Under the Red Dragon

In the long run, the universe will eventually head towards heat death!

Everything, in its ordered state, tends towards a final, brief but inevitable disorder. This is the ultimate annihilation that even deities with great divine power cannot prevent.

Eventually, everything will end; it's only a matter of time. Therefore, the meaning of life is the journey itself.

Kalor remained motionless, his immense dragon body like a stone that had been lying dormant for millennia. The rhythm of his two hearts slowed to almost nothing until, after a long time, the sound of life pulsed forth.

It was as if the pulse of this ancient red dragon's life itself was approaching the pulse of the entire world.

The ancient red dragon's head rested on his coiled tail. On his closed eyelids, the bright red, fine scales shimmered with various colors, reacting to the surrounding environment.

His entire body, covered in bright red scales, flowed and pulsed spontaneously, like a living suit of armor.

It was as if this red dragon's very existence spontaneously absorbed the different radiation waves around him: the sun's light waves, the earth's magnetic field undulations, and the magnetic field of living beings and plants.

His own fluctuations were in harmony with everything in the world around him, constantly fluctuating.

But in the eyes of other people and dragons, the ancient red dragon's aura remained consistent because it was impossible to fathom.

Profound as the sea, coexisting with all things in heaven and earth, coexisting with elemental magic, existing in their eyes but not in their perception.

His spirit roamed in the oceanic plane of laws that created the world, and a natural feeling burst forth from his heart.

A true dragon should stay where there are no ceilings.

Without self-imposed limits, ignoring the shackles of others, and not dwelling under the dome of the plane world.

The confinement of the evil dragon bloodline is just an insignificant obstacle on the road ahead.

From his earliest days, Kalor had been moving in his own direction. His weakness was killed by himself, his laziness was extinguished by himself, and his desires were also controlled by himself.

But that doesn't mean that this ancient red dragon is like those who single-mindedly seek the Way and see nothing else.

Kalor was also experiencing the scenery around him, the things and beings he encountered on his journey.

The empire he created served him, served the dragonkin, and served his goals. But when he had the strength to spare, he also hoped that his empire would become better and that the people of the empire would have a better life.

The dragonkin would break free from the confusion of bestiality and evil blood and no longer be like wild beasts.

He was also willing to lead the entire dragon race out of such a predicament.

Perhaps this was the idea contained in the souls of those who once lived in the land of the red sun: to cultivate one's own virtue in poverty, and to benefit the world in prosperity.

Because Kalor was now a dragon, the dragon race was the foundation of his race and civilization. At least in this regard, he felt that he had never been unworthy of the title of Dragon Emperor.

Perhaps this was also why Kalor was reborn as a red dragon and not another colored dragon.

But now, all the goals and thoughts in his mind were forgotten by this ancient red dragon.

Kalor forgot his instinct as an ancient red dragon, forgot the existence of his body, and also forgot the understanding of all power that was deeply rooted in his instinct.

He even forgot to rely on his subjective mental power to consume his own mana and power to leverage the rules of the world, thereby triggering the energy operation laws under the rules of the world to release the effects of spells.

Taking advantage of the World Tree's opportunity to take root in the origin of the plane, Kalor wanted to touch the rules that constituted the plane world, but what he ushered in was the baptism and impact of the historical torrent of the world's birth.

The memory of this world from the beginning of its birth was displayed like a historical phantom.

Although these historical phantoms were like slides played in Kalor's mind, they also allowed the ancient red dragon to deeply feel the eternal loneliness. In the passage of time, all the desolation was deposited.

All the activities of living beings in the world were like fleeting phantoms in the eyes of the world, which stood still and existed forever.

It seemed that the world itself was also watching the myriad forms of life, joys, and sorrows in the mortal world for thousands of years.

"Perhaps after thousands of years, I will be like the world under my feet, standing still, with a detached and peaceful view of everything," the ancient red dragon couldn't help but think.

No matter how firm the will, no matter how unforgettable the emotion, can it still maintain its original appearance under the scouring of infinite time?

All ambitions, all feelings, after the seas have dried up and the rocks have crumbled, and the vicissitudes of life, may no longer be important.

"Then, how do those gods who are almost incarnate rules cope with this grinding of time?"

"Or are the divine functions controlled by those gods high on the astral throne contain their secrets?"

A few ripples flashed through Kalor's mind. Even immersed in such indifference, his brain was still instinctively and tirelessly thinking.

Although Kalor didn't like the interference of the evil dragon's blood on his own independent will, he didn't regard the evil dragon's blood as something that should be discarded. Instead, he regarded the evil dragon's blood as everything that belonged to him.

It was also under this circumstance that the poison and chaos of the evil dragon's blood were instead controlled by the ancient red dragon and became one of his strengths.

However, the violence and poison contained in the evil dragon's blood itself, or rather, the initial ignorant bestiality, was carried by Kalor's dragonkin form aspects.

Because of special circumstances, these aspects were in a state of multiple-in-one with Kalor himself. Therefore, just like the contents of different disks in a computer, they could not affect the operation of Kalor's computer itself, but could be mobilized at any time when needed.

However, even the intense evil blood like that of the ancient red dragon could not maintain its appearance forever in the torrent of time phantoms and returned to calmness.

Just like those dragons who had passed through the ancient dragon and ancient dragon periods, they could also abandon the interference of the evil dragon's blood and choose to have a rational and clear wisdom.

Those ancient dragons, creatures as powerful as gods walking in the plane, had their dragon blood tamed by the long years.

And those gods, some of whom existed in the universe from the beginning of the world, witnessing the opening and decline of the world, experienced a time that was thousands of times longer than that of ancient dragons.

But these gods, although rarely descending into the world, all had distinct human qualities in legends and stories, whether it was greed, cunning, or evil.

"Perhaps their own most intense desires and emotions are solidified and wrapped, fixed in the divine functions of these gods, in order to maintain their independent feelings from being eroded by rules and time, just like Tiamat after immortality,"

"His divine function contains greed, which is the most characteristic emotional toxin of dragons themselves. If this is the case, it is not difficult to understand that those gods are particularly paranoid in dealing with certain things, to the point of appearing quite stupid."

The ancient red dragon's aura, which was thinking, seemed to be fluctuating with his thoughts, allowing the surrounding dragonkin to also feel the change in Kalor's aura. This aura brought an unspeakable feeling to the dragons.

Just like the magic dragon knights and other legion warriors saw the dragons standing majestically between the white bone hills, with divinity and bestiality coexisting.

In the pupils of these dragons, the ancient red dragon also seemed to be shrouded in a divine aura.

"Some wise men among mortals once said that the higher the wisdom, the closer one gets to the realm of divinity, because high wisdom can allow people to see the world clearly, have absolutely rational thinking, see through the interference of all emotional feelings, and abandon all desires, just like a thinking machine in another universe,"

The white dragon Germot stretched his head in front of the ancient red dragon and exclaimed in surprise, "Kalor won't choose to embark on this path, will he? Then will Kalor be a dragon or a machine in the name of a dragon in the future?"

The sixteen-meter-long juvenile white dragon was much smarter than his brothers, especially now that he had completely controlled the dragon blood and possessed autonomous wisdom and consciousness.

"Impossible,"

The blue dragon Dos shook his head, with lightning patterns and thunder spots entwined on his huge horn. He showed his fangs and said in a low voice, "Kalor won't choose this path. Although the empire is his tool, it is now also a kind of bond for him. The empire and the dragonkin are his emotional anchors. He won't give us up."

The blue dragon Dos's voice was like persuading the white dragon Germot and comforting his own somewhat frightened heart.

The Hogmora dragonkin had rare emotions and bonds among the evil dragons. These dragons were already an inseparable part of the family.

The green dragon Antagena's beautiful emerald-like pupils shone brightly. She laughed softly, using her talent for bewitchment for the first time to comfort the dragons who were beginning to worry.

"For most dragons, the road in front of them is straight and wide, and they only need to bury their heads and move forward all the way, but they only have one road to advance on,"

"But for dragons like Kalor, it's much more difficult," the green dragon laughed, "because there are countless straight and wide roads waiting for his choice. Kalor will only choose the road he wants to take and walk to the end."

These dragons' discussions were not heard by Kalor, who was immersed in the oceanic origin of the plane.

Although these dragons did guess Kalor's state at a certain period of time. Under this wisdom's contact with the plane rules and full operation, Kalor was extremely close to the realm of divinity.

And with this, he could understand the rules of some gods by inferring the whole from the part, through the changes in the ancient dragon blood and his own will and spirit within his body.

However, Kalor's own overly strong subjective will quickly withdrew from the influence of this time phantom's scouring and began to enter an active state from a passive state.

Taking advantage of the World Tree's special talent, the ancient red dragon's spirit was able to temporarily roam in the plane's origin ocean, just like the gathering of countless rules in the void settled under the ocean formed by the power of origin.

Those colorless, immaterial, shapeless, and bodiless plane origins manifested into concrete energy, and every strand of energy contained the power of plane rules.

However, these plane rules were complete wholes. Even the ancient red dragon with absolute computing power needed to find the corresponding rules from his own understanding, from the essence of spells, in these plane rule wholes, and could not directly calculate and observe.

So on the ancient red dragon's body in the outside world, the mana weavings and light bands formed by magic runes began to flow.

The 89,317 magic runes mastered by the ancient red dragon intertwined and transformed into various spell models under his will, hooking the revealed laws of this world to trigger the effects of magic.

The transformation of this mana weaving and rune light band was so rapid and complete that the spell manifestation effects around the ancient red dragon were different in the eyes of each dragon. They could only observe the knowledge that they understood and mastered.

The female red dragon Kleinaiya saw magic about fire, changing constantly in her eyes. Those flames flickered and jumped on the ancient red dragon's body, sometimes bright and sometimes dim, with alternating bright and dark areas, like the transformation of dawn and dusk.

In these flame rune weavings, from cantrips to ninth-level spells, from low-level fire control spells to high-level cloud burning spells, any magic about the fire attribute could find the corresponding model in it, allowing Kleinaiya to enter a state of learning for a time.

The two white dragons saw knowledge and insights about ice spells and specific spell models, from the entry-level mage cantrip of freezing touch to mid- and high-level ice spells.

Among them, the white dragon lord Germot also understood some other knowledge, such as anti-magic fields and phantom dragons, such strange spells.

The two blue dragons saw the perception and application of thunder and lightning, as well as some manipulation techniques, in the magic weavings on the surface of the ancient red dragon's body.

Such as chain lightning and weather manipulation, as well as knowledge on how to use to construct electromagnetic fields and accelerate with electromagnetic fields.

The green dragon Antagena excitedly approached the ancient red dragon's body. Although the green dragon, who had grown to sixteen meters long, was already a leader among the green dragon species, she was like a pilgrim watching a sculpture in front of the ancient red dragon's body.

But what the green dragon Antagena saw was not any powerful spells, but some spells that had been studied by the ancient red dragon and left behind in his mind, such as sweet talk, mind control, telepathy, and feeblemind, such strange things.

And what the black dragon lord Rosani saw was the ancient red dragon's techniques for controlling the earth domain and related spells, as well as research on the bones of the legendary demon Sacres, the rule runes engraved on the demon's bones.

These dragons were all immersed in the tip of the iceberg inadvertently revealed by the ancient red dragon, but not a single dragon could realize one thing.

The rune weaving on Kalor's body, each time it outlined the corresponding spell model, immediately stopped before triggering the corresponding spell effect and did not cause the power that the magic effect should have produced. What a terrifying understanding and control this was.

Now, the vast majority of casters, in front of this ancient red dragon, even if they were of the same magnitude as him or even several magnitudes higher, could not maintain the advantages that a mage should have.

Those powerful techniques and secrets that mages focus on, such as spell intensification and spell maximization, are nothing more than readily available, playhouse-like techniques in front of Kalor.

Because the essence of these techniques is to outline the spell model, trigger the effect of the spell, enhance the power of the magic effect, thereby enhancing the power of the spell.

However, an Ancient Red Dragon can directly manipulate the effects of magic at the very core of its creation. If Caron wished, he could even use his powerful mental strength to define the threshold of magical effects produced by each spell he knows.

In simpler terms, Caron could make a cantrip explode with power far exceeding its rank, or completely dissolve the magical effect of a ninth-level spell, much like certain silenced spells. The difference is that Caron achieves this by suppressing the threshold at which the magical effect manifests.

With such a reference point, and with the rapid calculations of two brains, Caron quickly located the corresponding rules and essence behind the spells he knew within the densely woven fabric of the plane's origin.

With these thread-like traces, Caron could begin to unravel what he wanted to do from the beginning.

Without the medium of spells and magical knowledge, even the brain of an Ancient Red Dragon after evolution would find it difficult to directly understand the rules of the plane, but fortunately, Caron's intention was not there.

The Ancient Red Dragon took advantage of this rare opportunity to deduce and calculate his future path, the path to ascending to Legend, and the Law of Legendary Destiny.

Those rules could not be grasped and quickly learned by the Ancient Red Dragon, but in Caron's immense calculation power, the existence of these rules, as already established quantities, were added to Caron's calculated future model, cooperating with his understanding of the powers and related rules he possessed, to deduce and calculate his path.

He comprehended from the Legendary Demon Sacreless the method of gathering the masses to define the path he wanted to pursue.

The fixed and variable quantities of earth and metal, thunder and fire, and the authority of storms that Caron would master in the future, were added to the calculation of the model.

Earth, water, wind, fire, and void evolved, forming the foundation of the world. The five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth served as the pillars of the world's birth. The four fundamental forces of the universe served as the world's body.

And the fixed and variable quantities of the laws that constructed the origin of this plane world flowed rapidly, ultimately constructing a solid world system, sufficient to encompass a vast amount of laws.

Just like the Demon Kingdom of the Legendary Demon Sacreless, which condensed the power of the origins of thousands of demon lords.

But soon, Caron frowned.

Because according to his method of constructing his own cognitive and law system in the manner of the Legendary Demon Sacreless, even if it could be created successfully, a single world would be difficult to bear all the laws.

Just like in the universe, there are not only various orderly prime material planes, but also chaotic abyss planes, shadow planes, and the evil Nine Hells planes. The underlying rules of these planes are not entirely the same, but undoubtedly, they all have their own rules to support them.

If he were to follow the Legendary Demon Sacreless to complete Caron's own ideas, it would be tantamount to fantasy, a thousand times more difficult than Sacreless's pursuit of the laws of chaos.

Only by constructing the entire universe could he probably bear Caron's goal of encompassing all laws.

"Wrong, the direction is wrong,"

Caron murmured to himself in a low voice. In that instant, he abandoned the idea, and his consciousness retreated from the ocean of the plane's origin back into his body.

"This is the path of the Legendary Demon Sacreless, not my path. So, constructing a basic law world, and then slowly filling it with the path of gathering the masses, pursuing the path of accommodating all laws, is fundamentally wrong."

"The path of others is just a reference. I must have my own path,"

"I must realize whether such a law exists in the world, a Dao that contains all laws. If it does not exist, can it be created."

Caron raised his huge head, his six dragon horns like an emperor's crown, a true dragon's scepter, and countless information and flashes of wisdom flowed in his silent pupils.

"But regardless of whether this law exists, I must first have the concept and belief of this law before I can move forward along this path. Sacreless seeks his own path by gathering the masses,"

"While I explore my future by enumeration. All knowledge and foundation will form that uncertain concept under my conceptual framework, and then form my own Law of Destiny."

The Ancient Red Dragon's fangs were bared, and a hideous smile began to appear on his face.

"Perhaps, the Legendary Law of Destiny is condensed into one's own rules in this way, so that one can have the power to break through the barriers of fate, and the more powerful ones create their own laws, creating their own ideas, forming true laws."

"This may be the difference between a true Legend and those quantity-level Legends!"

The Ancient Red Dragon's laughter echoed under the World Tree, and the bright scales on his body reflected the light of radiation waves, like the rising sun, and the great path shone brightly.

"I think I have found my way, but how can I condense my own ideas to form a substantial concept? Even with my spirit so powerful, I am still a bit clueless."

"It seems that no matter which path I take, power is ultimately just a means and a tool, and magic is just my tool, a tool for me to see the essence of the world and see myself clearly."

"Just as magic should not be judged by its power, but by the wisdom behind creating it. The wisdom behind the birth of magic is a tool for seeing the essence of the world, and ultimately it must lead to the path of recognizing the world and recognizing oneself."

"Using infinite wisdom as nourishment, using infinite knowledge as a ladder, enumerating countless possibilities, this is my legendary path." Caron suddenly sighed, "Although ascending to Legend is already within reach, traceable, the path above Legend is endless, and I will always climb."

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