Chapter 431: Chapter 431: Huge Potential Crisis
The growth stages for the vast majority of the Dragon Race are divided into the Dragon Infant Stage, Juvenile Dragon Stage, Growth Stage, Mature Stage, Complete Stage, Peak Stage, and Aging Stage.
Most of the Dragon Race can only reach the Mature Stage.
When the Mature Stage ends, they skip directly to the Aging Stage, and their strength begins to decline.
A very small portion of the Dragon Race can grow to the Complete Stage.
Within the Complete Stage, there is another very important period—the Peak Stage.
A Giant Dragon in the Complete Stage is at least Tier Eight in terms of power, even at its weakest.
A Giant Dragon in its Peak Stage possesses terrifying power; it is the strongest point in a Giant Dragon’s entire life.
One phrase can be used to describe the power of a Peak Stage Giant Dragon.
Divine Spirits keep their distance.
Even Divine Spirits are unwilling to provoke a Giant Dragon in its Peak Stage.
If a Giant Dragon at this stage fights to the death, even a Divine Spirit would have to pay an extremely heavy price.
Possibly even perish.
Unfortunately, although a Giant Dragon in its Peak Stage is incredibly powerful, the duration is far too short.
If a Giant Dragon lives for ten thousand years, its Peak Stage might last for less than a hundred years.
To humans, a hundred years may seem long.
But to a Giant Dragon, it is far too short.
It’s like a hundred-year-old human having only a one-year peak period.
Not to mention the Divine Spirits, whose lifespans are even longer than those of Giant Dragons.
They have all the time in the world to wait for the Peak Stage Giant Dragon’s power to gradually weaken.
There’s no need to challenge it at the height of its power.
This is the truth behind why Divine Spirits keep their distance.
It’s not that they are truly afraid of Peak Stage Giant Dragons; it’s simply unnecessary.
After the Peak Stage, they enter the Aging Stage.
The Aging Stage lasts for roughly one-fifth of a Giant Dragon’s life.
For most Giant Dragons, their Power continues to decline during the Aging Stage until death.
A very, very small number of Giant Dragons can overcome the Aging Stage and become the legendary Elder Dragons and Ancient Dragons.
If one can become an Elder Dragon or an Ancient Dragon, lifespan will no longer be a shackle limiting a Giant Dragon’s power.
The Power of Elder Dragons and Ancient Dragons only accumulates and grows stronger with the passage of time.
Some Elder Dragons that have just broken through their lifespan limits might not be as powerful as a Complete Stage Giant Dragon, due to having just gone through the Aging Stage.
Even a Mature Stage Giant Dragon could be stronger than a newly-emerged Elder Dragon.
However, the true advantage of an Elder Dragon lies in its endless lifespan.
They can continuously accumulate Power.
On one hand, they can use the passage of time to let the young and vigorous dragons gradually grow old.
On the other, they draw Power from time itself, gradually recovering their peak strength until they surpass it and reach even greater heights.
The growth rate of Elder Dragons is far slower than that of young dragons.
This is because they lack the Growth Stage and Mature Stage, where power increases rapidly.
They might endure for ten thousand years, only to have their strength recover to the level of the Mature Stage.
But as long as they can hold out and live for a hundred thousand or a million years, they will become terrifyingly powerful.
A million-year-old Ancient Dragon is almost a Divine Spirit.
If there were an Ancient Dragon that had lived for tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions of years...
It could truly be called a Creator Dragon God.
To this day, there have been no known sightings of Elder Dragons or Ancient Dragons on the Celestial Vault Continent.
There is a type of Giant Dragon completely different from the Ancient Dragons, which bide their time and outlive others.
Their power is not determined by the time spent growing.
It is determined by a single "instant."
That is the Time Dragon.
Time Dragons wander through time itself.
In an instant, they can change from the Dragon Infant Stage to the Peak Stage.
Then, they can remain in their Peak Stage forever, unchanging.
It’s also possible for them to spend their entire lives in the Dragon Infant Stage or Juvenile Dragon Stage.
Forever frozen in the instant of a single growth stage, never changing again.
Time Dragons are even more illusory and ephemeral than Ancient Dragons.
After deciding to resurrect Saint Xi, Li Wei had conducted a detailed study of the Dragon Race.
He already had a general understanding of the Dragon Race.
He had also heard of some of the most famous types within the Dragon Race.
He stroked Saint Xi’s head and said with a smile, "If you don’t want to go in, then we won’t. Let’s go."
Li Wei started walking toward the cave entrance.
Saint Xi’s wings didn’t move; she just floated quietly in mid-air, following behind Li Wei.
Her four short legs dangled down, making her look like a little puppy floating in the air.
Both the Goddess’s Tears and the Poison Dragon Saliva had been consumed in the Polluted Earth Rebirth Ceremony.
Li Wei had already obtained the Holy Dragon Body, so he no longer needed the Goddess’s Tears as an antidote.
The only regret was that he could no longer help others with detoxification.
The Holy Dragon Body only made him immune to negative statuses.
It couldn’t help others.
After they left the cave and had walked some distance, a loud RUMBLE echoed from behind them as the cave collapsed.
Li Wei turned his head to look, and Saint Xi turned to look with him.
The Polluted Earth Rebirth Array inside the cave had exhausted all the Magic Energy left by Torresta and could no longer sustain the cave.
The cave collapsed completely.
Li Wei and Saint Xi had gotten out just in time; otherwise, they would have been buried underneath.
It wouldn’t have posed any real danger to the two of them.
But they would have ended up covered in dust and dirt.
Li Wei glanced at Saint Xi, then turned and continued walking toward the exit.
Without a hint of sentimentality, Saint Xi followed Li Wei.
Li Wei asked, "Saint Xi, do you remember what happened before?"
He wanted to verify the truth of Torresta’s words through Saint Xi.
Everything had been Torresta’s personal account.
It wasn’t that Li Wei didn’t trust him; he simply wanted to understand the events of a thousand years ago from more perspectives.
Saint Xi shook her head and said in a child-like voice, "I don’t remember. When I was just born, my consciousness was still hazy, and that’s when my father turned me into a Bone Dragon."
"After being turned into a Bone Dragon, my Life Force and soul went completely dormant, and I had no awareness of the outside world."
When Li Wei was resurrecting the Little Bone Dragon back then, his perception of Life Force emanating from its Undead Body was not a hallucination.
That was Torresta having sealed Saint Xi’s Life Force within the Little Bone Dragon’s body.
When Saint Xi’s consciousness began to awaken, a little bit of that Life Force had overflowed, which Li Wei had sensed.
Because Saint Xi was still an Undead Bone Dragon when her consciousness first reawakened, the Life Force belonging to a Holy Giant Dragon and the Life Force of her mother, Philis, had not yet been released.
It wasn’t until now, when Saint Xi was fully resurrected as a true Holy Giant Dragon, that she finally inherited the Life Force Torresta had preserved for her.
And inherited the last of her mother Philis’s Life Force.
Saint Xi wasn’t lying; she truly didn’t remember what had happened before.
However, by receiving her mother’s Life Force, she had also received a portion of Philis’s memories.
She knew that her enemy was the incomparably powerful Demon Dragon King.
Saint Xi didn’t want to worry Li Wei, so she didn’t say it out loud.
A thousand years ago, the Demon Dragon King was already in the Complete Stage.
If it wasn’t dead, it was probably still in the Complete Stage now.
Its power was terrifying.
It might have even advanced further into the Peak Stage.
’I can only hope that in a few thousand years, after I’ve grown up, the Demon Dragon King will have entered its Aging Stage.’
’Then, I’ll strike it down while it’s old.’
’And avenge my mother.’
’Youth is my greatest asset.’
Hearing Saint Xi say she was unclear about the events before her birth, Li Wei didn’t press her further.
Their souls were connected, so Li Wei could sense what Saint Xi was worried about.
He just didn’t say it out loud.
Saint Xi thought she had managed to hide it from him.
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