Chapter 587: A New Body, A New Soul

Roderick stared at the number forty for a few seconds, then a slow smile appeared on his face.

Finally.

All the wounds, all the days he had been forced to remain in this dark area, all the battles where he had sometimes not even had time to rest between them.

They had finally paid off.

Level forty.

Now he could prepare for his second evolution.

He looked at the scattered bodies throughout the valley, and for a moment, another image appeared in his mind.

Lian Vorhelm.

That bastard’s face, his calm behavior, and the humiliation Roderick still had not been able to forget.

"You think everything is over, Lian?"

His voice echoed between the stone walls.

There was no one there to answer him, but he was not waiting for an answer either.

"Next time, I’ll return every bit of humiliation a thousand times over!"

His gaze turned toward the distant entrance of the hunting ground, there was still work left to do.

The second evolution.

And then, his return to the academy.

The time to go to the Land of First Dawn was slowly approaching.

That was where he intended to make up for the humiliation of the past by defeating Lian.

Roderick’s smile disappeared, then, without looking at the bodies behind him again, he walked toward the exit.

This time, he had no intention of losing.

During those same days, deep inside the Pendragon Family’s private territory, the Dragon Blood River continued to flow at a steady pace.

One month had passed since Lian and Seris entered it, and during this time, the pressure of the dragon blood had never left their bodies.

The first few days had been very difficult, even Lian, despite his powerful body structure, had been forced to reduce the speed of energy absorption several times.

The dragon blood did not put pressure only on the surface of the skin or the muscles.

Its dense energy entered the deeper layers of the body and even affected parts whose existence Lian had barely noticed before.

Bones.

Connective tissues.

Organs.

The mana channels where mana flowed through his body.

Each of them had undergone constant refinement.

Sometimes, the pressure increased so much that all the muscles in his body tightened for several minutes.

At other times, he felt heavy heat passing through the inside of his bones.

But this condition did not remain the same, as the days passed, his body began to adapt.

The flow of energy from the blood, which had faced a great deal of resistance at first, gradually began to reach the deeper parts of his body.

Tissues that had been damaged during previous battles healed during periods of rest and refinement.

His muscle structure became denser, his bones developed different qualities, and even the flow of mana through his body slowly became more orderly.

Of course, none of these changes meant a direct increase in his stats, his total stats were still limited by the cap of the First Evolution.

But the quality of the body in which those stats worked was no longer the same as before, and this was the main reason he had entered the river.

Seris had also made significant progress in another part of the river.

The Ancestral Mark on her hand showed a high level of compatibility with the energy in the dragon blood.

On some days, when the flow of blood reached its peak, a faint image of an Ancestral Dragon appeared behind her.

But that manifestation was not meant for combat, it was simply a natural response of her Blessing to the dragon energy present in the blood.

She tried to maintain this harmony while also allowing the energy to reach the deeper parts of her body and soul.

At first, the pressure on her soul was more difficult to endure than the physical pressure, and several times, she had been forced to open her eyes and reduce the speed of energy absorption for a while.

But like Lian, she was not willing to waste her one-month opportunity so easily, and each day, she became more adapted to the river’s flow than the day before.

By the final weeks, both of them could remain in the state of refinement for longer periods without interruption.

However, Lian’s situation was different in some ways, the End Core continued to react to the energy in the blood.

This reaction had been weak during the first few days.

But as time passed, the reaction grew stronger and continued until the core itself became stronger.

As a result, the amount of End energy it could store increased, and the amount of End energy the core could produce also increased by a significant amount.

His End Core was now stronger than his Eclipse Core.

During this time, since he also had some extra time, he had tried to examine the Ruined Heart.

The same broken heart that still hid many secrets within itself.

Lian had tried to examine its unusual reactions several times during this month, but he had not discovered anything that could explain its true nature.

This heart suddenly made sounds from time to time, whenever it wanted, and sometimes doing so could be dangerous, especially in front of a creature like the Demon of End.

But he could not find anything and could only make a few guesses about it, including the possibility that it was the same dead sixth Calamity that Ezrak had mentioned.

But he had no evidence to confirm this, and in the end, it was only a guess.

In the end, he had decided to focus all his attention on the main goal of his training.

Refining his body and refining his soul.

On the final day of the month, Lian sat in a deeper part of the river, the dark red blood had risen to just below his shoulders, and its slow current passed beside his body.

But unlike the first day, not the slightest movement could be seen in the muscles of his face.

His breathing was calm and steady.

The energy in the blood entered his body through his skin and moved along the paths that had been refined many times over the past few weeks.

Inside his bones, the last traces of pressure slowly faded.

The structure of his muscles and organs had now reached a level of stability that even he had not expected at the beginning of this training.

But what was happening at that moment was no longer limited to his body.

Deep inside his soul, nine streams of energy were moving, they were somewhat similar to dragon energy, and during the first few days, these streams had been nothing more than weak strands.

As time passed, the energy in the blood had entered the deeper parts of his soul and gradually compressed them.

Now, each stream had a clear structure, they were not exactly like real dragons but were more like manifestations of energy that had taken the shape of huge dragons.

They moved one after another around the central part of his soul.

None of them was a living creature, they had no independent awareness or separate will, they were part of Lian’s soul structure.

He remained in a state of deep focus, unaware of the outside world.

The only things he could feel were the constant flow of energy from the blood and the slow changes in the structure of his own existence.

The final stage of refinement was also continuing inside his body.

The dragon energy entered layers that had barely reacted even after a month of training.

For a few moments, immense pressure spread throughout his entire body.

Lian’s fingers tightened slightly, but he did not move, he allowed the flow to continue, and the pressure increased.

His bones, muscles, mana channels, and finally, the entire structure of his body responded to it at the same time.

Deep inside his soul, the nine dragon-like streams also began to move in harmony, their rotation slowed, the distances between them changed, and after some time, they all reached a certain balance.

At that moment, the flow of blood around his body slowed for a few seconds.

The heavy pressure that had weighed on his entire existence for a month gradually decreased.

His breathing became deeper, his fingers moved slightly, and finally... Lian opened his eyes.

At that moment, two blue windows appeared in front of him.

[ You have successfully formed an Indestructible Body ]

[ You have successfully formed a Golden Soul of Nine Dragons ]