He kept running away!
All the way to the north.
He didn’t even know where he was right now. After days of being hunted, he spent most of the time struggling and running away. It didn’t matter where he was. Right now Gu Hanshan only knew that he was still in East Island. About a week ago, he pa.s.sed Changye to get some urgent supplies. Now he was running toward the northeast.
Other than that, he didn’t know anything, nor did he care enough to find out.
Zhongjing, Bingku, Juban, Nailiang, Ninghu.
In the never-stopping chase, Gu Hanshan only remembered the cities he pa.s.sed by, from urban district to the wilderness, then back to the urban district. After short rests and getting supplies, then he fought for his life and ran away in a hurry.
To the north.
He could only run to the north.
Days of running away had made him lose all contact with everyone in Zhongzhou State. The dark side of East Island was about to stir up despite the seemingly quiet surface. Gu Hanshan couldn’t get any intelligence so he had no idea what the plan of Zhongzhou was, and he even lost the original hunting list.
He had let go of the so-called mission and honor. Right now, surviving was the prime goal.
He had to survive no matter what.
The light was getting dim.
There was no dusk at the skyline.
The heavy rain starting from Dongdu had been completely covering the whole East Island for days, the tsunami had attacked some of the harbor cities. The sky had been gloomy all the time, from morning to evening, only getting darker and darker.
In his sight, the barren hills went up and down to the farthest place he could see, and there seemed to be no end. The sky was about to get dark, and the whole mountain range seemed to be radiating a creepy, scary aura. The heavy rain fell from the sky, and the countless weeds were waving along with the strong wind. The air in the summer got cold by the rain. There was no light around. The night was coming, and the darkness was coming.
Desolate, bleak, creepy, and dark.
In the heavy rain and strong wind, the world seemed to be coming to an end. Everything within sight felt like the last being on doomsday.
Gu Hanshan felt a little powerless. In the weed bush that was about half of a man’s height, he kept his body low, took out a piece of compressed biscuit and ate it with the rain that fell on him.
The hunt had lasted for almost half a month. He had been hurt for several times, he had fought for his life several times, and he had already run out his supplies. About a week ago, he had used up the medicine that could improve his combat capability, the medicine that could help him heal and the medicine that could supplement his physical strength. As for the compressed biscuits, he rubbed them in a supermarket in Changye a few days ago.
The saddest part was, now he had eaten up all the supplies he rubbed from the supermarket.
Gu Hanshan thought about getting into the downtown area to get more food, but he gave up this idea after some thoughts.
What was he gonna do when he rushed into downtown?
At most he could hold some irrelevant hostages, but at the risk of exposing his ident.i.ty to hundreds of people.
Zhongzhou State was fighting against East Island. Right now, every city in East Island was under heavy surveillance from the upper strata of society. Gu Hanshan could be one hundred percent sure that once he got into the city, his ident.i.ty would get exposed within half an hour.
By then what was the point of holding hostages?
The hostage was never the priority in the fights of the Dark World.
Only some barren mountains and ridges with complicated terrain were the best option for his hiding and running away.
He didn’t feel desperate in a desperate situation.
In the dark, heavy rain and wind, Gu Hanshan’s figure was hidden in the bush. He swallowed the last bit of his food with no expression on his face.
His exhaustion and weakness almost seeped out from his bones. He felt like he could pa.s.s out at any minute. In the darkness, he couldn’t tell what was real and what was not. He suddenly felt everything went dark, then he managed to shake his head, sit up on the bush and start to meditate.
Meditating was the best way to restore energy. Gu Hanshan had the Heavenly King Heart in him, so he could get into the meditating state from silence state at an incredibly fast speed. And because of that, his strong willpower could keep his weak body running for so long. He even had some breakthroughs in Martial Arts because of it.
But as time pa.s.sed by, Gu Hanshan slowly realized that he didn’t have to carry on anymore. Everything was coming to an end.
The hunting from the superiors in the Half-step Invincible Realm was getting quicker and more violent. Even he could run fast, even he could sense any danger immediately, he was in East Island after all. They could use countless resources to track him down whenever they wanted.
Three days.
He had three days left. Three days after he would be truly driven into an impa.s.se.
He had been meditating for less than ten minutes.
Gu Hanshan immediately opened his eyes and got up in the bush. He kept his body low and marched toward the mountain range that seemed to have no end ahead of him.
Ten minutes of rest was more than enough, and it was very risky. He just survived from a fight with Heavenly Hound, a superior of the Half-step Invincible Realm three hours ago, and got rid of him twenty minutes ago.
During this period, it was highly possible that he had tracked him down again.
But Gu Hanshan had to stop and rest.
He was truly at the verge of losing heart.
The footstep in the bush was getting faster and faster. Gulping back the feeling of fainting, Gu Hanshan held his fists tight and headed to the north.
Right now he couldn’t confirm his exact location, but he could guess that after pa.s.sing the endless mountain range and marching ahead for dozens of kilometers, he would reach Toyama or Xindao. If he was careful enough, he could get on a boat at any harbor in either of the cities and kept heading North, then he would reach the South of Beihai Province, Zhongzhou State.
The w.a.n.g family of Beihai didn’t exactly have the best relationship with Kunlun City, but the w.a.n.g family would be generous enough to take him in. As long as he could get to the Beihai Province, he would be safe then.
But this mission and the fight against w.a.n.g Shengxiao…
Gu Hanshan didn’t have the energy to think about it anymore.
He sped up!
He climbed the mountain.
Gu Hanshan gritted his teeth hard and climbed faster and faster.
In the heavy rain, thunder boomed in the sky, and the mountain range seemed to be shaken by the thunder. The white lightning flashed through the dark sky, and the danger suddenly swallowed Gu Hanshan like surging tides.
He didn’t have time to think. The bright raging flames that were as fierce as substance instantly swallowed Gu Hanshan. At the moment when the fire lit up, his body dashed forward. But at the same time, a bolt of giant blue lightning struck Gu Hanshan directly in his head.
The flames were crashed into pieces by the lightning, the sparks burst out and fell on the soaked gra.s.sland. The moisture was instantly dried out, and the weed bush started burning wildly. The bleak night was lit up by the warm fire. In the burning flames, Gu Hanshan’s stern face looked so pale that it was almost transparent.
Heavenly Hound, the left advisor of Wuji Palace, who initiated attacks the second the thunder boomed, was floating in the air with no expression on his face. A great amount of lightning was flashing around his body. He stood in the air, looking mysterious and powerful. But his face looked strangely pale.
Countless flashes of lightning rapidly rushed toward the flames burning on Gu Hanshan, and the flames gradually increased in number. Finally, at the moment the flames disappeared, the lightning in front of Heavenly Hound also disappeared.
Only the sparks fell on the gra.s.sland were still burning and spreading. The fire instantly burned out the weeds within dozens of meters around Gu Hanshan. Then the rain put out the fire, and suddenly, dark smoke billowed.
Heavenly Hound was staring straightly at Gu Hanshan through the thick smoke. He lifted the corner of his mouth gently, said softly with cruelty and viciousness, “Run, keep running. Do you really think you can get away from me?”
Gu Hanshan looked at Heavenly Hound in front of him in silence, then said calmly, “Do you really think you can catch me?”
Heavenly Hound twitched the corner of his mouth hard, and the fire of rage in his eyes lit up immediately. “I can’t catch you?! If I want to kill you, in the past few days, you would die over and over again. The young Heavenly Son of Zhongzhou? Ha, bulls.h.i.t.”
Gu Hanshan didn’t have any expression on his face or say anything.
Because he knew Heavenly Hound was telling the truth.
What could a young Heavenly Son do?
The gap between their realms was too wide, too wide for Gu Hanshan to do anything to make up for it. In the non-stopping hunt, if Heavenly Hound didn’t need to catch him alive, Gu Hanshan would be dead already.
With the blockade of the flames and smoke, Gu Hanshan seemed to slightly narrow his eyes, and a ray of creepy light flashed through his eyes.
He didn’t care to think about why Heavenly Hound needed to catch him alive, because the reasons were obvious.
He wasn’t so arrogant to think that he was the best in the world, but he never undervalued himself. His apt.i.tude and ident.i.ty were enough to make him one of the most important people that Zhongzhou State sent to East Island.
Obviously, his importance was a bargaining chip to East Island. Once the people from East Island captured him, he would be an extremely important bargaining chip of East Island.
By then if East Island used him as a bargaining chip to negotiate with Zhongzhou State or Kunlun City, they would be in the dominant position.
Gu Hanshan took a deep breath. Suddenly, he was grateful for his ident.i.ty. Because of his ident.i.ty, he could have a chance of survival.
Yes.
It was a chance.
Days of struggling between life and death had pushed out most of his potential. Gu Hanshan, who was already at the peak of the Fire-flaming Realm, had improved himself a lot. He never reached the Thunder-shocking Realm, but he was half-way there.
The gap between an expert in the Half-step Thunder-shocking Realm and the one in the Half-step Invincible Realm was still very wide.
But Gu Hanshan had the core Ten Skills of True Martial Arts from Kunlun City, especially the move named Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se!
That move could be considered the pseudo domain of the Invincible Realm, and Gu Hanshan barely managed to use it at the peak of the Fire-flaming Realm. But when he reached the Half-step Thunder-shocking Realm, he understood this move more.
In fact, in the long chase, all the wounds on Heavenly Hound’s body were almost all caused by Gu Hanshan in the pseudo domain of the Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se.
Superiors of the Half-step Invincible Realm could also form a pseudo domain. But when speaking of the domain, the impartation of Ten Skills of True Martial Arts was way better than Heavenly Hound’s. Heavenly Hound’s pseudo domain could last longer than the one of Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se. But when their pseudo domains crashed into each other, Gu Hanshan would always jump in and have a hard fight with Heavenly Hound without hesitation. Gu Hanshan fought in a way that made both sides suffer or even would kill both of them. Heavenly Hound didn’t want to die, so he would always get hurt in defense.
In half of a month, Heavenly Hound was wearing down Gu Hanshan’s strength and willpower, while Gu Hanshan was also wearing down Heavenly Hound’s state of health.
He still got Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se!
Gu Hanshan slightly narrowed his eyes, and there seemed to be hesitation and some undecided thoughts in his eyes.
Based on the states of both sides, once Gu Hanshan used Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se, he had forty percent of chance to kill Heavenly Hound and twenty percent of chance that he would get seriously injured and retreat.
By this measure, Gu Hanshan himself didn’t know how many percents of chance he had that he could kill Heavenly Hound and retreat with serious injury successfully. He thought the possibility was low. But the low possibility in such a desperate situation was absolutely worth a try.
A spark of fire slowly lit up in Gu Hanshan’s heart.
In the barren mountains where the fire had been put out by rain, extremely horrific heat rose up suddenly. The heavy rain kept falling, but the raindrops were evaporated before they fell on Gu Hanshan’s head. The bit of flame was spreading slowly and elegantly, then it swallowed Gu Hanshan’s palm and his whole right arm.
Gu Hanshan still looked at Heavenly Hound peacefully, but the intense killing intent had risen up along with the raging fire and spread between heaven and earth.
Heavenly Hound’s eyes suddenly froze, then he narrowed his eyes and sneered. “What? Is this a desperate struggle? From you?”
Gu Hanshan stayed silent, and his body dashed a step forward suddenly.
In the blink of an eye, Heavenly Hound thought of the move named Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se that he had to deal with for several times in the past half a month, he thought of the Ten Skills of True Martial Arts from Kunlun City, and he thought of Gu Hanshan’s strength that kept improving.
Heavenly Hound sensed the danger and took a rapid step back out of instinct.
“Are you too afraid to fight me?”
Gu Hanshan slightly raised his eyebrows. There was a bit of mockery in his calm tone.
Heavenly Hound’s face suddenly got red, and he went furious. But before he opened his mouth to answer, another voice rang out in the void out of nowhere.
“He’s afraid, but we’re not.”
Up in the sky dozens of meters away, the dim blue lightning suddenly flashed, mildly and faintly.
The hair all over Gu Hanshan’s body suddenly stood up. The lightning was dozens of meters away, but the unprecedented danger felt like it was already near him.
He moved back.
The raging fire rushed toward the sky, and the airflow suddenly twisted. The weeds on the ground and the ashes after the burning suddenly all flew up in the sky. In front of Gu Hanshan, the big s.p.a.ce seemed to be contracting violently, the air was forcefully squeezed out and turned into air wave. His body was crashed back twenty meters away by the air wave in a short time. And the twisted s.p.a.ce kept making sounds of air squeezing and contracting.
The Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se!
The s.p.a.ce within dozens of meters was covered by the pseudo domain, and many bolts of dim blue lightning rushed into the pseudo domain at high speed.
The lightning suddenly froze.
A man dressed in standard ninja costume rose up in the air when the lightning dissipated, his hands with daggers in them were subconsciously struggling, and his eyes looked shocked.
The chance had been missed.
Gu Hanshan didn’t have time for regret or rejoicing. He just turned around and left without hesitation.
His body turned in the dark.
A pair of interesting and charming eyes appeared directly in front of Gu Hanshan.
They were so close to each other that Gu Hanshan almost kissed this person the moment he turned around.
He managed to stop himself from leaning forward, then his expression suddenly changed.
Since G.o.d knew when, a woman in black suddenly appeared behind him. Gu Hanshan didn’t know how long she had been standing there. If he never turned around, he would have thought that it was just air behind him.
This was a woman who looked in her thirties. She kept a sharp short haircut. Due to the short distance between them, Gu Hanshan could even see the small wrinkles at the corners of her eyes on her middle-aged face.
But she wasn’t an ugly woman.
Gu Hanshan moved his body back and tilted his head back subconsciously.
Suddenly, he could see her whole face.
It was a mature, charming face, very appealing, with a kind of shallow flirtation but no killing intent at all.
Gu Hanshan took a step back, but then he got pulled forward again.
The woman’s face zoomed in again in his sight.
A pair of soft, tender arms wrapped around his neck, then the mouth with fragrance pressed on his.
Their lips touched for a brief moment.
Before Gu Hanshan could react, the woman who just kissed him giggled, then said in her sweet voice that sounded like tender breathing, “Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se? A nice unique technique, too bad you’re too young for it.”
The intense pain instantly spread through his whole body.
There was lightning flashing in front of Gu Hanshan. In a trance, he could only see her pale, tender palms with lightning around them, gently and softly covering on his chest.
“Bam!”
In the dull sound, Gu Hanshan spat out a lot of blood. His body flew up more than ten meters in the air, then fell hard at the feet of that ninja in black in Ninth Secluded Impa.s.se.
Gu Hanshan gritted his teeth hard and struggled to get up, but he felt more and more powerless.
Heavenly Hound, who was also stunned at everything happening, finally realized something. He said coldly in a fearful but obviously angry tone, “Demon, Black Crow, what did you mean by that?!”
The black ninja named Black Crow didn’t say anything and put away the two daggers in his hands. Watching Gu Hanshan who was struggling at his feet, he looked deep in thought.
And the charming, flirtatious woman let out a soft laugh and said in a soft voice, “Heavenly Hound, you’re too incompetent. Your way of dealing with things really disappointed us. So now Liuhuo Palace will take your job of hunting Gu Hanshan.”
Demon, Vice Palace Master of Liuhuo Palace in East Island, one of the top-notch ninjas in the whole Dark World, was an expert of the Half-step Invincible Realm.
And Black Crow, who was working with her, was a top ninja of Liuhuo Palace. No one should neglect his strength that was close to the peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm.
“Incompetent?! If you didn’t ruin this for me, if I had one more day, I can catch him. You’re…”
Heavenly Hound was completely mad.
Gu Hanshan was quite an important figure in Zhongzhou State, and people called him the young Heavenly Son. It would be a big deal to capture him. But he was also a young fighter that was very difficult to deal with. Heavenly Hound had been chasing him for so long, and Gu Hanshan was about to give in. Now Liuhuo Palace actually had the gut to appear out of nowhere and take his credit? And they called him incompetent?
Suddenly, Heavenly Hound almost fell from the air. His body was shaking violently. And while gritting his teeth hard, he was staring attentively at Demon who was smiling coquettishly.
Before he could finish the sentence, Demon cut him off coldly. “One more day? Don’t you people from Wuji Palace have any concept of time? Heavenly Hound, do you know how messy the situation is in East Island now? One more day?” She snorted. “Even if you can have half a day, the Special Warfare System of East Island would already be torn down by the superiors from all over the world! His Highness Miyamoto, even the royals and the Prime Minister’s office all couldn’t stand your incompetence. Or else Black Crow and I wouldn’t be here. Do you really think we’re here to take your credit?!”
His Highness Miyamoto. The royals. The Prime Minister’s office.
Heavenly Hound’s face kept turning red then pale. He was so embarra.s.sed that he wanted to bury his face in the ground.
“Anyway, I chased him all the way here after all. Even if you didn’t show up, I’ll catch him. Demon, leave Gu Hanshan to me. I’ll bring him back to Wuji Palace and forget about what happened tonight.”
Heavenly Hound stayed silent for a whole five minutes, then opened his mouth and said slowly.
“Wuji Palace?”
Demon laughed softly and then shook her head. “I think he would be more comfortable in Liuhuo Palace.”
Heavenly Hound raised his eyebrows fiercely. Before he could say anything, another abrupt voice rang out.
“We think he should go to Changdao.”
Perfect Chinese.
Demon’s smile froze, and her expression changed rapidly. She screamed. “Black Crow!”
Her voice was rapid and high-pitched, but it was too late.
A trace of ice-cold, bone-piercing, sharp sword intent instantly spread through the whole mountain range.
The sword intent was surging and condensing.
But the sword momentum was quiet and unnoticeable.
The strong wind in the air blew violently all of a sudden, forming a storm.
All the weeds around were rolled up in the high sky and flying around in a messy way. With the airflow churning violently, Demon closed her eyes subconsciously.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye.
Four ice walls suddenly rose up around Gu Hanshan.
Two rays of sword light as piercing as glacier appeared along with the ice walls.
Two rays of sword light flashed through the waving weeds silently. Then after a short flash in front of everyone, the two rays of sword light had mixed up into one.
Right after Demon’s scream, the sword light had rushed over and got in front of Black Crow.
The bright, sharp lightning suddenly burst out before the sword light with blood drops and ice chips flying around the sky.
The ice walls surrounding Gu Hanshan and Black Crow’s body were suddenly shattered.
The sword light was like lightning. It drew a hundred-meter long straight ice line above the barren mountains in the heavy rain and wind.
Two human shadows were hidden under a ray of sword light. They caught Gu Hanshan and moved forward in the flashing lightning and sword light. In the blink of an eye, they flew to nearly a hundred meters away.
Demon and Heavenly Hound seemed to freeze at the moment.
“Bang…”
The ice chips all over the sky fell on the ground with flesh and blood.
Demon’s body shook violently. She suddenly realized something and screamed, “Who was it!?”
Heavenly Hound’s face looked heavy and gloomy. “People from Kunlun City. Ice Crystal, Ice Frost.”
He took a deep breath and gave Demon a hard stare, then turned around and left.
“Where are you going?!”
Demon screamed rapidly.
“Back to Wuji Palace!”
Heavenly Hound said coldly, “Go ahead and chase them if you’re not afraid to die.”
Demon gritted her teeth hard. Watching Heavenly Hound’s back, she stood there still.
Ice Crystal, Ice Frost.
These two code names seemed a bit strange in the Dark World. But put together, it was a duo name as loud and piercing as thunder.
They were from Kunlun City.
The Ice Crystal Frost Sword!
They might have been the most famous twin brothers in the Dark World. The two of them were both superiors at the peak of the Thunder-shocking Realm. But if they combined their swords together, their power could repulse most of the superiors of the Half-step Invincible Realm.
Demon’s eyes twinkled for a while, but she didn’t chase them.
After all, like Heavenly Hound, she didn’t want to die.
…