Chapter 222: Successful Ambush

Chapter 222 -163: Successful Ambush

In the underground cavern, the three of them remained vigilant. Since the morning attack, the Blood-clothed Man had struck five more times over the course of several hours. He maintained his hit-and-run tactics, retreating the instant an attack failed and giving Zhao Zuo’s group no opportunity to corner him.

The repeated attacks frayed their nerves. Even Chen Xiaorong’s recovery was affected; his partially healed Meridians were thrown into greater disarray. The assassin’s strategy was clearly to keep Zhao Zuo’s group perpetually on edge, slowing their pace and wearing them down.

Late at night, Zhao Zuo and Shen Yunjiao were resting. Around three or four in the morning, Zhao Zuo’s eyes snapped open. A white light flared in his gaze, momentarily illuminating the darkness before slowly fading a few seconds later.

At the same moment, Shen Yunjiao opened her eyes as well.

‘Passively taking a beating is not the right approach.’ Zhao Zuo removed a Tracking Insect from a bamboo tube. Then, from his Storage Bag, he produced a blood-stained piece of cloth and placed it beside the insect. He injected a sliver of Mana into the creature, urging it to get to work.

The Tracking Insect listlessly straightened its round, bulging body and began to absorb the aura from the blood. A few seconds later, its body stiffened, pointing in a specific direction like a compass needle.

Shen Yunjiao’s hands formed a seal, opening a new passage out on the other side of the cavern. Following the Tracking Insect’s lead, the trio tiptoed out of the cave. Zhao Zuo, gripping his Sky-Breaking Saber, took the lead, using his Breath-Concealing Ring to suppress his aura and presence. ℯ𝕝.

In what felt like moments, the trio had covered over a kilometer.

The enemy was positioned on a small hill with dense woods. Verdant branches stretched from the ground to the sky, like giant umbrellas sheltering the lush grass below. A closer look revealed that the Blood-clothed Man’s position offered a wide field of view, with escape routes in every direction.

The Blood-clothed Man was brazenly resting against a tree trunk without any concealment, sprawled out and looking completely relaxed. Beside him, a fire had burned down to nothing but ash. 𝙛𝓇ⅇ

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves. Zhao Zuo crept closer, searching for an opportunity to strike. He only scanned the Blood-clothed Man’s figure with his peripheral vision, a tactic to prevent his line of sight from being detected by the enemy’s Spiritual Sense.

When it came to ambushes, Zhao Zuo was an absolute expert.

Suddenly, Chen Xiaorong stepped forward, gently placing a hand on Zhao Zuo’s shoulder and shaking his head. It was their pre-arranged signal, indicating that some kind of alarm had been set up around the target.

Such a measure was impossible to detect with the naked eye, but it could be perceived by Divine Thought…

Zhao Zuo took out his Sky-Breaking Saber and began pouring Mana into it. He handed the Breath-Concealing Ring to Chen Xiaorong, and, as planned, the trio rapidly closed in on the Blood-clothed Man’s position. When they were three hundred meters away, Zhao Zuo abruptly hurled the Sky-Breaking Saber.

A cyan light flared, and the saber crossed a hundred meters in an instant. In the next breath, it had closed the gap to just a hundred meters from the enemy when a blood-red barrier materialized in the Void Space. However, it didn’t block the Sky-Breaking Saber’s attack; it seemed to be a Magical Artifact designed only as an alarm.

The next second, the Blood-clothed Man vanished, slipping into the space between the virtual and the real. The Sky-Breaking Saber’s attack hit nothing but air, piercing straight through a thick, ancient tree before carving a cyan arc through the sky as it returned to the clasp on Zhao Zuo’s belt.

“You think *you* can ambush *me*?” The Blood-clothed Man materialized in front of Zhao Zuo. His voice was bone-chillingly cold and laced with anger, though it remained impossible to determine his gender. The blood-colored dagger in his right hand pulsed with a writhing, gray light as he slashed straight for Zhao Zuo’s chest.

CLANG. Zhao Zuo swung his saber to block but was forced back several meters, his feet gouging a line of thirty-centimeter-deep prints in the earth. The web of his hand was slightly numb. This was the Blood-clothed Man’s signature style: he was not built for long fights, but he possessed terrifying instantaneous burst power.

“Nether Ghost Thorn.”

A gray miasma spread as the Blood-clothed Man channeled Mana into his legs and lunged at Zhao Zuo, intending to press his advantage while his opponent’s arm was still numb and finish him off for good.

At the critical moment, Shen Yunjiao charged in from the side. Her eyes were blood-red, like those of a demon, and her attacks were vicious, holding nothing back. Her arrival instantly relieved the pressure on Zhao Zuo.

Zhao Zuo began to count down in his head. ‘Ten…’

He joined Shen Yunjiao in pressuring the Blood-clothed Man. The three figures became a blur of motion, exchanging nearly a hundred blows in a matter of moments. Just then, Zhao Zuo’s mental countdown hit zero.

The Blood-clothed Man’s explosive power began to wane, and he could no longer keep the pair suppressed. He sensed that something was off, but couldn’t immediately pinpoint the source of the abnormality.

A few seconds later, the Blood-clothed Man vanished again, slipping back into the seam between the virtual and the real. Zhao Zuo and Shen Yunjiao’s attacks hit empty air, leaving behind only a swirl of dust and pulverized weeds.

“Twelve breaths,” Zhao Zuo said.

The two immediately went on guard. About four seconds later, the Blood-clothed Man reappeared twenty meters away. He had exited the seam between worlds but was still concealing his form with Blood Shadow Escape.

“So it’s confirmed,” Shen Yunjiao said. “His peak power burst only lasts for twelve breaths.”

They both looked toward the spot where the Blood-clothed Man stood, their bodies tense and their focus absolute. They didn’t dare relax for a second. For an enemy who had mastered Blood Shadow Escape, twenty meters was a distance that could be crossed in an instant. In other words, they were still well within his striking range.

“There’s plenty of time,” the Blood-clothed Man said, his voice slightly hoarse. “We’ll have our chances.”