At that moment, Tianyu was still being chased, screaming and yelling. Seeing this, Yaolan used her own body as an axis, spinning her thirty-foot, double-headed, four-bladed greataxe into a rapid blur. She whirled dozens of times in an instant before violently hurling the weapon forward!
The greataxe, weighing over ten thousand jin, skimmed low across the ground. Just as it neared Tianyu's feet, it leaped abruptly upward. Its blades radiated a dazzling golden brilliance, resembling a colossal wheel of golden light as it sheared a qinlong cleanly in two!
The greataxe banked sharply high in the sky and flew back toward Yaolan. The surrounding Power Shamans immediately scrambled for cover with their heads in their hands. If Yaolan had the slightest slip and the axe's radiant edge grazed them even a fraction, they would be split in two. That was no laughing matter.
Without even looking, Yaolan reached out with a casual grab, and the spinning greataxe settled firmly in her hand. Centered on her body, however, an explosive blast wave erupted, sending the slower-running Power Shamans tumbling head over heels.
Wei Yuan stood motionless. With his formidable physical body and compact frame, the blast wave could not budge him in the slightest, just as a fierce gale could never lift a steelyard weight.
Yaolan looked at Wei Yuan, her smile growing even more radiant. "Who would have thought? You may be slender, but you're truly solid. Turns out you're an iron toothpick!"
Wei Yuan found this compliment rather grating to the ears.
In the sky, seeing their companion slain, the two remaining qinlong let out alarmed cries and slowly fled.
The qinlong that had been cut into two pieces possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality. It kept writhing and aligning itself in midair, attempting to piece itself back together. Searing blood poured down like a waterfall, drenching Tianyu from head to toe. It scalded him so severely that smoke billowed across his body, and he screamed in agony.
*This blood is good stuff...* Wei Yuan's thoughts stirred, and he unleashed two roars. Two bursts of magic power shot forth alongside the Desolate Roar, sealing the qinlong's wounds.
Yet this spell had been modified by Wei Yuan. Rather than a simple seal, it expanded even as it sealed, continuously siphoning blood out of the qinlong's body.
Yaolan shook her head. "Those two roars of yours are indeed quite ingenious, but they're a bit too soft! You sound like a little kitten, not even as fierce as a puppy! This is how you use a Desolate Roar—watch!"
Yaolan looked around and spotted the sole surviving desolate worm, which was fleeing for its life. She drew a deep breath. All nine breathing spiracles across her body opened wide, and within a hundred zhang around her, the temperature plummeted, plunging into the biting chill of the deepest winter.
In a single breath, Yaolan devoured all the ambient spiritual energy and magic power. Then, aiming straight at the desolate worm, she unleashed a roar!
In an instant, Wei Yuan only saw her open her mouth—he couldn't hear any sound at all!
Rings of light rippled outward before her mouth, surging into the distance and catching the desolate worm in a flash! The worm's rear violently pitched up before expanding and detonating; in a fraction of a second, a third of its body was obliterated!
The desolate worm wailed mournfully, dragging its mangled body as it crawled away, but everyone knew it could not survive.
Wei Yuan still could not hear anything. Touching his ears, his hands came away warm and wet—his eardrums had actually ruptured from the shock. But after making minor adjustments to his body to transmit sound through his skull, he finally restored his hearing.
Wei Yuan suddenly saw a strand of karmic luck descend from the heavens and land upon Yaolan.
This strand of karmic luck actually came from Tianyu, while the other Power Shamans on the scene produced none at all. Wei Yuan realized that this shocking display was likely routine for Yaolan, and the other shamans were already well accustomed to it.
With the smoke clearing and the dust settling, Yaolan said, "Come back with me!"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "No. Without my help, Tianyu wouldn't survive an episode—er, a day."
Yaolan sighed softly. "You're surprisingly sweet. I guess that's why I've taken a liking to you. All right then. The flame demons are cunning, but they're also cautious. There shouldn't be any more ambushes along the way. I have duties at the fortress and can't get away, or I'd accompany you to Fengmang. Whenever you miss me, you can come back and visit."
"I will."
The moment the words left his mouth, Yaolan's eyes lit up. "Then it's settled! Don't you dare lie to me!"
Wei Yuan was sharp and immediately sensed a force of karma latch onto him—and a remarkably stubborn one at that.
Yaolan looked Wei Yuan's small frame up and down, adding, "Little Craft God, being ugly is fine, but you have to be ugly with spirit, ugly with vigor and drive! We Power Shamans must be bold and sweeping—loud voices, immense strength, devastating power! Divine arts and features have to keep up too; the more, the better..."
As she spoke, Yaolan patted the breathing spiracle on her chest. It was normally closed, but during that Desolate Roar just now, it had also fired a fine sonic beam that punched straight through the desolate worm.
"Once you earn enough military merit, I'll go requisition those supreme parts from the fortress armory and install them all on you!"
Wei Yuan had no choice but to thank her for her goodwill before waving farewell. The gazes directed at him by the surrounding Power Shamans were a mix of envy, jealousy, and bafflement.
Power Shamans were straightforward creatures. Before Yaolan's arrival, Wei Yuan had effectively saved all their lives. So even though they couldn't fathom why the belle of the city had taken a shine to a whippet, they couldn't bring themselves to resent him.
After quickly tidying up the aftermath, the convoy set out once more. The leader of the Power Shamans had already handed command over to Wei Yuan, and the entire squad was thoroughly convinced of his leadership. After all, in one-on-one combat against flame demons, their odds were fifty-fifty at best, whereas Wei Yuan had slain dozens of flame demons in the blink of an eye. Such a record was more than enough to win them over completely.
Tianyu had suffered the most severe injuries. Doused from head to toe in qinlong blood, his flashy, impractical armor had been corroded away, and virtually all the skin across his body had melted off, exposing raw flesh underneath.
Such injuries were agonizing, but fortunately not fatal for a Power Shaman. After a day or two of pain, the skin would regrow.
Tianyu was surprisingly tough, gritting his teeth in silence. However, he couldn't speak aloud to Wei Yuan either; opening his mouth would make him howl in pain, so he could only communicate via divine sense.
And so they traveled without incident. Just as expected, the flame demons did not launch another ambush. Several days later, a small hill appeared on the horizon, crowned by a fortress that had clearly weathered relentless battering.
The fortress gates stood wide open, with several dozen shamans standing at the entrance. At their head was a Desolate Shaman whose body was like iron; his four limbs were short and thick, their diameter almost matching their length.
Scanning the convoy, he looked somewhat surprised. "You made it through completely unscathed this time? What kind of luck did you have? Didn't you run into an ambush?"
The leader of the Power Shamans said, "We encountered a deadly ambush, but Lady Yaolan escorted us part of the way and arrived just in time for the battle. She slew a qinlong and two desolate worms. In addition—"
"So it was Yaolan." The Desolate Shaman nodded, took the roster from the leader's hands, and glanced through it. Raising an eyebrow, he said, "There's actually an artifact-crafting master?! Which one is it?"
Wei Yuan stepped forward, his body tensing slightly. This Desolate Shaman was unlike any he had seen before. Condensed like solid iron and seamlessly integrated, he didn't leak a shred of aura from a mindscape world.
The Desolate Shaman looked at Wei Yuan, glanced back at the roster, and then looked at Wei Yuan again. "What crime did you commit?"
Pointing toward Tianyu, Wei Yuan replied, "I committed no crime. I only came to accompany a friend."
The Desolate Shaman gave Wei Yuan a deep, lingering look. "Most Power Shamans who end up here don't have brains. You have one, but you would've been better off without it."
Before Wei Yuan could reply, the Desolate Shaman turned around and roared at the Power Shaman warriors behind him, "We've finally got ourselves an artifact-crafting master! But this idiot bird came here voluntarily—he isn't a convict! What an artificer means to us goes without saying! From now on, until every last shaman in this fortress is dead, I want him kept alive!"
The Power Shamans roared in unison, their voices rattling the walls so hard that dust cascaded down.
The Desolate Shaman then turned back to Wei Yuan. "Out here, nobody has names, only code names. But code names have to be earned. Since you just arrived and a few starter monikers happen to be open, count yourself lucky. Groundhog, Hamster, Chipmunk—pick one!"
Chapter 890