After a moment’s quiet deliberation, Jared reached up and patted the creature’s bark-rough neck, letting a gentle thought ripple into its mind. “Stay here, old friend. Guard this sanctuary and cultivate well…”
Shock rippled through the ape’s colossal frame. It froze, then slowly turned its head, scarlet pupils widening with disbelief that melted into tidal gratitude.
Setting Jared and the small Fire Unicorn gently on the ground, the beast lowered its forearms and bowed three times, forehead thudding against the earth while a low, reverent whine vibrated in its throat—the highest oath a beast could offer.
Jared accepted the tribute with a quiet smile, then confirmed once more the direction the ape had shown him toward the forest’s edge. The giant nodded vigorously and rumbled its assurance.
“Take care…” Without another hesitation, Jared gathered the small Fire Unicorn, his body flickering into green vapor that slipped between the trunks, leaving the basin, and the loyal ape, behind.
Guided by the ape’s bearings and his own far-reaching spiritual sense, Jared moved through the primeval canopy like a wisp of mist.
He masked every heartbeat, refusing to provoke the jungle’s countless predators. Only when a particularly territorial beast lunged from the shadows did he answer with lightning economy: one strike, one corpse.
The essence he harvested, he pressed into the eager mouth of the little unicorn perched on his shoulder.
The so-called outer ring of the Myriad Beast Mountains proved far broader, and deadlier, than he had imagined. At one point, a Bramble Earth Wyvern, power equal to a Level Five Heavenly Immortal, erupted from the mulch beneath him.
Barbs ripped the air; paralytic venom spewed like rain. For almost half an hour, he fenced with the monster, unleashing Time Deceleration in the end and drilling the Dragonslayer Sword through its relatively fragile skull.
The victory taught him, in blood and sweat, what Level Ten beasts truly meant, and it sharpened his caution to a razor’s edge.
Along the way, he also encountered flora seen only in the Tenth Heaven: Moonlit Ganodermas that glowed while drinking the night, and Storm-Figs that crackled on charred trunks.
Touched bare, the first would drown the mind in hallucination; eaten raw, the second would shred every meridian. Yet, wrapped in spirit sense or tempered by lightning law, they became gentle elixirs that nurtured soul and body alike.
Though none rivaled the miraculous Blood Ganoderma, each discovery deepened his understanding of the realm’s resources and quietly layered new substance onto his own foundation.
The small Fire Unicorn prospered beside him, feasting on beast cores, marrow, and the pure energy that leaked from Jared’s alchemical trials. Its scarlet mane grew brighter after every meal, its infant horns beginning to gleam.
The little Fire Unicorn grew before Jared’s eyes, bones stretching, muscles swelling, until it matched a yearling colt.
Its crimson scales gleamed brighter than hammered rubies. Gold edged the plates. Two budding horns pushed higher on its brow.
When it breathed, Unicorn Sacred Flame rippled out, hotter and a tone deeper than before. A stray ember would char any ordinary Level One or Two Heavenly Immortal beast to ash.
Trust thickened between man and beast. A single shared glance now carried more meaning than a page of words.
For seven long days, they advanced with a hunter’s hush. Trees thinned. Towering trunks gave way to scrub, and the savage miasma of the forest faded into a clear, orderly spiritual energy.
Jared sensed he was about to step beyond the vast wilderness that had taught him its first brutal lesson. Just as he parted the final thornbush, steel clashed ahead. Power boomed. Fierce voices hurled curses across the air.
