Haoyuan's gaze hardened.
Gritting his teeth, he desperately squeezed out every remaining shred of life force in his body, throwing caution to the wind as he resolutely charged toward the crater that painted the sky in a crimson glow.
His consciousness and body seemed to be tempered to their limits, condensing into a single needle that pierced forward with sharp, biting intensity.
Just as he was about to reach the volcanic crater, the wind pressure suddenly surged, burying him underneath it in an instant.
As the crater seemed to rise higher and higher, he gritted his teeth tightly. Energy Points poured out frantically, converting into Wind Grace as he flew toward the crater with all his might.
The next second, the wind pressure exploded. He slammed heavily onto the volcanic rock less than two meters away from the crater.
His sharp sickle claws shot out. Digging them firmly into the rock, he dragged himself up step by step.
A colossal shadow blanketed him, expanding rapidly.
Knowing he was out of time, Thunder surged violently from his entire body, and thick, savage bolts of lightning crashed down from his maw.
Crash! The rocks shattered, revealing a gap half a meter tall and four meters wide in front of him.
With his sickle claws gripping the ground tightly, he compressed his stout Kirin Arm and launched himself upward like a coiled spring.
Having flown barely over half a meter high, he was violently forced down. His body suddenly plummeted, slamming heavily onto the gap.
A terrifying wind pressure poured down violently, carrying with it the oppressive scent of storm clouds.
Haoyuan's eyes widened. He knew that the sky behemoth was already extremely close and was about to descend.
At the critical juncture, he kicked off hard with his hind legs while pulling himself forward with his forelimbs. Under the blowing of the violent wind pressure, he fell into the volcano's crater by the narrowest of margins.
Whoosh! Violent winds rushed into the volcanic crater like howling ghosts.
With the help of the powerful winds, Haoyuan plunged into the magma.
In that instant, the howling of the gale and the ghostly wailing faded into the distance.
The world suddenly grew much quieter, leaving only his own breathing and heartbeat.
Coming to his senses, Haoyuan realized his breathing was heavy and rapid, his heart pounding like a war drum.
“I... I survived.”
He could hardly believe it. In such a near-death situation, he had actually—
“I really survived.”
He muttered to himself with the sheer relief of a survivor. As he stared at the boiling, fiery-red pool of magma, his heartbeat and breathing gradually stabilized.
Right then, he saw the entire surface of the boiling, fiery-red magma suddenly darken.
His pupils contracted sharply.
Boom!
A massive dark shadow crashed down.
Haoyuan's breath hitched, his eyes wide open.
“Roar!”
The fiery-red surface of the magma exploded. A bloody maw lunged down violently, its gaping upper and lower jaws easily filling the entire width of the volcanic shaft.
“It's not even afraid of magma!”
With a loud crack, sharp, pointed teeth slammed together right in front of him. Haoyuan's scalp went numb as he finally snapped out of his suffocating shock, a hair-raising sense of danger surging within him.
Digging in with his four claws and whipping his tail, his body flipped as he swam down into the depths of the magma.
Behind him, the sky behemoth snapped its jaws, biting down viciously again and again. Its iron-like teeth clashed together as it roared in frustration.
Dragging his exhausted body and gritting his teeth, Haoyuan managed to swim dozens of meters away before he finally remembered to breathe. His heart hammered loudly like a heavy drum, echoing deafeningly within his ribcage.
However, before he could even catch his breath, the volcano shook violently.
A bolt of lightning struck down with terrifying speed, instantly filling the entire magma-filled shaft behind him.
Haoyuan's eyes widened.
The moment he turned his head, his body was enveloped and submerged in brilliant blue-white lightning.
Only then did the deafening, crackling thunder finally echo.
Rumble!
His scales were destroyed in an instant, and a destructive force pierced through his body.
Haoyuan could not describe the sensation he felt.
He only felt that everything seemed to have grown quiet.
There was no more need to exert all his strength, no more need to keep his mind taut. All his struggles, fear, desperation, and even meaning... none of it seemed to matter anymore.
Nothing mattered anymore.
In an instant, his heart stopped beating.
In his final moments, he saw the volcano crack open from the tremors. The upper layer of magma collapsed and fell. An incredibly massive figure leaned down, closing in on him, displaying... a smile.
Sharp, white teeth gleamed in a sinister overlap, accentuating that cruel grin.
Haoyuan watched this scene peacefully, his eyelids slowly drooping.
The magma beneath him architecture-shuddered violently, suddenly collapsing.
Just as his vision was about to fade completely, Haoyuan saw the behemoth's smile vanish as it frantically lunged down at him.
Unfortunately, the mountain was shaking too violently. The fissure expanded rapidly. Before the behemoth could even cover half the distance, the ground beneath collapsed, and it could only watch helplessly as Haoyuan plunged down along with the falling rocks and magma.
Haoyuan watched it quietly, letting out a smile right as his eyes closed.
Seeing his smile, the behemoth froze for a second before letting out a furious roar, driven to sheer madness.
...
A gentle breeze swept across the land, carrying the blood mist of living creatures as it drifted softly over the shattered stones and splintered trees.
A deathly silence hung in all directions.
There was no sign of life whatsoever.
Deep underground, a few rats woke up from their stupor. They looked around, waited for a long time, and then carefully crawled out to chew on tree roots.
In this purgatory, where every land-dwelling animal had been killed by the terrifying shockwave, they were likely the only survivors.
Not far from their burrow was a network of deep, bottomless fissures.
Beneath the massive fissures, the boiling, fiery-red magma bubbled.
Deep within the magma, amidst the dark, flowing subterranean veins, an even blacker, visibly charred, elongated creature drifted along with the current.
He drifted slowly like a lifeless object. Yet, at a certain moment, beneath this charred body, that dark-red heart suddenly gave a throb.
The charred, black body flowed along with the magma veins, eventually reaching the bottom of a volcano and slowly floating upward.
Upon reaching a certain depth, it came to a standstill.
Inside the charred body, the dark-red heart that had throbbed earlier suddenly pulsed once more. Its surface emitted a fiery-red glow as it began to beat slowly, one thump at a time.
Time flowed, and the years passed.
The dark-red heart had now turned completely fiery red. Each of its beats produced a low, rumbling sound like muffled thunder.
Pumping blood throughout the body, the internal organs also began to emit the same fiery-red glow, functioning powerfully and vigorously once more.
Meanwhile, on the surface of this charred body, the charcoal layer was slowly peeling off piece by piece, and tender, snow-white jade scales were gradually growing in.
Spring went and autumn came; the stars shifted.
The pitch-black charcoal had completely fallen off. Snow-white, jade-like scales wrapped around his entire body, a flowing mane and dorsal crests grew out, and his sharp sickle claws retracted back into his flesh.
The great white dragon's body began to move unconsciously, soon curling into a coil.
In this scorching volcano, he began his adaptive evolution.
The creatures on land iterated at a rapid pace.
More and more fascinating creatures stepped onto the stage.
As one dynasty collapsed, another immediately stepped in to take its place.
They thrived and flourished, and they encountered crises, struggling with all their might.
Generation after generation, the unyielding strength and resilience of life was passed down on Planet Aquablue's stage of ecological evolution.
Rate on N.U.
