The bright sunshine falls from the sky and shines on the gently rippled sea surface of Sea of Serenity, as if it has been coated with a layer of flowing gold foil.
Wow!
On the edge of a vast white beach somewhere in the Radiant Dragon Realm, the sound of waves rolling and washing against the shore could be heard one after another.
A strong man with muscles all over his body that seemed to have been perfectly sculpted, wearing simple light armor and with eye-catching short black and red hair, was walking on the beach with a group of men and women with distinctive faces and clothing.
In the sky, you can occasionally see the figures of some giant dragons spreading their wings and passing quickly.
Among them, the strong man with a stern and majestic face, and an aura of calmness and authority, loomed in the center of the crowd, like the sun surrounded by stars, and naturally became the focus.
This is none other than Garos in human form.
In order to avoid those overly enthusiastic young Metal Dragon "star-chasers" and be able to enjoy the unique scenery of the Radiant Dragon Realm with peace of mind, Garos had to choose to transform into a relatively less eye-catching human form.
Except for a few companions such as Deborah and Nasha, Radiant Dragon Realm's other Metal Dragon have never seen the human appearance of Garos.
Although he still looks majestic and upright with extraordinary temperament at the moment, some passing dragons will still subconsciously take a few more glances when they see him, but it is still not as ostentatious and eye-catching as his iconic Red Iron Dragon body.
At least, no matter where you go, you will be instantly surrounded by a group of excited Metal Dragons on three levels inside and three outside.
That will make it difficult for him to move forward and have no peace of mind.
Deborah walked lightly beside Garos, her beautiful long honey-silver hair fluttering slightly in the wind under the bright sunshine, glowing with a soft halo.
She turned her head and looked at Garos's profile, which still looked a little tight even in a relaxed state. She couldn't help but chuckle and joked, "Why, are you still feeling a headache for those overly enthusiastic young admirers?"
"I'm afraid before you came here, you never imagined that you would encounter something like this in the Metal Dragon Realm."
Garos exhaled slightly and shook his head helplessly.
"Rather than being watched as a rare species, I prefer to live in peace and quiet in my own territory."
Metal Dragon's pursuit is completely different from that of his subordinates.
The dependents were very restrained, and no matter how much they worshiped him, they did not dare to disturb him at will. However, those young metal dragons, especially those who dared to chase Garos, most of them had not been beaten by reality, and they were naive and stupid, and at the same time very enthusiastic.
At the same time, Alberto raised his head and scanned the sky warily.
He noticed that the number of giant dragons circling and flying nearby seemed to be gradually increasing, and he couldn't help but said, "Garos, although your aura in human form has been much restrained, it still leaks out to some extent."
"I think it would be best if we stay somewhere else."
"If you stay here longer, I'm afraid you will be noticed by those guys with sensitive noses soon."
Worth mentioning are:
Although this guy Alberto also transformed into a human form, he did not choose a purely human appearance like Garos. Instead, he insisted on retaining a few pairs of dragon horns on both sides of his forehead, making his human form look different and outstanding.
Next to him, Nasha curled his lips in disapproval when he heard his younger brother's words.
She encouraged Garos: "It's so boring to hide here and there, it's not fun at all."
Nasha had a hint of uncontrollable excitement in his tone, and his golden eyes were sparkling. It was obvious that he really wanted to do something.
"Let me tell you, if anyone dares to come unintentionally and disturb us, you will beat them directly until they are subdued! Then just let the word out and say that Radiant Dragon Realm and these Metal Dragon are all vulnerable little trash."
"How about we fight all the way and defeat all those who are not convinced? That's called majesty!"
"Not very good."
Garos didn't even think about it, he just shook his head and rejected this "good idea" full of Nasha style.
The primary purpose of his coming to the Dragon Realm was to get the prize of the competition and the opportunity to enter Eternal Tide and break through the Legendary Realm. Secondly, he also hoped to take this opportunity to establish a deeper connection with the Metal Dragon Realm and add a layer of potential background and allies for himself and the tribe, rather than to make enemies everywhere, intensify conflicts, and add trouble and unhappiness to himself.
Whoosh!
A small figure, carrying water drops, jumped deftly out of the surging waves.
It was a fairy girl with butterfly wings on her back and a body only as big as a thumb.
It is Vera who has also changed her form, or to be more precise, her preferred mini-elf form.
Her character has always been lively and out-of-the-box. At this moment, she landed on Garos's broad shoulders, blinked her big eyes, and said in a clear voice, "Garos, you are so dazzling! Even if you turn into a human form, you will definitely be recognized as long as you stay in a place with many dragons for a while."
"But..."
She protracted her tone, with a sly smile on her face, and said with a little pride, "I have a wonderful way to help you get rid of these troubles completely."
Vera has always been unreliable, and most of her ideas are Pegasus unreasonable.
However, Garos was still patient and followed her words and asked, "Oh? What can I do? Let me tell you."
The fairy girl immediately flew in front of Garos, put her hands on her hips, and laughed like a silver bell, "It's very simple! Just let me become you, right?"
Before she finished speaking, she no longer hesitated.
A powerful aura belonging to Red Iron Evil Dragon suddenly spurted out.
At the same time, her body shot straight into the sky, and in a burst of dazzling light, she began to rapidly change and reshape.
In the blink of an eye, a Red Iron Dragon with black and red scales, a majestic body, and bulging muscles suddenly appeared in the sky.
The black-red scales glow with a cold metallic luster in the sunlight, and the strong limbs contain the power to crack mountains and crack rocks. When the dragon wings are fully unfolded, they can almost cover a small area of the sky, casting a huge and heart-stopping shadow.
Especially those pair of dragon eyes, calm and majestic, just like Garos himself.
Almost at the same time.
The eyes of the Metal Dragons who were circling around, seemingly looking for something, suddenly brightened up, and they all focused on the newly appeared Red Iron Dragon.
"Look! It's Mr. Garos! He finally appeared!"
"Finally found him! I just said he wouldn't have been hiding forever!"
"Ah! I heard that touching the scales of Champion Dragon can bring good luck and strength! I must find a chance to touch it this time!"
Soon, around the sudden "Red Iron Dragon", a dozen young Metal Dragons with different shapes and bright eyes gathered enthusiastically.
They rushed to greet him.
Their eyes were filled with unabashed admiration, curiosity, and a hint of eagerness to try.
Red Iron Dragon was stunned for a moment with a majestic look, and then a hint of pride that his plan had succeeded flashed through his eyes.
He leaned back slightly, cleared his throat, assumed a calm and dignified posture, and said, "Fellow compatriots, there is no need to be polite."
A young Silver Dragon couldn't restrain his excitement, squeezed to the front and asked, "Your Excellency Garos, your Dragon Breath is so powerful that it amazes the dragon! Do you have any unique tips that you can give us in this regard? I am also very eager to master the more powerful Dragon Breath skills."
"Red Iron Dragon" blinked those huge dragon eyes.
She pretended to think for a moment, and then said seriously, "This... it's very simple to say."
"The key is to practice consistently! Three hundred times in the morning, three hundred times at noon, and three hundred times at night! Spray Dragon Breath nine hundred times a day. If you stick to it, you'll be almost there."
... Nine hundred times a day?! I'm afraid your throat will be completely destroyed, right?!
When young Silver Dragon heard this, he immediately took a breath of cold air, his face full of shock and confusion.
But immediately, he made up his mind, gritted his teeth, and decided to find a place without dragons later and try Champion Dragon's exclusive secret recipe.
At this time, the young man Copper Dragon on the right couldn't help it anymore.
She said with a bit of embarrassment and full of expectation, "Your Excellency... Your Excellency, your body is so strong! These muscles, these scales! I... can I touch your scales and feel them?"
"Red Iron Dragon" heard this and laughed loudly and boldly.
"Haha! No problem! Feel free to feel it!"
As she spoke, she even deliberately raised a thick Dragon Arm, arched the muscles on it as hard as refined steel, and generously motioned for the Copper Dragon to come forward and caress it.
On the beach below.
The real Garos looked at the counterfeit in the sky, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.
He felt that his calm and powerful champion image was being destroyed and collapsed by Vera at the speed of light.
Deborah couldn't help laughing at the side. He gently covered his mouth with his hand and smiled at him in a low voice, "Vera, the Red Iron Dragon form that imitates you is becoming more and more vivid. Look, there are so many Metal Dragons surrounding her, but they can't find any flaws."
In the social etiquette of Dragon Race.
It is a very impolite and provocative behavior to randomly use detection spells on unfamiliar members of the same race.
Therefore, these young Metal Dragons who gathered around did not carefully check the authenticity of the "Red Iron Dragon" in front of them.
However, even so, the fact that Vera's illusions can deceive so many pairs of eyes is enough to show that her attainments in the field of illusions are indeed extraordinary and different from what they used to be.
In the sky, Vera was immersed in the wonderful feeling of being held in the moon's arms and surrounded by stars.
I saw "Red Iron Dragon" in the sky sometimes spreading its wings and flying high, drawing a gorgeous and flamboyant trajectory on the blue sky, eliciting bursts of exclamations from below; sometimes it spewed hot Dragon Breath toward the deserted sea surface, evaporating a large amount of seawater, creating a spectacular water vapor cloud.
In the end, Vera, who was so excited, even showed off Four-Armed Crimson Lotus Form.
The fierce image of Jinba once again aroused unbelievable exclamations and admiration from Metal Dragon.
This made Fairy Dragon, who was already a little carried away, even more proud.
She even began to imitate the leader's style, using Garos's deep voice to direct these "followers", so that they would line up in a relatively neat queue, and follow her on a "cruise" along the winding coastline, accepting the curious, surprised, or envious looks from other dragons along the way.
The commotion here is getting louder and louder.
The number of Metal Dragon following Vera is also increasing like a snowball, even attracting the attention of some Legendary Realm dragons resting in high-altitude clouds.
However, these Legendary Realm dragons have bright eyes.
They could see Fairy Dragon's illusion disguise, but most of them just found it interesting and were too lazy to expose this little trick. Instead, they became somewhat curious and curious about Plane Fairy Dragon itself.
Gold Dragon Nasha folded his arms and looked at the lively Red Iron Dragon in the sky. He laughed so hard that he could hardly straighten his back.
"Garos, seriously."
"I think this little Fairy Dragon enjoys life much more than you do."
She joked, "You should really learn from her and have some fun with the young dragons who are chasing after you, instead of hiding here and there like you are now, avoiding them."
Garos shook his head helplessly.
Although he felt that Vera was destroying his image, he was not prepared to stop it.
At least, this method has indeed effectively solved his troubles at the moment.
All attention was attracted by "Garos" in the sky, and no dragon noticed the real Red Iron Dragon on the beach.
"Let her have her fun."
"After all," Garos looked at himself jumping up and down in the distance, "It would be nice to be able to be quiet for a while."
He changed the topic and looked at his companions. "I am more interested in the largest library Radiant Dragon Realm."
"When I took the time to go there before, before I could take a closer look, I was interrupted by a group of dragons who came after hearing the news."
"I remember that there is some knowledge recorded there that is not even in my inheritance. Now I just take this opportunity to take a closer look."
The setting sun slowly sets in the west, dyeing the clouds on the sky into a magnificent orange-red color.
But Fairy Dragon Vera in the sky is still enjoying the feeling of being chased by dragons without any intention of stopping.
Garos will delay no more.
He took Deborah, Alberto and other companions and quietly left the noisy beach that was gradually shrouded in dusk.
Behind them, one could still clearly hear Vera imitating his deep voice and boasting, as well as the young Metal Dragon's admiring exclamations and exclamations from time to time.
Ten minutes later.
Garos and his party came to a magnificent library called "Dragon's Rest Corridor".
The magnificence of this library far exceeds that of any book collection institution in a mortal realm.
It is not made of ordinary masonry, stone, or wood, but is made up of numerous ancient Dragonwood that are extremely strong and still exist today, intertwined and grown naturally.
The dome is high, and natural magic runes flow among the branches and leaves, exuding a sense of time.
The space inside the library is incredibly vast.
Bookshelves that require dozens of people to hug rise up from the ground, with densely packed books placed on them.
However, in sharp contrast to its magnificent scale, the interior of this temple of knowledge seems quite deserted.
Except for Garos and his party, looking around, there are only a dozen or so giant dragons in the huge space, and most of them are the calm-tempered Adult Dragon or even the older Dragonkin.
Few dragons are as keen on spending time in the library reading books as other short-lived species are.
Just the knowledge contained in the inheritance is enough to see.
Garos's attention was attracted by many books.
"Concerning the first era when dragons ruled the world, those historical secrets are unclear or even completely blank in my inherited memory. I wonder if there will be even a few words of records here."
He thought to himself, and began to stroll leisurely among this quiet and solemn jungle of bookshelves, his eyes scanning the rows of ancient or brand-new book spines.
Soon after, Garos's eyes were attracted by a book with a simple binding.
[Dragon Clan Pact of the Aura Era]
The word "Aura", in the ancient Dragon Language, contains multiple meanings such as "sacred", "origin", and "brilliant".
Dragon Race First Era, who rules the world, is also often called "Sacred Aura Era".
Garos slowed down unconsciously, stretched out his palm, took this heavy classic off the bookshelf, held it in his hand, and looked at the cover and title page carefully.
However, after reading it a little, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
Although the book did tell some details and events that were not mentioned in his inherited memories, the content was mostly quite conventional and biased towards official records, and did not touch on the dust-shrouded secrets that he really wanted to explore that might have far-reaching consequences.
Overall, there is a lack of content that makes him shine.
Garos gently closed the book, put it back in place, and came back from the concentrated reading state.
He subconsciously looked around, only to find that Deborah, Alberto and Nasha, who had been following him, had disappeared at some point and wandered off to explore some bookshelf area.
Garos was not surprised.
In this vast ocean of knowledge, it is normal for everyone to explore and discover according to their own interests.
He did not deliberately look for companions, but chose to walk deeper into the library alone, toward areas that seemed older and more remote.
At the same time, he vaguely felt that the surrounding environment seemed to become... exceptionally quiet.
The very low voices of conversation coming from far away, the subtle sound of pages turning, and even the long and steady breathing of other dragons that could be heard before seemed to have completely disappeared at this moment.
But Garos doesn't seem to notice this.
In a daze, he stopped in a relatively quiet and dimly lit corner.
This seems to be a forgotten and quiet place in the entire grand library.
A table made of crystal clear roots growing naturally and intertwining is quietly placed here.
Beside the table, sat a man wearing a simple linen robe.
He looks very young and has a delicate face.
His face was a little pale, his short light blond hair lacked luster, and his breath seemed weak.
There were some small wrinkles on his face that kept appearing and disappearing over and over again.
At this moment, the young man was lowering his eyes and looking attentively... playing with a gear structure.
It is layered on top of each other, and at a glance, it is composed of at least hundreds of precision gears of different sizes.
The first gear at the beginning is rotating at a speed that is difficult to detect with the naked eye, while the rotation speed of the second gear is nearly ten times slower than the first one, and the third gear is ten times slower than the second one... In this way, the speed decreases successively, and the gears at the end of the sequence appear to be completely stationary under such a long transmission chain.
The young man stared at the gears intently.
"This thing... looks a bit like Gugol Gear."
Garos has seen similar structures in previous lives.
It is said that, assuming that the strength of the material can be infinite, if the last gear can be turned to rotate, then the first gear at the beginning of the sequence will rotate faster than the speed of light! In turn, the first gear must be rotated for a long enough, almost infinite time, before it is possible to drive the last gear to rotate visible to the naked eye.
As if aware of Garos's gaze, the young man raised his head, revealing a pair of deep blue eyes.
There was a hint of exhaustion in his eyes that could not be concealed.
But underneath that exhaustion, he still seemed profound and calm.
Garos It is certain that the true identity of this seemingly weak and ordinary young man in front of him must be a dragon whose life level has reached Legendary Realm, but he is in such a state for some unknown reason.
"Are you interested in boring and heavy history?"
The young man spoke, his voice gentle and magnetic, completely different from the frailty on his appearance.
Garos did not appear restrained because of the other party's possible identity of the Legendary Realm. He walked naturally to the opposite side of the table and sat down on the seat naturally formed by roots.
"The growth and withering of civilizations, the rise and collapse of nations, the flow and replacement of power... In my opinion, all of these follow a certain thread."
Garos responded calmly, with candid eyes, "Looking at history allows me to see this context clearly and better anchor the future."
"Besides, everything we do now will become history in the eyes of future generations, right?"
There was a hint of surprise and appreciation in the young man's eyes.
He nodded slightly and said, "In this era, there are very few young dragons who are willing to think like this, which is very good."
After saying that, his eyes returned to the slowly meshing gears on the table.
He stretched out a long and pale finger and tried to turn the completely stationary gear at the end of the sequence.
Click!
There was a clearly audible crisp sound.
The stationary gear did not rotate as expected. Instead, it seemed that it could not withstand the force of the fingers, and it separated Shatter and turned into a handful of fine metal debris.
The young man stared at the pile of debris and sighed.
He then stretched out his palm and waved lightly, and invisible power passed by.
Those metal scraps quickly regrouped and returned to the original intact gear structure, continuing its meshing process.
After doing all this, he raised his eyes again and glanced at Garos sitting opposite.
He asked casually, "What do you think time is?"
"Is it a river that flows endlessly, unable to turn back, and can only move forward passively? Or is it like this gear set, which seems to be able to be observed at will, and even tried to be fiddled with, but in fact, there is nothing that can be done about it?"
Garos did not answer immediately.
His eyes passed over the gears that were still meshing slowly, and then fell back on the young man's pale and calm face.
He thought in silence for a few seconds.
Finally, he raised his head and said from the bottom of his heart:
"For me, time is a furnace, an anvil, and a never-ending severe trial."
"I rarely think about the overly philosophical questions of why it exists or how it passes."
"What I care more about is how to better temper my claws under the erosion of time to make them sharper and tougher; temper my will to make it more unshakable; temper my soul so that it can carry more powerful power."
The young man was slightly startled.
Immediately, a smile appeared on his face, slightly diluting the fatigue between his brows.
"It's very interesting to understand, very pragmatic and full of power."
He commented, "I can feel that you have an extraordinary persistent pursuit of power. However, what is very rare is that your persistence does not lack reason."
The young man stood up slowly, put away the gear, and his figure gradually faded.
"Level 21 Legendary Realm is just the beginning for a dragon like you. You can go to a higher position."
His voice also became ethereal, as if coming from a far away place, "I'm looking forward to... seeing your subsequent performance."
His figure completely disappeared.
At the same time, Deborah's somewhat doubtful voice sounded in Garos's ears.
"Why are you standing here in a daze? Don't you want to go in and have a good time?"
Hearing this familiar voice, Garos woke up suddenly.
He subconsciously turned his head quickly and looked at his surroundings.
Deborah, Nasha, Alberto and the others stood beside him, with a little confusion on their faces.
And he himself was standing at the magnificent entrance of the library, his feet not even really stepping into it.
What happened before was just like a momentary hallucination.
Gears... time... that green-eyed young man... what just happened?
Garos shook his head, trying to catch the memory fragments that were fading rapidly in his mind.
However, those images and conversations were like quicksand between fingers, quickly becoming blurry and unclear, leaving only a sense of trance, making Garos feel like he was waking up from a dream, but could not remember what he had dreamed about.
"It's nothing," he came back to his senses and said to his companions, "I was just stunned for a moment. Come on, let's go in."
Garos took another step and stepped into the library in front of him again, and was surprised by the magnificence of the place.