I Chovy, There's Paste!

"Roasted chicken wings, I love eating them." Zhu Jin took out the two wings he had torn from the Iron-winged Vulture from his storage space, then squatted beside the Flame Wolf Unicorn leader's den, set up a rack, and began roasting them.

The Ancient Void Dragons were true gourmands. Their race was naturally skilled with fire, so the Ancient Void Dragon Clan rarely ate raw meat. They ate everything cooked.

Zhu Jin picked items out of his storage space one by one. These were all the "scrap metal" he had taken from his old nest on North Dragon Island. For example, several jars filled with black liquid—his precious treasures. Over the past decade, he had sampled all kinds of bizarre plant juices from North Dragon Island and selected Ancient Void Dragon versions of seasonings closest to soy sauce, oyster sauce, peanut sauce, and sesame paste.

Using his dragon claws as knives, Zhu Jin quickly stripped all the feathers from the Iron-winged Vulture's massive wings and scored the meat so it would absorb the flavor better. Every cut soaked up the sauce.

After being reborn as a dragon, Zhu Jin understood one thing: if he did not love himself, no one else would. So he never mistreated himself. He had to eat well, drink well, and sleep well.

"This place really isn't bad. The fire-element Dou Qi of heaven and earth may not be as dense as North Dragon Island's, but it's still far better than that shabby cave. And I can even do griddle cooking." As soon as Zhu Jin finished speaking, the wings in his hands sizzled, oil gleaming across their surface as a caramelized fragrance wafted out.

Dragon Sense activated. Zhu Jin's soul power penetrated every strand of the wings, ensuring the heat was controlled perfectly. Before long, Dragon Sense sent him three words: Time to eat.

"Using soul perception to grill meat is absolutely unbeatable." Zhu Jin made metal skewers from the Iron-winged Vulture's iron wings, threaded the meat onto them, and took a sniff. A slightly spicy roasted-meat aroma rushed into his nose. "Watch closely. This bite is going to feel amazing."

Zhu Jin hesitated no longer and bit down. With a crunch, the crisp yet tender skin broke apart, producing a sound that shook the soul. Rich meat juices flowed out, and the layered flavors of the seasonings blossomed across his tongue. But flavor was not the most important part. Once Zhu Jin swallowed the meat, a powerful, terrifying energy exploded in his stomach, followed by a savage Dou Qi that spread throughout his body.

This was how magical beasts cultivated. As long as they ate their fill and ate well, their bloodline would circulate on its own, absorbing the energy from food, converting it into Dou Qi, sending it throughout the body, and finally gathering it inside their Dou Crystals.

The cultivation systems of magical beasts and humans were fundamentally the same: both cultivated Dou Qi. The defining sign of advancing from Dou Qi to Dou Zhe was condensing Dou Qi into a vortex. A Dou Zhe's advancement turned Dou Qi into liquid energy, a Da Dou Shi's turned it into solid energy, while a Dou Ling condensed Dou Qi into a Dou Crystal covered in spikes.

Zhu Jin was a Tier Four magical beast, so he naturally possessed a spiked Dou Crystal within his body. After he polished off both of the Iron-winged Vulture's wings, even licking the metal skewers clean, a savage surge of Dou Qi energy wore away half of one spike on his Dou Crystal.

Zhu Jin examined his body inwardly and thought, The defining feature of a Dou Ling is a Dou Crystal with nine spikes. Once the Dou Crystal is worn smooth, that means reaching the peak of a nine-star Dou Ling. It may wear down quickly now, but the farther I get, the harder the spikes will be to grind away.

Zhu Jin slowly opened his eyes, propped his dragon chin on a claw, and lightly slapped his tail against the ground. After pondering for a moment, he said, "It looks like I'm improving quickly, but all the Iron-winged Vulture's essence was in those wings. The body probably doesn't have much energy left. I'll save the rest for when I'm hungry and use it to fill my stomach."

Since leaving North Dragon Island, this was the first time Zhu Jin had eaten his fill and still had leftover energy to improve his cultivation. Over the past few days, he had essentially been going hungry, much less grinding down the spikes on his Dou Crystal.

"Sure enough, eating well, drinking well, and sleeping well are what make you grow. I won't save the other two for tomorrow either. Today is for eating. Once I'm full, I'll sleep. Everything after that can wait until after that."

After thinking it over, Zhu Jin decided not to save them. He first took out the Mountain-moving Ape's corpse. The Flame Wolf Unicorn's body had been blown apart by his punch, effectively pre-cut for him. Only the Mountain-moving Ape's body remained relatively intact and needed to be chopped up.

With a metallic ring, Zhu Jin extended his sharp dragon claws. One swipe was all it took, and in three quick strokes, he carved apart the ten-meter-tall Mountain-moving Ape.

"Huh?! I chovy—there's paste!"

A gleaming yellow bead came into Zhu Jin's dragon sight. "There's paste" was slang among young Ancient Void Dragons, meaning that a magical beast had a Magic Core inside it. After all, young dragons initially lived with food brought right to them, waiting to be fed. Every day, they received fresh food.

But generally, they were only given the corpses of Tier One and Tier Two magical beasts. Complete corpses of magical beasts above Tier Three were rare. They were usually butchered first, with only portions of meat distributed. Any Magic Cores would be taken away and never reach the young dragons' hands.

That was because Magic Cores within magical beasts were extremely rare. The lower the magical beast's tier, the lower the drop rate. The Tier One and Tier Two magical beasts that existed in the greatest numbers had absurdly low drop rates.

Yet even for Tier Three and Tier Four magical beasts, the drop rate for Magic Cores was still pitifully low. Zhu Jin had never expected his luck to be so good—one of the three Tier Four magical beasts had actually dropped a Magic Core! Back when he was on North Dragon Island, he had never once eaten a Magic Core.

Zhu Jin stared at the Magic Core in his hand and fell into thought. A Magic Core was an energy crystal found inside magical beasts, filled with extremely violent energy of heaven and earth. Even a Dou Wang would not dare forcibly absorb such violent energy at the risk of exploding apart.

More importantly, Magic Cores were indispensable primary ingredients in alchemy. Once refined with secret techniques by alchemists, their violent properties could be neutralized by certain miraculous herbs, transforming them into all kinds of strength-enhancing medicinal pills coveted by countless people!

Put simply, the main source of a medicinal pill's energy was actually a Magic Core. Furthermore, Magic Cores could be embedded into weapons. Weapons enhanced with Magic Cores would not only become more destructive, but would also gain the tempting effect of amplifying Dou Qi.

Zhu Jin clearly remembered that, when Xiao Yan was still in Wutan City in the book, he needed a wood-element Magic Core. At the time, Xun Er had nearly accepted Jia Lie Ao's Magic Core bracelet because Xiao Yan needed one, causing some conflict with Xiao Yan. The bracelet's most special feature was its Tier One wood-element Magic Core, which greatly enhanced the recovery of Dou Qi.

With so many effects, Magic Cores naturally became the most popular mainstream material on the Dou Qi Continent. Not only cultivators, but even those noble alchemists often humbled themselves and searched the world for high-tier Magic Cores in order to refine higher-grade medicinal pills.

"The Mountain-moving Ape was a Tier Four magical beast with the cultivation of a three-star Dou Ling. This earth-element Magic Core should be worth several decent Tier Three medicinal pills, or perhaps even a main ingredient for a Grade Four pill." After pondering for a moment, Zhu Jin abandoned the idea of exchanging the Magic Core for medicinal pills or herbs.

"There's no need. I haven't even established myself in the Wild Mountain Range yet. It wouldn't be appropriate to deal with alchemists so soon. Medicinal pills can wait. Right now, strength is what matters most." Having sorted out his thoughts, Zhu Jin stopped hesitating and directly tossed the Mountain-moving Ape's Magic Core into his mouth.

With a crunch, he bit it apart and swallowed it.

Boom!!!

"What is this?!"