Moving House

After a hard-fought battle, Garen returned home and ate dinner. Then he sat on his bed to meditate, wanting to see how refining magical power through meditation would change now that his Soul Power had reached its current limit.

An hour later.

"Strengthening my Soul Power really is incredible. Before, two hours of meditation only gave me a few experience points. Now, just one hour gives me more than ten. At this rate, even without the system, reaching the Saint Realm would be easy. My talent is just too amazing now."

Still, a Soul Golden Bead was far beyond what a Saint Realm expert on an ordinary Material Plane could get their hands on. Who among ordinary Saint Realm experts could use one? Probably only the children of great families in the Higher Planes had that privilege.

This time, the Double-Horned Flood Dragon's death had been largely thanks to the Golden Sun Eagle. Since it hadn't comprehended any Laws and couldn't gain experience, Garen had turned off experience sharing.

"It's a pity the Golden Sun Eagle still isn't strong enough. It hasn't comprehended any Laws and Mysteries, so in a one-on-one fight against an ordinary Saint Realm magical beast, it'd barely come out even. Otherwise, I could be a capitalist by now—let it work for me while I lie back and collect experience."

At that thought, Garen suddenly felt an urge to go capture two more Saint Realm magical beasts. With three Saint Realm beasts working together, hunting ordinary Saint Realm magical beasts should be easy.

That night, Garen sat on his bed and began planning.

"The rules of the Coiling Dragon World say a person can make contracts with at most three magical beasts. I already have the Golden Sun Eagle, so I can contract with two more at most. I'll have to think carefully."

"Father's White Tiger bloodline is too weak. I'd already thought about bringing back a Saint Realm White Tiger to see if I could imitate a Dragonblood Warrior and have him drink the blood of a live Saint Realm tiger to awaken his Tiger-Striped Warrior bloodline. So one of the slots has to go to a Saint Realm tiger."

"Besides, there are only so many powerful magical beasts on land. With the vast amount of experience needed to comprehend Laws and Mysteries, even killing every ninth-level and Saint Realm magical beast on the Yulan Continent wouldn't be enough to reach the Low-level God level."

"The Graveyard of the Gods won't open anytime soon, so I can't go there to grind monsters. I'll have to set my sights on the sea.

"The Yulan Continent takes up less than one ten-thousandth of the Yulan Plane. The rest is all ocean, and the seas are full of magical beasts. There should be plenty of ninth-level and Saint Realm ones.

"The divine beast Ba Serpent is a sea beast, too. So I should look for a magical beast suited to underwater combat. My Fire-style and Wind-style magic and battle qi would be far less effective under the sea."

At the Ernst Institute, Garen had studied many books about Saint Realm magical beasts, complete with descriptions and illustrations. He settled on the Thunder-Winged White Tiger and the Flood Dragon as his remaining two targets.

The Thunder-Winged White Tiger was a Lightning-style beast, fast and powerful, and one of the top Saint Realm magical beasts.

The Flood Dragon was a Water-style beast. It had strong defenses, moved quickly underwater, and hit hard. It was also a top Saint Realm magical beast. More importantly, it resembled the divine dragons of Huaxia on his previous life's Blue Star, unlike the other dinosaur-like or lizard-like dragons. It suited Garen's taste.

With his plans settled, Garen lay down and went straight to sleep.

The next day, Garen went to the Sand Dragon's territory. Sand Dragons were Saint Realm members of the dragon race that lived in deserts. Earth-style magical beasts, they stood dozens of meters tall and stretched hundreds of meters long. Their bodies were covered in a layer of hard rock that gave them top-tier defenses among Saint Realm magical beasts, but they were slow.

Garen and the Golden Sun Eagle worked together, with Garen chipping away at the beast from the front.

Even with the God-Slaying Blade weakening it, Garen's Explosive Slash could only blast through the Sand Dragon's rocky armor and leave a minor wound. It quickly used nearby sand and gravel to fill in the gaps, so he couldn't seriously injure its real body.

Still, Garen faced the Sand Dragon without any pressure. Its movement and attack speeds were both far too slow to trouble him, and he handled it with ease.

The Golden Sun Eagle prepared to unleash its Dimensional Blade from above, ready to exploit the Sand Dragon's slowness and deliver a fatal blow.

No Saint Realm creature could withstand a Dimensional Blade head-on.

The man and eagle could communicate telepathically, and their teamwork was flawless.

The Sand Dragon was struck by the Dimensional Blade, which pierced straight through its body and left it badly wounded. Garen wore it down until it finally died.

Ding: Killed Saint Realm magical beast Sand Dragon. Gained 2,521 experience points.

Sure enough, killing another Saint Realm magical beast hadn't dropped anything.

Garen collected the Sand Dragon's Magic Crystal Core and headed home.

His final target was the Saint Realm Golden Snake King.

The Golden Snake King was a small, incredibly fast Saint Realm magical beast. Its defenses were weak, but unlike the Sand Dragon, its greatest danger lay in its venom. Even a Saint Realm expert at the peak would die if poisoned, unless they had a Life Source Bead.

But Garen had no trouble dealing with it. He was already fast after transforming into a Saint Realm Tiger-Striped Warrior. With his Gemstone, ninth-level Wind Shadow Art, and the support of the Wind Element mysteries, probably only peak Saint Realm experts were faster than him.

As a flying Saint Realm magical beast, the Golden Sun Eagle also naturally countered the Golden Snake King. After reaching the Saint Realm, the Golden Sun Eagle was only a little slower than Garen in his White Tiger Transformation, even with his comprehension of the Wind Element Laws. And Fire-style magical beasts had an advantage against poison, since flames countered venom.

The Golden Sun Eagle took the lead while Garen supported it.

The Golden Sun Eagle instantly cast the ninth-level spell Vacuum Bind, briefly restraining the Golden Snake King. Then it seized the snake in its sharp talons and carried it into the sky.

The venom the Golden Snake King spat while airborne was dispelled by the flames radiating from the Golden Sun Eagle.

The Golden Sun Eagle grabbed the snake by its tail and gave it a powerful shake. Most of the Golden Snake King's energy scattered, leaving it unable to gather its strength. Garen seized the opening, drew the God-Slaying Blade, and further weakened the snake with its killing aura. He struck with all his might—and landed a critical hit, cutting the Golden Snake King in two.

Garen realized that some magical beasts had weaknesses in their bodies or habits no matter what level they reached. Only top-tier Saint Realm magical beasts were generally free of such weaknesses.

These included the Saint Realm Purple-Gold Rat King, Purple-Eyed Golden Ape, Golden Behemoth, Thunder-Winged White Tiger, Seven-Colored Divine Dragon, Six-Eyed Golden Lion, and others.

He gained another two thousand or so experience points and a Saint Realm Magic Crystal Core. Garen's monster-hunting campaign in the Blazing Sun Desert had finally come to an end.

During this time, his mother, Irene, had stayed home refining and absorbing Phoenix Blood Fruits. The first fruit was the most effective, with each one after that having a weaker effect. After all, the Phoenix Blood Fruit's primary purpose was to improve one's Fire Element affinity, and neither magical beasts nor humans could improve endlessly.

Even so, after absorbing six Phoenix Blood Fruits, Irene had reached the late seventh level as a mage. She was just one step away from reaching the eighth level.

"Mother already had superlative Fire Element affinity, and she still reached the seventh level in these conditions. With the Phoenix Blood Fruits enhancing her talent, she has a very good chance of reaching the Saint Realm someday."

Garen could roughly guess what the Phoenix Blood Fruits could do. Even the Golden Sun Eagle, which had only been an eighth-level magical beast as an adult, had reached the Saint Realm.

It was extremely difficult for magical beasts to break through their racial limits, let alone advance by two levels. The Phoenix Blood Fruit's effects were clear.

After finishing his monster hunt in the Blazing Sun Desert, Garen spent a while relaxing at home. He decided to wait until his mother had absorbed all ten Phoenix Blood Fruits and see if she could break through to the eighth level.

In the meantime, he discussed with his parents where they should move in the future.

The Yulan Empire and the O'Brien Empire both had God Realm experts keeping watch, and Garen didn't want to go there for now. He'd be subject to too many restrictions.

The Dark Alliance and Light Alliance were out of the question, too. The Yulan Empire and the Magical Beast Mountain Range lay between them and his family, making travel inconvenient. Besides, he didn't know whether Linley had released Dylan. If he had, going to the Magical Beast Mountain Range now would be extremely dangerous. And with the Radiant Church as an enemy there, they definitely wouldn't go.

There was no need to consider the Chaotic Territory or the Eighteen Northern Duchies, either: one was a chaotic mess, and the other was covered in ice and snow.

The sparsely populated Far East Prairie wasn't far from their home, and life there wouldn't be much different from where they lived now.

In the end, the three of them decided to settle in a city in either the Rhine Empire or the Luo'ao Empire.