"Wake up! It’s time to work! Oh brave wench, Dragonlight Canyon is waiting f'r thee to conqu'r, so awaketh from thy slumb'r and grabeth thy burning boweth!"

Murong Mingyue was calling out to Beiming Xue from outside her room. Her voice was as sweet as her lines were epic.

I myself got up from my bed and entered the washroom. A while later, all four of us went downstairs to enjoy a quick dinner. It had been 36 hours since we activated the treasure map, so it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that every second counted right now. If we didn’t make haste, we might not even get to meet the final boss.

Dragonlight Canyon was a huge hidden map. The only way to use it was to suck up every bit of profit and leave nothing behind.

……

Swhoosh!

After I went online, I walked out of the inn, repaired my equipment and bought 50 sets of Fine Steel Arrows for Beiming Xue. It was because Multi Arrows and Evil Spirit Volleys were skills that consumed a lot of arrows to use, and she had been casting them like crazy for this adventure. We couldn’t even ask her to take it easy because her DPS was indispensable to the party.

Besides that, I also spent some time organizing the contents of my warehouse and filling my inventory with Health Potions and Magic Consumables. After everything was ready, I created the party, added the girls, and agreed to depart 5 minutes later.

During these 5 minutes, I ran to the plaza and unloaded all the equipment I took out from the warehouse at Air Force One. Although the auction house easily snatched away 99% of my business, the shop still provided me with a steady income of 30k to 50k RMB per day. It was better than nothing.

Speaking of which, Dark Moon City had gotten even livelier after it was upgraded to a Rank 9 Undead Castle. At least tens of millions of players used its teleportation formation every day. Every teleportation cost between 1 to 3 gold, and the profit was split 50-50 between Dark Moon City and the main city. That 50% profit we got was then taxed by another 90%, so the daily net income of the teleportation formation was really 700–800k or so. All in all, accounting for all other sources of income in Dark Moon City such as repairs, consumables and more, Dark Moon City earned around a million gold per day, or thirty million gold per month.

Naturally, our great income was the envy of most guild leaders. It was why Hall of Immortality, Throne Seeker and Rose of the Holy Domain had tried so hard to conquer Dark Moon City last time. Unfortunately for them, Dark Moon City’s defense was now nigh impenetrable, and it was protected by the elite Cyan Tiger Cavalry. It also enjoyed the protection of its allies, Snowy Cathaya, The Monarch Descends, Blazing Hot Lips, and Baidicheng. Therefore, the only realistic way they could conquer Dark Moon City was to mobilize at least half of the manpower and resources of Vanished God City, which was in itself an impossible task.

……

"It’s time. To Dragonlight Canyon!" a beautiful knight declared while riding up to me.

It was He Yi. I could also see the Firelight Mouse running back and forth on her shoulders and making cute chirping noises. Its cuteness was the main reason He Yi couldn’t bear to part ways with it even though there were better pets out there.

I also summoned the Armored Ice Qilin Horse and the Phantom Wolf King. After Beiming Xue, Moonlight Stone, and Murong Mingyue had arrived, we teleported directly to Dark Moon City, cut across Cyan Tiger Forest in a straight line and arrived at the flat plains outside Dragonlight Canyon.

As expected, the teleportation formation was still active when we arrived, and we could even see our IDs floating around it. It marked the teleportation formation as exclusive to ourselves, and only we had the right to pass through it and enter Dragonlight Canyon.

Swhoosh!

Once more, we vanished from the plains and entered the desolate forest that was once occupied by the wild bears. We quickly trekked past the area and the canyon center where the Dragon Girls used to reside until we arrived at a place where the walls were engraved with all kinds of ancient runes from the Eternal Moon Continent. Suffice it to say, they were unreadable to ignorant people like us. Besides that, the top of the hills were covered in all kinds of statues such as gigantic totems, War Gods, Heavenly Dogs, and more. One of the statues was exceptionally huge, and it depicted a barbarian hero lifting his sword high and looking like he would ascend to the heavens at any moment. Right now though, it was just a statue that was of interest to no one.

Staring at the walls on both sides of the path, Beiming Xue lithely ran up to me and blinked her red eyes, saying, "This place looks like it’s overflowing with history…"

I grabbed her hand and pulled her up onto my mount. When the Intimacy stat between two players reached a certain level, they would unlock several functions, like the ability to ride the other person’s mount. Beiming Xue and I had grinded together for a very long time, so our Intimacy was maxed a long time ago. The succubus’ cheeks were red with excitement as she exclaimed from the front, "Wah, the Armored Ice Qilin Horse is so fast! It’s so much faster than me running on my own…"

I smiled. "Of course. The Armored Ice Qilin Horse increases movement speed by 150%, and I’m not any slower than you in the first place."

"Hehe!"

……

It was at this moment He Yi suddenly slowed to a stop. Keeping her sword lowered and pointing a finger to the front, she whispered, "Hey, look. What is that thing…"

"Hmm?"

We looked in the direction she was pointing and found a gigantic statue at the center of the canyon. It was a hunter carrying a war bow with a tiger by its side. Although time had eroded much of the engravings, its eyes remained sharp and thoughtful. It gazed toward the distance as if it wanted to say something, but all it managed was a lonesome silence that had lasted thousands, or even tens of thousands of years.

There was a giant stone tablet in front of the statue. After I rode up to it, Beiming Xue leaped down from the horseback and read the words engraved on the tablet. "The Beast Emperor Olida was the master of beast taming. He was the one and only tamer in the entire continent who successfully tamed a holy giant dragon, a forest python, a fierce mountain tiger, and even a hellhound through his own strength. Legend says that the Beast Emperor possessed the power to communicate with wild animals, and that he once slipped into the domain of dragons, hunted many a dragonling core and refined them. Since then, his stories became sung as epics, and he was dubbed the peerless Beast Emperor!"

Beiming Xue frowned after she finished reading the engravings. "I think this guy is the forefather of all tamers? Judging from the description, he seems incredibly powerful, but why is this placed at Dragonlight Canyon? Could there be actual dragons in Dragonlight Canyon?"

Murong Mingyue let out a chuckle and said, "It wouldn’t be surprising. Did you forget that the mobs we fought earlier are called Dragon Girls? Considering that they’re even stronger than an Earth Dragon, I wouldn’t be surprised if a holy giant dragon literally resides somewhere in the latter half of the map."

I agreed with Murong Mingyue’s assessment. "Yeah. With our party’s strength, not even the deities, or even the Buddha himself, can stop us! A holy giant dragon is just a gift box holding our equipment and dragon eggs, am I right?"

Beiming Xue smiled. "Yeah, yeah! With big bro and Sister Eve as our tanks, there is nothing that can harm us! Let’s continue!"

This time, we didn’t walk too far before we heard an odd scream in front of us. When we looked, we saw a wizened old man dressed in strange clothes beneath a red maple tree. He was carrying a short wooden bow behind his back, and he was followed by a hunting dog that was covered in scabies. It was faithfully protecting its master.

The old man was screaming because of a bloody wound in his stomach. It looked like some sort of animal had gored him with its horn.

……

I spurred my mount toward the old man. Then, climbing down to the ground and kneeling on one knee to inspect his wound, I asked, "Old man, why are you here by yourself?"

"Why am I here by myself?" The old man shot me a self-derisive look before asking, "Young adventurer, you hail from Sky City, am I right? You must not have heard of my name then. I’ve been living in this canyon since a millennium ago. In fact, Dragonlight Canyon is my home!"

"A millennium ago?" He Yi walked up from behind me before staring at the old man’s face intently. "Now that I think about it, I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere…"

Beiming Xue exclaimed in surprise, "Wait, I recognize him! He’s the Beast Emperor! That statue has a wart on the right side of his face, and from the side he looks a bit like Zhao Benshan!"

I sucked in a deep breath and said, "That can’t be right! The statue of the Beast Emperor looks mighty impressive, but this guy is... old man, please tell me you’re not the Beast Emperor."

The old man smiled. "You are correct. I am the Beast Emperor. Are you surprised?"

"Of course I am!" I yelled as I stared at the mangy dog that was licking its groin. It didn’t look like the fearsome beast beside the statue at all!

Expressing my disbelief yet again, I asked, "Old man, you must be a really strong dude if you really are the Beast Emperor, so tell me: How on earth did you get that wound in your chest?"

For the first time, a bit of fear entered the old man’s eyes. He gazed toward the distance and said, "I was researching something, and I succeeded. I found out that it was possible to inject draconic energy into a horse; to combine a dragon’s holiness and a warhorse’s wild nature, and the result of said fusion was strong enough to destroy the world itself. Hahaha, I succeeded!"

Beiming Xue asked, "Grandpa Beast Emperor, can you explain things better? How did you get hurt exactly? We can take revenge for you!"

The old man’s name finally appeared on his head, and as expected it was "Beast Emperor Olida”. He looked at us and growled, "No, you can’t take revenge for me, for your opponent is the scariest thing you’ll ever meet in your lives! It will tear you all to pieces!"

I asked again, "What on earth is this thing? If it’s really as scary as you claim..."

The Beast Emperor let out a sigh and said, "You will see what I mean if you continue along this path for another kilometer or so. You will find my proudest but scariest achievement…"

"For fuck’s sake, can’t you just give us a straight answer…"

Pissed off, I climbed back onto my mount and growled, "C’mon, girls! Let’s check out this thing that terrifies the Beast Emperor so ourselves!"

They nodded in unison. "Mn, let’s go!"