Reincarnated as a blue dragon, he collided head-on with a wizarding civilization.

A distorted ascension magic circle was drawn in the center of the room.

The lines are crooked and messy, and there are many obvious signs of hasty modifications, smearing, or even covering and redrawing.

Normal ascension arrays emphasize the balance and symmetry of energy flow, but on the right side of this array, several strange arcs and intersecting nodes have appeared out of nowhere, covered with rune powder of different colors and obviously conflicting attributes.

These alterations disrupted the overall harmony of the magic circle, giving it an eerie, forced, and desperate feel.

This was the unorthodox path that Matthew explored by consulting ancient texts after the normal route failed.

At the core of the magic circle, there was a rune card.

The card is a deep, dark green, as if it contains the color of the deepest part of a poisonous swamp.

On the card, a green dragon is depicted with delicate yet cold brushstrokes, coiled atop jagged rocks.

With its wings half-spread and its posture haughty, its emerald green vertical pupils looked down at the creature below, devoid of any warmth, only the pure indifference of a top predator.

The edges of the card were still stained with several dried, blackened dark red bloodstains, Arno's last mark.

This is the card that Arno fused with before his death.

It originates from the Caldermocard Laboratory and contains specially treated, relatively stable green dragon bloodline factors.

As one of the few experimental members who successfully fused with the dragon bloodline, Arno's talent was indeed remarkable, and there was a reason why he was valued by Luo Fei, the senior member of the group.

But as Matthew himself said—it was too late.

From the moment Arnold stepped into this room alone, it was too late.

Even if Arnold could borrow the Leptonite through his connections, time was already too short for Matthew to wait for a possibility full of uncertainties.

Faced with a desperate countdown, he chose the most direct, cruel, and efficient path.

Matthew sat cross-legged in the center of the magic circle, his hands forming a mudra and resting on his knees.

He had removed his hood, exposing his most severely distorted left side completely to the cold white runic light.

The grayish-green, scaly growths, resembling malignant moss, had covered his entire lower left jaw and extended to his neck, even beginning to erode his left cheek.

His left eye pupil had completely mutated into a vertical pupil like that of a reptile, with the white of his eye turning a cloudy, dark yellow, just like that of a swamp lizard.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and cleared his mind of all distractions.

Or rather, to forcefully suppress and crush all distracting thoughts, including the last trace of guilt and hesitation.

Magic circle, activate!

Om-!

A deep, rumbling sound, as if coming from the depths of the earth, arose!

A dark red light, like thick blood plasma, suddenly rose from the twisted patterns on the ground!

They were not like rays of light, but more like living, filthy tentacles, awakening from the ground and frantically climbing and spreading upwards along the trajectory of the magic circle!

The light grew brighter and brighter, eventually condensing into countless fine, yet sharp, dark red rays that pierced Matthew at the center of the magic circle from all directions without any blind spots!

"Well--!!!"

Matthew's body tensed instantly, and a suppressed, beast-like roar erupted from his throat!

At this moment, the deformed tissues on his body seemed to be infused with a violent life force!

It's no longer the slow erosion of the past, but a violent, tearing, and frenzied proliferation!

The grayish-green growth on the lower left jaw was throbbing and swelling violently, like boiling mud!

At the edge, the skin that had barely healed was forcibly torn apart, revealing the tender, red, fragile flesh underneath that was constantly oozing blood!

Immediately afterwards, new, darker, coarser, grayish-green scaly keratin with fine serrations on the edges covered the area at a visible speed, completing a brutal metabolism!

This process is tantamount to being slowly sliced ​​to death!

Every new organization grows at the cost of tearing apart the old one!

Matthew clenched his teeth tightly.

His gums cracked from the excessive force, and dark red blood mixed with saliva kept spilling from the corners of his mouth.

The blood droplets fell onto the dark red magic circle beneath them, making a sizzling, corrosive sound.

"Pat...pat..."

Large chunks of the old, relatively mild, deformed scales peeled off his body like dried mud, falling to the ground with a dull thud.

What's exposed is the bloody, nerve-exposed dermis.

Immediately, the newly formed, grotesque, thicker, and more swampy mud-like mutated tissue spread and covered the area rapidly, like the most greedy vines!

His ten fingers convulsed and twitched uncontrollably in excruciating pain!

The shape of the deformed claw and the shape of a human hand switch and flash wildly in a very short time!

Sometimes the nails grow wildly into curved hooks, and sometimes they retract to their original shape; sometimes the knuckles become abnormally protruding and deformed, and sometimes they return to normal; the scaly patterns on the skin surface appear and disappear intermittently...

Each forced transformation was accompanied by a chilling cracking and rebuilding sound emanating from inside the finger bones!

His face was contorted in extreme pain, and the veins on his forehead bulged like writhing earthworms thrashing wildly under his skin.

The blood vessels in his temples throbbed violently, each throbbing bringing a tearing pain, as if a hammer were striking his skull.

However, his eyes remained open throughout.

In the most painful moment, when he was most likely to lose consciousness, he forced himself to stay conscious with an almost obsessive hatred and will to live!

His pupils switched rapidly and unpredictably between the round pupils of humans and the vertical pupils of dragons!

Blood vessels, like a wildly spreading red spider web, completely covered the whites of his eyes, making those eyes, filled with pain and madness, look like those of a demon from hell.

But his gaze remained fixed on a single point of nothingness on the ceiling.

It was as if there he could see the culprit who caused all of this, and the phantom formed by his obsession with living and taking revenge!

The Green Dragon is a high-ranking bloodline among the five-colored dragons, known for its exceptional vitality and toxicity.

Its biological rank is indeed sufficient to naturally suppress the mutations caused by low- to mid-level monsters like the Swamp Poison Lizard.

As the mysterious stall owner at the Kuroki Market said, seeking help from the true dragon is one way.

Fusing this relatively tamed green dragon bloodline card, which has been processed in the laboratory, is another, more direct, and more dangerous shortcut.

The risks are equally enormous.

The forcibly introduced green dragon bloodline factor and the swamp lizard mutation power that had already penetrated deep into his bones engaged in an extremely fierce rejection and struggle within his body!

Two forces, both of vastly different nature and intensely aggressive, collided, tore, and devoured him wildly through his blood vessels, nerves, and even his soul, like two boiling, hostile molten lava flows!

Every confrontation was like detonating a miniature bomb inside him, bringing extreme pain that caused him to disintegrate at the cellular level!

But he pulled through.

I don't know how much time passed, it felt like an eternity.

The light of the magic circle, like embers after a fire has burned out, began to slowly dim and shrink, eventually extinguishing completely.

The stone chamber was once again enveloped by the constant and indifferent light emanating from the few cold white rune stones on the wall.

"Thump."

Matthew collapsed heavily to the ground as if all his bones had been removed.

His body was still twitching slightly out of control, and the deformed claw shape of his left arm had become fixed.

His five fingers were bent like hooks, and his fingertips unconsciously scratched at the rough stone floor, making a grating rustling sound.

The final form of the distortion covered almost half of his left face.

It spread from the lower left jaw to the cheekbone, even reaching the corner of the eye and the entire left arm.

The grayish-green, rough, sandpaper-like scales clung tightly to his skin like the most vicious curse brand, their surface covered with fine cracks.

A dark yellow, viscous liquid with a mixed odor of fishy sweetness and putridity was slowly seeping out from the crevice.

However, the aura emanating from him was different.

A magical aura, unique to high-ranking wizard apprentices, was slowly spreading from his body.

Although this magic is complex and chaotic, like a newly erupted volcano, full of violent impurities, it is undeniably real.

The total amount of energy and qualitative change contained therein is far beyond what a mid-level wizard apprentice can achieve.

A blood-red, diamond-shaped spot of light slowly emerged from the center of his brow, beneath his skin, like a gem embedded in flesh and blood.

That was the initial condensation of the solidified spiritual core, its magical projection onto the outside world.

It was warm to the touch, even with a slight burning sensation, like pressing a piece of metal that had been baked by the scorching sun.

This is one of the most significant signs of advancing to the rank of advanced apprentice through the Blood Moon Meditation Method.

Matthew, panting, struggled to lift himself from the cold ground with his still-functioning right hand, leaning against the equally cold stone wall.

He looked down at his completely mutated left claw, covered in gray-green scales and with sharp fingertips.

Under the cold white light, it reflects a cold, lifeless gleam.

His right hand was clenched into a fist.

Because of excessive force, the sharp nails had already dug deep into the soft flesh of the palm.

Dark red blood slowly seeped and dripped from between his fingers.

That was the self-punishment he unconsciously inflicted while enduring boundless pain and completing the cruel ritual.

"...Leitong...Wu..."

At the moment of his successful promotion and gaining greater power, what he murmured was not a sigh of relief, not gratitude for his fate, not even the triumphant joy of "I am still alive."

Rather, it is the source of resentment, the prelude to revenge.

It's that damned dragon-man, and that meddlesome dragon!

They took away Lei Tongmu, which could have allowed him to advance smoothly and prevented all of this from happening!

They drove him to desperation, forcing him to resort to this evil path, to personally destroy Arno, and to endure the inhuman torture of being devoured by countless poisons and having his flesh and blood reshaped!

They're the ones who killed Arnold!

They are the ones who created the more twisted and dangerous version of myself I am today!

He slowly closed his eyes.

The blood-red diamond-shaped mark between his brows still emitted a faint yet stubborn light in the darkness of his closed eyelids.

It was as if a cold flame, fueled by hatred, was burning slowly and steadily within it.