Chapter 158: Fleeing

The first person to respond to Wu Mohe was the Imperial Bow Earl.

This graceful figure, golden light brewing in her eyes, drew her bow and nocked an arrow in an instant. Surging blood qi poured into the great bow in her hands, shooting forth like a golden rainbow that streaked straight toward Chen Lingxi with lethal intent.

Chen Lingxi's peak imposing aura surged forward. In the blink of an eye, his spiritual qi transformed into thunder and poured into the Thunder Radiance Treasure Sword.

Thunder rumbled within the Thunder Radiance Treasure Sword!

The Thunder-Wielding Heavenly King Sword rose high, transforming into a lightning spear that collided directly with the arrow!

The two clashed, instantly detonating in a ball of blinding light.

A shockwave swept outward, flattening the reed marshes along the riverbank as water mist sprayed into the sky!

Xi Yu stood upon her willow leaf. She shifted her gaze away from Chen Lingxi, sweeping it over the several auras closing in on their location.

At this moment, the auras of Shi Hong, the three Heavenly Boat women, the faintly discernible Wu Mohe in the distant sea of clouds, and even many surrounding Truth-Seeking cultivators were approaching her.

The green mark between her eyebrows flashed slightly, and the willow leaf beneath her feet silently carried her away into the distance.

The willow leaf was entirely green and seemingly as thin as paper, yet it was astonishingly fast. In an instant, it turned into a streak of azure light at the edge of the horizon, vanishing into the heavy clouds.

Wu Mohe, the three Heavenly Boat women, and many auras lying dormant in the shadows all chased after the willow leaf. Only Shi Hong remained behind.

"The person from the Xi family ran away!" Shi Hong grinned, but he did not pursue.

His gaze fell back onto Chen Lingxi, his eyes burning with terrifying and undisguised killing intent.

The way he saw it, Xi Yu was ultimately a direct descendant of the Xi family. There was no telling how many life-saving trump cards she hid on her person, making her incredibly difficult to kill.

Meanwhile, this Qi Circulation Ninth Floor cultivator who had popped out of nowhere was a much easier bone to chew.

'I'll kill this one first.'

Shi Hong thought to himself.

The Imperial Bow Earl had not pursued Xi Yu either.

She stood upon the cliff, her right hand still resting on her bowstring. Through the slits of her mask, her pale golden eyes coldly watched Chen Lingxi.

Shi Hong took a step forward, the clouds and mist beneath his feet suddenly bursting apart.

The terrifying imposing aura of a man who had entirely refined his spiritual qi into his flesh erupted! It was as if his body harbored a furnace, devouring the surrounding spiritual essence before transforming it into a scorching shockwave that swept in all directions!

His gaze landed on Chen Lingxi, a smile curling his lips. "The Thunder Pool is truly an extraordinary place. Being able to kill a practitioner of the thunder sword within this Grotto-Heaven can be considered my good fortune! There are thousands of experiences on the path of cultivation, and I want to taste all different kinds of blood!"

Having said this, Shi Hong licked his lips.

The aura circulating around him became a vortex, seemingly eager to devour everything.

This man practiced a devouring method. He defeated others to devour their lives, spiritual qi, cultivation, and foundations, using this to achieve his Dao.

Before his voice even faded, he crashed toward Chen Lingxi like a falling star. He was so fast his figure blurred.

"To think I would encounter such a tribulation."

Chen Lingxi felt helpless, but he wasn't afraid.

His pupils shifted slightly as the Longevity Bridge beneath his feet abruptly slid sideways. The bridge flared with intense spiritual light, carrying him back dozens of zhang and narrowly dodging Shi Hong's heavy, crushing collision.

Shi Hong's punch missed. The fist aura smashed into the exact spot where Chen Lingxi had just stood, blasting a massive crater several zhang deep into the cliff.

Shattered rock flew like rain, and the entire cliff faintly trembled under the force of the blow.

"Let's see how long you can hide!"

Shi Hong's assault was far from over! Having missed his punch, he violently twisted his body in midair, sweeping his right leg out like a steel whip.

Wherever his leg passed, the air exploded inch by inch from the terrifying force.

His leg was like a giant executioner's blade, slashing right at Chen Lingxi's waist!

The terrifying strength of a Tenth Floor body cultivator who had entirely refined their spiritual qi into their flesh was something not even an ordinary Qi Circulation Tenth Floor cultivator would dare take head-on.

Moreover, in Shi Hong's eyes, Chen Lingxi was nothing but a Ninth Floor nobody!

Chen Lingxi had no intention of meeting this lethal strike head-on! The Longevity Bridge beneath his feet shifted sideways once again. The glowing bridge carved an arc through the void like a strip of golden silk, narrowly evading Shi Hong's terrifying leg whip!

Right at that moment, the Imperial Bow Earl's arrow arrived once more.

Her opening move was a killing strike!

Before the twang of the bowstring faded, an arrow of blood qi as thick as a child's arm tore through the air!

The arrow flashed with a crimson glow so bright it blinded the eyes, its tip resembling a blood-red star compressed to the absolute limit.

The very space in its path seemed to be torn apart.

Yet Chen Lingxi stood completely unfazed. A cold glint flashed in his eyes. At this moment, all the pale golden lightning patterns on the Thunder Radiance Treasure Sword in his hand lit up!

Thunder precious qi roared to life within his sea of qi, surging through his meridians and pouring into the blade. The lightning patterns looked as if they had been ignited, bursting with blinding golden lightning!

Thunder-Wielding Heavenly King Sword.

He swung his sword, the blade light slicing across the sky like a ribbon of golden silk to crash into the incoming blood qi arrow.

With a massive boom, both the sword light and the arrow exploded simultaneously, reducing into a sky full of light fragments and blood mist. A violent shockwave swept wildly in all directions; wherever it passed, rocks shattered and the river waters rolled backward.

But in the exact moment he shattered the arrow, Shi Hong had already closed in to within three zhang of him.

The Great Zhou's King Fuguang clearly understood the art of striking at a weak point. The instant Chen Lingxi swung his sword to break the arrow, Shi Hong seized upon that fleeting opening.

Clenching his right fist, a jade-like luster circulated over his knuckles as he punched straight at Chen Lingxi's chest.

Before the fist even landed, the scorching pressure of his blood qi suppressed the spiritual light on the Longevity Bridge, causing it to flicker violently and even the bridge itself to dim by a fraction.

Unable to pull his sword back in time, Chen Lingxi had no choice but to press his left hand into the empty space before him!

He forcefully activated the method of the Heaven-Seizing Seal. The heaven and earth spiritual essence within a hundred zhang was pulled in by this grasp, condensing in his palm into a massive hand seal of spiritual qi.

Three-colored brilliance intertwined between the five fingers of the hand seal, while a spiritual essence vortex—condensed to the absolute extreme—spun madly in the center of its palm. The hand seal and the fist aura violently clashed!

Chen Lingxi felt a horrifyingly extreme force flood backward from the hand seal.

The massive hand seal formed by the Heaven-Seizing Seal held on for less than half a breath against Shi Hong's fist aura before violently shattering into a sky full of spiritual light!

Chen Lingxi used this chance to explosively retreat.

The terror of a Tenth Floor body cultivator was far trickier than he had anticipated.

Shi Hong stepped through the air, looking down at him from above, the cruel smile on his lips growing ever more savage.

Fragments of spiritual light from the shattered Heaven-Seizing Seal still clung to his right fist, yet there wasn't a single scratch on it.

The tyrannical physical toughness of a Tenth Floor body cultivator had reached an unimaginable level.

The Imperial Bow Earl wasn't sitting idle either. Her right hand plucked the empty bowstring, simultaneously condensing three more blood qi arrows, ready to fire again!

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, a cold gleam flashing in his eyes.

He lightly brushed his left hand against his waist, and a jade slip flew out from his Vast Void Pouch to hover over his palm. The slip had no decorative patterns, save for a few lines of pale golden tadpole script engraved on the front.

It was the Jade Precept Book! He tossed the jade slip high up. It hovered in midair, flowing with spiritual light and glowing brilliantly.

"Fellow Daoist Mohe, are you still not making a move?"

Driven by the Dragon Roar Technique, his loud shout was clear and resonant. It spread far across the silent night, falling into the ears of everyone present.

Shi Hong's figure abruptly stalled.

In this Grotto-Heaven, the name Mohe pointed to only one person.

The Human Immortal Wu Mohe, that unfathomably deep Tenth Floor old monster.

"Hm??"

If this person was truly colluding with Wu Mohe, then today's situation was absolutely not as simple as he had thought.

He subconsciously shrouded the jade slip with his divine sense, wanting to probe its authenticity.

The moment his divine sense touched the jade slip, he saw three pale golden tadpole characters strikingly engraved where the slip closed—Wu Mohe!

Shi Hong's pupils shrank. The handwriting contained an extremely faint and subtle fluctuation of spiritual qi. That fluctuation was as heavy as water, yet faintly emitted an indescribable sharpness. It was exactly the same as the spiritual qi fluctuation he had once sensed from Wu Mohe.

"A Jade Precept Book?" Shi Hong's pupils shifted!

If this book was real, then there truly was some sort of contract between Chen Lingxi and Wu Mohe.

If a figure like Wu Mohe was genuinely spying nearby and ambushed him from behind while he was tangled up with Chen Lingxi, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Shi Hong was arrogant, but he was by no means stupid.

He reacted in the exact same instant his divine sense touched those characters.

His divine sense spread out like the tide, sweeping through his surroundings as he tried to search for Wu Mohe's tracks.

However, Wu Mohe was not here.

In this split second...

A treasure flask appeared in Chen Lingxi's hand!

Flowing light faintly swirled over the treasure flask, and purple qi vaguely churned inside. It was like a true purple dragon imprisoned within a glass goblet, roaring and struggling to break free from its tiny constraints.

It was the Purple True Treasure Vase!

When this treasure flask was in Crown Prince Ying Chi's hands, it had already been exceptionally extraordinary. Later, the Crown Prince repeatedly empowered it using the Cauldron Vessel's mighty power of the Crown Prince's Beast-Fighting Palace, sacrificing who knew how many martial artists' lives just to elevate its might to an unprecedented level. Sadly, Crown Prince Ying Chi had been killed by Chen Lingxi's palm strike on Dragon Hall Mountain before he ever had the chance to use the newly strengthened treasure flask.

The treasure flask had fallen into Chen Lingxi's hands, becoming one of his ultimate trump cards.

Chen Lingxi offered it to the void!

The Purple True Treasure Vase flew high up, hovering in the empty space.

The next instant!

Purple qi spewed from its mouth, blotting out the sky in a flash!

The rolling purple qi cascaded down like a purple waterfall hung upside down from the nine heavens. It surged and roared, dyeing half the sky a magnificent yet terrifying shade of purple.

The Purple True Precious Qi was peerlessly sharp, surging straight toward Shi Hong!

Shi Hong had just poured all of his divine sense into searching for Wu Mohe's whereabouts. By the time he reacted, the sky-blotting purple qi was already crashing down over his head like a purple flood!

His pupils abruptly shrank. He pushed the spiritual qi in his body to the absolute limit, forming a thick layer of spiritual light beneath the skin over his entire body!

At the same time, he threw both fists forward. The fist aura tore through the air like two roaring blood-red dragons, violently crashing into the purple qi flood!

Rumble! The moment the fist aura collided with the purple qi, an earth-shattering boom erupted.

The Purple True Precious Qi was sharp to the extreme. In the face of this purple qi, Shi Hong's fist aura—which was powerful enough to smash mountains and uproot peaks—was corroded, melted, and shredded inch by inch.

The purple qi was like countless fine threads of purple sword silk. It stabbed straight forward, piercing right through the fist aura and his indestructible layer of spiritual qi skin to leave countless fine bloody cuts on his thick arms!

Shi Hong let out a muffled groan and violently retreated several zhang backward. With a flick of his finger, a streak of golden spiritual light soared into the sky.

Within that golden spiritual light, there appeared to be a small mirror that expanded as it met the wind.

This mirror was evidently a treasure wielded by Shi Hong, brimming with heavy spiritual qi fluctuations. In a mere moment, it grew as large as a mountain, viciously slamming into the purple qi that was still continuously spewing forth!

Clang!

A crisp ring echoed!

The purple qi inside the Purple True Treasure Vase vanished, and the flask fell back into Chen Lingxi's hand.

Meanwhile, the mirror lost all its luster and tumbled out of the sky!

Shi Hong landed on a cliffside. He glanced down at the fine bloody cuts covering his arms, unbridled fury welling in his gold-lit eyes.

"Now that's a good treasure!" A flash of greed crossed Shi Hong's eyes.

Right at that moment.

Chen Lingxi had already used the brief window bought by the Purple True Treasure Vase to transform into a streak of flowing light, flying swiftly toward the vast mountain forests in the distance.

His speed was astonishing. In the blink of an eye, he had flown hundreds of zhang away, leaving nothing but an extremely faint golden afterimage at the edge of the sky.

A slight smile appeared on the corner of Shi Hong's mouth. "You exposed your foundation, yet now you want to run? Can you escape?"