Isengard's Advancement Path

Living two lives. It sounded a lot like those fantastical settings in the many webnovels Ian had read in his previous life—concepts even science fiction novels would not dare use lightly. But since Terra truly had swords, magic, and aether, it was not all that exaggerated.

Especially things like life-extending magic plants and life-extending wonders; they were not actually that complicated.

The first time Ian had encountered Isengard and his group back then had been because of a life-extending magic plant.

Such magic plants generally extended life through two methods. The first was to add a massive amount of life Origin Matter, equivalent to raising a person's health bar cap. Their lifespan would naturally be extended, but it could not heal hidden injuries and accumulated damage, so the older one was, the less effective it became.

The second was to mend all kinds of wounds and deficiencies. This had miraculous effects on those whose lives had been shortened by injuries, but it did little for well-maintained nobles.

Most of these life-extending magic plants had a threshold. Eating too much would cease to have any effect, because both hidden injuries and one's health bar cap had limits.

But high-level life-extending wonders were different. Especially the Fifth Energy Level wonder Anfa had mentioned, the Source of Dragonblood.

As the highest-level wonder, one that had indeed extended the lives of several Fifth Energy Level beings throughout history, the Source of Dragonblood originated from the immense life force left behind after a True Dragon died.

That sounded rather strange—if a True Dragon was dead, how could it still leave behind life force?

But that involved the peculiar nature of True Dragon life.

As Ian knew, True Dragons were actually an artificial race with creators and an expiration date. They possessed unimaginable vitality; if not