Dark clouds loomed, casting a shadow over the vast, boundless sea.
Amidst the rolling thunder, torrential rain poured down, turning drops into lines that swayed and fluttered in the wind.
Thud, thud, thud. Countless raindrops fell from the sky, splashing like scattered flowers from the heavens upon the sea, creating myriad ripples. Under the storm and fierce winds, the once calm sea surface now bore heavy waves and swells.
In such stormy weather, a colossal silver dragon sped through the rain.
The massive body parted the curtain of rain, creating a clear passage through the air, highly visible.
High above, the colossal silver dragon paused momentarily, gazing downward.
Nehemiah's gaze shifted, quietly observing the vast, rain-drenched ocean, silent, his mood as somber as the clouds above.
"Dragon Tomb."
Nehemiah's gaze fixed on a certain part of the ocean.
There lay an isolated island.
Amidst the open sea, the island was like a boat swaying in the storm, inconspicuous.
But few knew that beneath that island lay the tomb of the metal dragon race.
The Metal Dragon Island stood above the ocean, where true dragons of the metal dragon race, upon nearing death, would take their treasures into the Dragon Tomb, selecting a realm within to enter eternal rest alongside their cherished hoard.
The Dragon Tomb was not close to Dragon Island.
Nehemiah looked up, watching the sky filled with dark clouds, where silver lightning danced and thunder roared.
The colossal silver dragon hovered in the air for a moment, then spiraled down towards the isolated island, plunging into the ocean amidst waves dozens of meters high stirred by its body, disappearing from sight.
The storm did not abate, nor did the thunder cease.
Shortly after Nehemiah entered the ocean, a slight disturbance rippled through a certain part of the rain curtain.
"The Primal Sun God watches over me."
Elyna's eyes gleamed with joy, looking towards the direction Nehemiah had left.
She followed Nehemiah, using her powerful illusion to blend perfectly with the surroundings, undetected by Nehemiah, arriving here.
Elyna's initial interest in Nehemiah was because she needed a powerful legendary creature as a sacrifice.
Nehemiah, as an ancient silver dragon, undoubtedly met her criteria.
But Nehemiah was too strong, and although Elyna had also ascended to legendary status and enjoyed the favor of the Primal Sun God, she still lacked confidence in taking down Nehemiah alone.
Her plan was to follow Nehemiah.
To ascertain the location of his dragon lair.
Then, when Nehemiah was resting, Elyna would set up an array around him, trying to take the opportunity to ambush him.
However, Elyna did not expect Nehemiah to be nearing the end of his lifespan, coming to the Dragon Tomb.
Before this, Elyna had followed Nehemiah to his dragon lair, but Nehemiah did not stay there. After taking his treasures, he left directly, without any reluctance.
Seeing the island, Elyna felt as if she saw countless dragon phantoms sinking and floating below.
Considering Nehemiah's strange actions.
She realized what this place was.
"Dragon Tomb, burying countless bodies of the metal dragon race."
Those buried in the Dragon Tomb were mostly dragons at the end of their lifespan, who would take their treasures to the tomb when they knew their days were numbered. Such dragons were at least old.
This meant a large number of legendary true dragon corpses lay here.
Elyna did not follow into the Dragon Tomb.
She saw countless spells arranged around this area of the sea. If she rashly intruded, it would easily alert the other party, putting her in danger.
The metal dragon race took the protection of the Dragon Tomb very seriously.
Not just the surrounding sea, but within the Dragon Tomb itself, there were guardian dragons.
Throughout history, numerous beings that found the Dragon Tomb, whether intentionally or accidentally, coveted the treasure and dared to invade, ended up as bones in this sea, never to emerge.
This place could be considered one of the most dangerous forbidden lands on the Noah continent.
Elyna knew she needed to wait patiently and make a series of preparations before she could truly attempt to steal the true dragon corpses.
"If I invade the Dragon Tomb, stealing the corpses of the metal dragon race, once discovered, the Metal Dragon God will not sit idly by."
Elyna narrowed her eyes.
Provoking both the Metal Dragon God and the God of Light was not a good idea.
"Still, we must wait until the Dark Light Seal Array is fully arranged before acting."
Gods are not omnipotent.
Their gaze and perception cannot cover all of the prime material world.
The Dark Light of the Primal Sun God can attach to the planar barrier, blocking the gods' gaze and perception, preventing them from hearing their followers' prayers and responding, while also anchoring space, preventing creatures from using planar teleportation to escape.
The Primal Sun God has corrupted more than one prime material world.
Extending its tentacles into the prime material world, then through its minions arranging the Dark Light Seal, blocking the gods' perception before incarnating and descending, sweeping the plane with the force of a thunderstorm. By the time the gods notice something is wrong, it's too late to turn back.
The prime material world is infinite, and gods generally won't waste their power on worlds already corrupted.
Moreover, the Primal Sun God is not an ordinary wild god.
Or rather, none of the primal wild gods that have survived since the birth of the universe are easy to provoke, whether it's the Primal Sun God, the Dark Night Giant Serpent, or other hidden wild gods.
After noting the location of the Dragon Tomb, Elyna did not linger.
The black eyes she branded on the earth earlier were the Dark Light Seals.
This kind of planar sealing magic isn't easy to deploy.
Every hundred miles, a sealing node needs to be branded. When the range affected by the sealing nodes covers the entire Noah continent, that's when the Dark Light Seal activates, blocking the gods' perception. That's also when the Primal Sun God descends, covering the land with His light.
The Noah continent is not large.
But it's still a part of the prime material world, not small by any means. Even without any obstacles, setting up sealing nodes takes time.
"The Holy Church has never let down its guard; I can't develop other followers."
Elyna decided to act alone.
Letting others arrange the sealing nodes wasn't reliable. Instead of alarming the Holy Church and attracting their attention, it was better to act independently. It just meant spending more energy, walking the entire Noah continent alone. With her speed, it actually wouldn't take long.
The Dark Light is a divine-like power of the Primal Sun God, only affected by other divine-like or transcendent divine powers.
Once she successfully arranges it, it will be very difficult to detect or break.
For this, Elyna had ample patience.
"The light of the Primal Sun will eventually descend upon the earth, covering all things."
In the blink of an eye, more than a year passed.
The northern ice plains experienced a period of midnight sun and now returned to polar night, the sky shrouded in darkness, without a sliver of sunlight.
Garon woke from a brief sleep, observing himself for a moment before shaking his head slightly.
He found his growth rate somewhat unsatisfactory.
After the barbaric growth of his dragonling stage, without treasures like dragon soul stones and life gems, Garon's growth rate noticeably slowed down. Over the past year, his body only grew by about two meters.
A giant dragon of about thirty-one meters in length grew to thirty-three meters after a year, its body slightly expanded.
This rate of growth would be ecstatic for other dragons.
But for Garon, it was less than satisfactory.
"I wish I had another life gem."
Garon found himself missing the effects of the life gem.
Eating a life gem was like ingesting miraculous fertilizer, causing his body to grow uncontrollably.
Unfortunately, such treasures are not easily obtained.
Shifting his gaze, in the dragon lair filled with shining gold, gems, coins, magical items, and other treasures, Garon noticed a small bulge.
A pair of dragon horns peeked out.
That was Yuna's dragon horns.
She buried herself in the mountain of treasures to sleep, unwilling to wake.
In the time Garon knew Yuna, she spent ninety-nine percent of her time sleeping, a true somnolent dragon. Over this year, Yuna also grew, but her rate was slower than Garon's.
She is now thirty-six meters long, growing about a meter, still significantly larger than Garon.
Slightly slower than Garon, but still a growth rate that would be envied by ordinary true dragons.
"I'm now exactly six years old, officially leaving the dragonling stage and becoming a young dragon."
Garon stretched his body, clenching his dragon claws.
Rolling dragon blood flowed through his body to his limbs, bringing a continuous sense of power.
Unfortunately, this natural growth did not bring new time-related magical abilities to Garon. Because he focused on researching cross-temporal teleportation, he did not explore new uses for the power of time.
Besides, Garon also learned the eighth-circle spells mastered by Krechens.
Thus, the magical knowledge of two high-level spellcasters was thoroughly exhausted by Garon, unable to provide further assistance.
After more than a year of multiple attempts, Garon made some progress in cross-temporal teleportation.
He combined the magical runes of planar teleportation and gradually figured out runes that could stabilize time vortices. With the intertwining of force and time power, the time vortex can now be stabilized to about ten meters.
It could even be said that cross-temporal teleportation was essentially complete. The only limitation now was Garon's insufficient time power.
Even with the catalysis of force, it was still not enough to open a time vortex large enough for him to pass through.
Garon considered using transmutation magic to shrink himself, then pass through the time vortex.
But once he used transmutation magic, the time vortex also shrank, not giving Garon any leeway.
"Based on my current growth rate, it will take at least a few more years to gain enough time power."
"Maybe, even until the juvenile dragon stage."
At six years old, he is in the young dragon stage.
Unlike the five-year dragonling stage, the young dragon stage lasts nine years.
Over fifteen years old, one is considered a juvenile dragon. Yuna is now eighteen, still in the juvenile dragon stage.
Garon and Yuna's age difference is twelve years, which is actually very small for dragons. Now they are in different age groups, but in another decade or two, when Yuna reaches the adolescent dragon stage without entering the next phase, Garon will also be an adolescent dragon.
As for the changes on the Noah continent over the year, Garon didn't know much.
However, since Krechens and Fred occasionally visited human society, Garon had a general understanding. Since the Holy Church purged the Bone Wasteland and cleared the minions of the Primal Sun God there, the Holy Church hasn't made significant moves.
However, paladins and priests often leave the temples, searching for evil with greater vigor than before.
Evil creatures on the Noah continent thus deeply loathed the Holy Church.
And the Primal Sun God seemed to have quieted down as well.
A year wasn't enough for human kingdoms to recover.
Without new conflicts or the mischief of evil gods, the Noah continent was generally calm and uneventful.
But Garon didn't believe a wild god would give up on this world after a single setback.
The Holy Church also didn't believe it, so the temples were empty, with clergy almost all outside.
The Primal Sun God lying dormant, like the calm before a storm, made the Holy Church even more anxious. They never let down their guard, constantly searching for traces of the Primal Sun God, but without success.
The Stone Tomb Serpent also didn't die in the conflict between the Holy Church and the undead.
Garon found through time marks that the creature left the Bone Wasteland and roamed the world, seemingly looking for another habitat like the Bone Wasteland. It even visited the northern ice plains once but didn't seek an audience with Garon.
Garon didn't demean himself to seek it out alone.
For Garon, he had no particular connection with the Stone Tomb Serpent. Leaving a time mark was just a casual act, so he naturally wouldn't spend much thought on it. Moreover, because of the Dark Night Giant Serpent, Garon didn't want to have too much contact with serpent dragons, having one Cold Forest Serpent Dragon was enough.
Not wanting to disturb Yuna.
Garon left the dragon lair.
The silver dragon soared under the night sky of the northern ice plains, the light of stars and the moon obscured by dragon wings, casting a massive shadow on the pristine world below, startling numerous ice plain creatures.
When passing a snow-capped peak, Garon stopped.
His wings folded, he landed on the snow mountain, claws gripping the rugged, cold rock.
There hadn't been a blizzard recently, but the mountain was still covered in snow. Under the bright moonlight, it looked like sparkling silver dots, quite beautiful.
The northern ice plains under the night sky were more beautiful than during the midnight sun.
The occasional auroras at night were mesmerizing, not as spectacular during the midnight sun.
Garon didn't stop here because he was tired.
With his current stamina, daily activities wouldn't tire him at all.
His claw reached out, the front half disappearing into the air, entering a dimensional space.
Then, Garon pulled out a silver necklace from the dimensional space.
This necklace was a magical item.
It was plucked from that little girl, Lilith.
By injecting a small amount of magic into the necklace, it could form a spell shield that isolates harsh environments and resists flames and cold winds.
For lower-tier spellcasters, it's a very practical magical item. For mid-tier or higher, it's considered trivial.
Garon had many such magical items.
With his current strength, these trinkets naturally had no effect. Usually, they served as decorations among other treasures, enriching the landscape of his hoard.
Due to his increasingly ample wealth, Garon picked up a hobby.
He casually placed a time mark on the necklace and tucked it between two rocks, then flapped his wings and left.
Not just the snow mountain, Garon whimsically placed magical items in various locations like ice valleys, rivers, snow mounds, and even beyond the northern ice plains in the Dragonspine Mountains and unknown deep forests.
Besides trinkets like necklaces, Garon even took out Roshan's magical greatsword.
He stuck it into a rugged area in the Dragonspine Mountains, only leaving the hilt exposed.
Of course, this wasn't abandonment.
No true dragon would discard their collection, not even a seemingly insignificant silver coin.
Garon marked all the magical items he placed with his signature, deliberately creating different shapes to distinguish them from time marks placed on living beings.
Garon's collection was already ample.
So, one day, on a whim, he decided to disperse some of his unnecessary collections across various places, intending to use the sensation of time marks to retrieve them after a long time.
This idea and impulse had been with Garon for a long time.
But back then, he was too reluctant to part with his few treasures.
Now, however, he could.
Garon opened a portal to the Bone Wasteland.
The Bone Wasteland remained as always, shrouded in necrotic clouds blocking all light, the air dark and gloomy.
Driven by deathly aura, some bones started moving again. However, due to occasional purges by the Holy Church, not a single high-level undead emerged, mostly low-level undead. Because the danger significantly decreased, it became a target for many adventurers.
Garon concealed his form, also placing some magical items on the barren land of the Bone Wasteland.
After whimsically placing the magical items brought this time in different realms and environments, Garon opened a portal and returned satisfied to the fortress in the northern ice plains.
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