Chapter 310: Escape

Only after the golden gate had completely vanished did Bai Shihe allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

Li Yaofeng had a far better grasp of the Vajra Monastery's power than Bai Shihe had imagined, and as a result, the gap between them was also greater than he had anticipated.

He's trying to make it sound like he's fine, but he was definitely severely wounded. I also managed to leave some of my blood inside his body. It'll take him quite some time to recover, so we shouldn't have to worry about him again anytime soon.

With Li Yaofeng forced to retreat, Bai Shihe turned his gaze toward the rooftop where the silver cat fiend had previously been standing.

While everyone's attention had been focused on Li Yaofeng, the silver cat fiend had captured three demons. Meanwhile, his two accomplices, a monkey fiend and a chicken fiend, had abducted the two unconscious Dao Comprehension Seeds, Jun Li and Wang Shuai.

Bai Shihe turned to Zhang Fengyun, then instructed, "Stay here and treat Han Jueyong and Jiang Xusheng. I'll go after the cat fiend."

With that, Bai Shihe set off in pursuit of Chu Qiguang, vanishing into the distance in the blink of an eye.

The Sumeru Strength Scripture wasn't a martial art that excelled in speed, but even so, Bai Shihe, as a Dao Comprehension-state cultivator, was still far faster than the average fifth-state martial artist.

With each stride he took, he was able to cover dozens of meters, leaving fierce gusts of wind in his wake.

Before long, he caught sight of the silver cat fiend leaping from rooftop to rooftop. Just as he was about to close the distance between them with another stride, a peculiar force began emanating from the cat fiend's body.

Bai Shihe's entire body instantly stiffened, and once again, he found himself struggling to control his qi and blood.

He had just fallen prey to Li Yaofeng's blood formation, and under the effects of Chu Qiguang's Ring of Ignorance, specks of fire immediately began appearing across his body again.

Bai Shihe quickly formed a hand seal with both hands, seemingly in an attempt to quell the unrest in his qi and blood. Meanwhile the silver cat fiend turned around and watched him coldly from a rooftop over thirty meters away.

The cat fiend was accompanied by three demons, one of which was Li Yaofeng's blood panther. The other two were a small snake covered in rocks and a ghostly ball of fire hovering in the air.

Those two demons had come from the Ignorance Demon and the Rage Demon, respectively, and they had also fallen under Chu Qiguang's control through the Demon Refinement Technique.

A hesitant look appeared on Bai Shihe's face. Not only was this cat fiend capable of controlling demons, but he had also managed to trigger demonic tainting within Li Yaofeng's body earlier. Bai Shihe didn't know what to make of these abilities.

Is he also at the Dao Comprehension state? Could he be cultivating the Animitta Tribulation as well? Is that why he can take demons from Li Yaofeng? Could there be some type of internal conflict within the Tribulation Religion?

With that in mind, a hint of lingering fear appeared in Bai Shihe's eyes, and it occurred to him that if the cat fiend had chosen to join forces with Li Yaofeng earlier, he would most likely already be dead.

Chu Qiguang pointed in a certain direction, and Bai Shihe instinctively turned to look. There, he saw the Dao Comprehension Seed, Wang Shuai, lying on the ground.

His armor had been removed, revealing a body that was clearly in terrible condition. Even while unconscious, he was trembling uncontrollably, his face twisted in pain. Clearly, he had also been caught within the range of Chu Qiguang's demonic tainting attack just now.

He had already been on the brink of death from excessive blood loss, and after falling prey to Chu Qiguang's demonic tainting attack as well, his condition had become truly dire.

"He's going to die if you don't do something about it," Chu Qiguang goaded before darting away into the night.

Bai Shihe's brows were tightly furrowed as he assessed Wang Shuai's condition and his own injuries.

Even though he had managed to defeat Li Yaofeng, he had also fallen prey to Li Yaofeng's demonic tainting attack earlier, leaving large sections of his body covered in burns.

If he continued pursuing the cat fiend, Wang Shuai would undoubtedly die, and there was also a chance that his own injuries would worsen under the effects of the cat fiend's demonic tainting abilities.

As the Demon Vanquishing Department's only Dao Comprehension-state martial god in Shu Province, he couldn't afford to put himself at any further risk.

With that in mind, he heaved a forlorn sigh and decided not to give chase.

Instead, he took a deep breath and bellowed in a thunderous voice, "Who are you?"

A voice rang out from the distance in response.

"You can call me Omniscient."

Bai Shihe stared into the night in the direction Chu Qiguang had fled, his brows deeply furrowed with concern. Shu Province was already in a state of turmoil, and the sudden emergence of this unfathomable cat fiend was certainly not making matters any simpler.

***

Inside a dark cave, Li Yaofeng was vomiting large mouthfuls of blood.

His body had shrunk significantly, making it seem as though he had reverted to a child.

To make matters worse, his face, arms, and chest would occasionally burst into flames without warning, leaving fresh burns across his body. Furthermore, his flesh was bulging and writhing grotesquely, as if something were trying to force its way out of his body.

Li Yaofeng had suffered a crushing defeat and sustained severe injuries at Bai Shihe's hands, but what infuriated him most was the loss of two and a half of his demons.

The blood panther was only half a demon, with the other half still inside his body. In his terrible condition, Li Yaofeng had been forced to make a hasty retreat and had only managed to recover the demon within the Desire Demon's body.

As for the demons within the Rage Demon and the Ignorance Demon, they were no longer under his control, so they had clearly been taken as well.

Those two and a half demons were all extremely precious, and their loss was undoubtedly a heavy blow not only to Li Yaofeng, but also to the entire Tribulation Religion.

That cat fiend definitely isn't cultivating the Animitta Tribulation.

As the pope of the Tribulation Religion, no one was more familiar with the Animitta Tribulation than Li Yaofeng. Although the cat fiend's ability to cause demonic tainting and control demons closely resembled the abilities granted by the Animitta Tribulation, Li Yaofeng knew that he was using a completely different Dao art.

"How interesting," Li Yaofeng chuckled as he wiped the blood from his lips. "Perhaps that cat fiend could serve as the catalyst for me to reach the seventh state."