Chapter 208. Irish Town Ⅱ (6) The Divine Sword and the Evil Dragon

     “The Crystal Tower is the closest. The Brionac Spear within it has already fallen into Lani Shannon’s hands, but no one knows if there are other semi-artifacts hidden there. That’s why it attracts the most survivors.”

     “Meath is the farthest. Celtic mythology mentions Meath as a place of significance. Interestingly, while Mayor Feitan claims that the Meath invaders brought knowledge of potions and magical tomes to little people of Ireland, the myths tell a different story. The people who founded Meath supposedly perished from a plague, something a single potion could have cured. In short, myths and reality are completely at odds. Bella believes the information Arthur retrieved from the ‘reality dungeon’ most likely points to Meath.”

     After analyzing the options, Watson made a suggestion: “So why don’t we head to the Magical Beast Forest first?”

     For now, they would avoid getting caught up in the conflicts between survivors and instead investigate from the time of Irish Town’s first crisis. If the evil dragon was engraved on coins, it must have left a deep impression on Irish Town’s ancient people.  

     Ye Mo and Wang Xue pondered for a few seconds, understanding his reasoning, and nodded almost simultaneously: “Alright.”

     Under Ye Mo’s mental control, the Flying Tiger Demon adjusted its course, soaring north toward the Irish town.

     Though the smallest of the three beast-armors, the Flying Tiger Demon’s interior proved the saying true: “Small as a sparrow, yet complete in every organ.” 

     Crammed into less than 50 square meters, the space was lined with plush carpets, while small tables here and there held delicacies fine wines, pastries, snacks—all looted from Fitan’s estate.  

     Their journey wasn’t much faster, but comfort had improved dramatically. Wang Xue flopped into a corner, lazily closed her eyes, and, without realizing it, drifted off to sleep.  

     Zzz…  

     The snoring was soft, but unmistakable.  

     Ye Mo chuckled, suddenly reminded of their first night together in the Doomsday Supermarket dungeon, keeping watch as reluctant allies. Back then, too, Wang Xue had snored just like this, sleeping soundly, utterly at ease.

     After a while, Hawk eye, the only one still diligently working reported: “We’re about to collide with a flying magical beast.”

     At times like this, Ye Mo would first perform a mental scan. If she detected nothing, it meant the threat was still distant, and they could ignore it for now.  

     If she did scan something and the number of enemy beasts was large, she would control the Flying Tiger Demon to fight the enemy beast swarm. In such situations, things were usually relatively stable.

     If there were only one or two enemy beasts, Watson would take the main control seat, using the 360° view to fight them, while Ye Mo calculated the beast armor data on the side.

     And at this time, the inside of the beast armor was inevitably bumpy, going up, down, left, and right.

     Wang Xue couldn’t sleep at all. Sharing the 360° view, she chattered incessantly, acting as a military advisor, until the beast armor almost crashed, making even the good-tempered Watson unable to bear it and forcibly shut off her shared view.

     Actually, in terms of physical fitness and combat awareness, Wang Xue was more suitable to control the beast armor than Watson. Unfortunately, her mental strength hadn’t yet reached the standard, so she could only watch enviously from the side.

     They proceeded forward with bumps and scrapes along the way.

     Twenty-two hours later, the Flying Tiger Demon descended into the Magical Beasts Forest indicated on the map.

     This particular Magical Beasts Forest was surrounded by other Magical Beasts Forests. The difference was that the one on the map seemed to be the center, containing only high-level magical beasts.

     Ye Mo and the others temporarily separated, searching in three different directions, harvesting the various high-level magical beasts that came to provoke them. They all noticed that there were numerous traces of recent battles here, as well as a small number of survivor corpses.

     But no living survivors remained.  

     Based on their speculation, these were likely survivors who had the misfortune, or perhaps fortune, of directly dropping into the Magical Beasts Forest. Without a god’s-eye view, their first reaction would naturally be to look for towns, especially the Irish Town.

     They continued their exploration.

     It wasn’t surprising that there were high-level magical beasts in the Magical Beasts Forest. Ye Mo stopped in a place where there were no magical beasts and not even any magical plants, and sent a signal to notify the other two.

     Soon, Wang Xue and Watson arrived one after the other.

     Ye Mo had cleared away all the ordinary vines, plants, and rocks, pointing at the pitch-black cave entrance. “The high-level magical beasts around here are stronger, yet they deliberately avoid this place. This must be it.”

     “Too simple. Feels like something out of a fairy tale,” Wang Xue muttered, unable to believe it.  

     Though Watson didn’t voice his thoughts, he agreed. It almost seemed like any survivor with a map, decent strength, or a team could’ve found this place.  

     But the moment they stepped inside, they realized this was no children’s story

     The blood within Wang Xue felt like it was burning, her entire body scorching hot, as if the further she went in, her brain would boil. Watson, on the other hand, felt the opposite. His body turned icy cold, his blood flow slowing, an overwhelming drowsiness seizing him.  

     It wasn’t until a pair of hands rested on their shoulders, one cool and the other warm, and they simultaneously heard a familiar voice, “Either leave the cave, or support each other. Don’t push yourselves too hard. And if needed, use those fire and water-attribute beast cores.”

     It was Sister Jing!

     Wang Xue and Watson concentrated and calmed their minds, helping each other as Ye Mo had instructed. They were unwilling to retreat in such an embarrassing manner.

     Meanwhile, Ye Mo had already continued deeper into the cave. The influence on her body’s elemental energy would only be stronger and more intense than what Wang Xue and Watson were experiencing. Initially, countless streams of spiritual energy surged wildly within her, like a stampede of horses.

     It was very likely that the high-level magical beast tides were caused by such influences at regular intervals, making them restless and driving them away from the Magical Beasts Forest—straight toward the unsuspecting towns beyond.  

     Fortunately, one of Ye Mo’s greatest strengths was studying the principles of elemental interaction and counteraction. After all, alchemists and mechanists couldn’t avoid learning these things.

     Once she had sorted it out smoothly, the lively spiritual energy would only benefit her body without causing any harm.

     After walking for another half an hour on the solitary and dark path, their vision finally opened up.

     The first thing that caught their eye was a ball of pure white light mist.

     Looking closely, it was a sword that was emitting light. Its hilt was ornate, crafted from pure gold and inlaid with vibrant magical beast crystal cores in addition to engraved magic runes.

     The blade was plunged into what appeared to be the heart of a large monster. This creature resembled a terrestrial dinosaur but possessed the wings of a pterodactyl and was covered in black scales.

     “Is this the evil dragon?”

     Ye Mo became highly vigilant and moved with extreme caution. However, whether she stood still, walked up to the evil dragon, even pried off its scales, or tugged at its tail to move it, it showed no reaction whatsoever.

     “Dead?”

     Ye Mo didn’t think so, because the heart of this creature, pierced by the seemingly divine sword of Nuada, was still beating. It was more like it was asleep.

     “…”

     There was only one way to test it now.

     Ye Mo tried to store the evil dragon and the divine sword together in Thor’s Belt, and they actually entered the storage space that non-living entities couldn’t access.

     “Is it really dead?”

     Ye Mo’s words were accompanied by a pleasant system notification: 【’Irish Town’ instance announcement: Congratulations to survivor group ‘Wang Xue’ for successfully locating the demigod Nuada’s sword. Please keep up the good work and continue searching for other artifacts.】

     Important announcements are repeated three times.

     Ye Mo: “…”

     Watson and Wang Xue, who had just relaxed after walking most of the way, especially Wang Xue: “…”  

     Indeed, it was Wang Xue who had torn the scroll to invite Ye Mo into this dungeon. And it seemed that in the previous zombie group dungeon, Wang Xue had also received a dungeon-wide announcement once.  

     Other Survivors in this world:

     “The Chief Survivor Group got another semi-divine artifact? are they even giving the rest of us a chance to live?”

     “Weren’t they just doing research at Feitan’s Manor in Irish Town? Did the Lady Mermaid give them the sword, just like she once gave the Spear to Lani Shannon?”

     “Reported—someone’s clearly hacking!”

     “Why is it Wang Xue’s name and not Jing’s?”  

     “It’s the ‘Wang Xue Group,’ not just Wang Xue. That means she’s the leader, duh!” 

     “Stuck with the merfolk now—they’re pissed! Don’t care if you’re the Chief Survivor Group or not. SOS, please! Willing to trade everything I own for a rescue!” 

     “…”

     Unsurprisingly, the system’s announcement once again sent waves through the survivor community. If the divine sword had gone to any group other than Ye Mo’s, it wouldn’t just be waves—it would’ve been a bloodbath.  

     At least Ye Mo is here, and there are two other semi-artifacts. Even if they are all unknown, the survivors will not be stupid enough to grab the sword.

     …

     Ye Mo, Watson, and Wang Xue returned to the flying tiger monster shell. No matter what, they had somehow achieved the purpose of coming to the Magical Beasts Forest.

     Wang Xue held the evil dragon’s pitch-black scales hard, waterproof, fireproof, and wear-resistant—and sighed regretfully, “Are we really not letting that dragon out? What about the divine sword?”  

     “Releasing them wouldn’t be a problem for us,” Ye Mo replied, “but it’d have disastrous consequences for this world’s magical beasts and even other races. Better to keep them sealed in the storage space for now.”  

     Indulging her companions’ curiosity, Ye Mo conjured a miniature hologram of the dark cavern using shadow and light magic, meticulously recreating the scene down to the sleeping dragon’s rhythmic breaths.  

     Wang Xue and Watson watched, fascinated by the paradox of a “dead” dragon still breathing.  

     Wang Xue bit into a sweet fruit to calm her nerves “So… where to next?” 

     “Let’s go in order — to Meath City,”

     Ye Mo decided. “Just like the clover everywhere in the Irish instance, these three invasion stories and these semi-divine artifacts of unknown origin seem to be connected. We might as well go through them one by one.”

    With that, the Flying Tiger Demon banked southeast toward Meath city, which lay east of the Irish township.  

     Meath City was far larger and more opulent than the Irish town and the number of survivors gathered here dwarfed that of Irish town by severalfold. 

     The moment Ye Mo’s group entered the city, they spotted familiar faces—not Arthur or Bella, but a large, organized contingent from China’s Supernatural Investigation Bureau.  

     Some were mastering the local language, others honing magic. Teams hunted beasts, trained as craftsmen, studied alchemy, or scouted for divine artifacts— all systematically divided into specialized units, operating under clear rules and laws. 

     Chinese survivors outnumbered all other nationalities on Earth—and their penchant for meticulous planning was legendary. Even semi-divine artifacts couldn’t derail their step-by-step strategies, laid out the moment they entered this dungeon.  

     Thanks to the Supernatural Investigation Bureau’s presence, Meath City much like the Irish town had weathered its initial chaos and restored both prosperity and order.