After transmigrating, I made a name for myself through my culinary skills.

Just as he was questioning what the Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast tasted like, Little White returned carrying a lobster rabbit. The lobster rabbit looked like a mouse and a rabbit at the same time, about a foot in size, with large, straight ears, and fluffy brown fur that made it look particularly fat.

Xiao Bai dropped the spirit beast at Ye Lan's feet, turned around and ran in another direction, its white figure quickly disappearing behind the sand dunes.

The spirit beast wasn't dead yet; it had just been frightened unconscious by Xiaobai. Ye Lan used vines to tie the level-two spirit beast into a ball and then casually tossed it into the cage in the space.

Xiao Bai absorbed that wave of demonic energy, which benefited his cultivation. In addition, he cultivated at night wearing the bracelet given to him by Grandmother Jiang, and his cultivation level has increased significantly recently, and his spatial dimension has also expanded accordingly.

His space is now over a thousand square meters in size, and placing a few cages to house spirit beasts doesn't take up much space. In fact, to make Xiaobai more comfortable, he has isolated these cages, and only placed spirit flowers and herbs around it when it sleeps.

"Let's go, let's go help too."

Once the initial excitement about the desert wore off, Ye Lan pulled Jiang Ning along to join the team in capturing saber-toothed star-tailed beasts. They needed to capture over a hundred saber-toothed star-tailed beasts just to ensure that the people of Jiangzhou could barely survive the winter, even with each person only eating meat once every other day.

Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beasts are cunning by nature. They not only bury themselves in the sand, but also burrow into the water to hide. If you accidentally pass by the sand where they are lying in ambush, they will quickly stick out their heads and attack you.

They have long necks like turtles and two sharp teeth in their mouths, which are not only sharp enough to kill prey, but can also inject venom through their teeth to kill enemies instantly.

Despite its treacherous and cunning nature, it is precisely one of the most popular edible spirit beasts in Jiangzhou, and hunting teams of beast hunters used to frequently come to hunt them. After all, an adult saber-toothed star-tailed beast could be exchanged for ten high-grade spirit stones, which was a considerable income for many cultivators.

But since the appearance of the demon race, these beast hunters have had to give up this source of income, because life is more important than money.

The Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beasts reproduce very quickly. For almost a year, no hunters came to capture them, and now their tracks are everywhere in the desert.

Sure enough, when Ye Lan found Yun Zhi, she was fighting with an adult saber-toothed star-tailed beast.

The spirit beast swept across with its long, spiky tail. Yun Zhi quickly retreated to create distance, and the tail swept across the top of the sand pile, scattering sand all over the ground.

"Miss Yun, be careful!"

Xie Han shouted a reminder to Yun Zhi, and at the same time, he quickly formed hand seals. A wall of earth appeared behind Yun Zhi with a "whoosh," and then shattered with a "bang."

Upon hearing the sound, Yun Zhi instantly dodged to the side, narrowly escaping the attack. She gathered spiritual energy in her hand, and thousands of ice spikes flew towards the one who had ambushed her.

Sensing danger, the saber-toothed star-tailed beast immediately retracted its head and limbs into its hard shell. Seeing this, Ye Lan seized the opportunity to act. He used his binding technique to tie it up in a ball, and with a casual flick of his wrist, he sent the beast and vines flying to Yun Zhi's feet.

Yun Zhi stepped on the struggling Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast, raising her delicate eyebrows slightly: "You've come just in time."

"You can handle it even if I don't come."

As Ye Lan spoke, he summoned a strange fire. The green flames danced incessantly in his palm. The next second, he faced another saber-toothed star-tailed beast with green tentacles imbued with the strange fire.

Yun Zhi's hair, which had fallen beside her ears, was gently blown by a gust of wind. Then she heard the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. Turning around, she saw Ye Lan subdue the saber-toothed star-tailed beast that she had initially wanted to capture.

Jiang Ning was standing not far from him, holding a trapped Star-Tailed Beast cub in his hand.

Perhaps he thought it was too small and had too little meat on its body, or perhaps he felt he should leave offspring for them, so he threw the saber-toothed star-tailed beast cub into the lake.

As it approached the water's surface, the vines binding it disappeared, and the little cub adjusted its posture in mid-air before "whooshing" to the bottom of the water, never to resurface.

Ye Lan and her three companions worked together and captured more than a dozen saber-toothed star-tailed beasts in just one hour. However, when they stopped to rest, they found that the situation was not quite what they had expected.

Yun Zhi blinked: "In my memory, we have already captured a lot of saber-toothed star-tailed beasts."

Jiang Ning remained expressionless: "Hmm."

Every time they captured a saber-toothed star-tailed beast, they would tie it up and place it in the same spot. There should be a dozen or so spirit beasts here now, but in reality there are only a handful.

Xie Han stared blankly, mouth agape: "Did they escape?"

Ye Lan touched her chin, looking thoughtful: "It doesn't seem like they ran away."

There was no sign of struggle here. They were tied up like that, with even their heads wrapped up. It would have taken a lot of effort for them to escape. They would have left traces of their struggle on the sand.

Could it have been stolen?

Ye Lan looked at the figures in the distance. They were scattered too far apart, and he could only see small black dots. If there were thieves, they shouldn't be his own people.

After all, the city lord didn't require everyone to catch a certain number of beasts. Once you catch a Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast, it will be confiscated and can't be exchanged for spirit stones.

"Look there."

Everyone's gaze followed the direction of Jiang Ning's finger, and a row of claw marks appeared in their line of sight. The claw marks were small and shallow, and could not be seen if one did not look carefully.

Xie Han was the first to walk over. He squatted down and examined the claw marks carefully, but when the others gathered around, he still couldn't determine which kind of spirit beast the claw marks were. He could only say, "These claw marks look like tiger marks and wolf marks at the same time."

Ye Lan asked doubtfully, "Are there tigers in the desert?"

In his understanding, deserts are mostly inhabited by wolves, but perhaps this world is different; after all, the cultivation world cannot be treated with ordinary science.

Xie Han: "There really isn't one; it should be a wolf-like spirit beast."

Tigers are rare in Jiangzhou. The only time he ever saw a tiger was when it was someone else's pet.

Moreover, tiger-type spirit beasts are enormous, so this melon seed print is far too small. If it really is a tiger-type spirit beast, it must be a cub that hasn't been weaned yet. If a cub were to face the saber-toothed star-tailed beast they just captured, it would probably be difficult to even drag it away.

Yun Zhi thought of a possibility and said, "Could it be that their companions rescued them?"

Jiang Ning just released one of the cubs; maybe it went home to get help.

"That's probably not very likely," Xie Han explained to her. "The claw marks of the Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast don't look like that."

Jiang Ning offered his opinion, saying, "Since this spirit beast has stolen so many things, it will definitely come back again. Why don't we have Yun Zhi lie in ambush here, pretend we don't know anything, and wait for Yun Zhi's signal before we catch it?"

Yun Zhi nodded in agreement: "That's a good idea."

She wanted to see which petty thief was so bold as to steal her things.

To help Yunzhi lure out this "little thief," the other three went to hunt down the new Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast as usual, while Yunzhi put on an invisibility bracelet and hid behind a sand dune.

After waiting for nearly ten minutes, no spirit beasts appeared. Jiang Ning and Ye Lan each brought over a spirit beast, but still there was no movement.

Just when Yunzhi thought the "little thief" had run away, a yellow figure appeared in front of her. As this yellow spirit beast walked over, it kept looking around, as if checking if it would be discovered. Only after confirming that no one was around did it trot over.

The Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beast was twice the size of hers. Just as Yun Zhi was wondering how this furry spirit beast would carry things, it quietly changed its form.

The golden spirit beast, about the same size as the White Tiger Beast, opened its blood-red maw and swallowed the saber-toothed star-tailed beasts whole, one after another.

It was quite clever; it only ate two saber-toothed star-tailed beasts before running away. The time was very short; if it had eaten them all, it would have been discovered.

Moreover, before it fled, it blew a gust of wind and erased the large footprints.

Upon hearing a whistle, the golden spirit beast paused for a moment, then took off running.

But it was too late. Jiang Ning and his two companions had already reached it, and with them came all sorts of attacks. Vines, ice swords, fireballs, and sand rained down on it from all directions as if they were free.

No matter where it ran, it couldn't escape. The golden spirit beast simply stood still and took all the attacks head-on. When the fireball exploded, it kicked up a lot of sand. When the dust settled, the golden spirit beast was revealed again.

It shook off the sand and reappeared before them unharmed, its eyes seemingly mocking their overestimation of their abilities.

"He's a tough opponent," everyone thought at the same time, making their attacks even more ferocious.

Longli climbed onto the sand pile and did not participate in the battle. Its master had just told it not to get involved, so it obediently waited on the side, ready to help its master as soon as possible if the master was in danger.

They had fought once before, and the four of them worked together quite well, but even so, they were still at a disadvantage.

This golden spirit beast was incredibly fast, and its thick hide made it impervious to blades and spears. The moment Ye Lan's vines sprouted from the ground, it vanished from its spot. The next second, it appeared behind Xie Han, ramming its head into the lake.

The next one is Yunzhi.

It is so intelligent that it is not like a spirit beast, but more like a human. It will choose to attack the weakest one, defeat them one by one, and break their joint attack.

Sensing its intention, Jiang Ning called out to Long Li.

Long Li, in her serpentine form, swiftly moved forward to block the attack for Yun Zhi, engaging in a fierce battle with the golden spirit beast. Ye Lan also summoned Bai Wu and Xiao Bai to help.

The three divine beasts joined forces to attack the golden spirit beast and quickly subdued it.

The golden spirit beast was indignant when Xiaobai sat it on the ground. These despicable humans bullied the weak with numbers, and these divine beasts were shameless, so many of them attacking a single beast!

Seeing its defiant expression, Yunzhi was so angry she almost laughed: "You thief, how dare you steal our things and act so self-righteous?"

How can this be called stealing? This is its territory, and it hasn't even accused them of coming here to hunt and steal its food.

The golden spirit beast thought this in its heart and cursed them aloud, but to Ye Lan and the others, it sounded like a wolf howling.

Seeing their expressions of "I don't understand what you're saying," the golden spirit beast spoke in human language and repeated what it had just said.

Xie Han had already climbed out of the water. Hearing this, he didn't quite agree. He said, "Brother Wolf, this desert is unclaimed, and so are the Saber-toothed Star-tailed Beasts. Whoever catches them owns them. But you took what we caught without asking questions, which is stealing."

The man and the beast started arguing, and went on and on in a string of words.

Jiang Ning said to Yun Zhi, "This Golden Flame Wolf is quite powerful. Would you like to consider making it your spirit pet?"

Yunzhi thought about his suggestion carefully.

Of the seven people before them, only she and Su Ye didn't have spirit pets yet. However, Su Ye had the Su family backing him, so finding a spirit pet would be a piece of cake for him. But if she returned to Yunxia Kingdom, it would be really difficult for her to find a high-level spirit beast as a contracted spirit pet.

This Golden Flame Beast is indeed quite strong, only slightly weaker than the White Tiger Beast and the Black Demon Brother, and it also seems quite intelligent.

With that in mind, Yunzhi accepted Jiang Ning's suggestion.

She stopped Xie Han and said to the Golden Flame Beast, "I'll give you two choices: one is to become my spirit pet directly..."

Before it could finish speaking, the Golden Flame Beast shook its head violently; it didn't want to be a spirit pet.

Yun Zhi smiled and said, "Secondly, they can be defeated by us and become my spirit pets."

The Golden Flame Beast roared in despair: Isn't the result the same?!

Okay, the process is different, but to be a spirit beast for humans is really a disgrace to beasts.

Yun Zhi continued to coerce and entice, "Being my spirit pet isn't without its advantages. With such a big appetite, if you become my spirit pet, I can guarantee you'll be well-fed. Once you come home with me, you can eat lots of delicious food. If you stay here, all you'll get to eat are these saber-toothed star-tailed beasts. Aren't you tired of eating them after all these years?"

The spirit beasts that Ye Lan and the others had previously captured all liked to eat, so she figured the Golden Flame Beast would be the same. Therefore, she planned to use this condition to lure it.

It's quite a coincidence that this reason actually appealed to the Golden Flame Beast.

Although it eats a lot, one meal can last for half a month. The reason it eats so many saber-toothed star-tailed beasts at once is because it gets tired of eating the same thing every day. It's better to eat its fill in one day than to eat the same thing every day.

And so, Yun Zhi acquired the Golden Flame Beast as her spirit pet, a process so smooth that Xie Han was dumbfounded.

Of course, the reason it agreed to become a spirit pet wasn't entirely because of the food, but because these divine beasts were going too far, sitting on its back for so long without moving, giving it no chance to escape.

It completely believed that the woman was telling the truth, and if it didn't agree to become a spirit pet, these creatures would beat it until it did.

Rather than being beaten half to death and forced to sign a contract, it's better to skip this beating and let her catch a few more saber-toothed star-tailed beasts to fill its belly later.