Five Years

Luo Yun returned to the cave entrance and watched the sea level continue to rise. The once-empty Great Antlion Desert was swallowed by seawater.

Countless creatures wailed upon the sea. Every flying monster wished it had another pair of wings as it fought the gale and climbed higher.

More than a dozen Female Fire Dragons cried out in pain. Their powerful talons could only seize a limited number of Hatchling Dragons as they desperately fled the habitat that was about to become an ocean.

The seawater continued to rise. Before long, it reached the cliff beneath the nest and swallowed the pool below.

Luo Yun did not know how much higher the water would rise, but they had to prepare.

Ya Ji flew out first, carrying one in her mouth and clutching another beneath her claws. Luo Yun followed her example, picked up two smaller Herbivore Dragons, and followed close behind to the upper edge of the cliff.

The Steel Dragon stopped advancing, its icy eyes fixed on the direction of the Ancient Forest.

The Elder Dragon shrouded in water spread wings like stars in the night sky, mysterious and dangerous.

Riding the enormous waves and carrying lightning, it charged at the Steel Dragon.

Though it had reached its twilight years and the edges of its shell had already turned white, the Steel Dragon remained fearless. Its roar pierced the raging winds as tornadoes swept up seawater and formed towering waterspouts.

The Wind Devil Dragon unleashed its Life Energy to the fullest and met the enemy without fear.

Luo Yun stood on high ground, letting bean-sized raindrops pelt his body as he stared unblinkingly at the distant Battlefield.

Unfortunately, with the gale and seawater obscuring everything, even a Rathalos with exceptional vision could not clearly see the battle.

In this battle between Elder Dragons, he did not even have the right to watch.

The battle between the Steel Dragon and Mizutsune lasted a long time. In the end, the Steel Dragon retreated, and its Ancient Dragon Crossing was declared a failure.

As always, Mizutsune arrived mysteriously and departed mysteriously, vanishing without a trace.

With the battle over, the storm dispersed and sunlight reappeared. The seawater receded, revealing the land it had swallowed. Given nature's powerful ability to endlessly renew itself, vegetation and life would soon return to the places ravaged by the sea.

On the coast where the outskirts of the Ancient Forest connected to the Great Antlion Desert, a Dragonbone Ship remained stranded forever atop a mountain peak.

After nature gave them a brutal slap, the dream-filled young men and women and experts from every field did not give up. Instead, they regained their confidence, used the Star Ship as their core, gathered supplies, and began building an outpost suited to the local conditions.

Luo Yun and Ya Ji returned to the nest. They had been fortunate—the rising sea had nearly reached the nest. Although the gale had swept some seawater into it, once the water receded, the flooded seawater flowed out through the stream inside the nest.

Luo Yun lay in a high spot inside the nest, lost in thought, while Ya Ji destroyed their old bedding and repeatedly flew in and out to bring back fresh branches and lay them down.

Reality was not a game, and Elder Dragons were not the foolish creatures from games that spat a few bursts of fire, whipped up a few tornadoes, and then fought you bare-bodied in close combat.

In the great battle between the Steel Dragon and Mizutsune, exaggerated elemental energy poured forth without restraint. Storms, seawater, and lightning formed its main theme.

For ordinary dragons, forget fighting an Elder Dragon in close combat—even getting close was a distant dream.

Though Luo Yun had not witnessed the true battle between the two dragons, he had watched a massive Horned Dragon get swept into the sky by a waterspout raised by the Steel Dragon. It most likely would not survive.

And that had merely been the aftershock of their clash.

Of course, perhaps the Steel Dragon and Mizutsune that appeared this time were both exceptions. Perhaps not every Elder Dragon was so powerful. Even ordinary dragons had absolute differences between individuals, let alone Elder Dragons.

But there was no denying that Elder Dragons, capable of controlling disasters, truly stood at the top of the Ecological Chain.

At that moment, Luo Yun was incomparably certain of his own insignificance, and he also understood the power of the world's ecosystem.

Even the Steel Dragon, which could easily alter the weather, could encounter Mizutsune and be driven back. As long as one remained within the Ecological Chain, one would be constrained by the ecosystem.

Perhaps only those "forbidden ones" that transcended the world and stood outside the Ecological Chain could remain unaffected.

The war between Elder Dragons had passed, but life had to go on.

Because vast regions on the outskirts of the Ancient Forest and Great Antlion Desert had been flooded, the living space of many creatures had been severely compressed. The areas of both regions that remained intact had now descended into chaos.

Herbivore Dragons searched everywhere for new habitats, while carnivorous dragons began fighting for new territories.

This was destined to become a new slaughter. The victors would survive, while the defeated could only become nourishment for the New World's ecology.

Yet none of this had anything to do with Luo Yun and Ya Ji. Their intelligence, different from other dragons, had allowed them to stockpile large amounts of food in advance. While other dragons fought until their heads were bloodied, they only needed to remain quietly in their nest and wait for things to settle.

In the blink of an eye, five years passed.

Thanks to the New World's powerful ability to regulate itself, the damaged areas regained their vitality. Countless creatures returned and rebuilt the ecological environment.

But now, besides the New World's original inhabitants, the ecosystem had gained another presence: the New World Investigation Team.

In the sky, a Male Fire Dragon nearly nine meters long circled overhead. Its fiery red scales were spotless, its agile body perfectly proportioned, and beneath its golden-ratio physique lay muscles capable of erupting with astonishing power at any moment.

Its savage spikes gleamed with cold light. Though its body was still relatively small compared to fully grown behemoths, it had already begun to display the bearing of a king of the skies.

Having chosen its target, it accelerated into a dive and appeared above it in an instant like a Flame Meteor. Its sharp talons tightly seized the Herbivore Dragon's neck, and before it could make another move, the Herbivore Dragon's hide began to burn.

Threads of flame coiled around Luo Yun layer by layer, incinerating anything that dared approach him.

Body of Flames: After battle begins, flames wrap around the body, causing anything that comes into contact with it to be scorched. Flame Temperature changes according to the host's own flames.

With a thought, the surrounding flames were absorbed through the gaps in his scales, and the scorching heat dispersed with the wind.

Fire Attraction: Absorbs flames to strengthen fire-based moves. The flames that can be absorbed increase with the host's physique.

Both Body of Flames and Fire Attraction were traits he had drawn during the past five years. Through Luo Yun's development, Fire Attraction could be activated proactively and could even absorb the flames produced by Body of Flames.

As for Body of Flames, besides wrapping him in fire, it had greatly increased his Fire Resistance. For a time, he had even suspected that he might be completely immune to flames.

It was not until he got bored one day and provoked an irritable Great Jagras to test it that he discovered this was not the case. The flames Great Jagras spat out with all its strength still felt hot to him.

Well, merely hot.