To be honest, Xingyan could no longer find any trace of his old self in his sword tail. It was the most thorough kind of change imaginable, transforming him from bone to flesh to skin, from the very foundations of his body.
It was still a sword tail, with the blade held upright, but now both its upper and lower edges were sharp. It had become a double-edged sword, with Blade Scales for blades—and Blade Scales covering the whole thing, from the tip of his tail all the way to its base.
The sword tail's shape was irregular. Apart from the streamlined curves of the blades along its upper and lower edges, a short section near the tip on the upper side had no blade. Viewed from the side, the gradual taper from the base of the tail to its tip gave way at that spot to a smooth, raised bump, as if a little lump had swelled up. The corresponding section on the underside of the sword tail, however, was still covered with ordinary Blade Scales.
Every one of those blue-green Blade Scales gleamed as smoothly as a mirror. Most importantly, the shape of the sword tail had changed. If Xingyan's old one had been like a massive, broad Great Sword, his new one was much more slender.
It was a little like Sulfur Dragon Slayer's tail blade, though wider and thicker. Overall, it still had a more agile feel to it.
Perhaps the only thing the old and new sword tails had in common was that Xingyan still used his to hack at things?
Beyond that, they had nothing in common. As mentioned earlier, the difference between them was fundamental.
In the past, Xingyan's sword tail had made up half his total length. But in reality, more than half of that length consisted of mineral secretions. There was no flesh inside, and no nerves ran through it. Even if it broke off, he wouldn't feel any pain. It was nothing but a solid chunk of metal.
It was like wearing a metal cap over a finger. That was what every Glavenus sharpened in its daily routine.
Hmm, maybe you could call it a sword sheath?
Anyway, only after losing that outer sheath could you see a Glavenus's real tail: covered in dark blue-black, hard scales, and no different from the tails of many other dragons. It was ordinary, round, and thick.
But for Xingyan now, all of that was in the past.
Xingyan's sword tail had become a real sword tail, not a tail wrapped in a metal shell—a sheath. O
Yes, he meant that literally. Now, his entire tail was a weapon.
He no longer wielded an externally forged weapon with his body, the way a hunter did. There were no mineral secretions on its surface, either. Instead, it was as smooth as a mirror all over, reflecting the sunlight in a dazzling gleam.
A gigantic yet slender sword. It no longer needed sharpening, nor did he need to eat large quantities of ore to secrete minerals and replace what wore away in battle. Xingyan's bones formed the sword's spine, and the sharp Blade Scales along its upper and lower edges made up its blades.
Now, did anyone still remember Claw Dragon's muscles?
Xingyan had begun this evolution only after hunting enough Claw Dragons and Seregios to acquire the physical traits of both species. Yet while Reactive Blade Scales had replaced his Air Sac Carapace on the surface of his body, he had not used Claw Dragon's muscles for them.
That left only one destination for Claw Dragon's muscles: his brand-new sword tail.
At the thought, Xingyan gave his sword tail a light flick—Kachakachakachakachakacha!!
In an instant, the blades along both edges of his tail split apart in neat rows, from the base all the way to the tip. Each Blade Scale was evenly spaced from the next, and every one was connected to the body of the sword tail by muscle.
The sword tail, which had looked slender just moments earlier, suddenly grew a whole layer wider. But this was only the beginning. Xingyan took a deep breath and focused.
Kachakachakakakakakakakakacha!
At the command of his mind, the Blade Scales that had just separated from one another and shifted slightly away from the main body of the sword tail began vibrating rapidly. The sharp, densely packed clacking sounds came from their high-frequency tremors.
A chainsaw sword!!
That was the direction Xingyan had envisioned for his sword tail's evolution!
Well, all right, there was no chain, just a saw-sword—but even so, Xingyan was thrilled!
Without hesitation, he turned and slashed at the rock behind him. Amid the unbroken chchchchchch of the blades, Xingyan could clearly feel himself slicing through the hard rock with ease, as if it were butter under a hot knife!
This was a historic breakthrough. It wasn't as if Xingyan had never slashed at the rocks of the Great Sand Sea before. But back then, to cut through rock, he had to gather strength and swing his sword tail, and he needed enough room to raise it.
Now it was different. Xingyan hadn't even swung his sword tail back or gathered strength. He had simply activated it and lightly swept it toward the rock. The Blade Scales, vibrating rapidly at high frequency, cut through the stone with ease.
His attack power had increased!!
There was no doubt about it. Xingyan felt that if he could return to a few years ago, to when he had faced those two Kushala Daora, he could use this saw-sword tail to make those two big lumps of iron call him Daddy.
Hmm—would an Elder Dragon call someone Daddy?
That was a puzzler.
He was so excited that he'd started letting his imagination run wild. After stopping the high-frequency vibrations of his Blade Scales, Xingyan checked whether anything had worn down. Naturally, nothing had.
He'd only cut through some rock. Even his old sword tail wouldn't have taken much damage from that, much less these hard Blade Scales.
Xingyan was thoroughly satisfied. His eyes widened as he examined the Blade Scales forming the sword tail's blades, especially the flesh connecting them to the main body. That was the good stuff he'd gotten from Claw Dragon.
Claw Dragon's muscles had astonishing explosive power. It wasn't the kind of power that built up and then burst out all at once, but the kind that could be unleashed rapidly in a short time. One focused on force, the other on speed.
What Xingyan valued was Claw Dragon's ability to release the power in its body as quickly as possible in an extremely short time. So when rebuilding his sword tail, he used a large amount of Claw Dragon muscle along its edges.
He'd piled it on with the attitude of "if it doesn't kill me, pile on more," compressing and tightening as much as he could. The densely packed Claw Dragon muscles were like taut springs linked together. At Xingyan's command, they would twitch rapidly, making the Blade Scales attached to them vibrate at high frequency.
It was pretty deranged, but perhaps it was a good thing for Claw Dragon's muscles to keep going berserk like this.
Naturally, those rapid, twitching movements also consumed a great deal of Life Energy and produced a lot of hot gas.
Hmm, that was where the four heat vents he'd prepared in advance came in. They were set in the upper blade near the tip of the sword tail, at the raised section where there were no Blade Scales forming a blade.
There were no raised Blade Scales there to cut into enemies. Instead, there were four small, thick scales, round in shape and completely unlike the others.
As mentioned earlier, Xingyan had regressed the huge heat-dissipating shell on his back and rerouted the cooling ducts inside his body. All the ducts that had originally led to his back now ran toward the rear of his body, connecting to his tail.
That is, to the small raised section on his sword tail. The four small, thick, round scales served as covers for the heat vents. He had to cover them—Xingyan was a little worried some jerk might pour something into his vents and clog them. If the heat couldn't escape, he'd be in trouble.
The heat generated inside his body, along with the heat produced by the Claw Dragon muscles in his sword tail as they vibrated at high frequency—
If there were no proper outlet for all that heat, it would build up inside him until Xingyan became a living bomb.
In a sense, those heat vents were actually Xingyan's biggest weakness right now. If something blocked them, he might suffocate before he could even use his full strength, giving someone the chance to win against a stronger opponent—yes! A human!
The Ape Dragon Species he was most wary of.
He'd worry about further improvements later. For now, he couldn't evolve any further. The Life Energy he'd painstakingly accumulated had been completely drained by this evolution. Even if he wanted to alter his body again, he couldn't.
Pop!
At a thought, the four scales covering the heat vents sprang open, and a wave of heat immediately poured out. The heat produced by merely moving his saw-sword tail a little was already distorting the air around the vents as it escaped.
He hadn't fought at full strength since evolving, so Xingyan didn't know whether the ducts could vent the heat effectively in a real battle. But—
Hiss!!
A sharp whistle rang out.
Xingyan's sword tail, which had been swinging in front of him, suddenly seemed to get a hammering blow from behind. It accelerated!
Bang!!
The sword tail shot forward out of nowhere and plunged into the rock in front of him. If the high-frequency vibrations had made it cut through rock like a hot knife through butter, then that strike was like a martial arts master delivering a powerful punch at point-blank range. The tail had crashed straight into the stone!
Jet-propelled sword tail!!
Satisfied, Xingyan pulled his sword tail out of the rock and tentatively named the move in his mind.
Just as the name suggested, Xingyan first closed the four scales over his heat vents. Then, after building up a certain amount of heat and hot gas inside, he suddenly opened the scales—Hiss!!
The blast of hot gas exerted an equal and opposite force on Xingyan's sword tail, letting it smash downward like a jet-propelled Great Sword!!
No! This was the real jet-propelled Great Sword!!
Even if Xingyan's sword tail had slimmed down a lot compared to before, it was still a Great Sword!
Likewise, this was the true day Xingyan had been waiting for—the day his broken sword was reforged! The sword tail he'd reforged earlier with iron ore and Lapis Lazuli had only been a stopgap, a toy to keep him from being empty-tailed.
To prevent accidents, the Blade Scales on Xingyan's sword tail were even a different kind from those on the surface of his body. All the Blade Scales on his sword tail were specially adapted: thicker and heavier, and incapable of bursting apart or being launched away. Their sole specialization was toughness!
Within the limits of Xingyan's abilities, they were as tough as they could possibly be!
He'd really gone all out, putting every good thing he had into this sword tail. Though Xingyan no longer formed it from mineral secretions, he'd used all those minerals to make the Blade Scales that composed it.
It was the only sensible choice. If a weapon wasn't hard enough, if it broke the moment it hit something, how could you call it a weapon?
At last, Xingyan felt a little of the attachment an ordinary Glavenus had to its tail blade. He knew that the Blade Scales along both sides of his sword tail were essentially expendable. High-frequency vibration cutting also caused them considerable damage.
But don't forget that Seregios could regenerate Blade Scales at high speed. Xingyan had already planned it out: if he encountered a tough enemy, he'd light up his battle blade—no, activate his Blade Scales—and start sawing. Once a scale wore down, he'd simply shed it and immediately grow a fresh Blade Scale to serve as a new blade.
He wouldn't need to sharpen his blade every day like an ordinary Glavenus, because the Blade Scales themselves were the sharpest blades. Nor would he need to hunt for ore and eat it every day, because Blade Scales wore down far more slowly than an ordinary mineral Great Sword.
According to the path Xingyan had envisioned for himself, what he'd need most in the future were various rare ores, so that his Blade Scales could evolve into an alloy that was both tougher and more flexible.
Now, it was time for fantasy!!
Kachakachakachakachakachakachakacha!
Amid the clatter of his Blade Scales retracting, Xingyan swung his sword tail behind him. It returned to being a seamless, mirror-smooth sword tail, with only the blades along its edges still gleaming coldly.
I need an opponent.
He murmured to himself.
Only an opponent strong enough could show him whether the things he'd evolved were useful, whether they could stand up to the test of real combat, instead of being discarded after just one stage of evolution like his Air Sac Carapace.
A tempered Glavenus? A tempered-king Glavenus?
To be honest, even Xingyan had no idea what level of dragon he was now. His evolution was one of a kind. He didn't even know whether he could still be considered a Glavenus, let alone whether he could be called a king.
Besides, although monsters were classified as tempered or tempered kings, those were merely categories human scholars had devised for dragons. It didn't mean a tempered monster could instantly kill an ordinary monster of the same species the moment they met.
Not even a tempered-king monster could pull that off.
There was only one thing that could be said for certain: ordinary monsters were no match for tempered monsters or tempered kings of the same species. If the two fought over territory, then barring unforeseen circumstances, the battle would usually end in the tempered monster's victory.
That was because they were larger, had more stamina, and possessed stronger special abilities.
Before you continue