As the Heavenly Sun Bird drew its final breath—
Jian Long slowly pulled his left hand out from the shattered remains of its skull.
His hand had suffered severe burns.
Most of them were second-degree burns, while some areas had turned into third-degree burns under the terrifying heat radiating from the beast.
In some places, even the flesh had been charred black.
Jian Long breathed heavily as pain pulsed through his arm like fire.
Then, instinctively—
he raised his right hand to examine his left.
But his movement stopped halfway.
For a brief moment, he had forgotten…
that his right hand was missing its palm.
It was simply an old habit, a reflexive action born from long familiarity.
Silence fell across the battlefield for a moment.
Then Jian Long jumped down from atop the massive head of the Heavenly Sun Bird, landing heavily on the ground.
With slow, steady steps, he walked away from the giant corpse, doing his best to conceal the pain devouring his body.
"Unbelievable… you actually killed it! I really thought you were going to die."
Zhou Quan spoke as he descended from the sky, still unable to believe what had just happened.
Then he looked at Jian Long—
and paused for a moment.
"Are… are you alright?"
By now, the light of dawn had long illuminated the battlefield, fully revealing Jian Long's appearance.
The tips of his silver hair had been burned away.
His face was covered in first and second-degree burns, and traces of pain were clearly visible across his expression.
Zhou Quan instinctively stepped closer.
But Jian Long immediately stopped him.
"Don't come any closer. Stay where you are."
"What's your problem?"
"Let me see your burns."
Zhou Quan moved forward again.
Jian Long's expression darkened at once.
He angrily waved his burned left hand toward him.
"For heaven's sake, Zhou Quan, stay away from me! Don't you have anything else to do?!"
"Alright, alright, I'm leaving."
The moment Zhou Quan walked away, Jian Long slowly sat down on the ground and leaned his back against the Heavenly Sun Bird's corpse.
In truth—
the real reason he had driven Zhou Quan away was simple.
Because of the fierce battle with the Heavenly Sun Bird, no one else remained nearby anymore.
And in such a situation—
if Zhou Quan chose to kill him at that very moment and steal the Heavenly Sun Bird's corpse, there would not be a single witness left to expose him.
Although Jian Long possessed the power of Rank Three—
at that moment, he had absolutely no defense left.
Which meant Zhou Quan could have killed him with a single strike.
.....
The battle continued until the early hours of the morning.
Victory was only achieved after Yang San Mu managed to defeat the Heavenly Phoenix Bird, finally freeing himself to assist the other battlefronts.
And once a Rank Four Gu Master entered the battlefield—
the balance of power quickly began collapsing in the caravan's favor.
As for Jian Long—
after killing the Heavenly Sun Bird, he did not attempt to fight another creature of the same level.
He understood the limits of his strength very well.
So instead of taking further risks, he focused on hunting Heavenly Crown Birds instead.
And throughout the remainder of the battle—
he managed to kill ten of them.
Zhou Quan, meanwhile, succeeded in killing five Heavenly Crown Birds himself.
In comparison—
the achievements of many Rank Three Gu Masters appeared rather disappointing considering their strength.
Among all of them, only a few managed to kill even a single Heavenly Sun Bird.
Some of them had even—
fled the battlefield entirely once the fighting intensified.
This battle caused the deaths of a large number of Rank One and Rank Two Gu Masters, in addition to many ordinary mortals.
The caravan also suffered enormous material losses.
Carriages were burned, transport beasts died, and large amounts of goods were lost amidst the chaos and flames.
But despite all that—
the battle was far from without benefits.
On the contrary, it brought enormous wealth to the survivors.
The Heavenly Birds were extremely rare creatures within human territories, and they could only be found deep within the dangerous wilderness.
Because of this—
their corpses sold for incredibly high prices.
The corpse of a three-meter Heavenly Bird could be sold for around two hundred and fifty primeval stones.
As for Heavenly Crown Birds—
their price ranged between seven hundred and one thousand primeval stones, depending on the quality of the corpse and how intact its body remained.
Meanwhile, Heavenly Sun Birds—
were worth between four thousand and five thousand primeval stones each.
But—
all of this was only the beginning.
Because the true gold mine…
was the Gu worms hidden within the bodies of those birds.
The value of those Gu worms often exceeded the price of the Heavenly Bird's corpse itself.
.....
"Can't you heal all these burns immediately?"
"Hah? Speak louder, I can't hear you."
Tai Si placed a hand behind her ear as she tried to hear Jian Long more clearly.
The old woman, whose small face was covered in deep wrinkles, clearly suffered from poor hearing.
"I said—can't you heal these burns directly and quickly with some kind of Gu?"
Old Tai Si looked at him with disdain, as though he had asked an incredibly stupid question.
"If I possessed such an ability, do you think I'd still be risking my life in this caravan at my age?"
Then, with a flick of her hand, a mosquito-shaped Gu roughly twice the size of a human hand flew out and landed on Jian Long's burned arm, which had already been covered in medicinal paste.
A needle-like proboscis extended from its mouth and pierced into his flesh.
But instead of drawing blood—
it injected a blue liquid into his arm.
"This liquid will prevent infections caused by the burns and replenish the fluids your body lost from the heat."
Then Old Tai Si handed him a tightly sealed jar no larger than the palm of a hand.
"This jar contains Human Skin Cream."
"Apply it over the burned areas. It will form a protective layer similar to human skin, temporarily replacing the functions of real skin and protecting your internal tissues from outside infection."
"But you'll need to reapply it once every day."
"As for the burned flesh itself…"
"We'll conduct two treatment sessions daily to gradually restore the damaged tissues."