Chapter 544 — Dragon of Time

It didn’t take long.

Soon, the rest of her talents followed Time Manipulation.

The Dragon Law was the first to transform, followed by the Four Elements, Space, Life, Death...

In just half an hour, all nine talents had advanced to Rank 8.

One on its own was not enough to bring any drastic changes.

However, with the nine advancing at the exact same time, even Liora began to feel a difference.

As one would expect, her Base Stats had increased accordingly. Even if the Devil bloodline was not taken into account, Liora had no doubt that her physical strength was comparable to a Rank 9, or even Rank 10 Awakener.

But perhaps more importantly, Liora sensed that a new change had taken place within her.

Her eyes narrowed as she stared silently at the nine distinct talent genes, which had greatly transformed. Not only in power, but also in another sense.

With a thought, these talent genes began to move. They rearranged like puzzle pieces.

As two of them in particular got closer, their "sides" seemed destined for each other and started to fuse.

It was her two strongest talent genes, representing the Dragon race and Time Manipulation, respectively.

As soon as the two merged, a thunderous roar echoed within Liora’s mind, nearly bursting her eardrums apart.

Without Liora doing anything, the Snake of Time erupted from her body.

It instinctively wanted to take an illusory form, but the dragon roar appeared to have influenced it.

It first transformed into a serpent. Then, minute but precise changes began to occur.

First, four limbs extended from its lower side, while the scales along its shoulders cracked, and illusory flesh grew out.

At its back, something similar happened, with a whip-like structure extending from within its body.

The changes were nearly instantaneous.

In the span of a few moments, the Snake of Time was no longer a serpent, but a far more majestic creature.

It closely resembled Ysset. Or more accurately, the dragon Liora would turn to if she were to fully urge her dragon talent.

The two overlapping talent genes shook violently. The dragon’s roars intensified as time passed.

From Liora’s point of view, the sky above her head collapsed. An illusory river appeared from within the gap and extended into reality.

The connection between Liora and her Throne was strengthened even further, as though the film separating them had finally been broken.

It seemed as though she could take her Throne out of the River of Time with just a single thought, leaping over the Ascension stage and advancing straight to become an Ancient Devil.

But the next moment, that illusion shattered.

The two talent genes shook violently. Like two magnets with the same polarity, they started to repel one another.

Even though Liora attempted to suppress them and forcibly keep the two together, she found herself unable to.

In the end, the two separated.

The "Dragon" of Time crumbled as a result. It returned to the form of an illusory river, tumbling several times as though it was struggling to withstand the impact.

Although the River of Time would not be impacted by such a phenomenon, its projection above her head disappeared.

Within moments, everything returned to normal.

Even as Liora wiped the sweat off her forehead and suppressed the impact of her rioting talent genes, she showed neither fear nor panic.

Instead, a trace of joy flashed across her face.

"Is this possible too?"

"By combining different talent genes, I can create brand new ’talents’, if you will."

"Although Dragon and Time are a unique case and they are strangely compatible, I should be able to do the same for the rest of my talents in the future.", Liora judged.

Unfortunately, the way to do so remained a mystery for now. She could only recall the sensation of Dragon and Time fusing and work backwards to develop the method.

But as that thought surfaced in her mind, another question arose in her heart: how come Dragon and Time were so compatible?

More importantly, how could she use this to her advantage?

With that thought, Liora did not rush to leave this place and deal with the Blood Forest Realm’s matters.

She had always prioritized improving her own strength above all else.

Everything else was simply a way to achieve that.

Now that she had discovered another way to accomplish that goal of hers, there was no reason to hesitate.

--

Time passed.

A strange peace shrouded Clear Azure Lake.

This landscape was the habitat of many sea demons and used to be chaotic, but all of this changed a few days ago.

The arrival of a few visitors had broken the balance in the lake, scaring every demon and rendering them unwilling to do anything.

On a small island at the center of the lake, a colossal dragon was resting.

With her tail wrapped around her body, Ysset’s chest heaved up and down following the rhythm of her breathing.

She was deep in sleep.

Creatures like dragons had extremely long lifespans that far surpassed those of ordinary humans.

As such, their sense of time was also different.

Liora had previously informed her that she was about to go into seclusion to practice.

In Ysset’s point of view, it would take her decades, if not centuries, to emerge from her seclusion.

During that "brief" amount of time, she could afford to take a quick nap.

Yet just as Ysset believed that she would finally have some time of peace, she felt something weak land on top of her.

She instinctively wanted to shake her body and throw that "something" off. But just before she could do so, a voice rang inside her mind:

"Come on. It’s time to visit the central region. I want to see what Human Temple will do after the last time.", Liora ordered.

Hearing those words, Ysset reduced her size and unfolded her wings.

A moment later, a silver dragon soared into the sky, heading straight toward the center of the Blood Forest Realm.

With Liora having reached this point and the Human Temple having seemingly exhausted its methods, it seemed that the destined battle between them would soon occur.