Garros focused his mind, a hazy mask covered his face, and the [Visage of the Astral Self] was quietly activated.
In this state, his perception and insight were elevated to an unprecedented Peak, sufficient to support him in examining the changes brought about by his dormant evolution in a way that was almost like internal vision, piercing through the barriers of dragon scales and flesh.
Under this transcendent field of vision, Garros clearly saw.
In addition to the energy heart pulsating in his right chest cavity.
Around his biological heart, which was beating normally in his left chest cavity, and throughout his entire body, countless additional basal vessels had sprouted.
These new vessels were like a precise energy network, a hundred times more complex and dense than before the evolution.
They connected the heart to every inch of muscle, every bone, and even every organ in his body more tightly than ever before.
Moreover, the changes were far more than just the heart and vascular System.
All the organs in his body—the tough dragon lungs, the powerful liver, the digestive stomach, the efficient kidneys... had all undergone significant reinforcement and remodeling.
Their structures became denser, their functional efficiency increased exponentially, and their surfaces and interiors were similarly covered and intertwined with a number of new basal vessels far beyond the normal range.
A strong premonition, stemming from Bloodline instinct, told him: even without relying on any Alchemical Item for assistance, he could now autonomously trigger the Blood Burst State relying solely on this transformed body structure.
And.
The intensity and effect of this amplification, originating from the essence of life, would surely far exceed the times he had relied on external objects, and would continue to grow as Garros himself became stronger, becoming the most core part of his power System.
"Should I try it now?"
As soon as this tempting thought arose, Garros immediately forced it down and shook his head slightly.
He clearly sensed that his body was still in a state of extreme depletion, far from the best time to study the new form of Blood Burst.
What's more, compared to the changes in body structure, the unknown brought by the new energy heart made his heart race even more.
"What kind of power does this energy heart actually possess?"
Garros's consciousness focused on his right chest cavity.
Under the extraordinary insight of the Visage of the Astral Self, the form of the energy heart was revealed in minute detail.
It was not a semi-illusory form; it had long since become completely materialized, presenting a deep, hard, crystalline texture that seemed to have condensed the essence of life.
To call it a heart was, in fact, not quite accurate.
It was more like an energy core perfectly embedded in his chest cavity.
Adaptive Evolution possessed strong uncertainty, and its appearance had completely exceeded Garros's initial expectations.
He had thought that being able to stably master the Blood Burst State this time would be a huge success, but he hadn't expected to gain such a surprise.
He pondered for a few seconds and decided to give this energy core a formal name first.
"Crystal Core? Dragon Crystal?"
"These names sound like cheap magic cores dug out of the heads of third-rate Demonic Beasts in old-fashioned western fantasy novels; they are too mediocre."
The Red-Iron Dragon was not very satisfied with this and shook his head.
After pondering for a while, he recalled the general structural outline of this thing before the evolution, and referring to a game setting from a distant memory, he finally had an idea.
"Decided!"
"Let's call it—[dragon jade]!"
The energy contained within the dragon jade was exceptionally pure and rich, but Garros still did not know what specific effects it could exert.
He had wanted to continue his in-depth research, but the intense feeling of depletion within his body rushed in like a tide, becoming increasingly fierce.
The extreme weakness even made him feel dizzy and his vision went black, as if he had returned to the state of serious injury after the blood battle with the Dragon Hunting Group back then.
"Besides the dragon jade, my body is too weak; I must replenish energy immediately."
Garros retracted his wings, slowly lowered his altitude, and returned to the ground of Red Maple Valley.
As soon as he landed, that intense dizziness struck again, and the extreme weakness from the inside out made him almost want to lie directly on the ground.
"Here, the food prepared for you in advance."
Seeing that Garros's condition was so bad, the Red-Silver Dragon Deborah didn't have time to ask for the reason and immediately waved her dragon claws, quickly digging open a cellar.
Inside were displayed the bodies of large Vicious Beasts and Demonic Beasts completely sealed by ice.
These were high-energy blood-food that Deborah had personally hunted and carefully reserved while Garros was sleeping.
But just at this moment, an unexpected change occurred.
Deep in his right chest cavity, the energy core that had just been named dragon jade suddenly lit up without warning.
Hum—!
A substantive, thick, and immense light instantly erupted from the core of the dragon jade.
It was so scorching, so strong, that it even penetrated Garros's tough bones, thick muscles, and the heavy metal scales covering his whole body.
In the stunned eyes of Deborah and the Faerie Dragon Vera, who had curiously crowded over.
In Garros's right chest cavity, it was as if a miniature, rising sun had been embedded out of thin air, and the brilliant light illuminated the surroundings completely.
Immediately after.
A vigorous, thick, yet not at all violent or rampant warm current of life energy gushed out from the dragon jade!
It rushed into Garros's limbs and bones without any obstruction, washing through every one of his dried-up blood vessels, and soaking every one of his muscles that were on the verge of exhaustion!
And so!
Under the gaze of the Red-Silver Dragon and the Faerie Dragon, whose dragon eyes were suddenly wide open and filled with disbelief, the Red-Iron Dragon, who a second ago had been emaciated with muscles shriveled and skin clinging to jagged bones like a wind-dried specimen, saw his huge body start to expand and become plump at a speed visible to the naked eye, inch by inch, like dead wood injected with the spring of life, or like a skin bag crazily inflated by an invisible air pump.
The withered muscle fibers swelled again, full of power.
The skin that clung to the bones was stretched open by the new, elastic, and tough body.
In just a dozen breaths of time.
Garros recovered from that gaunt, weak appearance that seemed like it would fall apart at any moment to a sturdy degree equivalent to a Red Dragon of the same body length.
Although it was still slightly inferior to his Peak physique that had been tempered before he fell asleep.
But even if he stood quietly on the ground at this moment, the oppressive force naturally exuded by his huge body was enough to make the surrounding air stagnate.
At the same time.
As his body recovered, the dragon jade, which was shining like a small sun in his chest cavity, quickly retracted its light and became dim.
Garros stretched his body in surprise, feeling the surging power and the return of vitality in his body, lost in thought.
A few seconds later, he raised a foreclaw, gently stroked his solid chest, felt the now-silent dragon jade within, and had a startling guess in his heart. Immediately, he no longer hesitated and began to feast on the frozen blood-food in the cellar.
Crunch! Crunch!
The dragon opened its huge mouth full of ferocious teeth, easily tearing, chewing, and swallowing the beast meat along with the unmelted ice.
Although it was far from as delicious as carefully cooked food, the dragon's natural taste buds did not reject this primitive blood-food, having a unique rough flavor. However, as a large amount of food went down, Garros did not feel full at all, and his newly recovered body did not continue to become stronger.
On the contrary, after all the energy was efficiently absorbed, it preferentially gathered crazily towards the dragon jade in the chest cavity, as if there was a bottomless pit of space waiting to be filled.
"Not enough, far from enough. I need to return to Dragon Valley immediately."
The Red-Iron Dragon suddenly flapped his wings, and his huge body rushed straight into the sky covered by wind and snow.
The Red-Silver Dragon and the Faerie Dragon looked at each other and took off without hesitation, following closely behind.
"Hmm?"
During the flight, Garros's gaze penetrated the heavy snow curtain and scanned the earth below, and the scene before his eyes made his pupils shrink.
"How could The Borderlands have become like this?"
As far as the eye could see, there was only a dead and vast pure white between heaven and earth.
Ice sealed thousands of miles, and all things withered.
If he didn't clearly remember that he had woken up from the iconic red maple forest in Red Maple Valley, he would have almost thought he was deep in the distant Permafrost Tundra at this moment.
It was not that it had never snowed in The Borderlands.
But this was the first time Garros had witnessed such a cruel and extreme cold scene, as if it wanted to completely freeze the whole world.
He temporarily suppressed the questions in his heart and accelerated his flight.
Not long after.
The familiar outline of the valley, surrounded by towering rock walls, finally appeared in the wind and snow.
It was completely different from the apocalyptic frozen scene outside.
Because of its unique terrain structure, the towering mountain walls of Dragon Valley acted like a natural barrier, blocking most of the raging wind and heavy snow.
Although there were sporadic snowflakes falling in the valley, and the ground was covered with a thin layer of snow, and the temperature was much colder than outside, overall, it presented a peaceful scene, like the arrival of early winter. Some cold-resistant dark green vegetation was still stubbornly alive, and the lake water that had not yet completely frozen was murmuring under the thin ice.
It looked like the situation was much better than Garros had expected.
At the top of the valley, the Burning Steel Fortress still stood tall.
After more than a decade of careful care and maintenance by his subjects, despite the passage of time, this magnificent fortress was still as straight as ever, like a silent iron giant, quietly bathing in the wind and snow, looking down at the valley.
When Garros's figure appeared on the horizon.
The subjects in the valley below, who were busy or on alert, all raised their heads.
Countless gazes, full of awe and surprise, were all focused on the Red-Iron Dragon in the wind and snow.
"Roar—!"
"It's the leader! It's Lord Garros!"
"King! Our King is back!"
After a brief silence, earth-shaking cheers and roars erupted like a volcano.
Under the gaze of countless eyes, Garros circled slightly, as if patrolling his long-lost territory. Then he folded his wings and landed steadily on the highest observation deck of the fortress.
"Subjects of the Molten Iron Tribe!"
A roar like rolling thunder sounded first.
I saw the Storm Bear leader Mobel, whose fur was trembling with excitement, he was the first to wave his arms and shout, and then without hesitation, he stuck his butt up and prostrated deeply on the ground like five bodies throwing themselves to the ground!
"Celebrate! Cheer!"
"Our King—Lord Garros! Has returned!!!"
Like a lit fuse.
Up and down the fortress, inside and outside the valley, all the subjects who saw this scene stopped what they were doing, and with the deepest awe and ecstasy, they knelt down like wind blowing through wheat waves in the direction of the fortress terrace!
A black mass, spreading to the edge of the valley.
"Pass the order down, open the granaries! All subjects of the Molten Iron Tribe, prepare a grand banquet tonight to celebrate with me."
Successfully surviving a long slumber was already a matter worthy of great celebration, and coupled with the fact that this evolution had far exceeded expectations, Garros immediately decided to hold a banquet to celebrate, announce his return to the entire tribe, and boost the morale of the tribe.
After handing over the specific matters of preparing the banquet to the subordinate leaders.
He went to the treasury inside the fortress, took some high-energy reserves, and then chose a spacious and bright place in the valley, ordering his subjects to send all kinds of food one after another.
He couldn't wait for the banquet to officially begin and decided to eat in advance to fill the needs of the dragon jade.
Magic Gems, precious metal ingots, fresh blood-food, concentrated black oil... these various substances containing rich energy or nutrition were swallowed by Garros one after another.
His digestive System worked efficiently, nutrients and energy were rapidly absorbed, and the waste produced by metabolism was excreted from the body, collected by special subjects for other uses.