Chapter 7

The low, muffled sound of the giant beast's movement came through.

Mother Dragon Xi Er Wa Na Si came behind Lai Ang and stared at it.

The sound was also deliberately sent out, to remind Lai Ang of its arrival.

Lai Ang turned his body, lifted his head, and looked at the towering, ferocious giant beast before him, feeling the oppressive life force emanating from the beast's robust physique.

"I don't even know when I'll be able to grow to this point." This thought flashed through Lai Ang's mind.

Although he had the talent of an idle cultivation slot, the journey from hatchling to adult dragon still took at least a hundred years.

The excessively long time made Lai Ang unable to be certain when he would possess such power.

Xi Er Wa Na Si slowly lowered her dragon head; the ferocious, spiked skull, several times larger than Lai Ang's entire dragon form, loomed right before his eyes.

Lai Ang felt a little nervous in his heart.

The mother dragon gazed at her eldest son, also seeing the shattered stone wall behind the hatchling; or perhaps she had already seen it, which is why she appeared.

The mother dragon spoke, her voice low and deep yet pleasant, like ripples on a green lake, making the hatchling feel at ease: "My child, your talent astonishes me."

"When you were just born, you were already quite wise and opinionated; after only a few dozen days, you had mastered magic. Know that a normal black dragon needs at least three years of age to have enough mental strength to learn magic, but you——"

"Only forty-two days."

"I have watched you practice magic diligently day by day, improving day by day."

As Xi Er Wa Na Si said this, the shock and pride in her large orange-yellow dragon eyes were fully revealed.

Beneath the huge shadow, the hatchling stared blankly, "You have always been watching me?"

The hatchling felt quite surprised.

No, it was rather surprising.

The five-colored dragons' thin sense of familial affection has long been the case.

A normal evil dragon mother basically does only two things for her offspring: give birth to it, and, provided it won't starve, feed it until it is over three years old but under ten.

The limit is ten years old; beyond ten, i. e., just entering adolescence, few evil dragon mothers are willing to continue raising their young.

But Mother Dragon Xi Er Wa Na Si seems somewhat different.

She actually constantly cares about her child's growth.

Moreover, this is despite her having suffered such severe injuries! Perhaps seeing the doubt in her eldest son's eyes, Xi Er Wa Na Si smiled.

The ferocious, spiky-skulled black dragon's smile is not pleasant; rather, it is terrifying.

But in Lai Ang's eyes, he felt the other's tenderness.

Indeed.

Lai Ang suddenly recalled the day he had just been born.

The mother dragon dragged her wounded, scarred dragon body, leaving a trail of blood, pulling along the carcass of a wild ox.

She came before it.

Then she said:

"My child, you have finally been born."

Afterwards, her dragon tail coiled around the wild ox's carcass, and then she said:

"Eat."

After that, the mother dragon fell into a deep sleep due to the severity of her wounds.

Over the next half year, she would wake up from time to time, and each time it happened to be just before the three young dragons were about to finish all their food, she would hunt down new, sufficient prey.

"Don't define yourself as an evil dragon; you are merely a dragon, nothing more." Xi Er Wa Na Si gazed at her eldest son and said leisurely.

She was confident that her wise eldest son would surely understand the meaning of her words, for few black dragon hatchlings possess such a resolute and strong heart.

Right after birth, he began to actively cultivate, seeking to become stronger.

Clearly, the dragon race's inheritance information had already deeply informed it that, if it simply passed a span of time that was neither too short nor too long, it could become one of the top predators of sky and earth.

The nature of the black dragon includes laziness, greed, cruelty, cunning, and so on.

In the eyes of Mother Dragon Xi Er Wa Na Si, Lai Ang has at least defied two aspects of his evil dragon nature.

Laziness and cruelty.

Defying laziness needs no further explanation.

Defying cruelty is because of Lai Ang's attitude toward his second brother Ai Di and third brother Sai Jia.

Appearing to violently subdue, each time they fight they draw blood.

But Xi Er Wa Na Si, as an observer, sees clearly.

Lai Ang is doing this to help his two brothers become stronger; if he were cruel, he would not tolerate Sai Jia constantly provoking him and merely give him a lesson.

The injury from that lesson heals quickly in a few days, or slowly in over ten days, basically having no significant effect.

Even objectively speaking, it also promotes the hatchling's growth.

After all, giant dragons can draw strength from battle and injury.

A truly cruel black dragon hatchling would tear off the challenger's dragon wings and limbs; as long as it doesn't kill them, it's considered normal behavior.

"Keep striving; I look forward to your future achievements."

After Xi Er Wa Na Si finished saying that, she turned her massive, heavy dragon body and returned to her nest to lie curled up, head to tail, once again falling into a deep sleep, gradually accumulating her strength.

Lai Ang fell into thought.

After a moment, he chose not to think.

Thinking too much is useless.

He only needs to know that his dragon mother is a good mother.

Everything else, he must rely on himself to strive and struggle.

Since that day, Lai Ang's mood has relaxed considerably, as the pressure that had built up in his heart has dissipated greatly.

After less than thirty days, Lai Ang's spirit power, which he had been honing, finally reached the point where he could activate Dragon Might and turn it into runes.

Second brother Ai Di and third brother Sai Jia thus became Lai Ang's experimental subjects.

Finally, Lai Ang obtained rough experimental data: the Dragon Might ability he just acquired can suppress about ten percent of the strength of two small dragons. Sai Jia would be affected a bit less, perhaps because his opponent's physique is stronger, so his spirit power would also be slightly stronger.

The essence of Dragon Might is a special domain biased toward the spiritual, where spirit and body mutually influence and transform each other.

By deploying this spirit-leaning domain, you can suppress within a certain area all beings whose spirit power is lower than yours.

From affecting the opponent's power manifestation, to crushing their spirit and rendering their body immobile, to directly crushing them on a spiritual level.

The greater the gap in spirit power, the more pronounced the effect.

Thus, Dragon Might is also called the "Wide-Range Grunt-Clearing Technique."

In many wars between human nations, if they have the capability, they often invite dragons to assist—not to have them fight the armies in melee, but to have them affect the enemy army's strength and morale.

But this does not negate Dragon Might's combat advantage against strong opponents.

If weaker than a dragon, one can still influence power manifestation; if stronger than a dragon, one can also do so.

Unless the opponent's gap with you is so huge that they can completely ignore your Dragon Might, otherwise one must always expend some energy to counteract its influence.

Therefore, Dragon Might is not just a "Wide-Range Grunt-Clearing Technique"; it is also a negative buff that can target strong opponents.

(End of Chapter)