Chapter 687: Celestial Life

Deep space. Dead silence.

No atmosphere, no sound. In the emptiness measurable only by light-years, a white dwarf floated alone in the darkness.

It had once been a star.

It had burned for billions of years, finally consuming all its fuel, collapsing into what it was now.

Its volume was not large, actually a size smaller than a planet, but its mass was equivalent to that of a true star. Matter had been compressed to its absolute limit, and gravity had polished its form into extreme regularity, a nearly perfect sphere.

With it at the center, space itself was warped.

Even light passing by was forcibly bent, causing the distant starlight to curve into rings within its gravitational field.

This was a forbidden zone for life.

A dead place where even immortal beings would not wish to linger.

But who could have imagined that within the core of the white dwarf, beyond the limits of matter, a pair of eyes slowly opened.

Pupils lit up, like two stars igniting in the deepest darkness of night.

BOOM!

The next instant, the white dwarf's dense surface erupted.

A crimson figure burst forth from beneath the ground, wrapped in countless shattered layers of dense rock, shooting skyward like a volcanic eruption, arcing through the void, then landing heavily on the white dwarf's surface.

THUD.

The ground trembled, spiderweb-like cracks spreading outward from the point of impact.

The red iron dragon slowly straightened its body, raised its head, and took a satisfied breath of air that did not exist in the vacuum.

"Hah..."

"This time, the dormancy period was probably not short."

Garoth shook his massive head, thinking silently to himself, a comfortable and content expression spreading across his faceplate.

"From beginning to end, start to finish, I wasn't disturbed at all."

"It's been a long, long time... since I've slept this soundly."

Flipping back through his memories, during his previous two dormancy periods, Garoth had been disturbed by the outside world.

During those times, the green dragon Cerora and the gold dragon Audothos had provided crucial assistance, preventing him from being forcibly interrupted mid-slumber, allowing him to break through and awaken safely both times.

But waking up from sleep only to immediately enter battle was actually an extremely unpleasant experience.

Garoth preferred to wake up naturally.

To adapt to his new body and the power accumulated during sleep at his own pace.

This slumber had been perfect.

No urgent threats looming, this dead silent deep void was his most loyal guardian, isolating all noise.

"I hope I can have more comfortable sleeps like this in the future."

Garoth thought to himself.

Then, he composed his mind and began to stretch his body, carefully examining his current state.

Starting with his life level.

Forty-one.

When that number surfaced in his mind, he felt a measure of relief in his heart.

Without a doubt, this reached the level of immortal life, and even exceeded the baseline by one level, reaching level forty-one.

If he had relied purely on his own power, reaching immortality through this sleep alone would have been luck upon luck. Being able to surge all the way to level forty-one was most likely thanks to the Immortal Spirit Fruit that Titania had gifted him, which had taken effect later.

Additionally, there was a well-known iron rule in the Material Plane.

Whether immortals or divine saints, even if their true strength far exceeded level forty, the moment they entered the Material Plane, they would be suppressed by its rules to around level forty.

This was an iron rule of the Material Plane itself, and no one was exempt.

"This means, I have officially taken my place at the pinnacle of the Material Plane."

Garoth glanced down at his right wrist, using the time ring to roughly sense the current time.

"This time, I slept for over two hundred years..."

"What a long time."

The red iron dragon's gaze grew distant.

For mundane creatures, the Legendary realm was already something to look up to; a powerful legendary could change the fate of a kingdom.

But on the scale of the multiverse, legendaries were still just elite units, as insignificant as dust.

Elemental Sovereigns, divine aberrations, demon princes, gods of all heavens... these names that resounded across countless planes, their threshold was immortality.

Only the immortal had the right to stand on the same stage as these beings whose fame spanned countless planes and worlds.

At this step, whether mortal or god, all would acknowledge your power.

Taking over eight hundred years in total, from hatchling to Ancient Dragon, from weak to immortal, Garoth had finally reached the limit of the Material World, standing above countless lives, and officially gaining the capital to step onto the stage of the multiverse.

"Reaching up to Heaven, descending to the Abyss."

"Whether gods or demons, my name will echo in their ears."

Garoth felt that he lacked nothing now.

Even though he was on a white dwarf with incredibly powerful gravity, he felt like he might float up to the sky.

The sense of achievement that had been accumulating for years surged forth completely at this moment.

He even couldn't help but want to roar at the heavens.

However, sound could not travel here, and the euphoric feeling only lasted a brief instant.

The great dragon kept his feet firmly on the ground, exhaled a deep breath of scorching air, and silently added an important precondition to his earlier bold declaration.

"One day, but not now."

After coming to his senses, rationality once again took the upper hand.

In the countless worlds out there, the powerful were simply too numerous. Countless planes, countless worlds, and in every corner of every world, ancient and dangerous lifeforms might be hiding.

He had reached the limit of the Material World.

But, as everyone knew, the Material Plane was just a "tutorial zone."

The Bottomless Abyss, the Nine Hells of Hell, the Crimson Furnace, the Astral Plane, the Chaotic Sea, the Elemental Domains, Mount Heaven, the Clockwork Nirvana, the Beastlands... these planes were the true dwelling places of immortals and gods.

Suddenly, the red iron dragon felt waves of discomfort.

"This is... rejection and suppression from the Material World."

He pondered thoughtfully.

After the initial excitement, the red iron dragon felt the suppression of the Material Plane's iron law of rules.

It was like being placed inside a container that was too small, and that container was constantly shrinking.

A suffocating sense of pressure surged from all directions, squeezing his body, and invisibly suppressing his power.

He even felt an urge to tear through space and leave this place entirely, to go to a plane without suppression.

But he held back.

Not only was he not irritated, he actually narrowed his eyes slightly.

Garoth had long known about this kind of pressure.

Any life that crossed into immortality, as long as it remained in the Material Plane, would continuously suffer this suppression. It was one of the manifestations of the iron law of rules, impossible to resist, and immortal dragons were affected especially heavily.

But this continuous suppressive force...

Garoth savored it carefully, and instead of being angered, he was delighted.

He would adapt!

"Although the Material Plane is a tutorial zone, it is also the foundation of all planes and all worlds."

"If, and I mean if, I could achieve true invincibility in this tutorial zone, then in a sense, I would also dominate all the planes and worlds connected to it."

Garoth was practically overjoyed.

He also knew clearly in his heart that this iron law of rules, which even high gods could not evade, must be incredibly formidable beyond comprehension. Even though he was already immortal, he had no idea how many years it would take to adapt even a sliver of true resistance.

But as long as there was a possibility, even a tiny shred of possibility!

When life was long enough, the probability of achieving something would approach one hundred percent infinitely.

"The Material Plane is the foundation of all other planes and worlds."

"If I can adapt to the suppression of the Material Plane, unleashing more of my life's limit here than any other being, then I truly have a chance to become the sole sovereign of the Material Plane."

"At that time, I will obtain ultimate peace."

Even though no sound could be emitted, the red iron dragon couldn't help but hum softly.

Throughout his journey, he had trampled over many powerful enemies.

Those enemies, before encountering him, were all famous and undefeated existences.

Normal creatures would take pride in their victories.

Garoth was proud too, and arrogant.

But unlike normal creatures, every time he burned a powerful enemy to ashes, in some quiet moment afterward, he couldn't help but wonder...

Would he one day end up the same way?

The more thoroughly he killed, the more tragic the enemy's end, the clearer this thought became.

Even though he had walked from a mundane creature to the immortal level, a sliver of this unease remained hidden deep in his heart, impossible to shake off.

So much so that his pursuit of power was not really the pursuit of power itself.

What he truly wanted was the peace of mind that power brought.

Therefore.

When an opportunity to obtain ultimate peace appeared, Garoth would seize it without hesitation, with all his might.

However, he did not lose his rationality because of this.

"Cannot be hasty."

"Even though I already stand at the limit of the Material Plane, there are still too many powerful beings beyond it."

He warned himself.

Invincible in the world, but enemies come from the heavens.

Such a scenario could genuinely happen.

The red iron dragon silently collected his thoughts, trying his best to calm his emotions.

This was a very dangerous idea.

The position of plane lord, especially lord of the Material Plane, was something he was not qualified to touch right now. It was something even high gods would not dream of, a red line that no one could cross.

But...

Leading the empire on a Grand Expedition, first gaining control of several Material Worlds, that was something worth attempting.

The red iron dragon stopped dwelling on it and shifted his attention to his body.

The first thing that caught his eye was his scales.

One after another, his dragon scales remained layered and interlocked, arranged as tightly as ever, but the quality of his scale armor had undergone earth-shattering changes.

Each scale's surface was as smooth as a mirror, displaying a strange mirrored texture. At first glance, it looked like armor carved from crimson gemstones.

On the scale surfaces, the surrounding deep void was clearly reflected.

He tilted his head slightly and could see distant star rivers slowly flowing across his scale armor, as if he were wearing the entire universe upon himself.

The way the scales interlocked had changed too.

They still appeared layered and overlapping, but in reality, they meshed together in an extremely precise structure. Each scale seamlessly connected with the ones around it, the gaps between scales virtually invisible to the naked eye, as if cast in a single piece, with strength far exceeding before.

"Interesting."

"With scales like these, if I claimed to be a mutated Gemstone Dragon, I doubt anyone would suspect a thing."

Garoth murmured to himself.

This scale armor really was beautiful to an excessive degree, smooth as a mirror, like a carefully polished work of art.

Beautiful things always tended to give people a fragile impression.

Garoth's new scales were the same, appearing as if a single light touch would shatter them.

But if anyone actually thought that, they would be gravely mistaken.

This mirrored texture was dense matter formed through repeated shattering and recombination, proliferation and compression. It looked smooth and polished, but in reality, it was unbelievably durable.

Next, Garoth noticed a second thing.

Body size.

His body had not grown; instead, it had shrunk.

And it was a massive reduction.

From head to tail, the red iron dragon's body length was only about thirty meters.

In dragon classification systems, this was roughly the physique of a great dragon that had just stepped into the Legendary realm. Compared to his former body that blotted out the sky before his slumber, the reduction was enormous, utterly incomparable.

His sense of pressure was also not as strong as before.

Combined with his beautiful scales, he easily gave off the impression of being all show and no substance, something only fit for admiration.

However, when he took a step.

CRACK.

With his first light step, the dense and hard surface of the white dwarf split open on contact, sinking into a shallow pit.

CRACK.

With his second light step, cracks spread rapidly like spiderwebs, debris scattering in all directions.

Even a compact celestial body could not withstand a single stomp from him.

Mind you, this was the surface of a white dwarf.

Every inch of rock here had been compressed by inconceivable gravity for countless eons, its density and hardness far exceeding any known substance in the mortal world. Even Garoth before his slumber would have had to concentrate all his power on destruction to leave visible marks on such solid ground.

But he had just casually walked two steps.

Garoth stopped, lowered his gaze to look at his claws, and fell into thought.

What had shrunk was volume.

What had condensed was essence.

Within this thirty-meter body was concentrated all the accumulation and evolutionary transformation of his two-hundred-plus years of slumber. Every scale, every inch of flesh and blood had a density exceeding that of the white dwarf beneath him.

He had now become dense and heavy to an unimaginable degree.

If he were on an ordinary planet, without actively restraining himself, any casual movement would cause heaven-shaking, earth-splitting destruction.

"And here."

Garoth raised a claw and touched the top of his head.

The sensation from his claw tips was unfamiliar and hard.

In his normal state, a pair of dragon horns now grew from the top of his head.

Two pairs of dragon horns, one large and one small, extended proudly backward from his skull, surrounded by several secondary horns of varying sizes radiating outward, staggered and layered with brilliance. From a distance, they looked like a naturally formed crown worn upon his head.

His majestic and imposing dragon body, paired with this crown of horns.

Authority exuded from him, mixed with an indescribable sense of divinity.

The red iron dragon gently tapped his new horns with his claw tips, sensing their texture.

"My body would not evolve purely decorative features."

He pondered thoughtfully.

Then, the great dragon closed his eyes.

His spirit focused, consciousness sinking into a new dimension of perception, then he opened his eyes again, both pupils gleaming brilliantly.

The entire world had changed in his eyes.

The outlines of matter, light and color... all faded away.

In their place was force.

Force that was everywhere, woven into an interconnected web.

The white dwarf's gravitational field was like a giant net covering everything. Every speck of dust drifting through the deep void left ripples on the web. Distant star clusters pulled at the threads, faint yet clearly discernible.

All of this was as clear as reading the lines on one's own palm.

He could see them.

He could even... touch them.

And this was all thanks to his newly evolved force horns.

Garoth sensed something, raised a dragon claw, and pointed distantly toward the deep void above his head.

Then, his Spell-Extinguishing Claws tightened slightly, grasping hold of the formless, intangible lines of force, and slowly pulled downward.

In the far reaches of space, a meteorite several kilometers in diameter was drifting quietly along its orbit.

Suddenly, an invisible force seized it.

The meteorite's trajectory violently warped, as if grabbed by an invisible giant hand, plummeting straight toward the white dwarf!

As it approached, the white dwarf's own terrifying gravity took over. The meteorite was crazily compressed and contracted, its volume visibly shrinking ring by ring, until it finally smashed into the surface not far from the red iron dragon, turning into a heap of pulverized debris.

And this was only the beginning.

Garoth's dragon claw opened wide once more.

His perception extended, force lines taut in his claws, muscles bulging across his dragon arms, and he yanked fiercely.

In the deep void, within the nearest meteorite belt to the white dwarf, thousands upon thousands of meteorites trembled simultaneously, like subjects summoned by their sovereign, breaking free from their orbits in all directions and swarming toward the white dwarf.

The meteorite swarm tore through the deep void like a torrential storm, their momentum grand enough to make any civilization tremble in fear.

Before long.

Just as the meteorite rain was about to descend, the red iron dragon's claws gently pushed.

The invisible force rippled outward.

All the meteorites reversed direction at the same instant, scattering back into the deep void, receding like an ebbing tide, vanishing without a trace into the starry darkness in the blink of an eye.

The white dwarf returned to silence.

Garoth retracted his claws, the distant star river reflected in his vertical pupils as he slowly exhaled a breath.

"Excellent. I can now grasp the invisible gravitational field with my own claws."

A satisfied expression appeared on the great dragon's faceplate.

The force horns were like a medium, or perhaps a symbolic price. Once they came into being, even if they were destroyed, it wouldn't affect much.

In any case.

What truly mattered was that through this evolution, Garoth could clearly perceive gravity and forcibly grasp it. His Eye of Truth and Spell-Extinguishing Claws had also undergone corresponding evolution.

Not only that.

His previous Dense Body trait had merged with Undying Life, undergoing some changes, forming a new supporting trait based on his current physical state.

Celestial Life.

Your body is as dense as a celestial body, containing the weight of a star.

You can perceive, touch, and manipulate the most fundamental force of the multiverse: gravity.

There are no weak points on your body. Even if shattered into fragments, you can still reassemble into one. Only when the energy within your body and the matter of your physical form are both completely exhausted will you fall into stillness.