Defeating the World with the Power of One Dragon!

Time quietly passed, and the sky gradually darkened.

The light from the two moons was blocked by dark clouds and snowstorms, making the convergence lands at night seem to be plunged into complete darkness, with only Dragon Valley emitting light from the clusters of bonfires that had been lit.

"Garoth! Garoth!"

The faerie dragon Vira flew over, circling around the red iron dragon who was busy devouring food.

"Why... haven't you burst from overeating yet?"

Vira tilted her little head and asked this soul-searching question, her eyes reflecting the red iron dragon's massive, mountain-like body that kept swallowing food continuously.

Garoth, who had been focused on eating, suddenly paused his movements, as if struck by this ill-timed question.

Immediately after, his huge head tilted slightly toward the direction of the fluttering faerie dragon, his cheeks puffed up, and he blew out a fierce gust of wind.

He sent the little creature tumbling through the air with several somersaults.

"Stay away from me, or I might accidentally eat you as dessert."

Since he needed to consume large amounts of food and occasionally expel waste, he didn't want this process to be watched by other dragons.

Garoth gulped down a large mouthful of viscous black oil and continued dealing with the food before him.

Finally, after what seemed like an incredibly long period of time, his spirits suddenly lifted.

He keenly sensed that deep within his right chest cavity, the Dragon Pearl that pulsed like a miniature sun had finally reached a certain saturation threshold in the energy it had accumulated.

The energy converted from the food he was currently swallowing was no longer greedily absorbed by the Dragon Pearl.

Instead, like streams finally finding their destination, it began to truly and continuously flow to his entire body, nourishing every muscle, every sinew and bone, every cell. This long-lost, tangible feeling of satisfaction made Garoth unable to resist letting out a long, contented low growl and moan.

"From the moment I first awakened from my slumber."

Garoth chewed on the tough beast meat while organizing his feelings from this period in his mind.

"Because almost all the energy in my body had been drained by this newly formed Dragon Pearl, I was weakened to the extreme, almost equivalent to being severely injured and near death."

"But the Dragon Pearl automatically fed energy back to me at the critical moment, allowing me to instantly recover to a strong and healthy state."

"After that, almost all the energy converted from everything I ate—flesh, blood, ore, black oil... was absorbed and stored by this Dragon Pearl again, like a bottomless pit."

"Only now has it finally had its fill, been completely filled."

He slowly let out a breath, the rise and fall of his chest becoming more relaxed, and his eating pace slowed accordingly. He was no longer swallowing frantically like a starving ghost reincarnated, but began eating at a leisurely pace while rapidly thinking through things in his mind.

After this period of personal experience and careful introspection, he roughly understood the core effects of the Dragon Pearl.

It still maintained a connection with his Frostburst Scales and retained the effect of withstanding damage and converting it into stored energy.

But the specific effects seemed to have undergone some subtle changes compared to before the evolution, which would require subsequent actual combat or specific testing to fully clarify.

However, these were not the most important aspects.

The most crucial, most core effect was that it could accumulate large amounts of energy during normal times and release it during critical moments when Garoth was extremely weak or even near death, achieving a near-resurrection reversal!

This was somewhat similar to the old Sword Demon's Blood Well skill.

To put it more simply—this was a second life!

Garoth's mind even involuntarily conjured up scenes that might occur in the future:

When some powerful enemy, after going through countless hardships and paying a heavy price, finally broke through his layers of defenses, crushed his successive state bursts, and brought him to the brink of death, completely exhausted.

The enemy might be wearing a victor's smile, preparing to deliver the final blow, or ready to enjoy his dying struggles.

At that very moment, the dormant Dragon Pearl deep in his chest would suddenly erupt with dazzling, brilliant light like the rising sun. Vast life energy would surge like a bursting dam, instantly washing over his broken body. All injuries would heal at a visible rate in the light, and the weakness of near death would be swept away completely.

Replacing it would be vitality and power more vigorous and bursting than before.

Garoth could almost imagine the enemy's expression instantly freezing—from ecstasy to shock, from smugness to bewilderment, finally turning into utter despair, or perhaps... numbness and stupor from being toyed with.

"This ability is practically tailor-made for me!"

Garoth's eyes gleamed with satisfaction.

For him, who valued his life dearly, the value of the Dragon Pearl effect brought by this evolution far exceeded the further enhancement of the Bloodburst State.

With this trump card, combined with his already powerful strength and quick-witted mind.

In the future, unless he encountered terrifying existences with such an immense power gap that it was like an unbridgeable chasm, making them impossible to contend with, Garoth would have the confidence to fight all-out against any powerful enemy, even to stage a comeback from desperate situations.

With just a little thought, countless tactical scenarios for using the Dragon Pearl instantly emerged in his mind.

For example, he could pretend to be a reckless, impulsive fool, deliberately adopting a crazy and foolish, injury-for-injury berserk combat style to lure enemies into a battle of attrition.

When both sides were battered, bruised, and exhausted.

He could then suddenly activate the Dragon Pearl, instantly returning to peak condition to deliver a fatal blow to the enemy.

Another example: he could create the illusion of fighting to exhaustion and death, luring the enemy to let down their guard and approach his corpse for confirmation or mockery. Then, at the moment when the enemy was most unprepared, he could suddenly erupt and launch a deadly surprise attack.

...Somewhat sinister, but very much to Garoth's liking.

"Regardless."

Garoth grinned. "My Dragon Pearl will definitely give those enemies who think victory is assured a surprise they'll never forget."

Suddenly, inspiration struck him.

"Wait... since I have the Dragon Pearl, equivalent to having a second life, does that mean I can start training in the Eternal Death path as well?"

Garoth's thoughts jumped to this.

The Eternal Death Dragon, the dangerous path of 【Death like the wind, constantly accompanying oneself】, mastered many powerful skills that Garoth coveted.

Unfortunately, because its cultivation methods often required approaching true death infinitely closely, and its combat style was too extreme and lethal, the risks were simply too high. The slightest misstep could mean irreversible consequences, which had made Garoth hesitate until now, not daring to venture into it lightly.

But now, everything was different.

He possessed the Dragon Pearl, possessed a second life.

He had the capital to dance repeatedly on the edge of death and still likely climb back! This perfectly solved the biggest concern about training in the Eternal Death path—that if you messed up, you would really die.

The current Garoth was almost perfectly compatible with this dangerous branch path.

"Even the most foolish, most sluggish dragon should know what choice to make now."

"I must train in the Eternal Death path!"

Garoth's eyes burned with determination as he made up his mind.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Just then, the sound of heavy dragon wings stirring the air came from far to near, rapidly approaching.

Garoth looked up and saw the familiar figures of the iron dragon Sorog and the red dragon Samantha piercing through the snowstorm, gradually becoming clearer.

Like his situation, his two blood siblings had also passed through their long slumber.

The ones appearing before him now were both dragons who had truly stepped into the youth phase, genuine young adult dragons.

Samantha's body length had already exceeded sixteen meters, and thanks to the innate talent of the red dragon race, her body appeared particularly strong and imposing, with scales shimmering with a dark luster.

Sorog's body length was similar to Samantha's, overall appearing slightly smaller than her by a faint margin, yet exuding a steel-like resilience.

Soon, both landed beside the red iron dragon one after another.

"Garoth, you've finally awakened."

The iron dragon Sorog's gaze swept over Garoth's larger, more imposing body and said, "The Molten Iron Tribe has been lying dormant, waiting for your return for far too long."

"Now, we can finally show our claws and fangs to the wilderness, to the wider world, and achieve great things!"

Since completing his evolution and awakening, the conqueror's desire within the iron dragon Sorog had never subsided; every day he yearned to lead the tribe to expand their territory.

But his increasingly mature, increasingly calm and steady mind forced him to overcome this primitive impulse.

He knew deeply that only by waiting for the true backbone of the dragon group, Garoth's awakening and return, could the entire tribe's strength coalesce into the most powerful fist. Therefore, he chose to wait patiently until this moment.

Unlike the excited iron dragon.

After landing, the red dragon Samantha first carefully looked Garoth up and down, then lowered her head to look at her own strong body, immediately followed by issuing a pleased laugh.

"Haha! My dear brother, look! I've finally become as strong as you!"

She happily swung her tail, her voice booming: "Although your size is still larger than mine, putting aside body length, our strength levels appear to be quite similar now."

"This means that as long as I increase my training intensity by another level, I have good hope of catching up to you, even—surpassing you."

Although Garoth was now filled with Dragon Pearl energy, his main body had not yet fully recovered to its peak condition from the long slumber. The muscle dimensions of his body did indeed look quite similar to Samantha's current robust state.

This couldn't help but make her develop some beautiful misunderstandings.

"Hmm."

Garoth looked at the red dragon's fighting spirit and confident appearance, the corners of his mouth slightly upturned into a smile. He didn't expose the truth to crush Samantha's rare enthusiasm and desire for challenge.

"I'll be waiting to see it for myself."

An hour later, the sky was completely enveloped in ink-black darkness.

Outside the valley, violent winds howled, and snow flew everywhere. The harsh environment seemed intent on devouring the entire world.

However, within Dragon Valley protected by this snow barrier, and in the distant Black Iron Plains, King's Fertile Plain, various frontline outposts, mines, pastures, and all other strongholds belonging to the Molten Iron Tribe, every place was now enveloped in a warm and jubilant atmosphere.

The entire tribe was cheering wildly for their leader's return, like a blazing fire in the severe winter.

On the first level of Scorchsteel Fortress, the spacious front courtyard had been transformed into a temporary banquet venue.

Garoth, Deborah, Sorog, and Samantha—these four majestic young adult dragons—were undoubtedly the most eye-catching focal points in the venue.

Next were the mature white dragon Trixie, four dragons who had entered the young adult phase—the blue dragon Heriam, the red dragon Kahir, the black dragon Seraphina, and the green dragon Ludwig—as well as a few young dragons and wyrmlings that Garoth wasn't very familiar with, having been taken in later.

The giant dragons of the Molten Iron Tribe were all gathered here now.

Among this group of dragons and monsters with either majestic or fierce styles, there was one particularly conspicuous exception.

An extremely handsome young human with dazzling golden hair was holding a training longsword, singing and dancing in the center of the venue, performing an elegant sword dance that drew curious looks from many followers around.

This was the gold dragon Alberto appearing in human form.

Garoth had invited him with a bit of mischievous amusement, never expecting him to readily accept and come.

"Alberto, I remember you swore to rigorously temper yourself without relaxing in the slightest, so how do you have leisure to come here and dance with a sword now?"

Garoth couldn't help but ask.

Alberto stopped his dance with a neat sword-retracting pose, his face beaming with a bright smile as he replied, "After a long period of insomnia... ahem, deep contemplation! I've finally understood a crucial principle."

"Proper relaxation and mental rest can make subsequent training twice as effective with half the effort, achieving higher efficiency."

"True strength shouldn't be bound by rigid thinking, but should perceive its essence."

Although he sometimes seemed a bit stubborn, he was by no means foolish.

After Garoth fell into slumber and could no longer help him sleep through physical means, he endured quite a long period of painful insomnia torture. Finally, on one morning while staring blankly at gold coins, he suddenly saw the light and had a great awakening, realizing that his previous extreme ascetic approach had already led him down the wrong path.

The current Alberto still trained himself with an intensity that made dragons astonished, but he had learned to set aside necessary rest and relaxation time for himself, such as participating in celebrations like tonight's.

"However, after the banquet ends, I hope to challenge you... I hope we can have a calm comparison."

Alberto added.

"Even the most foolish, most sluggish dragon should know what choice to make now."

Garoth said magnanimously. He happened to need to test his various attribute states after awakening anyway, and Alberto was a suitable partner.