Defeating the World with the Power of One Dragon!

"Hu—huh—hu—huh!!"

Heavy and scorching, like the sound of bellows, breathing continued without pause.

Centered on the red iron dragon’s massive body, the surrounding area had almost entirely turned into scorched earth.

Stately trees were instantly set alight, becoming blazing torches, and within seconds were utterly carbonized by the extreme heat, collapsing into ash.

The ground could not withstand such terrifying temperatures; wide swaths melted and caved in, eventually hardening into a glazed, crystalline surface.

Garoth was currently in Crimson Lotus Form.

His scales, tougher than tempered steel, were cracking and shattering inch by inch at a rate visible to the naked eye, as if they could completely disintegrate at any moment.

Garoth was trying to adapt to the burden brought by the Crimson Lotus Form.

His goal was to extend the duration of this explosive state, hoping that someday he could master it as he had the Frenzied State—fully adapt it so it could be activated anytime, anywhere, at will, and remain without severe side effects as a near-permanent state.

This was far from simple.

The essence of Crimson Lotus Form was a strange and dangerous reaction between the heat in his body and the Bloodburst.

When using this state, Garoth’s dragon blood practically ignited within his vessels.

If not for his innate extreme flame resistance and the countless trials that had raised it to extraordinary levels, this state would be a suicidal act for him; its danger and bodily devastation far exceeded those of the Frenzied State and Bloodburst State.

Still, Garoth was utterly convinced:

As long as he used it often enough, kept challenging and refining it, with his unique talent he would eventually reach his goal—sooner or later.

Moreover, during this process, Garoth keenly detected deeper changes.

He could clearly feel that his blood was showing signs of adaptive evolution amid the extreme cycles of burning and recovery.

The exact direction of such adaptations often contained many uncertainties, but from past successful evolutionary experiences Garoth had drawn fuzzy rules and instincts that let him roughly sense which body parts were being prioritized for reinforcement.

"Last time’s evolution centered on the heart and Dragon Pearl, but it also strengthened my other internal organs simultaneously—especially the foundational vascular network, which became denser and tougher than any normal dragon’s physiology."

"Judging from how I feel now, the focus of my next evolution will very likely be related to this boiling, burning blood."

While enduring the tearing pain of Crimson Lotus Form, Garoth cooledly thought through and reached that conclusion.

"What new effects will dragon blood evolution bring?"

He could not predict the exact changes, but his heart burned with hot anticipation.

His only regret was that, by his current instinctive perception, it seemed only the extreme Crimson Lotus Form could effectively stimulate and promote dragon blood evolution.

Crimson Lotus Form itself could not be held for long; after each extreme training his body required a very long time to mend damage and recover vitality.

This meant dragon blood evolution could not be rushed.

Yet this was hardly a fatal problem.

Over long time scales, Garoth had abundant patience.

He was willing to wait and to pay again and again the painful yet pleasurable price.

After a long while.

With an especially deep breath, the red iron dragon’s fierce, domineering aura rapidly subsided; the flamboyant, lotus-fire-like patterns on his body quickly dimmed and vanished, revealing the webbed cracks covering his supposedly unbreakable scales, which now looked as fragile as if they would crumble at a touch.

"Every time I activate Crimson Lotus Form, my scales suffer severe collapse, my flesh is torn, and my body falls into weakness and injury—but this itself is a hammering of the physical limit."

"Now, coupled with that benevolent lich’s blessing, the effect is surprisingly better."

Sensing the intertwining pain and exhaustion inside and out, Garoth did not show agony; instead, he cracked a smile of grim pleasure and enjoyment.

For him, this compounded suffering was the best catalyst to sharpen his will and accelerate evolution.

After finishing this round of training, he shook his wings and returned to the lair in Needleleaf Valley.

Since the Molten Iron Tribe’s resurgence and return to the Ser Wilderness, Garoth still chose Needleleaf Valley as his habitual resting place because of its moderate location and abundance of open grounds suited to his extreme training.

He kept watch there so that if any major crisis broke out at any outpost in his territory, he could rush to assist in the shortest time.

He seldom involved himself in tedious administrative matters, dedicating most of his time and energy to training and strengthening himself, but he personally resolved all existential crises and unbeatable foes.

He was an irreplaceable pillar for the Molten Iron Tribe and a stabilizing anchor for the dragon flock.

Just knowing such a powerful Redwing Lord stood behind them gave his thousands of followers and drakes boundless reassurance and confidence.

As for his other blood relatives:

Setting aside the special case of Gordon who was currently within the Lothrian Kingdom’s borders,

iron dragon Sorog was mainly stationed at the barricade along the Serpentine Earth Rift, guarding one of the tribe’s strategic channels.

Since the Molten Iron Tribe welcomed several other adolescent dragons into the fold, Sorog’s burdens had lightened considerably.

His daily focus shifted from hands-on tasks to overall coordination.

He now issued clear orders and objectives to the other adolescent dragons and let them carry them out, which afforded Sorog more precious time for deep thought and analysis so he could steer the territory’s development and his followers’ movements more macroscopically and precisely.

Red dragon Samantha was also showing her talents.

She laid eyes on territory formerly held by ogres, a perilous place called the Shattered-Bone Hills.

She led a team of alchemists and golems to reshape the Shattered-Bone Hills boldly, aiming to transform this once savage land into a small but fully functional alchemical industrial district.

Although the current scale could not yet rival the more established Black Iron Plains, some basic alchemical products could already be produced locally, eliminating the need to spend time and manpower transporting them from distant Black Iron Plains.

Circling over Needleleaf Valley a few times, Garoth slowed and folded his wings, descending into the valley.

"Plop~ plop~"

As soon as he landed, a group of colorfully varied, jelly-like magical beasts immediately bounced over.

They were slimes.

They are among the most common monsters in any adventurer’s primer and usually sit at the bottom of the food chain.

When Garoth had previously returned to Needleleaf Valley, he found the place already occupied by dense clusters of slimes of various attributes.

He had merely released a little dragon might, and they effortlessly rallied in fanatical devotion to him.

Low-level monsters could not resist the innate pressure from a true dragon.

Plop... plop... a cluster of slimes began to slowly crawl up Garoth’s cracked, ash-streaked massive body.

Their elastic, soft, and moist forms were unexpectedly useful for cleaning off fallen scale fragments, scraping dust from scale seams, and soaking up congealed blood—perfect scale cleaners.

Garoth simply treated these little creatures as free scale-cleaning workers.

Their reward, of course, was the copious fallen scale shards after his intense training, and the dragon blood seeping from the cracks, which for low-level monsters contained powerful energies.

But Garoth’s rewards were not so easily taken.

Over time,

the slimes laboring on his scales gradually began to show faint bloodlike streaks on their surfaces.

Occasionally one could not withstand the energy contained in the dragon blood, suddenly convulsed violently, then with a dull thud exploded into a pool of multicolored jelly fragments, which nearby comrades immediately swarmed and devoured.

Most slimes could not endure the corrosive onslaught of true dragon blood.

Yet a few unusually gifted or fortunate individuals, though trembling and growing bloodstreaked on their surfaces, stubbornly did not explode.

Their auras slowly changed in the process, gaining a faint, barely perceptible draconic scent.

Not long after,

Garoth’s scales were cleaned until they shone, and the entire dragon looked as if he had been renewed.

The satisfied slimes dispersed to quiet corners to digest and absorb the precious scale shards and dragon-blood energy.

Given time, one of these slimes might grow into a decent follower leader.

At the same time,

a dark silhouette circled half a lap above the valley, then folded its wings and dove down, landing on the clearing before Garoth.

"Good day, Chief Garoth."

Black dragon Seraphina lowered her skull-like, scale-armored head and bowed slightly to the much larger red iron dragon before her.

Her voice was low and somewhat hoarse, carrying the black dragon’s naturally cold timbre.

Garoth carefully appraised his kin standing before him.

His gaze first fell on her heavy keratinous crown that jutted outward like a terrifying skull mask, then swept over her thin frame with bony ridged scales and sharp scale edges—she looked unusually lean.

Besides distinct temperaments, the Five-colored Dragons presented radically different appearances.

Red dragons exuded dominating arrogance, blue dragons conveyed solemn dignity, green dragons showed graceful cunning, white dragons appeared beastly dull... and black dragons often evoked an instinctive eeriness and horror, naturally gravitating toward negative energy and taking an affinity for dealing with death and the undead.

"Seraphina, I have a task for you."

Garoth concisely recounted the lich lair situation, then said, "You will go to that underground cavern, subdue the remaining uncontrolled undead, and take full charge of managing and transforming that undead nest."

"If you encounter troubles beyond your capability during the process, you may directly seek assistance from Lord Flower Shire."

Upon hearing the leader’s order,

the black dragon clearly froze for a moment, apparently unable to process the sudden good news, then she gave a tiny, quick wag of her tail tip.

"At your command! Seraphina promises she will complete the task perfectly!"

She tried to restrain her excitement, but her normally low, husky voice involuntarily brightened significantly, betraying her inner thrill and joy.

For a black dragon, being put in charge of an existing, high-grade undead lair once managed by a powerful lich was as valuable as Garoth discovering a new black oil field.

Her delight was obvious.

Garoth nodded slightly and continued with a question: "How is progress on the Dragon-Forge Modification ritual research?"

Seraphina suppressed some of her excitement and answered cautiously:

"After repeated study, simulation, and calculation, Ludwig and I agree that breaking the complete dragon vein transformation into twenty sequential, independent modification rituals is the safest and most prudent approach."

"Currently, the first foundational step—the Dragon Scale Modification ritual—is gradually maturing."

"The main effect of the Dragon Scale Modification ritual is to bestow the recipient with marginal but pure draconic bloodline traits and to grant significantly stronger external scale defenses."

Garoth pondered for a moment and pressed on:

"This ritual—how much can it extend the recipient’s lifespan?"

Seraphina, evidently well-studied on the matter, answered smoothly: "Using an ordinary human as a reference, successfully completing the Dragon Scale Modification ritual can increase the upper limit of their lifespan by roughly twenty years."

"Different modification rituals emphasize and yield different longevity effects."

"In theory, if the subsequent Heart Modification ritual can be developed and implemented, the life-origin reinforcement it brings could raise a recipient’s lifespan upper limit by at least a hundred years."

Garoth nodded in understanding; he saw Seraphina’s point.

The longevity effects of Dragon-Forge Modification accumulate and strengthen step by step.

Seraphina added one more detail: "Also, regarding the Dragon Scale Modification ritual’s success rate... it still stands at about three in ten as we previously reported."

"But if we move the ritual site to an undead cavern saturated with negative energy and leverage that unique environmental energy field, the success rate is expected to rise to five in ten."

"If we can find suitable auxiliary materials, or ensure both the subject and the ritual leader are in optimal condition, the success rate could further increase."

The first Dragon Scale Modification mainly targets the body surface and outer defenses; it does not involve critical organs like the heart or brain, so its technical difficulty is relatively low and risks are more controllable.

Later rituals will grow progressively harder, but individuals who successfully pass the initial Dragon-Forge stages will already have markedly improved constitutions.

With this sequential method, the likelihood of successfully passing later modifications correspondingly improves.

This is the core advantage of splitting the full dragon vein transformation into twenty independent rituals.

Given time, if the technique fully matures and stabilizes, producing a potent dragon-forged legion for the Molten Iron Tribe would be only one possible outcome.

Its greater, immeasurable value would be in elevating life essence and breaking racial lifespan limits.

The world lacked no secret methods promising longevity or immortality.

Transforming into a lich was one extreme, costly path among them.

But known longevity methods either offered extremely limited effects, were restricted to specific professions or races, or—like lich transformation—carried severe defects that nearly altered life form and mind beyond recognition.

Twenty dragon-forge modification rituals might not be flawless, but their tangible, visible benefits were real, and their drawbacks and risks were far lower than many other methods.

It was obvious:

If word leaked even slightly, who could say how many powerful beings facing imminent death would come seeking allegiance for the chance to extend their lives?

Of course, one big precondition remained:

By then the Molten Iron Tribe must be strong enough to protect this world-shaking technology and not be overrun by forces trying to seize it.

"Chief, regarding the undead lair’s modification."

Seraphina hesitated briefly, then quietly requested: "I hope Ludwig can join me."

"Transforming an undead lair into a place suitable for the Dragon-Forge rituals involves much knowledge of life domains and cannot do without Ludwig’s assistance."

"Besides, though the negative-energy-rich environment will make Ludwig uncomfortable, it will also be a great tempering and training—an extreme presence of death can heighten his insights into the essence of life and greatly benefit his growth."

Garoth heard this and nodded approvingly at Seraphina’s suggestion.

"Very well."

A dragon under his command should possess the awareness to seize every opportunity to temper and strengthen their clawed forces, whether in times of prosperity or adversity.

"Soon, an elderly human will come to receive the first Dragon-Forge modification."

Garoth’s expression returned to calm as he said, "You and Ludwig must do everything possible to ensure he lives through it."

Keeping the Gem Merchant Consortium under the leadership of old Nick—someone familiar, reliable, and knowing proper limits—is currently the best choice for that crucial position.

On the other hand,

if the modification succeeds, he could also act as an example, quietly winning more aligned power within the Lothrian Federation among those who hold some status yet are anxious because their lifespans are ending.

"I understand your meaning."

Feeling the weight behind Garoth’s calm words, black dragon Seraphina solemnly nodded: "I will do everything in my power to ensure the ritual succeeds."