Hum…hum…hum...Amidst resounding sword cries, sword light shot out, engulfing Ye Chen like a meteor streaking across the sky, traveling several li in a flash.
"Success!"
Ye Chen rejoiced. He delved his consciousness inside his body and immediately discovered that the Green Lotus Zhen Yuan had transformed into Zhen Yuan strands, continuously merging with the sword light, prompting his body to fly across.
At this moment, his speed had doubled.
"What?"
The three people chasing behind him were astonished. Previously, their speed was above Ye Chen"s, and they were about to catch up to him. Who could have imagined that latter would use some secret technique and gain a sharp increase in speed, putting up a distance of two li in a blink.
"d.a.m.n it! This kid can"t be allowed to escape."
Shen Tujue bellowed. He added his martial spirit soul"s will upon the Zhen Yuan, abruptly increasing his own speed as well. Although he wouldn"t be able to catch Ye Chen immediately, he didn"t believe that Ye Chen could continue on like this for long. As long as the latter didn"t escape too far, he would be caught all the same.
Pei Youdao and Gold Rock had also cultivated minor speed amplification techniques. They tailed behind Ye Chen and Shen Tujue from afar.
"There is a conveyer gate below!"
After flying for several hundred li, Ye Chen felt that he was unable to continue. When he saw a conveyor gate below, he immediately went down without a thought.
Puchi!
The streaks of sword light covering Ye Chen were exceptionally sharp. Several high rank blood demons were immediately slashed apart. A couple dozen meters away from the gate, Ye Chen stopped his Zhen Yuan flow, allowing the sword light around his body to scatter away before he stepped into the blood colored whirlpool.
On some island of Blood Stone Islands, Ye Chen"s body suddenly appeared.
"Shen Tujue was only a couple dozen meters behind. In about six-seven breaths, he would be delivered here. By mounting a sneak attack, I can only cause him minor injuries. Killing him in one go is impossible, and once I get engaged in a battle with him, the other two would soon catch up. Then, I would have really run out of options."
The idea of mounting a sneak attack flashed in Ye Chen"s mind for a brief instant before he rejected it and flitted across, following the boundless lake water, raising suspicions of the people on the island.
Soon, Shen Tujue was conveyed in.
"Where did that kid escape?" Grabbing an Astral Reaching expert with a Zhen Yuan hand, Shen Tujue roared.
The Astral Reaching expert hurriedly pointed towards the left in panic, "There."
"Humph!"
Releasing the former, Shen Tujue"s speed burst forth as he advanced towards the said direction.
Afterward, Gold Rock and Pei Youdao also appeared. Judging by their appearance, the surrounding people immediately pointed at the direction Ye Chen and Shen Tujue had gone to.
After the two left, the surrounding people immediately started discussing.
"What"s going on? Three great elders of the six great sects seem to be chasing after a youngster?"
"It seems like a dispute based on interests!"
"Dispute of interests? That kid merely seems to be twenty two, and actually managed to provoke three extreme Astral Reaching experts? Regardless of what happens after, this is already shocking enough."
…
Above the boundless Star Lake, Ye Chen"s figure flickered indefinitely, occasionally emitting scattered Zhen Yuan in every direction.
"Sure enough, Sword Light Flight Technique is not quite stable. Luck played a big part in successfully executing it before."
Sword Light Flight Technique was an absolute skill Ye Chen had created by perceiving the transcendence of striking speed over body arts" speed. The focal point of this skill lied in integrating one"s own body with the condensed sword light, then striking out. Thereby, in theory, it should be possible to catch up to the striking speed.
However, the current Ye Chen was unable to perfect the integration of his own body with the sword light. The balance between these two was quite hard to get a grasp of.
"My speed is a bit slower than only Shen Tujue. If I maintain this distance, he wouldn"t be able to lock onto me, and won"t be able to issue an effective strike."
Ye Chen was not distressed by being unable to use Sword Light Flight Technique. Burning Zhen Yuan, his figure seemed like a wisp of smoke as he moved lightly, without any substance.
Twenty Li away, Shen Tujue spotted Ye Chen"s figure, and his voice arrived at an unimaginable speed, carried by Zhen Yuan, "Leave behind the blood evil stone, or today will be the day of your death."
Ye Chen pretended as if he didn"t hear anything.
"B*stard, go die then!"
Shen Tujue issued a punch from afar. Boundless fist energy hurriedly closed in on Ye Chen like a long dragon.
Peng!
With his Protective Zhen Yuan slightly warping under the effect of fist energy, Ye Chen"s speed didn"t decrease. Instead, it increased even more, creating even more distance between him and Shen Tujue.
"d.a.m.n it!" Shen Tujue knew what just happened. Although an extreme Astral Reaching expert"s strike power was quite formidable, if the distance was too big, there was no way to ensure its full might. When that fist landed on Ye Chen"s body, it had only about thirty percent of its might at most.
With his previous move having no effect on Ye Chen, Shen Tujue no longer wasted his energy, and completely focused on speed, pulling the distance between the two closer one bit at a time.
Dozens of li behind Shen Tujue, Pei Youdao and Gold Rock followed from afar.
On the Blood Demon Battlefield, blood Evil Beasts appeared once in decades. Every time they appeared, they numbered at most in tens. The number of blood evil beasts they had killed together with the deceased White Bone was eleven. The remaining few blood evil beasts had concealed themselves deeply, and wouldn"t be discovered easily. Moreover, even if they were to hunt down all the remaining blood evil beasts, the gained blood evil stones still wouldn"t be worth the one blood evil stone in the hands of Ye Chen. Otherwise, they wouldn"t have joined hands and wasted so much effort on chasing him.
"If I knew beforehand that it would be this troublesome, I would have joined hands with Shen Tujue earlier to kill that kid." Urging his Zhen Yuan, Gold Rock thought regretfully.
Pei Youdao wasn"t too angry. If it were his, it would ultimately belong to him. If it weren"t his, as long as he strived for it, it wasn"t a big deal.
Four men streaked across the air one after another.
When the Astral Reaching experts in-route looked at this scene, they immediately came to a halt and exchanged looks of amazement.
…
Unwittingly, several hours pa.s.sed, and the sun had s.h.i.+fted slightly to the west.
Popping a replenis.h.i.+ng Zhen Yuan seven star pill and a meridian repairing spiritual pill, Ye Chen turned his head around to take a look. Shen Tujue was slowly but surely chasing after him. The distance between the two sides had gradually settled at about ten li. At this moment, neither of the two had burned their Zhen Yuan. The amount of time an Astral Reaching expert burned their Zhen Yuan rarely exceeded half an hour. Exceeding the duration for half an hour would bring large number of side effects to the body. The reason Ye Chen could maintain a distance of ten li was on account of his body"s strong basic essence. To a certain level, he could burn his Zhen Yuan seven-eight minutes more compared to Shen Tujue. Otherwise, he would have been overtaken two hours earlier.
"Blood Demon Battlefield is a bordering zone of South Rudra Nation. After flying for several hours, South Rudra Nation should be sixty-seventy thousand li away."
At Ye Chen"s level, the distance he could traverse while traveling with all his might was frightening. Of course, one would rarely travel at full speed ordinarily. This was a matter of endurance.
...
A few more hours went by, and it was deep night.
"Haha, you little tramp! Let"s see where you will run now. Dragon Elephant Air Strike!" Shen Tujue,, who had arrived within seven li of Ye Chen, aroused his Zhen Yuan and punched out.
Peng!
After escaping for more than half a day, Ye Chen was already exhausted to death. Adding the previously suffered multiple strikes from before, the internal and external injuries were eating away at Ye Chen"s body. His spirit power had obviously perceived Shen Tujue"s strike, but was incapable of dodging effectively, and hence was. .h.i.t squarely.
Spurting out a mouthful of blood, Ye Chen"s consciousness turned somewhat dazed.
"Hold on a bit longer!"
Relying on his sword will, Ye Chen bit his tongue and forced himself to remain clear. He operated his Zhen Yuan, maintaining his peak speed with efforts.
Shen Tujue himself was quite tired, but was convinced that the first to go down would certainly be Ye Chen.
"Suppress for me!"
He lifted his right hand and smashed it down, causing a huge Zhen Yuan elephant to descend.
Peng!
Gathering his remaining energy, Ye Chen pulled out Thunder Pool Sword and slashed at the Zhen Yuan elephant.
Rumble!
Amidst intense shockwaves, Ye Chen"s figure flickered indefinitely. Shen Tujue had again closed in a bit. The distance between the two was now less than five li.
"d.a.m.n it! Zhen Yuan is almost exhausted."
Seven Star pills could indeed replenish Zhen Yuan, but there was a subtle conversion process involved. After escaping for a long time, a lot of mixed Qi had acc.u.mulated within Ye Chen"s body, rendering his body"s Zhen Yuan conversion speed appallingly low. It was at the point that taking any more pills would almost make the situation worse. On the other hand, Shen Tujue had a peak late Astral Reaching realm cultivation base. His Zhen Yuan was more vigorous compared to Ye Chen. Moreover, Floating Mountain sect had no lack of pills that were better than the Seven Star Pill. Therefore, his condition was much better than Ye Chen.
Shen Tujue revealed a joyous expression as he saw Ye Chen"s speed slowing. Pei Youdao and Gold Rock were several dozen li away. By killing Ye Chen, the blood evil stone would obviously fall into his hands. In the future, relying on this blood evil stone, he would even be able to condense a true martial soul.
Laughing uproariously, Shen Tujue no longer attacked Ye Chen. He wished to maintain his Zhen Yuan advantage.
In Ye Chen"s Dantian, the Zhen Yuan core was gradually turning dull. Revolving around the core and sensing that Zhen Yuan had dried up, Green Lotus Sword Qi shattered one strand after another and merged into the core, barely providing enough Zhen Yuan for Ye Chen. However, if this continued, the converted Zhen Yuan also wouldn"t be able to allow him to continue in long run.
One strand disappeared.
Two strands disappeared.
Three strands disappeared.
…
"I have one final strand of Green Lotus Sword Qi left." At Blood Demon Battlefield, Ye Chen had used a total of two strands. Of the remaining seven, six had been converted into pure Green Lotus Zhen Yuan. There was only one left final, which revolved around the core in solidarity.
When Ye Chen felt himself at the end of the line, as an expanse of thick fog suddenly appeared ahead.
Ye Chen rushed inside without thinking.
"Where will you run!?" Shen Tujue didn"t give it much thought and rushed into the thick fog.
"Something"s not right!"
The next moment, Shen Tujue"s face was suddenly appalled.
Looking around, Shen Tujue muttered, "This is Star Lake"s Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone.
Soon, Pei Youdao and Gold Rock also appeared inside the fog.
Gold Rock suspiciously said, "Shen Tujue… is nowhere to be seen."
Pei Youdao shook his head with a grave expression, "This is Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone. It"s an area of thirty thousand li. Even Sea of Soul realm experts would have to spend a long time to come out from inside."
"Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone."
In the night"s darkness, Gold Rock hadn"t paid too much attention. When he heard Pei Youdao"s words, he immediately discovered that the fog here was unusual. He discovered that his spirit power was actually limited by ninety percent. Usually, he was able to cover dozens of li, but here, he could only cover one li with it.