Chapter 267: The Domineering Dragon Blood, an Entirely New Dragonification System

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye half a year had passed.

It was now late November of the year. That night, the weather suddenly turned cold; overnight the north wind howled, and vast snowflakes drifted down in a leisurely fall, cloaking the scenery of the forest in a layer of frost.

"Crunch~~ crunch~~"

Snow was crushed underfoot as a great serpent, bearing a faint dragon shape, arrived near a mountain cave carrying a half-grown, dying wolf cub in its jaws.

"Hiss hiss~~"

It carefully puffed a few times before setting down the food in its mouth, pushing it into the cave.

If anyone were present at this moment, they would surely notice that the cave was piled high with fresh animal flesh and blood, and atop this flesh and blood grew a mysterious red flower whose roots and stems flowed with vivid red veins.

Having done this, the great serpent, already possessed of considerable Spirit, retreated on the spot and departed.

Hum—

But unexpectedly, the cave, which had shown no movement whatsoever in days past, suddenly trembled.

Immediately afterward came a series of violent shakings; at this moment it was as if the heavens had collapsed and the earth had split. Behind that lush, verdant cave, the great mountain directly began to sway.

Rumble rumble—

With the sudden tremor striking, amid swirling dust and snow, a massive boulder crashed down, hurtling straight toward the great serpent that stood stunned in place by the sudden turn of events.

At this moment, the great serpent finally reacted. It first cast several glances toward the cave about to be buried, a few traces of reluctance showing in its eyes, then frantically fled down the mountain.

"Boom!!!"

A sudden explosion struck, and the path ahead of the great serpent abruptly buckled and shattered.

Then a massive dragon body, sleek and radiating a sacred aura, flew out from within; a few breaths later it circled and glided in midair.

Then it slowly descended toward the mountain, already a scene of utter devastation.

Boom—

At this moment, the already ravaged mountain suddenly sank, and a mysterious creature abruptly appeared—its posture graceful, its dragon whiskers flowing, radiating a sacred aura.

There is a beast: its form is that of a tiger with eagle talons, a serpent's body, and fish scales; it soars through the azure sky. Its name is True Dragon.

This is a dragon!

Without a doubt, if at this moment any intelligent creature were to appear here, even if its mind held no concept of "dragon" before, the moment it gazed upon this, an impression and understanding of the dragon would inevitably form within its mind.

This is an exceedingly wondrous phenomenon, as if it can disregard the subjective will of onlookers and forcibly make them understand its own wondrous and sacred name.

Unfortunately, no creature is present now, and no one can witness the scene of this "True Dragon's" birth into the world.

Instinctively, Baichuan, who had just awakened, wanted to let out a long roar to proclaim his transformation, but midway he recalled that this was no time to show off, and forcibly restrained the impulse.

"An unprecedented feeling—is this what a true dragon truly possesses? How utterly magnificent!"

Facing the slightly chill cold wind, Baichuan gently closed his eyes, savoring the feeling, different from after his previous evolutions.

A few breaths later, Baichuan slowly opened his eyes. Just as he was about to experience his new abilities, his gaze sharpened as he detected a faint, peculiar life aura.

"This is?"

In his puzzlement, he flew straight over.

And this led him to discover a great serpent, bearing dragon transformation, lying on the verge of death amid the rubble of broken rocks. What was stranger was that although he had no idea where this serpent had come from, he could sense that its body contained his own aura.

"What situation is this?"

Not quite clear on the situation, Baichuan slowly surveyed his surroundings, and in doing so he saw that within the crevice of the egg-shaped object that had previously encased him, there was a small mountain of animal corpses, atop which grew a peculiar plant.

Casually seizing the dying great serpent, in a few steps he arrived before the egg-shaped object, which had been bound into a small mound by hard soil and tangled roots.

In an instant, a flower whose roots and stems were densely covered with red veins that seemed almost alive came into his view, its blossom containing a great amount of his aura.

It seemed that due to the influence of his earlier emergence into the world, the mountain of flesh and blood had already collapsed by more than half, exposing most of the plant's roots to the air. As a result, the plant was frantically drawing nutrients from the flesh and blood to sustain its own life, but regrettably it was still slowly slipping toward death.

Baichuan could sense that the aura of his on the great serpent originated from this plant's flower.

"Is this the power of Dragon Blood?"

In an instant, under the deduction of vast computational power, Baichuan understood the situation.

During his slumber and evolution, because this evolution's ability was exceedingly special—a metamorphosis from an ordinary creature into a true dragon-kind being—while his body was undergoing frantic changes, he had inadvertently leaked the aura belonging to Dragon Blood. And by an even greater coincidence, during the leakage of this aura, a fortunate plant was influenced by his aura and gradually began to metamorphose along with it, thereby mutating into a wondrous "Dragon Blood Grass."

And because this Dragon Blood Grass lacked sufficient nutrients, or perhaps due to its own Characteristic, upon its first ripening after metamorphosis it began to emit an aura that lured creatures. A great serpent that happened to pass by swallowed it, and thus began to transform into a Spirit-bearing creature infused with Dragon Blood.

As for what followed, it was exactly as he now saw before him.

Having received the benefit and having gained Spirit, the great serpent began to offer tribute of its own accord.

"Good, what domineering Dragon Blood!"

Although the description of the ability had already fully explained its domineering might, after witnessing it with his own eyes, Baichuan could not help but feel a surge of astonishment.

Its infectivity toward living creatures was simply too powerful, and the mutations that appeared after infection were all benign, directional mutations.

Taking dragonification as the grand direction, it continuously evolved by incorporating the host's main characteristics and advantages, producing ever more powerful, favorable mutations.

This was an ability he had long imagined yet never possessed.

The source of this ability—that legendary creature—how immensely powerful must it be?

Dragon! Dragon!

This is the true dragon he wished to evolve into!

As for him now, at best he was nothing more than a Pseudo-Dragon.

After deeply exhaling a breath of turbid air, easing the shock produced within him by the incomparably domineering effect of this Dragon Blood, Baichuan finally regained his composure.

What a pity, the great serpent was beyond saving.

After shaking his head with some regret, Baichuan finally had the leisure to take in the peculiar scene that had once again appeared within his vision.

It was a perspective atop his previous main viewpoint, one that once again allowed him to see more mysterious things.

Gently raising his head, Baichuan gazed at the mysterious traces left flowing through the world by the peculiar substances born of all living things' life activities, and at the gray mist floating above the distant human settlement.

For no apparent reason, a sudden enlightenment arose within him.

The former was the trace left by the flow of the world's grand momentum, or what might be called the world's Vital Essence; the latter was the invisible energy leaked by intelligent life during its activities due to its own wisdom.

These two types of energy are forces that exist in any world and any place where intelligent life resides, and they are also a system distinct from the previous Spirit Qi and his Light Point energy systems.

Moreover, it is a powerful energy system that can exist as long as one is in a world and a place where intelligent life resides.

Coupled with the earlier fact that Dragon Blood can infect all things and give birth to spiritual intelligence.

Then the truth is already very clear — this is yet another mysterious and powerful system no less formidable than the Blood Worm Light Point and Spirit Qi systems.

Creatures containing Dragon Blood, no matter which world they appear in, even if that world has no intelligent life, once a creature capable of reaching the 【Walking Jiao】 stage appears, as long as it spreads its own Dragon Blood outward, it can give birth to beings with spiritual intelligence.

Thereafter, guided by the traces of the world's essence flowing, it can gather the grey mists of wisdom and thereby Walk the Jiao!

With this understanding, Baichuan immediately knew that his earlier guess had been correct.

The master of the Dragon Blood ability and dragon-kind lifeforms are not natives of this world; perhaps they are outsiders like him.

The only question is whether the Spirit Qi system appeared first, or Dragon Blood creatures descended first?

The waters of this world truly run deep.

Under the influence of these Planet Essence traces, the instincts within his body also began to stir, as if wanting to, under the influence of the heaven and earth essence traces, gather and ignite the myriad grey mists so as to burn and sublimate his own Dragon Blood into something purer, richer, and more powerful.

This is 【Walking Jiao】.

Instinctively, Baichuan understood what this feeling was.

Unfortunately, another instinct within his body was telling him that even if he succeeded in Walking the Jiao, it would be useless, because the purity of the Dragon Blood within him had already surpassed what the world's essence and grey mists brought about by 【Walking Jiao】 could ignite and sublimate.

The Dragon Blood within him had already reached another level, requiring a different method to sublimate and transform.

Well, having realized this, Baichuan clicked his tongue with some regret.

Clearly, the expectation he had originally held before evolving had failed.

From the moment he first understood the effect of the 【Walking Jiao】 ability, he had been wondering whether, if he Walked the Jiao and transformed with Dragon Blood of the so-called "True Dragon" level, he could get closer to the true master's level of the ability.

Now, his expectation had failed.

LV3-level Dragon Blood can no longer be transformed through 【Walking Jiao】.

Though he felt some regret and helplessness, Baichuan could only accept the fact.

After experiencing this peculiar perspective, with a single thought Baichuan flew up directly with a flash of his dragon horns, without using his Spirit Qi or magnetic Flight at all.

And compared to his previous two methods of Flight, this Flight now felt more like a biological instinct, requiring no additional energy system.

Just like the deadly venom from his initial Yanjingwangshe stage, Flight could be performed as long as the ability's host had sufficient stamina.

So what is the principle?

This time, he didn't need to rack his brains, because the feeling constantly transmitted from his body had already told him.

Treating the atmosphere as a solid object, like fish swimming through water, now that he had become a "Pseudo-Dragon," he directly borrowed the marvels brought by Dragon Blood to swim through the air.

Yes, Baichuan's own feeling was that he was now just like he was in water, except that compared to the resistance of seawater in water, he now felt almost no resistance from the air at all — what he felt more was the air's assistance.

As long as he wished, a light swim could carry him a great distance, and because of his exceptional agility and decent appearance, his posture swimming through the atmosphere looked not only extraordinarily agile but also incomparably mysterious.

And in the eyes of others, this situation would simply be Flight.

Is this the truth of how dragons fly?

At this moment, Baichuan couldn't help muttering to himself.

Are dragons atmospheric creatures?

No, perhaps even more than that.

Baichuan shook his head in denial, thinking of how the Jiao Dragon stage could only exist on land and in water currents, and of the current "Pseudo-Dragon"… Yes, Baichuan called his current stage Pseudo-Dragon, because if he called it True Dragon, he felt it would be an insult to the name.

The current Pseudo-Dragon stage moves across land, seawater, and atmosphere — so if he were to sublimate his Dragon Blood once more and undergo another transformation, what would he himself become?

Baichuan didn't know, but he was certain that he would be far more marvelous than he was now.

That stage might be called…

Shaking his head, Baichuan didn't dwell further on uncertain future matters; he preferred to think about something more practical.

So he turned to considering what this ability could bring him.

Of course, he had also thought about exploring the essence of this ability, but that really wasn't something the current-stage him could investigate.

His knowledge was still too shallow; he hadn't even fully understood the Spirit Qi system yet, so how could he have the Time to understand this Dragon Transformation system he had only just come into contact with?

At present, he could be said to have come into contact with three distinct energy systems: one, the Blood Worm's Light Point energy system; two, the Spirit Qi system of unknown origin; three, the Dragon Transformation system centered on Dragon Blood that dragon-kind lifeforms had, which he had just now come into contact with.

Logically speaking, according to his dream and wish, his best current choice would be to devote his energy to the Dragon Transformation system.

But his rational analysis told him this option was not the best choice right now.

He was never a particularly clever person; having just come into contact with the Dragon Transformation system, with nothing to his name and knowing nothing, what could he possibly do?

Investigate the mysterious substance within his blood?

Don't be ridiculous — he didn't even know how that substance existed within his blood; he could only feel it, but couldn't find it.

Being able to feel it but unable to find it meant that even if he wanted to take other creatures and repeatedly experiment with Walking the Jiao, he couldn't do it.

He had already discovered this in his earlier experiments with a large number of "lucky ones."

On the other hand, with the Spirit Qi system, he not only had a great deal of understanding, but had also seen what seemed to be a glimmer of hope at its source.

On this long path of cultivation and evolution, he couldn't be half-hearted about three things at once.

Setting aside his superfluous and useless thoughts, he began to consider what kind of help this 【Atmospheric Shuttle】 ability could bring him — surely it couldn't be only Flight, right?

After a long while, unable to come up with an answer, Baichuan gave a bitter smile — he had still overestimated his own intelligence!

It seemed he should go find that Ao Qing again and ask whether there were any dragon-clan cultivation techniques.

Then only the last two abilities remained.

【Cloud-Raising and Rain-Making】 and 【Dragon Breath】.

After thinking for a moment, Baichuan sensed the peculiar feeling within his body, and then triggered it.

The next moment, he saw his dragon horns move again, and the stamina within his body began to vanish for no apparent reason.

What followed was that he seemed to be able to sense the water vapor in the atmosphere… No! Not just sense it — even when there was no water vapor, he could actually consume stamina and, through that mysterious power, use his dragon horns as a medium to draw in the omnipresent water molecules and directly synthesize visible water vapor!

……

(End of this chapter)