Chapter 179: An Investment in the Future, the Birth of a Dragon's Tail

Father and Grandfather... they actually didn't deceive them?!

"Sister, what is that? Is it really the Dragon God?"

At this moment, a clear, childish voice rang out from the young girl in her arms.

The girl's tender voice rang out clearly at this moment, especially conspicuous in the surroundings of the castle that had fallen utterly silent.

Especially after everyone around knelt in worship, only they two still stood quietly in place.

Such a conspicuous scene naturally drew the attention of countless people around, most notably Abel and the old King An Bai.

Only now did they sober up from their intensely excited emotions, seemingly just remembering that their daughter/granddaughter had not knelt with them.

"Oh no!"

In an instant, that single thought surfaced in both their minds.

Abel recalled that his daughter did not believe in the existence of the Dragon God and might be about to blaspheme the divine, while old King An Bai seemed to be remembering that time long ago when he himself had shown disrespect to the Dragon God.

At this very moment, if mishandled, what should be the joyous day of the Dragon God's descent might instead become the sacrificial day of the Dragon Empire's destruction.

Divine grace is like the sea, divine wrath like a prison — this is no joking matter.

They seemed to recall that scene from the past, the entire Empire reduced to a sea of flames, countless people wailing.

At the same time, the gazes of countless people from all around the castle naturally fell upon them, which abruptly increased the pressure on the Empire's Second Princess Aiya, who still stood there without kneeling.

But her silence caused the young sister in her arms to tilt her head and speak again:

"But Sister, didn't you tell me that Lord Dragon God is fake?"

At this moment, the tender, puzzled child's voice drifted out on the wafting wind.

Aiya could not speak; under the countless gazes around her — some terrified, some questioning, some furious — she only felt her entire body turn ice-cold.

She no longer dared to look toward Father and Grandfather, afraid to meet their disappointed eyes.

Such a secret matter as whether the Dragon God truly existed could previously only be discussed quietly among a few siblings in private — how could it be spoken aloud in broad daylight?

Let alone on the day of the Dragon God's descent, spoken before the eyes of countless believers of the Dragon God Sect.

How fanatical the faith of the Dragon God Sect's believers was, the members of the royal family understood most clearly — otherwise they would not hold important positions within the sect.

As a Bishop of the Dragon God Sect and one of the Seven Pillars of the Kingdom of the Empire, all these illustrious statuses brought by the Dragon God — yet now she had openly spoken words of blasphemy such as "the Dragon God does not exist" and "false god."

She understood that even as one of the Seven Pillars of the Kingdom of the Empire, after today's incident she would lose everything.

Perhaps because of her special status she would not be put directly to death, but she could never again appear before the public.

Coming back to her senses, her thoughts churned, and she glanced with a touch of bitterness at her younger sister who was watching her curiously.

Sigh~ Little sister, you've really done me in.

Perhaps the only thing she could do now was extract her sister's guilt and bear it all upon herself, so that the two of them would not share the sin of blasphemy together.

Thinking this, she gently rubbed her sister's hair and spoke in a soft voice, loud enough for everyone around to hear clearly: "It is sister's fault. Sister was deceived by a villain's pretty words. I beg Lord Dragon God to punish me."

Saying so, she knelt down together with her sister in her arms.

At this moment, upon the entire land not a single person dared remain standing, nor did anyone dare speak. Only in the clouds high above the heavens did that slender figure continue to glide, occasionally revealing a sharp claw, or scales that gleamed like metal beneath the sunlight.

After a long while, the creature in the clouds ceased its gliding. Amid the crowd's anticipation and tension, a section of the clouds split apart completely, revealing a majestic, beautiful dragon head.

In an instant, a pair of solemn pupils like burning flames were the first to shine forth, their gaze seemingly substantial as it looked down below.

At this moment, Baichuan looked down at the situation below and could not help but sigh with some helplessness. From the start he had already surveyed everyone below, especially those humans with a similar aura to the golden-haired giant.

Those were perhaps the descendants he had bred, but unfortunately among these sixty-odd, not one possessed a mutated ability, and based on what he had checked along his journey here, none of them were mutants either.

Although his method of checking was merely based on whether the fluctuations emitted by that ability showed any anomaly — not necessarily a hundred percent accurate — it was close enough, meaning the most important purpose of this trip had failed.

It seemed his expectations had been too high. The current Time was indeed too short; he had been too impatient.

The several essential factors for an ability to mutate: unstable genes, a large base, abundant energy.

Previously he had only just satisfied the "large base" condition, and even that base was not that large. As for abundant energy, he had only just barely achieved that recently through the herbivorous dragon.

Since that was the case, he should leave.

But before leaving, looking at the exaggerated scene before him, he decided to leave behind something. Although everything this Empire had done was of no use to him at present.

But it was a trivial matter — why not do it?

Consider it an investment in the future.

Thinking this, he sent down two streams of Light Points radiating a brilliant blue-outside-green-inside glow from the clouds, which in an instant vanished into the bodies of Abel and the old king.

Then he departed.

At this point, the Flood Dragon's figure once again vanished into the clouds. Throughout the entire process, Baichuan had no mood to bother with the trivial matter of whether those below believed in him or not. As he began to ascend, the thick clouds slowly rose and drifted away.

He left behind only a group of utterly shocked onlookers, and two generations of Empire kings brimming with renewed vigor.

As for the effect of that renewed vigor, it naturally could not be that Baichuan truly possessed some mysterious ability representing life force that extended life.

He had merely, based on his understanding of the human body, stimulated their bodies at the instant the Light Points entered, causing them to secrete a hormone that stimulated the nerves and thus produced a feeling of renewed vigor — like a stimulant, only not so intense and without any harm.

Next, once the Light Points truly settled within their bodies, they would naturally, by absorbing energy, quietly devour and replace some of their aged cells, thereby achieving a certain degree of life-extending effect.

In the end, human aging is partly due to the cells, and replacing cells — isn't that becoming younger?

And this process would manifest as, with the passage of Time, they would grow younger each day than the day before, until the Light Points were completely exhausted.

As Baichuan's development and utilization of the Light Points grew increasingly complex, he had to a certain extent already been able to easily achieve scenes once considered miracles.

He was already no different from a transcendent being!

With matters here concluded, the disappointed Baichuan no longer lingered, and flew off toward the Shenhai Qu.

Accompanied by his first time entering the water since learning to fly.

Only now did he discover that his tail fin, which had been used to increase swimming speed, was now useless, because even in the seawater he could maintain a Flight posture, with no need for the tail fin to swing at all.

As for the tail fin's other function — the tail blade.

To be honest, this form was not actually the optimal shape; this shape could not fully unleash the full power of his Burst ability.

It seemed the time had come to bid farewell to that enormous tail fin.

As for the form of the replacement, Baichuan only thought about it briefly before deciding.

He no longer needed any existing tail shape of any animal on this planet, because no animal's tail truly suited him.

In that case, why not create a tail that satisfied him himself?

Based on his current abilities, only one creature's ability could meet his requirements.

Darwin's bark spider!

This was the spider with the highest strength among all the silk spun by every spider on the entire planet.

The toughness of its silk threads was roughly equivalent to the strength of steel rebar, yet more solid than steel rebar, because it possessed elasticity.

If an exact comparison had to be made, its strength and solidity was several times that of Kevlar fiber, and Kevlar fiber was one of the most solid man-made materials.

Its strength was basically five times that of steel of the same mass, and it was truly used as a military material applied in bulletproof vests, tanks, armored vehicles, and even nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.

From this, one could imagine how terrifying the strength of the Darwin's bark spider's silk was.

And this terrifying spider silk — as long as he manufactured countless strands hanging down and converging together to form a tail, then attached a layer of sharp iron completely wrapping it.

In that case, how terrifying would this tail of his be?

If combined with that terrifying Burst, an acceleration sufficient to break through the speed of sound, sweeping out that fine, soft yet sharp iron tail — if it struck a body of flesh and blood.

Then what awaited it?

Without a doubt, the flesh and blood would turn into countless fragments, not even leaving behind any pulp.

However, through this, Baichuan discovered that he was getting closer and closer to the true dragon of legend. At this moment, if changed according to his design, wouldn't it be a true dragon's tail?

Having suddenly realized this, he could not help but laugh at himself. But since the plan had already been decided, he no longer hesitated.

He simply sat down on the spot and opened the panel. Based on all his testing over such a long period, he had also discovered one thing.

As he grew increasingly powerful, the strength of the shell molt produced with each evolution also changed again and again. By now, even without any defensive measures, that shell molt could not be shattered by ordinary creatures.

Therefore, Baichuan rarely did not seek out some hidden cave or similar place. He merely erupted the Light Point power to devour clean all creatures within several kilometers, and then began his evolution.

Along with the panel unfolding, Baichuan headed straight for the ability structure library, selected the Darwin's bark spider model, and directly pulled out the "Silk-Spinning LV3 (Banzhu)" from within, placing it into the tail section of his own ability model.

Immediately after, he hesitated for a moment, as if recalling something, and once again selected an ability model.

'Species: Polar Bear.'

'Abilities: Qiangzhuang LV3 (King), Sharp Claws LV3 (Banzhu), Energy Storage LV2, Thermal Energy Conversion LV2…'

(End of this chapter)