Ochre Valley at Four in the Morning

Five months later, Ochre Valley, Eaglebeak Cliff.

An immensely high mountain cliff jutted outward, shaped like the inverted beak of a giant eagle, its sharp point stabbing into the sky. Its perilously steep terrain blocked the sunlight, casting the vertical cliff face below entirely into shadow.

Within that shadow was a steel-gray Dragon Hatchling, hanging from the sheer rock face by a single foreclaw.

The muscles and knucklebones beneath his claw bulged violently. Even through his scaled hide, one could sense the tremendous force they bore.

Xilong remained perfectly still, holding his static grip as though he were a protruding ridge of stone on the cliff, with only his tail swaying gently in the wind.

Because of their high-density bones and complex scale structure, heavy dragons were far heavier than they appeared. At the same size, they outweighed Metallic Dragons and Chromatic Dragons by a vast margin, so resisting their own weight with a single foreclaw was no easy task.

Yet Xilong had maintained this posture for quite some time. His clawed toes began to tremble, the tiny bony spikes along his neck quivered faintly, and before long, even the scales across his body began to vibrate.

"Ten, nine, eight..."

Xilong counted down silently, gritting his teeth little by little. He forced himself to endure for another ten breaths before using his left claw to replace his right.

The instant his clawed toes loosened, his heavy body immediately dropped.

Xilong paid it no mind. With practiced ease, he stretched out his left claw and hooked it onto another, slightly lower outcropping, about to stabilize himself once more.

But the rock on the cliff face was nowhere near as solid as it looked.

"Crack, crack, crack, crack."

At Xilong's grasp, the rock rapidly crazed and broke away. In an instant, the Chrome Dragon lost his support, his body tilting backward as he fell from the nearly hundred-meter cliff along with great masses of shattered stone.

The howling gale immediately struck, sweeping over and battering the Chrome Dragon's body.

Xilong remained unruffled. His amber vertical pupils flashed as he coolly swept his gaze around, adjusting his body in midair while rapidly searching for a new anchor point.

Once he confirmed his target, his left claw shot out like lightning and seized the cliff wall.

"Scrraaaape—"

The dragon's claws erupted with a sharp roar. The muscles in Xilong's left arm pumped like flowing water, forcing the Chrome Dragon's uniquely metallic keratin claws into the hard granite wall, grinding against the cliff in a savage, heavy friction.

After gouging out a ferocious trench, Xilong's plunge came to an abrupt halt. He hung in midair by one arm, breathing faintly.

His formerly gray-white claw, so full of metallic texture, now gleamed with a shifting red brightness, as if it had been roasted by intense heat. Between his clawed toes, it was scorching as fire.

"Two seconds."

Xilong muttered softly. Any slower, and this claw would probably have broken again.

In free fall, a Chrome Dragon's body accelerated to a terrifying speed in an extremely short time, like an ultra-heavy iron block falling from the sky.

Thus, once he lost his anchor, he often had only a few brief seconds to find another foothold. It was an enormous test of his judgment and reactions. Once that dreadful downward momentum fully unfolded, let alone one claw, even all four claws moving together could not support him.

Xilong's claws, shoulders, and arms had broken like this many times before.

He flicked his tail, pulling his body close to the cliff face and avoiding the rocks raining down from above.

The rocks fell over the precipice. Below lay rolling hills that stretched away without end, where several drakes bit and grappled in the direction of Bay Lake, growling and roaring. Yet by the time their sounds reached this height, they were almost inaudible.

Xilong's right claw hung at his side, sore and weak from the earlier training. But rather than shaking loose that fatigue, he maintained his posture and silently felt the flow of strength within his body.

Power began in his finger bones, tightened along the roots of his claws, passed through his wrist bones, climbed all the way up his forearm, and finally settled into his shoulder blade—like a taut iron chain drawn from his claw tips straight to his spine.

It had taken him some time to figure out these techniques. At first, when hanging from the cliff, Xilong relied only on brute strength in his claws. Before long, he would lose strength and fall. He could barely hold on, and the training had little effect.

Only later did Xilong realize that to resist a heavy dragon's own weight, finger bones and wrist strength alone were far from enough.

He had to mobilize more muscles. He had to engage his shoulders and arms, recruit his spine, and pour all that strength into his clawed toes, unleashing a dragon's immense power. Only then could he turn his claws into iron talons and embed himself firmly in the cliff face.

The drakes by Bay Lake fought back and forth, yet little blood was spilled, and neither side could gain the upper hand.

On one hand, they were still young and lacked strength. On the other, the Dragon Hatchlings had not undergone specialized training and had not mastered proper ways to exert force.

As a result, every one of their attacks was limp and feeble. Their claws lacked explosive power, unable to pierce the other's scaled armor and inflict real damage.

Dragons possessed excellent vision. Hanging from the cliff face, Xilong watched the commotion around Bay Lake for a while, silently counting the time in his heart. When the time came, he released his claws, flipped himself over, and switched to climbing with his hind claws.

This time, the Chrome Dragon hung completely upside down, head below and tail above, letting all his body weight press against his belly.

This was no easy movement.

When Xilong first attempted it, he would likewise lose control after only a few breaths. His tail flailed wildly above him, his body swaying left and right like a flag in the wind. At the slightest misstep, he would fall from the cliff and glide down in embarrassment.

Later, the muscles in his waist and abdomen grew stronger, and his way of exerting force changed along with them. Gradually, he became able to stabilize his body.

After another period of extra training, Xilong finally began to find his rhythm. Now, even while hanging upside down, he could clearly see the scenes in the valley, his field of view neither swaying nor spinning.

Rock climbing was Xilong's favorite training. He usually began before dawn every day, completed one round at daybreak, ate breakfast at the gathering place, rested for a while, then trained through another round in the morning before considering the exercise complete.

By adjusting his posture in different ways, he could mobilize every muscle, feel the flow of strength throughout his body, strengthen every last branch and twig of himself, and temper his reactions and judgment through every perilous loss of anchor.

Furthermore, through long persistence and the repeated breaking of his claws, his bones became ever harder. All his tendons, pressed to their limits and then released again and again, grew extraordinarily tough.

How powerful was a dragon's claw strike? Could it punch through an enemy's armor? During a fierce pounce and turn, could the finger bones withstand the impact without breaking? The key factors all lay here.

Breathing long and steadily, Xilong knew that his Disaster Level had reached Level Three.

The so-called Disaster Level was a commonly used measure in the Azure World. It did not directly represent strength or weakness, but assessed how much destruction a living being could cause when erupting with its full power. It was sometimes also called a Destruction Level.

The Dragon Hatchlings of Ochre Valley generally had Disaster Levels only between one and two. Level Three was already an extremely formidable rating, one that only a small number of outstanding Iron Dragons could currently attain.

He watched the lively scene by Bay Lake, his gaze calm and peaceful, while thoughts surged through his mind.

Xilong honed himself this way, of course, not merely to compete with the Iron Dragons. Disputes and fights between Dragon Hatchlings were, when all was said and done, only play. They bit each other for a while, then forgot all about it a few days later.

But the true Dragon Blood War was a brutal struggle of life and death.

From the information he had gathered over the past half year, Xilong had clearly realized that although the Lineage he belonged to was powerful, it was far from secure.

The Ashmark Lineage, standing in the Lost Wilderness, not only had to face the neighboring Tagoma Kingdom and Bloodridge Tribes, but had also suffered attacks from Exotic Dragons more than once, and had fought a massive war against the distant Blue Dragon Brood.

It was only because the great dragons of the Lineage fought drenched in blood that their leader, Taigo Ashmark, with strength capable of splitting mountains and rending earth, had torn apart an adult Purple Dragon and a legendary Blue Dragon in succession, roaring upon the foremost battlefield with none able to stand against him.

Six young Iron Dragons guarded the legendary dragon's side, crushing every enemy scheme and ambition, using blood and fire to defend the territory and dignity of their brood together.

Yet despite such victory, an indistinct sense of urgency still lingered within the Lineage. The threats posed by Chromatic Dragons and Exotic Dragons had also been mentioned several times in the Nurturer's lessons.

Influenced by this, Xilong, too, carried a few more worries in his heart.

Still, he had thought it through clearly. The Dragon Blood War and territorial wars were heights beyond his reach for now. He did not treat these threats as wind passing by his ears, but neither would he spend every day trembling in fear.

No matter what, for Dragon Hatchlings, the most important things were always to eat their fill, sleep well, and strive to grow.

Even the serious and conscientious Nurturer sometimes told the Dragon Hatchlings not to keep themselves wound too tightly. The great dragons' battlefield was not yet something they needed to worry about. As long as they remained vigilant in their hearts, they should eat when it was time to eat and play when it was time to play.

No matter what the world outside was like, everything remained beautiful in this valley, where countless newborns were nurtured.

Xilong was not important to the Lineage. He could control nothing and change nothing, but he could control and change his own body. He could give everything he had to grow a little larger and become a little stronger.