"Be careful!" Gu Yuena hurriedly grabbed Yunze. She seemed unaffected by the suppression on martial souls — her dragon wings were still intact and spread wide behind her.
No one knew how long they had been falling, but under the steady flapping of Gu Yuena's wings, the two finally landed safely.
Yunze didn't panic. He calmly observed their surroundings — the sky above was a deep blue, the land undulated with small hills, and in the distance rose tall mountains.
It looked like an ordinary world… except there was no sun, and the air was unnervingly quiet.
"The elemental concentration here is several times stronger than outside," Gu Yuena immediately noticed the abnormal energy in the air.
"Not only that," Yunze added, "even the gravity here is about half again as strong as the outside world."
He was always quick to sense environmental changes and could already tell this small world differed from the outside in many ways.
"Do you feel the strong dragon aura here?" he asked.
Gu Yuena nodded, her tone heavy. "I feel it… and also… a deep sadness."
"This sadness makes me very uncomfortable," she said quietly, clutching her chest. "It's suffocating — I feel like crying for no reason."
"This small world must be filled with the remnants of many dragons who died here," Yunze explained. "Their lingering emotions turned into negative energy that's affecting you."
Unlike Gu Yuena, Yunze didn't feel sorrow or empathy. He merely sensed the heavy emotions in the air.
Hearing this only made Gu Yuena's expression darker. Her fingers clenched tightly as hatred and grief mixed within her heart.
"Let's go take a look over there." Yunze pointed toward a direction. He could sense an even stronger concentration of dragon aura that way.
"You can feel it too?" Gu Yuena asked in surprise.
"Yeah," Yunze replied. "That aura feels a lot like yours — probably related to the Dragon God."
"I think so too," Gu Yuena agreed, her sadness fading a little.
If she could find something connected to the Dragon God here, her strength might advance even further.
"I'll take you flying," she offered with a smile, spreading her wings and opening her arms, ready to lift Yunze.
"You can just hold onto my shoulders," Yunze said. Being carried like that would feel awkward.
"My arms are more stable — it's safer if I hold you," Gu Yuena insisted, pretending it was purely for practical reasons.
Yunze simply smiled at her. Seeing him like that, Gu Yuena pouted a little, disappointed.
Then she spread her wings, grasped his shoulders, and flew toward the direction of that powerful aura.
"Those clouds… are they dark-element energy clouds?" Gu Yuena asked in surprise as she spotted dark mist drifting in the distance.
"Get closer — those can be absorbed," Yunze reminded her.
Gu Yuena flew toward them, and as they approached, the black clouds seemed to sense her and drifted toward her of their own accord.
Up close, they could see it clearly — the black cloud was shaped like a dragon, though without a solid body, more like an ethereal silhouette.
Before Gu Yuena could do anything, the black dragon-shaped cloud surged into her body on its own.
After absorbing it, she focused for a moment, then said, "My dark-element ability improved slightly… and my spiritual power and physical strength have also increased a bit. The effect is small, but it's definitely there."
They continued flying, encountering more elemental clouds along the way — this time a wind-element one.
Half an hour later, they had absorbed over a dozen elemental clouds — fire, earth, wind, water, light, darkness, and even space elements.
Besides the elemental clouds, they also found dragon souls on the ground — spectral remnants that could also be absorbed.
However, those mainly strengthened the body and spirit, not elemental power. At least, so far, they hadn't found one that could enhance elemental attributes.
Flying above remained their preferred method — it was faster and made it easier to find and absorb elemental clouds.
"The only pity," Gu Yuena sighed, "is that each cloud contains so little energy. If only they held more."
"You should just absorb as many as possible," Yunze suggested. "Quantity adds up — even weak energy can accumulate into real growth."
Hearing that, Gu Yuena frowned slightly. "So you're not planning to absorb any more of these clouds yourself, are you?"
Before Yunze could answer, she continued, recalling how he had only absorbed one cloud and one dragon soul so far. "Don't tell me… you're purposely not absorbing them so that I can gain more?"
"Please don't," she blurted out quickly. "I'm happy you think of me, but I can't just take everything for myself. You—"
"Hold on," Yunze interrupted her with a laugh. "You've got quite the imagination."
"Fine then, explain," Gu Yuena said sweetly, her expression glowing with happiness — her heart was light as honey.
Yunze explained, "I'm indeed not planning to absorb these elemental clouds, but not for the reason you think."
"I've been observing them carefully. Each cloud carries faint soul fluctuations — and not all are the same."
"The weaker ones are just pure soul energy. But the stronger ones actually have a trace of consciousness."
"And what does that have to do with you not absorbing them?" Gu Yuena teased, clearly thinking he was just making excuses.
She was convinced he was simply being considerate and too proud to admit it.
"I'm not refusing all elemental clouds — I'm just avoiding the ordinary ones," Yunze clarified.
"From my observation, some of the conscious ones carry a fragment of a soul beast's origin mark."
"A soul combined with a soul beast's origin… that's basically what a soul spirit is. I think these could serve the same purpose."
"My plan is to find one with a strong enough soul and absorb it like a soul spirit."
"A single strong one like that would be worth dozens, maybe even hundreds, of normal elemental clouds."
"So, I'll focus on quality — and you focus on quantity. You keep collecting normal ones; I'll look for a top-tier one."
"As for the dragon souls on the ground — same deal. You take the ordinary ones; if I find one with a strong enough soul, I'll treat it as a soul spirit."
"You're lying," Gu Yuena objected. "You already absorbed a soul spirit before, and you don't have any spare soul ring slots — how would you take in another?"
"I have two martial souls," Yunze replied calmly. "The second one hasn't absorbed any soul spirits yet. I never mentioned it because I didn't see the need before."
"Really?" she asked skeptically.
"Would I lie about something like that?" Yunze said lightly.
His reasonable answer made her smile fade — a trace of disappointment appeared in her eyes.
After a moment, she insisted, "Even if that's true, you're still doing it partly for my sake. Otherwise, you could absorb both the strong ones and the normal ones. There's no reason to leave everything to me."
"If that's how you want to see it," Yunze chuckled, "then yes — maybe a little of it is for your sake."
"Hehe, I knew it!" Gu Yuena beamed, smiling so brightly it was like a flower in full bloom.
(End of Chapter)