Mass Extinction

After exploring the crater, Haoyuan had a theory forming in his mind.

“Perhaps every meteorite carries two types of monsters: a special variant and a swarm of ordinary ones.”

“The special variant possesses intelligence and commands the ordinary ones.”

“The ordinary monsters assimilate and replace various organisms on the planet, then hand over the collected genes to the special variant.”

“The special variant merges and splices those biological genes to strengthen itself, leaving behind a perfect copy (a hatchling).”

Haoyuan mulled it over repeatedly, feeling he was likely close to the truth.

“If that's the case, the strongest creature on any given meteorite should only be around the level of that pseudo-wyrm...”

“With my current strength, I can definitely afford to take the risk.”

He pondered for a moment, his eyes brightening slightly.

The very nature of these monsters meant that if you didn't seek them out, they would eventually come hunting for you.

He might as well harvest them right now while they had just arrived and were still relatively weak.

Otherwise, in a few years' time, who knew what horrors they would turn into?

...

Eight years later.

In a region of rolling hills.

A severely injured stitched monster desperately flapped its tattered wings, trying to climb over the ridge ahead.

Suddenly, a massive white dragon pounced out from behind a boulder to its right. His body spiraled and twisted, his thick Kirin Arm swinging out as his claw blades ignited with blazing flames, striking down with all his might.

A crisp, clean sound of flesh being sliced echoed through the air.

The stitched monster's world instantly spun upside down.

Its head plummeted uncontrollably. In its disoriented, inverted vision, it saw the long white dragon soaring gracefully right over its head.

Impact with the ground registered as its vision tumbled a few times, finally coming to rest toward the other side of the ridge—a vast, forest-surrounded lake basin in the valley below.

If only it could hide in there...

Looking at the serene lake, the light in the stitched monster's eyes gradually faded.

Scenes of the white dragon hunting it flashed before its dying mind—agile, swift, riding the wind effortlessly.

Heh, hiding in there wouldn't have helped anyway...

This monster was completely unbeatable... impossible to escape...

As a gentle breeze blew past, the last dim flicker of light in its eyes vanished into total darkness, leaving behind only an open-eyed, lifeless gaze.

Haoyuan stood coiled, resting on his claws, looking into the distant sky without digging into the meal right away.

A bright point of light over there had caught his attention.

Dusk had fallen, and a few faint stars were appearing in the sky, but none were as brilliant as that point of light.

Moreover, it didn't shine with cold starlight, but rather emitted a warm, yellowish-orange glow.

It looked like a glowing firefly resting against the yellowish-white canvas of the sky.

“Was there ever a star this bright before?”

Haoyuan knitted his brows slightly, then shook his head.

“Forget it, time to eat first.”

There were far too many stars in the sky to remember or count.

He picked up the monster's head that had rolled off into the distance, exhaled a small flame, controlled the heat precisely, and gently roasted it before eating.

Over the past few years, he had harvested a massive amount of Energy Points. Haoyuan's body had grown to twenty-five meters long, and all his abilities had been reinforced. He had fully mastered them, wielding them as naturally as his own limbs.

For instance, Icy Mist could be split into ice and mist.

One was used to chill food for better texture, while the other was used to create a misty shroud to obscure vision and hide his presence.

Then there was Wind Grace, which could lift his body to levitate two or three meters off the ground.

However, that consumed quite a bit of energy.

Normally, he glided skimming right above the ground—fast, efficient, like skimming across grass.

The special variants deserved plenty of credit for his success in developing so many versatile uses for his abilities.

As expected, their strength was at most only one level above the pseudo-wyrm.

Furthermore, they were all afraid of fire, and every single one utilized Icy Mist.

After years of hunting, he had mastered various abilities, reinforcing Icy Mist into his most powerful ability.

“Eight years, traveling tens of thousands of li every day, and I've only found eighty-some craters. Sigh.”

Haoyuan swallowed a chunk of roasted meat, feeling a bit melancholy.

“The sky was so brilliant back then; I suppose most of those meteors fell into the ocean.”

The ocean was full of dangers. Not only were the aquatic monsters massive, but the water environment also heavily restricted his fire abilities.

“I'll just have to deal with them after I evolve further.”

After leisurely finishing the roasted monster meat, Haoyuan subconsciously looked back toward the distant sky.

With that single glance, his good mood vanished instantly, his pupils dilating in shock.

That firefly-like point of light had undergone a terrifying change.

“It's as bright as a burning torch—much brighter than before! It's falling!”

Almost the exact moment the thought crossed his mind—

High above in the clouds of the yellowish-white sky, the torch-like point of light suddenly burst apart, exploding into a blinding, incandescent radiance! It cascaded like a roaring waterfall of light, swallowing a massive swath of the heavens.

It violently scorched the orange-red sunset twilight into an intensely glaring, unbearable white, illuminating even the distant clouds from within.

Blinding white light flooded the entire world. What was once a fading sunset suddenly turned millions of times brighter than midday high noon!

The scorching, intense glare burned the eyes of every living creature that looked up.

Tears streamed down Haoyuan's eyes from the excruciating pain. Even after closing his flaming eyes of molten gold, the glaring white spots remained burned into his vision, agonizingly uncomfortable.

All around him, shrill, agonizing shrieks and panicked stampedes erupted.

Down in the valley and along the hills, sounds of sheer terror and utter chaos pierced his ears.

Through the flickering, pale dizziness, Haoyuan blinked his flaming eyes of molten gold rapidly several times, finally forcing his vision to adjust. The forested lake plain slowly took shape once more, along with dense, frantically fleeing herds of dinosaurs.

He ignored them, shook his head, and looked back up at the falling meteor.

As it pierced through the atmosphere, the dazzling, incandescent white light faded, leaving behind a roaring ball of fire trailing a massive, blood-red tail of flames, smashing toward the earth with the absolute intent of catastrophic destruction.

In less than two seconds, a terrifying hemispherical wave of white-hot explosive energy—swirling with incandescent flames and molten rock—flared up on the twilight horizon. It expanded at a terrifying speed, erasing everything in its path, filling half the orange-red sky in mere seconds. Clouds of dark red smoke billowed and churned, radiating an inescapable aura of death and destruction.

The next instant, countless brilliant golden beams of light shot out from that horizon, tearing through the vast sky.

Haoyuan strained his eyes to look into the distance. Through the glaring white spots in his vision and his continuously falling tears, he saw massive, blood-red fireballs raining down from the heavens like a catastrophic downpour, carrying scorching heatwaves as they slammed into the vast earth.

He let out a deep sigh, hesitating no longer. He leaped down from the hillside and channeled Wind Grace to its limit, flying straight toward the lake in the center of the forested plain basin.

As he glided, he relied on his dragon whiskers to sense minute air currents, dodging the massive, burning fireballs of molten rock.

In rapid succession, giant fireballs streaked past him, slamming into the ground at terrifying speeds.

An endless stream of deafening explosions shook the earth, hurling plumes of black mud and scorched soil high into the sky across the forest plain.

Fireballs tens or even hundreds of meters wide crushed countless fleeing dinosaurs straight into paste.

Raging infernos spread wildly, igniting every corner of the forest. In an instant, a massive wildfire swept through the entire valley, darkening the sky with thick smoke.

Trapped in the sea of fire, countless surviving dinosaurs could only cry out in helpless agony before being choked to death by the smoke or roasted alive by the inferno.

Just as the dinosaurs grieving their lost kin were overwhelmed by sorrow, the earth suddenly shuddered violently. Deep rumbles echoed as the ground beneath their feet collapsed and shattered, giant fissures tearing open in all directions, intersecting and burying them whole.

In an instant, mournful wails echoed across the land—a true endless purgatory.

Watching this apocalyptic scene of tragedy from midair, Haoyuan felt a heavy pang of sorrow.

From the moment his flaming eyes of molten gold could no longer safely stare at the sky, he knew.

The familiar era was gone, never to return. The dinosaurs that had accompanied him for hundreds of years were about to be wiped out completely.