It actually felt a bit like pruning plants in a garden. The Admiral, an old-timer at his age, still had a remarkably playful heart and an intense desire to explore things he had never seen before.
At this moment, he even stepped forward to ask a Nether-marked Grimalkyne for a pair of shears and began trimming the crystal clusters with quite some flair.
Truth be told, the snip-snap sound of the crystal clusters being cut was incredibly satisfying. Even the hunters watching from the side felt a lot of their travel fatigue melt away—much like the oddly satisfying feeling of watching someone trim donkey hooves.
Naturally, these trimmed Nether-crystals didn't go to waste. The hunters watched with curiosity as several Nether-marked Grimalkynes skillfully used brooms to sweep up the scattered shards and intact crystal branches. They gathered them up as if they were priceless treasures, packing them into the baskets on their backs before marching off toward the base of the giant tree with light, brisk steps.
"What will those Nether-crystals be used for?" Irene, always the bold one, quickly walked over to block a Nether-marked Grimalkyne and asked.
"What for, meow?" A look of remarkably human bewilderment crossed the feline face covered in deep blue markings, his fluffy ears twitching slightly. He was caught a bit off guard by the sudden question. "They can be used for lots of things, meow! As fuel, meow, or they can be melted down to make furniture, meow... Asking me out of the blue like that makes it hard to answer, meow. Anyway, they have plenty of uses, meow!"
Speaking of this, the Grimalkyne looked immensely proud. However, he quickly snapped back into work mode and busily hurried to catch up with his companions... The Glavenus Tribe harbored no idle cats.
"Used as fuel?" The Grimalkyne's answer left Sophia utterly bewildered as she pushed up the glasses on the bridge of her nose. This was somewhat beyond her scope of knowledge. "Can the properties of Nether-crystals even allow them to burn? Shouldn't they melt when exposed to high temperatures? ...I can understand making furniture out of them; that's nothing more than reshaping them under high heat. But using them as fuel..."
Sophia's doubts were quickly answered, without them even needing to actively seek out the explanation.
As the group slowly stepped into Asterion's massive, profound lair under the guidance of the leading Dragonchosen Warrior, the very first sight that greeted their eyes was a neat row of colossal braziers lining the inner edges of the cave.
They were all carved out of stone, their rims sculpted with various draconic designs. There were depictions of Asterion throughout his different growth stages, as well as the shapes of the Bazelgeuse brothers and the Kulu-Ya-Ku brothers. The surfaces were also etched with many patterns, though it was impossible to discern exactly what was drawn on them at a glance.
Yet, it wasn't the braziers themselves that shocked the hunters. It wasn't as if no one in the group had ever visited the Glavenus Tribe before; they had seen similar braziers in the past. However, back then, the braziers burned firewood and animal fat, sending up flickering orange-red flames.
But now, what burned inside these massive braziers were wisps of rising, crystal-blue fire that flowed like liquid crystal.
This crystal-blue flame produced no pungent smoke as it burned, but it generated an immense amount of heat. It raised the temperature inside the entire lair by at least ten full degrees compared to the outside, causing any moisture from the incoming fresh air to evaporate instantly, making the environment extraordinarily dry.
It was practically a man-made imitation of the Everstream's environment, lacking only the magma—no, was there even a substitute for magma here?
Flowing across the ground like liquid mercury, the hunters clearly saw several grooves carved into the lair's walls and the floor on both sides. Liquid Nether-crystals flowed continuously within them. Much like human showerheads, waterfalls of liquid Nether-crystals cascaded from high above, emitting crisp, crackling sounds.
Looking at these burning blue flames, anyone could guess what was fueling the braziers even without a second thought. Without a doubt, a portion of those fast-multiplying, plant-like Nether-crystal clusters outside, after being trimmed by the Nether-marked Grimalkynes, was brought here to serve as the energy source for the fires.
Even the flowing liquid Nether-crystals might have originated this way. Yet, compared to this bizarre spectacle, what truly made the seasoned hunters widen their eyes and feel their entire worldview shatter was the actions of the few Nether-marked Grimalkynes standing right next to the braziers.
Before everyone's eyes, a Nether-marked Grimalkyne actually extended his paw. Without holding any tools, he made a clutching motion toward the brazier from a distance. Though there was absolutely nothing tangible in that furry paw, his posture and the way he exerted force made it look as if he were grasping some invisible, heavy weight from the thick air—wait?!!
In the next second, as the hunters watched in dumbfounded shock, a miracle occurred.
A wisp of crystal-blue flame suddenly drifted out of the brazier right in front of the Nether-marked Grimalkyne. Once freed from the brazier's confines, the flame swirled before his open paw like a bright, fluid stream of water. Then, guided by an invisible force, it rapidly converged and spun, ultimately shaping into a perfect, circular orb of fire radiating astonishing heat.
Wait, does this even make sense?
At the same time, because a portion of its flame had been drawn away, the brazier in front of the Grimalkyne grew visibly weaker, its light dimming. The group stood rooted to the spot like wooden posts, watching blankly as the Nether-marked Grimalkyne casually tossed the orb of terrifyingly hot fire—as if throwing a snowball—into another nearly extinguished brazier nearby.
The fireball instantly merged with the existing flames upon landing, bringing both braziers back to roughly the same level of roaring intensity.
Witnessing this entire process, the hunters' brains momentarily short-circuited. At this very moment, the various uses of Nether-crystals—whether as fuel or furniture material—were completely irrelevant. What truly mattered was the special ability, or rather, the supernatural power, that this Nether-marked Grimalkyne had just displayed!
A Nether-marked Grimalkyne could actually control the flames generated by burning Nether-crystals using nothing but his mind?!!
No, to be precise, they could actually manipulate Nether-element energy directly?!
Controlling the fire was merely the shallowest, most surface-level manifestation.
It was worth noting that in the extensive research reports and conclusions previously provided by the knowledgeable scholars of the Research Commission, Nether-marked Grimalkynes did indeed possess some traits that set them apart from ordinary living beings due to environmental and energy radiation.
However, those mutations were strictly limited to physical and physiological changes—such as their fur changing from its original color to a deep, abyssal blue, their muscle density increasing to make them stronger, and the appearance of those crystallized quills on their backs that provided both formidable defense and lethal offensive capability.
All in all, while those changes were miraculous, they still followed some semblance of logic—or at least, they fell within the boundaries of what the scholars' knowledge of ecology and biology could explain. Take those crystallized quills, for instance: after collecting samples and performing experimental analyses, the scholars confirmed that they were simply a physical state that occurred when Nether-element energy accumulated heavily within a living body and condensed into the fur through the hair follicles. It was essentially a phenomenon of solidified energy deposition.
Similar creatures existed in nature, such as porcupines, except a porcupine's quills are a condensation of protein and keratin layers, whereas a Nether-marked Grimalkyne's quills are a condensation of pure energy. In essence, they were exactly the same.
But the scene unfolding before them completely defied all logic. It could even be said to utterly demolish the academic framework the scholars had built in the past—a Nether-marked Grimalkyne was actually able to use his consciousness and will to directly manipulate external Nether-element energy?!!
This meant they were no longer passive recipients of energy, but had instead transformed into active manipulators capable of mastering environmental energy.
"Th-this is just like magic from a storybook?!!" A young hunter in the team finally failed to suppress the shock in his heart, blurting out a cry of disbelief. "Oh my god!! Something like this is actually possible?!"
He was indeed the only one who shouted it aloud, but he was far from the only one thinking it. The reason the hunters reacted this way was due to an established law regarding humans, human subspecies, and Lynians alike: humans, their subspecies, and Lynians simply could not directly master elemental energy.
Breathing fire, spitting water, unleashing thunder, blasting ice—suffice it to say, there wasn't a single person who didn't envy these special abilities possessed by monsters. Since ancient times, countless humans had fantasized about how wonderful it would be if they possessed similar abilities, and how much better they could protect their people.
But unfortunately, humans, human subspecies, and even Lynians were fundamentally incapable of mastering these types of elemental energies. Yet, this near-universal rule of reality had just been shattered by a Nether-marked Grimalkyne?!
"Don't shout and make a fuss, meow! The Boss is still right here, meow!" Before anyone else could react, the Dragonchosen Warrior leading the way turned around, glaring fiercely at the impolite hunter and scolding him.
"I'm sorry." Without needing a second reprimand, the hunter apologized as quickly as possible.
It was exactly as the strict Grimalkyne said. Once the hunters managed to recover slightly from their immense shock and painfully tear their gazes away from the Nether-marked Grimalkyne who could control fire like a legendary mage, they peered deeper into the lair. Finally, they noticed the entity coiled at its absolute depths.
He had previously been shrouded in dense, swirling incense smoke, and because the cascading rivers and waterfalls of liquid Nether-crystals poured directly over him, he had been mistaken for a part of the lair's decorations.
But that was Asterion, the Azure Star Dragon himself.
As if lying prone in a lake of mercury, Asterion's lower body was completely submerged in the liquid Nether-crystals. The faintly glowing liquid even fell from the heights of the lair onto his horns, sliding all the way down them to form a bright waterfall that made a series of crisp, splashing sounds.
It was simply too natural. His mere presence there felt like a part of nature—or rather, nature itself. From the moment they entered, this behemoth had been lying there quietly without moving an inch. If one didn't intentionally look for him, they wouldn't even realize he was there.
But after being startled by the Dragonchosen Warrior's scolding, everyone suddenly realized that what they had mistaken for the lair's wall through the smoke was actually the Azure Star Dragon himself. His size was simply too colossal, having long surpassed the limits of conventional Elder Dragons, such that merely lounging there casually already occupied nearly a third of the entire lair's space.
Looking closer, one could see that a small portion of Asterion's body was still hidden deeper within the lair, where there seemed to be another, smaller cavern... or perhaps a hollow in the tree?
Each scale of his carapace was as large as a hunter's head, but what drew the eye even more was undoubtedly the layer of Nether-crystal armor coating his body. This layer of Nether-crystals pulsed rhythmically with a deep blue light in tandem with Asterion's long, slow breaths, a glow that echoed perfectly with the naturally growing Nether-crystals on the surrounding walls.
His thick tail extended past his powerful limbs, and every rise and fall across his broad back created a visual illusion, evoking the sheer majesty of mountain ranges stretching across the earth—it was as if what stood before them now was not a living creature, but an insurmountable mountain, forcing them to look up in subconscious awe.
Yet, what truly caused their nerves to snap to their absolute limit and their muscles to freeze uncontrollably was the massive dragon head slowly rising from the liquid Nether-crystals. Savage and brimming with majesty, a casual exhalation of scorching air from his nostrils alone whipped up a powerful gale within the enclosed lair.
As this wind swept past, it immediately broke a cold sweat across the backs of the already highly tense hunters.
There was no shame in it; this tension and dread had nothing to do with personal nerve or courage anymore. It was an instinctual terror—a dread carved into the very bloodline of humanity's ancestors through countless ages of evolution.
Just as many people instinctively want to back away or flee upon seeing a snake, even when they know perfectly well it isn't venomous, that elongated, winding form alone is enough to make many find it unbearable to look at.
And right now, what held these humans in awe and plunged them into fear was precisely Asterion's aura as a Forbidden Species—as long as he existed here, any living being that beheld his form would naturally feel terrified.
"Finally... It seems this is the first time I've seen you at such a close distance since you reached adulthood, Boss."
Meeting those massive yet lazy-looking dragon eyes, while the rest of the group stood entirely rigid, unsure of how to react, the Admiral suddenly took a few steady steps forward and called out loudly.
"This must be your true form now, right? Very majestic, and very cool."