Time passed quietly, and the sky gradually darkened.
The light from both moons was obscured by dark clouds and snow, making The Borderlands at night seem as if only darkness remained, with only the Dragon Valley, where clusters of bonfires had been lit, emitting light.
"Garros! Garros!"
Vera the Fairy Dragon flew over, circling the Red-Iron Dragon who was burying his head in a feast.
"Why... haven't you stuffed yourself to death yet?"
Vera tilted her little head, posing a Soul-searching question, her eyes reflecting the massive body of the Red-Iron Dragon as he continuously swallowed food like a mountain.
Garros, who was focused on eating, paused abruptly, as if choked by this untimely question.
Immediately after, his huge head turned slightly towards the flying Fairy Dragon, his cheeks puffed out, and he suddenly blew a gust of wind.
He sent the little creature tumbling several times in the air.
"Stay away from me, or be careful I might eat you as a post-meal dessert."
Because he needed to consume large amounts of food and periodically excrete waste, he did not want this process to be watched by other dragons.
Garros gulped down a large mouthful of black oil and continued to deal with the food in front of him.
Finally, after what felt like an incredibly long time, his spirit suddenly lifted.
He keenly perceived that the dragon jade deep in the right side of his chest, which had been pulsating slowly like a miniature sun, had finally reached a saturation point with the energy accumulated inside.
The energy converted from the food he swallowed at this moment was no longer greedily absorbed by the dragon jade.
Instead, like a stream that had finally found its destination, it began to flow truly and continuously into his limbs and bones, nourishing every muscle, every tendon and bone, and every cell. This long-lost, tangible sense of satisfaction made Garros unable to help but emit a long, satisfied, low growl and groan.
"From the moment I just woke up from my slumber."
Garros chewed on the tough beast meat while sorting out his feelings during this period in his heart.
"Because almost all the energy in my body was drained by this newly born dragon jade, I was extremely weak, almost equivalent to being critically injured and near death."
"But the dragon jade automatically fed back energy at the critical moment, allowing me to instantly recover to a robust state."
"After that, everything I ate—flesh, Ore, black oil... the energy converted from them was almost all absorbed and stored by this dragon jade again, like a bottomless pit."
"Until this moment, it was finally full, completely filled."
He slowly exhaled, the rise and fall of his chest becoming relaxed. The speed of his eating slowed down, no longer swallowing frantically like a starving ghost, but instead eating unhurriedly while thinking rapidly.
After this period of personal experience and careful introspection, he roughly understood the core effect of the dragon jade.
It still had a connection with the Frostburn Scales and retained the effect of bearing damage and converting/storing energy.
However, the specific effects seemed to have undergone some subtle changes compared to before the evolution, which would require subsequent actual combat or specific tests to become fully clear.
However, these were not the most important things.
The most critical and core effect was that it could accumulate a large amount of energy during normal times and release it at a critical moment when Garros was extremely weak or even near death, achieving a reversal that was almost like bringing him back from the dead!
This was somewhat similar to the old Sword Demon's Blood Well skill.
To put it simply, this was—a second life!
In Garros's mind, scenes that might happen in the future even involuntarily emerged:
When a powerful enemy, after going through all kinds of hardships and paying a heavy price, finally broke through his layers of defenses, defeated his rounds of state bursts, and beat him to the point of being on the verge of death and exhausted.
The enemy might be wearing a winner's grin, preparing to deliver the final blow, or preparing to enjoy his dying struggle.
Just at this moment, deep in his chest, that dormant dragon jade would suddenly erupt with light as brilliant as the rising sun. Massive life energy, like a bursting flood, would instantly wash over his broken body. All injuries would heal at a speed visible to the naked eye in the light, and the near-death weakness would be swept away.
In its place would be vitality and power even more vigorous and flourishing than before.
Garros could almost imagine the instantly frozen expression on the enemy's face—from ecstasy to astonishment, from smugness to confusion, and finally turning into complete despair, or... numbness and dullness at being toyed with.
"It's an ability tailor-made for me!"
Garros's eyes flashed with a satisfied glow.
For someone who cherished his life as much as he did, the effect of the dragon jade brought by this evolution was far more valuable than the further strengthening of the Blood Burst State.
Possessing this trump card, combined with his inherently powerful strength and sharp mind.
In the future, unless he encountered a terrifying existence with a strength gap as wide as a chasm that he simply could not fight, Garros would have the confidence to fight with everything he had, or even make a desperate comeback, when facing any powerful enemy.
He only thought about it for a moment, and countless tactical scenarios for using the dragon jade instantly appeared in his mind.
For example, he could disguise himself as a reckless and impulsive hothead, deliberately adopting a crazy and stupid fighting style of trading injury for injury, baiting the enemy into a war of attrition with him.
When both sides were scarred and exhausted.
He could then suddenly activate the dragon jade, instantly recover to his Peak state, and deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.
For another example, he could create the illusion of dying from exhaustion, baiting the enemy to lower their guard and approach his corpse to confirm or mock him, and then, at the moment when the enemy was most off-guard, suddenly rise up and launch a fatal surprise attack.
It was a bit insidious, but it suited Garros's tastes very well.
"In any case."
Garros grinned: "My dragon jade will definitely give those enemies who think they have the victory in hand an unforgettable surprise."
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him.
"Wait... since the dragon jade exists, which is equivalent to having a second life, can I start dual-cultivating the Eternal Death Path?"
Garros's thinking jumped to this point.
The Eternal Death Dragon, a dangerous path where [Death is like the wind, always by my side], mastered many powerful skills that Garros coveted.
It was just a pity that because its cultivation method often required being infinitely close to actual death, and the fighting style was too extreme and lethal, the risks were too high. A slight carelessness would lead to eternal damnation, which was why Garros had always been deterred and dared not easily set foot in it.
But now, everything was different.
He possessed the dragon jade, he possessed a second life.
He possessed the capital to repeatedly dance on the edge of death with a high probability of being able to crawl back! This perfectly solved the biggest concern of dual-cultivating the Eternal Death Path—playing too hard and really dying.
The current Garros was almost perfectly compatible with this dangerous branch path.
"Even the stupidest, most dull dragon should know how to choose now."
"I must dual-cultivate the Eternal Death Path!"
Garros's eyes burned as he made up his mind.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Just then, the sound of heavy dragon wings churning the airflow approached from afar, quickly spreading.
Garros looked up and saw the familiar figures of the Iron Dragon Sorog and the Red Dragon Samantha, piercing through the sky full of wind and snow, gradually becoming clear.
Like his situation, his two blood siblings had also passed their long slumber.
What appeared before his eyes now were all Young Adult Dragons who had stepped into the Young Adult stage, in the true sense of the word.
Samantha's body length had already exceeded sixteen meters, and thanks to the innate talent of the Red Dragon race, her body appeared exceptionally strong and fierce, with her scales flashing with a dull luster.
Solrog's body length was similar to Samantha's, and overall he looked slightly smaller than Samantha, but he exuded a steel-like toughness.
Soon, the two landed one after another beside the Red-Iron Dragon.
"Garros, you're finally awake."
The Iron Dragon Sorog's gaze swept over Garros's larger, more oppressive body, and he said: "The Molten Iron Tribe has been lying in wait for your return, having waited for too long."
"Now, we can finally show our claws and fangs to the wilderness, to the wider world, and display our grand ambitions!"
Since completing his evolution and waking up, the desire for conquest within the Iron Dragon Sorog had never subsided, and every day he longed to lead the tribe to expand its territory.
But his increasingly mature, calm, and steady thinking made him forcibly overcome his primitive impulses.
He knew deeply that only by waiting for the true backbone of The Dragon Flight, Garros's awakening and return, could the strength of the entire tribe be condensed into the most powerful fist. Therefore, he chose to wait patiently until this moment.
Unlike the excited Iron Dragon.
After the Red Dragon Samantha landed, she first carefully looked Garros up and down, then looked down at her own strong body, and then burst into a joyful laugh.
"Haha! My dear brother, look! I've finally become as strong as you!"
She wagged her tail happily, her voice loud: "Although your size is still larger than mine, setting aside body length, our strength levels look to be about the same."
"This means that as long as I increase the intensity of my training by another level, there is a good chance I will catch up to you, or even—surpass you."
At this moment, although Garros was already filled with dragon jade energy, his main body had not fully recovered to its Peak state from the long slumber, and the dimensions of his body muscles did indeed look quite similar to Samantha's current robust state.
This could not help but make her have some wonderful misunderstandings.
"Hmm."
Garros looked at the Red Dragon's high-spirited and confident appearance, the corners of his mouth slightly raised, revealing a smile. He did not point out the truth to dampen Samantha's rare positivity and desire for challenge.
"I look forward to it."
An hour later, the sky had been completely shrouded in ink-black.
Outside the valley, the wind howled and snow filled the sky; the harsh environment seemed to want to swallow the whole world.
However, the Dragon Valley, protected by this wind and snow barrier, as well as the distant Black Iron Plain, the Fertile Plains, various frontline outposts, mines, pastures, and all other strongholds belonging to the Molten Iron Tribe, were all shrouded in a warm and festive atmosphere at this moment.
The entire tribe was cheering wildly for the return of their leader, like a raging fire in the middle of winter.
On the first floor of the Burning Steel Fortress, the wide front courtyard had been transformed into a temporary banquet venue.
Garros, Deborah, Solrog, and Samantha, these four towering Young Adult Dragons were undoubtedly the most eye-catching focus in the field.
Next were the adult White Dragon Tereshi, four dragons that had entered the Young Adult stage—the Blue Dragon Heriam, the Red Dragon Cahill, the Black Dragon Serafina, and the Green Dragon Ludwig—as well as a few Young Dragons and Young Dragons that Garros was not very familiar with and had taken in later.
The dragons of the Molten Iron Tribe were gathered here at this moment.
Among this group of dragons and monsters with majestic or ferocious styles, there was one particularly striking exception.
A young human with an extremely handsome appearance and dazzling golden hair was holding a training longsword, dancing and singing in the center of the venue, performing a magnificent sword dance, which attracted curious gazes from many of the surrounding dependents.
This was the Golden Dragon Alberto appearing in human form.
Garros had invited him with a bit of mischief, but he did not expect him to accept the invitation readily.
"Alberto, I remember you once swore to hone yourself diligently, without slacking off in the slightest. Why do you have the leisure to dance with a sword now?"
Garros couldn't help but ask.
Alberto stopped his dance with a clean sword-sheathing move, his face full of a bright smile, and replied: "After a long insomnia... er, it was deep thought! I finally understood a crucial truth."
"Proper relaxation and rest of the mind can make the subsequent training twice as effective, achieving higher efficiency."
"True strength should not be bound by rigid ideas, but should perceive its essence."
Although he sometimes appeared to be splitting hairs, he was by no means a stupid person.
After Garros slept and could no longer help him fall asleep through physical sleep aids, he experienced a long period of painful insomnia torment. Finally, one morning while staring blankly at gold coins, he suddenly saw the light and reached enlightenment, realizing that his previous method of extreme bitter cultivation had already gone astray.
Nowadays, Alberto was still diligently honing himself to a degree that made dragons gasp, but he had learned to reserve necessary time for rest and relaxation for himself, such as attending a celebration like tonight's.
"However, after the banquet is over, I hope to challenge you. I hope we can calmly compare notes."
Alberto added, saying.
"No problem, I can spar with you for free once."
Garros said magnanimously. He also happened to need to test his various attribute states after waking up, and Alberto was a good target.