"Garros! It is time to pay my appearance fee!"
A floating Communication Stone drifted in front of Garros, and the familiar voice of Golden Dragon Alberto came from within.
He was the very Golden Dragon who often visited Ximu Town and brought a good reputation to the Molten Iron Tribe.
Garros didn't even lift his eyelids and lazily replied, "Why go through all that trouble? Just deduct it from the debt you owe me."
There was a moment of silence from the other end of the Communication Stone.
Immediately after, Alberto's voice sounded again.
"No! Absolutely not! I—want—immediate—payment!"
"Even if these gold coins have to be given to you in the end."
"But at least! At least before they leave my claws, I can spend a little more time with these lovely little ones, listen to their wonderful clinking sounds, and feel their intoxicating warmth and luster!"
In order to obtain a sufficiently long period of rest, Alberto had challenged Garros once again not long ago.
The result was without suspense, ending once again with him being beaten into unconsciousness, and the amount of debt he owed climbed to a new peak.
At this rate, the possibility of him paying off his debt was basically zero.
"Since you insist."
Garros nodded his massive head slightly and said generously, "Then go to the treasury of Ximu Town and collect it from the Lord of Flowers."
As soon as he finished speaking.
Suddenly, he let out a huge yawn without any warning.
After regaining his focus, a clear and irresistible sleepiness, like a rising tide, slowly surged from the depths of his Soul and permeated his entire body.
This feeling could not be more clear.
It meant that the last Dragon Slumber of his juvenile stage was about to arrive.
"This sleep will certainly last more than ten years."
"When I wake up next time, perhaps all the Duchies of the Human Federation will have fallen into total war, and even the kingdoms behind them will have personally entered the fray, fighting until they have no time to care about anything else. By then, I will have officially entered the Young Adult Dragon stage and become a true Young Adult Dragon."
Garros pondered silently in his heart.
As for the possibility that this war sweeping through the south would end hastily during his sleep, and that when he woke up he would find that all parties had already shaken hands and made peace, completing a new round of resource distribution?
Judging by the current situation where things are intensifying, with multiple parties deeply involved and the chain of hatred growing ever deeper.
This probability was minimal.
The larger the organization, the more complex its internal conflicts of interest, and the wars they launch are bound to be protracted.
Until now, those kingdoms behind the Federation have only been hiding behind the scenes, playing their games by supporting their respective proxy Duchies, with no obvious signs of wanting to personally enter the fray.
Even if the situation escalates in the future and they are no longer satisfied with proxy wars and enter the fray themselves.
Because the gap in strength between them is not great enough to create a crushing advantage, and the front lines are bound to be long and complex, the war between the kingdoms is destined to be a long tug-of-war, and it will by no means be decided in a short time.
After pondering for a moment, Garros said to the Golden Dragon on the other end of the Communication Stone, "Alberto, I am about to enter Dragon Slumber."
"During this period, if the Molten Iron Tribe encounters any trouble that cannot be solved, I hope you can come forward to mediate or handle it on my behalf."
"As a reward, for every year that passes safely, I will waive ten percent of your debt interest. If the time of my sleep is long enough that you can offset all the principal, I will pay you an additional generous reward."
Hearing these words.
Golden Dragon Alberto's tone instantly rose, and he replied enthusiastically.
"You are being too much of a stranger! We are all Dragon Clan brothers; do we need to talk about these things between us? The affairs of the Molten Iron Tribe are the affairs of me, Alberto!"
When he said this.
He seemed to have completely forgotten his resistance, like someone stepping on his tail, when Garros first called him a Golden Dragon brother and said that the compensation didn't need to be minded.
The next second.
After a slight pause in his voice, Alberto hurriedly added another sentence, his tone extremely serious: "Of course! Even brothers must settle accounts clearly; when the time comes, the reward you promised me cannot be short of a single cent."
After ending the communication with the Golden Dragon.
Garros officially informed the other Dragonkin in the Dragon Valley of the news that he was about to enter Dragon Slumber.
And he was not the only one who needed to sleep.
It is foreseeable that after him, blood relatives such as Iron Dragon Sorog, Red Dragon Samantha, and even Gorton, who is far away in the Federation, will soon enter the sleeping period one after another.
With the successive sleep of the Ignas Siblings.
White Dragon Tereshi, Blue Dragon Heriam who is about to wake up from Dragon Slumber, Red Dragon Cahill, as well as the Young Black Dragon and Young Green Dragon Ludwig, they will shoulder heavier responsibilities and be responsible for presiding over the various affairs of the Molten Iron Tribe in the coming period.
In order to prevent these young or eccentric dragons from making any irrational decisions.
Garros gave clear instructions in advance to a group of high-level dependent leaders such as Gluttony Demon Karu, Werewolf Russell, Wyvern Leader Tasha, Half-Centaur Elvie, Snake-man Sword Saint Naris, and Grand Artificer Scott.
During the special period when all the Ignas Siblings are asleep:
First: The tribe is prohibited from conducting any form of external expansion, and is prohibited from actively provoking large-scale conflicts.
Second: The tribe's overall development strategy is to fully turn to conservatism, with the core goal being: hold the existing territory! Consolidate defenses, hoard resources, and accumulate strength.
Third: If the remaining Dragonkin intend to violate the conservative policy and forcibly push for aggressive strategies, the dependent leaders have the right to refuse to execute the orders.
The primary object of loyalty for those high-level leaders is Garros.
Without Garros's personal instruction, other dragons would find it difficult to truly drive them.
What's more, judging by the current strength of White Dragon Tereshi and those few Young Dragons, they are probably not even a match for those high-level dependent leaders.
"Tereshi, you are currently the oldest and most experienced in The Dragon Flight."
"After I, Solrog, and Samantha all fall into sleep one after another, you need to shoulder the responsibility of leadership, ensure the tribe lives in stability, do not actively look for trouble, and focus everything on hoarding strength and consolidating the Foundation."
"Can you do it?"
Garros specifically called the White Dragon to his side and gave instructions earnestly.
"Rest assured! Garros!"
White Dragon Tereshi suddenly straightened her slender neck and said seriously: "If we view the Molten Iron Tribe as a whole, then after you sleep, the tribe's overall ecological niche will inevitably experience a temporary decline."
"At this stage, patience and restraint are the wise choices."
"When you all wake up and collectively enter the Young Adult Dragon stage, the tribe's ecological niche will usher in a huge leap... That will be the best time for us to show our sharpness again."
Hearing this clear and rational analysis from the White Dragon, Garros was very convinced that she would not do anything out of line while he was asleep.
She was probably eager to let the whole tribe completely curl up like a turtle.
In the days that followed.
Garros conveyed his will and the various precautions during his sleep in detail to every Dragon-blood dependent and other core dependent leaders, and held a long and detailed working meeting with his blood brothers and other remaining dragons.
Until everything was arranged properly and there were no omissions.
Garros finally spread his huge wings, took off, and left the Dragon Valley.
The Red-Iron Dragon soared in the cold sky of The Borderlands.
Not long after, he arrived over another valley covered in brilliant red.
He looked down and gazed, only to see dense red maple trees growing in the valley. It was the season, and the red leaves, like flames, swayed and rolled layer by layer with the mountain breeze, beautiful enough to take one's breath away.
Red Maple Valley—this was the territory inhabited by Silver Dragon Adrian's family.
A year ago, when Deborah's Dragon Slumber period arrived, she returned to this safe home and slept under the protection of her parents' barrier.
And Garros also decided to use this place as the location for his sleep this time.
He flapped his wings and slowly lowered his altitude.
Just at the moment of entering the valley area.
Garros clearly felt a slight sense of resistance, like passing through a layer of viscous water film, brush against his whole body. The next moment, the obstruction disappeared, and he was already inside the valley.
Garros moved his mind slightly and used Visage of the Astral Self.
Sure enough, he saw a powerful Magic Gem barrier, huge and complex, with countless runes looming on the surface, like an inverted bowl, tightly shrouding the entire valley.
The strength of this barrier was amazing.
The reason Garros could enter and exit at will was because Silver Dragon Adrian had left a passage mark on him.
He circled slightly in the air above Red Maple Valley, and his gaze quickly locked onto a figure in the clearing in the forest below.
Deborah was slightly curled up with her slender dragon body covered in beautiful dragon scales. Many fiery red maple leaves had already fallen around her and on her body. Her sleeping posture looked quiet and elegant, as if she had merged with this beautiful valley.
Garros did not approach to disturb this tranquility.
He was different from Deborah; his sense of security was not as deep as hers, and he could not sleep for a long time in the open air without any precautions.
He needed a more hidden place.
After a little thought, the Red-Iron Dragon cast his gaze at a clear small river winding through the valley.
His huge body descended, squeezed into the riverbed, and using his strong claws and teeth and immense power, it didn't take long to dig out a temporary dragon nest in the rock wall on one side of the riverbank.
Inside the dark and damp temporary dragon nest.
The Red-Iron Dragon took out all the black oil crystals he had stored.
At the moment when the sleepiness in his body was strongest and almost irresistible, he took a deep breath, swallowed all the black oil crystals into his belly at once, and then swallowed as many Magic Gems and various precious metals as possible.
If it were in a normal state.
With such a large amount of high-energy substances entering his belly instantly, he would inevitably feel surges of vigorous energy erupting in his body like a volcano, and he would have to perform high-intensity exercise immediately to vent it.
But at this moment, the special physiological state before Dragon Slumber changed all this.
In this state, the dragon body's digestion, absorption, and conversion efficiency of energy will reach a level far exceeding the normal.
After swallowing a large amount of treasures, Garros did not feel a fierce surge of energy.
Instead, he felt as if they were slowly settling down in his body, releasing pure energy little by little in a gentle and continuous way, permeating into his limbs, bones, scales, and marrow like a warm current.
This soothing feeling of nourishment made him feel incomparably comfortable, and the deep sleepiness also drowned him completely like a tide.
"After this long sleep, my Dragon Heart will likely be able to complete that critical evolution."
"This will be a qualitative leap; upon entering the Young Adult Dragon stage, I will surely become even more powerful."
"But this is just a beginning; I want to evolve step by step to a height where no one can kill me."
Thinking this in his heart, the Red-Iron Dragon's consciousness gradually blurred and dissipated, and finally, he fell into a deep sleep.
Time flowed silently and ceaselessly in the swaying light and shadow of the maple leaves.
At the same time, the Red-Iron Dragon's heart, which had originally been beating like a war drum, gradually became slower and longer, and finally even approached being imperceptible, as if it had been completely wrapped by an invisible, thick cocoon.