The strength of believers comes from their faith, through which they borrow the power of God. Reciting the Bible is the channel for this borrowing. The stronger and more loyal their reverence for God, the greater the power they can borrow.
However, faith and loyalty are only part of the strength. Everyone has selfish desires, which are impossible to eliminate. In reality, truly powerful believers are not purely loyal or faithful but those who understand how to balance faith and personal desires. The more powerful the believer, the more they realise that the God they worship is not the embodiment of justice and fairness proclaimed in the Bible.
But what does it matter? Becoming a believer is merely a means to gain power, and that is the most important thing, is it not?
From the beginning, Talbot watched Sister Reisa, who stood with Ye Chui and his group. Sister Reisa did not follow his orders as a bishop, so she was wrong, going against God’s will. In the church, one cannot become a priest without a touch of zealotry. He felt heartbroken for Sister Reisa’s misguided path, so he decided to use [God’s Redemption] to make her see clearly.
But he never expected that Reisa would disrupt [God’s Redemption].
This was something that should never have been possible. The shock was so great that he nearly collapsed to the ground. Not only was he stunned, but Ye Chui’s group, including Reisa herself, were utterly shocked, unable to comprehend how she had broken such a powerful holy word.
As a bishop, Talbot had a deep understanding of the essence of faith. After his initial surprise, he vaguely guessed what had happened and shouted hoarsely, “You have abandoned your faith, you heretic!”
“What?” Reisa looked over, completely confused.
At that moment, Long Bao’s massive form swooped down from the sky. With one claw, he grabbed a swordsman charging at Ye Chui, tossing him into the air to scream as he fell. Then Long Bao’s voice rang in Ye Chui’s ear, “These people are strong. This baby can’t hold on much longer. You need to get out of here fast!”
Ye Chui snapped back to reality. He noticed McKenzie, who had been badly scorched by dragon flames earlier, flipping through his magic book, seemingly preparing to cast another powerful spell. After denouncing Reisa as a heretic, Talbot, face full of anger, began chanting a new scripture.
Among the mercenaries and swordsmen, a few stood outside, watching intently. They had not acted earlier, not out of fear, but because they were stronger than the others. The Fourth Prince’s adventure party included no small number of powerful adventurers.
It seemed they needed to escape quickly.
Ye Chui glanced at his iPad magic book, a sudden idea forming in his mind, “If that’s the case, I wonder if this will work…”
“Ah!” A scream rang out at that moment. It came from the Black Sword Guard, whose body plummeted from the air and crashed heavily to the ground. Several wounds appeared on his body, blood gushing out continuously. The wounds were strange, not caused by sword energy but resembling cracks as if he had burst from within. He had finally been overwhelmed.
“Buzz!” The Black Sword Guard’s sword spun twice in the air before landing near him. The sword emitted an eerie black glow, humming continuously. Moments ago, unable to withstand the golden sword energy surging into his body, he had thrown the black sword away. But it was too late. The sword energy within him had expanded, bursting his body and leaving him gravely injured.
After being discarded, the black sword returned to his side on its own. This sword was a powerful weapon, but also a curse he had to face.
Ye Chui quickly took out a dragon blood stone and tossed it to Debbie, “Have Jirga cover us!” Then he shouted Long Bao’s name into the sky and began summoning a heroic spirit.
The remaining magic in Ye Chui’s book was low, but summoning a heroic spirit consumed points, not magic.
Long Bao descended from the sky, landing beside Ye Chui and the others. He opened his massive jaws and let out a sharp, majestic roar. Then he noticed Ye Chui urging Reisa, Green, Cass, Windsor, and the others to climb onto his back. Long Bao immediately grew displeased, “Are you kidding me? This dragon is still in its juvenile form. I can’t carry so many people at once!”
Long Bao’s size was already massive among ordinary magical beasts, but this was only his juvenile form. In his adult form, his dragon head alone could transform into an entire mountain. Now, he could carry at most four people, but Ye Chui’s group had six, which would strain him greatly, likely preventing him from flying high.
“Don’t worry, I’ll make you fly faster than ever!” Ye Chui reassured him. Beside him, a bald heroic spirit had been summoned. It was Dom Toretto. Ye Chui quickly asked Dom a few questions. Dom hesitated briefly before saying in his raspy voice, “I can give it a try. It sounds thrilling.”
With that, the oddly dressed Dom leapt onto Long Bao’s neck. As Long Bao grumbled unhappily about yet another passenger, Dom activated his heroic spirit ability. Faint blue shadows rapidly formed into a herd of horses in front of him, twenty-three in total.
The reins of these illusory horses were all connected to Long Bao, stretched taut over several metres.
“It can actually work like this!?” After realising what Ye Chui was planning, Green and Debbie were stunned.
They knew Dom’s ability better than anyone: summoning horses to pull a carriage. Now, without a four-wheeled carriage, Ye Chui was using Long Bao as the cart, letting Dom’s horses pull the dragon along.
Cass, Windsor, Green, and Reisa had climbed onto Long Bao’s back. Ye Chui swiftly grabbed Debbie’s slender waist. There was no room left on Long Bao’s back, so he clung to the dragon’s tail, letting Long Bao wrap it around him and Debbie.
Long Bao flapped his wings, his body struggling to lift off the ground.
“Stop them, stop them!” The Fourth Prince, standing beside the fallen Black Sword Guard to check his wounds, saw Ye Chui’s actions and roared furiously.
McKenzie’s ice spell and Talbot’s holy word were unleashed simultaneously.
Debbie quickly threw the dragon blood stone toward the charging Jirga.
Jirga knew what to do. Absorbing the golden mist from the dragon blood stone, she soared into the sky. Golden beams rained down like missiles around Ye Chui and the others.
Golden Sword Technique [Golden Rain]
This blocked McKenzie’s spell and Talbot’s holy word.
Amid the neighing of horses and Long Bao’s odd cry of “Roar!”, the twenty-three illusory horses pulled Long Bao’s body, speeding off into the distance. A layer of blue light appeared on Long Bao’s body.
As Ye Chui had imagined, Dom’s ability could be applied to Long Bao.
In the later Fast and Furious series, things grew increasingly exaggerated. Driving cars was no longer enough for Dom and his crew. They flew planes, drove tanks, and piloted submarines. Nothing was beyond them, and space travel was not out of the question. Dom’s modified ability reflected this. Long Bao was essentially an aircraft, and Dom could indeed control him.
The twenty-three illusory horses were the limit of Dom’s ability. These horses carved a path through the relic world’s bushes, branches and grass flying everywhere. The thundering hooves roared like muffled thunder. Small beasts hiding in the bushes scattered in fear or were crushed into pulp. Behind them, Long Bao’s wings spread like a massive kite, pulled by the illusory reins as he soared through the air.
The speed of twenty-three horsepower was incredibly fast. In an instant, they vanished from sight, leaving only the image of a dragon swaying like a kite in the sky.
After unleashing [Golden Rain] for aerial suppression, Jirga glanced at the direction Debbie and the others had gone, her body turning into golden mist and vanishing back to the spirit world.
“I’ll kill them! I’ll kill them!” The Fourth Prince’s hysterical screams echoed. They had nineteen people, yet they couldn’t stop Ye Chui’s group. In the earlier fight, three or four had been killed by dragon flames or injured by golden sword energy, driving him into a rage.
McKenzie, Talbot, and the others watched Ye Chui’s group escape with grim expressions, knowing pursuit was impossible. How could they be so fast?
What was that bald heroic spirit?
Long Bao’s summoning time was less than ten minutes, and the earlier clash with the Fourth Prince’s group had taken nearly eight. That left only one or two minutes for their escape.
Fortunately, that was enough.
When Ye Chui sensed Long Bao reaching his summoning limit, they had travelled over a hundred miles at breakneck speed. Ye Chui’s mind was reeling. He shouted, “Dom, stop!”
Standing at the dragon’s head, Dom swiftly pulled the reins. As the summoner, he could control the horses fully. Sensing his command, the twenty-three illusory horses halted.
They had left the bushes behind and were now in a wasteland overgrown with wild grass. Ye Chui had no time to notice that ahead of them, a pack of ferocious beasts with black fur and wolf-like forms, each with a single horn and sharper teeth than ordinary wolves, were glaring with aggression and caution. These were unique beasts of this relic world.
Their pack numbered over a hundred, scattered across the grassland foraging. When Ye Chui’s group charged in with such terrifying momentum, the beasts grew alert, gathering together in a hunting formation, roaring to intimidate the intruders entering their territory.
The twenty-three illusory horses stopped just metres away.
“Ahhh!”
“Roar!”
Human screams mixed with Long Bao’s roars. The dragon in mid-air couldn’t stop as abruptly as the horses. With a boom, he lurched forward. The illusory horses stood firm, but Long Bao’s wings flapped chaotically, trying to halt his body. He could only veer slightly before the reins pulled him like a massive meteor hammer, crashing into the unicorn wolf pack.
Imagine a scythe cutting through wheat.
The thick reins connecting the horses to Long Bao tautened like a scythe. As Long Bao’s body rolled forward, the unicorn wolves, frozen in instinctive fear, had no chance to escape. They were swept away by the reins.
The horses stood still, while the wolves’ blood and flesh stained the ground in a fan-shaped pattern. A few wolves that dodged the “dragon meteor hammer’s unparalleled harvest” fled in panic. For countless years, their pack had ruled this wasteland, but today they faced a bizarre catastrophe.
“Roar!” Long Bao lay sprawled on the ground, covered in bloodstains, letting out angry roars directed at Ye Chui on the ground below, “This baby was raised with care by the gods, but since meeting you, this dragon’s life has been nothing but gloom!”
During the dragon’s sweeping charge, Ye Chui had grabbed Debbie, activating [Safety Guardian] to shield them from most of the damage. Still, his body ached, and Debbie looked pained, though not seriously injured. Seeing Long Bao’s anger, Ye Chui gave an apologetic smile, “I didn’t foresee this…” He glanced at the wolves reduced to bloody mush, then quickly asked, “How are they?”
Long Bao shakily stood, spreading his wings. Cass, Windsor, Green, and Reisa climbed out, dazed. During the fall, Long Bao had held them tightly with his wings. Though dishevelled, they were unharmed.
Dom crawled out from under the dragon. He had crashed into the ground earlier, but as a man tough enough to drive a car against a tank, he was unscathed. He waved at Ye Chui with a grin that said, “That was thrilling, let’s do it again,” before vanishing with the illusory horses.
Exhausted, Ye Chui slumped to the ground, glancing instinctively at his iPad magic book.
At that moment, a notification flashed on the screen.
[iPad upgrade detected. Would you like to proceed with the upgrade?]
