The search for materials took longer than he had imagined.
Xiao Qing spent three days searching the hilly terrain where the outer and middle regions of Star Dou Forest met before finding a Wind-Thunder Falcon's nest.
The Wind-Thunder Falcon was a Soul Beast with both wind and thunder attributes. Adults ranged from eight hundred to twelve hundred years old.
There was a pair living in the nest before him. Judging by its size, both Wind-Thunder Falcons were over a thousand years old.
If Xiao Qing and the others tried to fight them head-on, they definitely wouldn't win.
Wind-Thunder Falcons could fly, move at incredible speed, and control wind blades. A'Man's defense would be much less effective against those blades.
Xiao Feng couldn't fly, and couldn't reach them with its attacks either. They could only take a beating, so they had to outsmart the falcons.
Xiao Qing observed the pair for two days and figured out their routine.
Every morning, the male falcon left the nest to hunt, while the female stayed behind. At noon, the male would return, and then it would be the female's turn to leave and hunt.
His chance would come around noon, just before the male returned. With its mate due back soon and hunger gnawing at it, the female would let down its guard.
On the third day, Xiao Qing made his move.
Downwind of the nest, he lit a bundle of damp firewood. Thick smoke drifted toward the nest with the wind. Wind-Thunder Falcons had keen senses of smell, and the smoke would irritate them and drive them out of the nest to escape it.
Sure enough, the female fidgeted in the nest for several minutes before finally spreading its wings and flying out. It circled above the nest, crying out a warning.
The moment the female left the nest, Xiao Feng sprang into action.
It shot out from the bushes where it had been hiding, so fast it left a blur behind. In three seconds, it had climbed the thirty-meter cliff face, finding footholds in the cracks and protrusions of the rock.
When the female realized something was wrong and dived down, Xiao Feng had already snatched a fist-sized egg, shimmering with pale green and white light, and leaped down from the cliff.
The male's piercing cry rang out in the distance. It had returned early.
Xiao Qing whistled, and A'Man charged out from the other side. It picked up the boulder they had prepared beforehand and hurled it with all its might at the diving female.
The boulder tore through the air, forcing the female to veer aside.
That brief delay was all Xiao Feng needed to land. It tossed the egg to Xiao Qing, then charged toward their planned escape route without looking back.
Xiao Qing caught the egg. It felt cool to the touch, and he could sense the surging wind-and-thunder energy within. Without even looking at it, he tucked it into his clothes and ran.
Behind him, the male and female shrieked furiously, and wind blades sliced through the trees.
Xiao Qing had carefully planned their escape route. It was full of dense, low bushes and complicated terrain, where the Wind-Thunder Falcons' large bodies prevented them from pursuing at low altitude.
But desperate to get their egg back, the male and female circled above Xiao Qing, searching for a chance to snatch him up.
Watching the Wind-Thunder Falcons rage helplessly overhead, Xiao Qing stopped and let out a sigh of relief.
"We're safe!"
Xiao Qing leaned against a tree and panted. Xiao Feng crouched nearby on watch, while A'Man arrived last, with several new bloody streaks on its body—scrapes from wind blades, though none were deep.
The wounds were from the rampaging female falcon. A'Man simply hadn't been fast enough.
"Nicely done. That means we've got our first material: an egg from a thousand-year wind-attributed Soul Beast!"
Xiao Qing stroked Xiao Feng's head, then checked A'Man's wounds and dusted them with medicine.
The first material was in hand.
The Storm Iris took even longer to obtain, because it only bloomed during a thunderstorm.
Even though it was the season when thunderstorms were common, Xiao Qing spent a full five days lying in wait before he finally got one.
The storm came on fast. Dark clouds covered the sky in half an hour, lightning writhed through them like dragons, and fierce winds lashed raindrops against his face until it stung.
Wearing a straw rain cape, Xiao Qing found the three Storm Irises, their buds on the verge of blooming, at a cliffside exposed to the wind.
They grew in cracks in the rock, with slender stalks and deep purple flowers edged in silvery white.
The Storm Irises swayed as they frantically absorbed the surrounding wind- and thunder-attributed Soul Power.
Xiao Qing tied one end of a rope around his waist and the other around a tree, then had A'Man hold it taut.
Using the rope for support, Xiao Qing edged closer to the Storm Irises.
By the time he reached them, they had fully bloomed.
Storm Irises had to be picked quickly. They could bloom for an hour in a thunderstorm, but only if the storm lasted longer than an hour.
If the storm stopped early, the Storm Irises would wilt within ten minutes, lose all their medicinal properties, and turn back into inconspicuous weeds.
Xiao Qing carefully dug them up by the roots with a jade spade, placed them in a wooden box, and sealed it.
The whole process took less than three minutes, but the wind had already torn several holes in his straw rain cape.
Xiao Qing glanced down at his tattered cape and, without hesitation, untied the rope and tossed it away.
The first one!
Raindrops the size of beans pelted Xiao Qing, making it hard for him to see where the other Storm Irises were.
Fortunately, the Storm Irises absorbed enough thunder-attributed Soul Power while blooming that their petals gave off a gentle white glow.
Pressing himself against the cliff face, Xiao Qing narrowed his eyes and searched the area for any points of light.
"Found them!"
His persistence finally paid off. He spotted two white lights below him to the right.
Clinging to the protruding rocks, Xiao Qing moved to the same height as the lights, then slowly edged toward them.
Just as Xiao Qing was about to touch the Storm Irises, his foot suddenly slipped, and he slammed hard into the cliff face.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly enough to shield his head with his arms. But his elbow wasn't so lucky; the hard rock tore a gaping gash in it.
As the rain washed over him, blood stained Xiao Qing's clothes. His wound burned fiercely.
"Tss, what rotten luck!"
Xiao Qing glanced at the gash on his elbow and grumbled, then continued edging toward the Storm Irises.
After putting the remaining two in his Cloth Bag, Xiao Qing climbed back up the rope.
He had just reached the cliff's edge and was preparing to leave when lightning struck a ridge fifty meters away. The thunder made his eardrums ring.
The second material was in hand.
Now only the last material remained, and it was also the most troublesome: the voluntarily offered blood essence of a wolf-type king.
With a strip of cloth bound around his arm, Xiao Qing spent two days searching Star Dou Forest but still couldn't find a suitable wolf pack.
There were plenty of wolf-type Soul Beasts in Star Dou Forest, but to qualify as a "king," one had to lead a pack, and that pack couldn't be too small.
According to the notes, only three species fit the requirements: Shadow Wolves, Frost Moon Wolves, and the rarest of all, Gale War Wolves.
If possible, Xiao Qing hoped to find a pack of Gale War Wolves.
Xiao Feng's evolution target was the Gale Wolf King. If they could obtain the blood essence of a Gale War Wolf king, it might improve the chances of a successful evolution—and perhaps make Xiao Feng's potential after evolving even greater.
But it seemed Xiao Qing had used up all his luck finding the first two materials.
Xiao Qing spent a week riding Xiao Feng in search of a pack before he finally came across traces of one in a coniferous forest three hundred miles north of the tree hollow.
Judging by the droppings, paw prints, and fur, however, this was a Shadow Wolf Pack, numbering around thirty to forty wolves.
The Shadow Wolf leader's tracks were a ring larger than those of the ordinary pack members and much deeper. Its strength was estimated to be around fifteen hundred years.
Shadow Wolves specialized in stealth and ambush, and a pack this large would be a real headache if it cornered them.
Xiao Qing built a temporary observation post in a tall tree outside the pack's territory and camouflaged it with branches and leaves.
Lying along a branch, Xiao Qing watched the young wolves playing in the distant valley through gaps in the leaves.
Xiao Feng lay on a nearby branch, keeping watch, while A'Man guarded the base of the tree. Its huge body wasn't suited for climbing, but hidden in the bushes, it was still hard to spot.
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