Chapter 92: The Possibility of Breathing Fire

As the seawater churned violently, Baichuan once again shot toward the surface like an arrow through water.

In an instant, the dragon of the sea surged toward the heavens once more.

First the dragon's head broke through the water, followed by its flowing mane, and then the body guarded by those wings completely broke free of the sea's embrace.

In a flash, he leapt up toward the sky once again, this time spiraling upward as he rose.

His ever-watchful vision once more informed him of the situation around him.

He spread his massive wings at just the right moment, and the biting cold instantly froze the water droplets on his body.

Then, using the spiraling upward force of his body, he flung his wings open like a helix and sent those ice beads flying outward, transforming them into countless ice needles scattering in all directions.

In an instant, Baichuan was dry once again — and all in the same moment he had burst from the sea into the sky.

This meant his hypothesis had worked!

Riding the fierce wind rising off the sea, Baichuan beat his enormous bat-like wings up and down, and in that moment he once again successfully took to the sky.

Without hesitation, he began skillfully adjusting his posture, gliding along with the power of the gale.

And the more he flew, the smoother it became, because the wind over the sea came in gust after gust — especially after he had gained the ability to sense airflow, he had been watching the movement of those gusts throughout his flight.

He could ride those powerful sea breezes and soar through the sky with almost no strain at all.

In the blink of an eye, he had flown more than a kilometer!

Such a vast distance meant that at this moment he had truly achieved flight!

He had taken a solid first step toward truly conquering the domain of the sky!

……

An hour later, Baichuan had finally gotten a clear picture of his current condition: basic flight, or rather half-flying and half-gliding, had succeeded.

In places like the sea surface where the wind blew often, flying did not tire him out too much; he could keep it up indefinitely.

But once he left behind the various updrafts, he would have to bear his own body weight, and under those circumstances his flight would be fraught with difficulty.

He could keep flying, but not for long, and most of it would still be gliding — he would only sink lower and lower.

Roughly speaking, Baichuan estimated that in windless conditions, relying entirely on himself, he could fly for about ten minutes.

As for altitude, with or without updrafts, he could just barely break a hundred meters; any higher and he could not climb.

After all, his body weight was simply too great.

Even so, he said he was quite satisfied.

In other words, from today onward, the time needed for him to travel to other continents would be greatly reduced.

After all, flying was still faster than swimming through the sea.

But perhaps he should add another pair of wings? And bird-like feathered ones at that?

After all, he had already solved the problem of his wings getting wet and being unable to fly — there was no longer any need to fear his wings getting wet.

It might be worth a try, Baichuan considered.

Of course, he actually had another option: to find some way to artificially produce flames himself.

When a flame rapidly heats the air in an instant, that air becomes thinner and lighter from the rapidly increasing heat, and thus rises to form an updraft.

When that happened, he could easily ride those updrafts that appeared whenever he wanted and glide along them, no longer falling because of lost airflow.

At the same time, he could also break through the flight altitude his body could reach.

Unfortunately, right now he couldn't think of any way to produce it anywhere, anytime… no, wait! Perhaps he could do it right now!

At that thought, Baichuan suddenly recalled a miraculous creature from his previous life — perhaps its ability could let him achieve this. That creature was:

The bombardier beetle! Also known as the bombardier ground beetle, the African bombardier beetle, and other names.

It is an insect that can spray out a high-temperature toxic liquid — of course, that is not the key point.

The key point is that this insect stores hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone inside its body, and through a special enzyme acting as a catalyst, it can generate a Benzoquinone Solution reaching up to 100°C and spray it out from its body.

And the Benzoquinone Solution it mixes has a fire point of 560°C, and a flash point as low as 38–93°C — a typical flammable and explosive substance.

If even a single spark appeared when this liquid was being sprayed, it would instantly erupt into raging flames, and the burning would simultaneously produce large amounts of toxic gas.

Moreover, the temperature of those flames would reach a minimum of 560°C.

In other words, once this liquid burned, it would transform into terrifyingly toxic fire, with an especially enormous effect on living creatures.

As for the spark needed to ignite it — Baichuan already possessed that: electricity discharge!

Discharging electricity in the air to reach an instantaneous high temperature in a short time was still fairly easy, after all its flash point was only as low as 38°C.

Looking at it this way, once he obtained this ability, true fire-breathing would not be far off!

Practically within reach!

Furthermore, if he could create a confined space to store it and then ignite it to make it burn violently and rapidly, then perhaps an explosion would not be impossible either!

However, unfortunately.

Baichuan only knew of this creature's existence, but not where it actually lived — searching for one tiny insect on this vast planet was incredibly difficult.

At this moment, Baichuan once again bitterly regretted why his field of study in his previous life hadn't been something like biology, instead of other things that were useless now.

If he had studied that kind of major, even with a poor foundation and slacking off in class, he would still be better off than now.

A starved camel is still bigger than a horse.

Perhaps by now, he could already transform into a dragon and roam the nine heavens.

He let out a long, quiet sigh — it was too late to say anything now.

But since its name contained those two characters, perhaps… no, it most likely lived on that continent.

So, based on his discoveries so far, this world's geography shared certain similarities with that of his previous life — though he couldn't be a hundred percent certain, it was still a useful reference.

Therefore, as long as he hurried to that similar region, he figured that with a careful search, he should be able to encounter one.

And besides, that continent also had all kinds of animals — with his current strength, going there would be a slaughterfest, wouldn't it?

Mm, as long as he didn't run into a situation like the Great Zhou, it would be another paradise belonging to him.

Most importantly, the purpose of going to other places did not conflict with the plan he had already decided on.

After all, he had originally wanted to travel around this planet.

That works out perfectly.

After deciding on yet another short-term plan, his Flight had also reached a measured stage.

Baichuan looked at the sky, which was gradually darkening—winter Time changed so quickly, with short days and long nights.

He should rest for a while; today's level of activity had left him quite ravenous.

He just didn't know whether his great white shark was still there.

Thinking of this, Baichuan once again plunged into the water, swinging his tail fin toward the seabed.

Soon, he returned to the spot where the great white shark had been, but a strange scene appeared before him…

(End of Chapter)