The resources for survival here are still somewhat abundant.

The silhouette of the dragon appeared.

A hint of chaos stirred within the Frost Giant tribe, and soon, the towering King of Frost Giants emerged. He picked up a giant and rudimentary war bow, fixing his gaze on the silhouette of the Giant Dragon. The arrows were made of bone; the Frost Giant tribe did not forge iron weapons.

Such bows and arrows posed no threat to the Giant Dragon in the sky.

Bam!

The Juvenile Dragon used its Dragon Claw to untie the bearskin bag, and with a crash, a pile of frozen fish fell from mid-air, among them a skinned corpse of a Dark Elf.

Frost Giants are known to eat people.

Duncan deliberately placed the corpse of a Dark Elf blood hunter among the frozen fish.

The giants nearby looked puzzled; they are a rather dull-witted race, likely due to their overwhelmingly strong physique, their intelligence had not kept pace. However, this did not stop them from picking up the frozen fish from the ground. Some of the Frost Giants sniffed the fish, and once they confirmed it was not poisoned, they immediately began to chew it, eating heartily.

The Frost Giant tribe still had food, those huge mammoths, but the King of Giants forbade their slaughter; they were the tribe's last hope.

Unless absolutely necessary, the mammoth herd must remain as seeds of life.

Thus, life for the giants had become tough; half a ton of meat wasn't much, but it would at least get them one meal.

Roar!

A giant saw the Dark Elf corpse and let out an enraged roar, then picked up a severed thigh and began tearing and chewing it, seemingly to vent their anger.

The Juvenile Dragon circled a few times in the air.

The giant holding the massive hunting bow remained silent. He looked at the frozen fish falling from the sky, then at the Juvenile Dragon, and finally settled his gaze on the Dark Elf corpse before he finally lowered his gigantic hunting bow.

Hostility remained.

All giants were marked as red units.

However, the leading King of Giants no longer had the intention to attack, although he remained vigilant of the dragon. In the giants' legends, dragons were their greatest enemy, having battled for a century, ultimately leading to the giants' defeat.

"That should do it for today."

Duncan was in no hurry. After making the Juvenile Dragon circle a few more times, he flew towards the River Valley.

Periodically in the future,

The Juvenile Dragon would bring a large quantity of frozen fish, along with a Dark Elf corpse, until the giants' hostility was mitigated, turning them into yellow-marked Neutral Units, only then would he attempt to make contact.

Feeding, taming.

Watching the dragon fly away, the King of Giants pondered silently, unmoving for a long time.

Northern Ridge.

Duncan had already marked about a dozen tribes. Indeed, the creatures on this land were scarce, hardly seeing groups in the hundreds. Plans to subjugate them were still under consideration, but Duncan's main focus was the Giant tribe, as theirs was the strongest combat force.

After flying over the towering Northern Ridge into the clouds, the Juvenile Dragon began exploring southward but remained cautious to avoid detection.

Duncan did not fly directly south but instead headed southwest.

——Forest Giant (Two-star Silver-gray)[Mark].

Such creatures as Giants were quite difficult to subdue, and raising them was troublesome; their cost-effectiveness paled in comparison to the Giants.

Duncan casually marked it and continued flying onward.

Upon entering the dense forest region of the Northern Ridge, Duncan surprisingly encountered a subarctic swamp, filled with a plethora of poisonous-marked plants, with a winding river running along the land's veins to the horizon.

He did not know how far he flew, eventually stopping on a mountaintop, where he discovered a small village.

——Sub-dragon People's Village (Two-star Silver-gray)[Mark].

Hmm?

Are those Lizardmen?

No.

Duncan adjusted his omniscient perspective and soon discerned these beings and a peculiar large tree within the village.

——Heister Tree (Dimensional Lifeform) (Collective Consciousness) (Memory Cycle) (Genetic Modification) (Soul Infusion)[Gray Skull Mark]!

Hiss?

Tree God?

Duncan did not expect to find creatures with Demon God-like power in such a small village.

The village population was only one or two hundred.

They seemed to be conducting some kind of ritual, with many Sub-dragon people gathered around the Heister Tree and placing eggs beneath it. Some hatchlings, appearing as lizard humanoids, gained several additional marks after drinking the divine tree's sap.

——Juvenile Sub-dragon People (Genetic Molt) (Environmental Adaptation) (Soul Infusion) (Memory Cycle).

These were definitely not Lizardmen.

But they certainly had lizard blood, as the dragon sensed the bloodline origin of the crawling lizard species, although their genes had been modified by the divine tree.

"Genetic Molt? Soul Infusion? Memory Cycle?"

"Hiss!"

"Every affix is not simple."

Duncan focused his mind, observing the distant ritual carefully, and quickly realized something.

It was somewhat like the hereditary memory of dragons.

These juvenile Sub-dragon people, upon receiving the Memory Cycle mark, indeed possessed an instant maturity in their gaze. Humans should be relatively familiar with the difference between the eyes of a child and an adult, that's the feeling, as if a naive soul was infused with a mature memory.

They quickly adapted to the toxic swamp environment, as the sap of the Heister Tree granted them a spiritual link, and they inherited some of their ancestors' survival instincts from the divine tree's Memory Cycle.

This was very similar to the hereditary memory of dragons, with the exception that the source of the endowment was the divine tree.

In Lost Horizon.

Sub-dragon people regarded the Heister Tree as the source of all life, as well as their past and future lives.

During tribal rituals, they consumed the tree's sap, acquired a complete soul, were granted names, retained memories, altered genes, adapted to environments, and communicated with the divine tree, following unique religious guidance.

Historically, during the catastrophic destruction of the world, the Heister Tree summoned many Sub-dragon people and bestowed upon them power through its sap, to assault the Gate of Annihilation, opposing other powerful Demon Gods.

Sub-dragon people were the only mortal race that fought back against the Demon God's Annihilation Plane and won amidst the disaster!

All the power's root came from the mysterious Heister Tree.

Of course, this did not change the fact that Sub-dragon people still lived miserably due to the hive-mind-like spiritual links granted by the Tree God, leaving their race stagnant for a long time.

Ordinarily, Sub-dragon people were totally inept in combat.

Sub-dragon people living outside fared one worse than the next, usually becoming slaves or laborers, but if you threatened the safety of the Heister Tree, sorry, you'd face a frenzied army of War Lizards.

The Demon Legion would directly topple you!

.........

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