Chapter 1784 - Pursuit
Liu Wuxie had no intention of prolonging the battle. He still could not determine who was pursuing him, and shaking them off remained his foremost priority.
If his pursuers were merely ordinary True Immortal Realm cultivators, he naturally had nothing to fear. What concerned him was the possibility that a spirit immortal, or even a profound immortal, was among them.
With Ye Linghan no longer at his side, Liu Wuxie had no one to depend on but himself. The flag possessed power comparable to a Divine Immortal's artifact, and he refused to tap into it unless necessary.
After all, using the flag only once had drained every trace of Ye Linghan's immortal energy, while Liu Wuxie was merely a high immortal. If he activated it, the resulting exhaustion would be even more severe.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf unleashed a thunderous roar, and the resulting sound waves shattered the surrounding trees. Judging from its strength, the beast rivaled a seventh- or eighth-level True Immortal.
Liu Wuxie naturally would not fear a human opponent at that level. However, the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf was an immortal beast with exceptionally ferocious attacks, and under normal circumstances, humans struggled to contend with an immortal beast at the same level.
Only a few miles away, Jin Ren and the others immediately heard the resounding roar.
"Could that have been Liu Wuxie?" one of them asked.
"Hurry! Liu Wuxie must've encountered an immortal beast!" Jin Ren shouted, prompting all seven to accelerate through the dense forest.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf lunged forward, unleashing an overwhelming demonic aura accompanied by a nauseating stench.
Liu Wuxie did not dare to lower his guard. He attempted to communicate with the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf through beast language, but the wolf ignored him completely. Although beast language allowed him to communicate with immortal beasts, commanding them was an entirely different matter.
Immortal beasts generally possessed far greater strength than demonic beasts and astral beasts.
As the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf pounced, Liu Wuxie refused to retreat. He darted sideways instead and unleashed the Instant Blade. Since breaking through to the ninth-level High Immortal Realm, he had yet to experience a truly satisfying battle.
He had spent the past few days inside the Azure Flame Dao Hall, where Ye Linghan had resolved most of the troubles on his behalf. As a result, he had rarely found an opportunity to fight personally.
The blade moved with astonishing speed, transforming into a blade ray that vanished in a fleeting flash. The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf was swift, but Liu Wuxie's attack was even faster, allowing the blade ray to tear effortlessly through its body.
"AWOOOO!" The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf howled in agony as a foot-long wound split open across its abdomen, spilling torrents of blood.
As the Bloodthirst Blade devoured a vast quantity of blood, its power intensified further. The time Liu Wuxie had devoted to practicing his blade technique was finally beginning to bear fruit.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf released a low growl and slowly stalked toward Liu Wuxie, disregarding the blood streaming from its wound. With each step it took, its demonic aura grew more oppressive, coating the surrounding vegetation in a layer of ice.
Liu Wuxie's expression hardened. The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf's attributes had surpassed his expectations, yet he charged forward with the Bloodthirst Blade gripped firmly in his hand.
Several afterimages flickered across the battlefield before Liu Wuxie materialized behind the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf. The Bloodthirst Blade erupted with a crimson ray that blazed conspicuously through the darkness.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf could not match Liu Wuxie's speed. By the time it wheeled around, the Bloodthirst Blade had already descended from above, once again targeting its abdomen.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf possessed an extraordinarily tough hide that ordinary weapons could scarcely penetrate. Even the Bloodthirst Blade had managed to carve only a shallow wound into it.
Liu Wuxie's second strike proved even more unpredictable, curving through the air before striking the exact spot wounded by the first attack. This time, the blade ray descended with even fiercer and more intense power.
The blade ray ripped through the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf's hide, buried itself deep within the wolf's lower abdomen, and reached the bone.
The Heavenly Yin Wingwolf collapsed as the excruciating pain in its abdomen sent violent convulsions through its entire body. Liu Wuxie instantly seized the opening and swung the Bloodthirst Blade down toward its neck.
After a brief struggle, the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf collapsed motionless to the ground, slain with ease. Even in death, it likely could not comprehend how it had fallen to a mere high immortal.
Liu Wuxie summoned the Sky Devouring Divine Cauldron, which transformed into a black hole and swallowed the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf whole.
Demonic flames blazed fiercely within the cauldron, swiftly dissolving the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf's corpse and reducing it to a pool of liquid in the blink of an eye. As that liquid poured into the desolate world, Liu Wuxie's aura steadily climbed, drawing ever closer to the True Immortal Realm.
However, the moment Liu Wuxie killed the Heavenly Yin Wingwolf, an intense sense of danger rushed toward him, prompting him to flee into the distance without hesitation.
"Liu Wuxie, where do you think you're going?!" Several arrows tore through the air from afar, all aimed at Liu Wuxie's back the instant he moved.
At the same moment, a powerful Spirit Immortal Realm aura rapidly closed in on him, unleashing a sword ray in less than a fraction of a second.
With danger bearing down on him, Liu Wuxie had no choice but to turn and defend himself. Continuing to flee would allow the arrows to cause him enormous trouble, while the spirit immortal had already locked firmly onto him.
"Damn it!" Liu Wuxie swung the Bloodthirst Blade through the air with tremendous force, tearing open a crack in space.
A flicker of fear crossed the spirit immortal's face when he sensed a hint of danger from a mere high immortal. Without hesitation, he twisted his body in mid-air, evading the fatal strike and landing a short distance from Liu Wuxie.
By then, the arrows had already entered within three meters of Liu Wuxie, but the blade ray unleashed by the Bloodthirst Blade knocked every one of them away.
The entire exchange unfolded within half a breath, and Liu Wuxie nearly perished at the hands of the spirit immortal. In that same half-breath, seven figures emerged before him and sealed off every direction of escape.
When Liu Wuxie's gaze swept across the four, he finally found their faces somewhat familiar, though he could not recall precisely where he had seen them. Judging from their expressions, however, they clearly did not belong to the Wen Clan.
"Who are you, and why are you trying to kill me?" Liu Wuxie asked, his gaze sweeping across the seven before finally settling on Jin Ren.
"Liu Wuxie, you've certainly enjoyed the limelight at Azure Flame Dao Hall recently, but it ends tonight with your death," Jin Ren said with a mirthless smile as his gaze roamed over Liu Wuxie.
In their eyes, Liu Wuxie was no different from a walking treasure trove. He was proficient in martial cultivation, alchemy, blacksmithing, spiritual arrays, and talismans. If they seized everything he possessed, they could claim all his abilities for themselves. Once they mastered them, they would be able to have everything their way at Azure Flame Dao Hall.
"Are you all students of the Azure Flame Dao Hall?" Liu Wuxie asked, finally realizing why their faces seemed so familiar.
Then again, the Azure Flame Dao Hall contained far too many people for him to remember every one of them.
"Liu Wuxie, are you going to surrender, or do you need us to subdue you ourselves?" Jin Ren asked coldly as murderous intent surged from his body. He clearly had no intention of allowing Liu Wuxie to leave this place alive tonight.
The other six students advanced with weapons in hand, closing off every possible path Liu Wuxie could use to escape.
Among the seven, only Jin Ren posed any genuine threat to Liu Wuxie. The remaining six were not worthy of his concern.
"Garbage like you think you can kill me?" Liu Wuxie asked with a cold smirk. Had his opponent been a profound immortal, escaping would have been impossible. However, killing him would not be so easy for a mere Spirit Immortal.
As long as Liu Wuxie eliminated the six students, only Jin Ren would remain. Even if he could not defeat Jin Ren, escaping from him would pose no problem.
The Dragon Burial Mountain Range overflowed with danger, and recklessly activating the flag would instantly drain every trace of energy from Liu Wuxie's body. He would lose consciousness afterward, leaving him entirely at the mercy of the immortal beasts lurking throughout the mountain range.
"Liu Wuxie, still acting so tough even when you're going to die? I bet you don't know that Mentor Lu Baoguo, the man you drove away, was my uncle. I'll avenge him today!" said a youth who bore some resemblance to Lu Baoguo, glaring viciously at Liu Wuxie.
Liu Wuxie activated Ghost Pupil, bringing the trajectory of everyone's movements into view as he prepared to eliminate them one by one. The strongest student among them had only reached the ninth-level True Immortal Realm, which meant Liu Wuxie would have little difficulty killing them.
"Attack together and capture him!" Jin Ren commanded, and all seven surged forward simultaneously. They intended to capture Liu Wuxie as swiftly as possible, leaving no chance for unforeseen complications to arise.
The combined might of the seven men gathered into a raging tornado, trapping Liu Wuxie at its center as though it might devour him at any moment.
With Ghost Pupil, Liu Wuxie could effortlessly perceive every flaw hidden within their attacks. Moreover, Ghost Pupil allowed him to pierce through the darkness; such was the wondrous ability of the Eye of Darkness.
With a feinted movement, Liu Wuxie slipped past Jin Ren and materialized behind a seventh-level True Immortal student.
An overwhelming sense of danger seized the student's heart.
"Shit!" he exclaimed.
Liu Wuxie's murderous intent erupted without restraint. Whether they were mentors or students made no difference to him. Anyone who sought to kill him had to accept death by his hand.
Instant Flash moved at such blinding speed, like a streak of lightning, that it produced no discernible disturbance in the air.
The blade ray sliced cleanly through the student's neck, spraying blood three meters into the air as his severed head landed upon a tree branch. The gruesome spectacle instantly changed the expressions of the remaining six men, none of whom had imagined Liu Wuxie could be so ruthless.
Liu Wuxie already possessed the strength to slay a sixth-level True Immortal while at the fifth-level High Immortal. Now that he had reached the ninth-level High Immortal, his combat strength had soared even further.
Before Jin Ren and the others could react, Liu Wuxie vanished once again, moving even faster than before. Although he could not use the movement techniques from his previous life, his vast combat experience more than compensated for that loss.
"Liu Wuxie, I'll tear you into pieces!" After losing a student, Jin Ren would have no way to explain himself to the mentors upon returning, especially since every student present came from a powerful background.
With a furious roar, he brandished his sword and charged straight at Liu Wuxie.
However, the suppression of a spirit immortal held no power over Liu Wuxie. Had another High Immortal stood in his place, that pressure would have already crushed them to the ground.
Once again, Liu Wuxie deliberately avoided Jin Ren, determined to eliminate the students first. He would only fight when victory lay within reach; otherwise, he would flee.
Jin Ren's attack struck nothing but air before crashing into a massive tree. The entire trunk exploded into countless fragments, while a deep trench tore across the ground and the resulting shockwave swept a hundred meters away.
The remaining five students unleashed their attacks, yet none could so much as brush the hem of Liu Wuxie's clothes. Compared to his speed, their movements were simply far too slow.
"Die!" Liu Wuxie shifted his attention to an eighth-level True Immortal whose movements were sluggish and whose martial techniques appeared cumbersome. As Liu Wuxie charged toward him, the student shuddered in terror and instinctively retreated the moment the Bloodthirst Blade entered his sight.
"Jiang Lin, don't retreat!" Jin Ren roared.
However, his warning came too late, for retreating had already sealed Jiang Lin's fate. Had he held his ground, the others could have attacked Liu Wuxie and forced him to abandon his assault to defend himself. That way, Jiang Lin might still have survived.
Blood erupted as Liu Wuxie's blade sliced through Jiang Lin's throat, condemning him to a terrible death. His corpse immediately began to shrivel as its laws and energy poured into the desolate world. Even the smallest gain still held value, and it would help the desolate world expand more rapidly.
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