"Screee!"
In midair, every black feather on the Dark-Winged Roc bristled, making her look another size larger. Her iron wings spread to their full ten-zhang span, and she threw her head back with a piercing shriek mingling grief and fury.
It was the most primal, most frenzied wrath of a mother bird that had lost her young.
The next instant, she tucked her wings in. Her pitch-black figure left an afterimage in midair as she plunged straight toward the hollow in the rock face where Yi Yang was hiding.
The cold gleam along her wing edges sliced through the air, trailing two visible white wakes behind her. The wind pressure swept over several large trees along the way, snapping their crowns off on the spot.
Lu Qinglan went pale, but she remained composed and made preparations. If things became too dangerous, she would bring out the Lu Family's reserves to share Yi Yang's burden.
Yi Yang, however, pressed a hand onto the back of hers, holding her in place. He did not even blink, simply watching the giant roc dive toward them.
Two hundred zhang, a hundred and fifty zhang, a hundred zhang!
The Dark-Winged Roc's speed reached its limit. She was about to plunge into the western side of the valley.
But just as her beak was about to cross that invisible boundary at the valley's mouth-
Several dark-green vines as thick as a human arm stirred gently on the hundred-zhang Ironwood in the center of the valley. The Wood Spirit Soul Fruit at the top of its crown pulsed once in response.
The diving Dark-Winged Roc went rigid.
The chill born of bloodline suppression and the threat of death poured over her like a basin of cold water, forcibly drowning out her frenzy over the loss of her