A Bountiful Harvest

During the transformation, the dragon scales on his body that stored wizarding magic began to change.

He bought the dragon scales from the black market at a high price in the Western fantasy world. It is said that they were plucked from the tail of an immature volcanic dragon. The inside of the scales has tiny magic storage patterns, which can store magic power in the scales in advance and release it directly during battle, saving the time of chanting spells.

He spent almost all his savings to buy these three scales. The seller said the scales could withstand level three fire magic, but the first time he tried them, the edges were burned and cracked. The seller was obviously a fraud.

However, the scales with cracked edges became even more useful. After being burned by flames, the storage patterns unexpectedly doubled in size, and the storage capacity increased instead of decreasing.

Zhao Fengnian stared with his mouth slightly agape at the scale on the back of his hand that was slowly merging into his skin. His mind raced as he tried to recall all the witchcraft knowledge he had ever learned, but none of the textbooks mentioned that scales could be refined by Qi fire.

This doesn't fall under the category of witchcraft, nor is it a conventional use of Qi; it was purely an accident he made up on his own.

The high temperature of the Qi Fire softened the magic-storing patterns in the dragon's scales. Before melting, the patterns automatically sought new attachment points. Coincidentally, Zhao Fengnian's skin had been tempered by the Qi Fire, and a faint fire-like aura remained on its surface. The patterns then followed this aura and merged into his skin, becoming one with it.

Zhao Fengnian carefully activated his magic power, and a layer of fine, fiery-colored scales appeared on his arm.

The scales are arranged more neatly than before, extending from the back of the hand to the forearm, with a faint blue glow at the edges. Each scale is like a miniature solar panel, automatically absorbing the surrounding free energy to replenish its consumption.

He tried to condense a small fireball at his fingertips. At the same time, the blue light on the scales lit up, pre-storing some of his magic power in the scales. After the fireball was released, the magic power in the scales automatically filled his dantian, saving him the step of condensing the fire again.

Zhao Fengnian put the scales back and looked at the back of his hand over and over. His skin was smooth as usual, and he couldn't even see a pore.

He began to think outside the box. Since the scales could be integrated into the skin, could the dragon's muscle-strengthening properties also be integrated? He closed his eyes and used his mind to guide the Qi fire to burn towards the root of another scale.

That scale was the largest of the dragon's scales, taken from the chest armor of a volcanic dragon. Besides the magic storage patterns, there was also a trace of extremely faint dragon muscle fiber remaining on the inside of the scale. After softening the fiber with his Qi fire, he did not let it merge into the skin, but instead pushed it into the deeper muscle tissue.

After a violent spasm, he clearly felt that the strength in his arm had increased slightly, not much, but it had definitely increased.

So he began to push his luck with the flesh on his body. He could melt dragon scales, but could he melt dragon tendons? Could he melt dragon blood? Could he melt dragon breath? Although he had never even seen a shadow of a dragon, and all he had were these three secondhand scales with cracked edges.

But since the magic storage patterns and muscle fibers in the scales can be refined and integrated into oneself by Qi fire, then theoretically all body materials from dragons can be used to strengthen oneself.

This idea excited him so much that he paced back and forth in the meditation room three times before finally burying himself in his notebook and starting to sketch out his future "dragon transformation material collection roadmap".

Under the dual tempering of the essence fire and the qi fire, the Gluttony Seal completely lost its ability to resist.

The dark red tumor was forced into a corner of the soul by the essence fire and repeatedly burned by the qi fire. Most of the mouthparts on the surface had closed, and the remaining few only opened and closed weakly, with the frequency getting lower and lower.

Zhao Fengnian could feel a connection between himself and the Mark of Gluttony that he had never had before. In the past, he was controlled by the Mark of Gluttony, and when the Mark of Gluttony took effect, he could only passively endure it.

Later, he used the essence of fire to suppress the Gluttony Mark, barely regaining control of his body through external force; now it's different. He discovers that he can actively mobilize the power of the Gluttony Mark. He is not controlled by it, but rather controls it.

He conducted an experiment using leftover food from the kitchen. He placed a bowl of cold porridge on the table, activated the Gluttony Seal, and sent an extremely thin, dark red thread into the porridge. The moment the thread touched the porridge, the water and rice grains in it were absorbed at a visible speed.

The bowl of porridge, which was originally full, turned into a bowl of dry, grayish-brown powder in a few breaths, while the energy recovered by the silk thread was fed back into Zhao Fengnian's body through the soul channel.

He sensed the energy returning to him; it was very weak, only a trace, but it did replenish his strength. However, the drained porridge powder emitted a putrid smell, clearly indicating that anything absorbed by the Mark of Gluttony would completely lose its vitality and could not be reused.

This ability can only be used as a backup supply method at present. It's impossible to use it on living people in actual combat. It's too evil. It's no different from a tree demon sucking people's yang energy.

However, if one encounters large wild beasts or spiritual plants in the wild, the Gluttony Mark might be able to quickly replenish stamina. Zhao Fengnian marked this ability as "Emergency Health Pack" in his notebook and drew a skull next to it to indicate the danger level.

With the Gluttony Mark completely suppressed, Zhao Fengnian's body was finally freed from the burden of the Gluttony Curse.

The tempering of his body with the essence fire continuously consumed the excess fat on his body, and the transformation of the Qi fire made his magical power circulation more and more efficient. With the combination of the two, his body size shrank at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The gray cloth jacket that had been stretched to the point of bursting now hung loosely on his body, and even after tucking the belt in four buttonholes, it was still too loose. He simply tore up the old clothes, used a piece of supple bark left over from the tree demon's remains to carve a few bone needles, and sewed himself a new short jacket.

The craftsmanship wasn't great; the stitches were crooked and uneven, but it fit much better when worn.

He stood by the water tank and looked down at his reflection. He stared blankly for a long time. The reflection in the water showed a face with distinct features, a clear jawline, and delicate eyebrows and eyes. Although his skin was still a little loose, his features already revealed a certain heroic spirit.

It's seven or eight parts similar to myself before I was betrayed in the Western fantasy world.

"Brother!" He rushed out of the meditation room, ran to the stone table in the backyard, sat down, pointed to his face, and exclaimed, "Look at me! Haven't I lost weight? Haven't I become more handsome?"

Liu Jin was playing with a wisp of wood-attribute demonic energy extracted from the tree demon's remains when he heard this. He looked up and glanced at him, saying, "You can't fit into your old clothes anymore, can you?" His tone was so calm that it was as if he had known this would happen all along.

Zhao Fengnian glanced down at his new short tunic, chuckled, and tore off the remaining half of the sleeve, revealing two arms that already showed signs of muscle definition. Fiery scales peeked faintly from his forearms, gleaming gently in the sunlight.

That evening, Zhao Fengnian was practicing his fireball technique in the courtyard. His fireball was a whole size larger than when he first arrived at Lanruo Temple, its color had changed from orange-red to deep red, and its temperature was also much higher.

He condensed three beads in one go, controlling them to slowly rotate around his body, practicing multi-line manipulation. Just as he was getting into the swing of things, a series of chaotic footsteps suddenly came from the other end of the mountain path, accompanied by the crisp sound of metal clashing and rapid breathing.