Upon hearing this, Xiao frowned slightly, his gaze once again falling upon the Sakura Dragon as he carefully observed its physical characteristics.
"Eh??? Don't tell me, don't tell me!"
As Xiao sized up the Sakura Dragon before him, he pondered inwardly. It really did look somewhat similar.
The so-called Ulcerated Tree Spirits are monsters born after the Shattering of the Elden Ring. Their appearance resembles beasts covered in decaying roots and bark.
Outwardly, they look like a combination of a snake and a lizard, with cancerous flesh exposed on parts of their bodies, bloated and ugly, giving off a feeling of both disgust and terror.
These monsters possess massive bodies and chilling screams. They are mutations of Erdtree seeds containing a large number of lingering souls, which appeared after the Shattering.
"However, Ulcerated Tree Spirits cannot wield the power of lightning. This thing is clearly a product of the Ancient Dragon era…"
Xiao stepped forward and gently shook the Sakura Dragon's head.
The Sakura Dragon's obsidian-like eyes stared intently at Xiao, filled with sorrow and pleas for mercy, as though tears might fall at any moment.
"ε=(´ο｀*))) Ah!"
Seeing this, a trace of pity arose in Xiao's heart. He sighed softly, and the movements of his hands became gentler.
The Blasphemous Serpent originally thought that her master would once again soften his heart and spare the Sakura Dragon, but what happened next completely stunned her.
Xiao suddenly stretched out both hands, firmly grasped the Sakura Dragon's head, and twisted violently, forcibly tearing it away from the ancient Sakura tree.
Then, without hesitation, Xiao unleashed his dragon head, which opened its jaws wide and fiercely bit into the Sakura Dragon's body, tearing it apart and devouring it.
Crunch! Crunch!
Xiao chewed the Sakura Dragon's body noisily, accompanied by splattering blood and shredded flesh, creating an extremely gruesome scene.
The Sakura Dragon struggled in agony and let out miserable screams, but Xiao showed no intention of stopping.
Blasphemous Serpent: (ｷ｀ﾟДﾟ´)!!
The Blasphemous Serpent was dumbfounded. She simply could not understand how Xiao, who had just shown pity toward the Sakura Dragon, could now eat it alive.
Pity?
What pity?
The Sakura Dragon wasn't pitiful at all!
If the Sakura Dragon was pitiful, then who would pity the countless people of Ashina whose life force had been drained by it?
Who would pity those whose bodies had been gnawed by Undying Worms, who had become monsters through addiction to the Rejuvenating Waters, and who eventually died in agony throughout the Land of Reeds?
The giant dragon head continuously devoured the Sakura Dragon's body.
The dragon head, the dragon body, and finally even the section fused with the ancient Sakura tree.
Xiao consumed almost everything, leaving nothing behind.
Whether it was Ghidorah's bloodline, the Munch-Munch Fruit, or even the evolved Black Sun Law, all allowed Xiao to plunder an opponent's power through consumption.
Although the Sakura Dragon's power was not particularly strong, it was abundant and satisfying, allowing Xiao to feel completely full in one go.
As Xiao continued devouring, a clear echo suddenly sounded from beneath the ancient Sakura tree.
Hearing this, Xiao immediately stopped consuming the tree and lightly knocked on its trunk.
Sure enough, just like the Erdtree, the inside of this ancient tree was hollow.
However, for many trees, the bark itself serves as the structure responsible for transporting nutrients, and the center of the trunk contains no essential structures. Therefore, the interiors of ancient trees are often hollow.
But for divine trees such as the ancient Sakura tree and the Erdtree, the center of the trunk often carries special significance and purpose.
Under normal circumstances, it becomes an important storage space used to preserve precious and critical items.
Xiao once again commanded his dragon head to open its enormous jaws and bite fiercely into the ancient Sakura tree, instantly tearing open the fragile trunk and causing the entire tree to collapse.
As the ancient Sakura tree fell, the secret hidden within its core was finally revealed.
A slender dragon head, as hard as stone.
"Could this be one of the Dragon God's heads?"
Xiao could not help but feel puzzled.
As far as everyone knew, Dragonlord Placidusax possessed five heads, while his consort, the Dragon God, possessed four.
Both were multi-headed dragons.
Furthermore, even if these heads were separated from the main body for a long period of time, they could still retain their vitality and survive for a while. They merely needed to be recovered and reattached.
What if, during its escape, the Dragon God accidentally lost one of its heads, and that head happened to fall into Ashina?
Perhaps the reason the Sakura Dragon had behaved so irrationally was not because of malice, but because of its foolishness.
After all, it was merely a discarded head.
Without sufficient will to support its consciousness, it possessed only instinct.
Not every dragon could be like Legendary Ghidorah, whose individual heads each possessed independent consciousness.
One had to understand that Legendary Ghidorah's abilities were extraordinarily rare even among the Ghidorah race.
Other dragons, regardless of how many heads they possessed, shared a single will.
Discarded heads retained only instinct and completely lacked the capacity for independent thought.
Thus, the abandoned head of the Dragon God instinctively spread its power throughout Ashina, nourishing the entire land.
Humans naturally gathered in fertile regions, eventually settling in Ashina.
Meanwhile, the Dragon God's head maintained its own vitality by collecting the life force of all living things.
However, it was precisely because of the various miracles displayed by the Dragon God's head that the local inhabitants came to regard it as a deity and worship it.
The power of faith was astonishing.
In this tiny Land of Reeds alone, eight million gods could be born, which was enough to demonstrate just how concentrated faith was in this land.
Thus, after receiving the worship of the Okami Clan for countless years, this Dragon God's head gradually developed spiritual intelligence of its own.
Combined with the Sakura tree that had grown from it, it ultimately transformed into the Sakura Dragon.
Although the Sakura Dragon later acquired its own will, it still could not completely suppress its instincts, eventually leading to the tragedy that befell Ashina today.
Where had the Dragon God gone?
Why had it suffered such severe injuries that it was forced to abandon part of its own body?
All of this greatly puzzled Xiao.
In Xiao's speculation, there were only two possibilities concerning the Dragon God.
The first possibility was that it had encountered powerful enemies from other worlds while exploring the stars.
After all, the stars had already sent vanguard forces to invade The Lands Between and had once been repelled by Radahn.
Furthermore, even within the underground ruins of The Lands Between, two stellar powerhouses—the White King and the Black King, who controlled gravity and attraction—were sealed.
The second possibility was that the Dragon God, like Ranni, had yearned to ascend to the stars and explore the cosmos.
Thus, it directly challenged the Greater Will, only to be defeated and crushed in the end.
However, neither possibility was good news for Xiao.
After all, for a being as powerful as the Dragon God to be defeated on the path of the stars and even lose a head without reclaiming it for countless years was sufficient proof of how dire the Dragon God's current situation truly was.
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