Chapter 179: Ancient Azure Dragon (Part 1)

After slaying the male flood dragon, Jasmine's small face instantly turned pale. She glanced back at Yun Che's location, and as her red dress fluttered, her body transformed into a streak of red light, returning to the Sky Poison Pearl.

Witnessing the male flood dragon's demise, Yun Che let out a long sigh of relief. As he sprinted forward, he urgently called out, "Jasmine, are you alright?"

It was a while before Jasmine's voice, full of resentment, finally came through: "Hmph! Consider it me owing you from my past life!"

Although Jasmine's voice was weak, it wasn't faint, which reassured Yun Che. With a hint of apology, he said, "This time, I've implicated you again."

"...There's no need for further discussion. If you want to save that woman, you'd better hurry. I can't guarantee whether she was poisoned by that male flood dragon. Furthermore, don't expect me to take action again for the next three months."

After saying this, Jasmine fell silent, quietly suppressing the poison that had once again spread through her body within the Sky Poison Pearl. Although it didn't damage her soul source this time, as it did when she slew the Blazing Dragon, it was still incredibly difficult to bear.

The fierce battle involving a half-step Emperor Profound practitioner and two peak Sky Profound flood dragons had ravaged the entire area. The ground had sunk by at least three feet on average, and not a single blade of grass remained in sight. Upon finally reaching this zone, Yun Che immediately spotted the Little Fairy. She lay quietly on the withered, yellow ground, like a striking lotus flower.

"Little Fairy!"

Yun Che's heart lurched. He rushed forward, and upon reaching her side, he paused for a moment.

Her white robes were severely damaged, yet remained spotless, protected by residual ice energy. The veil that had always covered her face had fallen off at some unknown point, finally allowing Yun Che to clearly see her snow-like countenance.

Just as Yun Che had anticipated, it was an exceptionally beautiful face. Her features were exquisitely perfect, her eyebrows delicate and slender, and her skin like lustrous pearls. Though her complexion and lips were as pale as paper, they couldn't hide the innate cold pride, nobility, and otherworldly transcendence that emanated from her. In her presence, one would scarcely dare to entertain a single disrespectful thought, feeling only a profound sense of self-abasement.

Yun Che's momentary daze quickly faded. He immediately crouched down, reaching out to place his hand on her snow-white neck. His fingers trembled slightly the moment they touched her skin, for her body temperature was terrifyingly cold, as if she had just been immersed in an icy spring.

"Don't... touch me..." The Little Fairy weakly struggled, sensing Yun Che's touch on her neck. Her voice was barely a whisper, yet incredibly resolute. Though severely wounded and on the verge of death, her body's aversion to men was deeply ingrained, almost a conditioned reflex. On her pale face, the cold aloofness that pushed others away remained undiminished.

"Alright, I won't touch you... I won't touch you." Yun Che quickly withdrew his hand, his heart sinking.

The brief examination had left him utterly stunned. What Jasmine had said was not an exaggeration—in fact, it was even more severe. Her profound veins were completely destroyed, shattered like fragmented ice crystals, far more thoroughly ruined than his own crippled profound veins had been. They were utterly beyond repair. If there was one possible method, it would be to reconstruct a profound vein, just as he had done in the past. However, such an opportunity was virtually impossible to replicate; Yun Che was arguably the first in the Profound Sky Continent's history to experience it, making it an unseekable chance. And even if it did occur, with new profound veins, profound energy would have to be cultivated from the very beginning, starting from the Elementary Profound Realm once more.

Not only were her profound veins completely shattered, but nearly all of her meridians were also severed. At this moment, the Little Fairy was almost entirely paralyzed and crippled, with only her lingering consciousness remaining. Only the meridians in her right arm and right hand were merely half-shattered, allowing her to move them with great difficulty; all other parts of her body were completely immobile.

To freeze a peak Sky Profound flood dragon into a silent ice sculpture in a matter of breaths—what terrifying power that must have been. And the cost of wielding such power was undeniably brutal.

Even Yun Che, who often prided himself on being a divine doctor, felt a profound sense of helplessness in the face of such injuries. He was confident he could save her life, but restoring her profound veins, let alone her power, was impossible.

Beyond that, Yun Che also sensed a heavy aura of death emanating from her.

"Don't bother with her. She can't live anymore," Jasmine said coldly.

"No! She can live! As long as I'm here, I won't let her die!" Yun Che clenched his teeth, pressing his hands above the Little Fairy's chest and desperately using his profound energy to protect her heart meridians.

"Hmph, there's no need for self-deception. Can't you feel that her heart is already filled with a desire for death? To go from a half-step Emperor Profound practitioner who dominated the world to a cripple who can't even stand—if it were me, I wouldn't want to continue living either. Even if you manage to keep her alive, she'll only be confined to a bed from now on. For her, that will be millions of times more painful than simply dying; if you save her, you're merely tormenting her. Furthermore, even if your medical skills were a hundred times more superb, if her heart is set on death, you simply won't be able to save her!"

Jasmine's words were like a bucket of cold water poured over Yun Che's head; he froze, completely still. After a long silence, he lowered his head, gazed at the Little Fairy's bloodless face, and murmured in a low voice: "My Master said that all things in heaven and earth are interconnected and mutually restraining, life and death cycle, cause and effect continuously flow. Every phenomenon in the world has its opposite and inverse. If an ailment can be generated, it can certainly be cured. There has never been an incurable disease in this world; if one exists, it's simply because a method hasn't been discovered yet. Since profound veins can be shattered, there must be a way to repair them... There will! There will definitely be!"

What worried Yun Che most was not her terrifyingly severe injuries, but her desire for death. Jasmine was right: if her heart was truly set on dying, not even his Master, were he alive, could save her, let alone him. Realizing this, he no longer cared about the Fairy's resistance. He grabbed her shoulders with both hands and shouted loudly: "Little Fairy, listen... listen to me! With me here, you won't die, no matter how severe your injuries are, you won't die. Your severed meridians, give me three years, and I will definitely repair them all. Your profound veins... there must be a way to restore your profound veins too. Open your eyes, look at me, don't die... don't let yourself die!"

The Little Fairy's eyes remained closed. Only her snow-white lips moved slightly, emitting a weak voice: "My profound veins are shattered, beyond saving... I don't blame you. You... go... now..."

The Little Fairy's weak voice was also filled with a desire for death. Her phrase "I don't blame you" carried no accusation, no emotion, not even a trace of resentment or unwillingness. Her heart was truly ashes.

"You don't need to try to persuade her. Even if you truly had a way to repair her profound veins, or even make them perfectly intact right now, her desire for death wouldn't lessen," Jasmine said mercilessly. "Decades of arduous cultivation ruined in a single day—you simply don't understand what an unbearable drop it is to go from a half-step Emperor Profound practitioner to a cripple. Hmph, let alone her, what about you... If all the power and divine arts you've cultivated over this past year were to disappear, wouldn't you despair? How much more so for her decades of effort and half-step Emperor Profound cultivation!"

"No! I wouldn't!" Yun Che's gaze was resolute. "No matter what I lose, as long as it's not my life, as long as I'm still alive, there's always hope of regaining it. Being alive is the greatest hope; with life, anything is possible!"

"Owooo... wooo..."

In the distance, faint roars of profound beasts could be heard, their intermittent cries growing steadily closer. Clearly, the cessation of the fierce battle and the disappearance of the twin dragons' auras had alerted some highly intelligent profound beasts, which were now tentatively approaching. Any profound beast capable of residing in the central area of this wasteland was beyond Yun Che's ability to contend with.

Yun Che's gaze swept around. He suddenly noticed a solitary small mountain less than a mile to the north, with a pitch-black cave entrance beneath it. It was solitary because during the recent battle between the Little Fairy and the twin flood dragons, large surrounding areas had been leveled. Yet, for some unknown reason, that small mountain remained untouched, appearing to have suffered no damage.

If a profound beast were to discover them, not only the Little Fairy but he himself would perish there. He made a decisive move, scooping up the Little Fairy's cold yet soft body. He rushed towards the small mountain, roaring in a low voice: "Little Fairy, I know you are pure and untainted, even repulsed by males, but I'm holding you anyway... If you want to punish me, if you want to kill me, then live well! If you dare to die just like this... I... I'll immediately strip off your clothes!"

Never in her life had the Little Fairy heard such a shameless threat. She felt her body firmly held by him. As her eyelashes slightly trembled, threads of anger, humiliation, and something indescribable arose within her heart, which had already been filled with a desire for death. But immediately, these feelings were again drowned out by the overwhelming desire to die...

Yun Che quickly and carefully rushed into the cave. Throughout the entire process, his profound energy continuously poured into the Little Fairy's body, protecting her vital meridians.

The cave was darker than expected, but not eerie. Yun Che walked all the way to its deepest part before gently setting the Little Fairy down.

It was very dark and quiet here; even the sound of wind was completely inaudible. Feeling the Little Fairy's faint, thread-like breath, Yun Che felt a wave of guilt and helplessness: "I'm sorry. If it weren't for you protecting me, if it weren't for me insisting on chasing that Stormhawk, you wouldn't have encountered this... If I could have foreseen this earlier, I would absolutely not have made the same choice. How could my origins be more important than your life..."

When Yun Che first requested the Little Fairy to protect him for three months, he never imagined that during this period, he would encounter two peak Sky Profound flood dragons. The Little Fairy, whose strength was sufficient to rank her among the top ten in the Azure Cloud Empire, had honored her promise, returning on time after two months. She followed him from the Azure Cloud Imperial City to this Death Wasteland, guarding his life every step of the way. Now, she had even sacrificed everything for it.

Yun Che had never been willing to owe anything to others. The Little Fairy's protection was originally just a 'transaction,' one he had always accepted with a clear conscience. But after today's events, how could he possibly continue to feel at ease?

Yun Che reached out and checked the Little Fairy's pulse, finding that her body temperature had not grown colder; instead, it had warmed slightly. After a moment of surprise, he immediately realized that her previous coldness was due to the profound art she cultivated. Now that her profound veins were shattered and her ice-element profound art had completely dissipated, her body temperature was beginning to normalize...

At this thought, Yun Che quickly stood up and ignited a circle of Phoenix flame around himself and the Little Fairy, sending waves of heat through the dark cave.

Just then, an ancient voice slowly resonated from above:

"Phoenix flame... So that's it. It seems it wasn't an illusion; a trace of Phoenix blood truly flows within you."

This voice made Yun Che leap up from the ground like lightning. "Who... who's speaking!!"