Chapter 646: Extreme Fury Ascension, Death Incarnation, Silent Long Slumber
In the boundless depths of space, the spherical white dwarf hung silently.
It was incredibly dense, possessing a terrifying supergravity capable of instantly crushing flesh and blood.
But if anyone could observe this place closely, they would be stunned to find that, on such an extremely dangerous celestial body, life actually existed.
The red iron dragon was silently training.
With over one hundred thousand times the normal gravity pressing down on him, he felt as though every scale and bone in his body was being compressed.
In truth, that was exactly what was happening.
In this extreme environment, every inch of his body endured unimaginable pressure, as if an invisible giant hand was constantly clenching and squeezing.
It had been over a decade since he discovered this white dwarf.
From the moment he found it, whenever time allowed, he would come here to sweat profusely, immersing himself wholeheartedly in intense training, letting his body feel the white dwarf’s terrifying gravitational pressure.
For other beings, this environment was hell, a death trap, a forbidden zone.
But for Garoth, it was his ideal training ground.
He never wasted a single moment here.
Every time he set foot on this star, he pushed himself to the limit, until his scales groaned under the strain and every muscle trembled.
And such dedication had yielded results.
Over the past ten-plus years, Garoth’s size had not grown; instead, it had subtly shrunk by a small margin.
In draconic understanding, size had always been an important measure of strength—the stronger the dragon, the larger the body. This was common sense etched into the bloodline.
But Garoth’s condition was definitely not a sign of weakness.
Because, while his size had decreased slightly, his weight had been skyrocketing, now exceeding one hundred thousand tons.
This change meant that the density of his scales, muscles, bones, and every inch of his body was increasing.
His entire dragon body was gradually becoming denser, heavier, and more compact.
If other dragons’ bodies were like steel, then his was now transforming into something even more compact and indestructible.
After several rounds of high-intensity training, Garoth paused.
He felt the heaviness of his body, the dense sensation radiating from within, and a satisfied expression formed on his draconic face.
“My adaptation to the white dwarf environment reflects the convergence of my own physique. My body density is continuously increasing, and the rate of growth in weight and strength far surpasses before.”
He silently summarized in his mind. “Good. I like this way of adapting.”
When he first awakened from his slumber, Garoth had assessed himself as being somewhat inferior overall to beings like the orc Saints.
Now, he felt that even without ascending to godhood, he could defeat a Saint in direct combat.
To achieve such a breakthrough in just over twenty years.
Calculating the rate of power increase, Garoth’s growth speed before the Mandate of Heaven even surpassed that of his crown-level days.
“The inheritance says, the closer you get to the peak, the harder it is to climb further.”
“Why don’t I feel that?”
On this desolate, lonely star, he lifted his chin, his draconic face showing undisguised pride.
As for why he could still maintain such rapid growth even after the Mandate of Heaven...
It was all about accumulation and sweat.
Of course, it was also inseparable from a slight influence of his own talents and environment.
The extreme environment of the white dwarf, his Adaptation talent, and the unceasing, day-in-day-out hard training—all these factors combined to create this unbelievable rate of progress.
Another point worth mentioning was that Garoth occasionally stood in his enemies’ shoes to think.
This was a habit he had developed later.
He felt that understanding an enemy’s way of thinking helped him better assess the situation.
At first, Garoth hadn’t quite understood.
Why did his enemies always misjudge his strength, repeatedly missing the best opportunity to deal with him? Those enemies always thought they had taken him seriously enough, but in hindsight, they still hadn’t taken him seriously enough.
If it were him, he definitely wouldn’t make that mistake.
But upon reflection, he found it was reasonable.
Sentient beings were always limited by their own perceptions, using their familiar experiences and scales to measure everything.
This included Garoth himself.
For instance, to him now, if some life standing against Aola broke through to the Legendary realm and performed well, he wouldn’t pay it much mind. At most, he’d send his claws and fangs to handle it.
After all, he had many things of his own to do; he couldn’t personally deal with every new enemy that popped up.
At the very least, they had to reach the Mandate of Heaven to earn his attention.
So then...
What if this life, in just a few short years, while he wasn’t paying attention, quietly grew to surpass him, eventually putting him in danger?
At that point, would it be meaningful to look back and wonder why he hadn’t eliminated it earlier?
Such thoughts were pointless.
Because at that time, he couldn’t have imagined this happening. It was completely beyond his cognitive range; based on his experience, he couldn’t have foreseen such exaggerated growth.
And those who stood against him faced exactly this situation.
It wasn’t that they were stupid or overly arrogant.
The truth was, their opponent was simply too monstrous.
“Could I also encounter something like this?”
This thought suddenly surfaced in Garoth’s mind. “Is there some life that could rise at a speed completely beyond my comprehension, then defeat me, stepping over my blood and bones to ascend?”
Thinking this way, the red iron dragon’s heart tightened slightly.
Waves of unease and urgency surged forth.
Not enough.
His current strength and growth speed were still not enough!
No matter what happens in the future, as long as one’s own strength is sufficient, then let the winds blow from all directions—I stand unmoved!
With that thought, the great dragon took a deep breath of the nonexistent air on the white dwarf, transforming his unease into even stronger fighting spirit.
He rested for only a very brief moment before plunging back into training with blazing intensity.
Meanwhile.
Outside the white dwarf, the Moon Dragon Lionel floated in the depths of space.
He gazed quietly at the dense star below.
The red iron dragon was moving across it, using various methods to temper his body.
Moreover, that red iron dragon was perpetually passionate, never showing a hint of laziness. That focus and devotion were as if he were doing something he immensely enjoyed.
Lionel watched this scene, and a sudden impulse surged within him—he wanted to try it too.
But the thought vanished in an instant, snuffed out by himself.
The physiques of dragons were different.
He didn’t have Garoth’s powerful body.
In terms of recovery, regeneration, and tolerance to extreme environments, he was far inferior to the red iron dragon.
If he rashly trained on the white dwarf, it would most likely result in severe injuries, requiring a long time to recover.
The gain wouldn’t be worth the loss.
“This Scarlet Emperor Cangxing can already match an Immortal.”
Lionel silently thought to himself.
With Garoth’s current strength and state, if he so desired, countless luxuries and pleasures unimaginable to common beings would come flooding in, drowning him.
Wealth, power, beauty, glory...
These things were within easy reach for a powerhouse standing at the world’s peak.
Yet...
His choice was to temper himself in this lonely, desolate deep space, silently yet passionately.
No audience, no cheers.
Only boundless silence and endless, overwhelming pressure.
The Moon Dragon silently sighed in his heart.
This kind of focus and persistence—he frankly couldn’t match it.
Suddenly, he felt that maybe he didn’t have to go through the trouble of relocating after all.
Finding a suitable habitat in this vast deep space was no easy task, consuming long hours and filled with uncertainties.
“The scale of the universe is vast.”
“The stars warned that the danger from that Omen Aspect is imminent, coming soon.”
“But in reality, on a cosmic scale, ‘soon’ might still be who knows how long before arrival. And by the time that ancient one actually gets here...”
“Who’s to say he won’t stumble badly here?”
Lionel stared at the red iron dragon below, this thought forming in his mind.
The Material Plane’s rules did indeed suppress powerful immortal beings, limiting them to only their lowest level of power.
This was the supreme law of the Material Plane, inviolable by any.
But...
The same power, wielded by different beings, could produce vastly different effects.
Lionel had no doubt about this.
If a powerful deity created an identical clone of itself—with all skills, physical attributes, battle experience, etc., set exactly the same—that clone could probably kill the original a thousand times over, while the original couldn’t fight back at all.
Accumulation and foundation couldn’t be measured by mere data.
Even now, Garoth was still insignificant compared to an ancient one.
But when Lionel saw the effort and time he poured into strengthening himself, he couldn’t help but wonder: maybe this Scarlet Emperor Cangxing could break his own perception and create impossible miracles.
Time flowed silently in deep space.
After several rounds of high-intensity training, the red iron dragon’s chest heaved heavily.
He didn’t mind the craters and cracks he’d created; he simply coiled up right there, pressing his heavy body onto the ground.
His body felt deeply exhausted.
However, his eyes still gleamed with spirit.
Mentally, Garoth didn’t feel fatigued; instead, the physical exhaustion made his mind clearer.
“The few paths I primarily cultivate are falling behind in progress compared to my life level, but they’re still growing.”
Taking this break, Garoth began sorting through his path skills.
For dragons, the most important thing was always their own body.
Professional paths and skills came second.
This was the same for Garoth.
The professional paths he chose were mostly those that could grow alongside his physical condition—a carefully selected result. But even so, the increase in his path levels couldn’t keep up with his life level.
Garoth knew the reason.
“My Adaptation talent covers many aspects, but its first priority is always acting on my body.”
He analyzed in his mind.
“Path levels can follow the growth, but they can’t match the speed of my life level increase. My body’s strengthening is direct and instinctive, while path growth requires more accumulation and insight.”
Still, Garoth valued his class skills.
They weren’t just icing on the cake.
At least for now, these skills still allowed him to exert more power on his solid foundation.
Besides, his profession levels had actually progressed at an astonishing rate; it was just that, compared to the skyrocketing life level, it seemed a bit slow.
“After the Star Path, both my Wild and Eternal Death paths have reached the Legendary ranks.”
“The two legendary skills I’ve mastered along with them provide many benefits as well.”
Garoth mused.
First, the Wild path.
Upon reaching Legendary, the new skill it granted was called [Extreme Fury Ascension]—a very powerful skill.
However, the Wild path had always had few skills, but those it had were extremely potent, and they always came with many restrictions.
Extreme Fury Ascension was no exception.
More precisely, it was a skill built upon the state of Rage Without Fear of Death.
When death engulfs you, your extreme fury will reject death.
At the same time, you will ascend in that fury that rejects death.
In the Ascension state, you gain high resistance to all types of damage, and ignore almost all negative statuses such as freezing, burning, paralysis, bleeding, poisoning, and slow.
Any attempt to control or weaken you will be rendered ineffective.
You will be uncontrollable.
In the Ascension state, you can unleash roughly three times your own limit in damage. Each attack carries a crushing effect, with a high probability of directly ignoring enemy defenses.
Pure, destructive force output will annihilate all enemies.
You will be unstoppable.
“My traits already include weakening or even immunity to negative statuses.”
Garoth calculated in his mind. “Combined with the Extreme Fury Ascension skill... by then, aside from time-based skills, other control-type skills might be completely ineffective against me. And even time-based ones, I now have some resistance.”
He had never actually tested this skill since acquiring it.
It wasn’t for lack of desire to try.
The conditions were simply too harsh.
Ever since his Dragon Pearl’s resurrection effect vanished, traded for the powerful Shining Form, Garoth had never truly died, nor had he encountered an opponent that could push him to the brink of death.
The most dangerous situation he had faced was still a fair distance from triggering Extreme Fury Ascension.
Seek death just to test a skill?
Garoth had no such intention.
But even without practical testing, that didn’t diminish the power of Extreme Fury Ascension. Its value was clear just from the description in his inheritance.
In comparison, the Eternal Death path’s legendary skill was equally powerful.
Death Incarnation.
Your relationship with death is so intimate that you can briefly incarnate as death itself.
In the Death Incarnation state, you are immune to any form of lethal attack and exempt from the additional damage attached to such attacks.
Destructive blows specifically targeting the essence of life lose all meaning against you, who have incarnated as death itself.
Simultaneously, in the Death Incarnation state, each of your attacks, while dealing damage, can draw the enemy’s draining life force, using it to recover your own wounds and stamina.
The longer the battle lasts, the more advantageous it becomes for you.
“Immunity to lethal attacks... this somewhat overlaps with my own Undying Life trait.”
“However, the other effects are things the Undying Life trait doesn’t have.”
Extreme Fury Ascension and Death Incarnation were the two skills he was most satisfied with currently.
Aside from these, the Eternal Death and Wild paths had unlocked some other new skills, but their effects were relatively average, and Garoth didn’t pay them much attention.
As for the Star Path, no impressive new skills had emerged.
Its current growth was mainly reflected in the enhancement of his Star-Self clone.
Garoth could now simultaneously condense and maintain two Star-Self clones—one placed near the white dwarf as a spatial anchor for easy teleportation, and the other stationed at the Red Emperor Capital as his guardian in the empire.
“The Star Path won’t have any truly new skills for a while; it’s all centered on strengthening and perfecting the Star-Self clone.”
“It won’t achieve a major breakthrough until this path reaches the Mandate of Heaven.”
A thoughtful expression appeared in Garoth’s eyes.
The new Star Path skill after the Mandate of Heaven could grant the Star-Self clone a completely real flesh-and-blood body.
By then, the clone would no longer be just a Dragon Qi clone.
More critically, when the original body died, he could pay the price of a reduced life level to transfer his consciousness, reborn through the Star-Self clone.
This was a very powerful life-saving skill, equivalent to having an extra life.
However, considering that the Star-Self clone currently didn’t possess the Evolution talent and might never obtain it, Garoth didn’t have high expectations for this skill.
Time passed unhurriedly.
After roughly sorting through his primary cultivation paths and doing several more rounds of training on the white dwarf, Garoth finally left the star’s surface, flying into deep space to join Lionel.
“Have you found a suitable habitat yet?”
He looked at the Moon Dragon floating among the stars.
The Moon Dragon slightly shook his head. “Not yet.”
At the same time, Garoth noticed that his scales were still black and white, the two colors clearly demarcated across his body, with no sign of change.
“I recall that your Moon Dragons’ scale colors gradually shift between black and white, and your personality and alignment tendencies change with it.”
“But you’ve always maintained this distinct black-and-white look, and it’s been a long time.”
Garoth said.
Hearing this, the Moon Dragon slightly shook his head, as if recalling something.
“Just as the moon waxes and wanes, our Moon Dragons’ scale colors and personalities are in constant flux.”
“But this isn’t a good thing—at least not for me.”
“In my youth, I suffered from a split personality, oscillating between extreme kindness and cruelty, tormented endlessly.”
He paused, then continued, “It was only after reaching Legendary that I gradually learned to control myself, maintaining the most rational neutral state, which is what you see now.”
“Black and white no longer alternate; they coexist, balancing each other.”
I see.
This transformation sounded magical, but to the one experiencing it, it was nothing but a burden.
Garoth said no more.
After a brief exchange, he set off to return to Atlan.
The days that followed remained simple and fulfilling.
He mainly shuttled between Bernardo and the white dwarf, day after day honing his body.
He would set increasingly higher goals for himself, then break through them in training that pushed him to the brink of his limits.
When both his mind and body reached their limits, he would visit the Serene Spirit Wilderness, where in the vibrant natural environment, he would feast and revel with the fey who admired and worshipped him, relaxing and restoring his state.
Then, he would plunge into the next round of training.
Meanwhile, the ring left by Audothos remained completely silent.
Since he couldn’t detect anything unusual and it had no effect on him, Garoth simply stopped paying attention to it, treating it as if it didn’t exist.
Maybe it had some deeper meaning.
But for now, he had no spare time to investigate a mystery with no leads.
Thus, in the blink of an eye, five years passed.
In the year 701 of the New Calendar, devastating news spread throughout the entire Vophal Dragon Domain.
The Silver Dragon Nereus—the Vophal Dragon King, the most beloved of all Metal Dragons on planet Bernardo, known for her gentle and tolerant nature—had closed her eyes forever in the twilight of her life and fallen into a quiet slumber.
The news was relayed to Garoth through a communication device by Edri, the Silver Dragon, Deborah’s father.
In the transmission, his voice was low, but the deep sorrow still carried through the device.
Upon learning this, Garoth remained silent for a long time.
Among all the Metal Dragon Kings, he had interacted with Nereus the most.
The impression this Dragon King gave him was always one of calm and gentleness, like a patient and kind elder, never impatient, never critical.
No matter what question he posed—
Even those that other dragons might find presumptuous—if Nereus knew the answer, she would patiently explain, in meticulous detail, pouring out her knowledge.
And from the very beginning, she had held no prejudice against him.
Nereus’s tolerance and goodwill had always been renowned. In her younger, more active years, she had often mediated conflicts between different dragons.
For a dragon like that, it was hard for Garoth not to feel fondness.
But Nereus had ultimately not overcome the twilight, closing her eyes forever.
The last time they met, there had already been signs.
She had looked very tired then, exhaustion seeping from her very bones. After learning of Audothos’s disappearance, she had simply fallen asleep.
Garoth had sensed it then.
But there was nothing he could change.
The only thing that could fight the twilight was the dragon’s own will.
“Did she leave any instructions before her slumber?”
The red iron dragon came back to his senses and asked.
On the other end of the transmission, the Silver Dragon Edri was silent for a moment, then said, “The Dragon King left a recorded message for you.”
As his voice fell, the communication device suddenly flared brighter.
Countless fine specks of light rose in the air, intertwining, coalescing, and reforming, gradually sketching a clear and serene picture.
The image showed the Cold Sacred Spring.
The lake surface was as smooth as a mirror, and the distant cold mist rose ethereally over the water, like a thin veil. A thin layer of frost crystals covered the reefs on the shore, glittering with fine silver specks under the faint light.
The Silver Dragon Nereus was coiled on the large reef she always favored.
Her posture was relaxed, her slender neck slightly curved, the tip of her tail gently tapping the lake water, sending out circles of the faintest ripples.
But different from usual, she looked very spirited in the image.
Unprecedentedly spirited. Her eyes shone brightly, without any of the faint weariness and drowsiness of before. If one didn’t know the situation, they might even think she was in her prime, full of energy and vitality.
In the image, the Silver Dragon raised her head, gazing in the direction the recording was being made.
Her silver draconic pupils seemed to pierce through the veil of time, directly meeting the gaze of the red iron dragon watching the recording at this very moment.
“Garoth.”
“When you see this recording, I should already be asleep. Please don’t grieve for me. This day, I have actually been waiting for a long time.”
The Silver Dragon’s voice was still gentle.
“For hundreds, thousands of years... I have been guarding the Vophal Dragon Domain.”
“Over the long years, I have lost count of how many partings I have witnessed, how many companions I have seen off. Sheffield left, Audothos left... They left one by one. Slowly, only I remained.”
She lowered her eyes slightly, as if recalling faces long gone.
“No, not only me.”
The Silver Dragon’s gaze refocused, looking at the red iron dragon beyond the image. “There’s also you, Garoth.”
“The emergence of Sacred Aola was something I never anticipated.”
“In my longest years of guardianship, I never imagined such an empire could be born.”
“It came so suddenly, so violently, that in the final years of my twilight, I could witness this empire grow from nothing, from weak to strong, from the wilderness to the vast world.”
“This is the most unexpected and gratifying chapter of my long life.”
“It is precisely because of you, because of Sacred Aola, that I can finally say...”
“I can rest now.”
Her voice paused slightly, her entire body relaxing as if she had shed some burden, becoming completely at ease.
“I no longer need to worry day and night about the future of the dragon domain.”
“Because I know that even without me, the dragon race will still move forward. With you here, with Sacred Aola here, even as the torrent of the era surges ahead, the dragons of Bernardo will continue on, marching toward heights I cannot imagine.”
She lowered her draconic head slightly, her gaze falling on her own reflection in the lake.
“So, please don’t grieve for me.”
“I am not dying.”
“I simply want to sleep soundly, to enjoy a silent, long slumber free from any responsibility or worry. This is something all dragons envy.”
At the very end of the image, the Silver Dragon’s figure gradually blurred, as if shrouded in a thin layer of mist, then slowly faded away.
Garoth silently gazed at the spot where the image had disappeared.
After a long while, the great dragon slightly lowered his head and spoke softly:
“Sleep well, Nereus. The winds of Bernardo will forever sing your name.”
If it were him, he would not choose to sleep quietly.
He would choose to keep fighting, to keep moving forward, to resist the twilight at any cost, until he became Immortal, until death could no longer touch him.
But what made this world splendid and vibrant was precisely that different lives had different pursuits.
Nereus wanted a silent, long slumber, and in the end, she got her wish.