Translator: AnubisTL
Garos moved through the night, carrying the corpse of the cliff serpent dragon as he returned to Needleleaf Valley.
Thud!
He dropped the serpent dragon's body onto an open patch of ground at the edge of the valley. Though the corpse no longer emitted toxic mist, the pungent stench of its blood still carried far.
Unlike the blood of other creatures, which might attract ferocious beasts, the cliff serpent dragon's blood merely by its scent would cause weak creatures to become dizzy and instinctively flee as if from a venomous snake. Inhaling too much at close range would poison them outright.
Garos landed with his four limbs touching the ground.
Now that the battle was over and he had returned to his territory, he suddenly felt lightheaded and unsteady, nauseous, and disoriented. A wave of negative status effects washed over him.
"The serpent dragon's venom is still potent."
Shaking his head, Garos took several deep breaths and turned to examine his body.
His scales, a mix of black and crimson, showed few traces of green.
However, his dragon wings were covered in alarming blotches of dark green poison. The extent of the infestation and the degree of corrosion far surpassed the marks left from his initial probing contact with the serpent dragon.
To injure the cliff serpent dragon first, Garos had initially been splattered with some of its poisonous blood.
But the cost was bearable.
Killing a dragon was a fundamentally different challenge from killing other ferocious beasts or demonic beasts of the same level.
Other dragons might not possess the serpent dragon's venomous blood and death curse, but they all had their own strengths. In a life-or-death battle, unless the gap in power was unimaginably vast, killing a dragon—given their tenacious vitality—inevitably required some sacrifice.
Meanwhile, the serpent dragon's potent scent had reached them.
The fairy dragon and Samantha soared through the sky, while the burly earthstorm bears lumbered over with earth-shaking steps, all sensing the danger.
When they arrived, they saw only Garos, his wings nearly entirely turned ink-green and looking slightly weakened but still overwhelmingly powerful, and the lifeless, grotesque form of the serpent dragon lying at his feet.
At this moment, Garos's unassuming, explosive scales had almost entirely shed, revealing layers of black and crimson embedded in his steel scales, shimmering under the moonlight. This display of true draconic beauty—as if he had suddenly shed a disguise to reveal his majestic true form—made the eyes of the assembled dragonkind light up.
But now was not the time to admire the red-iron dragon's majestic presence.
The fairy dragon and Samantha both noticed that Garos's wings had turned almost completely dark green, with visible areas of decay on the wing membranes.
Samantha was relatively calm.
She was accustomed to seeing Garos injured and then rapidly recovering, growing even stronger in the process.
Fairy Dragon Vera, however, was teary-eyed, circling Garos and wailing mournfully.
"It's over, it's over! It's the serpent dragon's venom!"
"Garos, you're going to die! And then Vera will have no dragon to play with!"
Her voice sounded like a funeral dirge.
In the fairy dragon's understanding, the serpent dragon's venom was incurable. Their fragile bodies couldn't withstand even the slightest contact with it.
"I won't die."
"If I died from injuries this minor, I wouldn't have lived this long."
Garos flapped his dragon wings and said.
"Samantha, fly high and use your wide vantage point to observe the surroundings. Mobel, take the earthstorm bears to patrol the area around Needleleaf Valley."
"If you detect any powerful ferocious beasts or demonic beasts approaching, notify me immediately."
He gave his orders with solemnity.
While the serpent venom hadn't reached critical levels, it had weakened him, requiring extra vigilance.
Seeing Garos's serious expression, Samantha nodded and immediately soared into the night sky, circling overhead to survey the surroundings. Mobel led the earthstorm bears away to patrol the perimeter of the valley.
"What about me? What about me?" The fairy dragon, noticing that Garos seemed to be truly unkillable, stopped crying and asked.
"You? Stay far away. Don't touch the serpent dragon's poison blood."
Garos flew to Earthstorm Bear Ridge, stuffed the cliff serpent dragon's corpse into one of the natural caves in the cliff face, and returned to his own spacious cave, his dragon nest. He closed his eyes and began to rest.
For dragonkind, sleep was the best way to recover.
"Garos, are you really alright? I've heard that some creatures go off alone to die when they're near death."
Fearing that Garos might secretly die alone, Fairy Dragon Vera followed him.
Garos opened his eyelids slightly and said to Vera in a low voice, "I won't die. But when I sleep, I have vivid dreams, and I love to kill in my dreams. I might unconsciously kill any creature that tries to approach me. You'd better stay far away."
The fairy dragon meant well.
The sound of its dragon wings flapping was like buzzing flies and mosquitoes to Garos, who wanted to sleep and rest, making him irritable.
"But you're still awake," the fairy dragon blinked.
No sooner had it spoken than it saw Garos had closed his eyes, appearing to be asleep. Yet even in sleep, a pair of dragon wings, like terrifying weapons, slowly rose and moved toward the fairy dragon.
Given the vast difference in size between the two, a single graze or slash could send the fairy dragon's soul to the fae wilderness.
Though it longed to return there, it didn't want to do so in such a manner.
"Run, run! Garos is dreaming of killing dragons!"
Terrified, the fairy dragon flapped its wings and fled the dragon nest in a panic.
Days passed.
When Garos finally woke up, a week had already passed.
He looked at his wings and saw the dark green color had completely faded. Though some fine scales hadn't fully grown and there were still a few mottled patches, they were otherwise unharmed.
This time, my poison resistance should have increased even more.
If I had to do it again, I could handle the cliff serpent dragon more easily and with less cost.
Garos thought to himself.
He still had the corpse of the cliff serpent dragon, its venom still potent for a short time, which he could use to further enhance his poison resistance.
This serpent dragon should at least multiply my poison resistance severalfold.
And my fire resistance would also increase significantly.
Garos estimated conservatively.
I'll study its body later.
Its method of expelling high-temperature steam for explosive bursts of speed is worth studying.
He pondered.
The results of Adaptive Evolution were currently beyond his control. However, by choosing the right training methods, he could still guide its evolution in his desired direction to some extent.
Dragonkind was incredibly diverse.
Almost every dragon species possessed a unique body structure.
If he could combine the strengths of a hundred dragons into his own body, perhaps he could evolve an unprecedented ultimate dragon form.
Then...
Could he sweep across the entire Bernardo Planet with the power of a single dragon?
Could he finally stop living so cautiously, as if walking on thin ice?
Could he rival the dragon gods and become a true ruler of countless worlds and planes?
To shine as brightly as the sun and moon, to live until the end of time, to the edge of the universe?
The red iron young dragon dreamed beautifully.
Gurgle, gurgle.
A sudden protest from his stomach yanked Garos back to reality.
Recovering from his injuries and adapting to his evolution had drained his energy. Garos felt ravenous, as if he could devour an entire dragon.
The hunger came in waves, like an invisible hand churning in his stomach. He found himself staring at the surrounding earth, tempted to take a bite.
Every young dragon struggling to survive alone seemed to have gone through the humiliation of eating dirt.
But knowing that dirt offered little nourishment and that eating it would be utterly embarrassing, Garos suppressed the urge and kept his mouth shut.
He flapped his dragon wings, shaking off the dust as he walked, and emerged from the dragon nest.
"Wow, you're alive!"
Fairy Dragon Vera, perched on a rocky outcrop near the cave entrance, cried out joyfully upon seeing Garos.
Her words, however, were rather insensitive.
As if I were dead before, Garos thought. "I was just sleeping, not dead."
(End of the Chapter)
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