Sathree was a female dragon, and she followed behind him carefully, blowing out her breath and flapping her wings hard so that she could scatter the large clouds of white fog.
“Garen??” Sathree started yelling as well.
The fog spun slowly in a clockwise rotation, like a whirlwind, with the most central area of the cave acting as the eye of the storm.
At the center of the fog, Garen was looking at a wall of ice in front of him, calmly. The mirror-like wall reflected his current appearance clearly.
On the surface, he clearly looked just like a normal Adult White Dragon. But there was a vague overlapping image in the mirror, and that image showed a completely different Garen.
In the overlapping image, his right claw was ablaze with golden flames, and the cries of a phoenix emanated from those flames. His left claw emitted a pale blue chill that vaguely rang out with the deep calls of a phoenix.
His left wing sparkled with seven black dead stars, and a creepy ice-cold trident appeared in front of his right wing.
His long and slender dragon tail waved slowly, and he could actually see the illusion of nine fearsome dragon heads at the tip.
And in front of his chest, in the very center of his torso, there was a shapeless black whirlpool. Specks of starlight twinkled in the whirlpool, blinking in and out of sight.
Phew…
He opened his mouth and blew out a breath. It was a faint cloud-like Dragon Breath, but he did not blow it out of his own accord. Instead, every breath he exhaled naturally had that special power.
This was a result of the Divine Statue Technique and Hellfrost Scarlet Snow Technique that he used to practice.
The truth was that every power Garen carefully cultivated to a certain point had left an indelible mark deep within his soul. And these marks had fully manifested now that he had successfully invented his Void Original Opus.
Everything he had ever learned had naturally manifested on his dragon body.
“The Void Original Opus is a conclusion of everything I had ever learned over time, and it also perfectly embodies the imprints on my soul from the beginning until now.”
Garen raised his claws. The left claw had an illusion of golden flames, representing the Holy Phoenix Demonic Book. The right claw had a pale blue chill, symbolizing the Hellfrost Peacock Mother.
And each of the other parts represented another part of his life’s conclusions and experiences.
“This is that so-called True Body that only forms at the peak of the Demon Lord level, right?” He had heard of this form before, when some upper-level Demon Lords wanted to reach the True Soul form, they needed to condense everything they had into one, and fuse that into one body. This would then force the body to evolve to its highest level, and from there, it would advance to the True Soul.
“This is an early form of the True Soul…?” Lastly, Garen glanced at himself in the mirror, pulling back the Soul Rings all around this body and storing away all of the illusions, keeping them inside his body.
At the same time, his body shrunk rapidly as well, returning to his original Young Dragon form.
This was a secret technique similar to the Bone Shrinking Technique that he used to hide himself.
The Void Original Opus did not have grades, only a percentage. Garen had tossed all of his remaining Potential Points into it, hence resulting in his current progress in change. His Original Opus had risen from 0% to 14%, in other words, more than 140 Potential Points could only raise his power by 14%.
The truth was, if it were not for the fact that Garen tried increasing his attributes again and found that they still would not increase, he would not have put all his Potential Points into the Void Original Opus like that so decisively, no matter how useless the Potential Points were.
The invention of the Void Original Opus gave him plenty of inspiration, and he vaguely knew that the reason his attributes could no longer increase was not because they had reached their limit. His Soul Limit was far beyond that of a normal dragon, so there was no way he could have been blocked. And the way his body was now meant that he had to evolve to a higher level, only then would he fulfill the rules of this world, and only then would he be able to continue accepting more energy and materials. According to the laws, this was practically a required evolution process.
There were no abnormal changes or increases in his physical attributes, but because of that, he had a feeling that his body could still evolve further.
Waving his hand and scattering the fog, Garen looked at Satwo and Sathree, who were walking in.
“I’m fine, there’s no need to worry. I was just practicing my Draconic Aura and created some force waves because I got careless.”
“Are you sure you’re really fine?” Satwo asked carefully.
“I’m fine. You guys can leave now, I still plan to continue training,” Garen replied with a smile.
“Alright, then…” Satwo and Sathree did not dare to say too much either, and they left in a hurry. If at first they still considered Garen their brother, the Garen they saw right now had long since left their reach. They already thought of Garen as their protector, someone like an older brother or a father.
Garen waited for the siblings to leave the cave before he started considering his current level.
“I must be at least Level Eight, perhaps Level Nine. But until I cross swords with a true Level Nine existence from this world, I won’t know their level either.” Garen was confident that he had already reached the highest level of physical fitness that the body of a White Dragon could achieve, only powerful Ancient Dragons who have lived for several thousand years could match up to him.
Eighty attribute points on average were enough to go against a giant warship in the Mech World, but the restrictions here were too harsh, so there was no telling how much power it could result in here.
Garen sensed that his body was still evolving and changing slowly, and this required time. He had a feeling that once he finished evolving, he could still continue increasing his body’s attributes and elements.
As for Level Nine, he was not particularly afraid of it. With just his body alone, he might already be immune to regular Level Nine spells. This was a privilege only enjoyed by the very highest-level Black Dragons.
He suddenly remembered the Suffering Knight core he had devoured earlier. Before he knew it, he had subconsciously finished digesting it. That thing had probably contributed to his evolution earlier as well.
He looked at his current Soul Rings.
Five Soul Seeds were fully complete and had already been raised to the Pale Red Color. It had risen from its original Colorless Level to Pale Red.
All five Soul Rings sank, leaving their initial position open. The silhouette of a new Soul Ring appeared where they used to be, and this glowed with a faint orange light.
“The second level, the second level of the Seven Colors Phase, needs me to find five more Soul Seeds and condense them into orange Soul Seeds. If I was still very young and weak, this would probably be harder than walking in air, but right now, well… After all, the Soul Seeds for the second level should require Soul Seeds of a higher quality than the first level. And more Soul Energy as well.”
He remembered the Suffering Knight core that he had devoured earlier. The Soul Energy contained inside that thing was definitely enough. Perhaps it could become a second level Soul Seed after purification.
There was also the grudge from before when he was hunted down. It was about time to cash in that debt.
“Perfect, I can test my abilities and see where I stand now.”
Garen grinned.
******************
Fiery Blaze Mountain Range
Whoosh!
A white shadow instantly shot past the sky and flashed across the snowy peaks, leaving a long white line of air.
It was a long and slender White Dragon.
The White Dragon flew straight toward the depths of the Fiery Blaze Mountain Range. He did not linger for even a second.
The cold clean sunlight shone down on his body, glowing with a light that was as bright as a mirror.
There were only a few Hellfrost Giant Iguanas hunting around for food in the mountain range during the daytime. Some of the Elder Giant Iguanas sent their auras shooting into the air, drawing the boundaries of their own territory.
Garen swept past at a high speed and descended from the sky abruptly, pouncing mercilessly at an Elder Giant Iguana.
Bam!
The white shadow landed, and the Elder Giant Iguana roared madly as it covered its entire body with ice armor. At the same time, a gigantic rolling ice ball appeared, floating above its head.
But the white shadow crashed straight down at it, and the ball of ice shattered. The Elder Giant Iguana was smashed hard into the snowy ground, and its entire large body actually sank into the ground. The impact instantly knocked it unconscious.
Garen lifted the Elder Giant Iguana. This Giant Iguana was already at Level Six, but to him as he was right now, it was basically a massacre.
Garen dug the Demon Core out of the Elder Giant Iguana’s head and wiped it on the snowy ground. Once he made sure it was clean, he tossed it straight into his mouth. There was a cracking sound, and he actually managed to chew and swallow the sturdiest Demon Core in one go, just like that. The pieces of the Demon Core, as sharp as glass shards, were actually unable to scratch or pierce the membranes and skin inside his mouth.
“Its Soul Energy is so weak…” Garen frowned slightly. A Level Six Demon Core like this only gave him two Potential Points.
What was the difference between this and the Level Five Demon Core he risked his life to obtain back then?
But this was also the disadvantage of having unnaturally exceptional talent. The longer he trained and the higher he reached, the harder it would be to simply rely on this to power up. That was because the energy requirements were too high, so the regular Potential Point sources naturally appeared insignificant when it came to higher level upgrades.
It was just like how a drop of water was more than what an ant could drink in an entire lifetime, but at the same time, it could barely wet the lips of a person.
“It’s better than nothing.”
Garen looked around him. Everything was covered in white snow, black stone and yellow earth revealed in some places.
“This should be the heart of the Fiery Blaze Mountain Range.”
He walked around the area casually. Since he did not know just where the Suffering Knight came from, he planned to reveal himself in advance and lure them out.
On the snowy ground, his heavy body meant that every step he took made crunching noises in the snow.
He emitted his powerful Draconic Aura. Although it was only Level Seven, it was already an extremely horrifying presence to the strongest creature here, the Level Six Elder Giant Iguanas.
All the Elder Giant Iguanas ran and hid.
Garen wandered around for half a day, and still did not encounter a second Elder Giant Iguana.
However, it seemed that there were many ruins in the Fiery Blaze Mountain Range. Slightly interested, he wandered around inside, but he did not discover anything interesting. Evidently, they had already been cleared out by others who came before.
The flying snow began to come down again, slowly.
Garen walked toward the area where the snowstorm was at its strongest.
Before he knew it, he had walked up to the front of an abandoned white palace that looked like a garden.
The palace was constructed out of large white stone bricks, and it was also being supported by tall and large stone pillars, each so wide they required several people to hug it completely. It was almost a hundred meters tall, so it looked imposing and majestic, but it was damaged in all sorts of places.
The ceilings had caved in on the internal structures, and the previously closed-up building had turned into something that looked rather like an open-air garden.
Garen flapped his wings and took flight, turning one circle in the air above the palace area.
The palace stood all alone in a valley, and he could barely see it at all from the sky.
There were many white stairs, concentrated in one area at the door to the hall, but many of the steps had been damaged. The two fire pillars guarding either side of the door had been snapped in half and fallen to the ground, while some of the beautiful and intricate carvings had been defaced beyond recognition.
Garen did not notice anything of value and was just about to leave this area.
Suddenly, his eyes glimpsed a strange statue outside the palace.
It was a grey-white statue standing in the midst of the snowstorm, and it looked just like a large hand with three fingers sticking out of the ground, reaching toward the sky.
There was nothing at all between the three fingers.
But Garen frowned slightly, because he knew this statue. He had always gotten his information from an assortment of sources, so he had practically forgotten which world he had gotten that information from. But one thing was for certain, this information did not come from this world.
A Projection Summoning Ritual?” The functions of this statue flashed past Garen’s heart.
“It’s clearly an object from another world, but it’s somehow here as well?” He landed down there curiously and stopped right in front of the statue.
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