The piled-up bones began to tremble, and rod-like bones rolled down towards the foot of the mountain.
Two dark red claws with barbed spikes emerged, pressing down and gradually stretching out, propping up the body beneath the pile of bones.
With hollow wings full of jagged gaps, the shattered bones were pushed aside as they unfurled, and a dark red winged dragon slowly stood up on the corpse mountain.
With a large amount of rotten flesh hanging down, obscuring its head, two misty yellow round eyes began to scan its surroundings.
The unusual flow of miasma quickly drew the attention of the Elder Dragon.
Roar!
At this moment, the Odogaron, which had been tilting its head and observing from beneath the corpse mountain, let out a roar.
The Elder Dragon's head moved horizontally, turning towards the monster that was shining with purple light all over its body.
After a moment of quiet observation, wisps of gray mist began to condense on the Elder Dragon's body.
The Odogaron did not flinch. Its tail unfurled, stirring up ghost fire that swirled continuously, and a fire ring glowing with bright purple light quickly took shape.
After the Elder Dragon was surrounded by dense gray mist, the mist dispersed outwards in a serpentine trajectory.
Sensing that the mist was targeting itself, the Odogaron immediately braced itself on all fours, using its tail to push off and launch the ghost fire ring.
Humph! Boom!
The instantaneously erupting ghost fire ring swept away all the incoming wisps of gray mist. Upon hitting the Elder Dragon, it not only sent it flying backward but also triggered a large-scale ghost fire explosion.
The Elder Dragon, whose rotten flesh was ignited, showed no signs of injury. Instead, its appearance became even more ferocious under the illumination of the ghost fire.
Having succeeded, the Odogaron did not continue its attack. After letting out a roar full of provocation, it leaped up, propelled by the ghost fire explosion, and ascended to a higher platform to report its findings.
The Elder Dragon turned its head, following the flow of miasma, and began to move.
Below the cliff, Shanshan had already dug three giant pits on the surface consecutively, yet still found no trace of the Elder Dragon.
This continued until the Odogaron leaped out of the pit and reported its encounter at the corpse mountain below.
"It doesn't seem to have a strong desire to attack..."
Li Fan found this characteristic quite rare, especially for an Elder Dragon.
"Since its location is locked, shall we go down?"
Yudora asked.
"Let's wait a bit longer. The environment down there is too harsh."
Just as the team was discussing their next move, a roar suddenly echoed from the giant pit.
Wooo! Boom! Then, a large amount of gray mist erupted from the pit, soaring into the sky.
Roar! Roar! Roar!...
Fierce roars approached from a distance, and soon, a massive figure enveloped in gray mist surged out.
"It's showing itself!"
Yudora exclaimed in surprise.
Roar! Roar! Roar!...
The Elder Dragon, which had landed by the edge of the pit, did not stop roaring, appearing very agitated.
The man and the cat looked at Li Fan, who was equally shocked.
"It's repeatedly saying 'you will all die'... Oh, now it's changed to 'go and die'."
Li Fan provided the translation.
"Didn't you just say that the Odogaron thought it didn't have a strong desire to attack?"
Yudora whispered.
"Perhaps it got up too quickly and hasn't had time to get angry yet."
Li Fan speculated.
"Uh... a wisp of gray mist is coming around, meow!"
Dill reminded them.
"Leave it to me." Yudora said, extending her palm. The swirling airflow easily repelled the wisp of gray mist.
"Although the miasma it controls is extremely dangerous, its penetration is weak, and it cannot withstand impact, which is consistent with our previous deductions."
After Li Fan's assessment, he took out his handheld device and tapped on it.
Soon, the little idiots Wanpi and Xiaobendan descended from the sky. The two dragons flew to the front of the team, hovering and flapping their wings forward.
The encroaching gray miasma was immediately dispersed by the wind pressure.
"I'll go and try to communicate first. You all stay put and don't act rashly."
After informing them, Li Fan followed the path cleared by Xiaobendan and Wanpi, approaching the Elder Dragon.
Roar! Roar! Roar!...
Die! Perish quickly! Sink forever!
At this moment, the Elder Dragon's roars were no longer simple repetitions. Although the content was similar, the expression had become more varied.
As he approached within about 200 meters, Li Fan sensed something was wrong.
If it was understandable that it didn't notice him due to its small size, then its complete disregard for Xiaobendan and Wanpi was completely illogical.
At 100 meters, Li Fan stopped.
Xiaobendan and Wanpi flew around to the sides, continuing to hover and generate wind pressure to ensure Li Fan was not eroded by the miasma.
"Hello! Can you hear me?"
Roar! Roar! Roar!...
"Can we talk?"
Roar! Roar! Roar!...
"I am... forget it, Wanpi, give it a fireball."
Helpless, Li Fan gave the order.
Boom! A bright blue fireball flew towards the Elder Dragon and exploded near its foreleg.
As if awakened, the Elder Dragon immediately looked at the two dragons and one person not far away, letting out a tentative low growl.
Roar? Why are you attacking me?
Li Fan was stunned by the question.
"Uh... sorry, I just wanted to get your attention."
Roar~ The Elder Dragon indicated that it shouldn't be done that way.
Then, a large amount of gray miasma condensed, extinguishing the blue flames burning on its foreleg.
Li Fan hadn't expected that the Elder Dragon, despite its terrifying and ferocious appearance, was actually a reasonable dragon inside.
"Alright, I won't next time. I came this time to tell you that it's highly likely that the Black Dragon is about to visit the New World, and I want to unite everyone..."
Roar! The Elder Dragon immediately interrupted, excitedly stating that there was no "everyone," only "me."
"How can that be? To stop the Zorah Magdaros, you all took action."
Li Fan retorted.
Roar~ The Elder Dragon said it had forgotten about that action.
"Alright, but I still want to remind you that to eliminate the threat, the Black Dragon is very likely to completely destroy the ecosystem of the New World. As a key ecological node, you are difficult to escape. The best way is to migrate now."
Li Fan informed it.
The Elder Dragon fell silent for a moment, then stated that it didn't have much time left and that anyone who wanted its life could take it.
Li Fan wanted to persuade it further, but at this moment, the Elder Dragon suddenly roared incessantly, resuming its "go and die" refrain.
Seeing that its emotions were becoming increasingly unstable and it was completely impossible to communicate, Li Fan could only retreat temporarily.
"The Elder Dragon can still be communicated with, but it suddenly becomes delirious and talks nonsense." Li Fan informed Yudora and Dill of the situation.
"The miasma infestation is irreversible, it's likely damage accumulated over time."
Yudora speculated.
"That's right, and it also seems very depressed. It feels like even when it's normal, it no longer wants to maintain the ecosystem of the lower Rotten Vale."
"Meaning... coming to live here wasn't its choice, meow."
Dill concluded.
"It is indeed very reluctant, but if we talk about coercion, there are too many places that don't make sense."
Li Fan was puzzled at this moment.
At least from his perspective, the Elder Dragon had the right to choose.
"Could it be to achieve some kind of mutation?"
Yudora speculated.
"Unlikely. It doesn't even care about life and death, so why would it pursue mutation?"
Li Fan didn't think so.
"This is actually fine. If it went mad and achieved mutation, it might become the next ecological threat to the New World."
Yudora said with some relief.
"Could it be..."
Inspired, Li Fan immediately thought of a possibility.
The characteristics brought by mutation are diverse, and madness is one of them.
If Lunastra directly absorbed dragon elemental energy from an Elder Dragon, over time, it would mutate into an Empress Teostra, but at the same time, its sanity would also fall into a state of madness.
The monster called "Miasmic Elder Dragon" in the game was also a mutated form of the Elder Dragon.
Li Fan was unsure how severe its madness was compared to the current state, but its ability to appear in the Ancient Forest was extraordinary enough.
"Is it possible that the Elder Dragon has become mad because it is on the verge of mutation, and once its self-awareness is completely lost, some kind of mutation will be achieved, and it is powerless to stop it?"
Li Fan speculated.
"Then it should try to stay away."
Yudora expressed curiosity.
"You just said that the miasma infestation is irreversible. Perhaps it has reached a point of no return."
Li Fan sighed. Yudora and Dill also drooped their shoulders helplessly.
After such a great effort, they finally found the first ally to win over and establish communication.
Unexpectedly, the other party had little time left to be lucid, and its depressed state showed no interest in uniting to resist the Black Dragon. The team had no choice but to give up.
As they guided the monster away, a light drizzle began to fall from the sky.
The miasma that was still leaking and rising into the air gradually receded into the cliffs under the influence of the rain.
The Elder Dragon, which had been roaring incessantly, calmed down upon feeling the raindrops falling on it.
It raised its neck and looked towards the top of the cliff.
A giant black wing was beating against the wind.
The Elder Dragon was silent for a moment, then quickly leaped into the giant pit.
The miasma leakage from the Coral Highlands was quickly detected. The research base responded swiftly, immediately issuing a new restricted area and stating that an investigation would be launched.
Since it was relatively far from the regular hunting grounds, its impact on the base was relatively low.
The team, noticing that no severe ecological damage had been caused, was relieved.
Commander Ni Zhen of the Third Fleet informed the team of important intelligence when they visited.
Recently, many Coral Pukei-Pukei have been migrating, and their destination is not the New World, but an unknown area outside the New World.
Upon hearing this, Li Fan immediately sought out Piaopiao to inquire about the situation.
Piaopiao said that many elder Coral Pukei-Pukei stated that the prosperous ecosystem of the Coral Highlands could not be maintained for much longer, and the entire tribe had to move to a new area as soon as possible.
The specific location could be reached by following the cold currents, but they had to eat their fill before migrating, otherwise, they would easily fall into the sea midway if they couldn't sustain themselves.
The planned time was not supposed to be this soon, but the sudden surge of miasma had caused panic within the tribe.
Therefore, many Coral Pukei-Pukei had moved up the schedule.
Li Fan knew that the migration to the Iceborne would happen sooner or later, but he didn't expect that his act of digging large pits had also accelerated it.
"The ecological decline of the Coral Highlands doesn't feel real."
Yudora was also quite surprised after hearing what Li Fan had told her.
Such a prosperous ecosystem was not an exaggeration to call it rare in the world, but monsters' perception of the ecosystem was very keen.
The Coral Pukei-Pukei would not joke about the safety of their tribe.
"Why haven't other species shown this, meow?"
Dill asked, puzzled.
"Because most of them simply cannot migrate, and the destination of the Coral Pukei-Pukei is not suitable for the monsters here to survive."
Li Fan explained.
"Then what will the Coral Highlands become in the future, meow?"
Dill mused.
"Probably the upper layer of the Rotten Vale without large amounts of bones."
Li Fan speculated.
"Ah! That's too tragic, meow."
Dill was very surprised.
"There's no other way, this is ecology. Unless we put another Elder Dragon in the lower Rotten Vale."
Li Fan said helplessly.
"Then, for the next step, will we continue to try to contact the Namielle?"
Yudora asked.
"Due to the miasma leakage, the research base has made a misjudgment regarding the migration of the Coral Pukei-Pukei. Let's first try to correct it. As for the Namielle, we'll have to put it aside for now."
Li Fan informed them.
Ni Zhen attached great importance to the migration of the Coral Pukei-Pukei, otherwise, she wouldn't have specifically informed the team.
However, because it coincided with the miasma leakage, when drawing conclusions, she was misled to some extent, believing that the departure of the Coral Pukei-Pukei might only be temporary.
Therefore, Li Fan immediately began writing a report, believing that the migration of the Coral Pukei-Pukei was worthy of a full investigation.
With the blessings of his multiple identities and achievements as a commander of the Fifth Fleet, a chief hunter, and the Azure Star who guides the way, Li Fan's report received high attention. The Guild declared that a formal investigation would be launched into the destination of the Coral Pukei-Pukei.
At this point, various obstacles to the investigation began to appear.
Firstly, following the Coral Pukei-Pukei's journey was a very difficult task for the Guild.
Even the top wyverns with the longest flight ranges could not carry hunters for transoceanic flights, let alone guarantee safety.
Route mapping was an insurmountable problem.
As for sea travel, the excessively slow speed made it difficult to find the migration destination within the migration period.
Ni Zhen proposed a bold plan: to have the research base ascend to high altitude and follow the Coral Pukei-Pukei.
While flying and tracking, scholars would conduct route surveys.
This way, a complete route could be recorded after a successful visit.
Finally, Frye approved this adventurous plan, and the next step was to recruit members for the expedition team. Li Fan, as expected, participated.
After five days of preparation, the research base, following the migration trajectory of the Coral Pukei-Pukei, ascended and set off.
"Commander, why are you bringing so many cotton clothes?"
In the main hall of the research base, Aiden, seeing Li Fan pulling a cart full of thick cotton clothes, couldn't help but ask curiously.
"The investigation contract states that the direction we're going has frost disasters, so these are prepared for you."
Li Fan informed him.
"I'm not afraid of the cold, Commander. Give them to those who need them more."
With a clang! Aiden said, tapping his Steel Dragon armor.
"I heard you made a full set of Steel Dragon armor. I didn't expect you to be able to wear the chest plate already."
Li Fan asked in surprise.
"Hehe, it's alright."
Aiden smiled and scratched his head in response to the compliment.
.
Zhao Lala reminds you: Remember to collect after reading.