Countless Astral Winds instantly swirled around Yun Yun, seemingly without end.
Some surged forth with the momentum of rising winds and roiling clouds, sweeping toward the purple pillar of light the Amethyst Winged Lion King had fired straight at her!
The rest wrapped around Yun Yun, carrying her on the wind at a terrifying speed-so fast that Xiao Yan and Yao Chen, watching from afar, were both left dumbstruck.
Yet Yun Yun's face grew even paler.
This "Wind Summoning Technique" was part of an inherited Dou Technique. The complete inheritance was called the [Great Wind Calling Art].
Her current cultivation was still insufficient to unleash its full power, so she could only begin by cultivating this weakened version, the "Wind Summoning Technique."
Even so, casting the Wind Summoning Technique nearly drained all the Dou Qi in her body, while agonizing pain tore through her meridians.
"Pfft!"
A sound of something cutting through the air reached her, followed by a slight pain in her shoulder. Yun Yun's heart instantly plunged into an ice cellar!
Looking down, she saw a purple-black marking slowly emerging, spreading from her shoulder toward the meridians around her heart-
Although the lesser Wind Summoning Technique had scattered nearly half of the Amethyst Seal, a remaining strand of its energy had still seeped into her body!
Unable to endure the successive grievous blows any longer, Yun Yun suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, her cheeks deathly pale.
Fortunately, however, the Astral Winds surging around her had yet to subside.
At the same time, Yun Yun abruptly turned. Her green wings beat once, and her body flickered strangely again and again with the wind, vanishing beyond the horizon in an instant.
"Extreme Wind, Bloodspark Wind!"
It was a secret technique of the Misty Cloud Sect that consumed the user's blood essence to accelerate their escape. After using it, their vitality would be severely depleted, leaving them in an exceptionally weakened state.
Combined with the weightless speed and Astral Wind assistance of the "Wind Summoning Technique," Yun Yun disappeared from the Amethyst Winged Lion King's sight in the blink of an eye...
"Search! Find that human woman for me!"
Turning his enormous head toward the mountain range below, the Amethyst Winged Lion King glared with eyes as large as bronze bells and let out a savage roar brimming with fury.
Within the Magical Beast Mountain Range, countless magical beasts instantly went berserk.
At the sixth-rank beast king's command, they all charged wildly like a beast tide, making the earth tremble without cease!
Yet although the Amethyst Winged Lion King was seething with frustration, he did not personally descend into the mountain range to join the hunt.
The changes that just occurred within my body need careful contemplation. Perhaps I can gain some insight from them...
But without taking human form, I lack humans' talent and comprehension. Understanding them is rather difficult... damn it!
The Transformation Pill...
The Amethyst Winged Lion King turned, his massive body becoming a streak of purple light as he raced toward a cave abode deep within the mountains.
"That was incredible! That woman's final beam attack felt so terrifying, but when it hit that lion's head, it didn't even count as scratching an itch!"
Recalling the dazzling, perilous battle high in the sky, Xiao Yan's heart blazed with excitement. He felt as though his blood were boiling!
A clash between powerful experts like that was an exceedingly rare sight in the outside world.
"That was indeed rather strange."
Inside the ring, however, Yao Chen had noticed something different from Xiao Yan.
"After a fierce battle between opponents of the same realm, the Amethyst Winged Lion King's aura showed no decline whatsoever. In fact, when the sun rose just now, his aura and condition underwent a sudden, inexplicable surge... as though his very level of existence had evolved?"
"Could magical beasts like the Amethyst Winged Lion possess some unknown cultivation method or unique trait?"
"Then, Teacher... are we still going to slaughter that lion?"
"...Let's watch for now."
"I keep feeling that both that human and that beast are hiding considerable secrets... In fact, the instant the purple qi came from the east, I seemed to faintly feel a shudder deep in my soul! I have no idea what caused it..."
With that, Yao Chen spread his immense soul power outward like a tide, instantly covering the mountains for dozens of li around them.
Yet to his bewilderment, that human Dou Emperor seemed to have vanished into thin air, leaving not even a trace of her aura behind.
"Strange..."
A hint of gravity entered Yao Chen's aged voice.
"That woman was struck by the Amethyst Seal, and her cultivation was draining away. By all rights, she couldn't have escaped very far. Yet even with my current soul realm, I can't detect the slightest trace of her?"
Xiao Yan was taken aback. "Teacher, even you can't find her?"
"I can't."
Yao Chen pondered for a moment, then swept his soul force over the area again, but still found nothing.
"It's as though... some more powerful means has forcibly concealed her. This Magical Beast Mountain Range likely hides considerable secrets of its own."
"We shouldn't linger here. Let's leave first and avoid growing extra branches from this affair."
Xiao Yan nodded. Although reluctant, he understood what mattered most. Moving swiftly, he immediately raced toward the outskirts of the mountain range.
Meanwhile, in a secluded cave somewhere within the Magical Beast Mountain Range.
The cave was deep and quiet. Only a few glimmers from moonlight stones played across the rocky walls, bathing the entire cave abode in a dreamlike glow.
At the center of the cave, a drenched figure in white lay quietly on a flat slab of blue stone. Her moon-white dress was stained with blood, yet this did nothing to diminish her ethereal bearing.
Yun Yun.
After sweeping his gaze over her lovely face, its skin so delicate it seemed a breath could break it, Xiao Lin slowly looked lower.
Beneath her jade-like neck, five horrific claw wounds scored her chest, the blood welling from them staining her clothes crimson.
Unconscious, Yun Yun's dark brows were slightly furrowed, a faint trace of pain lingering on her face. Though this appearance did not quite suit her usual bearing, it made her look heartbreakingly lovely.
Beside the blue stone stood a figure in green robes, his hands behind his back. With a wave of one hand, he concealed every trace of aura in the area.
With the Heavenly Dao's aura bolstering him, not only would Yao Chen, whose soul realm had only recently entered the Heaven Realm, be unable to detect him, but even an emperor realm soul could never discover his whereabouts without the Heavenly Dao's recognition or a certain degree of insight into heaven and earth.
The only exception would be a heaven-defying ability like double pupils, capable of piercing illusion and reaching straight into the world's origin.
But even that was limited to the moment of their initial awakening, when they established communication with heaven and earth. Now, they would also have difficulty detecting the Plane Embryo and Xiao Lin's avatar.
After all, they were still some distance from the ancient double pupils that had swept across the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands.
"..."
Looking at Yun Yun's gradually worsening injuries, Xiao Lin pondered briefly.
He lightly pointed at her wounds from a distance. A little invisible energy covered them, stemming the blood that flowed freely from them.
Then Xiao Lin focused his mind. Fragments of images of the continent began spinning rapidly within his eyes as his consciousness locked onto an ancient ruin somewhere on the continent.
There, within a cave abode sealed away for a thousand years, a Storage Ring lay quietly on a dust-covered desk. The restrictions upon it had long since decayed, yet no one knew of it.
[Plane Extraction: Command the plane's hand to descend anywhere on the continent and retrieve a selected item.]
A skill awakened when the Plane Embryo's restoration reached 20%. Each use consumed 1% plane energy.
[Current Plane Embryo restoration: 29.4%]
He reached out with his illusory hand. The plane space trembled slightly, and an invisible ripple pierced the void, crossing ten thousand li.
In an instant, the space within the cave twisted slightly. A pitch-black Storage Ring appeared out of thin air and dropped into Xiao Lin's palm.
"The legacy left behind by the Eighth-Rank Alchemy Grandmaster-'Xuan Mingzi'..."
Before you continue