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Translator: Tamon
Boom~!
The boulders and rocks smashed down on his head, arms, and back, but the golden aura around him sent all that touched him hurtling away.
“Defensive magic treasure? Let’s see it defend you under a hundred meters of rocks!”
Xu Hei threw explosive talismans to every cliff in sight, covering Chen Daoling with more and more rocks, piled up high on his head.
When the rumbling finally stopped, Chen Daoling was buried under layers and layers of rocks.
Xu Hei scouted this dangerous valley some time ago.
As early as a month ago, it occurred to him the best plan to use if he was slower than his chaser. He got plenty of talismans from Mu Yun, most being mid-grade, though hardly useful against mid or late Qi Refining cultivators. The talismans thus became useless, so he used them to blow up rocks.
With a big enough rock, even a peak Qi Refining cultivator would get squashed, or at least buried.
Xu Hei used all his talisman on the rocks, letting them hurtle down like an avalanche, and shaking the ground like it was an earthquake.
That done, Xu Hei rushed down the mountain, fleeing for his life.
Xu Hei figured such an attack would kill a peak Qi Refining cultivator, but he wouldn’t take any chances, opting to flee.
As the dust settled, the valley regained its peace.
Suddenly, the rocks shook and began turning into dust one by one. A bloody figure stumbled out from the rubble.
Chen Daoling’s bloody aura shone even brighter, his white hair dancing in the wind and revealing his bloodshot eyes.
He was no longer a peak Qi Refining cultivator but advanced into the early Foundation Establishment Stage.
Mu Lei was hanging by a thread on his back, beaten black and blue. His condition just stabilized, but the rock avalanche put him in a critical state once more.
Chen Daoling’s hatred of Xu Hei had no end.
A mere 4th layer of Awareness Stage snakeling was so shrewd that it ruined his disciple and almost killed him, and that with just a rock avalanche.
If not for the Soul Rupture Pill his master gave him, taking twenty years of his lifespan to jump his cultivation to Foundation Establishment, he’d be crushed to a paste under those rocks.
He really underestimated the snake.
“I don’t care where you come from demon, for I will skin you alive and grind your bones to dust!”
Chen Daoling raged as he sped up with incredible speed, with a vortex of Spiritual Energy behind him. He was now five times as fast.
He feared Xu Hei and couldn’t let the beast grow to become the Snake Catchers’ undoing!
In a single breath, he traveled three hundred meters, his eyes scanning the land like a hawk.
He made many round trips but found no sign of Xu Hei.
“I have your demon energy, you can’t escape!”
Chen Daoling took out the compass and placed the demon energy inside. The compass gave a direction then and there.
Chen Daoling followed it and soon had a lock on a fleeing figure.
“You can’t escape!”
Chen Daoling’s eyes were cold, rushing after Xu Hei, who just reached a river.
There was a hundred meters between them when Chen Daoling clenched his hand.
Xu Hei felt his entire body engulfed in tremendous pressure, his bones creaking and unable to move.
“This is Attraction!”
Xu Hei was shocked a basic art had so much power when coming from a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
And he wasn’t even a true Foundation Establishment cultivator either, using pills to get there. A true one would’ve crushed Xu Hei then and there.
Chen Daoling sneered at his unmoving figure, taking his time to walk over.
He felt his legs snap a string and…
Whoosh!
A sapling cracked from the side, sending darts at Chen Daoling.
His eyes were full of scorn, using Attraction to block them, yet the darts kept coming, about to make a pincushion out of him.
Chen Daoling started and slanted out of the way, but one still glanced his throat. It passed through his Foundation Establishment aura like it was nothing!
The darts fell on the ground and Xu Hei gulped, plunging into the river.
Chen Daoling rubbed the trickle of blood from his neck, his features darkening.
“What were those weapons?”
It all happened so fast that all he saw were dark golden scales.
Chen Daoling’s chest puffed out, his face twisting from humiliation.
If he were just a peak Qi Refining cultivator, he might’ve accepted it, but even in the Foundation Establishment he suffered. If he hadn’t moved away, he would’ve died.
The realization filled him with rage.
The demon was incredibly sly and devious like a fox. It would grow up to become Snake Catchers’ doom!
He would never let that happen. The demon had to die!
“You can’t hide, not even at the ends of the world!” Chen Daoling used his compass to locate Xu Hei.
…
Xu Hei swam like crazy downriver.
He blamed himself for not using all of his ten scales in that attack. The old man would’ve died for sure from one running through his skull, but Xu Hei couldn’t commit fully to it, unsure the man would’ve fallen for his trap.
The river was part of his escape plan, with its rapids and whirlpools, making it hard for humans to enter.
If they weren’t some tough cultivator, of course.
Xu Hei had overestimated his opponent’s level in every step of his planning, but the worst-case scenario still happened.
He would rather avoid fighting a Foundation Establishment cultivator until the very last moment.
But with the Snake Catchers and serpents always being mortal enemies, a clash was inevitable.
Such was fate. Xu Hei couldn’t avoid it no matter how cautious he was.
The only saving grace in all of this was that the enemy had a Foundation Establishment cultivation and not a Divine Sense to match, for it would’ve spread to a thousand meters. And there was no escaping that.
“He must’ve cultivated for a hundred years and is sure to know Water Motion. I can’t keep using water to hide. I need to go ashore…”
Xu Hei knew he’d be found out eventually, but where should he flee?
What could possibly save him from the wrath of a Foundation Establishment cultivator?
Xu Hei’s mind went a mile a minute, having swam a thousand meters already.
It was then his Divine Sense picked up the Dragon King Shrine on the shore, where Chen Town’s villagers were praying.
Xu Hei’s eyes lit up as one place came to mind.
Mountain God Shrine!
It was there that Xu Hei gained sentience. It was there he dispelled Chen Fan from his heart.
Xu Hei had been cultivating for a year, having come to realize many things. That shrine had to be special!
[The shrine might also be related to the black dog becoming aware.] He did leave two corpses there.
“Mountain God Shrine is a thousand meters outside of Chen Town, and Chen Town is nearby here.”
Xu Hei’s heart raced. [It’s destiny!]
He first calmed down in the river, eating a pill from the storage bag and only then going ashore.
“Now!”
Xu Hei used Earthen Motion and sped towards his salvation.
He was moving faster than ever, his blood boiling in his veins. It was an energy only available in life-or-death situations.
Chen Daoling spotted him the second Xu Hei jumped out, the compass needle following Xu Hei.
“Beast, I’ll use everything I have if I have to, so long as I make mincemeat out of you!”
Chen Daoling roared as he gave chase.
One above and one below, the two flitted by Chen Town.
Only the few cultivators sensed them, with the villagers none the wiser.
The shabby shrine appeared in Xu Hei’s Divine Sense and he jumped out of the earth and into the temple in one move.
Chen Daoling, led by his compass, arrived as well and stared at the shrine. Even driven by hatred and bloodlust, he still halted.
“Eh?” Chen Daoling squinted at the shrine, pondering.
“This snake is wily as a fox, so why would he hide here? Is it another trap?”
If he were the snake, he wouldn’t have left the river, using it to go downstream while using the current to lay more traps.
[So why is he hiding in this shrine, of all places?]
Chen Daoling scanned every nook and cranny with his Divine Sense but found nothing. Only as he noticed the statue did his heart jump.
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