Although the green horse that Galstoby had turned into looked strange, it was actually very mighty.
The horse’s bones were still actually dragons’ bones and running was definitely easier than flying. It did not need to worry about injuring itself or tripping due to its high level skills.
After the round around Garth City, the speed at which the dragon had run made Leon’s hair and clothes look extremely unkempt.
With his strength, he could use his internal powers to hold onto his clothes and hair. If he had willed it so, nothing would have moved at all. However, the rule of Garth City’s tradition was that he should not use this power and should allow his clothes and hair to fly freely such that those witnessing his return saw the effort he had put in. Thus, he had not utilized his powers and had simply sat solidly in the saddle and embraced any wind that messed up his look. After the round, he looked extremely different – unlike his usual stern look, he now looked boyish.
As he was whisked away by his underlings to make up his look, Leon couldn’t help but smile.
At this point, the green horse sprinted in a circle and flipped in the air before flying in front of Sui Xiong.
“Void Mask Lord how was my performance today?” Galstoby morphed back into a giant dragon and asked courteously.
Sui Xiong laughed uproariously and said, “You’re so sly, just like a slug!”
Even as he teased Galstoby, he was not petty and with a wave of his hand, used his invisible powers on Galstoby to help him regain his energy.
After the regeneration, Galstoby’s horn became slick and pure and his entire body looked like a work of art. Even the little flaws could no longer be seen.
If a giant dragon wanted to grow, it either had to wait over time or through blood transfusions. Galstoby was an ambitious giant dragon who wanted to become part of the half-god “legendary dragon tribe”. However, his blood level was not high and required some magic on top of his own training to become part of the tribe.
Thus, Galstoby depended on a range of sources to develop himself – previously, he had ridden on the coattails of the Goddess of Bumper Harvest and now he clung onto Sui Xiong.
The Goddess of Bumper Harvest had created the foundation for him to grow and that was how he had become a thorny dragon. However, the Goddess of Bumper harvest also had a limit in terms of powers and thus eventually stopped giving him such substantial benefits. Furthermore, she had clearly hinted that in return, she wanted Galstoby to change into a spiritual creature and enter her kingdom.
While Galstoby did not have any specific plans in mind, he had lots of pride and was not willing to become a creature under any specific god. Thus, Galstoby’s relationship with the Goddess of Marsh slowly dwindled. Afterward, when the Goddess of Marsh had wanted to oppose the Goddess of Bumper Harvest, she had wanted Galstoby to join in the battle but he had found it dangerous and upon the advice of senior dragons, got injured in battle by a group of dragon slayers and had slunk away to recuperate by himself.
During the battle itself, both goddesses received severe injuries as well and left each other along to recuperate. This was when Galstoby had come out of hiding to continue training and to mind his own business in peace.
Afterward, he had made several deals with Leon as he felt that Leon had great strength. He also had a high level of admiration for Leon and thus set out to be his personal ride. Of course, this meant that he could no longer be the Goddess of Marsh’s associate and thus that relationship died.
The Goddess of Marsh was unwilling to step up to snatch him back from Leon given that he had not obtained any real status in her kingdom and thus gave up on Galstoby.
With Leon, Galstoby moved on to curry favour with Sui Xiong as well. His main job with Leon was to protect the merchants’ ships or to protect the fishermen who were out at sea for trade. Other than that, he was also in charge of cleaning the sea of poison.
With the profits of the year, he slowly and steadily stepped into the Superior Dragon Race. Now, with the help of Sui Xiong, he finally had the final boost to step into the legendary dragon tribe.
Being a thorny dragon only meant that he was nearer to the status of the dragon tribe but to continue on, he either had to solidify his powers to the stage of a holy dragon which was out of this world or to solidify his magic powers until he became like a dark green dragon, which was a sort of half dragon and half spirit and was considered a mythical creature. Galstoby chose the latter option and slowly morphed his body to become that of a dark green dragon.
However, despite Galstoby’s best efforts, his blood was unable to fully convert from that of a thorny dragon and this was visibly seen in his horn which remained scary and fierce unlike that of a dark green dragon’s.
Today, however, Galstoby lost his last sign of ferocity with Sui XIong’s help and his evil persona was now cast away. This also meant that he had finally lost his characteristic of being an “evil dragon” and could work towards becoming a legendary dragon.
The mere help from Sui Xiong seemed inconsequential but if not for his help, normal gods could offer little assistance. As legendary dragons were god-like creatures, while they varied in power, all were definitely higher in status than regular gods. To allow an average dragon to attain the status of “legendary” required a special god’s help.
Galstoby was immensely grateful for the help rendered by Sui Xiong. Sui Xiong, however, gained inspiration from this interaction to contact the three Snowflakes to ask them if they wanted to increase their blood level as well.
Their answer, however, disappointed him. They were rather content with their current blood level and were not looking to upgrade. They wanted to go by the previously mentioned former method and thus had no current plans to take any action. Shuang demonstrated that as long as she could eat and sleep as she wished, she would be content without any care for blood levels.
At this stage, the lack of care for upgrading was rather strange!
