Chapter 388: Speed

"Why were you following me?"

Li Musheng looked Theft Saint Bai Wuying over and asked with narrowed eyes.

He had indeed obtained the man's movement technique from Bai Xiaotang, but that had been a fair and equal trade. This Theft Saint had no grounds to come looking for trouble with him.

Faced with Li Musheng's question, Theft Saint Bai Wuying gradually reined in his inner shock. His face became expressionless, and he gave no answer.

"I must have been careless just now. Still, this young man does have some ability."

Bai Wuying stared back at Li Musheng in turn, searching his memory for when the martial world had produced such a formidable young figure.

"Even so, when I bring out my real skill, this young man still won't be able to touch the edge of my robe."

With that thought, Theft Saint Bai Wuying sent a challenging look in Li Musheng's direction.

In the next instant, he gave a cold laugh, said nothing at all, and suddenly vanished from where he stood.

At the same moment, dozens upon dozens of figures identical to him materialized out of thin air in the night sky, then blurred into afterimages and shot away in every direction.

Clearly, one of these afterimages might be Bai Wuying himself, or he might not be among any of them at all.

Li Musheng raised an eyebrow at the sight.

It was obvious enough that this Theft Saint had not realized he had already learned the man's signature art.

Otherwise he would never have used his prized movement technique in front of him.

Because after studying the Theft Saint's movement technique, Li Musheng could now see through every aspect of it at a glance.

And having incorporated Bai Wuying's movement technique into his Shadowless Divine Stride, having Bai Wuying perform it in front of him now was rather like demonstrating an axe in front of a master woodcutter.

"Theft Saint? This is just a clown."

Li Musheng rubbed his chin, looked in the various directions where the afterimages had disappeared, and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I have heard your movement technique is without equal under heaven. Since we have crossed paths, let me see just how far your limits go."

Li Musheng's voice was not loud, but it reached out from every direction at once, drifting into Bai Wuying's ears no matter how far away he was.

At those words, Theft Saint Bai Wuying's eyes shifted. He looked back.

The mocking expression that had been on his face gradually faded, and his eyes grew careful and measured.

He had not been at full effort before, and had naturally been somewhat dismissive of Li Musheng.

But after Li Musheng said those words, and delivered them precisely to his ears no matter where he was, Bai Wuying did not underestimate him in the slightest any longer.

"Insolent child. Come and catch me first and then we'll talk."

Theft Saint Bai Wuying's voice rang from the sky.

In the next instant, he dissolved into formlessness, then from one became ten, from ten became a hundred, from a hundred became a thousand. The entire sky was filled with his figures.

Dense and countless, like wind and lightning, rushing into the black night.

This time Bai Wuying was in earnest. His forms shifted and dazzled, his true body concealed among the thousand illusions. He could switch his true body among any of the countless phantom forms at will, so that in theory any one of them could be his true self at any moment.

It was this technique that had allowed him to roam the martial world for so many years, encountering countless powerful martial experts, and never once having anyone actually lay a hand on him.

Looking out at the countless phantom forms around him, Bai Wuying felt a surge of confidence, and turned to glance back at where Li Musheng was.

But the moment he turned his head, his entire body went abruptly still.

Because there was the young man, apparently having appeared beside him at some unknown moment, not more than a few chi away.

And Li Musheng was just quietly watching him, as though he had been waiting for him to turn around for quite some time.

Bai Wuying felt a sinking in his heart. In the next instant he transformed into one of his phantom forms and vanished from in front of Li Musheng into thin air.

In what seemed like the blink of an eye, one of the phantom forms in the darkness dozens of zhang away condensed from illusion into reality, revealing Bai Wuying's true form.

He concealed himself in the night and looked up toward where his phantom forms had previously been.

Li Musheng was still standing not far from where he had been before, seemingly not yet having realized what happened, let alone finding where Bai Wuying's true body now was.

At the sight, Bai Wuying narrowed his eyes and thought to himself, "This young man is certainly difficult to deal with. But older ginger is hotter..."

But before he could even finish the thought, the distant Li Musheng suddenly turned his head and looked directly toward him.

Bai Wuying felt a jolt of alarm, and then Li Musheng's voice suddenly reached his ear, "If this is all you have, I am not interested in playing with you anymore."

At those words, Theft Saint Bai Wuying stared at Li Musheng's figure in the distance, and his complexion went through several unpleasant shades. He was clearly genuinely rattled.

The next instant, the true qi of heaven and earth around him surged and shook violently. Every one of his countless phantom forms blurred simultaneously, and in almost the same moment they all dissolved and vanished.

At the same time, Theft Saint Bai Wuying himself also disappeared without a sound along with them.

Throughout heaven and earth, nothing remained but black night. Not so much as a trace of Theft Saint Bai Wuying could be found.

"Some ability, but not much."

Li Musheng looked at the empty stretch of night air before him. This last move from the Theft Saint had not been part of the movement technique Bai Xiaotang had traded him. It was clearly Bai Wuying's most deeply kept technique, something he had held back and not taught Bai Xiaotang in full.

But that had no bearing on Li Musheng.

His reason for wanting Bai Xiaotang's movement technique in the first place had not been to learn the technique itself. It had been to fill in the gaps of his Shadowless Divine Stride and complete it.

He now turned slowly, looking back in the direction he had come from.

While Bai Wuying's last technique appeared to leave no trace whatsoever, as though a mountain goat hanging its horns on nothing, even the finest martial experts who surpassed the Theft Saint in raw cultivation would be unable to detect his movements.

But Li Musheng, who had pushed his understanding of movement technique to a level all its own, was not among those who could not.

Theft Saint Bai Wuying's movement technique was indeed without equal under heaven. But the man had still not reached the point of truly leaving no trace on the air itself, of moving so completely that not even the void recorded the passing.

"Still quite a way short."

Li Musheng shook his head, and in the next instant vanished from where he stood. The night around him fell immediately to absolute silence.

Only a night breeze drifted through, without the faintest ripple in all of heaven and earth.

Before long, Theft Saint Bai Wuying's figure slowly materialized from the night in front of the Qingxuan Temple. He looked up toward the sky above the summit of the mountain, where an enormous demonic vortex was churning through the air, its demonic light chilling and malevolent, and thread after thread of terrifying aura seeping out from it, enough to give even him pause.

Earlier when Li Musheng had been chasing Bai Wuying, he had been moving away from the Qingxuan Temple, but Bai Wuying, after pulling out his deepest trick, had reversed direction and deliberately sent Li Musheng in the wrong direction.

"Ten breaths. If you can find me in ten breaths, I will admit you have something."

Bai Wuying pulled his gaze from the demonic vortex above the Qingxuan Temple and gave a cold laugh as he looked back in the direction he had come from.

As far as he could see, there was no sign at all of Li Musheng coming after him in the darkness.