Chapter 176: Male and Female Jiaolong

Yun Che's entire body jolted, and his gaze swiftly swept around. The pendant's casing was metal, which would reflect some light, and its color contrasted sharply with the dry, yellow ground. If it had fallen nearby, it should have been easy to spot. However, after searching for a long time, Yun Che found no trace of it.

Yun Che distinctly remembered that when he sat down to heal just now, his hand had brushed against the pendant while pulling at his torn collar; at that moment, the pendant was still on him. Could it be... Yun Che suddenly looked up, staring into the sky. Earlier, when he had shaken off the Storm Eagle, he clearly felt something tug at the back of his neck. At the time, he thought it was just his clothes catching due to his large movement and didn't pay it much mind. But now, it was clearly his pendant being pulled off his neck!

The eagle's talons were not only incredibly sharp but also hooked. If they snagged the pendant's string, they could easily hold it tightly and pull the pendant off! The Storm Eagle flew at an extremely high speed. By now, it was far up in the sky, visible only as a blurry black speck. Yun Che's heart pounded with urgency. He frantically sprinted forward but stopped after only a few steps, shouting upwards, "Little Fairy! Help me catch that Storm Eagle! It stole my pendant!"

A long moment passed before Little Fairy's faint voice drifted down from above: "I merely follow my promise to protect you for three months, not to act as your subordinate. I am also under no obligation to obey a man's commands."

"That pendant is very important to me! It's connected to my origins, the only proof I have to recognize my birth parents! I absolutely cannot lose it..."

"How does that concern me?"

Yun Che stared intently at the increasingly faint black speck high in the sky, took a deep breath, and urgently roared, "If you can help me catch the Storm Eagle, I will unblock three... No! Five... five of your sealed profound meridians! I swear I'll do it, I won't break my word! If I can't, you can kill me with a single palm strike!" Yun Che's words were like thunder to any profound practitioner, an irresistible temptation for anyone in the profound way... Little Fairy was no exception. Two breaths later, her figure appeared before Yun Che amidst a shimmer of ice: "Very well, I will help you then!"

As her cool voice faded, Yun Che felt an irresistible force surge beneath him. His body was lifted into the air, and he shot upwards like an arrow from a bowstring, chasing directly after the distant Storm Eagle!

The surging airflow blasted into Yun Che's face, forcing him to temporarily close his eyes. The whistling wind in his ears was no less intense than the gales he experienced when riding the Giant Snow Condor. Once he adapted to the surging air currents, he opened his eyes. Little Fairy was by his side, her flight posture graceful, like a celestial maiden dancing in the sky. Her pristine white gown fluttered around her, and beneath her wavering veil, a beautiful, snow-like face was dimly visible, appearing and disappearing from view.

Ahead, the black speck in his vision gradually grew larger in his pupils.

"Faster, you must catch it!" Yun Che urged anxiously. He now had to pray that the pendant was securely hooked to the eagle's talons and wouldn't fall. Otherwise, finding it in the vast expanse of the Death Wastes would truly be like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Little Fairy glanced at him indifferently: "Profound practitioners can only fly after reaching the Sky Profound Realm, and the Storm Eagle is a king of the skies. Even if I exert my full power, I can barely keep up. I'm almost at my limit now."

As she spoke, the black speck ahead drew slightly closer, about a mile away. Just then, the Storm Eagle ahead seemed to notice their pursuit. A loud, angry cry echoed from afar, and its speed abruptly increased, making it appear to recede further and further from view.

"Oh no! Did it spot us? Little Fairy, go faster, you must catch it! You must!" Yun Che gritted his teeth deeply.

Little Fairy looked at Yun Che again, then sighed slightly. A layer of pale blue light emanated from her body, causing the surrounding temperature to plummet instantly.

The sudden onset of chilling air made Yun Che instinctively shiver. He quickly circulated his profound energy to resist the almost bone-piercing cold. At the same time, he felt the force carrying him suddenly surge, propelling him through the air at an even greater speed...

The Storm Eagle in their sight finally stopped growing more distant, but after some time, they still hadn't closed the gap. The threat from behind made the Storm Eagle fly at full speed. Although it was only a Spirit Profound Beast, it was a true overlord of the high skies. Even Little Fairy, with her peak Sky Profound Realm power, could only maintain an even pace, not falling behind but also unable to get closer.

"Little Fairy, can't we go any faster?" The current speed was already lightning-fast, and the howling wind in his ears nearly deafened him, yet he anxiously wished to go even faster. That pendant was simply too important to him. In his previous life on Azure Cloud Continent, he had worn it from birth until death, never taking it off. In this life on Sky Profound Continent, he had also worn it around his neck since birth... it was like a mark of his very existence. In both lives, he had no parents and didn't know who they were. In this life, he had finally learned a little information about his birth parents, and the pendant around his neck had become his sole hope of discovering his true origins and finding them. If he lost it, he would never know his true identity.

"This time, I've truly reached my limit," Little Fairy replied. Sensing Yun Che's heartfelt anxiety, she offered comfort: "You don't need to be too anxious; we will catch it eventually."

"Are you confident?"

"It's only a Spirit Profound Beast, after all. In terms of endurance, it's no match for me. If we continue to chase it like this, it will surely exhaust itself before I do. As long as we don't lose sight of it during the pursuit, it cannot escape."

Little Fairy's words put Yun Che's mind slightly at ease. Thinking of the last time he flew at high altitude, he couldn't help but smile slightly... Last time, he and Lan Xuer were frantically chased by a Storm Eagle until the Giant Snow Condor was exhausted. This time, the situation was completely reversed: he and Little Fairy were soaring through the sky, pursuing the Storm Eagle, waiting for it to exhaust itself.

The Storm Eagle's massive body cast a long black shadow as it soared through the air, flying straight north... deeper into the Death Wastes.

Little Fairy and Yun Che pursued relentlessly, vast stretches of land flashing beneath their gaze. Two hours later, hundreds of miles of wasteland were left behind them. They had completely crossed the domain of Spirit Profound Beasts and reached the airspace above the domain of Earth Profound Beasts. If Yun Che were to land now, encountering any profound beast would put his life in grave danger. Even at this high altitude, this area was one the Storm Eagle had never dared to enter before. But under Yun Che and Little Fairy's relentless pursuit, it was forced to fly at full speed to this point... and then continued northward.

Another hour passed, and the sky gradually darkened. Unbeknownst to them, they had already flown for over a hundred miles, and their current position was nearing the central point of the Death Wastes... a place Yun Che, with his current strength, could absolutely not reach.

After such a prolonged period of full-speed flight, the Storm Eagle finally began to show signs of fatigue. Its flying speed started to decrease, and its distant cries no longer sounded full of vigor but rather conveyed increasingly profound exhaustion.

How profound was the Half-Step Sovereign Profound energy? Little Fairy, having flown at full speed for three hours with Yun Che, showed no signs of fatigue. Watching the black speck ahead grow closer, and gradually discerning the Storm Eagle's vague silhouette, she softly murmured, "It's nearly exhausted. Prepare to capture it."

As she spoke, their flying speed subtly increased again. They drew closer and closer to the Storm Eagle, and half a quarter of an hour later, the distance had closed to less than a thousand meters. Just then, the Storm Eagle suddenly flapped its wings, let out a weak cry, and its body plummeted weakly towards a small mountain below.

Little Fairy swiftly descended with Yun Che, drawing closer and closer to the ground...

Just then, Jasmine's startled cry suddenly echoed in Yun Che's mind: "Move quickly! Danger!"

Yun Che's heart suddenly tightened, and the instant Jasmine's voice fell, a massive silver shadow suddenly shot out from the small mountain below. The silver shadow, like a winding bolt of lightning, streaked directly upwards. A cavernous, blood-red maw, as large as a house and lined with terrifying fangs, opened wide and lunged towards them. Yun Che and Little Fairy were both shocked and paled simultaneously. Little Fairy grabbed Yun Che's arm with one hand, pulling back with all her might, narrowly dodging the gaping maw. But the danger was not yet over. From behind them, an equally perilous aura attacked... another almost identical blood-red maw enveloped them from the rear...

"Get lost!" Little Fairy's elegant brows furrowed. She extended her right hand, instantly conjuring an ice crystal barrier dozens of meters wide in front of them. The blood-red maw crashed into the icy shield, recoiling far back. Large cracks appeared on the barrier. Seeing the cracks on the ice crystal barrier, Little Fairy's eyebrows furrowed tightly.

Yun Che's eyes, meanwhile, were completely filled with shock. Because he saw dragons... Silver dragons... And not just one, but two silver dragons!

Two massive silver dragons, over thirty meters long, soared into the sky, circling on either side of him and Little Fairy, one in front and one behind. Their scales reflected a cold silver light, as if countless silver serpents were slithering across them. Two immeasurably vast and terrifying auras locked onto them.

"These aren't true dragons, but two mutated flood dragons! They exude a strong, poisonous aura... In terms of grade, they are high-level Sky Profound Beasts! Their power is at the peak of the Sky Profound Realm, comparable to a level ten Sky Profound practitioner. In a few decades, they would be strong enough to enter the Half-Step Sovereign Profound Realm. If there were only one, with her Half-Step Sovereign Profound strength, she could handle it. But two... she'd have to sacrifice herself!" Jasmine's voice was extremely solemn: "Your best option now is to have her hold off these two flood dragons, and then you take the chance to escape immediately! Otherwise, you're dead! Because escaping together is simply impossible... Dragons' aerial mastery surpasses even that of eagles!"

At that moment, the flood dragon in front opened its maw wide and spoke in human tongue: "More foolish humans attempting to taint the Dragon God's treasure... Die!" Its voice was heavy and deafening. As it finished speaking, both flood dragons simultaneously surged upwards, two violent auras blasting towards Yun Che and Little Fairy, one from the front and one from the back.