Wind and snow swept across the vast sky of the Borderlands, deeply imprinting the chill on every inch of the land.
After a period of dedicated experimentation and careful understanding, Galos had essentially figured out the wondrous changes occurring in various parts of his body, especially the results brought about by the evolution of his Dragon blood, which he now understood thoroughly.
The free conversion between qi and blood had significantly elevated his overall strength by a huge margin.
Furthermore, the high-concentration black-red flames generated by his burning Dragon blood, in addition to being recyclable, also possessed extremely strong corrosive and destructive effects.
In actual combat, Galos could make decisions based on different battle situations.
He could choose to reclaim the detached flames, converting them into precious HP to maintain survival and endurance; or he could attach them to his claws, teeth, wings, and tail, or even integrate them into his breath attacks, to enhance his offensive power.
"These tests are almost done. Next, it's your turn, Frenzied Fire."
The Red Iron Dragon's eyes narrowed slightly, a hint of solemnity and anticipation flashing within them.
To be on the safe side and prevent any potential loss of control during the test from affecting the Dragon Valley, he first flapped his wings and flew high, leaving the valley where his dependents gathered.
On a flat, open space covered with thick white snow, Galos slowly descended.
He then collected his thoughts, directing his perception deep into his mind.
Frenzied Fire, it had no physical form, did not depend on matter, and was essentially a strange and fervent spiritual fire that could continuously entice and amplify the rage deep within a creature's heart, driving it into a frenzy until it completely lost its reason.
The known information on the surface was that it originally came from a mysteriously vanished nameless meteorite.
As for what it truly was, and where its real origin lay... these deeper secrets remained shrouded in mist, still unknown.
"Become active, let me feel your presence more clearly."
The Red Iron Dragon called out from deep within his heart.
At the same time, sensing its host's will and guidance, the dormant Frenzied Fire began to flicker slightly, flames gradually rising, then burning ever more intensely.
An unnamed rage consequently surged and churned within Galos's heart, continuously rising.
However, unlike the situation before his slumber where anger, once provoked, would become increasingly difficult to control, the current rise in anger did not cause Galos to lose his composure.
Between his thoughts and the surging rage, there seemed to be an invisible yet resilient barrier, allowing him to maintain a relatively detached, calm perspective to observe and control his own anger, rather than being controlled by it.
Galos understood that this was a precious trait he had evolved after ten years of actively adapting to Frenzied Fire, followed by thirty years of deep evolution during his slumber.
This allowed him to preserve his reason to the greatest extent even while in a state of rage.
"This is exactly the ideal state I envisioned back then."
"Although this is inextricably linked to my long-term targeted training, the fact that my body can naturally evolve in this direction without producing other uncontrollable mutations, does this mean that my adaptability talent is gradually evolving from passively responding to the environment to being able to guide it towards subjective will?"
Galos pondered in his mind.
Passively adapting to the external environment and actively guiding the body to change in a specific direction are two completely different concepts.
He felt that if his talent could one day be fully controllable, reaching a state where he could guide evolution as he wished, that would be true power, enough to face any challenge.
As for now, although his talent was not weak, giving him the capital to stand out among his peers, it was not invincible. Galos's achievements today were not solely due to the gift of talent, but also involved far more sweat and effort than other Dragons.
Moreover, even so, in the records of Dragon lineage, a few Dragons had shown even more dazzling brilliance than him.
For example, three types of legendary Dragon species that existed only in ancient texts and songs.
They were not born with control over common elemental powers like earth, water, wind, and fire, but rather abstract concepts such as time, force, and light, which sounded extremely high-ranking.
It was said that excellent individuals among them were already legendary beings upon hatching.
At the very least, they could steadily become legendary before their youth.
However, these Dragons only existed in ethereal legends, with very few and vague records in the lineage, perhaps just some exaggerated rumors.
Not to mention the material plane where Bernardo Planet was located, even if the scope was expanded to all planes and endless worlds, one might not encounter a single one.
Galos had no interest in competing with these ethereal Dragons that only existed in legends.
His true opponent had always been his past self.
What he pursued was to constantly break through his own limits, completing one life leap and evolution after another, until he achieved true eternity and immortality.
He firmly believed that even if those legendary Dragons truly existed, in the later stages of their life essence, they might not be stronger than him, who had undergone countless targeted evolutions and continuously optimized himself.
As for those powers that sounded abstract and mighty, he believed that he might not be unable to evolve similar, or even stronger, abilities in the future.
Suppressing his somewhat scattered thoughts, Galos refocused his mind on the Frenzied Fire within him.
He did not try to suppress the continuously growing anger; instead, he actively opened his body and mind to cooperate with it, like adding fuel to a fire, allowing the spiritual fire to burn fiercely, far exceeding previous tests.
At the same time, in Galos's eyes, one gruesome blood vessel after another appeared at a visible speed, spreading like a dense spider web.
The Red Iron Dragon slowly stood up, his massive shadow cast upon the snow.
Rage surged within him like a tsunami, impacting the dam of reason with ever-increasing intensity.
If it were before, with such immense rage, he would probably have already been controlled by the instincts of his Excited State, reduced to a beast that only knew destruction.
But now, it was different.
The invisible barrier between his thoughts and the raging fire, although constantly rippling due to this immense fury, Galos's reason was not substantially affected.
Galos carefully felt this unprecedented rage, allowing the anger to burn freely within his body.
As time passed, the blood vessels in his eyes became more and more numerous, more and more dense, almost staining the entire whites of his eyes a terrifying crimson.
Finally, at a moment when it accumulated to its peak, Galos's eyes completely turned crimson, like a blood moon!
At the same time, without actively activating the Excited State or other amplification states, the aura emanating from him began to rise accordingly, and his overall presence gradually exuded a seductive, 瘋狂, dangerous, and extremely unstable feeling, like an active volcano that could erupt at any moment.
Galos naturally and smoothly embarked on the Wild Path.
From now on, rage, for him, was no longer merely a purely negative effect and burden; it officially became one of Galos's sources of power.
He also naturally comprehended the Excited State, which was the state he had now entered.
"Hoo... Hoo..."
The Red Iron Dragon's breathing became heavy, rumbling like thunder, echoing across the vast snowfield.
He could clearly feel his attributes increasing as his rage climbed.
"With Frenzied Fire as an almost infinite source of rage, my Wild Path level will increase extremely quickly. I estimate it won't take too long before I can comprehend a higher-level Excited State."
Galos slowly clenched his claws, feeling the power surging with his rage.
Under his active guidance and cooperation, both the power and the rage within him continued to climb upwards.
As this power increased, Galos's inner irritability also increased synchronously, and the barrier between his thoughts and fury shook more and more noticeably, but it remained resilient, showing no signs of collapse.
This feeling was quite peculiar.
It was like controlling a character full of rage through a solid screen.
No matter how angry the character on the screen became, it was difficult to truly affect the calm operator behind the screen.
This was exactly what Galos felt at this moment.
Rage swept through his body and mind like a wild current, yet deep within his heart, there was calm.
A state where rage and calmness coexisted, very contradictory, yet truly manifested in him.
"Now, the crucial question is, where is the limit of this spiritual barrier?"
Galos could feel the pressure and sense of instability it was transmitting.
If it were completely destroyed by extreme rage, Galos would inevitably be deeply affected by that rage.
Then, he decided to continue trying, letting his anger and power surge towards even higher peaks.
At the same time, high above in the sky, a polar falcon, accustomed to soaring in the bitter cold, swept past.
Its sharp gaze noticed the terrifying giant Red Iron Dragon entrenched in the snow below, and its biological instinct immediately sounded an alarm, instinctively preparing to flap its wings and flee this dangerous place.
But then, suddenly, an inexplicable, burning rage surged and exploded in its tiny chest, and its eyes instantly became bloodshot.
"So infuriating! What if it's a giant Dragon? Why is it so domineeringly entrenched there? Just looking at it makes this bird furious! Even if I die, I must dive down and peck it!"
With such a vague yet extremely angry thought in its mind, the polar falcon let out a sharp, malevolent cry.
It gave up on escaping, instead folding its wings and diving towards the Red Iron Dragon below, like an arrow heading to its death.
Splat!
Without even needing to look up, Galos simply raised his right wing casually, swatting gently as if shooing away a fly.
The diving polar falcon instantly exploded in mid-air, turning into a tragic, bloody mist that dispersed in the cold wind.
"Such a weak creature dares to actively attack me? So reckless, how did it even survive to adulthood?... Wait, that's not right." Galos's mind raced: "It seems to have been affected by the aura of rage I unconsciously emitted, causing it to be blinded by anger, completely ignoring the huge disparity in strength between us, and charging over with the intention of mutual destruction."
He immediately realized this.
Unbeknownst to him, the furious intent he was emitting had, like Gorsas the Red Dragon, begun to radiate outwards, directly affecting surrounding creatures.
Moreover, the range of this influence seemed to be quite large already.
"Very good, this is a simple and brutal, yet exceptionally effective divine skill."
Galos felt a slight joy in his heart.
He had personally experienced the tricky and troublesome nature of rage radiation.
However, as much as he found it headache-inducing back then, he felt equally delighted now that he wielded it himself.
Afterward, Galos continued to escalate his rage.
In an increasingly large area centered around him, all sentient living beings were inevitably swept into a whirlpool of rage; they lost their minds, attacked each other, or launched futile charges towards Galos's location.
As his rage continued to grow, the range of this mad domain visibly expanded.
Soon after, until the Red Iron Dragon's incomparably tough Dragon body also began to struggle under the crazily increasing power accompanying the rage, with the scales in some areas of its body slightly cracking and bleeding, the mental barrier protecting his sanity also began to shake violently, showing countless invisible cracks, as if it would shatter in the next second.
Galos knew that the test had to end here.
He made a decisive move, concentrating his mind, suppressing the towering rage, little by little, until the rage gradually subsided, retreating back within a safe threshold.
"It seems my body's endurance limit is probably also the limit of this mental barrier."
Galos understood in his heart: "However, if I truly need to push my rage to that extent, it often means I am already in a desperate fight, having exhausted all conventional trump cards, and must push myself to the most peak, most dangerous situation."
"At that point, whether I ultimately fall completely into a Excited State will no longer matter."
Regardless, he had gained a powerful and terrifying skill.
Even if it was temporarily difficult to activate the Crimson Lotus State after using the dragon jade, it didn't matter; he now possessed this new trump card.
After spending some more time meticulously testing the various effects and influences of Frenzied Fire at different levels of activity, Galos was finally satisfied, flapped his wings, and returned to the Dragon Valley.
Wings, scales, blood, Frenzied Fire.
The deep adaptation and evolution in these four aspects had brought Galos's strength to an unprecedented and powerful peak.
He had no doubt that his current self could easily kill his former self, even when he had used all his abilities and was at his peak, without even giving him a chance to escape.
Now, the only question in his mind was the gap between himself and a true legend.
Unfortunately, at present, there seemed to be no suitable situation for Galos to verify his thoughts.
On the other side, in the vast Southern Kingdoms, after the turmoil and baptism brought by the Federal Civil War, the 格局 of the kingdoms gradually stabilized, including the Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) located at the northern frontier.
It was one of the kingdoms that had followed the Kingdom of Ripos and joined the King-Slaying faction back then.
Excluding the weaker principalities, it was the human kingdom closest to the northern border and the Serre Wilderness among the Southern Kingdoms.
Since three years ago, when the Holy King suddenly appeared and announced the dissolution of the alliance and the end of the war, the Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) had been silently healing its war wounds, striving to restore its national strength and vitality lost due to the war.
As order and vitality gradually returned in all aspects, some high-ranking individuals finally had the leisure to turn their attention back to the Serre Wilderness.
Due to its geographical proximity to the wilderness, development and infiltration were relatively convenient.
The Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) had always established many outposts in the wilderness, almost second only to the two major powers, Ripos and Lothorn, practically blooming everywhere and scattered across the major regions of the wilderness.
Then, as reports and calls for help from various outposts were submitted one by one, the shocking content described within immediately drew high attention from certain high-ranking kingdom officials.
Besides the northeast region, the northwest, central, southeast, and southwest... the kingdom's bases, outposts, and resource points in these four major regions were all subjected to attacks of varying scales; the garrisons were either brutally killed or forcibly expelled.
The painstakingly established bases were also forcibly occupied by the so-called 'regional king' of the wilderness.
If it were in the past, because the wilderness belonged to the Federation, handling such matters would require first reporting to the Lothorn Kingdom, as the leader of the Federation, for its decision or coordinated action.
But now, the Federation had dissolved, and each country acted on its own.
The Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) could now make decisions entirely based on its own interests and judgment on how to handle affairs in the Serre Wilderness and respond to provocations from local natives.
In Iron Crown City, at the location of the Military Staff Headquarters, in the Office of Foreign Strategy, several extremely detailed regional maps of the Serre Wilderness were spread out on the heavy mahogany desk.
On the maps, the small blue flags that originally represented the various outposts of the Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) had been largely removed and lay scattered to the side.
In their place were threat areas prominently marked with crimson paint, like ugly scars, almost covering the entire map.
Inside the room, the atmosphere was heavy.
Two men in important positions were conversing.
Seated at the head of the table was an elderly man with gray hair, meticulously combed, a stern and rigid face, and wearing a dark blue, gold-trimmed, crisp uniform—Marquis Marcus, Director of the Office of Foreign Strategy.
His fingertips were tapping repeatedly on the most glaring red mark on the map, producing a dull and oppressive sound.
Standing opposite him was a relatively younger man, appearing to be about forty years old, with a stature as straight as a spear and eyes as sharp as an eagle.
He wore light armor underneath and a short cloak emblazoned with the roaring mountain lion emblem of the Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos) over it.
He was Kaelos, the unfinished sword, the legendary Sword Saint of the Xiao Kingdom (The Kingdom of Theos).
He was also one of the strong individuals who had been commissioned by the kingdom to guard the Borderlands for a long time.
It is worth mentioning that when he was guarding the Borderlands back then, Kaelos was still below the legendary level, a peak level 20 warrior specializing in the Sword Saint path, just a step away and stuck for many years.
His legend was finally forged during the civil war, through the baptism of life and death, iron and fire.
Although he hadn't been a legend for too long, Kaelos's name had already begun to spread within the kingdom much earlier.