Translator: AnubisTL
Snowflakes drifted lazily, falling in a gentle rustle.
The massive white beast landed amidst the little dragons, striking a condescending pose. Its haughty gaze looked down upon them from above.
The young blue dragon remained calm.
"White—"
The green and black young dragons instinctively wanted to voice their displeasure.
But when they looked up and saw Treacy's colossal form, over sixteen meters tall, and felt the biting winter chill that swept over them, all words choked in their throats.
The two little dragons both took a half-step back, then simultaneously turned their gaze toward the red dragon, Cahill.
This was the companion who had always been the most unruly and defiant.
"White Scale?!"
Cahill, true to everyone's expectations, flared her scales.
The prejudice ingrained in her bloodline inheritance made her snap the words out without a second thought: "A mere White Scale dares to be our nurturer?"
She deliberately emphasized the words "White Scale."
Her dragon's maw split open to reveal her stark white fangs. Sparks of fire erupted from her nostrils, instantly vaporizing the snowflakes that had landed on her scales.
Dissatisfaction, contempt.
Such emotions were written all over her face, utterly undisguised.
Hiss. Cahill was as daring as ever—
The green dragon's pupils constricted slightly. Its claws quietly scraped the ground, inching backward to shield the red dragon, Cahill, with its body. At the same time, it inconspicuously nudged the black dragon with its tail.
As the chromatic dragon most adept at reading the situation, it had already foreseen the tragedy about to unfold.
As for the little gesture of nudging the black dragon, it was because green dragons were naturally inclined to influence and control other creatures.
The black dragon reacted a moment slower, but upon the green dragon's warning, it also came to its senses. It quietly retreated, joining the green dragon in shielding the red dragon behind them.
At this moment, the white dragon, Treacy, did not immediately erupt in rage.
Instead, she first turned toward the Red Iron Dragon, Garos, who stood motionless to the side. In the process, she completed a series of exquisite postural adjustments: her folded wings pressed perfectly against her sides, her raised head lowered by fifteen degrees, and even the tip of her tail curled up submissively.
Like snow melting under a scorching sun, she naturally and smoothly completed her descent in the ecological hierarchy.
Smooth. Flawless.
The White Dragon thought.
When facing a being of a higher ecological niche, it is better to lower one's own niche voluntarily than to be forced to do so after suffering a humiliating defeat.
[Dynamic Niche Theory][Second Point: When facing an absolute superior, voluntary descent offers a greater survival advantage than forced submission.]
This was a concept Treacy had developed based on the Dynamic Niche Theory. She planned to refine it, systematize it, and eventually include it in her inheritance. Or perhaps she would start by teaching it to the little dragons around her, letting them grasp the true essence of the ecological niche.
Under White Dragon Treacy's gaze, Garos remained silent, offering his tacit approval.
Back then, when his younger sister Samantha had foolishly provoked an adult dragon in her weakness, he hadn't intervened when White Dragon Treacy beat her senseless.
Now that Red Dragon Cahill was being so provocative, he certainly wouldn't stop White Dragon Treacy from taking action.
If White Dragon Treacy wanted to manage these little dragons, she first needed to establish her authority.
Moreover, a juvenile dragon who spoke so insolently without even understanding the gap in their strength truly needed to be taught a lesson.
Garos's tacit approval was like a silent command.
The white dragon turned her head and looked at Cahill again.
As she turned, she raised her head and straightened her chest, her aura surging like a thawing glacier.
"You little brat, repeat what you just called me."
The white dragon maintained a cold and dangerous demeanor, showing no anger as she sneered at Cahill.
"White Scale! White-skinned freak! White dragon beast!"
With each insulting word Cahill spat, the muscles beneath her scales tightened further.
Her red dragon pride made her completely oblivious to the need to assess the situation.
The contempt for white dragons ingrained in her inherited memories now fueled her battle lust.
"How dare the lowest of dragon species—"
Whoosh! Bang!
A gust of frigid wind struck her, followed immediately by the white dragon's massive claws slamming into Cahill's body.
Cahill didn't even have time to raise her forelimbs in defense. Her entire dragon body was sent flying like a ragdoll, plowing a thirty-meter-long trench into the snow.
The young red dragon's barely scabbed wounds all burst open, her searing dragon blood hissing and sending plumes of white steam into the snowy air.
"You vile white dragon!"
The young red dragon roared as she scrambled to her feet.
Ignoring her injuries, she dug her claws into the earth and launched herself forward. With a powerful beat of her dragon wings, she rocketed toward the adult white dragon like a cannonball. The white dragon merely sneered, standing motionless.
The moment Cahill closed in, the white dragon struck.
Her massive talons shot out, intercepting the young red dragon's charge and slamming her into the ground.
Red dragons were indeed renowned for their strength.
But one was a juvenile dragon, and the other was a mature dragon nearly two hundred years old. The vast age difference alone meant the red dragon's strength was never enough to bridge the gap—let alone now, while she was gravely injured.
"You vile white dragon, let me go!"
Pinned ruthlessly to the ground and unable to move, Cahill snarled, "If we were the same age, you'd never stand a chance against me!"
The white dragon only sneered.
"The same age? I will always be two hundred years older than you."
She looked down at the struggling Cahill, her voice cold and sharp. "Listen up, little red-scale. This world will never grant you the luxury of a fair fight."
"When you're eventually crushed under a true enemy's boot, your wings broken, your skin flayed, your bones picked clean, and subjected to the ultimate humiliation—"
White Dragon Treacy tightened her claws slightly. Frost seeped through the gaps in her scales, infiltrating Cahill's wounds with a piercing, bone-deep cold. She lowered her head, her dragon breath condensing into fine ice crystals near the red dragon's ear. Her voice was colder than the winds of the Ice Plains.
"—you'll finally understand that the first lesson of a dragon's life is always to 'know your place in the food chain'!"
It was as if she had been suppressing this for too long.
Now that she finally had the chance to stand at the top of the food chain and lecture a little dragon, the white dragon couldn't hold back. She rumbled, "Red dragon? Blue dragon? White dragon? When your wings are broken and your horns shattered, color is nothing more than a cheap epitaph! Does your precious bloodline, your proud inheritance, shield you from a frost giant's ice axe? Does it grant you a single extra breath when you're on the brink of death?!"
"Learn to measure the gap between our claws and fangs!"
The white dragon released Cahill, who no longer struggled or resisted. "You can keep shouting 'White Scale, you peasant,'" she said, "but next time you say it, you'd best make sure you're stronger than I am."
Broken bones are the best teachers.
Faced with the white dragon's condescending rebuke, Cahill finally accepted reality and stopped baring her teeth in provocation.
The white dragon's gaze then swept over all the little dragons present.
"When an enemy is stronger than you, it is wisdom to bow your head," she declared solemnly. "When you are stronger than your enemy, it is your duty to crush their skull. The true essence of survival lies in adapting between 'cowering' and 'tearing'—not like a foolish Red Scale, spitting laughable sparks at a mountain!"
Silence. Dead silence. Not a single sound.
It wasn't just the little dragons.
Garos, Solgorn, Samantha.
The Ignis Brothers, and even the red-silver dragon watching the evil dragons gather from atop the Burning Steel Citadel, as well as the fairy dragon observing the spectacle from the flowerbeds—all were stunned by the white dragon's words.
Has she really grasped some fundamental truth of life?
"Foolish Red Scale?"
Samantha's low growl broke the silence. She glared at White Dragon Treacy, her tone laced with hostility. "White Skin, you seem to be getting a little too full of yourself."
(End of the Chapter)
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