GREED: ALL FOR WHAT?

Chapter 1213 Rearing Dragons.

Tanc830,428,723C didn't know what Legion-5 was thinking about. He continued to speak with the tone of a teacher, "That's good. The earlier you understand the difference between knowledge and wisdom, the better for you. The acquisition of wisdom is a very important reason why we hold the rite of passage. It is necessary to acquire it if you are to survive the body, soul, and mind tribulation to become an Origin god."

"Many races do something like this to broaden the horizon of their young generation and ensure that the resources used on them will not go to waste. Some races rely on the trial of heaven to weed out the weak and help their young gain experience. Some rely on creating false enemies for their young generation to fight."

That last one made Tanc830,428,723C laugh. He shared the reason for his amusement. "Like the high elves. They are our ancestors and they used to be worthy of that title. They were a mighty race that used to be able to withstand war and pressure from multiple enemies at once. They suffered but they managed to defend the bodies of their ancestors from exploitation. Then the realm lord came and they lost their sharpness."

"They never fight anymore or have conflicts with others so they live in peace most of the time. Peace has made them rot in body and mind. It made their ascension rate to Origin god fall below 10% despite the abundance of life essence. They were so far gone that the leaders of their race had to allow demons to invade them occasionally so that they would gain experience."

"Anyways, the need to acquire wisdom and life experience, especially the experience needed to survive, is a common thing across many races. We don't go so far as to put all of you in a sealed arena and make you fight to the death until only a few of you are left alive as some races do, but we will put you through some things that will force you to make intelligent choices or be left behind by your peers."

Legion-5 asked skeptically, "Didn't we go through the blood crucible and only a few of us survived?"

Tanc830,428,723C snorted. "That doesn't count. The blood crucible is more of a trial of luck than skill. There was no equal opportunity to survive in that some had 11 months to train while some had 1 month and we were not even allowed to choose our opponents. It was all random. We were just kids given dangerous weapons to kill and eat each other."

They breached the divine plane and entered the main plane. Then they fell from the sky towards the ground.

Tanc830,428,723C asked him, "We are about to reach our destination. Do you have any other questions?"

"You said that dragon hearts are limited and not everyone in your rite of passage could get one. Why is that so? Why not rear dragons like we do other races?"

That made Tanc830,428,723C laugh. "Rear dragons. That is funny and so audacious. You think like a Supreme beast."

Legion-5 asked in confusion, "What's so funny about it?"

"It is not your fault that the idea of rearing dragons is funny now. It wasn't funny when the Supreme Alliance tried to do it. But they failed terribly. The dragons attacked the Supreme Alliance in a frenzy. They could track every egg due to the dragon spirit so there was no way to rear them in secrecy."

"The dragon eggs also refused to hatch after a while. The first batch that hatched in captivity committed suicide. It couldn't be stopped no matter what we did. They could always tell when they were in captivity and would refuse to live because of their pride."

"The rest became informed whenever a dragon committed suicide around them and refused to hatch. We were getting next to nothing for our effort and wasn't worth it to continue trying to rear them because of the hostility of the dragons. Then the dragons began targeting our hatcheries so we had to call a truce with them."

Legion-5 observed, "So the dragon race can match the Supreme Alliance."

Tanc830,428,723C couldn't refute that. "In a way yes. But that's only when the dragon spirit unites them. Other than that dragons are mostly alone and are targets for easy pickings. So that's what we did. We gave up on rearing them and decided to just hunt them. The dragon spirit won't do anything as long as our actions don't threaten their whole race."

"We have been able to maintain relative peace with them by limiting the amount of dragons we hunt. But that has also made dragon hearts rare and difficult to acquire in the rite of passage. You have to meet the requirements for a dragon heart very early or you will miss out on one of the great divine abilities."

"That will be all for now. We are here."

Legion-5 looked around at their destination. There is a pillar at the center of the plane. It is a mechanical pillar made of gleaming steel and moving gears. At the top of the pillar is a flat square platform surrounded by mechanical airships and floating fortresses. The platform is much wider than the pillar so it looks like a landmass while the pillar is its foundation.

Legion-5 looked towards the direction of the planar portal. He doesn't have eyes so he had to extend his divine sense in that direction. It drew the attention of his mentor.

"What are you looking at?" Tanc830,428,723C asked him.

He lied. "I was looking at the sea of despair."

He was looking for Legion-7.

Tanc830,428,723C nodded. "There is a sea of despair here too. But it is not as grand as the one I showed you. Three Supreme Beasts took down the plane not one. The defenders were also poorer in quantity and quality. They put their fate in their Origin ancestors. They thought that their ancestors would be able to pressure the Supreme Alliance with violence or convince us to give up the plane."

Tanc830,428,723C snickered. "It didn't turn out well."