Tale of the Red Dragon Without Dragon’s Might
Chapter 299 - 294: A Different Kind of Fasting

Chapter 299: Chapter 294: A Different Kind of Fasting

Because of the various novels he had read before, Leon’s first impression of fasting was not having to eat, no longer worrying about starving due to lack of food.

However, not needing to eat might be useful for mortals, but for a mighty dragon it was downright pointless. Dragons used supernatural energy as part of their digestion process, allowing them to swallow and digest all kinds of substances—including things other creatures wouldn’t even consider food, like mud and rocks.

Not to mention dragons don’t stop growing once they’ve passed the growth stage like humans do. Dragons can grow indefinitely. Without eating, how would they grow? Grow out of thin air?

No matter how others view eating, Leon simply enjoyed it. He loved meat—grilled pig trotters, roasted pork knuckles, twice-cooked pork—and he also loved sugary-oily confections, along with fruits... Often, even after a meal, he’d continue eating just to satisfy his taste buds.

So what about Golden Finger rewards? Walking on water was a Golden Finger reward too. Leon originally planned to dismiss fasting as irrelevant—until the moment came when he was trapped somewhere, say, by a demigod-level enemy, and there wasn’t even mud or rocks available. After some thought, he decided it was worth researching fasting after all.

And with this research, Leon found himself bewildered. Who knew fasting involved so much?

Fasting is also called grain abstinence, grain rejection, or grain avoidance, literally meaning abstaining from the five cereals.

Meat eaters are brave and fierce, grain eaters are wise and resourceful, air eaters are divine and long-lived, and non-eaters are immortal and godly. This forms the foundation of fasting.

Fasting is often linked with Qi consumption, known as Qi Fasting. Qi consumption, as the name suggests, means consuming air, refined energy, or nature’s vital energy. It’s a method of replacing food with energy—a cultivation method.

...

At this point, Leon understood: the Golden Finger reward he had just acquired wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

Fasting wasn’t about allowing him to go without food like undead creatures or the immortal demigods and gods. Instead, it was a cultivation technique. Through fasting, he would enter a state of abstinence where abstinence was not the outcome but the process—gaining benefits like body and soul purification, enhancing spirituality, longevity, and achieving harmony with nature.

Even though Leon gained a lot every day while learning under Fiora, he still cared more about his Golden Finger reward.

Under these circumstances, Leon decided not to continue learning from Fiora the next day.

Initially, Fiora was worried Leon might be scheming against her, making her somewhat resistant to teaching him. But now that he wasn’t learning, who knew what went through her mind? She unexpectedly approached Leon and asked, "Why aren’t you learning today? Cultivation requires perseverance. With your three-days-fishing-two-days-drying-the-nets approach, when do you think you’ll become a warrior?"

"I’m already a warrior," Leon replied, thinking that the Golden Finger reward was the most authoritative validation.

For an ordinary person, Fiora wouldn’t believe it was so easy to become a warrior. But Leon wasn’t ordinary—he was an immensely powerful red dragon. Strength, agility, constitution—he had no weaknesses. In fact, taking this long to become a warrior seemed slow for him.

Fiora opened her mouth, hesitated, and finally voiced, "Even if you’ve become a warrior, you’re still a low-level one. Do you know how to replenish Qi? Do you know how to make your movements flow like tides?"

"Nope," Leon replied with a chuckle. "You’re more knowledgeable—you know everything. Can you beat me? I’ll even let you have two arms."

Fiora had seen Leon activate his Three Heads and Six Arms Dharma Body. Even if he let her have two arms, he’d still have four arms and three heads. She knew just one round against him would be enough to finish her. Worse still, this guy was adept in both magic and physical combat. His spellcasting ability surpassed his melee capabilities, and with his chaotic array of spells, ten of her wouldn’t stand a chance.

Fiora was furious. She genuinely wanted Leon to learn properly from her so that he could gain more knowledge. Yet here he was, turning it into mockery.

"Learn if you want. If not, it’s one less thing for me to worry about," Fiora huffed, sniffling indignantly.

"I’m just not learning now. I’ll still have to learn in the future, and I’ll need your help then, Fiora."

Leon’s focus on the Golden Finger reward didn’t mean he was abandoning the warrior path—it wasn’t like he could rely entirely on his Golden Finger reward. Besides, the real world wasn’t constrained by game mechanics. In-game warrior levels only went so high, and investing in them meant he couldn’t invest fully into mage levels.

"We’ll see about that—depends on my mood when the time comes," Fiora retorted, still sulking.

Fiora stormed off, but Leon wasn’t bothered. He focused on fasting.

The human body generally follows a seven-day cycle, so fasting sessions typically last seven days. Dragons, however, are different. Like many animals, dragons can go ten days or half a month—or even longer—without food. Completing a fasting cycle requires much more time.

In summary, Leon began abstaining from food, and it was only then that he realized fasting didn’t conflict with his lessons under Fiora. He had intended to resume lessons, but Fiora kept saying she was busy with her inspector duties and refused to teach him.

Even though Leon had been forced to fend for himself after hatching, resorting to methods like catching crabs and sucking snails to fill his stomach, decades later he experienced hunger for the first time. He could only alleviate it by breathing nature’s spiritual energy, which left him irritable and quick-tempered.

Half a month later, Leon didn’t feel his body weakening. Breathing nature’s spiritual energy provided him with energy, but he still felt an intense urge to eat something. Strangely, his mental state turned remarkably good.

Around two weeks in, Leon felt his body gradually entering the fasting state—the hunger pangs weren’t as strong, his mind grew clearer, his craving for food subsided, and he started viewing life’s trivialities with indifference. Was this what purification of body and spirit felt like?

A month later, Leon ended his fasting and resumed eating.

He clearly felt his physical condition had improved—his efficiency in breathing nature’s spiritual energy significantly enhanced. Combined with the Breathing and Exhaling Skill and the fact that he had transformed the Volcanic Island into a feng shui haven, the efficiency was extraordinary—even terrifying.

Leon decided that in the future, he’d fast once every six months. Then he’d spend the rest of the time eating well and growing his body—enjoying both worlds... If he had to survive each day solely on air and dew, even a god wouldn’t envy him.

Fasting wouldn’t boost Leon’s combat power quickly. Its nature was akin to the Breathing and Exhaling Skill—results would only become apparent after years or decades of practice. For now, his priority was kingdom-building.

Founding a Dragon Country would undoubtedly earn him a Golden Finger reward—a high-level one, preferably a cultivation method like the Great Heavenly Immortal Technique, rather than just more spells. He already had enough spells.

But the question was—how to establish a kingdom? Leon had no clue whatsoever.