Phoenix Heart

Though worried, Jose was powerless to change anything.

The only thing he could do was learn more about the current battle situation, so that when danger came, he would not be left standing there in confusion.

He looked around, searching for someone he could gather information from.

The Blue Dragon?

Forget it. Blue Dragons had violent tempers. It would be terrible if he failed to get any information and got beaten up instead.

The White Dragon?

Never mind. With that pitiful brain capacity, the White Dragon probably could not even remember what it had eaten for its last meal.

The Golden Dragon?

Strange. Why was there a Golden Dragon here?

Golden Dragons belonged to the good faction and were enemies of the Five-Colored Evil Dragons. No matter how he thought about it, one should not have been here.

After thinking it over, he remembered. This Golden Dragon was a slave captured by the Red Nest Matriarch. Bound by a contract, she was a slave soldier, and because the Five-Colored Young Dragons collectively excluded her, she had little presence.

Jose considered whether it was feasible to ask the Golden Dragon for information. Although they were enemies, Golden Dragons were kind by nature, so at least he would not have to worry about a conflict breaking out.

He could give it a try. The Golden Dragon happened to be lying right in front of him.

"Hey! Friend up ahead! Don't look at anyone else! I'm talking to you!"

The Golden Dragon looked wary. "I don't remember knowing you."

Jose froze. It was actually a loli voice.

No, according to dragon age classifications, a female Golden Dragon hatchling was a loli.

"I'm the one-of-a-kind Francisco Trinidad Jose. Now we know each other, right? What's your name?"

"Yaligris."

The Golden Dragon Loli's voice was anything but friendly, even carrying undisguised wariness. Still, Jose knew he had successfully taken a step closer to his goal.

After some friendly small talk, the process of asking for information went smoothly. Through the Golden Dragon Loli, Jose learned that the battlefield had advanced considerably closer to the Red Nest.

He had a bad feeling about it.

"Damn it! Is the Red Nest about to be finished?!"

When the nest was overturned, how could any egg remain intact? If the Red Nest Matriarch failed, and he was still seriously wounded, his fate was easy to imagine. Either he would be killed and dismembered, his body parts openly priced like pork or dog meat in a market, or he would be captured alive and reduced to a mount or pet.

How could a true man living between heaven and earth suffer the humiliation of being ridden?!

"If a pretty elf girl wanted to take turns riding me..."

Two days later.

"Get up, all of you!" A frenzied roar exploded at the cave entrance, accompanied by the crackling sounds of a whip striking the wall.

"You lazy vermin! Get up and win victory for the Matriarch!"

Jose looked up and saw a Gnoll shrouded in a thin cloud of dust. This Gnoll was practically a different species from its wild kin. It was twice the size of an ordinary Gnoll, and its brown fur, mottled with silver-gray spots, stood straight up like steel needles.

Its equipment was also far beyond that of an ordinary wild monster. It held a long whip in one hand and a serrated broadsword in the other, while wearing a set of iron-studded leather armor with frayed edges. The leather armor was stained a sinister dark red—the color of dried blood.

Dragon-blooded Gnoll Overseer!

During wartime, the Overseer had the authority to execute soldiers who avoided battle. The Dragon Hatchlings reluctantly got to their feet and gradually left the cave, leaving only Jose in the corner.

Jose tried his best to curl himself up and make himself less noticeable. The Overseer not only had the right to kill soldiers who shirked battle, but also soldiers who had lost their value. Whether he killed or spared them depended on his mood.

But things did not go as he wished. The Gnoll Overseer noticed the Dragon Hatchling in the corner.

"Why aren't you going out to fight?!"

The Gnoll Overseer growled, snapping his whip through the air as he entered the empty cave. His towering body blocked out the sunlight, and his shadow enveloped the heavily wounded Red Dragon.

Seeing that he could not avoid it, Jose raised his head and said in a calm, neither humble nor overbearing voice, "I was injured fighting for the Matriarch. And mind your status, Servant of the Dragon. This is the Red Nest!"

He was reminding the Gnoll Overseer that he was a Red Dragon, and that the Red Nest's supreme ruler was also a Red Dragon.

The Gnoll Overseer's violent red eyes swept over Jose's scorched scales. His expression flickered uncertainly, but the whip in his hand lowered unconsciously.

The Red Nest Matriarch might not care whether a Dragon Hatchling lived or died, but the Gnoll did not dare gamble on it. He turned and left.

"Whew."

Jose let out a breath of relief.

"Wait! Have someone bring me a large amount of meat! I want an entire cow!" The victorious Red Dragon pressed his advantage.

The Gnoll Overseer paused at the cave entrance, then quickly walked away.

Not long afterward, a small squad of Kobold servants carried in a large amount of meat and placed it before Jose.

Jose feasted again until he could not eat another bite, then closed his eyes and fell asleep. Sleep reduced his body's energy consumption, allowing more energy to be used to recover from his injuries.

He did not know how long had passed when the groggy Jose regained consciousness. But he was no longer inside the cave. Beneath his feet was a white marble plaza floating in the void. The flat surface of the plaza divided the space: above him was a brilliant river of stars, while beneath him lay endless emptiness.

Where was this?

Did I transmigrate again?!

He raised a hand and saw a red Dragon Claw with sharp nails.

He had not transmigrated, but his injuries were healed. This was not reality, so this place was... a space of consciousness, or something else beyond his understanding.

He realized that this empty space was far from ordinary. Going by the usual novel tropes, it might be his cheat.

But what was it for? How was he supposed to use it?

This damned place had no user manual, no beginner tutorial, and no system spirit. Everything still needed to be explored.

Jose flapped his wings, trying to fly, only to discover that he could not fly in this space. He walked to the edge of the plaza and looked down. The profound darkness seemed capable of devouring his soul.

His instincts told him that jumping down would lead to something bad. Of course, he had never intended to jump in the first place.

Rubbing his chin, he examined the white marble plaza beneath his feet.

Every brick in this luxurious plaza was identical, and even the gaps of adhesive between the bricks looked as though they had been precisely measured.

There was nothing unusual beneath his feet, so what about above him?

Jose looked up at the dazzling river of stars. Brilliant blue and purple colors glowed around it, incomparably beautiful. Even special-effects-enhanced pictures from his previous life could not compare to one ten-thousandth of it.

The stars in the galactic river were densely packed, varying in size and brightness, yet they did not appear chaotic at all. They seemed to conceal some kind of pattern.

Jose's gaze was unconsciously drawn to a particular star. He felt that some wonderful connection existed between himself and that star.

"Come here."

Then, that star really fell. Like a meteor, it streaked through the river of stars, dragging a long tail as it crashed toward the plaza.

Everything before his eyes was dazzling. Jose could not open his eyes, and his mind went blank. Could this cheat be trying to murder its owner?!

There was no earth-shattering explosion as he had imagined. Not even a speck of dust was kicked up. After a flash of intense light, a starlit statue stood in the center of the white marble plaza.

It took him a while to recover his senses.

"With such a huge display, I thought you were going to kill me."

Jose could not help complaining as he walked toward the statue.

The starlit statue was as tall as Jose. A Phoenix rising from flames and crying toward the sky was carved into its square pedestal. The Phoenix was exquisitely lifelike, especially its eyes, which conveyed a sense of stubbornness and refusal to ever submit.

After circling the statue once, he noticed writing on the front of the pedestal.

Phoenix Heart: S

Reborn One:

Be reborn in raging flames and live another life.

—Good luck, transmigrator.

"Hmm, does this count as a transmigration benefit?"

But how was he supposed to claim this benefit?

He recalled novels he had read on Qidian.

Seriously, cheats these days were getting more and more perfunctory. Those damned developers could not even provide product instructions. I want to file a complaint.

With that thought, Jose reached out with his Dragon Claw to touch the statue.

Without any warning, the moment his claw tip touched the statue, threadlike orange-red flames poured out from the Phoenix statue. They wrapped around him and frantically entered through his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, finally flowing into his beating heart.

In reality, the sleeping Jose suddenly opened his eyes. His face twisted in pain as he clutched his chest. His heart felt as if it were being roasted by blazing fire.

Fortunately, the pain came quickly and left just as quickly.

After the pain faded, Jose gasped for breath. He felt that his heartbeat had become extraordinarily powerful.