Chapter 168: Pursuit
High up in the sky above a snowy mountain range hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, countless arcs of lightning appeared out of thin air before intertwining to form an array.
A giant figure appeared within the array amid a flash of silver light, and it was a huge golden ape with three heads and six arms.
As soon as the giant ape appeared, it rapidly shrank down, reverting back to its human form while the silver lightning array disintegrated around it.
He flipped a hand over to produce a pill before swallowing it, then flew toward a certain direction at full speed as a streak of azure light without pause.
This type of long-distance teleportation was extremely taxing on the Lightning Bird's power of lightning, and at the moment, he didn't know whether there was a distance limit on how far away Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man could sense him from. If he were to be caught with all of the power of lightning in his body completely exhausted, then he would have no course for retreat.
However, he wasn't able to fly very far before he felt his blood begin to churn within his veins, and it was clear that Fang Pan's duo was using the same tracking technique once again.
Hence, he immediately began to fly in a different direction without any hesitation.
At the same time, he was digesting the pill that he had just taken as quickly as he could while carefully inspecting every single inch of his own body with his spiritual sense, trying to find out exactly where a mark had been planted on him.
However, no matter how much he searched, he wasn't able to find anything.
Even though Han Li was fleeing as quickly as he could, Fang Pan was too fast for him to shake off, and close to a day later, they were gradually beginning to close in on him.
This time, Han Li had no intention of facing them in battle at all, and in the instant that they appeared in his field of view, silver light instantly began to erupt out of his body.
Countless arcs of silver lightning appeared one after the other, yet right as it was about to form a lightning array, Fang Pan's voice rang out like thunder from several hundred kilometers away. "You're not getting away!"
As soon as his voice trailed off, bright azure light that contained countless dancing azure began to glow over his palm, and he thrust his palm into the body of the brocade-robed elderly man beside him.
An azure halo instantly appeared around the brocade-robed elderly man, within which countless azure runes were surging incessantly.
The elderly man instantly vanished into thin air, then reappeared not far away from Han Li.
At this point, Han Li was no more than half a second away from completing his teleportation. A silver lightning array had already taken shape around him, and he was just about to be inundated by silver light when a vast expanse of crimson flames suddenly appeared on the brocade-robed elderly man's body, instantly transforming him into a crimson sun.
Blinding crimson light spread through the entire area within a radius of several kilometers, and as soon as the lightning array around Han Li came into contact with the crimson light, it immediately disintegrated, much to Han Li's alarm.
Right at this moment, a bright saber projection appeared in Han Li's field of view, and initially, it was extremely far away, but it was upon him in the blink of an eye like a bolt of lightning, piercing directly toward his heart at an incredible speed.
Han Li's pupils contracted drastically upon seeing this, and bright azure light began to glow from his body as he sped toward the side.
In the next instant, Han Li appeared several hundred feet away from his original spot. A huge gash had been sliced onto his arm, exposing the bone within, and blood was gushing out profusely.
However, he had no time to tend to the wound as he instantly adopted his Giant Mountain Ape form amid a flash of dazzling golden light. At the same time, countless golden scales appeared over his entire body.
Meanwhile, Fang Pan appeared behind the saber, then reached out to grab it.
Immediately thereafter, he began darting from side to side, and four identical Fang Pans appeared on either side of him.
Each of them was wielding a bright long saber as they charged directly at Han Li at lightning-fast speeds while unleashing five dazzling saber projections.
All of a sudden, the five Fang Pans overlapped with one another, and the five saber projections also combined into one. At the same time, it abruptly accelerated to several times its original speed, leaving layers of overlapping afterimages in its wake as it pierced directly toward the giant ape's heart.
Everything around the saber projection seemed to have become extremely slow, as if everything were moving in slow motion in comparison.
The dream-like saber projection pierced into the golden ape's body before emerging on the other side, but it had missed the giant ape's heart by a small margin.
The golden ape threw up a mouthful of blood as a stunned look appeared on its face, and it then slammed a palm heavily down onto its own chest.
The giant ape was sent flying back by the force of its own blow, throwing up another large mouthful of blood that transformed into a burst of crimson light before fusing into its body.
Its skin instantly turned as red as blood, and at the same time, a massive crimson rune appeared on both his chest and his back, radiating dazzling crimson light.
The giant ape's body instantly exploded into a ball of crimson light, which instantly shot out of the area encompassed within the crimson light released by the brocade-robed elderly man.
Countless arcs of silver lightning then sprang out of the ball of crimson light, forming a lightning array in the blink of an eye.
Following a flash of lightning, Han Li was once again nowhere to be seen, leaving the brocade-robed elderly man to look on with his mouth agape in astonishment.
All of this had taken place in the blink of an eye, and before either of them had a chance to react, Han Li had already vanished from the spot.
The five Fang Pans fused as one once again, and he was glowering at the spot where Han Li had just vanished from with a furious expression.
Meanwhile, the brocade-robed elderly man chanted an incantation to snuff out the crimson flames burning on his body. His complexion was quite pale, and he hurriedly summoned a pill before devouring it.
"Damn it! He got away again!" Fang Pan spat through gritted teeth with a hint of agitation on his face.
Now that Han Li was aware of the elderly man's secret technique, he was definitely going to be even more cautious from this point onward, and it was most likely not going to be feasible to use the same secret technique on him again.
"I didn't think that he would be so cunning. What do we do now?" the brocade-robed elderly man asked, and his complexion still hadn't returned to normal.
Fang Pan was silent for a moment, then said, "Let's catch up to him first."
He then swept a hand through the air to release a burst of azure light that enveloped both of them.
Meanwhile, hundreds of kilometers away, a lightning array emerged before quickly disintegrating.
The crimson light faded, and Han Li stumbled out from within, looking as pale as a sheet.
There was still a wound on his chest near his heart that was bleeding profusely, and a hint of lingering fear flashed through his eyes as he looked down to inspect the wound.
If he hadn't moved himself to the side at the last moment, his heart would've already been pierced through and completely destroyed.
His eyes narrowed slightly as he thought back to that dream-like strike.
It was clear that Fang Pan had been hiding his true power prior to that point, and even Han Li had almost fallen prey to the surprise attack.
The only silver lining on the situation was that it clearly required some time for Fang Pan to unleash those nascent soul sealing chains of his.
With that in mind, Han Li flipped a hand over to produce a green talisman, which he pressed against the wound on his chest.
The talisman released a burst of gentle green light that surged into the wound, and his bleeding immediately stopped, while the wound itself also quickly healed.
He then consumed an Origin Return Pill, and while digesting the pill, he flew toward a certain direction as a streak of azure light.
Unsurprisingly, it took only less than a day before Fang Pan's duo caught up to him again.
Thanks to the effects of the Origin Return Pill, Han Li had already mostly recovered from his injuries.
Having learned his lesson from last time, he immediately teleported himself away using his lightning array as soon as Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man entered his spiritual sensory range.
Fang Pan was naturally both infuriated and frustrated by this.
If he couldn't even get close to Han Li, then there was no way for him to do anything.
However, at this point, there was naturally no way that he would just give up and let Han Li go.
……
Several days later, a streak of azure light was flying rapidly through the air above a black forest.
There was a thick blanket of dark clouds in the sky above the forest, and huge bolts of lightning would come crashing down from the clouds occasionally, giving the area the appearance of a forest of lightning when viewed from afar.
Within the azure light, Han Li wore a grim expression as he sped through the air while dodging the lightning that was crashing down from above.
Meanwhile, Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man had just arrived at the edge of the forest close to 100,000 kilometers away. The two of them took a slightly concerned glance at the forest of lightning up ahead, but seeing no other choice, the two of them immediately flew in to continue their pursuit of Han Li.
……
Half a month later, a streak of azure light was flying like the wind over a crimson mountain range.
The entire mountain range down below was covered in scorching flames, releasing plumes of black smoke that obscured the entire sky.
The streak of azure light was traversing through the world of fire and smoke in a straight line without taking any evasive measures.
Hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man were flying along in hot pursuit with dark looks on their faces.
……
As the chase continued, over a month passed by in the blink of an eye.
Right at this moment, countless arcs of silver lightning appeared to form a lightning array in the sky above a massive swamp.
A loud thunderclap rang out, and Han Li appeared at the center of the array with his brows tightly furrowed.
He had been fleeing non-stop for close to two months at this point, and despite his large stash of pills, he was still rapidly exhausting the power of the Lightning Bird in his body. Even though he was intentionally limiting the number of times he was using his lightning array, it was still less than half as effective as it had been at its peak.
As a result, the distance that he was able to teleport with the array was decreasing with each successive use, and this time, he was only able to teleport no more than 250,000 kilometers.
Fang Pan and the brocade-robed elderly man had clearly detected this as well, and they were speeding up in their pursuit, much to Han Li's dismay.
If things were to continue like this, he would eventually be worn down and killed by his two pursuers.
Through the observation that he had conducted during this period, he had discovered that the one who had been tracking him this entire time wasn't Fang Pan. Instead, the tracking technique was being used by that brocade-robed elderly man.
Not only was that man able to track him, he was able to counteract his lightning array and possessed an Acquired Immortal Treasure capable of trapping someone inside. Hence, he was a huge thorn in Han Li's side that had to be eliminated.
With that in mind, he quickly hatched a plan, then began flying in another direction.
Moments later, the sound of splashing waves rang out up ahead, and a massive sea appeared before him. The seawater had a faint red hue, and it was giving off a sharp rusty smell.
He looked down at the churning seawater for a moment with a contemplative expression, then continued to fly deeper into the sea. Moments later, he drew to a halt near a crimson island that was several dozen kilometers in size.
"This place will have to do," he murmured to himself, then took a deep breath before raising both hands up into the air.
Dozens of balls of blue spiritual light flew out in all directions in unison, then vanished into the seawater down below.
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