Qingyi put the Heaven-Defying Thunder Sword in its sheath, an intense light running through the purplish-silver blade.
In the next moment, a colossal figure appeared in front of the two of them, its body stretching more than sixty meters in length.
her huge black wings flapped as her jaw full of razor-sharp teeth let out a loud, voracious roar.
It was Khaedryss.
She had already completely absorbed everything she had eaten over the last few months and during the short time that Ruxue had allowed her into the hunting region, she had halved the number of beasts present.
Just two days, hundreds of dead spirit beasts.
She only stopped hunting because Ruxue and Elize intervened, otherwise she would have completely devoured all the beasts Qingyi had bought.
Of course, despite being interrupted midway, Khaedryss was still able to strengthen herself greatly and was now certainly not below the realm of the false immortal in raw power.
The huge dragon shook her head, her eyes still slightly sleepy as she turned towards Qingyi, bringing her muzzle close to his face.
"Good girl..." He smiled, patting the black scales before, with one smooth movement, jumping onto her back.
Qianyao stood just below, her shocked eyes focused on Khaedryss.
She could feel the beast’s blood; it was also draconic blood, although fundamentally different from her own.
"You really are a mysterious man..." She whispered, also jumping on Khaedryss’ back.
She initially planned to sit right behind Qingyi, but he immediately grabbed her, pulling her onto his lap.
With a powerful beat of her wings, Khaedryss took off, opened her jaw and then breathed out.
A sea of flames followed from the depths of her throat, hot enough to melt steel, spreading for hundreds of meters in front of them.
Qianyao cringed, feeling the heat and moving her Qi to protect herself. But she stopped at the last moment, feeling Qingyi’s gentle embrace wrap around her delicate waist.
They were engulfed by the sea of flames, Khaedryss’ huge body spinning in the air before emerging from the clouds of flames with a bestial roar.
She continued to rise until she was just above the height of the clouds before leveling off, her huge body moving at the speed of sound towards the huge tree on the horizon.
Honestly, Qingyi had to admit that this place was much, much bigger than it looked.
Even with Khaedryss flying at top speed, it would still take hours to get there.
At first, he thought it was something like the world of the mind, but now, he realized that it was much simpler than that, just bending space so that an entire world could fit inside a small cave.
Of course, it was still an incredible feat of spiritual engineering, with the cost equivalent to the price of buying entire nations, but still infinitely inferior to the world of the mind.
As they flew, Qianyao just let herself relax, soon realizing something as she smelled Qingyi.
"Can I feel your lineage Qi?" she asked.
Qingyi didn’t think much of it, raising his palm in front of Qianyao’s face and releasing a single thread of draconic Qi.
Qianyao studied that Qi for a brief moment before her face contorted in shock.
It was stronger than before and not just in quantity, it was even denser, beyond what a simple advance was capable of causing.
Qingyi’s own blood seemed to have changed, being at this very moment, purer than before.
"How?" Qianyao raised her face to Qingyi’s, still unable to believe her own senses.
Improving a lineage and constitution wasn’t exactly impossible, but it almost always required transcendental pills or, even in the rarest of cases, tribulations or incomparable spirit arrays.
Qianyao knew that Qingyi hadn’t been through anything like that.
Pills would leave traces that would only fade after many hours and well, the other possibilities were pretty easy to figure out.
Qingyi smiled, already realizing what was going through Qianyao’s mind.
But before he could even speak, something interrupted him.
Khaedryss’ mana became agitated and she looked down, roaring towards the forest.
The next moment, from the depths of that sea of green, a pulse of Qi emerged, turning into a ball of flames and flying towards Khaedryss.
Hundreds more also appeared, all converging on the huge dragon in the sky.
"Khaedryss, dive!" Qingyi ordered, releasing Qianyao so that she could move freely.
That was dangerous.
Khaedryss didn’t even need to hear Qingyi’s words to move, her jaw opening in a powerful gust of flame that engulfed all the projectiles sent towards them, melting most of them.
The few that got through were already weakened, hitting Khaedryss’ black scales as if they were nothing more than melted toothpicks.
She descended thousands of meters in a single moment, and didn’t seem interested in slowing down even a little.
At the last moment, Qingyi and Qianyao jumped off her back as she hit the ground, still spitting flames.
An explosion echoed throughout the forest as the huge, tens-of-ton beast hit the ground at supersonic speed, its flames engulfing everything around it, vaporizing trees and enemies.
The ground opened up for hundreds of meters, slabs of stone and earth splitting into deep fissures that were soon engulfed by Khaedryss’ flames.
Over an area of more than a kilometer, there was nothing left but blackened ash and cracked earth, Khaedryss’ huge body resting in a crater, her jaw clenched around the neck of a beast.
It was a strangely humanoid flame wolf, although still covered in fur and looking much more quadrupedal, despite walking on two legs.
Its body was easily over thirty meters high, just a little lower than the trees in the area.
On its back, it carried projectiles similar to metal spears.
Qingyi and Qianyao stood just over fifty meters above the ground, watching as Khaedryss began to devour its still-living prey.
That creature was in the early stages of the false immortal realm and would certainly be a great meal for Khaedryss.
"So that’s why so many fail and have to use escape tokens..." Qingyi said, feeling hundreds of Qi surround them.