Chapter 458: "The Whole!"

As a purebreed revivalist.

The great Silver Winged Calamity, the venerable ancestor of the Dragon race — Lady Jessistan.

On this otherwise ordinary morning, she found an ally for the entire Dragon race, an ally strong even by Endless Star Realm standards.

Although she had personally made this happen and had long hoped for it,

she still did not know what changes her decision would bring to the Dragon race.

It might be good, it might be bad.

But in any case, the young dragons scattered across the Endless Star Realm would, from today, have another option in desperate times.

An option to survive.

The survival rate of juvenile dragons would become visibly higher.

Jessistan never worried about the Dragon race’s birth rate; she understood better than anyone what her kin were like in private.

What truly troubled her was the survival rate of hatchlings.

Adult dragons, who naturally loved freedom, especially color dragons, would usually lay eggs in a secluded spot after satisfying their urges.

After laying the eggs, these freedom-loving adults often left their nesting sites due to all sorts of "accidents."

Maybe an old enemy they had provoked came to hunt them down.

Maybe they went out to have fun and inadvertently "forgot" about their eggs.

Maybe they went hunting and accidentally encountered a powerful dragon hunter.

...

These all-too-classic accidents caused a large portion of juvenile dragons to face a catastrophic start after bursting from their shells.

"To survive alone in this Endless Star Realm as a juvenile dragon, with no one else around."

The lucky hatchlings would be adopted by responsible adult dragons or ambitious adults.

Those of average fortune would be bound into partnerships by powerful beings of other races.

The unlucky ones would often be enslaved by other races’ strong individuals.

The most unfortunate became "living resources" for certain organizations, valuable only for the parts and blood they could produce.

The Dragon race’s powerful innate talents were a curse when dragons were young, an unavoidable disaster.

Even Jessistan herself had been raised under the protection of a particularly temperamental color dragon.

Although that upbringing made her somewhat unlike an orderly metallic dragon as an adult,

as a young silver dragon who had lost her mother after hatching, she still considered herself incredibly fortunate among the many parentless juvenile dragons.

Under that color dragon’s care, she never had to face the malicious gazes that filled many predators’ hearts when she was truly weak.

It’s easy to imagine how terrifying the overall survival rate for dragon hatchlings was.

Now,

as a respected elder within the Dragon race, Jessistan offered a new possibility to those juvenile dragons scattered throughout the Endless Star Realm.

A possibility called the Nature Sect.

And the cost of this was twofold.

"Adult dragons in the Star Realm will no longer act so at their whim when facing the Nature Sect in the future."

And,

"a portion of dragons who would have become strong through suffering will be lost."

Across the Dragon race’s long history, some powerful dragons rose precisely by growing up in crises.

Those powerful dragons shaped by hardship quietly raised the ceiling of the Dragon race through the memories and legacies they left behind.

Powerful gifts combined with crisis and indomitable souls often cultivate a certain unspeakable "greatness."

For example, the ancestral dragon who started Jessistan’s bloodline was such a formidable dragon.

This was also why, after receiving the reply delivered by Moonlight, Jessistan showed that expression that mixed relief with concern.

She made a choice completely opposite to those ancient, mighty dragon ancestors of old.

Between "probabilistic greatness forged by crisis" and "survivability of juvenile dragons," she chose the latter.

She did not know if her choice was right.

She only knew that her experiences and everything she had seen across thousands of years urged her to choose a different path for the Dragon race.

The path of humanity!

Population size — that path was the future for the Dragon race!

In the long past,

after witnessing the fall of the Elven Race, the rise of humanity, the threat of the Abyss and otherworldly evil gods to Star Realm life, the scrutiny of many Gods upon the Dragon race, and the internal chaos within the Dragon race,

she seemed to foresee a tragic future for her kind.

She remembered the past, she remembered the color dragon who had sheltered and raised her.

That was an old green dragon: cunning, cruel, and a little lazy.

To most beings in the Star Realm, that old green dragon might have been an unforgivable monster.

But to Jessistan, the dragon was, at best, a good dragon.

That old green dragon had adopted many abandoned juvenile dragons.

And it never bound those adopted children with contracts.

The old green dragon simply watched those hatchlings silently as they grew.

When these rescued juveniles reached a certain level of self-preservation ability, she would "kindly" drive the not-quite-grown teenagers out.

"You little brats! Get out of my territory!"

"And! You all owe me a foster fee!!"

"Don’t die! Remember to pay!!!"

"Oh, and when you grow up and see abandoned hatchlings, remember to be like your great green dragon grandmother!"

"You damned brats, remember, dragons are a collective!"

...

Later, when Jessistan, who had run wild in the Land of the Gods, felt a whim to return and settle that foster fee,

she discovered that the old green dragon had already been killed by a God.

On that day,

countless mighty dragons rose into the sky above the Land of the Gods.

No one knew how many juveniles that old green dragon had adopted.

No one counted how many colorfully different dragons took part in that god-slaying battle.

People in the Star Realm only knew that, after that day,

the Dragon race seemed to become different.

More like a collective.

...

At the end of the story,

the title "Silver Winged Calamity" became a taboo in the Land of the Gods.

Gradually sealed by the Gods, never spoken of, forgotten by the world.

The silver-haired figure who had rampaged through the Land of the Gods also disappeared from that place after that day.

She never appeared there again...

It’s worth noting that,

on that day, when Jessistan dragged her body stained with divine blood back to the forest where the old green dragon had lived,

there were no juvenile dragons left in the forest.

Not even a single hatchling corpse.

Maybe the old green dragon, before dying, realized something and sent the hatchlings away.

Maybe they scattered and fled.

Maybe they were taken by unknown beings.

...

The "God of Conspiracy" in the Land of the Gods also delivered an obscure oracle to his believers that day:

"Conspiracies often cause vast tragedies, but occasionally they create a whole."

"Praise the occasional noble conspiracies, and offer my appreciation."

"My followers, remember this day!"

...

Likewise, no one knew that when the Elven Race fell,

that forgotten "Silver Winged Calamity" had quietly left the Land of the Gods and retreated into seclusion in the Beastkin Star Domain, the war-torn region.

There, she witnessed the Elven Race’s extinction with her own eyes.

...

Later.

At some unknown point, Jessistan’s behavior pattern changed.

She felt a power arise within her, a resolute voice.

"The future of the Dragon race will never be just this!"

"I will not accept it!"