The loud, high-pitched roars of the Bazelgeuse echoed across the ocean, but his cries received no response.
After all, Asterion was currently in the dark depths of the water, hundreds of meters below the surface. The boiling seawater formed a natural acoustic barrier, turning all sounds from above into a blur of muffled noise.
Well, truthfully, even if he had heard them, he wouldn't have been able to reply. Completely focused on locking down the Zorah Magdaros's life energy, Asterion simply didn't have the spare focus to do anything else.
In fact, the massive, crystalline pillar of bio-energy that the Bazelgeuse was currently circling hadn't even been consciously created by Asterion. It was merely a passive byproduct—crystalizing upon contact with the seawater—as his internal bio-energy erupted uncontrollably while he recklessly gorged himself on the Zorah Magdaros's titanic lifeforce.
The portion exposed above the sea already stood over thirty meters high, yet this sky-piercing crystal pillar was merely the tip of the iceberg of a massive underwater mountain range.
If one's gaze could pierce through the pitch-black deep sea, they would discover that these rapidly expanding crystals had constructed a breathtakingly grand spectacle on the ocean floor in a very short amount of time—they had completely encased the mountain-like corpse of the Zorah Magdaros.
Hundreds of millions of crystalline filaments, like the greedy root systems of a plant, had already burrowed deep into the giant beast's rocky outer layers, shell, muscles, and even its bone marrow. These hollow, faintly glowing crystal threads were the straws Asterion was using to siphon the Zorah Magdaros's life energy.
The commotion was honestly a bit too big. In a very short span of time, the dissipating energy fluctuations would spread to places over a dozen kilometers away, and as time ticked on, they would reach even further—just like a signal tower. Monsters sensitive to energy could probably perceive what was happening here from extremely far away.
There was a reason why the Safi'jiiva hid the Xeno'jiiva deep within the Confluence of Fates during reproduction, a place other monsters found difficult to reach. Wasn't it precisely to prevent its offspring from being killed before they could grow up?
Asterion didn't know what kind of creatures the commotion he caused would attract. In the original games, Alatreon would actively set out to seek Safi'jiiva, suggesting a hostile relationship. What about now?
The special elemental energy he possessed was derived directly from the Safi'jiiva lineage. Would Alatreon react to such a massive concentration of bio-energy in this sea?
What if Alatreon came knocking on his door before his final evolution was complete?
According to his past style of doing things, Asterion would have preferred to handle business quietly, only appearing before the other dragons as a Forbidden Species afterward to blow everyone away—but there was no choice. Time was tight, and the task was monumental.
Once an Elder Dragon completely lost its vital signs, whether it died of natural old age or was violently ended by another Elder Dragon in a tragic battle, the massive life energy originally bound by its consciousness and flesh would pour out like a bursting dam, ultimately dissipating and returning to the natural veins of the earth.
The only difference between the two methods of death lay in the fact that when an Elder Dragon died of natural old age, its bodily functions had already severely degenerated, leaving it unable to effectively control the terrifying life energy it had accumulated over centuries.
Just like the old Kushala Daora that Asterion had encountered years ago, fading away all alone in the Rotten Vale while watching itself step into death—the process was relatively gradual, painful, and irreversible.
The way the Zorah Magdaros died now was precisely what Asterion had to do, yet found a bit hard to accept. The moment he mobilized his internal bio-energy to violently destroy the Zorah Magdaros's central nervous system, the ancient and massive Elder Dragon suffered instantaneous brain death.
And without the conscious, active control of the Zorah Magdaros, its ocean-like, vast life energy instantly lost its shackles and began to escape frantically into the outside world.
Asterion hadn't expended so much bio-energy to hunt the Zorah Magdaros just to give back to nature. He certainly couldn't watch the very energy capable of fueling his ultimate metamorphosis slip away from his mouth. Thus, he released a massive amount of bio-energy, turning it into layers of crystals that completely wrapped the Zorah Magdaros's corpse inside and out, forming an airtight, giant cocoon.
These crystals were not only siphoning conduits but also an insulating layer to prevent energy leakage. He needed to minimize the lost energy as much as possible.
This posture of spinning a cocoon around himself was identical to the Xeno'jiiva that had once gestated deep within the Confluence of Fates. Still perched on the Zorah Magdaros's skull, Asterion was situated at the exact center of this giant cocoon; the entire corpse of the Zorah Magdaros was his personal Confluence of Fates.
At this moment, if any bold human or aquatic monster dared to risk diving into these waters, their jaws would drop in shock at the spectacular sight before them—a crystal-clear, intricately structured, towering mountain range had appeared out of nowhere on the seabed, which should have been devoid of light.
This crystal mountain was constantly emitting high-frequency, flashing blue-white radiance. The light pierced through the turbid seawater, reflecting from the deepest sea floor all the way to the surface near the sky, illuminating everything within several hundred nautical miles.
A crystal palace.
Anyone who knew their stuff would make such an assessment.
This light wasn't as piercingly hot as the midday sun; instead, it was quite cold and clear, as if a ghostly blue full moon had suddenly risen from the bottom of the ocean, lighting up the adjacent seawater clearly and dyeing every ripple with a touch of eerie blue.
Aside from being spectacular and bright, the other impression this sea area gave living creatures was emptiness.
It could even be described as a dead silence. With this crystal mountain radiating bio-energy at the epicenter, not a single sign of life could be seen in any water illuminated by the glow.
There were no schools of large fish traveling together, nor any small fish drifting with the current. Even the carrion worms—which possessed extremely resilient vitality and always swarmed the skeletons of large monsters on the seabed to feed on scraps—had vanished without a trace.
Not to mention the Leviathans at the top of the marine food chain; their perception of danger was far more acute. Long before this crystal mountain formed, they had already fled far from this sea, leaving the area so empty it was hair-raising, as if the seawater itself had lost its vitality.
Time flowed by without any rush. Asterion admitted there was a gambling element to his behavior, but what relieved him was that, at least so far, no Alatreon had suddenly come knocking on his cocoon door.
Under this bizarre sense of security, Asterion, inside the crystal cocoon, fell into a hazy state of slumber. His perception of the outside environment was compressed to the absolute limit, retaining only the most basic neural reflexes against fatal danger.
The crystal filaments connecting the cocoon like a spider's web weren't actually solid; they were hollow inside with extremely thin walls, continuously channeling the pure oxygen necessary for survival from above the sea surface into the cocoon, maintaining Asterion's basal metabolism.
By now, after roughly a week or more of energy extraction, the crystal mountain standing on the seabed could no longer be seen in the original shape of the Zorah Magdaros. Its current appearance resembled a mountain range naturally formed by tens of millions of years of crustal movement on the ocean floor, its surface covered with sharp crystal clusters and bottomless trenches of energy.
Following the rhythm of Asterion's breathing, the entire crystal mountain continuously pulsed with a bright and dim light, as if this mountain range composed of energy possessed a life of its own.
Asterion had officially begun the final metamorphosis of his life form. Everything was progressing as perfectly as he had previously deduced. This Zorah Magdaros, which had lived for a solid four to five hundred years and continuously absorbed the natural veins of the earth, possessed an unimaginably massive amount of accumulated life energy. It was fully capable of supporting the thorough maturation of his internal thermal organ, which had always been in a state of hunger.
In his slumber, Asterion could clearly perceive the earth-shattering changes occurring within his internal thermal organ through introspection. As the pure life energy of the Zorah Magdaros surged in like a bursting river, the organ that had always demanded energy like a bottomless pit was becoming satiated.
Both its structure and properties were gradually differing from the past, as if it were transforming into a completely new organ.
Not only that, but the drastic changes extended far beyond the internal thermal organ itself. The wash of life energy was all-encompassing. As the internal thermal organ underwent a reaction from quantitative to qualitative change under the high pressure of energy bit by bit, Asterion's entire skeleton, muscles, scales, shell, and even his blood were being cleansed and reorganized by this massive energy.
Evolution!
This wasn't an evolution Asterion was forcing through subjective consciousness; rather, it was a genetic-level optimization naturally unlocked by this highly potential body after obtaining sufficient nourishment.
Just like the evolution that had naturally occurred when Asterion was in the Everstream, everything about his body was being optimized, transforming into the shape most suited for his current state, allowing one unit of strength to exert not just one unit of power, but even two.
And during this process, the internal thermal organ completely replaced the flame organ as the core of Asterion's physical body, but the flame organ and the flame properties weren't discarded. Instead, they were retained to serve as another combat mode.
Under the continuous compression and accumulation of the massive life energy, the temperature and energy density at the very center of the internal thermal organ had reached a point that would terrify ordinary monsters. Deep within this organ emitting a powerful, ghostly blue light, a brand-new Wyvern Gem—radiating a pressure that made other dragons tremble—was slowly crystalizing into form.
Asterion was clearly aware of this fact. The moment this new Wyvern Gem completely took shape and stabilized, his internal thermal organ would truly transform into a perpetual motion engine that didn't rely on external replenishment.
And at that exact moment, he would truly shed his status as an Elder Dragon, no longer just considering himself a match for a Forbidden Species, but crossing the chasm of species and ecological boundaries to truly rank among the Forbidden Species!
An Elder Dragon in the midst of evolution.
Meanwhile, in the southeastern part of the Wildspire Waste, on a barren cliff where almost no vegetation could be seen, the Guild's hunters had established a temporary research camp with an open view.
No smiles could be seen on the faces of the people busy in the camp. Everyone was filled with a sense of urgency and duty. Various observation instruments were scattered across the camp and the edges of the cliff, and there was always someone stationed toward the direction of the sea, observing from morning till night.
"Has the Azure Star Dragon still not appeared?" Accompanied by heavy footsteps, the Admiral's burly frame walked all the way up to the Commander's side as he asked.
"Here, see for yourself." Without turning around, the Commander casually handed his telescope, retrofitted with a high-magnification lens, to the Admiral, while he himself merely stood sideways, his gaze still locked onto the distance.
"So mysterious?" Chuckling twice, the Admiral took the telescope, smoothly adjusted the focus, and observed the breathtaking, crystalized giant tree on the distant sea surface through the lens.
In that vast expanse of blue water, where normally only waves rolled, a massive crystalline tree emitting a blue-white ghostly glow stood out abruptly. It was impossible to miss.
In the limited perspective presented by the telescope, due to the extreme distance, this giant tree didn't look particularly massive, appearing like a stalk of coral in a fish tank. However, the Admiral knew very well in his heart that this was merely an illusion caused by the distance.
A few days ago, after the hunters stationed at Astera discovered the tracks of the lead Bazelgeuse and tracked him all the way, they had discovered that massive pillar made of bio-energy crystals. The Admiral had personally led an elite squad by boat to that sea area.
Even if the vessel they were on at the time wasn't one of the Guild's main-class large sailing ships, it was at least a medium-sized ship capable of weathering waves. Yet, when that ship actually drew close to the crystal pillar, the entire vessel was as minuscule before it as a leaf floating beside a tree trunk.
If the hunters on the ship wanted to see the top of the pillar, they literally had to tilt their heads completely back. Even so, their vision would be obstructed by the massive, protruding crystal clusters.
Yes, in the beginning, the hunters had referred to it as a "pillar"—when that creation, completely shaped by bio-energy crystals, first broke through the sea, it didn't possess the complex, tree-like appearance it had now. Instead, it was a thick, sturdy pillar growing savagely toward the sky with unbridled momentum.
Because the energy radiation of the surrounding seawater was extremely high, coupled with unknown risks, the hunters simply couldn't see the massive foundation hidden beneath the water, nor did they dare to rashly dive into the water to investigate.
In the end, they could only anchor the ship outside the safety distance, relying on various observation equipment to watch day and night without stopping.
Just like that, they watched with their own eyes as this crystalized pillar seemed to gain life. Over the next few days, its surface continuously swelled and ruptured, growing countless branching, giant crystal clusters. These clusters further extended and intertwined outward, ultimately evolving into the ancient, giant tree-like appearance it had now.
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