Evolving by devouring from a young dragon

The fire spirit poked its head out from his arms and let out a disgruntled chirp, as if complaining that the ceiling panel had been too inconsiderate.

He continued forward. The falling rocks were just a pile of stones, and the stone giant was least afraid of stones.

Fire Spirit, however, began to do something else.

It took off from Blue's shoulder and flew low along the rock walls on both sides of the rock path, its wingtips skimming quickly through the crevices and shadows.

After flying for a while, it would hover in front of a seemingly inconspicuous crevice in the rock, spewing out a small wisp of extremely fine gray-red flame from its mouth.

The flames seeped into the cracks in the rocks, making a slight hissing sound, and then several charred poisonous insects fell out of the cracks with a soft rustling sound.

The largest was no bigger than a fingernail, its body covered with a dark brown carapace, and it was still twitching slightly when it landed.

Bru glanced down at the poisonous insects, then looked up at the Fire Spirit.

The fire spirit had already circled once in front of the rocky path, its wingtips pointing deeper into the depths, and it let out a short chirp, as if to say: There's more ahead.

Blue nodded slightly and continued cleaning.

When he reached the fifth section of the rocky path, he encountered a huge rock.

This rock didn't fall from the top wall. There was a clear collapse and gap in the side wall of the entire rock passage, and a huge rock about the same height as him was embedded in the gap, blocking the entire rock passage so that there was only a gap to squeeze through sideways.

He cleared away the rubble around the gap, moved the loose stones one by one, and after confirming that the boulder was not a key load-bearing structure, he placed his palms on the surface of the boulder.

He intended to push it away with brute force, but as soon as his palm touched the stone surface, the rock patterns on his chest lit up, and the light seeped into the boulder along the lines on his arm.

He used his core senses to perceive the texture of the stone, clearly capturing the arrangement of crystal grains, the thickness of weathering, and a natural crack inside the stone.

Bru adjusted the pressure points of his hands and gently pushed along the crack.

A faint cracking sound came from inside the boulder, and the entire stone was easily removed and moved aside smoothly.

He looked down at his palm and pushed aside a boulder far exceeding his own weight, expending less effort than he had when lifting a stone hammer.

The fire spirit landed on the boulder and let out a short chirp.

Blue remained silent, memorizing the method of power generation he had just learned.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, the rocky path came to an end, where a complete stone gate stood before us.

The stone door had no keyhole, but was covered with a dense array of runes, the direction of which perfectly matched the rock patterns on his chest.

He withdrew his hand, squatted down in front of the stone door, his palm still pressed against it. Yellow runic light traveled up his arm, spreading out in a faint glow around the core of his chest.

A force slowly probed into his core from behind the stone gate.

Yellow light emanated from the edge of his palm, spreading outwards along the runes on the stone gate at a speed far exceeding expectations.

In just three breaths, the array of runes on the stone door lit up, and a yellow halo seeped out from the cracks in the door, splitting a bright curtain of light in the darkness of the rock passage.

The entire stone door slowly slid open backward.

Blue looked at his palm, somewhat puzzled.

He felt a strange sense of familiarity with this stone city, as if he had been born here.

As the stone door opened, he put his thoughts aside and stepped inside.

Blue stood there, his mind filled with doubt.

This is not a ruin. The stone houses, stone-paved roads, and recessed stone walls are all intact. The rune array is just covered in dust and shows no signs of damage.

This place doesn't seem abandoned; it's more like it was deliberately shut down, having been silent for far too long.

Blue turned his gaze to the stone golem guarding the gate, and his core unconsciously slowed down by half a beat.

These stone golems look exactly like him.

However, he can move, but these stone golems stand motionless in place.

Blue stood still, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings as he counted the number of people.

There are about thirty or forty visible on both sides of the main road, and some more scattered around the edge of the city and in front of stone houses, bringing the total to about sixty.

Half of it could still move, while the other half was already a stiff stone body. The dim light from the stone core was so weak that it was almost imperceptible. In Grimm's words, it was probably "beyond saving."

These stone golems had stood in the stone city for too long, exhausting all the energy in their cores, leaving only a guardian command that they couldn't execute in time.

He tried to issue an extremely short command from the core.

Although stone giants can speak, communication among themselves is never through language; there are more efficient ways. They speak only so that other races that cannot sense their core can understand them.

They communicate with each other using a core pulsating frequency, a unique method of communication among stone giants.

But he hasn't used this method of communication in a long time.

That guy sleeps all day long and doesn't need to communicate at all.

He rummaged through his old memories in the core.

The last time I spoke to someone of my kind using my core frequency was in the labyrinth of the copper dragon.

Back then, he wasn't as tall as he is now, and the density of the core yellow veins was only half of what it is now.

Although they had interacted, the stone giant was not a talkative person to begin with.

After being bought by the boss, he never used the core frequency to communicate again.

There are also stone figures in the mines of the sunken basin, but those little guys have been sleeping since birth. Their core pulses are extremely weak, with a single frequency, consisting entirely of slow waves in a sleep state, so there is no need for them to communicate.

Now he stood in a complete stone city, and the stone golems standing in front of him looked exactly like him, as if they were cast from the same mold.

However, he will not become a stiff, cold stone sculpture like those ordinary stone giants.

They are merely spiritless guardians created by the Stone Clan using secret methods, silently guarding the Stone City over the years simply to protect it.

Blue organized the first frequency segment in the core.

The instruction was simple: come here.

A steady frequency was transmitted, which could be received by all the stone golems in the vicinity.

The stone golem began to react.

The stone golem's eye sockets were lifeless, just empty, but its reaction time was extremely fast.

Less than a breath after the frequency reached his core, his stiff body began to move, approaching Blue.

Blue scratched his head and finally understood what was so strange about these guys.

They were not stone giants at all, but merely puppets without a core.

Thinking of this, Bru looked them over and then glanced down at himself.

These puppets look exactly like me, except that I can move and think, while they can't do anything, and can even follow my commands.

Blue fell into deep thought and began to sense the bodies of these stone golems.

Their resonant frequency is exactly the same as his core frequency, which is why he is able to control them.

Could it be that I was once such a puppet?

Blue couldn't help but think of a possibility.

But soon he shook his head and dismissed the idea.

Anyway, I can't figure it out now, I'll think about it later.

Then, he continued to manipulate the stone golems.