediately dismissed the mount, stored the Dragon Boat back into his inventory, and rushed straight toward the young emperor.

Prince Kang fell hard because the mount disappeared; he got up, brushed off the dirt, and hurriedly followed.

"Brother Zhou, wait for me!"