Chapter 41

Chapter 41: Inescapable Net

Xu Qing agilely ran forward in the wilderness.

He had been running at full speed for two days. Thanks to his recovery ability, Xu Qing didn’t experience any fatigue from his constant sprinting.

He even felt like every cell in his body had been activated.

Recently, he had also noticed Vajra Sect cultivators in the distance who were dressed the same as the camp owner. However, his vigilance and speed allowed him to evade them every time.

Now, he was only one day away from Antler City. The path ahead of Xu Qing forked into two.

On the left was the city where he had lived for the past six years that had now become a forbidden area. Because it was already dusk, Xu Qing could see nothing but pitch-blackness when he looked at it from a distance.

In the other direction was Antler City.

Standing at the fork in the path, Xu Qing turned his head and glanced in the direction of the forbidden area. After a moment of silence, he turned and was about to rush towards Antler City, but suddenly, his complexion changed. He squatted down instantly, hiding in the bushes.

Narrowing his eyes, Xu Qing looked up at the sky in the distance.

A golden ray of light whizzed overhead.

Because it was too far away, Xu Qing could only see the dazzling golden light and was unable to clearly observe the figure inside. However, the spiritual energy fluctuations coming from the ray of light were similar to the camp owner, except even more intense. Xu Qing was shocked.

“This pressure surpasses the camp owner...”

Soon, the golden light left, and Xu Qing took a deep breath with hesitation in his eyes.

Over the past two days, he had encountered three waves of Vajra Sect cultivators and carefully avoided each of them. However, he had felt the most danger this time by far.

“If I keep going, I can reach Antler City in a day…” Xu Qing narrowed his eyes and thought carefully. Right now, he had an advantage, and that was the fact that no one knew that he had a Seven Blood Pupils token on him.

Therefore, they might not be able to guess his destination so easily.

But Xu Qing had another advantage. He didn’t care about the strong heterogeneity in the forbidden area, so as long as he was careful, he could survive inside for a while.

If he went for Antler City, then as long as he moved quickly and caught the Vajra Sect off guard, there was a high probability that he could teleport away.

But there were also disadvantages to that choice. If he was discovered before reaching Antler City, then it would be easy to guess his destination, and he would instantly be plunged into great danger.

If he went for the forbidden area, he could delay for time.

After dragging it out until the Vajra Sect was exhausted and let their guard down, his journey to Antler City would be much safer. In addition, if they followed him into the forbidden area, he would enjoy certain advantages.

“Two paths, two choices…” Xu Qing pondered.

While analyzing the pros and cons of each choice, the golden light that had just disappeared suddenly appeared in the sky again, this time traveling much faster.

This abnormal scene made Xu Qing frown as he immediately hid himself. Watching carefully, he saw the golden light fly over from a distance, and it clearly slowed down as it closed in on him.

Xu Qing was finally able to see who was inside the golden light. It was a middle-aged cultivator.

A talisman paper was attached to this person’s right leg. It emitted spiritual energy fluctuations, seemingly allowing the middle-aged cultivator to soar in the sky.

He was also holding another talisman paper that was giving off the golden light.

Just then, a vague figure could actually be seen inside the constantly flickering light of the talisman paper. Looking carefully, the figure was one of the camp owner’s guards whom Xu Qing had killed.

It seemed to be some sort of spirit body. Like a hunting dog, it continuously wriggled around inside the golden light, apparently searching for something.

The middle-aged cultivator continued to slow down, as if he was carefully observing his surroundings. After a long time, he changed his direction and his search took him farther and farther away.

This scene made Xu Qing's heart skip a beat.

"Talisman treasure!"

He recognized what those two papers were. Although he didn’t know the specifics, he could already guess their general function.

“Using someone I killed to sense my existence? But the range obviously isn’t very wide, and the accuracy also isn’t too good…” Xu Qing took a deep breath. He was deeply aware of the profound nature of this spell, and his weighing of pros and cons instantly reached a conclusion.

“I can’t go to Antler City anymore. There’s still a whole day left, so the risk of being discovered is extremely high. And once I am discovered, not only will I be in a perilous situation, my destination will also be exposed.” Xu Qing made his decision. Taking advantage of the previous middle-aged man having left, he instantly went straight in the direction of the city ruins forbidden area.

He planned to hide there for a while before deciding what to do next.

Not long after Xu Qing began running toward the forbidden area, when he was still an incense stick’s worth of time away, that golden light suddenly appeared again in the sky behind him.

Xu Qing instantly hid. When he checked behind him, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The golden light seemed to have locked on to him. Its speed suddenly increased, and it flew straight over to his location. Furthermore, a sword light whizzed toward him at an even faster speed.

Xu Qing’s expression changed, and he no longer tried to hide, quickly dodging out of the way.

The moment he jumped out, a loud boom rang out as the sword light struck his previous location, causing dirt to fly out with the violent impact.

At the same time, the golden light in the sky also arrived in an instant, along with a cold snort.

“Little brat, I finally found you. So you were here!”

As the voice echoed out, the golden light approached, and the figure of the middle-aged man inside was clearly revealed.

This person had a square face and wore golden robes. He was of average height, and his appearance was very ordinary aside from a striking pair of extremely thick eyebrows.

Beneath his bushy eyebrows were eyes filled with cold killing intent. Floating in the sky, he looked down at Xu Qing’s body.

Just when he looked down, Xu Qing suddenly stomped on the ground with his right foot, and his whole body shot upwards with a boom, rushing straight towards the middle-aged man standing in the air.

The middle-aged cultivator sneered. When he passed by this location earlier, the tracking talisman had seemed abnormal, so he returned to search carefully. And now, he had finally locked on to Xu Qing’s location. Seeing Xu Qing’s body approach, he suddenly rose higher in the air.

He quickly rose to a height that was impossible for Xu Qing to reach by jumping. The moment Xu Qing’s momentum disappeared and his body began to fall, the middle-aged cultivator raised his right hand.

A storm emerged around him, and he stabbed his finger downwards.

The storm instantly roared downwards, directly submerging Xu Qing’s figure.

With a loud boom, Xu Qing fell to the ground in a sorry state. His body flickered and instantly made a mad dash for the forbidden area.

The middle-aged cultivator was about to give chase, but the next moment, a cold light flashed from Xu Qing’s body, and a dagger suddenly whistled towards the middle-aged cultivator at an astonishing speed.

The middle-aged cultivator narrowed his eyes and his body floated upwards to avoid the dagger.

“Mere tricks!”

On the ground, Xu Qing took a deep look at the middle-aged cultivator, but he didn’t speak. He accelerated explosively and continued running.

He had realized that he didn’t stand a chance against this middle-aged cultivator.

If the opponent wasn’t capable of flying, then Xu Qing was confident that he could exchange blow for blow and drag it out until the middle-aged cultivator died.

But facing someone with the power of flight, there wasn’t much he could do.

One was in the sky and the other was on the ground. He had no advantages in this sort of fight.

As Xu Qing ran with all his might, the middle-aged cultivator in the golden robes sneered, taking out a jade slip to notify the ancestor before continuing his pursuit. Dazzling light flashed as he blasted spells toward the ground.

As a cultivator in the ninth level of Qi Condensation, the great elder had abundant spiritual energy and mastery over many spells.

Looking from a distance, wind blades and fireballs continuously bombarded Xu Qing from the sky. Xu Qing seemed to barely be able to keep up, and even when he dodged with all his might, he was still affected by the shock waves. Blood seeped out of the corner of his mouth.

“The ancestor is too careful. I don’t even need him to come to kill you.” The middle-aged cultivator flying in the sky sneered.

However, he didn’t land on the ground. Even though Xu Qing seemed to be in a critical condition many times, the great elder still maintained a certain altitude. Storms continuously rose up in his hands and bombarded the young man running on the ground.

Killing intent flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes, and passively having to take such a beating made his killing intent even stronger.

But he was very clear that although the middle-aged cultivator seemed to be alone, he must have some way to contact his sect. If Xu Qing didn’t enter the forbidden area as soon as possible, once the other people from the Vajra Sect arrived, he would be in even more danger. Xu Qing’s heart was especially shaken when he heard the middle-aged man mention an ancestor.

However, the middle-aged man never came down to the ground, which made it impossible for Xu Qing to fight back. He had even pretended to be vulnerable several times, but he still couldn’t bait the man into coming down.

“He’s too careful. I can’t wait any longer.”

As this thought passed through his mind, Xu Qing’s eyes flashed with a purple light. Just when his body was submerged by a storm again, a purple blade projection suddenly appeared.

Blood spurted out of Xu Qing’s body as he directly bore the brunt of the storm spell’s force, but he didn’t waver at all as he chopped downward with his right hand.

In an instant, the heavenly blade materialized and fell.

An extremely intense feeling of life-and-death erupted from the middle-aged cultivator’s heart. His expression changed drastically, and his body retreated rapidly as he used the flight talisman to ascend with all his might.

Just as he rose higher into the air, the space below him rumbled. When the blade projection arrived, it seemed as if it could slice through everything, carrying an extremely dangerous aura as it passed beneath him.

If he had dodged an instant later, or if he had lowered his altitude at all earlier, this thunderous blade strike would most likely have killed him.

Although he avoided losing his life, his left foot had been barely grazed, and it immediately collapsed into a bloody mess.

Enduring the severe pain coming from his left foot, the middle-aged cultivator panted heavily. His eyes were full of killing intent, but his heart was filled with even stronger vigilance and lingering fear. He knew very well that if he didn’t have the flight talisman, although he might be able to survive that blade strike, he would definitely be severely injured.

“The old ancestor was right. This kid is a monster!”

On the ground, Xu Qing wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and coldly glanced at the middle-aged cultivator in the air, whose left foot had been torn apart by his blade strike. Suppressing the regret in his heart, Xu Qing turned around and continued running towards the forbidden area.

The middle-aged cultivator was currently in unbearable pain. After staunching his wound, he lowered his head to look at Xu Qing. Although his killing intent was strong, he still hesitated, not daring to go any closer. Rising higher in the air, he instead decided to continue casting spells from up above to interfere with Xu Qing.

He didn’t plan to fight by himself. His own life was more important than completing the sect’s mission, so he planned to drag out the chase. Even if Xu Qing tried to enter the forbidden area, he wouldn’t stop him.

“When the ancestor arrives, this kid will definitely die!”

Even though the middle-aged man was casting from a distance, his spells could still hurt Xu Qing. However, Xu Qing’s recovery ability was astonishing, so the overall impact wasn’t much. He continued to run faster and faster.

Finally, Xu Qing saw the boundary of the forbidden area and stepped in without hesitation.

Outside the forbidden area, the middle-aged cultivator paused in the air. Just as he was hesitating over whether or not to give chase, booming thunder rang out in behind him, and two figures quickly flew over.

One of them wore a red robe. His white hair fluttered in the wind, and he exuded a dignified aura.

Behind his back was the projection of the Vajra guardian, which turned into a storm that swept out in all directions. It was the ancestor of the Vajra Sect.

The other was the Vajra Sect’s other great elder. The two quickly approached one after the other.

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