Chapter 143: Breaking Out Of The Encirclement
Li Weiyi secretly recalled the various entanglements he once had with Li Ling, feeling shocked and suspicious in his heart, and for the first time doubting the true purpose of Zen Sea Observing Mist: “It seems to be the case! Then, may I ask what exactly Senior Zen Sea intends?”
“It’s good enough that you’re a sensible person and know that this seat doesn’t want to kill you. As for the intention…”
Li Ling’s gaze swept over Cang Li and Zhao Zhizhuo with a disdainful look, while Qi Shanshan had already fainted under her aura. Her eyes were extremely cold and arrogant, but her tone suddenly softened: “Marry you!”
Li Weiyi had already prepared himself mentally for the worst-case scenario of being refined into a human medicine by her. Who would have thought that this ancient Son of Heaven, arrogant to the extreme, would suddenly say such a thing?
With her personality and status, it didn’t seem like she would make such a joke.
Zhao Zhizhuo and Cang Li were also stunned, very much suspecting that these words were not said by Zen Sea Observing Mist, but that Li Ling had regained control of her body.
“Crash.”
On the cliff face to the right of the valley, gravel rolled down.
Everyone’s gazes turned that way.
Yin Nine, wearing high-grade Magic Tool Night-walking Clothes, appeared from invisibility. An embarrassed expression appeared on his young, thin, and stern face: “I’m here to pick someone up! I accidentally overheard such an unbelievable piece of gossip, and nearly fell off this cliff. Rest assured, I heard nothing.”
Li Ling seemed to have known he was hiding there all along, showing no emotional fluctuation: “No matter! If the news of Zen Sea Observing Mist’s return to the Jiu Li spreads, the first tribe to be exterminated by external forces will surely be the Jiu Li. This seat doesn’t care.”
Suddenly.
She sensed something, and her eyes instantly became grave: “There’s an army slowly approaching, hurry and leave… This is bad, we’ve already been surrounded!”
“Come with me!”
A strand of her long hair floating in mid-air wrapped around Li Weiyi, pulling him onto the back of the Zou Wu exotic beast.
“Rumble!”
The Zou Wu exotic beast stepped on a Magic Energy Cloud, racing along the gorge stream at the fastest speed.
The direction it headed was not Yaoguan City, but deep into the opposite Mang Mountain Range.
Because she sensed that although that mysterious army was closing in, the main force was concentrated in the direction of the gorge where Yaoguan City was located, blocking their way back.
Breaking out from that side would be too difficult.
The pressure on Cang Li eased, and he could finally breathe. Looking toward the Zou Wu exotic beast that had already fled to the end of the gorge, it was too late to chase, so he roared: “Zen Sea… Li Weiyi, protect Li Ling for me.”
Cang Li, Yin Nine, and Zhao Zhizhuo had all sensed the dangerous aura and released their Magic Energy one after another.
“Swish! Swish! Swish…”
Countless bright runes rose from all directions in the night sky, crowding the view like stars.
The runes sank, becoming blurry, turning into a thin mist covering a three-li radius, and the entire gorge became quiet.
Yin Nine and Zhao Zhizhuo pushed their movement techniques to the limit, one above and one below, chasing along the gorge toward Li Weiyi, who had been captured by Zen Sea Observing Mist. Today’s events were too bizarre; no one would believe them if told.
Cang Li immediately sent the fainted Qi Shanshan into the Insect Bag.
The next instant.
“Whoosh!”
A violent gale, sharp as knives and swords, blew through the gorge.
Wrapped in the gale was a black shadow. It was the Dao Seed Realm master from San Chen Palace, Chen Qianchi. His iron fist smashed down, aiming for a quick battle to decisively kill this number one heavenly prodigy of the Jiu Li.
“Roar!”
The light released from Cang Li’s body illuminated the night as bright as day. A tiger roar that cracked the rock face rang out, releasing White Tiger Battle Intent, extending giant claws to clash with the oncoming Chen Qianchi.
With a boom, Cang Li flew backwards six or seven zhang, silver armor surging with countless scriptures that completely neutralized Chen Qianchi’s fist energy.
“A Dao Seed Realm Martial Cultivator is nothing more than this.”
Cang Li shouted loudly, pretending to be calm and composed while quickly suppressing the surging vitality in his body.
“Worthily the Hundred Meridians Pure Silver Immortal Body; your combat power is indeed formidable. But there’s no need for you to shout so loudly; the three-li radius is covered by runes, and the commotion here can’t be sensed from Yaoguan City.”
Chen Qianchi’s figure was like lightning, attacking again.
Cang Li did not clash head-on with him, fighting and retreating while chasing after Zen Sea Observing Mist and the others.
Above the gorge, the thin mist dispersed, and two military formations appeared out of thin air.
The military formations were neatly arrayed, everyone wearing Iron Cloth Battle Robes.
They uniformly channeled their internal Magic Energy into the formation, activating a hammer-shaped Magic Tool.
The war hammer was larger than a water jar, hovering in the air, erupting with purple brilliance. Under the control of several old men in the battle formation, it attacked the Zou Wu exotic beast racing at the forefront in the gorge.
The runes were not fully stabilized yet; they could not be allowed to approach the edge.
The war hammer smashed down like a bright purple star from beyond the heavens.
“Boom!”
The Zou Wu exotic beast leaped sideways, evading the war hammer. The nearby mountain body rock face was blasted into a large collapse, earth shaking and mountains swaying.
Li Weiyi looked back, seeing no trace of Yin Nine and Zhao Zhizhuo, only hearing the continuous booming combat sounds. At the same time, corpses of soldiers kept falling from above the valley cliff face, their screams shrill.
“The enemy doesn’t know our relative strengths and is poorly prepared; it must be a hasty deployment. We should kill our way back; together, we can break their battle formation and definitely inflict heavy damage on the enemy.” Li Weiyi held the Yellow Dragon Sword in one hand and the Black Iron Seal in the other.
He didn’t want to leave Cang Li, Zhao Zhizhuo, and the others behind.
“The best way to defeat the enemy is to rush out of the Rune Fog Domain they’ve set up, then use the intense combat fluctuations to draw the Jiu Li army from Yaoguan City and wipe out this Iron Clothes Army of San Chen Palace right here.”
“Give me the seal!”
Li Ling’s eyes were deep and somber, her starry eyes fixed dead ahead, seeing the runes invisible to ordinary people at the edge of the Fog Domain.
Taking the Black Iron Seal from Li Weiyi’s hand, she soared gracefully into the air, ten-odd zhang off the ground, found the weakest point in the runes, infused it with vast Magic Power, and swung it out.
After leaving her hand, the Black Iron Seal rapidly enlarged, releasing over a dozen thick purple lightning bolts that interwove in the valley.
“Rumble!”
Deafening thunderous sounds echoed repeatedly in the gorge.
The Black Iron Seal grew to several zhang in size, forcing the heaven-covering runes to appear. Then that thin layer of mist tore open like paper, forming a huge hole in mid-air.
“So that’s how it’s used; what immense might.”
The Zou Wu exotic beast leaped up, carrying Li Weiyi as it rushed out of the rune hole.
Li Weiyi released Magic Energy to retrieve the Black Iron Seal.
A fragrant breeze arrived in an instant, and Li Ling landed on the Zou Wu exotic beast’s back. The overwhelming aura on her body had vanished, her legs unsteady; fortunately, Li Weiyi caught her, preventing her from falling off the tiger’s back.
“Roar!”
“Roar!”
…
After rushing out of the Rune Fog Domain, the Zou Wu exotic beast roared furiously.
The sound could carry dozens of li away.
It was highly spiritual and extremely intelligent; someone from the Cang Li Tribe could judge if Cang Li was in danger by its roar. With top masters’ abilities, they would arrive soon.
An old man from the Chen family in the battle formation’s face changed in shock: “Bad, how did so many masters gather here? They actually broke the runes and escaped; is that woman from Lei Xiao Sect?”
“Grave miscalculation; we shouldn’t have stirred up such extraneous trouble. The encirclement hunt has failed; withdraw quickly.”
“The Jiu Li have assembled a large number of masters in Yaoguan City; they’ll be here soon.”
“If we don’t want total annihilation, disperse and flee deep into Mang Mountain Range, or flee to the Nether Realm of the Dead.”
“Who will go with this old man to pursue the two on the Zou Wu exotic beast’s back?”
…
The reversal came too quickly; Chen Qianchi never imagined that each of these people here had extraordinary combat power and battle wisdom.
Someone had immediately judged the weakest point in the encirclement and decisively shattered it before the runes fully stabilized.
The entire process took only a dozen breaths.
Not to mention him—even if San Chen Palace’s leader personally came to hunt, it would absolutely fail at the last step.
“Who exactly is she?”
An old-generation figure like Chen Qianchi, how could he recognize the juniors of the entire Jiu Li?
Having heavily injured and repelled Cang Li with one punch, he stepped on a Magic Energy Cloud, leaping onto the dozens-of-zhang-high valley cliff face, chasing toward the Zou Wu exotic beast that had vanished into the dense forest.
“Commander Chen, where are you going? Where’s that fierce might from earlier?”
Yin Nine’s high-pitched voice came from the dense forest, shaking the night mist.
“Crash!”
A door-board-sized battle axe spun flying out from the direction of the voice, covered in countless scriptures, smashing into Chen Qianchi who had just leaped off the ground.
The battle axe was as heavy as a thousand jun, its might ferocious, shattering Chen Qianchi’s protective Magic Energy.
Chen Qianchi pierced through the scriptures carried by the battle axe, his iron hand wearing gloves just reaching out to grab the axe blade.
Behind him, a silver light pillar rose.
Cang Li’s agile figure chased up, thrusting a spear in rotation, forming a storm vortex dozens of zhang in diameter, its momentum sharp and unstoppable.
…
“Zen Sea Observing Mist!”
“Zen Sea Observing Mist…”
Li Weiyi found that Li Ling in his arms had her eyes tightly closed, with none of her previous strong practitioner aura, unable to judge what condition she was in.
Slowly, Li Ling opened her eyes, clear gaze, detaching from Li Weiyi’s arms: “She is merely a remnant soul body; earlier, to intimidate my brother and activate the seal to break the Rune Fog Domain, she consumed a great deal and is now fully recovering her power. If you act now, I may not be your opponent.”
“Swish! Swish…”
Countless sharp breaking wind sounds chased closely behind from various directions.
“What exactly is she… forget it, let’s get through this first!” Li Weiyi said.
Now was not the time to resolve the doubts in his heart.
“Then from now on, we can only rely on ourselves. This Iron Clothes Army from San Chen Palace is all retreating in this direction; it seems we can only continue fleeing deep into Mang Mountain Range. I just hope my mother can arrive soon.”
Li Ling took out a bronze ancient lamp, mobilizing the spiritual light flame from the forehead spirit realm in her brow, which bloomed and dispersed. Instantly, the ancient lamp emitted strands of ghostly blue light, enveloping the Zou Wu exotic beast.
“They’re catching up!”
Li Weiyi had Li Ling control the Zou Wu exotic beast, moving to the tiger’s rear, steadying his feet with Magic Energy.
In his pupils, several arrows shot by Five Seas Realm old men streaked through the night sky in pursuit. The arrows hit the blue light from the ancient lamp, pausing for an instant, their speed greatly slowed.
“Swish! Swish!”
He swung several swords in succession, sword light flowing like a dragon, deflecting all the arrows.
In mid-air, a long howl sounded, and a deformed humanoid race old man with a heavy aura dove down. He had no legs, only a pair of golden claws emitting bright flames, a foot long, sharp and piercing.
…
Sweat, I got tricked, the flu hit, coding at thirty-eight or nine degrees today, particularly agonizing… state particularly poor. Will decide update quantity based on body’s condition tomorrow, definitely write as much as I can.
