Under the Red Dragon

In the endless Greenwild Forest, a scarlet sanctuary hung high, a kyoguan formed from countless white bone skulls piled up like towering pagodas.

The flesh and blood of the owners of these skulls were consumed by the sanctuary, their souls imprisoned by the temple.

From its behavior, this wondrous creation born from Incaron's accidental emotional surge could be deemed an evil object.

The exterior of the scarlet sanctuary was entirely dyed scarlet, appearing especially crimson when still and silent.

The hall had only one floor, but it was tall and wide enough, with sixteen white jade pillars at the entrance supporting a dome gradually adorned with countless war murals, though now the once jade-like white pillars were gradually engraved with the souls of countless fallen warriors.

These imprisoned souls would forever be exploited and driven by the sanctuary, even the River Styx in the depths of the endless world, the place where souls return, was blocked from summoning them.

Normally, these souls served as attendants to the heroic spirits of warriors loyal enough to the dragon.

In battle, they would transform into various musical instruments, played by loyal souls to create stirring melodies, bestowing the dragon's blessings and heroic spirit enhancements upon the dragon's warriors.

At this moment, the quiet hall resembled a palace where an evil god dwelled on the banks of a deep, tranquil river.

As it continuously devoured the bones of enemies, it grew ever larger, its inner space constantly expanding due to the space attributes of the World Tree's heart, which had transformed into a pillar supporting the heavens, and a space pouch made from the stomach of a Titan Python.

Now, the interior of the hall had become a place of overlapping spaces, vast and deep.

Incaron and the other dragons resided in the deepest core space of this scarlet sanctuary, the area where the World Tree's core was located, and the origin point for the opening of the scarlet sanctuary's internal space.

The other dragons lay sprawled around, the giant pillar formed from the World Tree's heart emitting a faint glow, illuminating the figures of the surrounding dragons in detail.

Due to good diet, increasing wealth, growth through experience, and the supplementation of various resources, the dragons in the group were developing far beyond ordinary chromatic dragons.

This was the advantage of a lord dragon; in fact, those chromatic dragons who scraped by were often underdeveloped.

Now, any dragon of the same age in the dragon group would be easily crushed in terms of strength and size, and the dragon威 of these juvenile dragons could even cause some dragons of the same age to fall into shock.

The black dragon Rosani was now like a large black cat hugging a beloved toy as it slept, its long tail and limbs forming a semicircle, embracing the giant pillar formed from the World Tree's core.

However, because the World Tree's core was too large, the black dragon Rosani appeared to be clinging to the pillar, even though the black dragon Rosani's current size had grown to eleven meters, making this black dragon a well-deserved powerhouse among its peers.

Even in its sleep, this black dragon did not forget to extend its tongue, occasionally licking the World Tree's heart, and even gnawing at the World Tree's heart with its fangs.

However, the World Tree's heart was no longer an ordinary dead object, and the black dragon's unconscious actions could not harm it at all.

After being refined into a magical creation by ancient magical scholars, it possessed extremely mysterious abilities, and even Incaron could not understand the most fundamental abilities of the World Tree's core.

A trace of Thetis's most fundamental soul, rescued by Incaron, had already fallen into a deep sleep, which was the price Incaron paid for rescuing Thetis.

Thetis needed to use most of her soul to counteract the threat from the descendant of the Wild God in order to allow Incaron to take action, annihilate the opponent's body, and obliterate the opponent's soul.

It was equivalent to Thetis and the descendant of the Wild God perishing together, fortunately leaving behind a trace of the most fundamental soul.

Incaron's massive red body had now grown to more than sixteen meters, a concept akin to a fantasy for a juvenile dragon.

And Incaron had only entered the juvenile stage for about three years, this juvenile red dragon still had a long juvenile development period, and no one knew what this red dragon would look like after passing through the complete juvenile stage, and neither did Incaron.

Incaron only knew that he seemed to have become a giant among dragons. Now, because of the special sub-brain ganglia in the red dragon's body and the channels to provide the abundant magic power far exceeding other dragons' reserves, his body no longer needed his will to drive it, and was already spontaneously breeding and proliferating more bodily tissues and nerve organs similar to blood vessels and magic power transmission cores, leading to a more robust physique than ordinary red dragons.

The red dragon's head was also becoming wider, and its three pairs of thick dragon horns were like gnarled ancient trees growing on its head, yet possessing an extraordinary sharpness.

Incaron was now lying next to the black dragon Rosani, like a small red mountain, and although the black dragon's flesh and blood body was becoming increasingly plump, it still looked more like a skinny black loach in front of the muscular red dragon.

Although Incaron's main brain consciousness had entered a state of rest, a trace of consciousness remained active under the spontaneous operation of the sub-brain ganglia.

This trace of consciousness was feeling the intermingling and resonance of the shining heart energy and the World Tree's core within the red dragon's massive body.

Incaron's heart energy permeated the World Tree's core, and it was this magical energy, diffused by the World Tree's core, that gave the heroic spirits of those who had died in battle the ability to remain.

Incaron was constantly exploring the use of his abilities in his sleep, and also experiencing the various manifestations of the World Tree's spatial opening from the resonance of the World Tree's core, while the unceasing sub-brain ganglia were recording this information and data at all times.

It could be said that this red dragon was learning and studying the operation of the true laws of the world even in his dreams.

Although the red dragon's current abilities were not enough to comprehend it, at some point in the future, this accumulated knowledge would turn into a ladder to the sky, which was the foundation and the heritage.

Incaron himself had never imagined that he, who now possessed the ability to lie flat, would work a hundred times harder than he did when he did not have this qualification.

However, from the behavior of those ancient mages and scholars and the words of the squint-eyed mage, the red dragon, with its excessively rich associative abilities, already had a worst-case and best-case guess.

This guess also combined some things that the former White Tower mage Lappers told the red dragon, perhaps those crazy ancient mages were not destroyed overnight because they wanted to study the gods, but because these crazy mages had poked a bigger hole.

A hole that required the powerful gods dwelling above the astral realm, who regarded the erosion of endless years as a gentle breeze, to take action and clean up!

The night passed quickly, and Incaron's sleeping main consciousness awoke from its rest, disturbed by the noise outside the scarlet sanctuary.

Passing over the other dragons still sleeping in, Incaron stepped out of the sanctuary amidst the praises of the heroic spirits.

The morning forest was filled with damp mist, and in the mist, a huge, strange creature wandered.

Many gnoll warriors confronted this strange creature from a distance, without rashly launching an attack.

This strange creature had limbs and a neck as slender as a giraffe, and a skull shaped like a giraffe, but its mouth was like a bird's beak.

Its flesh and blood seemed to have dried up, and it had no fur, only a thin layer of red skin wrapped around its lean body, and there were obvious sunken marks at the joints of its bones.

On either side of its head, above its eye sockets, grew horns like thin, dry branches, and similar keratinous tissues grew on its neck.

Incaron's sub-brain ganglia were frantically searching through his inheritance and knowledge, but found no records or information about this strange creature.

However, Incaron also knew that even the dragon gods had unknown knowledge, let alone the dragon's inheritance.

He noticed that this strange creature seemed to be just wandering in the thick fog, not daring to step out of the fog, and had not shown any hostility towards Incaron's team.

Incaron naturally would not take the initiative to attack it, and a cautious attitude towards all unknowns was the most basic principle for surviving in this endless world.

Incaron simply told his warriors to stay away from that strange creature, because the appearance of the red dragon had made these warriors eager to perform, wanting to take the initiative to attack.

Only the dragon-blooded werewolf Saha, with his tall Imperial Guard warriors, still stood below the sanctuary, meticulously guarding the dragon's resting place, without the slightest intention of showing off.

As the sun gradually rose and the mist in the forest dissipated, that strange creature also quietly disappeared from Incaron's eyes with the dissipating mist, and Incaron did not even notice what ability the creature used to leave.

Incaron flapped his wings and landed among a group of mages. These mages were also discussing that strange creature, and even used magic crystals to record the creature's appearance, obviously these mages did not know the origin of this strange creature either.

When these mages saw the red dragon's arrival, they could not help but bow their heads in salute. The red dragon's current power and actions had made these proud mages abandon their rigid prejudices.

In the eyes of these mages, the heroic spirits in the scarlet sanctuary suspended in the air were already equivalent to this red dragon's fanatics. According to this development, it would not be surprising for this red dragon to ascend to the throne of gods in this way in the future.

After all, as long as the tens of thousands of people in the dragon group's territory become believers of this red dragon, it would be enough to support a dragon to become a god of weak divine power.

But this was just the beginning. Under the development of this red dragon, the potential of the dragon group's territory had just begun to show, and perhaps the dragon group's territory would become one of the targets coveted by the many gods in the sky in the future.

However, they did not understand this red dragon's thoughts. Although becoming a god purely by the power of faith was powerful enough in Incaron's eyes, it also had its shackles. Incaron had not decided to embark on this path, but only regarded it as one of the backup plans.

Just like the dragon's own path to godhood, becoming a deity dragon was only one of this red dragon's backup plans. Speaking of the dragon's path to godhood, Incaron had gained vague insights into some methods of this path during this period of exploration and research.

Resisting the influence of the instincts brought about by inheritance and bloodline was one of the conditions for becoming a god. Those dragons who fully displayed the dragon's nature were also the most ordinary dragons, with extremely limited upper limits.

Several dragons who had become gods had also become gods because of their innate strength, not because they became strong because of becoming gods. Even Tiamat, the chromatic dragon queen who had become a god, could not completely abandon the influence of greed in her bloodline and divine duty, which shows how harsh this condition was for dragons.

The dragon must abandon the greed for treasure and various influences from its bloodline before devouring the treasures it has collected in order to enter the next step of the ascension ritual.

This condition was difficult even for Incaron, because Incaron was only able to control his desires, not be influenced by his desires and keep his will clear, not that he had no desires.

On the contrary, the stronger Incaron's will was, the stronger Incaron's desires were. Possessing absolute freedom of will was his strongest desire.

“Hughsul, get ready, we will explore the ruins left by the ancient mages and scholars next,” Incaron said to the squint-eyed mage Hughsul.

After several months of fighting, even though the warriors under Incaron were still in high spirits, Incaron, who had achieved initial results, also needed to let these warriors rest for a while.

He was not like other dragons, completely regarding his subordinates as consumables. These warriors were now able to become the foundation elites for establishing a kingdom.

As long as these warriors were dispersed into the expanded warbands in a certain proportion, many brave warriors could be quickly cultivated, just like officers.

The battle-hardened warriors would also bring their style and will into the expanded warbands, and Incaron only needed to train them slightly to establish an army several times larger than the current warband warriors.

Therefore, Incaron planned to leave these warriors to manage this base, and take turns returning to the Akaniia main plane to rest, while he and the mages would take the Imperial Guard warriors to explore the ruins left by the ancient mages.

It would also give the elven tribes in this world ample time to react, either choose to submit or choose to unite.

At that time, Incaron would not need to launch wars everywhere, but could clear them out at fixed points to stabilize the situation in this world.

The current Incaron had this confidence, even if it was just him and the mages leading the Imperial Guard warriors, it was not something that any elven tribe could resist.

In the end, Incaron left the black dragon Rosani and a part of the miscellaneous warband led by the barbarian leader Gibr to guard the camp, and the scarlet sanctuary would become the foundation for guarding the camp, as well as some kobold auxiliaries.

And with the help of the Tree of Life, these warriors and the black dragon Rosani did not need to worry about being attacked by the elves who dared to resist, while the rest of the warriors and dragons returned to the Akaniia main plane to rest and transport the spoils back to the territory.

Incaron, along with the mages and the werewolf Saha, led two hundred Imperial Guard warriors on the path of exploration.

The journey was peaceful, and not even a spying elf appeared.

Even the few small elven tribes that Incaron and his party encountered on the road would take the initiative to open the gates of their camps and allow these warriors to enter and rest.

They were obviously intimidated by the previous battle. Although the elves in these tribes did not like or even hated Incaron and his party, they had to put aside their hostility and prejudice and welcome the arrival of the dragon.

Only the Trees of Life, although not every Tree of Life possessed intelligence, these Trees of Life all possessed simple spirituality.

After learning that they did not need to worry about destruction as long as they submitted, these Trees of Life welcomed the dragon's rewards, shaking their branches, like dancing creatures.

In the eyes of these Trees of Life, which only seek survival and growth, dragons are undoubtedly more suitable as powerful guardians. Unable to refuse, the instincts of these Trees of Life led them to make a more advantageous choice.

Karon, with his massive frame, stood before a Tree of Life that was only about ten meters tall, his usually fierce face softening.

He looked at the elven Grand Elder and several elven druids kneeling on the ground in submission, deliberately lowering his voice as he said, "You have made the right choice. Go, follow my warriors. My warriors will lead you to where you need to be."

"There, your Trees of Life will thrive, and your tribe will prosper and become strong. As the first elves to pledge allegiance to me, you will receive my praise and equally enjoy all the rights of free people within my territory!"

"According to your great will, Your Excellency Dragon!" The elves, with a somewhat bitter expression, led by the elder, went back to pack their belongings, inevitably worried about the unknown future.

Only the Tree of Life swayed its branches, expressing its joyful mood.

As a magical creature, it could feel the complete laws from another world emanating from the dragon, which were beneficial to the growth of these Trees of Life.

Although migration would cause some damage to these Trees of Life in the short term, these small Trees of Life did not have many limitations.

They only needed to carefully pass through the planar portal, avoiding the temporal torrents outside the portal from washing over the growing branches.

As one after another, the Custodian warriors left, Karon and his party had already accepted the active allegiance of six small elven tribes before reaching their destination.

Karon migrated all the elves from these small tribes to the main plane of Aikania to supplement the territory's population. As for the other large tribes, they were probably still in a wait-and-see state.

Karon was not in a hurry because they had already arrived at their destination, facing the ruins left by the ancient mages.

This was a vast ruin, but the most striking thing was not the ruins left by the mages, but the World Tree that had been neatly cut off.

Only the ten-meter-high trunk of this World Tree remained in place, but the diameter of the entire cut-off plane was as long as two miles.

Like the base of a huge flattened mountain peak, the dry wooden bark was as rough and rugged as the stone skin of a mountain.

Karon and the mage were observing the body left by the World Tree. Natis, who had been in a deep sleep, finally woke up at this time.

Natis's awakened soul seemed to have received a boost of power and became active.

He spoke from under the red dragon's scales, "Go north, Karon, next to the body of the World Tree, there is a magical thing, maybe you will be interested. Those mages also settled here because of this, and I was born because of it."