At this moment, Li Langfeng, the poison master, was also running through the hilly area at full speed. Occasionally, he would sail through the air like a shooting star.
“Hua Tian!” With a grim expression on his face, he chewed on Nie Tian’s name, flames of anger burning in his eyes.
During his fruitless search in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, he had accidentally heard that the Fang and other Hunter organizations were looking for a young man in the hilly area and wasteland between the Void Illusion Mountain Range and Shatter City.
The young man’s name was Hua Tian!
In Li Langfeng’s eyes, since Nie Tian was capable of concentrating the poisonous spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, he was none other than a precious gift from G.o.d!
The special incantation he practiced used a particular type of toxin within the poisonous spiritual Qi as a power resource. Therefore, if Nie Tian could cooperate, his battle prowess and cultivation base would improve at a much faster rate.
He was aware that the poison incantation he practiced had caused great damage to his body, which was probably beyond cure.
However, as long as he could raise his cultivation base and battle prowess to the point where he could kill the man he had been wanting to kill his entire life, he would be satisfied.
He was willing to give up everything he had, including his own life, to achieve that goal.
However, Nie Tian was the key person who could help him achieve that goal at a much earlier date.
Therefore, the moment he learned that Nie Tian had left the Void Illusion Mountain Range and embarked upon his journey back to Shatter City, he left the mountain range headed directly towards Nie Tian, just like what the Fang and Song Li had done.
“The Fang,” Li Langfeng said to himself with a cold expression, wreathed in an extremely intense killing intent. “You’d better keep Hua Tian alive for me. If not, you’ll be meeting him in the netherworld soon!”
In the boundless wasteland...
Xiao Lin’s eyes were closed as he was resting his mind. Meanwhile, he was holding a snake-shaped jade pendant in his left hand.
Every time he stroked it, the small, green jade snake seemed to respond by wiggling slightly.
Standing next to him, Song Li looked rather exhausted. “It’s been ten days already, and there’s still no word.” It seemed as if her torrential rage had somewhat calmed after searching for such a long time.
At this moment, Nie Tian was no longer just a man who she wanted to retaliate against.
To her, Nie Tian had already become a tough challenge in her life. If she couldn’t find Nie Tian and torture him to the death, he would become her internal demon, which would prevent her from concentrating on her cultivation and moving on to the next level.
Nie Tian was like a grindstone which she need to use to temper herself and make her sharper as a blade.
She had sworn to herself that she would cross this barrier, no matter how tough it was.
Han Mu slightly bowed as he attempted to comfort her. “You don’t need to worry too much, Miss. According to what we’ve learned, Hua Tian hasn’t entered the wasteland yet. Mr. Xiao is probably right. He must have sustained serious injuries after using that powerful magic of his to escape our blockade. He must be licking his wounds somewhere in the hilly area. When he’s recovered, he’ll definitely have to pa.s.s through this wasteland to return to Shatter City.
“Once he sets foot in the wasteland, as resourceful as Mr. Xiao is, he’ll surely sense his presence and track him down.
“At that time, we won’t give him another chance to slip through our fingers. We’ll capture him and let you have your revenge.”
At that moment, Xiao Lin, who was stroking the snake-shaped jade pendant in his hand, said, “I promise you that as long as Hua Tian dares to enter the wasteland, I’ll have him captured before he gets back to Shatter City.”
“Yeah, that’s the hope,” Song Li said with an indifferent tone.
For some reason, as time pa.s.sed and she failed over and over, she didn’t seem as confident as she was before.
Ever since she had made her moves on Shen Wei and the others on his team, Nie Tian had repeatedly beaten her and had his way.
Later, when she had commanded all the Fang members to search for him, she had failed to find him again.
Nie Tian, however, had been moving like a shadow. Not only had he ruined her hunting plans, but he had even had many female members killed, including her maidservant, Lu Yan.
After that, when she had mobilized numerous Hunter organizations, she had figured that they would definitely capture Nie Tian.
However, once again, she had failed.
Eventually, when she had persuaded Xiao Lin to join her cause, she had possessed total confidence that Nie Tian wouldn’t have any chance to escape this time.
The result, however, turned out to be the same. The consecutive failures made Song Li feel extremely frustrated. She even began to doubt herself, thinking she might not be the omnipotent person she thought she was, and that she might not be so good at manipulating people after all.
She had a feeling that if she let Nie Tian return to Shatter City, Nie Tian would become her lifetime nightmare.
With these thoughts, she gritted her teeth as she once again fumed with rage.
“I won’t leave the Realm of Split Void before Hua Tian is dead!” She swore in her heart, eyes emanating a bone-piercing, cold light.
CHING!
At that very moment, Han Mu received a message via his Sound Stone.
He listened with rapt attention. Several seconds later, his expression changed as he turned to Song Li and said in a soft voice, “Bad news.”
Both Song Li and Xiao Lin turned to look at him.
With a bitter expression on his face, Han Mu said, “Cai Yuan and s.h.i.+ Qing have gathered a group of Blood Skull members and launched another cleansing operation against Hunter organizations outside of Shatter City. But actually, it seems that the real purpose of their operation is to rescue Hua Tian!”
“The Blood Skull!” Both Song Li and Xiao Lin’s expressions flickered, brows knitted.
Xiao Lin took a deep breath and said, “Things have just become complicated. I didn’t know Cai Yuan valued that kid so much that he would actually organize a new round of cleansing against us just to save him. We need to find him as soon as possible. Otherwise, it’ll be much more difficult if the Blood Skull people are here.”
“I’ll have a way to kill him as long as you can locate him for me!” Song Li said through gritted teeth.
“If he dares to set foot in the wasteland, I’ll definitely be able to locate him. You can be a.s.sured of that!” Xiao Lin replied.
“Time is of the essence,” Song Li said. “We can’t afford to wait much longer!”
“That would depend on when Hua Tian would come to the wasteland.” Xiao Li also sensed the intractability of the matter.
Half a day pa.s.sed as the three of them sat there and waited...
During this period of time, Han Mu took out his Sound Stone from time to time and listened to his subordinates’ reports regarding the Blood Skull’s newest actions.
Many Hunter organizations began to have second thoughts after receiving the news that the Blood Skull were conducting a new round of cleansing against them while their actual purpose was to save Hua Tian.
They gradually began to grovel to the Fang’s face, while secretly cringing away from the parts where the Blood Skull headed.
Their cowardly actions made Song Li stomp with fury. She claimed that she would wipe out each and every organization that dared to disobey her after this operation was over.
While Song Li was fuming with rage, the small, green snake within the jade pendant in Xiao Lin’s hand suddenly began to wiggle violently.
“He’s finally here!”
...
At sundown, Nie Tian ran like a shuttle in the boundless wasteland.
All of a sudden, the light s.h.i.+eld around him, created by his jade bracelet, started to fluctuate slightly.
Alarmed, he immediately came to a stop and scanned his surroundings with his Heaven Eyes.
Several seconds later, he didn’t discover anything worth noting, so he shook his head and moved on.
A long time after Nie Tian left, a thin bone rose out of the ground where he had stopped, on top of which was a gruesome, white banner.
On the banner was the pattern of a small, life-like, green snake, which seemed to be gently wiggling its body as the banner fluttered against the wind. It seeming rather interesting.
However, it only remained for a little while before it shrank back into the ground.
After running for several dozen more kilometers in the vast wasteland, Nie Tian’s protective light s.h.i.+eld once again fluctuated abnormally.
As he had done before, he stopped to scan the vicinity using his Heaven Eyes. Yet still, nothing was found.
He shook his head and moved on.
After that, the same thing happened a few more times where he had to stop and check, but just like before, he failed to find anything.
Nie Tian’s Heaven Eyes could only detect the fluctuations of life auras and souls. Other subtle changes weren’t in its detecting capability.
That was why he usually used them to determine if there were living creatures in his surroundings.
However, the multiple anomalies made him raise his guard, since he could feel that something bad was happening in the dark.
“Something is wrong. I haven’t seen any Hunter organizations after entering the wasteland. Women like Song Li don’t quit so easily. She must have cooked up some other plans.”
“That Xiao Lin person can hide his true cultivation base. He’s also a tough figure. Now that he has made me his target, it doesn’t seem likely that he would just give up.”
“Could the abnormal fluctuations of my light s.h.i.+eld have something to do with those two?”
With these thoughts, Nie Tian’s expression grew grim, as he seemed to have sensed the danger. Without any hesitation, he expanded the coverage of his Heaven Eyes to their limit, doing his best to detect any danger around him.
A few days pa.s.sed...
He finally discovered the first team of Hunters after marching into the wasteland via his Heaven Eyes. He immediately changed directions to avoid them.
However, after marching about a thousand meters after the turn, he discovered another team of Hunters.
Therefore, he changed directions again.
Just like that, soon after every time he made a turn, he would run into new Hunter teams.
Nie Tian came to a realization. “From the look of it, I’m surrounded again.”