Flame Wolf Unicorn

Three days later, Wild Mountain Range.

"I'm so hungry."

Zhu Jin had left Dragon Island three days ago and had finally settled down, finding a cave on a sheer cliff to live in. He casually tossed aside the slightly charred bone in his hand, then slumped down inside the cave and patted his round belly. With a swish of his dragon tail, he swept all the bloodied bones over the cliff.

It was hard to imagine that a magical beast that had just eaten its fill would still be muttering about being hungry.

"No wonder those guys on Dragon Island look down on dragons who go to the Beast Domain, thinking they've fallen into disgrace. Turns out they simply can't get enough to eat." Zhu Jin's face was full of sorrow as he slowly stood up. His belly, which had been bulging moments ago, visibly deflated.

Over the past three days since leaving Dragon Island, Zhu Jin had quickly understood why so many young dragons, even those with low-grade bloodlines, refused to leave Dragon Island. It was because they could not even get enough food outside! Zhu Jin had originally thought dragons were like humans, needing only something to eat. But he had overlooked one thing: a magical beast's cultivation method was the power of its bloodline. As long as it ate its fill, its cultivation could improve.

And because of that, eating was cultivation.

Energy density—over these three days, Zhu Jin had realized that if he only ate Tier One or Tier Two magical beasts, he would never be full. For someone like him, a Tier Four magical beast with the cultivation of a one-star Dou Ling, the energy density contained in the flesh and blood of Tier One and Tier Two magical beasts was far too low.

If he ate only Tier One magical beasts, a Tier Four magical beast like Zhu Jin might starve to death. If he hunted only Tier Two magical beasts, the energy spent hunting them would be difficult to replenish. Only Tier Three magical beasts had enough energy density to barely sustain his physical exertion and give Zhu Jin a slight feeling of fullness.

If he wanted to raise his cultivation, Zhu Jin needed to hunt Tier Four magical beasts. Otherwise, forget about slowly advancing—his cultivation might even remain stuck where it was.

Zhu Jin frowned and muttered, "Dragon Island lies within the void, so the energy of heaven and earth there is naturally quite abundant. But here in the Beast Domain, there is practically no energy of heaven and earth to absorb through breathing. It can only be replenished through eating. Tsk, no wonder the book said Zi Yan searched for medicinal pills and herbs to eat every day, even going so far as to sneak into Jia Nan Academy's medicinal herb storehouse and chew on herbs."

"With Zi Yan's bloodline power, she was probably hungry every day. Ordinary magical beast flesh simply couldn't feed a Dragon Emperor of the Ancient Void Dragon Clan." Zhu Jin gritted his teeth, ashamed of the soul of a seasoned reader who claimed to know Battle Through the Heavens inside out. He had failed to notice such an obvious hidden detail.

When Zi Yan met Xiao Yan in the book, she had taken a liking to him because he could refine medicine and extract the essence from medicinal herbs for her. She was also constantly searching everywhere for medicinal herbs. He had thought it was because Zi Yan wanted to improve her cultivation, but now it seemed she was simply hungry. The energy density of ordinary food was too low; eating it was no different from eating nothing.

"These tightly interlocking logical details... could Heavenly Silkworm Potato really have visited the Dou Qi Continent?" Zhu Jin secretly nodded. He felt it was genuinely possible. Otherwise, how could Heavenly Silkworm Potato have written it so well?

Just as Zhu Jin was talking to himself and pondering the matter, a rustling sound suddenly came from the cave entrance. Several small magical beasts with yellowish-green skin, barely half a meter tall and walking on two legs, cautiously approached the cave.

Wild Mountain Goblins, Tier One magical beasts. They were the lowest-grade magical beasts inhabiting the Wild Mountain ravines and abandoned mining areas. Cowardly and cunning by nature, they excelled at using acidic fluid to corrode prey. They mainly fed on carrion, moved in groups, and were among the most common magical beasts in the Wild Mountain Range.

These Wild Mountain Goblins were the magical beasts Zhu Jin had encountered on his first day in the Beast Domain. He had originally intended to eat them to fill his stomach, but ultimately decided against it. Aside from their foul acidic stench, the more important reason was that Zhu Jin needed subordinates familiar with the Wild Mountain Range, and these spineless goblins who worshipped strength made the best servants.

"Chirp chirp, sizzle sizzle, smack smack!" The leading Wild Mountain Goblin chattered and gestured wildly before finally pointing in a certain direction.

As one of the most powerful magical beasts on the Dou Qi Continent, the Ancient Void Dragon was born with a special soul Dou Technique—Dragon Sense. Put simply, it allowed them to use soul power to roughly perceive another's thoughts. Ordinary low-level magical beasts possessed no intelligence and could only communicate through soul power.

Hearing this, Zhu Jin narrowed his eyes slightly and softly said, "I've finally found a Tier Four magical beast."

The intelligence brought back by the Wild Mountain Goblins was simple: the location of a Tier Four magical beast. The Wild Mountain Range truly lived up to the word "wild." There were almost no heavenly treasures around. Forget precious medicinal herbs—even ordinary Grade One and Grade Two herbs were scarce, naturally resulting in the low levels of its magical beasts.

Following the Wild Mountain Goblins' intelligence, Zhu Jin did not travel by land but flew through the sky. After all, apart from magical beasts born with the ability to fly, only those with Dou Wang cultivation could form Dou Qi Transformation Wings and gain the ability to fly.

Recalling the records in the Beast Domain Magical Beast Compendium he had found on Dragon Island, Zhu Jin looked at the enormous beast below drinking from the basin and smiled. "Oh, so it's a Tier Four Flame Wolf Unicorn."

The Tier Four Flame Wolf Unicorn combined the wolf's agility and ferocity with the unicorn's noble majesty. It stood nearly five meters tall, its body covered in patterns like molten lava and radiating scorching heat waves. Most distinctively, a unique spiraling horn grew from its forehead. Liquid flames seemed to be sealed within the horn.

Looking at the Flame Wolf Unicorn drinking from the lake below, Zhu Jin's golden eyes narrowed as he stared at its horn. "The Flame Wolf Unicorn's fiery horn contains a special beast-flame seed. Although it is only an ordinary beast flame, it is the dream alchemical flame of relatively low-level alchemists, such as Grade Two and Grade Three alchemists."

Zhu Jin had been reborn for nearly eleven years, so he naturally understood that the real Dou Qi Continent differed somewhat from the book. The greatest difference was that Heavenly Flames were actually incredibly rare. It was not as if one could find them just by looking. The Dou Qi Continent was so vast that the odds of encountering a Heavenly Flame were about the same as finding a needle in the sea. What most alchemists truly sought were beast flames, because they were easier to obtain and easier to control.

Thus, beast flames had always been in short supply among alchemists, and they could even be cultivated. Take the Purple Flame Xiao Yan obtained at the beginning. It had originally been the beast flame of the Amethyst Winged Lion King. Later, due to the Companion Amethyst Source, Xiao Yan obtained a wisp of it. After being nurtured by the Companion Amethyst Source, that Purple Flame became stronger than ordinary Dou Qi flames.

Before obtaining the Green Lotus Core Flame, Xiao Yan had relied entirely on that Purple Flame to show off.

The beast flame of a Tier Four Flame Wolf Unicorn could naturally be cultivated into a mature Tier Four beast flame. Though it was inferior to the Purple Flame of the Tier Six Amethyst Winged Lion King, it was enough for an ordinary alchemist to show off with.

"This Tier Four beast flame should be exchangeable for some Grade Four medicinal pills or herbs... Heh, no matter what world you're in, only by doing it yourself can you live well. Staying at home may be comfortable, but you would never get the chance to obtain a beast flame."

"You're the one!"

From midair, Zhu Jin locked his gaze onto the Flame Wolf Unicorn below. In an instant, Dragon Soars Through Nine Heavens—he plummeted from the sky!