A few moments later, Tang Yi made his decision: he would save her!
This was, after all, the Continent of Love.
In the original storyline, Qian Renxue had only brief encounters with Tang San before falling deeply in love with him. In the end, her lovesick obsession—together with that of Hu Liena—indirectly contributed to the downfall of the Spirit Hall!
By Tang Yi's estimation, with the [Individual Smart-Lock Rocket Launcher] in hand, he could fire another six or seven consecutive rounds!
That equated to six or seven full-force strikes from a seventy-ninth-rank assault-type Soul Saint!
Combined with his own "Lingbo Microstep" movement technique and precise point-fire bursts from the Desert Eagle, even this eight-thousand-year Earth Armored Rock Dragon—no matter how formidable—would be doomed!
"Win probability exceeds ninety percent! Saving Qian Renxue gains me a lovesick ally, temporary support from the Heaven Dou Empire—this transaction is highly profitable!"
Having resolved himself, Tang Yi immediately took action.
...…
The Earth Armored Rock Dragon raised its massive tail high.
At the tip of the tail, the bone club was the size of a millstone, studded with ferocious keratinous protrusions, casting a shadow of death across the dim forest floor.
A powerful "earth-attribute energy sphere" was rapidly coalescing with a rumbling roar!
Qian Renxue no longer had the strength to evade.
Her left arm was completely dislocated; the six wings of angelic light behind her were tattered like silk torn by a gale. Her soul power had burned down to the critical point of utter exhaustion.
She attempted once more to lift the Angelic Holy Sword, but the martial soul that had accompanied her for over a decade now felt heavier than ten thousand mountains. No matter how desperately she urged it, the sword tip merely scraped a shallow, feeble trench in the ground.
"Am I going to die here?"
The thought surfaced without much fear.
Eighteen years of life, more than ten years of disguise.
From the moment her grandfather sent her into the Heaven Dou imperial family, she had ceased to be Qian Renxue and had become Xue Qinghe.
The etiquette of the Heaven Dou Crown Prince, the tone of voice, the practiced smiles and hidden thoughts—she had performed the role for over a decade, to the point that sometimes, looking into the mirror, she could no longer distinguish which version of herself was real.
Especially since Xue Qinghe was supposed to be a male crown prince!
While Qian Renxue was, in truth, a beautiful young woman.
The strain of cross-gender impersonation, the endless complexities of palace politics, the unrelenting pressure from the Spirit Hall, and the ceaseless power struggles within the empire!
"I have never truly lived for myself!"
"And now, it seems I never will…"
The giant tail descended with a whistling wind that pressed down so heavily Qian Renxue could scarcely breathe.
In that final moment, she closed her eyes, feeling an unexpected trace of release.
"BOOM!!!"
A blazing white light tore through the forest gloom.
The beam arrived without warning, swift as lightning!
It bore no trace of any familiar soul skill or soul power fluctuation that Qian Renxue recognized—only pure, overwhelming, annihilating force.
The white light struck with surgical precision directly into the already gaping wound at the Earth Armored Rock Dragon's shoulder and neck.
The colossal body of the dragon suddenly froze rigid.
Its raised tail halted mid-swing; the millstone-sized bone club at the tip now hung less than three feet above Qian Renxue's head.
Immediately afterward, another searing flash of fire erupted!
"BOOM!"
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
A second rocket!
A third!
A fourth!
Tang Yi continued pulling the trigger, firing five more rounds in rapid succession!
The titanic creature—the Earth Armored Rock Dragon—finally collapsed. It crashed to the ground with earth-shaking force.
Dust billowed upward; shrubs were flattened; the earth trembled with a dull, resonant shock.
This sub-dragon soul beast, which had lived for eight thousand years and nearly reached the ten-thousand-year threshold, now lay gasping on the verge of death. It opened its maw in a final attempt to roar, but only a gush of black blood mixed with shredded viscera poured from its throat.
Qian Renxue half-knelt where she was, ears ringing with a sharp, piercing whine.
With great difficulty, she opened her eyes.
Through the lingering smoke and settling dust, she saw a figure.
A young boy stood atop the trunk of a fallen ancient tree some twenty zhang away, a strange, matte-black weapon of unfamiliar design resting on his shoulder.
The rectangular device was about half a meter long, its lines sharp and minimalist. Above the launch tube were several small lenses, behind which indicator lights blinked rhythmically with faint glows.
From Qian Renxue's perspective:
The boy wore a deep-gray combat outfit, sleeves rolled to the forearms, revealing clearly defined musculature honed by years of blacksmithing.
At his waist hung a short-barreled weapon of equally unfamiliar design, its silver-gray metal gleaming coldly in the dim light.
The boy's eyes were very dark and very calm. In the flickering glow of firelight and residual soul power, they showed none of the panic or bravado typical of someone his age.
He merely confirmed with a glance that the giant beast had lost all signs of life, then smoothly lowered the strange weapon from his shoulder with practiced, fluid motions—as though he had performed the action thousands of times.
Rising, he stepped through the dissipating smoke, treading across the cracked, scorched earth, and approached her.
Qian Renxue was filled with questions and wanted to speak.
"Who are you? Why are you here? What is that weapon? Why did you save me?"
But with her grievous injuries, her lips only trembled; from her throat came nothing more than faint, broken gasps.
Qian Renxue lowered her gaze and saw that she was still clutching the Angelic Holy Sword.
The pale golden light along its blade was visibly dimming and retracting at a rapid pace, like a candle guttering in the wind.
The six shattered wings of light behind her were also disintegrating piece by piece, dissolving into countless tiny motes that silently faded into the scorched air.
Even her martial soul was forcibly retracting.
Qian Renxue had reached the point of utter exhaustion—she could no longer sustain even the manifestation of her martial soul.
Suddenly, her knees buckled.
She fell backward.
A steady hand caught her arm.
Through the torn sleeve, through the blood and dirt that covered her, that hand felt dry, firm, and carried a strength far beyond that of a child.
In the final corner of her vision: her own scattered golden hair, and the boy's strong arm.
Then her eyes closed completely, and she sank into unconsciousness.
...
Tang Yi caught Qian Renxue's soft, limp body.
She felt lighter in his arms than he had expected, and there was also a faint, delicate fragrance of a woman's body.
Of course, only someone who had cultivated the Nine Yang True Scripture and possessed Nine Yang internal energy—sharpening the senses far beyond ordinary people—could detect such a subtle scent.
Even ordinary soul masters, including Soul Saints and Soul Douluo, would be unable to perceive it.
After all, Qian Renxue had always maintained her disguise as "Xue Qinghe" through the use of the Angel God Costume soul bone.
She had to preserve the outward appearance of the male Crown Prince.
Observing the severity of Qian Renxue's injuries, Tang Yi immediately activated the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Empress right leg bone and invoked the soul bone skill it bestowed: "Wildfire cannot burn it all; spring winds bring it back to life"!
A continuous stream of Blue Silver Grass life force poured into Qian Renxue's body, stabilizing her critical condition.
Naturally, Tang Yi did not channel the full healing power of the skill—he needed Qian Renxue to remain unconscious for a while longer.
He still had matters to attend to.
Tang Yi stowed the rocket launcher, drew the shortsword from his waist, and walked over to the corpse of the eight-thousand-year Earth Armored Rock Dragon. Bending down, he began to dissect it.
The scales, bony plates, claws, fangs, and heart-blood of this sub-dragon soul beast represented biological samples of incalculable value—materials that simply did not exist on Blue Star.
Especially the dragon's tongue, which had concentrated the greater part of its life's accumulated life essence and earth-attribute origin. Its research value alone likely surpassed the sum total of all previous specimens he had collected.