When they reached two hundred meters below, the water pressure rose exponentially. Just as Austin felt he couldn't hold on any longer, he suddenly saw a faint blue light emerge from the pitch-black lakebed.
"Have we arrived?"
The Blue Young Dragon's face lit up with joy, and it sped toward the lakebed.
In just a moment, Austin felt as if he had entered a magical world. On the ground of the lakebed, dandelion-like plants swayed with the current, emitting a ghostly blue glow.
One after another, they connected into a patch, illuminating the entire lakebed.
At the same time, the seeds of the "dandelions" detached from their mother plants, gathering together with the water flow to form radiant bands resembling the Milky Way. They hovered in the blue world above, drifting upward with the wind.
The tiny lights, upon reaching a height of over ten meters, seemed to exhaust all their energy and extinguished. Immediately, schools of fish, coming from unknown places, darted down to devour them.
The blue dandelions absorbed unknown energy from the lakebed to grow and glow, releasing seeds that rose with the water flow, only to be devoured by strange fish, forming a peculiar symbiotic system.
"This is..."
The vast blue light reflected in his pupils, illuminating the entire world.
Anyone who had never witnessed this scene could hardly imagine the grandeur and wondrous beauty of this world.
Even Austin was stunned for a long moment by this scene.
"What exactly are these dandelions? And what lies beneath the lakebed to sustain these strange plants' growth..."
A cascade of questions surged in Austin's mind as he flapped his wings and darted toward the lakebed.
However, just when the Blue Young Dragon entered the blue light band area, the dandelion seeds on Austin abruptly exploded, and ghostly blue flames spread across the Blue Young Dragon's scales, roaring with the ferocity of an overwhelming blaze, as if intending to engulf Austin.
"Oh no!"
Feeling a sharp pain coursing through his body, Austin's face changed dramatically. Just as the blue flames were about to envelop him, he frantically flapped his wings and fled upward.
The turbulent water oscillated until he exited the blue band range, and only then did the blue flames on Austin's body extinguish completely.
Even so, the scales of the Blue Young Dragon turned pitch black, as if they had been singed by smoke and fire.
"What on earth is this thing!"
Grimacing at the pain and looking at the extensive burns on his body, Austin gasped.
No wonder the fish chose to consume the extinguished dandelion seeds from above; these things were surprisingly dangerous. Even Austin, with his Dragon Race body, was so beleaguered upon contact. If ordinary fish had been touched by it, they likely would have been reduced to ashes.
Austin gazed intently at the fantastical fairy tale world beneath him. If he hadn't personally tested it, he wouldn't believe that such dazzling beauty concealed such terrifying threats.
The sea of light below continued to sway gently with the current, quietly emanating brilliant rays. The light bands that Austin had disturbed gradually returned to their previous order and appearance, as if nothing had happened.
After watching for a long time, Austin felt only a heavy sense of threat and a faintly peculiar sensation from that sea of light; he discovered nothing else.
"Forget it, I'm not capable of unraveling this mystery now, but someday, I will uncover everything."
Realizing he couldn't stay beneath the lake any longer, Austin glanced deeply at the sea of light below before turning away.
The ghostly blue dandelions continued to quietly spread their tiny lights, extinguishing after hovering over ten meters high, only to be devoured by eager fish.
Everything was as usual, as if nothing had occurred.
However, Austin didn't notice that those fish which had devoured the "dandelion" seeds briefly showed a weak blue glow between the scales beneath their bellies, flashing quickly...
...
As time passed, the cold winter days drew nearer. The vast blue sky became even clearer and more azure, like a gigantic block of ice, with visible cold spreading across the heavens as if sealing the entire sky.
The Kobolds filled their days completely. After the morning's routine drills, they spent every remaining moment gathering food. Although they had already collected enough provisions to survive the cold winter, an inherent instinct drove them onward.
Memories from their ancestors reminded them that every cold winter brought unbearable hunger, and only by preparing more food could they survive the harsh winter season.
To prevent blizzards from eroding their shelter, the simple houses once on trees had been relocated to the ground. Wooden stakes were pounded in, sturdy branches reinforced the construction, and straw was woven with vines and tied to the poles.
Meanwhile, beside the houses, a small warehouse was built right against them. Inside, a layer of dry straw was laid on the ground; on top of that were pieces of sun-dried and hardened crocodile skin. Above lay several large baskets of smoked meat and nuts, seeds, and various wild grains gathered from the forest.
With the arrival of cold winter, the trees in the forest also cycled through their final stages, releasing fruits born from nine months of stored summer energy. This time was when the Kawa Forest was richest in food.
Every time the Kobolds ventured out, they returned laden with goods, rapidly filling warehouses. They amassed supplies far beyond their winter needs.
Seeing the warehouses overflow with food, it was said that one day the oldest limping Kobold in the tribe opened the warehouse doors and, gazing at the bounty, couldn't help but cry.
The sight was like a dream; in the old Kobold's decades-long life, they never imagined that something only dreamt of would become reality.
Everything was improving. With time on their hands, the Kobolds even constructed a fence around the houses, faintly giving the appearance of a tribe.
Time meandered on, and a few days later,
the world changed color overnight.