Chapter 275 - A Thousand Miles in Pursuit of a Kill
Liu Ming’s expression changed several times in succession. Without warning, he drew out a golden Glyph and beat it on his body before once again moving towards one side while being covered by golden light.
Other than that Gold Light Glyph which he had previously received from Master Lei, just before he had departed the Barbarian Ghost Sect leader had given him three more of this type of Glyph, which thankfully could be used to protect his life as a last resort.
It was also what had made him confident enough to accept this assignment.
Seeing this, Elder Li was suddenly indignant. The blue light around his body began to coil before he used an escape technique to give chase.
In the blink of an eye, the two opponents, who had been standing a few miles apart, were suddenly more than a hundred miles from each other.
The Gold Light Glyph was a rare Gold-Type Escape Technique Glyph. Once activated, one’s escape speed would be able to surpass a Spirit Master level enemy.
While Elder Li was a Crystal Level Spirit Master, he was not particularly skilled at Escape Technique; the Escape Technique he was using was no more than a very common sort of Water-Type Escape Technique. Being on a sea or lake would naturally amplify his power, but in a barren setting utterly devoid of water like the one in which they currently stood, he was only slightly faster than a Spirit Master otherwise would be.
Therefore, though the Sea Race Elder had poured all of his strength into his Escape Technique, he was unable to even halve the distance between himself and Liu Ming.
The further he chased Liu Ming, the angrier he became. Unwittingly, he soon became utterly engrossed in pursuing him, and his mind became filled with evil thoughts of torturing Liu Ming.
Liu Ming, fleeing through the sky down the path in front of him, activated the Gold Light Glyph’s amplifying powers to their fullest extent. The Fa Li within him surged wildly, and his mind churned in near insanity.
When he had chosen the direction in which to flee, he had taken painstaking care to avoid the path from which Elder Li would pursue him; how could he possibly run into him now?
He was utterly confused by this!
Moreover, while he still had two Gold Light Glyphs left, these would take him no more than a thousand plus meters further before he would return to his average escape speed. This was utterly insufficient for him to make it back to the allied army base.
Furthermore, when he had initially traveled here, he had examined the road in that direction quite carefully; it was extremely flat, and if his escape speed were to diminish, he would inevitably be without a place to hide. Nonetheless, he continued to follow his current path – he would be likely to run into members of the allied sects. However, unless he were to run into a Crystal Level Spirit Master from one of the sects, those who he was likely to encounter would unlikely be able to defend against the terrifying power of the attacker pursuing him.
But this was not very likely!
Moreover, he was even more concerned about the outcome of the battle between the human race and Sea Race up ahead.
If the sects had won, then all would be well. But if they had lost, the site of the base may have already been seized by the Sea Race army. If this was indeed the case, then following this path to its end was simply suicide.
On the other hand, if he were to turn around and flee in another direction, with the aid of the three Gold Light Glyphs he would likely be able to reach a specific mountain range on the border of Da Xuan Country. But in that case, there would be absolutely no chance of finding a cultivator from any of the sects in that direction; he would be entirely on his own in facing the Sea Race cultivators chasing him.
However, if he remembered the topographical map he had recently seen correctly, that mountain range was truly enormous and extended deep into Da Xuan Country. As long as he could make it into the mountain range, there was a significant chance that its topography would help him lose his pursuing assailant.
After some quick consideration, he came to a firm decision.
He suddenly made a one-handed sign. In a flash, his body became surrounded by gold light, and he changed course, shooting off in his new direction.
Seeing this, Elder Li, resolute, made the same turn and continued in hot pursuit.
At this moment, Liu Ming popped a few pills into his mouth. With a high tier Spirit Stone clutched in his two hands, he drew in the Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi within it with all of his might.
From behind him, Elder Li, seeing what was happening, laughed coldly to himself.
As his mental strength was quite powerful, naturally he could see that Liu Ming was an Early Liquid Level Cultivator and was drawing Yuan Qi from pills and spirit stones. It was unclear for how long he would be able to sustain such a speed.
After all, for Flying Escape Technique Glyphs such as the Gold Light Glyph, the faster one flew, the more of the Glyph’s energy one would consume.
In his mind, he figured that with the kind of escape technique that Liu Ming was using, it would not be long before Liu Ming ran out of Fa Li.
A Liquid Level Cultivator’s cultivation didn’t amount to much in his eyes.
But when Liu Ming had flown to escape more than 200 miles in one breath with no signs of slowing, the Sea Race Elder’s expression finally started to change.
According to his estimates, an early Liquid Level Cultivator’s Fa Li should have been mostly exhausted by now, unable to sustain continued motion.
But at this moment, the gold light on Liu Ming’s body went out; incredibly, the Glyph’s powers were finally exhausted.
Seeing this, the Sea Race Elder was naturally ecstatic. Just as he was about to activate his Fa Li and speed over to catch Liu Ming, Liu Ming flipped his hand and pulled out yet another Gold Light Glyph, which he attached to his body. He once again became a ball of gold light and flew far through the air.
The Elder once again couldn’t help but feel depressed and to curse loudly, again exhibiting no trace of a Crystal Level Spirit Master’s proper demeanor.
The Sea Race Elder had no rare and valuable Glyphs like the Gold Light Glyph; those Glyphs he did have were nothing more than Water-Type Glyphs, and none were Escape Glyphs.
Furthermore, his opponent, merely a Spirit Master and continued to use one Gold Light Glyph after another; what could make him more indignant than that?
But when Liu Ming pulled the third Glyph out of his sleeve an hour later, causing his body to be wrapped in gold light once again, the Elder did not curse him again, but silently activated his escape light and continued in pursuit.
But from the dark gaze which the Elder periodically cast on Liu Ming, it was clear that he had made up his mind, and would thus pursue Liu Ming for the rest of the way.
Of course, the Sea Race Elder was quite bewildered, not knowing which kind of Spirit Pill Liu Ming had consumed that had enabled him to come this far without exhausting his Fa Li.
At this moment, Liu Ming felt a trace of Spirit Power from his Spiritual Sea. He couldn’t have been happier.
The pill he had consumed was naturally a popular Fa Li recovery pill; in most cases, even if one continuously drew Fa Li from a Spirit Stone with both hands, one could not fly at this speed for nearly so long.
But now, the true benefit of pure Fa Li had finally become evident.
As he was flying, his Spiritual Sea was continuously recovering some of his previously used Fa Li. Though it wasn’t much, as it had been accumulating for such a long time, it was quite a surprising amount.
Though Liu Ming knew that his Fa Li was pure and that the speed of its recovery would significantly increase, he never imagined such incredible results after becoming a Liquid Level Spirit Master.
Also, it was fortunate that this was escape he was concerned with. Otherwise, had he been engaged in intense, prolonged combat, there was no way his Fa Li would have been able to recover at the same rate as expended.
But with this, Liu Ming had some confidence.
Buoying up his spirits, he temporarily threw to the back of his mind a Secret Technique which he had prepared to boost his energy temporarily and continued to work silently and diligently to extract the Glyph’s power, turning into gold light and flying through the air.
Of course, even still, the aura around Liu Ming’s body had weakened to about half of its original state.
Less than an hour later, the dark green outline of a mountain range could finally be seen on what had previously been a great void.
Seeing this, Liu Ming was overjoyed. He quickly made two incantations using his two hands, and his body was once again covered in gold light; with speed impressively faster than before, he shot towards the mountain range.
Behind him, Elder Li’s expression suddenly changed when he saw the mountains. He suddenly understood what Liu Ming was trying to do.
His facial expression changed several times in rapid succession before he gritted his teeth and opened his mouth, spurting a ball of pure blood from it which turned into a blood mist in the wind and permeated the air.
The Elder’s figure pierced through the blood mist in a flash. The surface of his body immediately divided into countless blood-colored spirit lines, and his back sprouted a blood-colored light fin. The bottom half of his body became a silver-colored fishtail a moment later.
The blood-colored light fin on the Sea Race Elder’s back waved ferociously, and with a “sou” sound his entire body shot forward like a shooting star. His escape speed increased by just under half, and he rapidly began to reduce the distance between himself and Liu Ming.
The Sea Race Elder’s moves were naturally a supplemental Secret Technique that was quite taxing on one’s Yuan Qi. Though his escape velocity increased significantly, it required a non-trivial amount of Yuan Qi to execute, certainly causing the Elder to feel some degree of remorse.
Hence, while the Elder had not initially thought to use this technique, seeing Liu Ming about to flee into the mountain range ahead quelled any fears he had about using it.
The Elder’s blood-colored light fin waved incessantly, and with a moment’s work brought him within three or four miles of Liu Ming.
He gazed at Liu Ming’s back in the distance, which had become much more clearly seen than before. A hideous expression appeared on his face, and he suddenly pulled one of his hands out from his sleeve and swatted it in the air in Liu Ming’s direction far ahead.
There was a “pu” sound.
A colossal force flew fiercely through the air on a collision course with Liu Ming’s back.
By the time Liu Ming realized something was going on behind him, it was too late to move out of the way. All he could do was to turn and send the Fa Li in his body gushing out behind him.
There was a flash of blue light. Symbol Qi flooded out from his body, and a moment later congealed into a thick light barrier protecting him from behind.
At this moment, the colossal force arrived without a sound.
“Hong!”
In a flash, the blue light barrier which the Symbol Qi had transformed into was broken into blue light sparks.
Liu Ming felt only a warmth in his back and a sweetness in his throat, but he was thrown far through the air by the attack, and his mouth opened to produce a number of balls of pure blood.
Behind him, the Elder was thrilled to see this, but the next moment he was suddenly furious once again.
Far ahead, although he had been thrown through the air by the attack, with a twist of his body he once again righted himself in midair. Moreover, he had taken advantage of the momentum from the colossal force to recover his escape speed.
By contrast, the Sea Race Elder had caused himself a delay with the attack he had launched, which had significantly decreased his speed. All he could do under his incomparable pangs of regret was to wave his bloodfin fiercely once again and continue with his urgent pursuit.
Liu Ming’s body was obscured for a few moments before he wholly submerged into the mountains. He circled the mountaintops around him, but after a few circles, his figure disappeared completely – it was uncanny.