There is a beast in the bright morning.

With a bit of persuasion, Hao Chen successfully recruited Qiongqi, Taowu, and Taotie as his underlings.

"Boss, do you think we should go hunting first?" Qiongqi said excitedly after rubbing his belly.

Hao Chen naturally heard the rumbling sound coming from Qiongqi's stomach. While he found it amusing, he couldn't help but feel a little sorry for it.

Bixie and the others at least have the Four Unlikes Society to take care of them, but Qiongqi and the others, although they have Chaos as their backer, will not be provoked by any powerful divine beasts or immortals.

But Chaos just kept walking towards the location of Dijiang in his memory, and did not actively look for food for Qiongqi and the others.

Hao Chen glanced at Chaos, who was still silently watching him. But Hao Chen knew that Chaos couldn't see him; it was only concerned about the aura of Bixie and Tianlu that had clung to him.

Hao Chen rubbed Qiongqi's head: "Since you call me boss, wait here, I'll go find something to eat."

"Okay, okay, boss, do you want me to go with you? I know where there are prey, but those prey are too cunning. Taotie and I can't handle them right now." As he said this, Qiongqi couldn't help but imagine the scene of eating meat later.

Taotie curled his lip: "Tch, if I weren't starving, I would have killed that big fat pig long ago."

Seeing Taotie's boastful manner, Qiongqi bluntly exposed it, saying, "I wonder who was chased by a pig last time. If it weren't for Sister's intervention, they would probably be pig manure by now."

"Qiongqi, what do you mean? You want to fight?"

Taotie glared angrily at Qiongqi, but Qiongqi, relying on Haochen's presence behind him, showed no fear of Taotie: "Whoever gets angry gets the blame."

Taotie couldn't stand Qiongqi's sarcasm, so it swung its claw at Qiongqi. Qiongqi quickly dodged Taotie's claw and then looked behind him: "Boss, look at Taotie, he... um, where's the boss?"

To Qiongqi's surprise, Haochen, who had just been standing behind him, had disappeared.

Taotie walked towards Qiongqi with a wicked grin: "Scream, why did you stop?"

"Wait, buddy, let's talk this out, don't be impulsive." Qiongqi was so frightened by the sight that he backed away repeatedly. He didn't want to fight with Taotie, this country bumpkin, it would be a thankless and exhausting task.

"I'll tear your mouth apart today for talking bad about me in front of the boss."

"I'm warning you, stop right now, or you're dead when the boss comes back."

"You dare threaten me? I'll teach you a lesson."

"Ouch, don't hit my face!"

……

On the other side, Hao Chen stood in the void, constantly searching for prey, while also diverting some of his attention to observe his own body.

Since birth, Hao Chen has never carefully observed himself, nor has he ever thought about where his power comes from.

He saw divine power surging like a vast ocean from his dantian, radiating endless life light. Yin-Yang Dao patterns were imprinted in the void, explaining the trajectory of the universe to Hao Chen.

What shocked Hao Chen the most was that in the center of his dantian, there stood an ancient tree, each leaf different from the last, as if it were a vessel for the three thousand Great Daos, or as if it were nurturing a world of origin.

The ancient tree, rooted in the vast ocean of divine power, continuously absorbs Hao Chen's abundant divine power, transforming it into even purer Yin and Yang energy.

At the same time, the ancient tree was also emitting a hazy immortal light, with one after another Great Dao runes intertwined and entwined, transforming into strands of divine order hanging down like vines.

Hao Chen focused his mind on the ancient tree and instantly heard ethereal Daoist sounds that continuously cleansed his soul, guiding him towards a more perfect transformation.

"Is this the World Tree?"

Looking at the World Tree in the center of his dantian, Hao Chen seemed to see figures passing by on it, including Bixie, Tianlu, Qibuxiang, Qibuxiang, Shengyuanzi, and even Kunpeng, whom he had encountered not long ago. Hao Chen also sensed the Dao of Kunpeng on the World Tree.

Of course, some figures are still somewhat blurry, but they can be vaguely identified as Qiongqi, Taowu, Taotie, and Hundun, as well as the figures of the four-faced father and mother.

This led Hao Chen to speculate that the longer one had contact with someone, or if one had fought with them, the clearer the figure would become, and vice versa.

This gave Hao Chen a slight idea: the World Tree automatically records the beings he has encountered and imprints their Dao on the World Tree.

"Although I don't know what this does, it doesn't seem like a bad thing. It seems I need to find more mythical beasts to test its effects."

Hao Chen placed the test subjects on the father and mother of the Four-Faced Beast. Fortunately, he had not been in contact with the First Qilin and the others for long, and the World Tree imprint was not clear.

“Perfect timing. My mind was on the Four-Faced Beast at the time, and I hadn’t even had a chance to pet the First Qilin yet. I’ll get to know it better when I get back.”

At this moment, Hao Chen suddenly noticed movement below and quickly looked down. He saw a Dang Kang King with three baby Dang Kang Kings foraging for food.

"These are the ones. They should be enough for Qiongqi and the others to eat."

Hao Chen raised his hand and unleashed a yin-yang sword light, which pierced through King Kang's forehead.

Before the three little Dang Kang could react, the Yin Yang Sword light suddenly turned, and the three little Dang Kang fell to the ground, with three thumb-sized blood holes appearing on their foreheads.

"A family should be together all the time."

Seeing the four Kang animals—one large and three small—Hao Chen happily put them away and then flew back.

However, after a series of events, Haochen also discovered his own problem: he was neither the best nor the worst.

Hao Chen had no problem bullying these little Karami, but when facing someone like Kunpeng, he was powerless to fight back and could only be slaughtered.

"Sigh, it seems I can only wait for the Holy Ape to return and see if he has any universal cultivation techniques," Hao Chen thought to himself.

After all, strictly speaking, he was just an unorthodox practitioner, without any inherited skills or sufficient knowledge and experience to create his own.

Before long, Hao Chen returned to his resting place with his prey. But as soon as he landed, a large red-headed beast ran towards him and grabbed his paw.

"Wait, who are you?" Hao Chen frowned.

Unexpectedly, the big-headed beast said, "Boss, it's me! I'm Qiongqi! Don't you recognize me?"

"Are you Qiongqi? How come your head is so big?!"

Upon hearing Hao Chen's question, Qiongqi instantly burst into tears of sorrow: "Boss, you have to stand up for me! All these injuries were inflicted by Taotie. He was jealous that I was cuter than him and thought that you liked me more, so he attacked my handsome face."

Hao Chen: "..."

Hao Chen wiped away Qiongqi's tears with his paw, then looked up and waved his hand forward, instantly creating a mountain of flesh in front of Qiongqi.

Upon seeing the food, Qiongqi instantly stopped clinging to Haochen and pounced on the mountain of meat, devouring it greedily: "Boss, you're amazing! I haven't eaten such a big piece of meat in ages."

The sudden appearance of the mountain of flesh not only attracted Qiongqi, but also Taotie and Taowu.

"Boss, is all this food for us?"

"Bah, bah, bah."

Seeing the excited Taotie and Taowu, Haochen nodded directly: "Hurry up and eat, or Qiongqi will eat them all."

"Qiongqi?! Damn it, leave me some."

After being reminded, Taotie noticed that Qiongqi had already started eating. Without caring about anything else, Taotie quickly joined the ranks of those eating.

Hao Chen then saw Chaos lying quietly to the side, so he bit off a piece of Dang Kang's leg and came to Chaos.

Hao Chen placed the ham hock in front of Chaos. Chaos sniffed the food in front of it with suspicion, then looked at Hao Chen.

Hao Chen pushed the food towards Chaos. Noticing that the food was getting closer to her, Chaos knew it was for her and started eating without hesitation.

Hao Chen took the opportunity to climb onto Chaos's back, lowered his head and sniffed at Chaos's fur, and even touched Chaos's fur with his paws.

Chaos naturally sensed Hao Chen's subtle movements, but since it didn't perceive any malice from Hao Chen, and because of the familiar scent on Hao Chen's body, Chaos focused on eating its food and ignored Hao Chen.

Seeing that the fur on Chaos's back was a bit dry, Haochen lay down on Chaos's back and started grooming her fur.

Regardless of whether Chaos could understand him, he said to himself, "Chaos, if you can't lick the fur on your back, I'll lick it for you. If you don't say anything, that means you agree, so I won't be polite."

After grooming the fur on Chaos's back, Hao Chen saw that Qiongqi and the others had also eaten their fill and were lying on the grass with a satisfied look on their faces, their big bellies protruding.

Seeing this, Hao Chen quickly dismounted from Chaos's back and ran to Qiongqi's side: "How are you? Are you full?"

Qiongqi patted his bulging belly and said, "Boss, I haven't eaten this much in a long time."

"That's good, now it's my turn to eat." Hao Chen stared at Qiongqi's belly and said.

Sensing Hao Chen's gaze, Qiong Qi asked in confusion, "Big brother, the food is over there, why are you looking at me?"

"I want to eat you, so lie still and let me play with you for a bit."

Hao Chen's words were astonishing, and before Qiong Qi could react, he pounced on Qiong Qi's side, rubbing his head against Qiong Qi's chest.

"Hmm, it's different after a full meal. You're all plump and chubby. And Qiongqi, your body odor smells spicy, which is quite appetizing!"

Hearing Hao Chen's lewd words, Qiongqi's face turned red. Fortunately, his fur was originally red, so Taotie next to him did not notice anything unusual.

Even so, Qiongqi said somewhat embarrassedly, "Boss, don't do this, it's so shameful!"

"Don't rush, this is just the beginning. I haven't had enough fun yet, little Qiongqi."

Just as Hao Chen was about to stroke Qiongqi's belly, the voice of Bixie suddenly rang in his mind: "Water...where is the water...the breathing of the Four-Unlikes is getting smaller and smaller, is this the only way?!"

"Oh no, damn it, I completely forgot about what happened to the Four-Faced Beast in the desert."

Only then did Hao Chen realize what he had forgotten. He quickly climbed off Qiongqi and soared into the sky without saying a word.

"Wait for me here, I'll be right back. Don't wander off, okay?" Hao Chen said hurriedly before leaving.