Chapter 688: Dragon Emperor, Immortal Potency

After initially familiarizing himself with gravitational perception, Garoth did not stop.

He lowered his head and gazed at his own sharp claws.

His claw fingers slowly curled inward, then slowly spread open again. In this process, he could clearly feel the direction and intensity of the gravitational lines around him. Countless force lines rose and fell in silence, waiting for him to pluck and toy with them.

He raised his dragon claw and gently beckoned toward the meteorite debris that had crashed not far away.

Pieces of broken stone scattered across the ground floated up, breaking free from the white dwarf's gravitational pull, rising into the air.

Then, pulled by gravity, thousands of debris fragments began to revolve around the red iron dragon.

Debris close by scraped past his scales, while pieces farther out traced arcs dozens of meters away. Large fragments distributed to the outer ring, small ones gathered in the inner ring.

Ring upon ring, layer upon layer.

The sight resembled a miniature planetary system orbiting a crimson dragon-shaped star. If viewed from afar, this red great dragon seemed to have donned a ring of stars of his own.

Garoth amused himself with it for a while.

Sometimes he accelerated the ring's rotation, the debris blurring into streaks of light at high speed. Then he would abruptly freeze them, thousands of fragments suspended motionless in midair. Or with a gentle flick, he would arrange the debris into neat formations, parading around himself.

Controlled and released with ease, as naturally as moving his own limbs.

But all of this was only possible under Garoth's intense mental focus.

The moment his attention wavered, the surrounding debris immediately began to drift, their orbits becoming unstable.

However, while precision was important, it was still secondary.

It could be improved through continuous training.

Garoth was not worried about that.

More importantly, Garoth discovered that his manipulation of gravitational fields was essentially similar in nature to his previous manipulation of space. Both involved sensing, directly grasping, and then twisting with pure physical force to achieve a certain effect.

At the end of the day, it still came down to raw strength.

As for the legendary Force Dragons...

Though he didn't know exactly how Force Dragons manipulated force fields, Garoth suspected it probably wasn't through "raw strength." They likely relied on an innate affinity with force fields, just as spellcasters had an affinity with the elements—commanding force fields to leverage power beyond their own limits.

Garoth did not possess such affinity.

His method of influencing force fields was extremely crude, essentially forcing them to twist purely through his own might.

Though simple, this approach had its advantages.

As long as one's strength was sufficient, the target being twisted had no choice but to obey.

Affinity? Not needed.

"Theoretically speaking, as long as my own strength is sufficient, combined with the special effects of gravitational fields, I could even casually tug a star around in the Material World's universe, playing with a star like a ball."

Garoth thought to himself.

That was one of the directions I couldn't attempt before.

Using stars as weapons, or as mobile energy sources—either use was exciting enough to anticipate.

As for now, whether in strength or precision, he had not yet reached that level.

A moment later, the red iron dragon had his fill of amusement. With a light wave of his claw,

the countless debris lost their pulling force and rained back down to the surface, dust rising before slowly settling.

Garoth withdrew his attention and turned his awareness deeper into his body.

Aside from Celestial Life, his body had undergone other changes from this transformation, all waiting for him to review one by one.

From legendary to Immortal was a deep reorganization and reshaping of one's very form of existence.

His traits had undergone earth-shattering changes because of it.

Some old traits faded, some sublimated, and some were inscribed into the very essence of his being, becoming part of his existence.

The first thing Garoth perceived was that one of his original traits had undergone a leap.

Dragon Succubus.

This trait had accompanied him for a relatively short time and provided no direct combat assistance.

Yet it had offered undeniable help in spreading his reputation across Atlan and building his imperial achievements. Many dragons were willing to listen to him and follow him, largely because of this trait.

And now, it had sublimated.

Dragon Emperor.

Garoth silently recited this new name in his heart, savoring the changes it brought.

The Dragon, the Mark of Imperial Sovereignty.

You possess an imperial bearing and presence that transcends the mortal. Every word and action carries the weight of a sovereign's decree.

All beings with dragon bloodlines will unconsciously sheathe their claws and fangs before you, lower their heads, listen to your words, and unconsciously submit to your will.

For non-dragon lifeforms, the effect still exists.

In your presence, non-dragon lifeforms will feel an indescribable awe, instinctively respect you, and yield to your authority.

"From succubus, to emperor... that's quite the leap."

Garoth pondered this change.

The old Dragon Succubus made other dragons feel favorably toward him, easy to persuade. But the current Dragon Emperor had shed the foundation of allure and donned the crown of authority.

The former made people like you; the latter made people obey.

Without a doubt, Dragon Emperor's effect far exceeded what came before.

For ruling a vast empire, authority was more direct and stable than charm.

Next, he noticed the second change.

Mutant Form had disappeared.

This trait that had once granted him various mutation abilities and increased his attributes through mutation had been optimized away during this slumber, integrated into his body's basic qualities, ceasing to exist.

"The Mutant Form gained at the Mandate of Heaven tier, gone after reaching Immortal. Its time of existence was rather brief."

The red iron dragon shook his head and thought.

However, he wasn't surprised by this.

As early as before his slumber, due to the appearance of the Dense Body trait, Garoth had discovered that his Mutant Form was being affected.

Mutation speed had slowed, and overall it required more effort.

The physical stability brought by Dense Body and the rapid transformation demanded by Mutant Form were inherently contradictory.

Now, Dense Body and Undying Life had fused and sublimated into Celestial Life.

In that process, Mutant Form had completely disappeared.

But there was no time to mourn the loss of Mutant Form, for what replaced it was something else Garoth was very familiar with.

The Dragon Pearl.

Garoth examined his inner self and clearly perceived that his Dragon Pearl had gone from one to two.

Two Dragon Pearls, one above and one below, slowly circulated within his dense flesh, each containing a complete charge of energy.

Moreover, it wasn't just a change in quantity.

This time, he possessed the power of free choice.

Using the Dragon Pearl energy to revive from death, continuously returning from the dead; or burning them to activate the Super Flash state, trading for combat power beyond limits... He could freely choose and adapt, making the most appropriate judgment based on the battle situation.

"My resurrection trait really won its own comeback match."

The red iron dragon chuckled inwardly.

This powerful trait that had been missing for so long had, after many twists and turns, finally returned to his grasp.

His title of Undying Dragon was earned through Dragon Pearl resurrection, and he had once built a very powerful combat system around the Dragon Pearl's revival effect. Enemies had to kill him many times over before truly defeating him.

However, for someone who was now a Celestial Life, the meaning of resurrection was actually no longer significant.

This body had no weaknesses; even shattered, it could reassemble.

To beat him to death, one would first need to exhaust his energy and matter completely.

If it truly came to that point, whether he had Dragon Pearl resurrection or not made little difference, because if the enemy had the ability to drain all his energy, one or two extra revivals wouldn't change the outcome.

The key was still the Super Flash state.

Two charges of Dragon Pearl energy meant he had three health bars in total, able to activate Shining twice. Moreover, the Shining Form's performance had been proven many times—against powerful foes, explosive power could often directly reverse the tide of battle.

Powerful, needless to say.

Additionally, when facing different types of opponents in the future, besides going head-to-head with the Shining Form, he now had a more stable option.

If he relied entirely on Dragon Pearl resurrection, with three health bars, combined with his supporting combat skills like Born from Death, Rage Without Fear of Death, and Master Life and Death...

Even if he wanted to die, his enemies might not be able to kill him.

This style of fighting was better suited for attrition warfare, ideal for opponents with extremely strong burst damage but insufficient endurance.

"Not bad."

Garoth satisfactorily shifted his attention to the next trait.

Battle Dragon.

This core trait that had accompanied him through campaigns north and south still bore the same name, but its substance had quietly changed.

Giant Slayer had disappeared, completely absorbed and merged into it.

After the two-in-one fusion, the effect had also risen accordingly.

The new Battle Dragon retained all the effects of both original traits.

Additionally, there was a new effect.

The more powerful the enemy you fight, the more excited you become, the stronger your fighting spirit, the greater your strength. Moreover, when fighting beings with a higher life level than yourself, you are more likely to undergo evolution during battle.

"Hmm?"

Garoth savored this carefully, lost in thought.

To be honest, this trait's change wasn't major. The core remained "sustaining war through war, growing stronger with each battle," just with the Giant Slayer's challenge-over-level bonus folded in.

Giant Slayer was originally a trait specifically for dealing with powerful enemies. Now that it had merged with Battle Dragon, it could be considered returning to its rightful home.

But that was fine.

It was already incredibly powerful to begin with.

Now it had gone a step further, allowing faster on-the-spot evolution when fighting powerful foes. Considering that he always seemed to be fighting opponents with higher life levels...

For Garoth, the Battle Dragon trait's effect was both simple and devastatingly effective.

Finally, Garoth turned his attention to the brand-new trait born from this transformation.

Evolution Radiation.

Your will and your talent are so powerful that they overflow invisibly, forming radiation.

They create an invisible radiation field around you. All lifeforms connected to you will be nourished by this radiation in their evolution, advancing in life level more quickly and breaking through bottlenecks with greater ease.

The closer and more intimate your connection, the stronger the radiation's influence.

Garoth quietly sensed this trait, and after a long moment, slowly let out a breath.

It functioned as a passive aura effect, requiring no energy expenditure.

Simply by existing, he would grant lifeforms connected to him faster growth and lower breakthrough difficulty.

The downside was that it provided no direct benefit to Garoth himself.

He wouldn't become even one bit stronger because of this trait.

But...

"With this around, Sacred Aola will undoubtedly grow even stronger, and I can benefit from it indirectly."

He saw it clearly in his heart.

His offspring, his blood kin, his followers, the legions and Heroic Spirits fighting for the empire in the next generation... as long as they were connected to him, they all fell under this radiation's umbrella.

For an empire in the Material Plane, the existence of immortals and legendary lifeforms determined the empire's ceiling.

The existence of the Evolution Radiation trait meant that the difficulty of producing legendary beings—or even immortals—within Sacred Aola was far lower than in other nations.

Over time, through subtle influence.

The empire's experts would emerge like bamboo shoots after spring rain.

Garoth focused more on himself, never expecting his blood kin, offspring, or subjects to fight his battles for him.

But guarding the empire's ever-expanding territories was not something one dragon alone could accomplish.

No matter how powerful he was, he couldn't be everywhere across the empire's lands simultaneously.

Especially if the Grand Expedition officially began, the empire would need more experts—beings capable of standing alone—to consolidate the new worlds conquered by the expedition.

The emperor's role was to stand at the highest point, so that enemies would tremble when they looked up.

And the people of Sacred Aola also needed to win their own victories and glory.

This evolution-type trait would be the finest gift Garoth could give to all of Sacred Aola upon his awakening.

Trait after trait, characteristic after characteristic, he reviewed them all.

Scales, dragon horns, gravity, Celestial Life, Dragon Emperor, dual Dragon Pearls, Battle Dragon, Evolution Radiation... from legendary to Immortal, Garoth had undergone a true transformation.

But he knew none of these were the most important.

For legendary lifeforms, traits were crucial.

They were carriers of power, means of combat.

But for immortal lifeforms, traits were merely branches and leaves—still useful, yet no longer the foundation.

And now, Garoth was an immortal.

The true foundation was the source of all his abilities, all his transformations.

The red iron dragon slowly closed his eyes.

His spirit gradually drew inward, his consciousness sank layer by layer, passing through flesh, energy, and the accumulated stillness of slumber, reaching toward the very core of his existence.

The most important, most critical thing of this transformation.

Potency.

In the deepest part of the great dragon's body and spirit, the seed of talent that had accompanied him since childhood and had built all these great achievements had now condensed into true Potency.

The great dragon kept his eyes shut, immersed in a period of comprehension about Potency.

You were an anomaly from the moment you cracked out of your shell.

Flames burned you, so you adapted to flames, then mastered them. Bitter cold froze you, so you adapted to the cold, then ignored it. Claws tore through your scales, and after the wounds healed, the new scales were a bit harder than before.

The first time, you thought it was luck.

The tenth time, you understood it was talent.

After the hundredth, the thousandth time, this talent had been fused into your very marrow, becoming the essence of who you are.

Each time you were wounded, your scales grew harder. Each flap of your wings, you grew faster. Each heavy lift, your strength grew greater... day and night, you adapted, you grew, each day stronger than the day before.

So it was when you were weak, and so it remained when you became strong.

Whatever cannot kill you will eventually be adapted to and evolved into a part of yourself. From a weak hatchling to an immortal standing above countless beings, your talent had reached its end point, and the essence of your life declared itself to the multiverse.

The rules acknowledged your path; the universe acknowledged your power.

Mortal and deity alike will recognize your Potency.

Adaptive Evolution.

The red iron dragon opened his eyes once more. Deep within his vertical pupils, blazing light kindled like sparks.

No need to name it himself.

When the name of the Potency surfaced in his mind from the void, he simply felt it was only natural, without any surprise or astonishment.

Because this was his entire life.

"Talent, ah..."

He murmured inwardly: "Everything I am, everything I have, was adapted and seized bit by bit from my environment, from desperate situations, from my enemies."

"This power is named Adaptive Evolution."

"Now, it is my Potency."

Garoth could feel that his Potency was still in its infancy, with a long road ahead before true completion. But that was fine—time and patience were the two things he never lacked.

The terror of an evolution-type Potency was never in the present.

It was in the future.

Time would allow this seed to take root and sprout, growing into a towering tree.

As for the effects of his Potency, although he hadn't had long to consolidate his understanding, just as fish are born knowing water, he didn't need overly complex experimentation. Garoth already had a preliminary understanding of his Potency.

Garoth calmed himself, sensing the outline of his Potency and the ways to use it.

You are not a product of your environment; your environment is your whetstone.

In battle and in trials, within the environment you find yourself in, you can actively designate a direction and complete an evolution—adapting to a type of attack, adapting to a type of condition, adapting to a type of situation...

For example.

When a divine weapon capable of tearing apart a star descends upon you.

Facing that single strike, your Potency can offer more than one answer.

Adapt to the fact of being harmed, causing your scales to complete evolution in advance, becoming indestructible. The divine weapon chips and breaks.

Adapt to the conceptual category of slashing attacks, causing your body to transform toward phasing. The blade passes through you without causing a scratch.

Or even, adapt to the possibility of being harmed.

Thus, when evolution completes, you might gain a teleportation escape skill, vanishing without warning, appearing at a distant location, causing that strike and its wielder's killing intent to both land on empty air.

The same situation, completely different directions of adaptation.

And the choice lay entirely within Garoth's single thought.

He could assess the battle and select the most advantageous path of adaptation.

Moreover, adapting to a specific type of attack was secondary—merely the most basic application of his Potency.

Weakness?

You can adapt to your own weakness, evolving into a more powerful life form.

Death?

You can adapt to death itself, evolving into a way of existence that transcends death.

Should the day come when even Adaptive Evolution itself encounters a natural enemy—say, being sealed by the Potency of Judgment—he could even adapt to the fact that his Potency had been sealed.

Everything imposed upon him.

Whether benevolent or malicious, whether concrete or abstract, as long as it was experienced, it could be adapted to and evolved from.

Of course, Garoth was also well aware.

His Potency was only just sprouting now, requiring more accumulation and development.

In the future, as he grew and his Potency strengthened, both the speed and depth of his adaptive evolution would rise accordingly.

On the white dwarf, time flowed silently by.

The red iron dragon familiarized himself with his traits and, more importantly, his Potency, testing and experiencing them one by one, engraving these new powers into his instincts.

But before long, he gazed into the deep void and felt a sense of loneliness and hunger.

Having slept for so long, he was not currently at his peak state.

The red iron dragon glanced down at this dead star that had accompanied him for many years, then withdrew his gaze. His crimson wings slowly unfurled. Across his thirty-meter-long draconic body, mirror-like scales reflected the stars of the deep void.

"I've slept long enough this time. Time to go back."

"Let me see what my empire has become in the time I've been away."

Garoth raised a dragon claw and tore forward.

Space split open with a crack. On the other side of the rift, the azure-blue planet Bernardo floated serenely, the outlines of continents, oceans, and satellites faintly visible.

Without hesitation, the red iron dragon stepped through.