Chapter 178 – Primordial Azure Dragon (1)
After killing the male Flood Dragon, Jasmine’s little face instantly turned an ashen white color. She glanced backwards towards Yun Che’s location; her red dress fluttered, and then her body transformed into a streak of red light, returning to the Sky Poison Pearl.
Yun Che, seeing that the male Flood Dragon had perished, was greatly relieved. While running forward, he also called out frantically, “Jasmine, are you alright?”
A long while later, Jasmine finally spoke in a hate-filled voice. “Hmph! I must have owed you a debt in a past life!”
Jasmine’s voice was clearly rather weak, but it wasn’t trembling. This made Yun Che feel relieved, and he said, rather apologetically, “I harmed you yet again.”
“…no need to say pointless things. If you want to save that woman, move a bit faster. I’m unable to guarantee that she wasn’t poisoned by that male Flood Dragon’s venom. In addition, for the next three months, don’t even think about having me intervene again.”
After saying these things, Jasmine said nothing else. There, within the Sky Poison Pearl, she began to quietly suppress the poison that was once more flaring throughout her body. Although her soul wasn’t as badly injured as it was last time, after she slew the Flame Dragon, she definitely didn’t feel very well at all right now.
This exciting battle that involved two peak Sky Profound Realm Flood Dragons and an expert who had taken half a step into the Emperor Profound Realm had caused this region to suffer a significant calamity. The ground itself was now nearly three feet lower than previously, and not an inch of gra.s.s was alive, as far as one could see. After finally reaching this region, Yun Che immediately saw Little Fairy’s figure. She was lying there quietly on the ground, like a striking lotus flower that was lying on the sallow yellow earth.
“Little Fairy!”
Yun Che’s heart lurched. He hurriedly charged forward, and when he arrived by her side, he suddenly came to an astonished halt.
The clothes on her body were unbearably tattered now, but the veil that had always covered her face remained undamaged, thanks to the protection of the remnant frost. At some unknown point, however, it had drifted away, allowing Yun Che to completely see, quite clearly, her snowy complexion.
It was just as Yun Che had imagined. This was a very, very beautiful face. Her features were all absolutely exquisite. Her eyebrows were clear and slender, her skin was pearly, and although her lips and face were as white as paper, this was unable to cover up the cold, arrogant n.o.bility which was bone-deep. This cold n.o.bility seemed to make her transcend the dust of the world and made it so that anyone who faced her wouldn’t dare to profane her in the slightest, only feel ashamed of their own inferiority.
Yun Che’s dazed state lasted just a moment, and then he hurriedly bent down and stretched his hand out, pressing down against her snowy neck. In the instant his finger touched her skin, it trembled lightly, because her body temperature was frighteningly low, as though she had just bathed in a pool of icy water.
“Don’t…touch me…” Little Fairy, upon feeling Yun Che touch her neck, resisted feebly. Her voice was very faint and weak, but incomparably firm. Although she was badly injured and at the point of death, preventing men from touching her body was a bone-deep habit, and she reacted almost by instinct. On her pale face, the coldness that seemed to keep others at a distance of a thousand kilometers didn’t lessen at all.
“Fine, I won’t touch you…I won’t touch you.” Yun Che hurriedly took his hand back, but his heart sank.
Just now, when he had investigated her, he grew mentally panicked. Jasmine’s words weren’t an exaggeration…no, rather, the situation was even more serious than how Jasmine described it. Her profound veins had been completely destroyed. They were shattered to pieces, like broken ice crystals. The damage done to them was so severe that they were in even worse shape than Yun Che’s had been in the past. There was no way to repair them at all. If one insisted that there was a way, then the only possibility was for her to do what he had done; build new profound veins. But a chance like this…Yun Che was the first person in history of the Profound Sky Continent to do this. This sort of chance was something one could only hope for but not rely on. In addition, even if she really did have this chance, she would have to rebuild her profound energy from scratch, starting from the Elementary Profound Realm.
Not only had her profound veins been completely destroyed, her meridians were completely shattered as well. At this point in time, aside from still possessing slight consciousness, Little Fairy’s entire body was completely paralyzed and crippled. Aside from her right arm and her right hand, where only half of the meridians were smashed, and which she could thus somewhat move, every other part of her entire body was now completely immobile.
What terrifying power must be required to completely freeze a peak Sky Profound Realm Flood Dragon into a lifeless statue of ice. But the price one would have to pay for using such an amount of power was also incomparably cruel.
Faced with an injury like this, even Yun Che, who often proclaimed himself to be a genius doctor, only felt a deep sense of powerlessness. He was confident in being able to keep her alive, but there was no way he would be able to repair her profound veins, much less restore her to her former power.
In addition, aside from this, Yun Che also sensed a heavy, deathly aura emanating from her body.
“Forget about her. She won’t be able to survive.” Jasmine said coldly.
“No! She’ll survive. I’m here, and I definitely won’t let her die!” Yun Che gritted his teeth. With his two hands, he pressed towards the air above Little Fairy’s chest, and used his own profound energy to frantically preserve her heart veins.
“Hmph. No need to lie to yourself. Can it be that you can’t sense that her heart is already filled with the desire to die? To instantly go from being a proud, world-roaming quasi-Emperor Profound Realm expert to a cripple who can’t even stand up…if I were her, I wouldn’t want to keep living. Even if you are able to keep her alive, in the future, she will only be able to lie in bed. To her, this is thousands of times more tormenting than a quick death. If you save her, that will be the same as torturing her. In addition, even if your medical skills were a hundred times higher, you still wouldn’t be able to save her if she wants to die!”
Jasmine’s words were like a bucket of cold water being poured over Yun Che’s head. His entire body went stiff, and he didn’t move at all. A long moment later, he lowered his head. He looked at Little Fairy’s completely bloodless face, then said in a low, gloomy voice, “Master’s words were correct. The myriad things of the world support and subdue each other. Life and death is a cycle, and karma and fate move in a circle, endless and eternal. There is an opposite side and an opposing side to everything; any illness that can appear can also be cured. In this world, there is no such thing as an incurable ailment; even if there is, that’s just because we haven’t found the cure yet. Since profound veins can fracture, there is definitely a method to repair them…definitely! Definitely!”
What caused Yun Che the most worry wasn’t just the fact that she had suffered a terrifying injury; it was that she wanted to die. Jasmine’s words were correct; if her heart was dead and she only wanted to die, not even Yun Che’s master, were he still alive, would be able to save her, much less Yun Che. When he thought of this, he no longer cared about Little Fairy’s revulsion towards men. He grabbed her by the shoulders with his hands, then roared loudly, “Little Fairy, listen up…listen to me! With me here, you won’t be able to die. No matter how serious your wounds are, you won’t be able to die. As for your shattered meridians, give me three years. I will definitely be able to completely repair them. Your profound veins…there is definitely a way to repair your profound veins as well. Open your eyes and look at me. Don’t die…don’t let yourself die!”
Little Fairy’s eyes were closed. Only her lips moved slightly, and a weak voice escaped them. “Profound veins shattered…situation hopeless…I don’t blame you, you…can…leave…”
Little Fairy’s weak voice also contained that desire for death. Her words, ‘I don’t blame you’, didn’t contain the slightest hint of blame, nor the slightest hint of emotion. They didn’t even contain a hint of unhappiness or unwillingness to accept the situation. Her heart was truly, truly dead.
“You don’t need to try and persuade her. Even if you really had a way to repair her profound veins to the point of making them perfect and whole, her will to die wouldn’t listen.” Jasmine said mercilessly. “Tens of years of bitter training, ruined in one morning. You simply don’t understand how it feels for one to fall from being half a step into the Emperor Profound Realm to being a cripple. You don’t understand what an unendurably large difference this is. Hmph, forget about her; let’s talk about you…if you were to lose all of the strength you had gained in this past year, if you were to lose all of your Divine Arts, can it be that you wouldn’t despair? As for her, she spent tens of years of hard work, so as to train to nearly the Emperor Profound Realm!”
“No! I wouldn’t!” Yun Che’s gaze was resolute. “No matter what I lose, as long as I don’t lose my life, as long as I am still alive, then there is hope for getting it all back. Life is the greatest hope of all. When you are alive, anything is possible!”
“A… woo…”
From afar, the faint sounds of profound beasts growling could be heard. In addition, the scattered growls were moving closer and closer. Clearly, after the frantic battle had come to a halt, and after the auras of the two dragons had vanished, some of the fairly intelligent profound beasts felt that something was amiss, and began to investigate and draw closer. Yun Che was not capable of opposing any of the profound beasts that lived within the core region of the Wasteland.
Yun Che look in every direction, then suddenly saw that to the north, less than five hundred meters away, there was a lonely little dwarf mountain. Beneath the dwarf mountain was a pitch-black cave entrance. The reason why this mountain was all alone was because during the earlier battle between Little Fairy and the two Flood Dragons, the surrounding area had been completely flattened, leaving only this dwarf mountain behind. For some unknown reason, it still existed there, and didn’t even seem to be damaged.
If they were to be discovered by a profound beast, then even Yun Che would perish here, to say nothing of Little Fairy. He immediately, decisively took Little Fairy’s cold, soft body into his arms, then charged towards the dwarf mountain while growling, “Little Fairy, I know that you have a pristine, untouched body, and that you even feel revulsion towards men. But I have to hold you now…if you want to punish me, if you want to kill me, then stay alive! If you dare die here, I…I…I’ll immediately tear all your clothes off!
Little Fairy had never heard such a shameless threat in her life. She felt her body be firmly embraced, and her eyelashes trembled slightly. A hint of rage and humiliation began to build within her heart, where before there had only been a desire to die. There was also something else building; something indescribable. But then, these things were all completely engulfed by her desire to die…
Yun Che hurriedly yet carefully marched to the entrance of the cave. This entire time, he continuously, unceasingly sent his profound energy into Little Fairy’s body, protecting her life veins.
This cave was even darker than he had expected, but it wasn’t cold. Yun Che walked all the way in, into the deepest parts of the cave, then gently put down Little Fairy.
This place was very dark and very quiet. Not even the sound of the wind could be heard at all. Sensing Little Fairy’s weak, threadbare aura of life, Yun Che felt incomparably guilty. “I’m sorry. If it wasn’t because you wanted to protect me, if it wasn’t because I had to go chase after that Fierce Storm Hawk, you wouldn’t have suffered something like this…if I could’ve predicted these things in advance, I definitely wouldn’t have made the same choices. How can my life experiences be more important than your actual life…”
When Yun Che had originally asked Little Fairy to protect him for three months, he had never imagined that within this period of time, he would actually suffer an attack from two Flood Dragons of the peak Sky Profound Realm. This Little Fairy, whose strength was more than enough to rank her in the top ten of the entire Blue Wind Empire, had kept her word. After leaving for two months, she had returned, then followed him from Blue Wind Imperial City all the way to this Wasteland of Death, not leaving him one inch and always protecting him. And now…it seemed as though she had paid the ultimate price.
Yun Che never wished to owe others. The protection Little Fairy provided him was originally just a type of ‘trade’, and so he never felt guilty about it. But after today’s events, how could he continue to feel the same way?
Yun Che stretched his hand out, once more checking Little Fairy’s pulse. He sensed that her body temperature hadn’t grown colder; instead, she had grown slightly warmer. After being momentarily startled, he immediately understood; the reason her body was previously so cold was because of the type of profound energy she trained in. Now that her profound veins were shattered, her ice-attribute profound energy had completely dissipated, and her body temperature was beginning to approach that of a normal person’s…
When he thought of this, Yun Che suddenly rose to his feet. In the air between himself and Little Fairy, a sphere of Phoenix flame suddenly formed, bringing a surge of heat into the dark cave.
At this moment, suddenly, an ancient voice slowly rang out from the air above him.
“The fire of the Phoenix…so that’s how it is. It seems I wasn’t mistaken; your body truly does have a bit of the blood of the Phoenix within it.”
This voice caused Yun Che to suddenly jump up lightning-fast from the floor. “Who…who said that!!”