Chapter 243: One Step to the Clouds

Liang Bin was truly panicking.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone so far as to abandon his two junior brothers.

On one hand, it would lighten the Witch Banner.

On the other, he could use their lives to buy himself a few moments.

Seeing Lu Bai closing in for the kill, Liang Bin felt not the slightest desire to resist.

The man radiated killing intent, holding the Five Emperors Gold Coin Sword in one hand and an Unparalleled Treasure Artifact with Five Blood Prohibitions in the other.

Once this person got close, even if he had cultivated two Lifebound Gu—making him equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Realm—he probably couldn’t withstand the man’s assault.

Moreover, the man could fly. The very thought was terrifying!

‘Could he be a True Master Martial Dao who’s hiding his Cultivation?’

‘That’s it.’

As the thought struck him, Liang Bin had a moment of clarity. ‘If that’s not the case, how could he have seen through the Fierce Ghost’s Illusion Technique and resisted its Spiritual Attack?’

Liang Bin subconsciously glanced back.

He saw Lu Bai’s figure descend from mid-air, his speed slowing as his toes tapped on a treetop branch. Then, he launched himself into the air again, speeding toward him.

‘No, that’s not right!’

A glint in his eyes, Liang Bin realized he had misjudged.

The man couldn’t truly fly.

His Qinggong was just so advanced that he could use a single breath to achieve a short period of flight.

Once that single breath of Innate True Qi was depleted, the man would fall from the sky. He would need to use an external object to push off from and catch his breath before he could take to the air again.

‘An Innate Martial Artist, and so young, has cultivated his Qinggong to this level?’

‘Did this kid start cultivating in his mother’s womb?’

The more Liang Bin thought, the more alarmed he became, and the more his alarm turned to anger.

Fortunately, Lu Bai’s speed dropped significantly whenever he fell to push off something.

With two fewer people on his Witch Banner, Liang Bin’s speed had increased. As one’s advantage grew, the other’s shrank, and he managed to widen the distance between them again.

But shaking him off was still as difficult as climbing to Heaven.

“AH!”

A moment later, two bloodcurdling screams echoed from behind him.

Liang Bin’s expression remained unchanged.

He knew the two clansmen he’d pushed off the Witch Banner had been slain by his pursuer.

The man still hadn’t given up; he continued the chase relentlessly.

Liang Bin gave a faint, cold smile, having calmed down now.

He had just made a quick calculation.

If he could just flee a little longer, he would reach the nearest medicinal herb garden of the Great Li Country.

A Great Li Army force of over a thousand men was stationed there, including a dozen or so members of the Divine Brilliance Guard!

The Divine Brilliance Guard were the most elite soldiers of the same rank in the Great Li Army.

Only those who had emerged victorious from countless life-or-death battles within the army, or who had beheaded over a hundred enemy commanders on the battlefield, were qualified to earn the title!

As long as he reached that herb garden, if the man behind him dared to follow, he would surely meet a grizzly end with no place for a burial!

Lu Bai was able to catch up because he had just used Soul Light to directly comprehend the fourth part of the Fuyao Skill: One Step to the Clouds.

He had originally planned to use the Soul Light to repair the Fuyao Skill and, in one go, comprehend the fifth part: Feathered Ascension to Immortality.

But after absorbing several streams of Soul Light, and even two Level 3 Soul Lights, he still couldn’t repair the Fuyao Skill.

This situation had happened before.

Either the Soul Light’s energy was insufficient, or its level was too low.

He either needed to brute-force it with a massive amount of Level 3 Soul Light, or he needed Soul Light of an even higher level!

Lu Bai could only set the matter aside for now.

One Step to the Clouds involved condensing a breath of Innate True Qi in his chest. This breath of Innate True Qi would then merge perfectly with the surrounding air currents, allowing him to ride the wind.

As long as this breath of Innate True Qi wasn’t expended, Lu Bai could remain in mid-air indefinitely.

How long he could fly depended entirely on how quickly he consumed this breath of Innate True Qi.

When the Innate True Qi was depleted, he would fall and have to push off something, take a breath, and ascend to the clouds once more to traverse the air.

In reality, cultivating Qinggong to this stage brought one infinitely close to a True Master Martial Dao.

It was only because his Realm was still limited—he hadn’t entered the Alchemy Dao and couldn’t break free from the world’s shackles—that he couldn’t come and go from the Qingming and roam the Heavens as he pleased.

As Lu Bai pursued the member of the Witch Race, he couldn’t help but feel a little impressed.

‘The senior who created this Qinggong was truly a genius.’

‘What kind of talent must it take to create such a profound Qinggong technique?’

‘To deduce a Lightweight Body Technique to a point infinitely close to a True Master Martial Dao, all while only at the Innate Realm.’

‘And this is only the fourth part.’

‘If I could comprehend the fifth part, ‘Feathered Ascension to Immortality,’ I wonder what that would be like.’

‘Perhaps I could truly stand on air without needing to push off anything!’

After casually killing the two members of the Witch Race, Lu Bai continued his pursuit of the Witch Race Cultivator piloting the Witch Banner, all while observing the surrounding terrain and comparing it to his map of the Longling Mountain Range.

Before setting out, Lu Bai had studied the map of the Longling Mountain Range.

Most locations within the mountain range were unmarked, appearing as just a blur.

Some areas were unexplored, some were extremely dangerous, and for others, it was possible that those who went in never came out alive.

The most detailed part of the map was the Longling Canyon, which cut through the Longling Mountain Range, connecting the Wu Country and the Great Li Country.

The area within thirty miles on both sides of the canyon was under the protection of the Peace Alliance.

Lu Bai noticed that the Witch Race member’s escape route was not leading him out of the Longling Canyon.

Instead, he was heading directly for one of the Great Li Country’s medicinal herb gardens!

Lu Bai’s mind raced. He roughly guessed the man’s plan and couldn’t help but give a cold smirk.

As long as they were within the Longling Canyon, Golden Core Realm experts couldn’t act. There were very few forces that could threaten him here.

With the Fuyao Skill, he could come and go as he pleased, even if surrounded by a large army.

The chase continued for a while longer. Just as Liang Bin reached the herb garden and was about to charge in, dozens of arrows shot toward him, their sharp tips glinting in the cold light as they whistled through the air!

“Dammit, it’s me!”

Liang Bin cursed. A dark light suddenly flashed in his left eye, and the shadow of an insect seemed to flicker within it.

Immediately after, a strange power surged forth, instantly forming a barrier around his body that blocked the dozens of arrows.

“Kong Chuming, it’s me!”

Liang Bin shouted.

Kong Chuming was the Commander of this herb garden and also the leader of the Divine Brilliance Guard stationed there.

“Hold your fire!”

A figure with a grim expression quickly rushed out from the herb garden. Upon seeing Liang Bin, he immediately ordered the Great Li Army troops to let him pass.

“Fellow Daoist Liang, what’s going on? Did you fail to take that Spiritual Ore mine?”

Kong Chuming asked with a frown.

“The Wu Country hired an expert! The Ghost Souls raised by my two junior brothers and me were all destroyed by him!”

Speaking of this, Liang Bin gritted his teeth in hatred. “He wants to wipe us out completely and has already chased me here! Brother Kong, be careful!”

Kong Chuming asked in a deep voice, “How many people are coming?”

Conflicts and battles between the two countries over various mineral resources in the Longling Canyon were common; he was already used to it.

“Just one.”

Liang Bin said, “The rest of the Huben Army are probably still behind. They’re not as fast as him.”

“Hmph.”

Kong Chuming’s expression shifted. Seeing a figure drawing closer in the distant night, he sneered, “Just one person dares to cause trouble on my turf? I’ll go and meet him myself!”

Liang Bin reminded him, “Brother Kong, this man has a Tier Two Unparalleled Treasure Artifact, and he has also cultivated to the Blood Qi River Realm.”

“This…”

Kong Chuming’s expression changed several times. He suddenly raised his voice and yelled, “All soldiers, on my command! Prepare for battle!”