Ninth In the World

No one thought that Di Jiu would escape. The aura surrounding Di Jiu at the moment was fluctuating violently, as though he was heading to war. It was evidently an omen before exchanging blows with Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty. This was a tell-tale sign of Di Jiu’s bad temper.

Furthermore, the Dao heart of an Immortal Emperor who escaped before a battle would be adversely affected in the future. Such an act was akin to admitting one’s inferiority to Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty, even though both of them were Immortal Emperors.

This was why no one was rushing to detain Di Jiu, although there were numerous Immortal Emperors behind him. Everyone was prepared to spectate the battle outside the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City.

Only Peng He sensed that something was amiss. He was the person closest behind Di Jiu, so he actually sensed that Di Jiu was thinking of escaping. However, he dismissed this thought, as Di Jiu did not seem to be thinking of escaping under any circumstances.

Closely behind Peng He was Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty, whose gaze was fixed on Di Jiu. He was not able to see through Di Jiu’s cultivation level, so he suspected that their strength should be similar.

Di Jiu really wanted to use the Heavenly Aqua Saber to stab Peng He, who was following him. The man was following him too closely, thus not allowing him to speed up his walking pace. Such an aura domain could lock on a target very subtly. He would be suspected by the executor should he increase his speed once more. Luckily, he was reaching the gates of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City, so he would be able to leave the moment he stepped out of the city.

Peng He finally realized what was amiss almost the same instant that Di Jiu was about to step out of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City.

If Di Jiu was truly an apex expert, he would definitely not allow Peng He to lock his aura in. The reason the latter had done this was because he was worried that he would not be able to find Di Jiu later on. Such an act was unconscious and by no means was it a way to test Di Jiu’s strength or challenge Di Jiu.

He had realized that something was amiss due to Di Jiu’s non-retaliatory action and the fact that he kept increasing his speed to rush towards the city gates. Di Jiu had been extremely arrogant during the auction. He had even looked down on Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty. How could he possibly let such a disrespectful action slide?

With this question in mind, Peng He felt even more suspicious of Di Jiu’s aura. He was truly unable to see through Di Jiu’s cultivation, yet the latter did not possess the Immortal King Domain and his cultivation level seemed to be continuously soaring. However, no matter how high his cultivation level seemed to be, it could not surpass the Immortal King Realm…

Peng He finally confirmed his theory that Di Jiu was about to escape.

His aura instantly exploded and grabbed at Di Jiu with his Demon-Sealing Claws upon this realization.

At the same time, the communication pearls of Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty and the other few Immortal Emperors lit up. After reading the contents of the message, their expressions changed and they lunged at Di Jiu frantically.

There was only one message on their communication pearls: The man named Zimo, in Room 307, purchased numerous Heavenly Purple Lattices in the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City.

Everyone knew what the Heavenly Purple Lattice was. Its only purpose was to be used to refine the Meridian-Splitting Pill. The Meridian-Splitting Pill could be consumed by cultivator with a cultivation level at or below the Immortal King Realm. It was a pill that could forcibly increase one’s cultivation level, but it also had some side effects. The fact that Di Jiu had purchased these items implied that he had only pretended to be arrogant during the auction.

Such a pretentious and wealthy cultivator was naturally fat prey.

Di Jiu sensed the killing intent the instant Peng He launched his attack. Thus, he unsheathed the Heavenly Aqua Saber without hesitation and slashed down.

Boom! Frightening Immortal Essence aura engulfed him. Despite bumping his strength up to the half-step Immortal King Realm, he was unable to return Peng He’s attack. After spitting out a mouthful of blood, he dashed towards the array door of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City.

Di Jiu was highly aware of the fact that he was still considered a weakling in comparison to the Immortal Emperor experts, even though he had consumed the Meridian-Splitting Pill.

There was absolutely no way Peng He would allow Di Jiu to escape. His Domain locked onto Di Jiu before he threw a punch. Di Jiu was alarmed, as his current cultivation, which was at the half-step Immortal King Realm, was worlds apart from Peng He’s.

He slashed out with the Heavenly Aqua Saber again. The violent saber aura was filled with a determined aura and carried the aura of the Wind-Rustling Move. The saber aura seemed to be tearing the whole void apart.

Rustling winds would rise, waters would turn cold, and the hero would go and never come home… This was the description of Di Jiu’s Saber Move. Only death would await him if this Saber Move of his was unable to split Peng He’s Domain into two.

Crack! The Wind-Rustling Move tore apart Peng He’s hastily-executed Domain. Bam! Peng He’s fist essence energy slammed against Di Jiu’s back and the latter spat out another mouthful of blood. Di Jiu did not take heed of his cracking bones as he continued to rush out of the city.

He used the Spiritual Force escape technique the moment he stepped out of the Gigantic Tripod Liberal Immortal City.

His afterimage had yet to leave when it was assaulted by numerous attacks at the same time. These attacks were launched by the few Immortal Emperors behind Peng He.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Violent Immortal Essence exploded and a blood mist was formed where Di Jiu’s afterimage had been. The broad void passageway cracked several thousand feet under the assault of these attacks.

“Such a cunning weakling…” Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty was fuming, feeling extremely disgraced. He directly sprinted into the void and disappeared immediately.

He knew very well that Di Jiu had managed to successfully escape despite being severely injured by the combined attacks of the numerous Immortal Emperors. However, he was also aware that a weakling like Di Jiu would not be able to escape very far even if he possessed an escape technique.

Immortal Emperors like them would be useless if so many of them let Di Jiu slip through their fingers, regardless of whether he was severely injured or not.

Peng He, who was following closely behind Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty, continued this pursuit without hesitation. The rest of the Immortal Emperor experts who had attacked Di Jiu all dashed towards the direction in which Di Jiu had disappeared without exceptions.

Di Jiu possessed too many quality items, so no one was willing to give up. Some of them had even guessed the identity of the fleeing weakling. After all, only the weakling who sold the Starry Sky Tea would possess so much wealth.

It would be sufficient to obtain just the technique to refine the Starry Sky Tea if the pursuit was successful. The profit gained by selling the Starry Sky Tea was evident in how generous that weakling had been during the auction.

Another blood mist exploded around Di Jiu the instant he landed on the Teleportation Array. He knew that he’d almost died in the hands of Peng He. If it hadn’t been for Peng He, he would not have suffered any injuries at all.

The Teleportation Array let out a white light that enveloped Di Jiu instantly the moment he landed on the array. The white light had yet to disperse completely, when Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s hand seal appeared.

Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty’s expression was very ugly when the hand seal disappeared along with Di Jiu’s Teleportation Array. He continued his pursuit without hesitation, livid that he had lost to Di Jiu during this attempt. He had not expected that this weakling would have set up a Teleportation Array here beforehand.

The few Immortal Emperors behind him arrived only a moment later than Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty. Two of them stopped their pursuit when they saw Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty continuing his chase.

They all knew that it would be almost impossible to catch up with a cunning weakling like Di Jiu. The presence of a Teleportation Array implied that there would likely be a second Teleportation Array.

Immortal Emperors were indeed powerful, but even an Immortal Emperor would not be able to catch up with Di Jiu after the third or fourth teleportation.

Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty arrived at the second Teleportation Array. He could only give up chasing Di Jiu when he did not even see a glimpse of him.

Di Jiu definitely had set up a third and fourth Teleportation Array. He would not be able to catch up with him even if he possessed a level-nine Immortal Force, much less given his current level-eight Immortal Force.

Three Immortal Emperors landed behind Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty. They knew that this weakling had successfully escaped even without asking Immortal Emperor Great Sovereignty.

Peng He’s expression was the darkest, for he knew that he had completely offended that fella in addition to failing to obtain the Agama True Glazed Water.

…

Di Jiu took out several Clear Drizzle Pills and consumed them the moment he landed at the location of the fifth Teleportation Array. While he was executing the Spiritual Force escape technique for the first time, he was severely injured by the combined attacks of those few Immortal Emperors. He would have died if he had been even a moment too slow.

Fortunately, he had prepared some means to escape beforehand. His body had also been upgraded into a late-stage Immortal Spirit Body. Otherwise, he would truly have died this time.

Indeed, one should not even entertain the thought of competing for stuff with others, no matter how wealthy they were or how low their cultivation level was. However, Di Jiu had memorized the appearance of those old fellows and he would seek revenge in the future.

Di Jiu did not leave in a hurry after swallowing the pills. Instead, he took out a bunch of array flags, eliminated all the surrounding spatial fluctuation aura, and left behind an extremely inconspicuous Image-Capturing Array. Then, he took out the Ultimate Cloud Auger and swiftly left that spot.

Di Jiu was indeed very familiar with various Foundation Orders and had set up numerous Teleportation Arrays. Even several Immortal Emperors would not be capable of catching up with him. Nonetheless, one could never be too careful. There was nothing wrong with being cautious. After all, he could still be caught if he encountered an expert who was very sensitive to spatial fluctuations.

As expected, after Di Jiu had left for approximately two hours, a man wearing a high hat landed beside Di Jiu’s fifth Teleportation Array.

He plucked out one array flag and stared at it for a very long time before sighing.

The small cultivator was rich and way too cunning. He was also frightening, as he had been able to set up an array that could erase the aura of spatial fluctuations. The man suspected that Di Jiu had already known a little about spatial laws.

In truth, he considered Di Jiu a sitting duck, no matter how many Teleportation Arrays he set up. He would be able to quickly capture the traces of Di Jiu’s course so long as he managed to reach the last Teleportation Array. However, due to the presence of this erasing Dharma Array, he no longer knew where Di Jiu was headed to.

This was the first time he had failed to chase and catch a weakling.

…