Chapter 191: Victory Through Unity

As the furious waves rushed toward the two beasts, Xiao Yu suddenly flapped her wings and detached herself from Bernard’s shoulders. She swiftly moved her wings, which were not even as long as an adult’s finger, and a gust of wind erupted from between them, colliding with the massive waves and producing a deafening roar.
In just a moment, the waves were halted and gradually dissipated.
At that instant, a dark shadow shot out from beneath Bernard, sending up huge waves. A bloody maw, reeking of putrefaction, lunged at Bernard.
“Hah!” Bernard reacted instantly as the shadow approached and let out a fierce shout. His two massive bear paws slammed into the monster’s upper jaw, creating a tremendous crash. Bernard also used the momentum to launch himself into the air.
Although the giant head wasn’t severely damaged by Bernard’s punches, its attack was stopped.
This time, it didn’t hide or launch a sneak attack anymore; instead, it revealed half of its body and stared coldly at the two tiny creatures it considered insignificant.
The two beasts finally saw the true nature of this creature—a huge black dragon, likely several kilometers long, with a head as big as a football field.
Dragons belong to the dragon race; more precisely, they are subdragon-type magical beasts with close kinship to true dragons. It is precisely this kinship that allows their bloodline to become even closer to that of dragons under the cleansing effect of celestial calamities. Many dragons transform into true dragons after enduring such calamities, as the calamities improve their genetic makeup, enabling them to evolve and develop further.
“Damn it! It dares to bite me! Xiao Yu, help me take it down!!!” Bernard slowly descended from the sky and shouted at Xiao Yu from afar.
“Water-type spells may not hurt you, but they can trap you for a while!” Bernard said as he landed on the water’s surface, standing not far from the dragon. He shouted, “Don’t think only you can play with water—I can too!”
With that, he crouched down and dipped one of his bear paws into the lake. “Absolute Frost!!!”
As soon as he spoke, the water around his paw began to freeze rapidly. In the blink of an eye, the entire lake was frozen over. The half of the dragon’s body in the water was also completely frozen.
By the time it realized what was happening, it was already too late.

The demon dragon tried to struggle free from the ice, causing the entire lake surface to tremble violently. A fierce glint appeared in Bernard’s eyes as he drew out his bear paw and struck the ice surface again, “Ten Thousand Miles of Sealing!!!” After uttering these four simple words, a thick layer of soil quickly covered the entire ice surface, and the vibrations caused by the dragon’s struggles gradually subsided. With half of its body buried in the soil, it tried desperately to break free by pounding the ground with its head, but its body, trapped by Bernard’s dual restraints, could not be freed so easily. “Xiaoyu, kill it!!!” After completing these actions, Bernard raised his head and shouted toward the sky. “Chi…” Xiaoyu let out a shrill cry, and above its fluttering wings appeared a huge phantom in the shape of a bird. Its size was comparable to that of the dragon. Another loud cry followed, and the phantom seemed to obey some command as it dove toward the dragon. Its massive beak collided violently with the dragon’s head. The shockwave from the impact sent Bernard flying, and a crater nearly a kilometer in diameter was created on the ground. When Bernard returned, somewhat disheveled, he saw that the dragon was already lifeless. That impact was likely equivalent to the full-force strike of a powerful warrior in the later stages of the tribulation phase; the dragon, still in the early stages, died instantly. “What was that move? Its power is absolutely terrifying!” Bernard was still shaken by what he had just seen. Even the aftereffects of the attack had sent him flying—imagine what would happen if he were hit directly. “Chi chi…” Xiaoyu slowly descended and landed on Bernard’s shoulder, calling out to him a few times. “What? Summoning a battle soul with a higher cultivation level than oneself to fight for you?” After hearing Xiaoyu’s explanation, Bernard finally understood what that move was. “You said just now that you can control only one battle soul for a minute at most. Does that mean that with practice, you can control more battle souls for longer periods?” “That move is amazing. Why isn’t there anything like this in my inherited memories?” Bernard looked at Xiaoyu with envy. Ignoring him, Xiaoyu flapped its wings twice and landed on the corpse of the demon dragon, pecking at a spot about seven inches away. Their dantians were located there, along with their yuanlings.

Watching the two yuanlings, one black and one blue, inside her dantian, Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment before biting down on the black yuanling and pulling the unconscious one out of her dantian.
“Wow, this guy is actually a dualattribute magical beast with dark and water attributes! It’s a shame it got killed before even its spells could be used.” Bernard stepped forward to retrieve the blue yuanling, then turned to Xiao Yu and called, “Xiao Yu, can you absorb the dark attribute yuanling? If not, let’s exchange—water attribute would be milder. I don’t mind choosing either of these two yuanlings!”
“Chirp… chirp…” Xiao Yu turned her head and chirped a few times before ignoring Bernard again.
“Well, over the years, there has indeed been nothing you can’t absorb. I just remembered you’ve never absorbed a dark attribute yuanling before, so I was a bit worried.” Bernard shook his head helplessly. “Since you can absorb that one, I’ll choose the water attribute one then.”
Over the years, the two beasts had captured many yuanlings. Sometimes, Bernard would encounter prey with attributes that didn’t match his own, so he would take the yuanling back to Xiao Yu. Xiao Yu could absorb yuanlings of almost any attribute without any side effects.
There was also another thing that had puzzled Bernard for a long time: he could only absorb one yuanling per day that matched his strength, as his spiritual energy would reach saturation otherwise. Yet Xiao Yu could absorb ten in a day without any reaction. Over the years, the number of yuanlings Xiao Yu had absorbed far exceeded Bernard’s.
With various doubts, he began slowly absorbing the energy from the yuanling in his hands…