Chapter 84: Escape

Jiuyou used Blood Soul Evasion a few more times, fleeing several hundred li away, then changed into the Heavenly Wind Robe.

A flash of gray light, his aura withdrawn, yet his escape speed did not drop an inch.

Blood Soul Evasion consumed too much. Each use drained spirit power equivalent to the combined divine senses of several Golden Core Cultivators. Conserve it when possible.

After fleeing barely a thousand li, Jiuyou suddenly sensed an aura stubbornly clinging to his trail. In moments, that aura drew ever closer.

Jiuyou’s expression shifted slightly, his divine sense probing. Behind him, a streak of blood-colored light was pursuing straight on, extremely fast, crossing over a hundred li in an instant, never letting up.

“Damn it, Late Nascent Soul.”

A heaviness settled in Jiuyou’s chest. He noticed that blood-colored escape light was also Blood Soul Evasion.

“Could this person have some connection with that Ye youth?”

He didn’t linger on the thought and once more used Blood Soul Evasion. But with the same technique, the pursuer’s cultivation was far superior, so naturally his speed was greater. The distance between them shrank.

As the blood light closed in, Jiuyou made out the pursuer’s face. A middle-aged man, draped in a blood-colored Dao robe, his eyes filled with unhidden killing intent.

He flicked his hand, and four blood-colored flying wheels shot out from his body. The wheels spun, grinding the surrounding spiritual energy into fragments, then bore directly toward Jiuyou.

Jiuyou admitted he could not win.

He never intended to clash head-on with a Late Nascent Soul, nor did he want to waste time here and risk more Lingchuan cultivators tracking him down. He grew more puzzled about the origins of the Ye youth and this middle-aged man.

If the two belonged to Lingchuan, Jiuyou absolutely would not believe it. Otherwise, why would such a Late Nascent Soul abandon the larger battle to chase and kill him?

When the last two major cultivators from the Lingchuan continent had appeared earlier, there had been no sign of this man.

Could he be a hidden expert?

Or perhaps from elsewhere?

Before he could think further, the attack arrived.

Green radiance flashed in his sleeve. Jiuyou tossed the Green Leaf ancient relic at the flying wheels, then transformed into a blood light and fled. In the blink of an eye, he was a hundred li away.

The moment the Green Leaf relic touched the flying wheels it was cut into sections, fragments scattering. Fortunately, the instant he threw it severed the soul-link; otherwise his divine sense would have been injured.

Jiuyou didn’t look back and continued to escape.

Behind him, the middle-aged man snorted coldly, “Can he get away?”

He waved and the flying wheels reassembled; the blood light surged again, pursuing without slackening.

The two escape lights tore through the sky in tandem. Gray light ahead, blood light behind.

The middle-aged man closed in several times, then raised his hand to unleash a blood-colored palm imprint. The palm, like a mountain, pressed down and forced Jiuyou’s body to sink. He gritted his teeth and forced the Heavenly Wind Robe to react, narrowly avoiding it. The palm smashed into the barren hill below, and the whole mountaintop collapsed with a roar, rocks flying everywhere.

Jiuyou dared not stop and once more used Blood Soul Evasion. The blood light flashed, and he was a hundred li away.

A cold, clinging voice from behind sounded like an ache in the bone: “You killed an elder of the Blood Abyss Sect, and still want to run?”

Blood Abyss Sect? Jiuyou’s heart twitched, but there was no time to ponder.

He rapidly calculated in his head. Fighting to the death would be suicide, but he couldn’t shake the pursuer. If this continued, he would be caught.

Hardening his resolve, he sent the Golden Sun Mountain flying from his sleeve, slamming it fiercely toward the pursuing Dao-robed figure.

The middle-aged man’s body paused, his brow knitting, then he transformed into a blood light and flashed sideways. Simultaneously, blood-colored flying wheels converged and charged toward Jiuyou with savage spiritual pressure.

The four wheels merged in midair, the pressure surging, whipping up a small hurricane that, in the next instant, reached Jiuyou so fast there was no time to react.

Jiuyou’s pupils constricted. As the blood wheels were about to shred him to pieces, a person-sized shell of solidified light suddenly appeared before him—his Jade Spirit Carapace.

Boom—!

Jiuyou was hurled backward, smashing into the peak below. Dust billowed. The Golden Sun Mountain returned to his hand in the same motion.

The middle-aged man’s brow darkened. He commanded the blood wheels to split into four again, and they charged into the dust-clouded area, carrying wild spiritual pressure as if to shear the mountain in two.

At that moment, a blue light flashed through the dust.

That azure light moved with astonishing speed, vanishing the instant the middle-aged man tried to lock its aura.

“What escape art is that? I can’t sense its presence at all?”

The middle-aged man’s face revealed puzzlement. But when he locked onto Jiuyou’s aura again, the other had already appeared three hundred li away.

Shock crept across his features. “How is this possible?”

Before he could take another move, Jiuyou’s aura vanished again. Another blue flash flickered in the distance. After only a few breaths, Jiuyou’s trace was completely gone.

The middle-aged man hovered midair, looking south—the direction Jiuyou had fled—his face ashen.

He was the Second Elder of the Blood Abyss Sect, one of Qian Prefecture’s nine great sects, a dignified Late Nascent Soul cultivator.

The Blood Abyss Sect’s teachings and inheritance were complete and powerful; his strength far exceeded Late Nascent Souls from these remote lands. Yet he had been outmaneuvered by a junior at the Mid-Nascent Soul stage. If word of this spread, where would his face be?

While he pondered, his figure once more became a blood light and shot southward.

At the same time, nearly a thousand li away.

Jiuyou appeared in a flash of blue light. His face was pale; even though the Jade Spirit Carapace had absorbed most of the attack, he was still seriously wounded.

He didn’t linger. He donned the Sky Wind Robe again, becoming a gray light, reined in his aura, and continued to flee without the slightest hesitation.

He had seen a Late Nascent Soul grand cultivator strike before and had assessed relative strength, but he never expected this person to be so terrifying. His divine sense far exceeded ordinary Late Nascent Souls—probably unmatched even by peers like Gu Xuanzhou.

He fled for months.

During that time, the middle-aged man caught up several times and struck repeatedly. If Jiuyou had not carried a large stock of restorative pills and been sustained by the Ten Thousand Year Spirit Milk, he would have been killed on the spot long ago.

Each time the pursuer closed in, Jiuyou used the Hundred-Mile Inch Hairpin. In the end he forced his body to burn Essence Blood, repeatedly triggering it until, in one push, he escaped over two thousand li.

The blue light dissipated again.

Jiuyou staggered to the ground, and the view before him suddenly opened up.

A massive rift split the land ahead, its mouth deep and jagged with broken rocks. Faint blood-colored mist drifted in the distance, floating under the moonlight like a thin veil, shrouding unknown danger.

He had no time to overthink it; the threat of pursuers pressed like barbs against his back.

Jiuyou guzzled half a bottle of Ten Thousand Year Spirit Milk. His depleted magic power recovered some. He threw on the Heavenly Wind Robe, flashed gray, and without hesitation plunged into the rift.

The blood mist rolled, swallowing him.

Behind him, on the far horizon, a blood-colored light hurtled at high speed.