Qing Hongyuan traced one final arc through the air, folded his wings, and landed steadily on the ground.
The moment his feet touched the soil, he lifted his head and looked at the patch of sky above, fragmented by the canopy. Then he suddenly laughed.
At first, the corners of his mouth merely curled upward. Then he broke into a grin, baring his teeth, before finally bursting into loud laughter.
"Hahaha—"
His laughter echoed through the valley, startling several birds from the treetops.
Qing Hongyuan laughed so hard that he swayed back and forth, tears nearly spilling from his eyes, but he did not care.
He had lived for over forty years. This was the first time he had known what it felt like to fly.
The wind howled past his ears, the ground raced away beneath his feet, and the sky stretched endlessly overhead. That freedom, that exhilaration, could not be described in words.
"Dad, take it easy." Qing Mufeng landed beside him. Seeing his father laughing like a child, the corners of his mouth rose as well.
Qing Hongyuan finally managed to stop laughing. He wiped the sweat and tears from his face, then looked at his son, his eyes shining like two stars.
"Feng'er, you fly around every day. Does it feel like this?"
Qing Mufeng thought for a moment, then nodded seriously. "More or less, but I wasn't as excited as you when I flew."
"That's because you could fly when you were six!" Qing Hongyuan patted his son's shoulder. "Your old man only learned at over forty. How could I not be excited?"
Liu Yunlan walked over and looked her son up and down. The old woman's eyes were slightly red, but her words remained sharp. "You're this happy after flying one lap? How pathetic."
Qing Hongyuan chuckled and did not argue.
Shen Wanqing walked to her husband's side and reached out to straighten the collar that the wind had ruffled.
She did not say anything, but the tenderness and pride in her eyes were more moving than any words.
Qing Zhengyue stood nearby, watching his son's face stretched wide with laughter, and nodded slightly.
The old man did not smile, but he could not hide the satisfaction in his eyes.
"How did flying feel?" he asked.
"It's incredibly convenient," Qing Hongyuan said. "It's more than twice as fast as moving on the ground, and turning is very flexible. The view from the air is wide open, and everything on the ground is visible at a glance. And—"
He paused, gathering his thoughts.
"If you can't win, you can run. If you can win, you can chase. Back when we were on the ground, if we encountered a fast enemy, we couldn't catch them or escape from them. It's different now. The sky is vast enough for birds to fly freely."
Qing Zhengyue nodded and turned his gaze toward Liu Yunlan and Shen Wanqing.
"You heard him too. The value of flight isn't merely mobility. It's also a means of preserving your life."
Liu Yunlan fell into thought.
The old woman's martial soul was the Emerald Jade Snake, specializing in poison arts and healing. Speed had always been her weakness.
If her Sixth Soul Ring could grant her flight, her ability to survive would increase enormously.
If she could not win, she could flee. If she could not catch someone, she could fly after them. No matter how strong an enemy was, they would have no way to deal with her.
Shen Wanqing was thinking the same thing.
Her martial soul was the Jade Orchid, a purely support-type martial soul with no offensive or movement abilities whatsoever.
If her Fifth Soul Ring could grant her flight, her safety on the battlefield would greatly improve.
A support-type Soul Master who could fly was worth far more than one who could only run on the ground.
"Titled Douluo can fly too," Qing Hongyuan said. "But that only comes after Level 90. We're still far too far from becoming Titled Douluo, so we can't hope for that yet. For now, we can only rely on external aid—Soul Rings—to help us."
Qing Zhengyue nodded slightly.
His son was right. A Titled Douluo flew by releasing Soul Power outside the body, an ability possessed only by experts above Level 90.
Among the five members of the Qing Clan, he was the strongest, at Level 69.
There were still twenty-one levels between him and Level 90.
Given his age and talent, whether he could reach Level 90 in this lifetime was still unknown.
But Soul Rings were different.
Soul Rings were something tangible, something one could see and touch.
As long as they found the right soul beast and absorbed the right Soul Ring, they could gain the ability to fly.
That was the most realistic path.
--
After the excitement faded, they began dealing with the Wind Wood Dragon's corpse.
A thirty-thousand-year soul beast was covered in treasures, its value far exceeding that of the previous five-thousand-nine-hundred-year-old one.
Qing Zhengyue personally got to work, dismantling the Wind Wood Dragon piece by piece.
Qing Hongyuan and Qing Mufeng, father and son, helped carry and sort the materials, while Liu Yunlan and Shen Wanqing stored the dismantled parts in their storage rings.
This round of dismantling took nearly half a shichen, with thoroughness as their priority.
Scales. The scales of a thirty-thousand-year Wind Wood Dragon were each the size of an adult's palm, their edges glinting with a dark golden sheen. Their defensive power was extremely strong.
Once brought home, these scales could be made into high-quality armor.
Qing Zhengyue peeled them off one by one, collecting more than two hundred in total.
Bones. The Wind Wood Dragon's skeleton was as hard as iron, especially the row of spikes along its spine. Every one of them was a natural weapon.
Qing Zhengyue cut the bones into sections, removed the flesh, exposed the white bone beneath, and carefully stored them in his ring.
Blood. The blood of a thirty-thousand-year Wind Wood Dragon contained dense Soul Power and was a precious material for refining high-grade pills.
Liu Yunlan took out more than a dozen jade bottles and filled them one by one with blood. She sealed the stoppers tightly before carefully placing them into her ring.
Each of the Wind Wood Dragon's four legs contained a dragon tendon, tough yet elastic, making them premium materials for bowstrings.
Qing Zhengyue extracted all four dragon tendons intact, then inspected everything once more to make sure nothing had been missed.
Tendons, meat, internal organs, eyeballs, teeth, dragon horns...
Every item was carefully sorted and stored.
Even the Wind Wood Dragon's teeth were pulled out one by one. There were more than twenty sharp fangs, each gleaming with a cold light.
Liu Yunlan counted the materials nearby. The old woman's eyes shone like a child's as she kept muttering, "Good stuff, good stuff."
Shen Wanqing helped beside her. She was not as knowledgeable as her mother-in-law, but she carefully placed every material into her ring and arranged them by category for easier sorting after they returned.
Qing Hongyuan was responsible for moving the heavy items. The thirty-thousand-year Wind Wood Dragon was enormous, and even after being cut into dozens of pieces, each piece was still quite heavy.
But with the strength of a Level 56 Soul King, moving these things was no effort for him.
Qing Mufeng handled whatever odd jobs were needed, going wherever help was required.
He gathered the Wind Wood Dragon's fallen scales and stacked them neatly one by one.
After counting them, including those his grandfather had peeled off, there were more than two hundred and sixty in total.
Once they took these scales home, they could make a set of armor for every member of the family and still have some left over.
Qing Mufeng piled up the scales, then raised his head and looked at his busy family.
Their duties were clearly divided, and each person did their part.
This was a team.
Just as he placed the last stack of scales into his storage ring, his fingers touched a scale at the junction between the Wind Wood Dragon's spine and neck.
That scale did not feel right.
Unlike the other scales, which were hard and cold, this one was warm and faintly pulsing, as if liquid were flowing inside it.
Qing Mufeng's fingers froze.
Before you continue