Volume 3 - Chapter 12 – The Chase

Chapter 12 – The Chase

Xue Ying madly darted away, hoping to escape with his life and left behind a blurred trail. He used the surrounding World Energy to defend against that blood-red coloured Qi wave attacking from behind! Xiang Pang Yun ferociously gave chase, causing the distance between them to greatly reduce.

Even though Xue Ying could not literally see what was happening behind, the World Energy allowed him to sense the narrowing distance between him and Xiang Pang Yun.

“His speed is faster than mine.”

Xue Ying’s speed was extremely fast. Just a few moments and he was able to reach a cliff at the edge of Snowrock mountain.

Sou!

Xue Ying kicked against the ground, exerting his powerful leg strength!

Xue Ying leaped up from the edge of the cliff, soaring across the skies before landing upon another great mountain opposite Snowrock.

“Humph.” Xiang Pang Yun similarly rushed forwards, abruptly leaped towards Xue Ying.

With their current level and aid from the World Energy, the height from which they jumped did not matter anymore! World Energy could provide them with a constant lifting force of 500 kg. Should their body weight not exceed this force, these experts could fly.

But this type of flight was too slow.

With a flap of its wings, a Meteor rank flying beast would exert more than 5,000 kg of force. That force coupled with an aerodynamic body structure allowed this type of beast to be able to race at sonic-speed! For Legend rankers like Xue Ying, just borrowing the World Energy… would not enhance their flying speed to sonic-speed. Regardless of whether it was a flying-ship or some bird-type refiner artifact, any flying beasts could easily surpass such devices. Even ordinary birds might fly faster than these flying artifacts.

After all, it was not an easy task borrowing strength in mid-air.

Power comes from the root, and for humans, their legs represented their root! For instance, the power was generated from one’s legs for stabbing with a spear or slashing with a blade. As for mid-air use, human legs could not exert any power at all. And when the utmost force that could come from the World Energy was limited to 500 kg, what would a Legend ranker be afraid of? Just solely from an exertion of power from both his legs, the World Energy could never obstruct him. Thus, when battling in mid-air, their true strength would never be revealed.

As a result, there were very few Legend rankers who would battle in mid-air.

“Peng!”

Using the World Energy, Xue Ying leaped a distance of 300 meters, landing directly with a ‘boom’ on the halfway point of the great mountain nearby. Tremors could be felt on the surface after Xue Ying landed, though he did not hesitate to run away at top speed soon afterwards.

Peng, Xiang Pang Yun landed at the same area and continued to madly chase after his quarry.

Escape, escape, escape!

The speed of these two experts rocketed to their limits.

Mountains and rivers were treated as flat ground. When Xue Ying used his long spear to create obstacles and sweep huge rocks directly towards Xiang Pang Yun, Xiang Pang Yun would simply utilise the rocks as stepping stones in continuing the chase. He would not be so frivolous as to slash apart these huge rocks. That would waste too much of his time.

The distance between the two continued to narrow..

Within just a few breaths, they had already passed three great mountains. As soon as the two of them leaped to a fourth mountain, Xiang Pang Yun finally reached Xue Ying. They started yet another battle right, but they fought in mid-air this time.

“Chi chi”

Xue Ying turned to face Xiang Pang Yun.

Even in mid-air, Xiang Pang Yun brought forward a charging momentum. With the motion of his battle sword turning into a white streak, Xiang Pang directly countered Xue Ying’s long spear. Xiang Pang Yun rotated his blade to prevent any chance of letting Xue Ying block it head-on.

The two of them were combat-intelligent.

They knew that should the two weapons clash head-on, Xiang Pang Yun would suffer from a huge mitigation force which would greatly reduce his forward movement! And as for Xue Ying, if he were to directly block one of Xiang Pang Yun’s strikes, he could borrow the force from this counter-strike to gain additional distance in his escape!

“You want to kill me without resorting to direct clashes?” Xue Ying sneered. The long spear in his hand formed an arc, with its spearhead akin to a whirlpool, continuously rotating about… and at times, striking out at the speed of lightning! Snowflakes formed around the spear, keeping Xiang Pang Yun from succeeding in his continuous attempt to slay Xue Ying.

Forgoing the use of overwhelming power, but relying on his speed to break through Xue Ying’s spear defense instead? That would be too difficult. After all, the difference between the two of them was not so exaggerated.

In mid-air, the two combatants exchanged a dozen moves.

Dong.

Xue Ying landed about halfway up the mountain. Without hesitation, he immediately withdrew with Xiang Pang Yun chasing closely behind him.

“Damn, if I don’t use my full strength in oppressing him, killing him is really too hard.” Xiang Pang Yun secretly nodded, “I should just use my full strength in overwhelming him! Even if he is to borrow this force in escaping, the chances of killing him every time we exchange moves would be present.”

Having changed his tactics, the situation was now suddenly drastically different.

“Hong.”

A rocky beach bordered the rapidly running Azure River which spanned over a dozen meters in width.

Once again, Xue Ying and Xiang Pang Yun exchanged weapon blows.

Whenever directly encountering Xiang Pang Yun, Xue Ying did not dare to leave his back unguarded. He had to halt his escape attempt and turn to face against his opponent.

The two of them exchanged more than a dozen moves in a blink of an eye.

Xue Ying constantly sought for an opportunity to use a head-on weapon-to-weapon collision and borrow the force to escape. After all, not all such attacks would be successful, like when the opponent decided to slash downwards! Unless he wanted to borrow force in burrowing downwards? Xiang Pang Yun was trying his utmost in not giving Xue Ying that chance of escaping, even when he as he faced Xue Xing head-on. The more moves they exchanged, the more likely such an opportunity would eventually arise. Ultimately, in a life or death battle, most moves were determined by instinct and not with extensive forethought.

“Escape.” Xue Ying once again found an opportunity that he fully utilised, rebounding against a head-on strike to gain another two to three hundred meters of distance, before directly stepping on the surging waters of the Azure River and using it to aid in his escape.

“Damn, he escaped again.” Xiang Pang Yun’s blood-red eyes expressed his full fury, “But every time we fight, you are on the brink of life and death. I shall see how long you can last!”

The two of them moved on the surging waters of the Azure River as if it were stable land. One was ahead of the other as they continued the chase.

　　……

In the evening skies.

The Black-Moon Centipede was flying at its fastest speed. It was shrouded with a mist on top, and within the mist were Great Mage Bai Yuan Zhi, Qing Shi, Zong Ling, Tong San, Kong You Yue, Si Chen, and Ji Rong – seven people. They all nervously looked at the frightening chase happening below, watching the two figures running on top of the Azure River as if it were a flat surface.

During the chase, those two experts brought forth a combat power that shocked everybody.

Xiang Pang Yun was forced to display the secret technique of his Dou Qi method. Xue Ying had long ago activated his Primordial Bloodline!

According to logical reasoning, under such exertion of power, Xiang Pang Yun and Xue Ying’s consumption rate would be tremendous. It was fortunate they had both comprehend One with the World, allowing them to replenish their World Energy, sustaining each for the entire battle! If they had not exerted their true power, the battle between them could have even lasted for several days and nights without being totally tiring them out.

“Too fast. Their speed is really too fast.”

Bai Yuan Zhi, Si Chen and the rest were all shocked.

“They are even battling while chasing,” Si Chen sighed, “Their path even includes the mountains, the rivers, and the woods on the mountain! As for us, we’ve been running after them in the skies in a straight line, and yet, it feels so taxing just to catch up with them even using the half sonic speed of this Black-Moon Centipede.”

“Close to half as there were more people than usual on it this time round. Usually, its speed could reach more than half.” Bai Yuan Zhi nodded.

Traveling at half sonic speed and chasing them in a straight line was already very taxing. One could imagine how terrifying the speed of those two below was.

“Is this his power?” You Yue observed the two shadows with one chasing after the other. She could only hold her breath at such a scene. In the past, she always thought that Xue Ying was merely a martial fanatic. But now, she finally realised her folly. With such a strength, he could make all mortals fall into despair, even if it was a an army of 100,000 or a massive one of a million soldiers. In front of such power, any army would be a joke!

“Even if the two of them have not yet reached the Transcendent level, their combat power has already reached a half-step into it,” Bai Yuan Zhi said, “I’ve heard that those who top ranked on the Dragon Mountain Book could even kill some weaker Transcendents! Xiang Pang Yun ranks in the top 500, and he already had a combat power half-step into Transcendent level.”

“Half-step into the Transcendent level?”

The others were appalled as they looked onto the chase happening below.

“Brother.” Qing Shi’s fists were tightly clenched as he overlooked the chase. At the same time, he felt proud that he had such a brother. He also felt nervous and worried for Xue Ying along with much regret over his recent actions. This battle started all because of Qing Shi’s recent conflict. Though Xue Ying did not blame him for that and even felt that it was absolutely normal for his brother to kill in self-defence.

Yet Qing Shi was still unable to control his guilty feelings, especially so when he had just argued with his brother earlier this morning.

“Brother, you must survive. You must.” Qing Shi had never had such feelings of nervousness and worry since he could remember, even as a child. If his brother truly died, he would not know what to do. That kind of conclusion was something he did not even dare to think about.

　　……

Xue Ying madly attempted to escape.

Hu hu hu, the wind whistled past his ears and everything around him was moved backwards at a very fast speed. The only exception was Xiang Pang Yun – coming closer and closer to him.

In a blink of an eye, they had already clashed nine times during this chase and battle, reaching a distance of 160 kilometers from the castle.

“I’m going to reach it soon.” Xue Ying looked ahead at the towering mountain in front of him, a mountain that reached above the clouds, “The only way to survive for I, Dong Bo Xue Ying’s, is located right here!”