Xiao Yan Arrived a Step Too Late
Rumble...
The Earth Nether Rock Turtle was truly fast, especially on rocky ground, where the terrain posed no obstacle at all.
Each time one of its four limbs came down, the earth trembled slightly. Earth-yellow Dou Qi spread down its limbs to its feet, letting it travel between steep rock faces as if on level ground.
When a boulder blocked its path, the Earth Nether Rock Turtle neither dodged nor avoided it, but charged straight through.
"Faster, faster!"
Lu Yuan didn't want anything to happen to his leeks, nor did he want someone else to beat him to the prize, so he kept urging it on.
"Roar!"
The Earth Nether Rock Turtle unleashed its bloodline Dou Technique, Rock-Shattering Earth-Splitting Stomp.
A torrent of Dou Qi surged out, and the rocks beneath the turtle's feet split apart with a crash as if they had come alive, forcibly opening a path.
Lu Yuan gripped a protrusion on the turtle's back with one hand and kept scanning ahead with a telescope in the other.
About a quarter of an hour later, the Earth Nether Rock Turtle crossed a ridge, and a winding stream came into view.
Sharp-eyed, Lu Yuan spotted some jumbled footprints and a long drag mark in the mud on the riverbank. Several scraps of torn cloth hung from the branches of a nearby bush.
"Over there!" Lu Yuan directed the Earth Nether Rock Turtle onward.
He swept his gaze downstream along the drag mark, and before long, a faint whiff of blood reached him.
After racing another hundred zhang, Lu Yuan saw a dark pool ahead, with a blue-silver figure swimming into it.
"A Green-Scaled Water Python, at the third order."
Lu Yuan's gaze sharpened, and his attention shifted to the person coiled in the Green-Scaled Water Python's tail.
Her long dress had been torn open, revealing damaged silver-white inner armor beneath. A vicious claw mark and traces of sword cuts marred it. Her black hair hung in disarray across the water's surface, and she was unconscious.
"She's unconscious. This Green-Scaled Water Python wants to take her to the Amethyst Winged Lion King to claim credit!"
Lu Yuan remembered that one of the Amethyst Winged Lion King's three fifth-order magical beast subordinates was a snake-type magical beast. This Green-Scaled Water Python had to be that fifth-order magical beast's underling.
"Earth Nether Rock Turtle, kill that snake!" Lu Yuan ordered without hesitation.
The Earth Nether Rock Turtle abruptly surged forward, its four feet pounding the ground as it dove down the slope toward the pool like a massive moving tank.
The instant it reached the bank, the Earth Nether Rock Turtle used the force of its descent to raise both forelimbs high, then brought them crashing down with the weight of a thousand jun.
"Rumble!"
The ground split apart violently, and a shock wave visible to the naked eye spread along the earth toward the pool.
Several thick rock spikes burst from the riverbed like a formation of spears, piercing through the Green-Scaled Water Python from below.
"Hiss!!!"
The Green-Scaled Water Python let out a shrill, agonized cry and began to struggle violently.
But the vital points of her serpentine body had all been pierced by rock spikes from directly below. She could neither fight back nor escape.
The Earth Nether Rock Turtle's bloodline Dou Technique, Earth Nether Rock Spike, imbued its rock spikes not only with earth-attribute Dou Qi but also with a netherworldly presence that could devour part of a yin-attribute creature's power.
As its blood continued to pour out, the Green-Scaled Water Python's life force began to fade, until it died pinned above the riverbed.
Its tail slowly loosened, and Yun Yun slipped smoothly free, falling into the pool.
"Nicely done." Lu Yuan patted the Earth Nether Rock Turtle's head in praise, then leaped high into the pool, scooped Yun Yun into his arms, and lifted her in a princess carry.
The woman was soaked through, her body ice-cold and her face utterly bloodless. A large expanse of skin showed through the gap in the shattered inner armor at her chest, where stark white bone and seeping blood could faintly be seen.
Lu Yuan took a robe from his Storage Ring and covered Yun Yun with it. Then he channeled Dou Qi into his feet, pushed off, and leaped high before landing back on the Earth Nether Rock Turtle's back.
"Don't waste the corpse of a Third-Order Magical Beast," Lu Yuan told the Earth Nether Rock Turtle, reminding it not to forget the Green-Scaled Water Python's corpse.
The Earth Nether Rock Turtle made the rock spikes explode, breaking the Green-Scaled Water Python's corpse into several pieces that fell onto the bank.
With a casual wave, Lu Yuan stored the pieces of Green-Scaled Water Python meat, then told the Earth Nether Rock Turtle to leave.
About half a quarter of an hour later, a figure shrouded in a black robe appeared in the nearby woods.
"Heh heh, Little Yanzi, looks like someone beat you to your chance to play the hero and save the beauty," a voice rang out, with a hint of an elder behaving rather improperly.
Beneath the black robe, the delicate-featured youth rubbed his nose and said, "Teacher, you really are a naughty old man. I wasn't thinking anything of the sort. I just thought that if I could befriend a Dou Huang expert, I'd have another layer of protection when I go to the Misty Cloud Sect in the future."
"That's the truth, but not the whole truth." Yao Lao gave a strange chuckle. "Do you think your teacher doesn't know what sort of person you are, boy?"
"Those bean sprouts in your Xiao Clan-even Xiao Xun'er, surrounded by admirers like stars around the moon-you don't have any special thoughts about her. She can't make your heart stir; you only see her as a younger sister. You like the fully ripened type."
Xiao Yan was a little embarrassed at having his true tastes exposed, and a little helpless as well.
He had lived two lives. Although many of his memories from his previous life had grown hazy with time, his mental age was definitely over thirty. The thought of having his heart stirred by girls who would still have been minors by the standards of his previous life made him uncomfortable from head to toe.
Besides, older sisters knew more, and older sisters were more considerate.
"Teacher, can you tell who rescued that mysterious female Dou Emperor?" Xiao Yan asked.
"Do you really think your teacher knows everything?" Yao Lao stroked his beard, smiled faintly, and shook his head. "Judging by the traces here, I can only say that the mysterious female Dou Emperor was found by a third-order snake-type magical beast. Afterward, someone arrived controlling a Fourth-Order Magical Beast, dealt with the Third-Order Magical Beast, and rescued the female Dou Emperor."
"A Fourth-Order Magical Beast is equivalent to a human Dou Ling, right?" Xiao Yan sucked in a breath of cold air. "Someone can actually control a magical beast like that?"
"Boy, you're making a fuss over nothing. What's so remarkable about that?" Yao Lao immediately began to lecture him. "I once met an expert who cultivated a secret beast-taming art. He controlled three Seventh-Rank Magical Beasts by himself and was stronger alone than an entire first-rate sect."
Hiss!
Xiao Yan immediately sucked in a breath of cold air, feeling that his horizons had been broadened.
"Teacher, I want to tame beasts too. You're so capable-can you teach me?" Xiao Yan began making his daily wish.
Yao Lao said irritably, "You're an alchemist, far superior to a beast tamer. Don't put the cart before the horse."
"All right." Xiao Yan thought alchemists were indeed powerful, but beast tamers seemed flashier.
With just a thought, he could summon a horde of magical beasts to gang up on an opponent. Just thinking about it felt great.
"Stop letting your imagination run wild. A fourth-order flying magical beast is approaching. We need to leave quickly," Yao Lao warned him.
"All right, Teacher." Xiao Yan's expression turned solemn. He put the mysterious female Dou Emperor out of his mind and headed back to the place where he was living in seclusion.
Meanwhile, more than ten li away, in a small underground rock cave dug out by second-order Earth Flame Rats.
Lu Yuan had the Earth Nether Rock Turtle clear the place out and control the ground overhead to block their presence. He went to the pool the Earth Flame Rats had made for their water supply and laid Yun Yun on a carpet he took from his Storage Ring.
Then, without hesitation, he stripped Yun Yun of all her clothes, leaving only her badly damaged upper-body inner armor and a pair of underpants, preparing to treat her injuries.
Just then, Yun Yun's eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly woke.
Their eyes met, and Lu Yuan froze just as he placed his hand on her chest.