Three Short, One Missing, Shadow Wolf

The process of searching for materials was longer than imagined.

Xiao Qing spent three days in a hilly area at the boundary between the outer and middle rings of the Star Dou Forest, eventually locating a nest of Wind-Thunder Falcons.

The Wind-Thunder Falcon is a dual-attribute spirit beast of wind and thunder, with adults typically ranging from eight hundred to twelve hundred years in age.

The nest before him happened to house a pair, and judging by its scale, both of these Wind-Thunder Falcons were likely over a thousand years old.

If Xiao Qing and his companions fought them head-on, they would certainly lose.

The Wind-Thunder Falcons could fly, possessed extreme speed, and could manipulate wind blades; A'Man's defense would be significantly compromised against such attacks.

Since Xiao Feng could not fly and could not reach them, they would be forced into a passive defensive position, meaning they had to rely on wit.

Xiao Qing observed them for two days, mapping out the routine of the pair.

The male falcon would leave the nest every morning to hunt, leaving the female to guard it; at noon, the male would return, after which the female would depart to hunt.

His opportunity lay around noon, during the window when the male was about to return; the female would lower her guard due to the anticipation of his arrival and the stimulation of her own hunger.

On the third day, Xiao Qing made his move.

He lit a bundle of damp wood downwind of the nest, letting the thick smoke drift toward it. The Wind-Thunder Falcons had keen senses of smell, and the smoke would irritate them enough to force them to temporarily abandon the nest.

Sure enough, the female falcon grew restless in the nest for a few minutes before finally spreading her wings and flying out, circling above the nest while emitting warning cries.

The moment the female falcon flew out, Xiao Feng moved.

It darted from the bushes where it had been hiding, its speed so great it left a blur behind; within three seconds, it had scaled the thirty-meter-high cliff, using the gaps and protrusions in the rock for leverage.

By the time the female falcon realized something was wrong and dove down, Xiao Feng had already snatched a fist-sized egg, which shimmered with cyan and white luster, and leaped off the cliff.

A sharp shriek from the male falcon echoed from afar; it had returned early.

Xiao Qing whistled, and A'Man rushed out from the other side, hoisting a boulder they had prepared in advance and hurling it with all his might at the diving female falcon.

The boulder tore through the air, forcing the female falcon to bank and dodge.

In that moment of delay, Xiao Feng landed, tossed the egg to Xiao Qing, and bolted toward the pre-planned escape route without looking back.

Xiao Qing caught the egg, feeling its warmth and the surging wind-thunder energy within. He tucked it into his robes without a second glance and turned to run.

Behind him came the furious shrieks of the male and female falcons, accompanied by the sound of wind blades slicing through trees.

The escape route Xiao Qing had chosen was meticulously designed, consisting entirely of dense, low-lying shrubs and complex terrain; the Wind-Thunder Falcons were too large to pursue them at low altitude.

However, desperate to retrieve their offspring, the pair hovered incessantly above Xiao Qing, trying to find an opening to snatch him.

Watching the Wind-Thunder Falcons venting their futile rage overhead, Xiao Qing stopped and let out a sigh of relief.

"Safe!"

Xiao Qing leaned against a tree to catch his breath, with Xiao Feng crouching nearby to keep watch. A'Man arrived last, sporting a few bloody scratches—grazes from the wind blades, though none were deep.

These wounds were the result of A'Man not being fast enough to avoid the enraged female falcon.

"Well done. With this, we've secured the first material: a thousand-year-old wind-attribute spirit beast egg!"

Xiao Qing patted Xiao Feng's head, checked A'Man's wounds, and applied medicinal powder to them.

The first material was in hand.

The Storm Iris took even longer, as one could only wait for a thunderstorm for the flowers to bloom.

Even though it was the season for frequent thunderstorms, Xiao Qing had to wait for five full days before one finally arrived.

The downpour came on suddenly, with dark clouds obscuring the sky within half an hour. Lightning rolled through the clouds like dragons, and the gale-driven raindrops lashed against his face, stinging painfully.

Draped in a straw raincoat, Xiao Qing found the three Storm Irises, still in bud, at a windy spot on the cliffside.

They grew in the crevices of the rock, their stems slender and long, the flowers deep purple with silver-white edges.

The Storm Irises swayed, frantically absorbing the surrounding wind and thunder spirit power.

Xiao Qing tied one end of a rope to his waist and the other to a tree, having A'Man hold it firm.

Relying on the rope, Xiao Qing inched closer to the Storm Irises.

By the time he reached them, the Storm Irises had fully bloomed.

The harvesting of the Storm Iris had to be swift; although they could bloom for an hour during a thunderstorm, that was only if the storm lasted that long.

If the storm ceased early, the Storm Irises would wither within ten minutes, losing all medicinal efficacy and reverting to unremarkable weeds.

Xiao Qing used a jade trowel to carefully dig them out by the roots, placing them into a wooden box and sealing it.

The entire process took less than three minutes, but his straw raincoat had already been shredded by the wind.

Xiao Qing glanced down at his tattered coat, didn't hesitate, untied the rope, and discarded the garment.

The first one!

Raindrops the size of beans pelted Xiao Qing, making it difficult for him to see the locations of the remaining Storm Irises.

Fortunately, when the Storm Irises bloomed, they absorbed enough thunder-attribute spirit power that their petals emitted a gentle white glow.

Xiao Qing pressed himself tightly against the rock wall, squinting his eyes to search for any signs of light in the surroundings.

"Found it!"

Hard work pays off; Xiao Qing finally spotted two white glimmers in the lower right corner of his vision.

Clinging to the protruding rocks, Xiao Qing reached the same height as the white light and slowly inched toward it.

Just as Xiao Qing was about to touch the Storm Iris, his foot suddenly slipped, and his entire body slammed hard against the stone wall.

Fortunately, Xiao Qing reacted quickly enough to shield his head with his arms, but his elbows were not as lucky, suffering a deep gash from the jagged rock.

Washed by the rain, blood stained Xiao Qing's clothes, and the wound burned with a stinging pain.

"Hiss, talk about bad luck!"

Xiao Qing merely glanced at the gash on his elbow, muttered a complaint, and continued inching toward the Storm Iris.

After placing the remaining two stalks into his Cloth Bag, Xiao Qing climbed back up the rope.

Just as Xiao Qing stood on the cliff edge, preparing to retreat, a bolt of lightning struck a ridge fifty meters away, the thunder making his eardrums buzz.

The second material, acquired.

Now, only the last one remained, and it was the most troublesome: the essence blood voluntarily offered by a wolf king.

With a cloth strip tied around his arm, Xiao Qing spent two days in the Star Dou Forest, yet he still hadn't found a trace of a suitable wolf pack.

There were plenty of wolf-type spirit beasts in the Star Dou Forest, but to be called a "king," one had to be the leader of a pack, and that pack could not be too small.

According to the notes, only three types met the requirements: Shadow Wolf, Frost Moon Wolf, and the rarest, the Gale War Wolf.

If possible, Xiao Qing hoped to find a pack of Gale War Wolves.

Because Xiao Feng's evolution target was the Gale Wolf King, obtaining the essence blood of a Gale War Wolf king might increase the success rate of the evolution, and perhaps even grant it greater potential afterward.

But it seemed Xiao Qing had exhausted all his luck while searching for the first two materials.

Xiao Qing rode Xiao Feng for a week of arduous searching before finally stumbling upon traces of a pack in a coniferous forest three hundred miles north of the tree hollow.

However, judging by the droppings, claw marks, and fur, this was a Shadow Wolf Pack, numbering roughly thirty to forty.

The footprints of the Shadow Wolf leader were a size larger and deeper than those of the ordinary members, with an estimated strength of around 1,500 years.

The problem was that Shadow Wolves excelled at stealth and ambush; with a pack of this size, it would be extremely troublesome if he got entangled with them.

Xiao Qing built a temporary observation post in a tall tree outside the pack's territory, camouflaging it well with branches and leaves.

Xiao Qing lay flat on the trunk, observing the wolf pups playing in the valley below through the gaps in the foliage.

Xiao Feng lay on a nearby branch keeping watch, while A'Man stood guard under the tree; its massive size made it unsuitable for climbing, but it was difficult to spot while hidden in the bushes.