Chapter 178: Primordial Azure Dragon (Part 1)
After killing the male flood dragon, a trace of pallor immediately surged onto Mo Li's small face. She glanced back at Yun Che's location, and amidst the fluttering of her red dress, her body transformed into a beam of red light, returning to the Heavenly Poison Pearl.
Watching the male flood dragon's fall, Yun Che let out a long sigh of relief. As he sprinted, he said urgently, "Mo Li, are you alright?"
After a long while, Mo Li finally spoke with a resentful voice: "Hmph! Consider this me repaying a debt from a past life!"
Although Mo Li's voice was a bit weak, it wasn't ethereal, which put Yun Che at ease. He said somewhat apologetically, "This time, I've dragged you into trouble again."
"...There's no need for superfluous words. If you want to save that woman, hurry up. I can't guarantee whether she's been poisoned by that male flood dragon's venom. Also, for the next three months, don't expect me to make a move again."
After saying this, Mo Li fell silent, quietly suppressing the poison that was once again spreading throughout her body within the Heavenly Poison Pearl. Although this time it didn't damage her soul source like when she killed the Flame Dragon before, it was still far from pleasant.
The fierce battle between a half-step King Xuan and two peak Heavenly Xuan Realm experts had devastated this area. The ground had sunk by at least three feet on average, and as far as the eye could see, not a single blade of grass remained. Finally reaching this region, Yun Che caught sight of Xiao Xiannü's figure at a glance. She lay there quietly, like a striking lotus flower on the withered yellow earth.
"Xiao Xiannü!"
Yun Che's heart jolted. He rushed over quickly. When he reached her side, he was briefly stunned.
The white clothes on her body were tattered and torn, yet under the protection of residual ice crystals, they remained spotless. The veil that had always covered her face had fallen off at some unknown moment, allowing Yun Che to finally see her snow-white countenance completely.
As Yun Che had imagined, it was an extremely beautiful face. Her features were exquisitely perfect, her thin brows delicate, her skin like pearls and blossoms. Although her face and lips were as pale as paper, they could not conceal the innate cold pride and nobility that emanated from her very bones—a transcendent otherworldliness that made one hardly dare to harbor any thoughts of defilement in her presence, leaving only a sense of inferiority.
Yun Che's daze lasted only an instant. He immediately crouched down and pressed his fingers against her snow-white neck. His fingers trembled slightly the moment they touched her skin, because her body temperature at that moment was frighteningly cold, as if she had just been soaked in an icy spring.
"Don't... touch me..." Feeling Yun Che's touch on her neck, Xiao Xiannü struggled weakly, her voice barely a whisper but extremely resolute. Although she was severely injured and near death, her body's rejection of males was bone-deep, almost a conditioned reflex. On her pale face, the coldness that kept others at a distance had not diminished in the slightest.
"Alright, I won't touch you... I won't touch you." Yun Che quickly withdrew his hand, but his heart sank.
That brief examination filled him with shock. Mo Li hadn't exaggerated... no, it was even more severe than Mo Li had said. Her profound veins were completely destroyed, shattered like broken ice crystals, even more thoroughly ruined than his own crippled profound veins had been. It was impossible to repair. If there was one method, it would be like what happened to him—rebuilding a set of profound veins... But such an opportunity was something Yun Che could be considered the first in the history of Tian Xuan Continent to encounter—completely a matter of chance. And even if she did encounter it and acquired new profound veins, her profound strength would have to start all over again from the Initial Xuan Realm.
Not only were her profound veins completely shattered, but almost all of her meridians were severed. At this moment, aside from her remaining consciousness, Xiao Xiannü's entire body was nearly completely paralyzed and crippled. Except for her right arm and right hand, whose meridians were only half broken and could still barely move, no other part of her body could function at all.
Freezing a Heavenly Xuan Realm peak flood dragon into a silent ice sculpture in a few breaths—that must have been an incredibly terrifying power. And the price for unleashing such power was equally brutal.
Faced with injuries like these, even Yun Che, who often considered himself a divine physician, could only feel a profound sense of helplessness. He was confident he could keep her alive, but he couldn't restore her profound veins, let alone her strength.
Besides that, Yun Che also sensed a heavy aura of death from her.
"Don't bother with her anymore. She can't live," Mo Li said coldly.
"No! She can live. With me here, I won't let her die!" Yun Che gritted his teeth. He pressed his hands in the air above Xiao Xiannü's chest, desperately protecting her heart meridian with his profound force.
"Hmph, you don't need to deceive yourself. Can't you feel that her heart is already filled with the will to die? Going from a half-step King Xuan who looked down upon the world to a cripple who can't even stand—if it were me, I wouldn't want to go on living either. Even if you had a way to keep her alive, she would only be able to lie in bed from now on. For her, that would be millions of times more painful than dying directly. If you try to save her, you're torturing her. Moreover, even if your medical skills were a hundred times more advanced, if her heart is dead, you can't possibly save her!"
Mo Li's words poured like a bucket of cold water over Yun Che's head. His entire body stiffened, frozen in place. After a long time, he lowered his head, looked at Xiao Xiannü's bloodless face, and murmured softly, "Master once said that all things in heaven and earth are interdependent, life and death cycle, cause and effect are endless. Everything in the world has its opposite and reverse side. If illness and injury can arise, they can certainly be cured. There is never an incurable disease in this world. Even if there is, it's only because a method hasn't been found yet. Since profound veins can be shattered, there must be a way to repair them... There must be... There must be!!"
What worried Yun Che the most was not the severity of her injuries, but her will to die. Mo Li was right: if her heart was like dead ashes and she wished only for death, then not even he, not even his master in the world, could save her. With that thought, he no longer heeded Xiao Xiannü's rejection. He grabbed her shoulders and shouted loudly, "Xiao Xiannü, listen to me! Listen to me! With me here, you won't die. No matter how severe the injuries, you won't die. Give me three years, and I can repair all your severed meridians. As for your profound veins... there must be a way to restore them. Open your eyes, look at me, don't die... don't let yourself die!"
Xiao Xiannü's eyes were closed, her pale lips moving only slightly as she uttered a weak voice: "My profound veins are shattered beyond repair... I don't blame you... you... go... now..."
In Xiao Xiannü's weak voice there was nothing but the will to die. Her words "I don't blame you" carried no reproach, no emotion—not even a trace of resentment or unwillingness—truly a heart of dead ashes.
"You don't need to try to persuade her," Mo Li said mercilessly. "Even if you could restore her profound veins right now, her will to die wouldn't decrease one bit. Decades of bitter cultivation destroyed in an instant—you have no idea how unbearable it is to fall from a half-step King Xuan to a cripple. Hmph, not to mention her, let's talk about you. If all the power and divine arts you've cultivated this past year were to disappear, wouldn't you be in despair? And this is after decades of her effort—half-step King Xuan cultivation!"
"No, I wouldn't!" Yun Che's eyes were resolute. "No matter what I lose, as long as it's not my life, as long as I'm still alive, there is always hope of reclaiming it. Living is the greatest hope. Living means everything is possible!"
"Ooo... oooh..."
In the distance, faint roars of profound beasts could be heard, and the intermittent cries were gradually drawing closer. Clearly, the fierce battle had ceased, and the auras of the two flood dragons had disappeared, causing some highly intelligent profound beasts to sense something unusual and begin cautiously approaching this area. And any profound beast that could dwell in the center of this wasteland was something Yun Che could not possibly contend with.
Yun Che looked around and suddenly spotted a lone, low hill less than a li to the north. At the base of the hill was a pitch-black cave entrance. The reason it was called "lone" was because, during the battle between Xiao Xiannü and the two flood dragons, the surrounding area had been swept flat. Only this low hill, for some unknown reason, still stood there peacefully, seemingly undamaged.
If a profound beast discovered them, not only would Xiao Xiannü die, but he would also perish here. Making a quick decision, he scooped up Xiao Xiannü's cold and soft body and rushed toward the low hill. At the same time, he growled in a low voice, "Xiao Xiannü, I know you are pure and reject males, but I am holding you anyway... if you want to punish me, if you want to kill me, then live well! If you dare to die like this... I... I'll strip you naked right now!"
In her entire life, Xiao Xiannü had never heard such a shameless threat. She felt her body firmly held by him. Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, and within her heart, already filled with the will to die, a trace of anger, humiliation, and something indescribable arose. But in an instant, these were again drowned by the overwhelming will to die...
Yun Che strode carefully into the cave, all the while continuously channeling his profound energy into Xiao Xiannü's body, protecting her life force.
This cave was darker than expected, but not eerie. Yun Che went all the way to the deepest part of the cave before gently setting Xiao Xiannü down.
It was very dark and very quiet here—even the sound of wind was completely inaudible. Feeling Xiao Xiannü's faint breath, Yun Che was filled with guilt and helplessness: "I'm sorry. If it weren't for protecting me, if I hadn't insisted on chasing that Storm Fierce Eagle, you wouldn't have encountered this... If I could have foreseen this, I would never have made the same choice. My background is nothing compared to the value of your life..."
When Yun Che initially proposed that Xiao Xiannü protect him for three months, he never imagined he would encounter two peak Heavenly Xuan Realm flood dragons in that time. Xiao Xiannü, whose strength was enough to rank among the top ten of the Cang Feng Empire, kept her promise. She returned on time after two months, following him from the Cangfeng Imperial City to this Death Wasteland, guarding his life every step of the way... and now, she had paid with everything she had.
Yun Che never wanted to be indebted to anyone. Xiao Xiannü's protection had originally been just a "transaction," and he had always accepted it with an easy conscience. But after what happened today, how could he continue to feel at ease?
Yun Che reached out and checked Xiao Xiannü's pulse. He found that her body temperature was not getting colder but had actually warmed a little. After a moment of surprise, he quickly realized: the coldness of her body before had been due to the profound art she cultivated. Now that her profound veins were shattered and her ice-type profound art had dissipated, her body temperature was returning to normal...
With that thought, Yun Che quickly stood up and ignited a ring of Phoenix Flame around himself and Xiao Xiannü, sending waves of heat through the dark cave.
At that moment, an aged voice slowly sounded from above:
"Phoenix Flame... I see. So it wasn't an illusion. Your body indeed carries a trace of phoenix blood."
This voice sent Yun Che springing up from the ground like lightning: "Who... who is speaking!!"