"Why not appropriately change the rules, meow!"
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader sat cross-legged before Logan, cautiously putting forward his own suggestion.
After receiving Logan's permission, he began to express his thoughts.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader's idea was very simple—to modify the existing rules of the Ancient Tree.
At present, on the upper levels of the Ancient Tree, there were actually very few Fire Wyvern families still living at the very bottom; most of them now resided in the middle sections.
This caused newly arriving Fire Wyverns, when initiating challenges, to instinctively choose to challenge the Fire Wyverns living in those middle areas.
As a result, the Fire Wyverns able to pass naturally became fewer, and those that barely managed to pass would be driven away through loopholes exploited by the Fire Wyvern group.
So, it would be better to directly relocate the nests of those Fire Wyverns at the lowest level to the middle area, vacating the entire lower portion of the upper levels of the Ancient Tree and allowing those Fire Wyverns that came to challenge to reside there.
This would separate the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group from the native Fire Wyverns.
Once the native Fire Wyverns also successfully underwent mutation under the alteration of Logan's Symbiosis Trait, the successfully mutated Fire Wyverns could then be moved to the middle level, continuing this ranking-like cycle of challenges.
The Fire Wyvern Grimalkyne leader's suggestion was very simple, but for Logan, although this method might not be the best, it was at least workable.
Although such a measure would undoubtedly alter the rules that had been passed down within the Ancient Tree since ancient times, compared with letting the Fire Wyvern group continue exploiting loopholes until things ended badly, this already counted as a decent solution.
As for the Fire Wyvern group's opinion, that was unimportant.
Even the breeding ban had to be obeyed; this change—which had little actual impact on the Ancient Tree Fire Wyvern group—surely wouldn't pose much of a problem either.
Thus, a major matter concerning the Ancient Tree was decided just like that.
It was soon placed on the agenda, and after convening the Fire Wyverns for a meeting, things went exactly as Logan had expected—there wasn't a single Fire Wyvern bold enough to jump out in opposition.
On the contrary, those few younger Fire Wyvern couples whose potential wasn't very high were quite supportive.
Being able to move to the middle areas directly spared them from fighting, while also gaining better service and resources from the cats—how could they possibly oppose that?
Therefore, in just a few short days that followed, with their cooperation, the nest relocation was quickly completed, and the upper levels of the Ancient Tree had, for once, a large stretch of vacant living space.
To ensure that during the period after clearing out these places—this vacuum with no Fire Wyvern in residence—no monsters would come occupy such a large area, the cats collected Fire Wyvern feces and old scales every day and placed them on several primary thoroughfares, thereby creating the appearance that the lower end of the upper levels of the Ancient Tree still had a Fire Wyvern living there.
And they assigned their already scarce personnel to patrol, until a new Fire Wyvern moved in later.
The great commotion in the Ancient Tree had only just ended when, on this day, the cat in charge of guarding the herb field suddenly let out a sharp scream.
"Bad news, meow! We're missing a lot of Mandragora, meow!! And the bugs—there are a lot fewer too! What do we do, meow!!"
Hearing their companion's call, quite a few cats hurried over. Looking at the withered trunk used especially for cultivating Mandragora, where the plants had originally been thriving, they saw that fully half of the Mandragora were gone. Several cats looked at one another; for the moment, they didn't know what to do.
Not until a sharp-eyed cat discovered, beside that gigantic deadwood, some yellow-purple scales that had been left behind along with certain medicines did they finally relax a great deal, and they quickly went to report to the cat responsible for this area.
Elsewhere, on the road toward Logan's nest, Mother Chameleos—her body flickering in and out, like a pane of transparent glass—was blissfully chewing fresh, juicy Mandragora.
With one big bite, several Mandragora were swallowed just like that.
That Mandragora, unprocessed—and even for monsters—possessed quite potent toxicity, which traveled along Mother Chameleos's digestive tract into her body.
She felt her brain give a shudder; her body floated and drifted, and it was just that comfortable.
Unfortunately, that feeling could only last for a brief instant, after which it would be easily resolved by her body's poison resistance; the blood that had been surging from the Mandragora's medicinal properties and the overexcited nerves then returned to calm.
Once that sense of pleasure could no longer be savored, Mother Chameleos would swallow the Mandragora hidden in her cheek pouch and repeat the process once again.
That's right—the herb field was what she stole. But she also left "compensation" fully sufficient to offset that portion of Mandragora; indeed, if exchanged by the Research Commission's research points, the value of the "compensation" she left far exceeded the value of that portion of Mandragora.
Mother Chameleos knew very well that this was the Ancient Tree, not Astera.
If it were Astera, she could just eat what she ate and, at most, leave behind a single scale; those scholars would happily help her make up the remaining share.
But now she was in the Ancient Tree, and Mother Chameleos had no doubt that if she really did that—never mind Logan—that irritable little female wyvern would definitely seize the opportunity to latch onto her and not let go.
She wasn't about to foolishly leave such an indisputable excuse.
After being thrilled by the Mandragora once again, Mother Chameleos curled her tongue.
All right—the Mandragora sufficient to make 20 pills of secret medicine had already been completely dealt with by her. This thing that could be called highly poisonous for ordinary monsters was, for the now-mutated Mother Chameleos, no different from catnip for cats.
Harmless, and delightful!
...
Having just completed his "temperature-regulation" work for the day and returned to the nest, Logan suddenly sensed that, within the nest, there was something a bit off about the life energy in one spot.
Ever since he swallowed that gem, as time went on, the places where he often stayed would have silver particles tinged with icy-blue light in their life energy, which had also increased his control over the life energy around himself quite a bit.
Coupled with the powerful perception brought by Mind's Eye, even a slightly unusual disturbance would be keenly detected by him.
His deep-blue vertical pupils looked toward that abnormal place; there wasn't the slightest anomaly.
Between sight and sensation, Logan chose sensation without any hesitation.
"Roar!"
A subwoofer-like low growl rang out. In his perception, that aberrant life energy was like a sandbag put into clear water, squeezing the water and quickly changing position.
And that movement made Logan's head turn to follow, clearly a look of having already locked onto the other party.
But the other party still refused to give up and changed position again.
Just like that, in one go, it shifted through several places, from inside the nest to the nest's entrance, yet it still couldn't shake off Logan's lock.
In midair, Mother Chameleos abruptly revealed her form. Relying on her own ability, she turned her scales entirely purple to conceal her mutated appearance, quacking in anger as she glared at Logan with those big eyes, unwilling to accept it.
She had been perfectly invisible!!
Even Logan from a year ago would never have been able to notice her existence before she made a sound on purpose.
But now, not only could Logan sense her presence in the nest, he even locked onto her position with pinpoint accuracy. Along with her unwillingness, Mother Chameleos felt far more fear.
Even knowing that Logan would not harbor any great malice toward her, the fact that the ability she relied on to survive had been cracked still left her shrouded in unease.
Facing the silver-white dragon in the nest and his emotionless blue pupils, Mother Chameleos couldn't help but avert her gaze.
Little did she know that Logan also let out a breath of relief. Although he had already guessed it was a Chameleos, this deep forest was home to more than just Mother Chameleos. Before actually seeing her reveal herself, he could not afford to relax his guard.
Even after becoming an Elder Dragon, one had to maintain a full sense of crisis.
As for Mother Chameleos's current look—somewhat surprised, somewhat frightened by him—
Logan only believed it sixty percent.
After all, this was a "veteran" who could think, even capable of forming Symbiosis with humans. Just by relying on that perfect invisibility that didn't depend on poison mist, she could be set apart from ordinary Chameleos. To say she had no trump cards—Logan simply didn't believe it.
"What are you here for?"
After a long while, feeling that this silent standoff had lasted long enough, Logan turned and walked into the depths of the nest, lying down comfortably in his den.
Only after experiencing that nest in the Elder's Recess, piled with rubble and bones, did he realize just how comfortable this den—carefully built by the cats according to his preferences—really was.
Especially after breaking through to Elder Dragon, now possessing that vast life force—he could say that in this world, his life finally had enough security. Then, deep within his heart, that laziness long suppressed by constant crisis finally began to sprout a little.
He had worked so hard for so many years—couldn't he finally allow himself to enjoy it?
Even though he knew such a mindset was wrong, he simply couldn't control himself!
He could only choose to indulge a little in this regard, occasionally reminding himself to take a more active role in the development of the Ancient Tree, trying to use that as a way to regain control over the sloth born from the long life awaiting him.
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