Bring Them Back, Let the Elders Practice a Bit

At the same time, Shi Wanshan was gritting his teeth as he suppressed the yin poison in his body and fled at top speed. His mind raced as he calculated how to find some perilous place, set a trap, and turn the tables on his pursuers.

Then his body suddenly stiffened!

An incomparably familiar voice rang out in his sea of consciousness without warning.

“Senior Brother Shi.”

Shi Wanshan shuddered from head to toe!

That voice… It was Junior Brother Changge?!

His old face instantly flushed crimson, burning with embarrassment. His heart sank as he wailed inwardly, We’re done for! We’re done for!

This is mortifying! Junior Brother Changge must know!

He must have seen me in this wretched state from start to finish!

“The two people behind you are keeping up rather well.”

Gu Changge’s voice was gentle, yet it made Shi Wanshan so ashamed that he wanted nothing more than to crawl into a crack in the ground.

He felt like a child who had lost a fight outside and then been caught red-handed by his parents.

“Since you can’t shake them, stop wasting your energy,” Gu Changge continued.

Shi Wanshan’s face grew even hotter, but he had no way to refute that.

He truly couldn’t shake the accursed Shadowless Soul-Chasing Powder.

Just as he was burning with embarrassment and preparing to force out a few words of explanation, Gu Changge’s next words left him stunned.

“Bring them back to the sect.”

Shi Wanshan blinked. “Huh?”

He almost thought he had misheard.

“Several elders in the sect have made breakthroughs recently. Bring them back and let the elders practice on them.”

Shi Wanshan froze for a moment. Then an indescribable surge of delight and giddy excitement instantly swept away all his frustration, dejection, and embarrassment!

He understood!

Junior Brother Changge intended to use these two fools who didn’t know what they were getting into as live practice targets for all the sect’s elders!

“Hahahaha! Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!”

Shi Wanshan laughed wildly in his heart. The heat in his face vanished, replaced by the smug satisfaction of a serf finally overthrowing his master!

Just moments ago, he had felt utterly humiliated for being chased so miserably. But now?

“Damn you, you two old bastards! Wasn’t it fun chasing me all this way? Didn’t you enjoy poisoning me?”

“Grandpa’s going to take you to a wonderful place now. I guarantee you’ll have the time of your lives—and remember it forever!”

Nearby, Xuanyangzi sensed the message Gu Changge had transmitted. He was startled at first, then immediately understood, a strange look appearing on his face.

Pointing at Gu Changge, he laughed.

“Changge, Changge! How did I never realize before that you had so many wicked schemes up your sleeve? What a marvelous plan!”

The more he spoke, the brighter his eyes became. “One mid-stage Saint King and one mid-stage Saint. They should be enough to keep those old fellows in the secret realm busy for quite some time, don’t you think?

“Hahaha! I’ll go make the arrangements right now. I’ll make sure they receive a truly ‘warm welcome’!”

Laughing heartily, Xuanyangzi flashed into the secret realm.

Meanwhile, Shi Wanshan’s spirits soared. It was as though the cold, sinister sensation caused by the Shadowless Soul-Chasing Powder had been diluted by the warmth surging through him.

He drew a deep breath. His face maintained the panic-stricken expression of someone fleeing for his life, but the path of his flight had quietly changed.

He was no longer flying about like a headless fly through the wilderness. Instead, he began advancing in sweeping detours. The routes he took all extended toward the same destination—Qingxuan Sect.

Along the way, Shi Wanshan was even caught by his pursuers once. After a brutal clash, the injuries covering his body grew more numerous and more severe.

Several days later, after another collision, Shi Wanshan sensed that his condition was deteriorating rapidly.

“You forced me into this. Once this ancestor recovers, I’ll settle the score with you!”

“Blood-Burning Escape Art—move!”

The moment Shi Wanshan finished speaking, he spat out several mouthfuls of blood, and his aura instantly weakened.

Yet his fleeing speed suddenly increased. In the blink of an eye, he had left the Purple-Robed Saint and the Saint King far behind, carrying them beyond the range of their spiritual senses.

“Damn it! I didn’t expect him to have a technique like this. He burned his essence blood, and his speed actually increased so much.”

The Purple-Robed Saint’s expression darkened.

The Saint King, however, wore a strange, confident smile.

“Hmph. Does he really think he can escape simply by putting enough distance between us? He’s underestimating the power of the Shadowless Soul-Chasing Powder.

“This poison has seeped into the very source of his blood and qi. As long as his blood and qi remain, and as long as he is still within this world, he cannot escape its detection.”

The Saint King slowly raised his hand. A faint gray aura appeared once more at his fingertip.

The gray aura revolved slowly. Before long, it locked onto Shi Wanshan’s location like a precise compass.

“I’ve found him. He used a blood-escape technique, and his aura is now severely weakened. Follow me.”

The Purple-Robed Saint was overjoyed. He could almost see Shi Wanshan at the end of his strength, stripping off his clothes piece by piece and humiliating him to his heart’s content.

That’ll teach you to treat me like that back then…

Wait, that’s not right. Why am I imagining stripping off his clothes and humiliating him?

I should rip out his tendons and dig out his bones. Only then can I wash away the humiliation I suffered.

The Purple-Robed Saint vigorously shook the thoughts from his head. Coming back to his senses, he followed the Saint King and sped after him.

Half a day later, the two of them crossed tens of thousands of miles and arrived near Qingxuan Sect in Xuanzhou, where they stopped.

The Gray-Robed Saint King halted his flight a hundred miles from the mountain gate. The gray aura at his fingertip pulsed even more intensely, almost breaking free and shooting straight toward the depths of the sect.

“He’s inside this sect.”

He looked at the ordinary-looking Qingxuan Sect before him.

Then he slightly furrowed his brows, as though making certain of something.

Although the sect before him was rich in spiritual energy and surrounded by towering peaks, it could be considered a major sect in this small region of the Profound Domain.

But that was all it was.

The man they were pursuing was a late-stage Saint who could withstand several of his attacks head-on, possessed rich combat experience, and was clearly skilled in escape techniques.

Why would such a cunning and treacherous man choose a seemingly unremarkable sect with only moderately abundant spiritual energy as his refuge while fleeing for his life?

Could this place conceal some danger or trap?

Or had he been so badly injured by burning his blood and qi that he could go no farther, forcing him to hide in this inconspicuous little sect in the hope of escaping his pursuers?

The Gray-Robed Saint King was cautious and suspicious by nature. Even when facing an apparently weak target, he never let down his guard.

He did not act immediately. Instead, he condensed his Saint King-level spiritual sense into a single thread and silently sent it across the sect-protecting formation. Like the finest comb, it slowly swept through all of Qingxuan Sect.

Foundation Establishment disciples came and went. Core Formation stewards patrolled the mountains. Elders at the Violet Palace and Heavenly Grotto realms handled affairs or cultivated in seclusion on their respective peaks.

Everything was orderly.

The strongest auras were distributed among the various main peaks, and none of them exceeded the King realm.

There were no signs of an ambush, no fluctuations from hidden killing formations, and no power capable of threatening a Saint King.

At last, his spiritual sense locked onto an extremely secluded cave in the rear mountains of one of the main peaks. The spiritual energy there was so thin that the place was practically barren.

Shi Wanshan’s weak aura, with its decline, disorder, and heavy stench of blood, seeped out from that location. It matched the pull at his fingertip perfectly.

“As expected, he’s merely exhausted and hiding there, hoping to evade pursuit in this backwater wasteland.”

The Gray-Robed Saint King’s last trace of doubt vanished, and a smug smile tugged at the corners of his eyes.

Before absolute strength, all schemes were futile!