My avatar is becoming the final boss

Chapter 221 The Fallen Red Dragon (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
On the island where the Whale Mouth Tunnel is located, Li Qingping and the five members of Wang Ting's team crushed the generational wonder in their hands.

At the same time, six orange streaks of light flashed and disappeared in mid-air.

The twilight that enveloped the miniature garden was swept away by the gale, and the sky over the garden became as clear as if it had been washed clean. In an instant, the figure of a giant reddish-brown dragon rose into the sky, its eyes, forged from raging flames, gleaming brightly.

The scales opened and closed like the clanging of castanets, squeezing out scorching steam from the gaps, and wings, undulating like embers, spread out from behind, casting a shadow that blotted out the sky over the island.

With a tearing sound, a colossal tower descended from the sky and crashed onto the dragon's body.

Li Qingping stood in the center of the island, his enormous dragon shadow spreading its wings, its huge dragon claws pressing against the Tower of Babel that had fallen from the sky.

The raging flames that erupted from the dragon's tail swept across the entire world, clashing with its claws against the colossal tower above. The tower was overturned, smashing into the ground and creating a trench tens of meters in radius, which then embedded itself deep into the earth.

But then four more Generation-class demons arrived in quick succession, and the Titanic rose from the ground; a hundred demons of the night swarmed in, beating drums and gongs, and the giant shadow of the Yamata no Orochi roared to the sky behind the demon horde; the sword in the stone rippled with golden light in Ryan's hand; a huge meteorite fell from the sky overhead, and the heat in the air rose sharply.

The red dragon roared, opened its massive jaws, and spread its wings to crash into the giant shadow of the oncoming ghost ship.

The dragon's tail swept out from the ground, stirring up a cloud of dust. Raging flames burst forth like a tornado, engulfing the hundred ghosts who were banging drums and gongs, and then evaporating the seawater outside the island.

But the next second, a bright red meteorite fell from the sky, turning into an unprecedented explosion.

The whole world dimmed at that moment, as if it had returned to the darkness of the beginning of the world.

The red dragon crashed into the oncoming Titanic and Yamata no Orochi, seizing the last second to use its giant wings to shield its head from the meteorite fragments that were exploding like a torrential rain.

Ryan gripped the Sword in the Stone and stomped his feet, moving like a whirlwind among the giants on the island.

He leaped across the collapsing Tower of Babel, using its structure as leverage to propel himself toward the Titanic. He soared over the shattered deck, stomped on the crooked mast, and launched himself forward, leaping from the bow to the red dragon whose head was obscured by wings. Wisps of raging flame danced in the oncoming gale, and Ryan billowed his white robes to shield himself from the inferno.

The instant he passed through the fiery curtain, he raised his hand high and slashed out with the sword in the stone he held!
The golden sword light swept forward, disappearing in an instant. After a brief moment of deathly silence, a neat crack suddenly appeared on the dragon's wings, which were already riddled with holes from the meteorite blast.

Then, with a loud "crack," the crack suddenly expanded like a collapsing canyon, the giant wing broke off, and collapsed uncontrollably downwards! Like a collapsing skyscraper falling to the ground, the enormous dragon wing smashed into a huge crater on the island.

The lingering flames on the dragon's wings eroded the vast land, turning it into a scorched, hellish landscape.

The red dragon, having lost a giant wing, slowly raised its head. The sword in the stone pierced its right eye, penetrating its pupil. A furious roar echoed throughout the heavens and earth.

Ryan stepped on the dragon's menacing brow bone, pulled out the sword from the stone, and shot his body backward.

Amidst the deafening blasts of the ship's horns, all the gears of the Titanic turned, like a high-speed train crashing headlong into the dragon's claws, shattering its right claw and limb completely.

In the procession of the Hundred Demons Night Parade, the Yamata no Orochi roared to the sky, its eight heads simultaneously spewing deadly venom from their bloody mouths. The venom pierced through the dim curtain of flames, splashing onto the dragon's head and seeping into its empty right eye socket.

Subsequently, the venom flowed into every vein and blood vessel of the dragon's body. Steam rose from the red dragon's enormous body as the venom corroded it, and its layers of scales crumbled away.

The Titanic slammed the giant ship to the ground, the sound of its horn and the deafening roar of an earthquake resonating together.

Ryan, wielding the Sword in the Stone, leaped into the air like a cannonball, his long hair flying wildly, his golden eyes gleaming in the shadows. He roared as he descended from the sky, severing the red dragon's other wing.

Another broken wing crashed to the ground, collapsing with a thud beside Li Qingping. He raised his head, his expression solemn as he gazed at the sky atop the red dragon.

Finally, another meteorite crashed down, screeching violently as it exploded with terrifying heat. A torrential downpour of meteorite fragments rained down, ravaging every part of the red dragon's body. In the blink of an eye, its body was riddled with holes, not a single intact section remaining.

From an outsider's perspective, this was a battle with no suspense from the very beginning; perhaps calling it a "death by a thousand cuts" would be more appropriate...

Caesar was thrown onto the Christmas sleigh by Li Qingping. The hot wind sweeping the world, carrying a few sparks, blew against his back, making his white hair stand on end.

He knew he had to find Agubaru; no one else could save Li Qingping's life. So, without hesitation, he set off on his sled, not wanting to become a burden to Li Qingping, and sped towards the horizon.

No matter how much commotion there was behind him, Caesar never turned around. He couldn't tell whether he didn't want to turn around, or... he was afraid to turn around, afraid that he would lose control of his impulse and implicate Li Qingping.

In just a few seconds, the sounds of a ship's horn and waves came from behind, the eight heads of the Yamata no Orochi roared to the sky, the stone sword cleaved off the dragon's wing with a deafening roar, and the sky-shattering sound of a meteorite exploding.

The only thing that has never changed is the roar and lament of the dragon.

The world seemed to be lamenting; the atmosphere roared, and the surging winds kept whipping at his clothes. A huge fragment of a meteorite swept past the sled, nearly overturning the reindeer.

Finally, amidst a series of urgent cries, the sled tilted precariously and teetered on the brink of collapse. At that moment, Caesar snapped out of his daze and turned his head to look anxiously.

"Li Qingping—!"

His pupils suddenly contracted. He saw a dragon, a headless dragon. Its wings were broken off, its tail was severed, and its claws were shattered.

Blood seeped from every pore of Li Qingping's body; at this moment, he was like a blood-soaked figure, his internal organs shattered under the onslaught of this generation-level wonder. The red dragon had absorbed 99% of the impact, but the remaining 1% was enough to destroy his organs.

Blood gushed from his shattered pores. The skin on the right side of his face was breaking apart inch by inch, until only a patch of stark white bone was exposed to the air.

In a daze, he turned his head slightly, looked at the departing sled with his only remaining eye, and smiled with relief.

“Good boy…” he murmured hoarsely.

Caesar's roar was drowned out by the dragon's cry, and Li Qingping's figure swayed precariously like a roly-poly toy in the wind. He staggered back two steps.

The shattered shoulder blade turned into a white mist and fell down, followed by his entire right arm. Blood gushed from the severed shoulder like a waterfall, splattering onto the mangled arm on the ground and staining the ashen skin crimson.

“You people…you’re so heartless,” Li Qingping gasped for breath, raising his dim left eye to look at Ryan walking towards him, and gave a hoarse laugh. “Is it so hard for me to show off in front of the kids…?”

He struggled to stand, his remaining left cheek stained red with blood streaming from his forehead, and his vision began to blur. Yet, at that moment, the shattered phantom of the red dragon burst forth with an unprecedented light, like the midnight sun.

A fiery curtain, like that of purgatory, shot into the sky, blocking out the heavens and burning a bottomless chasm in the sea, a void devoid of seawater. The seawater on both sides poured into it like waterfalls, but turned into wisps of steam the moment it touched the fiery curtain.

"To protect the Third Prince, they went to such lengths?" Ruth pondered.

The five people's vision was blocked by this all-encompassing curtain of fire, and they could not see the distant sky. They were also unable to cross this curtain of flames in a short time, so they could only wait quietly.

A moment later, when the fiery curtain faded, Ryan looked up but could no longer see the Third Prince.

But he knew in his heart that as long as he was still in the miniature garden, the third prince would have nowhere to escape, like a turtle in a jar.

Ruth walked slowly towards them, her sea-blue earrings swaying.

“Ryan…give him a quick death.”

She lowered her head, her face expressionless as she looked at Li Qingping slowly collapsing to the ground. The phantom of the red dragon faded at that moment, revealing Li Qingping's charred body, his white bones and black blood forming his mangled torso. He lay on the ground like a skeleton about to fall apart.

He forced open his heavy eyelids, his only remaining eye half-open, a stream of blood trickling down his pale forehead. In a daze, he suddenly remembered when he was in junior high school away from home, whenever there was a fight at school, no matter how many people were on the other side or whether they had weapons, Gu Wenyu would always be the first to run over to help him.

I remember one time when the two of them were outnumbered and Gu Wenyu took the beating with him. After it was over, they collapsed on the playground at dusk, their faces bruised and swollen, looking at the sky, too exhausted to breathe and unable to say a word.

Half a day later, Gu Wenyu stared at the setting sun in the sky and suddenly murmured:
"How come I never noticed before? The sunset... is quite beautiful."

"Are you a dummy?"

"Doesn't it look good?"

"Uh...it's alright."

After a moment of silence, the two men, their faces bruised and swollen, burst into laughter on the playground.

As his thoughts drifted to this point, Li Qingping suddenly opened his tattered eyelids and glanced at the unchanging dusk, the unchanging twilight, and the setting sun in the miniature garden.

Her blood-stained lips moved slightly, and she murmured softly:
"Yes...it looks pretty good."

Ryan raised the sword in the stone, its blade obscuring the setting sun in Li Qingping's eyes.

The next moment, the sword, shrouded in shadow, slowly slashed down. Just as Li Qingping was about to close his eyes, a sudden whooshing sound rang out, followed by a hoarse roar:

"That little red dragon hasn't paid his 'friendship fee' for today yet, you guys let Shark go!"

Ryan was startled, then suddenly looked up and saw a three-meter-long dark blue shark, carrying dark air currents, shooting towards him like a rocket!

He frowned, raised the sword in the stone and held it horizontally in front of him, but the impact was so violent that it felt like a high-speed train crashing into him.

The moment it struck the shark's head, the sword in the stone trembled violently. Ryan was thrown more than a hundred meters away, breaking several of his ribs. His body flew backward in the air until Ruth caught him.

The dark blue shark manipulated the dark waters, stopping its movement above the island, panting angrily, and staring menacingly at the five members of the Royal Court team.

Knowing it was outnumbered, it suddenly used its teeth to pick up Li Qingping's body, carried the broken body on its back, and then turned and shot behind it.

The White Raven Brigade is almost here. They are currently traversing the Whale Mouth Tunnel and will arrive at the battlefield in a few seconds, at which point they will no longer need to worry about being surrounded by the Royal Court team.

"Hey, how much longer can you hold on..." Yagubaru glanced to the side as he flew, then suddenly froze, his words abruptly ending.

Only half of Li Qingping's body was reflected in the shark's vertical pupils; the other half of his body had been burned to a charred black and scattered in the wind like embers.

"You're so slow... you good-for-nothing," Li Qingping said hoarsely.

"Holy crap... what happened to you, you little red dragon? You're not Shark. Shark can survive with half its body severed, but what chance do you have of surviving with half your body severed?"

"You can have this."

Li Qingping spoke softly, his only remaining right hand grasping the dull "Red Dragon Wales," and trembling as he handed it to Yagubaru.

Agubaru was taken aback.

"Are you sick?"

"You're the one who's sick..." Li Qingping suddenly laughed, his voice hoarse, "Friendship fee, you know?"

"Are you stupid...? There's no need to pay a friend fee to be friends with Shark. Shark never charges true friends a friend fee. Shark doesn't want friend fees..."

Yaguba Lu muttered softly, a tear suddenly welling up in its eye. The next moment, its expression hardened, and it snatched the card offered by the withered, skeletal hand, crushed it in one bite, and swallowed it whole.

Immediately afterwards, a series of dark blue system panels popped up in front of him.

[You have consumed one "Mutant" Generation-Level Mystic Fragment, triggering the effect of the exclusive cultivation system "Mystic Gluttony," increasing your actual size by 40 meters.]

[Unit 3 has awakened a new ability—"Dragon Tail."]

[Because it absorbed a mutated fragment, a "new strange consciousness" has been loaded into its mental space.]

[The size change of Unit 3 – the Eternal Abyss Shark "Agubaru": 161 meters → 201 meters.]

As Agubaru flew at high speed, he shouted, "You little red dragon, you can't just die like this! You haven't paid your friend's fee for tomorrow yet!"

"Did you hear me? You big idiot, Li Qingping!"

"What are you doing? Why are you ignoring Shark?"

However, no matter how hard he provoked, unlike before, no familiar voice responded to his words. Instead, Li Qingping's arm, which had been suspended in mid-air, slowly lowered. He gradually became still.

Then half of his body slid off the shark's back, tumbling and falling towards the sea surface.

The shark remained still, slowly halting its forward momentum, suspended in mid-air, enveloped in the water.

It silently watched Li Qingping's body fall into the sea. At that moment, the whole world seemed to quiet down, and the black water enveloping the body gradually cooled down.

Just then, a long, mournful cry rang out, and a Christmas sleigh descended from the sky. Caesar lowered his eyes and caught Li Qingping's body. He placed the mangled corpse, unrecognizable, onto the sleigh, and then rode off towards the island.

The five members of the royal team looked up at the expressionless white-haired boy on the sled, his lowered bangs obscuring his eyes. At that moment, he held another card with orange glowing patterns on his right index finger.

"Generational level?" Ruth muttered to herself as she looked at the card. "Besides 'Christmas Sleigh,' does the Third Prince have any other generational anecdotes?"

At the same time, a sudden noise behind them drew their attention.

They turned their heads and saw a flock of crows surging out of the whale mouth tunnel like a dark, oppressive cloud, their black feathers fluttering down and obscuring their view.

Under a sky as red as blood, amidst hoarse cries, the flock of crows slowly dispersed, revealing twelve figures with distinct personalities on the island. Leading them was a young man in a black trench coat, his eyes deep and unfathomable, his gaze fixed on the five members of the Royal Court team.

"Phoenix".

Not far away, the boy on the sled murmured three words, then crushed the fragment of the strange tale in his hand. A feather of fire swept past, and a sharp cry resounded through the sky.

　20,000-word update, please vote for me at the beginning of the month!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)