New Abilities and a Greatly Changed Xingyan

Honestly, Xingyan couldn't find any trace of his past self in his current Sword Tail. It was a complete transformation, from bone to flesh to skin, a change occurring at the very fundamental level of his body.

It was still a Sword Tail with a vertical blade, but now sharp blades existed on both the upper and lower parts, making it a double-edged sword. The blades themselves were Blade Scales, which also covered the entire Sword Tail, extending from the tip all the way to the base.

The overall shape of the Sword Tail was irregular. Besides the streamlined curves of the blades on both the upper and lower sides, there was a small section near the tip of the upper part that lacked a blade. If viewed vertically, the transition from thick to thin from the base to the tip was interrupted by a smooth bulge in this blade-less section, like a small bump. The corresponding lower part of the Sword Tail still had normal Blade Scales.

Each of these blue-green Blade Scales was as smooth and shiny as a mirror. Most importantly, the shape of the Sword Tail had changed. If Xingyan's past Sword Tail was like a thick, broad greatsword, his current one was much more slender.

It was somewhat similar to a Sulfur Dragon Slayer's tail blade, but wider and thicker than it. Overall, though, it still leaned towards a feeling of agility.

The only similarity between the two Sword Tails might be that Xingyan still used it for slashing?

Other than that, there were no similarities; as mentioned before, there was an essential difference between the two.

In the past, Xingyan's Sword Tail occupied half of his total body length. However, more than half of that length was actually composed of mineral secretions. It contained no flesh or blood, nor was it connected to any nerves. Even if it broke off, it wouldn't hurt; it was purely a large piece of metal.

It was like wearing a metal sheath on a finger, and every Dragon Slayer would hone that sheath daily.

Hmm, perhaps it could also be called a Sword Shell?

In short, only after losing this Sword Shell could one see the Dragon Slayer's true tail, covered in a tough, dark blue-black carapace. It was no different from many dragons' tails; it was ordinary, round, and thick.

But for the current Xingyan, all of that was in the past.

Xingyan's Sword Tail had become a true Sword Tail, not a tail wrapped in a layer of metal – a sheath.

Yes, it meant exactly what it sounded like. Now, the entire tail was Xingyan's weapon.

No longer like a Hunter wielding an externally forged weapon with his body, its surface no longer had any mineral secretions. Instead, it was smooth like a mirror all over, reflecting dazzling light under the sun.

A giant yet slender divine sword. No need to sharpen it anymore, nor to consume large amounts of ore to secrete minerals to fill the wear and tear from battles. Xingyan's dragon bones were the backbone of the divine sword, and the sharp Blade Scales on the upper and lower sides were its blades.

So, the question arises: does anyone still remember the muscles of the Claw Dragon?

Claw Dragon, Seregios. Xingyan began this evolution only after accumulating enough physical characteristics from hunting these two types of dragons. The Blade Scales that replaced the Air Sac Carapace on his body surface did not utilize the Claw Dragon's muscles.

Therefore, the Claw Dragon's muscles had only one destination: they were used in the new Sword Tail.

With this thought, Xingyan lightly twitched his Sword Tail – clack clack clack clack clack!!

Instantly, from the base to the very tip of his tail, the blades on both the upper and lower sides – at least where blades originally were – suddenly split apart neatly. There was an equal distance between each Blade Scale, and each Blade Scale was connected to the main body of the Sword Tail by muscle.

The seemingly slender Sword Tail suddenly widened by a layer, but this was only the beginning. Xingyan took a deep breath and concentrated!

Clack-crack-crack-crack-crack-crack!

As his mind willed it, the Blade Scales that had just separated from each other and slightly from the main body of the Sword Tail suddenly began to vibrate rapidly. These rapid, dense clacking sounds were the noises they made due to high-frequency tremors.

Chainsaw Sword!!

This was the evolutionary direction Xingyan envisioned for his Sword Tail!

Uh, okay, no chain, just a saw sword – but even so, it filled Xingyan with excitement!

Without hesitation, he turned around and slashed at the rock formation behind him. Amidst the continuous ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch sounds, Xingyan could clearly feel the hard rock being easily cut by him, as easy as a hot knife through butter!

This was absolutely a historic breakthrough. It wasn't that Xingyan hadn't slashed rocks in the Great Sand Sea before, but back then, if he wanted to cut through rock, he had to charge up and swing his Sword Tail, and he needed space to swing it.

But now it was different. Xingyan didn't even swing his Sword Tail or charge up. He simply activated it and lightly waved it towards the rock formation. The Blade Scales, vibrating at high frequency, easily cut through the rock.

Attack power increased!!

There was no doubt about it. Xingyan felt that if he could go back a few years to face those two Steel Dragons head-on, he could definitely saw those two big iron lumps into calling him daddy with this saw-tail.

Hmm... would Elder Dragons call someone daddy?

Confusing.

He was so excited that he started to ramble. Xingyan stopped the high-frequency vibrating Blade Scales and then checked for any wear and tear. Well, naturally, there was none.

It was just cutting rocks. Even Xingyan's old Sword Tail wouldn't have sustained any damage, let alone these tough Blade Scales.

He felt extremely satisfied now. Xingyan widened his eyes, inspecting the Blade Scales on his Sword Tail that served as blades, especially the flesh connecting them to the main body of the Sword Tail – that was the good stuff he got from the Claw Dragon.

Claw Dragon muscles possessed astonishing explosive power. It wasn't a power that erupted after accumulating strength, but a power that could erupt quickly in a short period. One emphasized quality, the other emphasized speed.

What Xingyan valued was the Claw Dragon's ability to unleash its body's strength at the fastest possible speed in an extremely short time. Therefore, when reconstructing this Sword Tail, he used a large amount of Claw Dragon muscle at the edges of the Sword Tail.

It was a spirit of "if you can't pile it to death, pile it to death," compressing and tightening as much as possible. These densely compressed Claw Dragon muscles were like tightly strung springs connected to each other. Once Xingyan gave the command, they would move in rapid, twitching motions, simultaneously driving the connected Blade Scales into high-frequency vibrations.

Very frenzied, but perhaps for the Claw Dragon muscles, being able to continue being frenzied like this was a good thing.

Naturally, this high-frequency twitching motion would consume a large amount of Life Energy and also produce a large amount of high-temperature gas.

Hmm, this is where Xingyan's four pre-prepared heat dissipation vents located on the upper blade of the Sword Tail would come into play. They were near the tip of the Sword Tail, in the section of the upper part where there were no protruding Blade Scales for cutting enemies.

Instead of protruding Blade Scales, there were four small, thick scales. They were round and completely different in shape from the other scales.

As mentioned earlier, Xingyan had already degenerated his massive heat dissipation shell on his back and revamped the internal heat dissipation pipeline. All the pipes that originally led to his back were rerouted to the rear of his body, connected to the tail.

That is, to this small bulging section on the Sword Tail. And those four small, thick, round scales were the covers for the heat dissipation vents – he had to have covers, Xingyan was a bit afraid that some nasty creature might pour things into his heat dissipation vents and cause a blockage. If the heat couldn't be expelled, it would be troublesome.

The heat generated inside his body, the heat generated by the high-frequency vibrations of the Claw Dragon muscles on his Sword Tail...

If these heat sources didn't have a normal outlet and were trapped inside his body, Xingyan would probably turn into a living bomb.

In a sense, these few heat dissipation vents could even be considered Xingyan's biggest weakness at the moment. If they were blocked by something, he might die miserably without even being able to exert his full strength, giving an opportunity for the weak to defeat the strong – yes! Humans!

The Ape Dragon Species that Xingyan guarded against the most.

Let's leave the subsequent improvements for later. He can't evolve any further right now. The Life Energy he painstakingly accumulated was completely consumed during this evolution, leaving him unable to make any further changes to his body.

Clack!

With a thought, the four scales covering the heat vents instantly sprang open, releasing a wave of heat. Just moving his Sword Tail slightly generated enough heat that the air around the exhaust vents warped as it escaped.

He hadn't fought at full power since evolving, so Xingyan didn't know if these vents would be effective at expelling heat during a real battle. But—Hiss!!

A sharp whistle.

Xingyan's Sword Tail, which had been swinging in front of him, suddenly accelerated as if something behind it had grabbed and yanked it.

CRASH!!

The Sword Tail, having suddenly gained speed out of nowhere, instantly slashed into the rock face before him. If the high-frequency vibrating Sword Tail had cut through the rock like a hot knife through butter earlier, then this strike was like a martial arts master with a one-inch punch, unleashing immense power at an extremely close range, deeply embedding itself into the rock!

"Jet-Assisted Sword Tail!!"

Satisfied, Xingyan withdrew his Sword Tail from the rock, mentally giving this move a temporary name.

As the name suggested, Xingyan first closed the four scales over the heat vents. Then, after accumulating a certain amount of heat and hot air inside, he abruptly opened them—Hiss!!

The sudden expulsion of hot air provided a reactive force to Xingyan's Sword Tail, allowing it to slash downwards like a jet-powered greatsword!!

No! This is the true jet-powered greatsword!!

Even though Xingyan's current Sword Tail was much slimmer than before, it could still be considered a greatsword!

Likewise, this was the true day his "broken sword was reforged" in Xingyan's heart. The Sword Tail reforged with iron ore and Lapis Lazuli earlier was merely a transitional item, not even a proper weapon to call his own.

To prevent accidents, the Blade Scales on Xingyan's Sword Tail and those on his body surface were from two different varieties. The Blade Scales on his Sword Tail were all specialized, much thicker, and incapable of bursting or being launched. Their specialization was in hardness!

Within Xingyan's current capabilities, they were as hard as he could make them!

He had poured all his effort into making this Sword Tail with the best materials. Although Xingyan no longer formed his Sword Tail from mineral secretions, he had used all those minerals on the Blade Scales that constituted it.

This was an inevitable choice. If a weapon isn't hard enough and breaks on the first impact, what good is it?

Finally, he had a bit of the obsession a normal Dragon Slayer would have for their tail blades. Xingyan knew that the Blade Scales on the sides of his Sword Tail were actually consumables. This high-frequency vibrating cutting method also caused significant damage to the Blade Scales themselves.

But don't forget, Seregios also possessed the ability to regenerate Blade Scales at high speed. Xingyan had already figured it out: once he encountered a tricky enemy, he would activate his battle blades—no, activate his Blade Scales and start sawing. Once the Blade Scales wore down, he would simply shed them and immediately regenerate a brand-new Blade Scale that could serve as a blade.

He wouldn't need to sharpen his blade daily like a normal Dragon Slayer, because the Blade Scales themselves were the sharpest blades. He also wouldn't need to find ore to eat every day like a normal Dragon Slayer, because the wear on his Blade Scales was far less than that of a normal ore greatsword.

According to the path Xingyan envisioned for himself, in the future, he would need various rare ores to allow his Blade Scales to evolve into an even harder and more flexible alloy.

Now, time for fantasy!!

Chak-chak-chak-chak-chak-chak!

Amidst the sounds of retracting Blade Scales, Xingyan swung his Sword Tail behind him. It transformed back into a perfectly seamless, mirror-smooth Sword Tail, with only the blades on its sides gleaming coldly.

"I need an opponent."

He murmured to himself.

Only a sufficiently strong opponent could tell him if what he had evolved was useful, if it could withstand the test of actual combat, rather than being discarded after just one stage of evolution like his Air Sac Carapace.

Elder Dragon? Apex Elder Dragon?

Honestly, Xingyan didn't even know what level of dragon he was now, because his evolution was unique. He didn't even know if he could still be considered a Dragon Slayer, let alone an Apex one.

Moreover, although there were classifications like Elder and Apex among monsters, these were actually just divisions made by human Scholars for dragons. It didn't mean an Elder monster could easily kill a normal monster of the same species in a single encounter.

Even Apex monsters couldn't achieve such instant kills.

The only thing that could be determined was that normal monsters were definitely no match for Elder or Apex monsters of the same species. If a territorial dispute occurred between them, barring any accidents, it would invariably end with the Elder monster's victory.

This was because they were larger, had stronger stamina, and possessed more powerful special abilities.