Why the Jinouga Split

Ever since that unusually distinctive Jinouga had left the Ancient Tree Area that day, the number of Jinouga in the area had plummeted. They could no longer completely control the vast territory they had once occupied.

Seizing this opportunity, the monsters whose living space had previously been squeezed rushed into the Ancient Tree Area. Faced with an overwhelming numerical disadvantage, even though the Jinouga still operated in groups, they were steadily beaten back and rapidly forced to shrink their territory.

Every day, all kinds of large carnivorous dragons died. The Ancient Tree Area's ecosystem, which had been on the verge of collapse because of Chameleos, recovered with astonishing speed amid the battles between these carnivorous dragons.

The mass deaths of carnivorous dragons gave small carnivores and omnivores ample food. They no longer needed to hunt the already scarce small environmental creatures.

With fewer carnivorous dragons, the herbivore dragons in many hunting grounds had enough space and time to breed. In this relatively safe environment, their numbers grew at an incredible rate.

As the number of herbivore dragons increased, their range naturally expanded as well. Fruit pits, seeds, and similar things that had not been digested fell elsewhere along with their droppings. In environments with ample nutrients and suitable temperatures, the seeds quickly sprouted, took root in the earth, and filled the gaps in the forest.

Luo Yun was truly quite satisfied with the current environment.

The middle and lower levels of the Ancient Tree were fiercely contested, yet every side tacitly avoided causing trouble on the upper levels.

Of course, that was also because there was nothing much on the upper levels of the Ancient Tree, and they were only suitable for flying creatures.

As time passed and more and more original inhabitants of the Ancient Tree returned, life became increasingly difficult for the diminished Jinouga pack.

Yet it was in this moment of crisis that Luo Yun finally met the Jinouga leader, who had never shown itself before.

When he first saw it, the Jinouga leader was hunting in a nearby hunting ground. Its body was not much larger than that of an ordinary Jinouga. The only difference was that the lightning it summoned carried faint threads of golden light.

The carapace scales all over its body showed signs of cracking. The pair of horns atop its head, shaped like wolf ears, were much larger than those of an ordinary Jinouga. Yet upon closer inspection, those horns were not particularly sharp, and seemed to carry an overall air of decay.

Judging by its appearance alone, it was undoubtedly a warrior hardened by countless battles. Those cracked scales and broken carapace were marks of its glory.

But Luo Yun understood that this Jinouga's body was in an extremely dangerous state.

This was not how the leader of a Jinouga pack should look.

Broken scales could be shed and replaced, while damaged carapace could be worn away and regrown. There were only two possibilities for allowing its appearance to remain in such a state.

The first was severe malnutrition. Due to a lack of food, it needed to conserve enough strength to prioritize its combat ability. Thus, it would replace its scales only after the damage had reached a certain point and begun to affect its body's defenses.

This was most obvious in Female Fire Dragon mothers living alone in the Great Antlion Desert while raising their young. These mothers would often only actively replace their scales after their Hatchling Dragons could survive on their own, or before they needed to go to the Ancient Forest to find their Male Fire Dragons.

The second was years of battle. Too many injuries had caused the energy stored within its body to fall out of proportion with its consumption. Its energy income could no longer cover its expenditure, leaving it able to seek only a slim chance of recovery through outside help.

Clearly, the Jinouga leader was currently in precisely this condition.

The Jinouga pack had not split apart. Rather, it had allowed that young Jinouga, one with the potential to become the Jinouga King, to take part of the ordinary Jinouga and the young back to their original territory as the seeds of the pack.

That was also why that Jinouga had not allowed the other Jinouga to clash with Luo Yun and Ya Ji. They simply had no confidence that they could keep Luo Yun and Ya Ji there.

There was no such thing as becoming friends after a fight between monsters. They were all quite petty.

The two partially eaten herbivore dragon corpses had thoroughly enraged Luo Yun and Ya Ji. What if they deliberately targeted the young during the migration of that Jinouga group with its young?

Therefore, that Jinouga chose to avoid them and proactively left that hunting ground.

After arranging for part of the Jinouga to leave, the Jinouga leader remained in the Ancient Tree Area with the rest, intending to use the Life Energy of the Ley Line Node here for a desperate gamble.

If it won, its injuries would recover, and its strength might advance even further.

If it lost, not only would it die, but the Jinouga, having lost their leader, would become a disorganized rabble.

A lone Jinouga occupied roughly the same Ecological Niche as a Great Jagras. Without their leader, the Jinouga pack would only be torn apart in fury by the original inhabitants of the Ancient Tree Area. Those who survived would either find a way to return to their territory near the Great Canyon.

Or they would tuck their tails and live like dragons, adapt to life in the Ancient Tree Area, and become part of its ecological chain.

The days passed one by one, and Luo Yun's daily life began to become plain and unadorned.

In the Ancient Tree Area, where the number of carnivorous dragons had drastically decreased, there was now so much food that he could not possibly finish it all.

Every day, he either leisurely patrolled the skies above his territory or lay down and absorbed Earth Vein Energy.

Basking in an environment filled with such dense Life Energy, Luo Yun's growth rate advanced by leaps and bounds. Like Ya Ji's, his scales were deep red, with flecks of silver glinting beneath the sunlight. Moreover, the proportion of silver grew larger and larger.

Besides these daily routines, Luo Yun had also tried to join Ya Ji in ambushing the Veteran Great Jagras.

But that Great Jagras's sense of smell was far too keen. Whenever it caught Ya Ji's scent, regardless of where she was, it would immediately flee without hesitation.

Its enormous body, nearly twenty meters long, combined with the complex terrain of the lower Ancient Tree Area, made every ambush end in failure whenever it was determined to escape.

During their closest attempt at success, it still escaped by leaping into an underground river.

That bastard was truly hard to kill!

If Ya Ji had not been there, it would have been willing to fight Luo Yun to the death after he landed. Yet with Luo Yun's current abilities, he still could not kill it head-on in the cramped lower levels, where his ability to fly was greatly restricted. The situation had reached a stalemate.

Still, Luo Yun believed that, given his rate of growth, even if this Great Jagras transformed into a Thunder Jaw Dragon, he would be confident of killing it head-on in the future.

Moreover, as Luo Yun grew, he had a feeling that this Great Jagras would be an opportunity for his transformation. He simply could not yet understand what that opportunity was, or why it had to be this particular Great Jagras.