Shi!
With the most dangerous poisonous snake preying in the back and that thick qi wall in the front, no matter if he wanted to go to the right or the left, he would be confronted by the snake. Ye Chen had nowhere to go right now that did not involve danger.
"I cannot struggle with this snake beast. The defensive power of an ancient beast would be unimaginable. Without one or two hours, I will definitely not be able to kill it. If both of us end up being horribly wounded, then it would be precisely what that old guy would have wanted."
He was thinking fast as he let go of his protective Zhen yuan, amidst shards of sword light floating in the air.
Shoo!
The sword light brought up his body along and shot out for the qi wall.
Boom!
The mud spilled everywhere. The tail of the snake was red colored and jade-like, tough as metal. It missed Ye Chen and landed on the ground creating a huge hole.
Swoosh!
Meanwhile, peak slaughter sword intent had been accumulated in the sword light. The second it touched the qi wall, it successfully broke the qi wall with only a slight delay and made it though.
After making through the qi wall, Ye Chen managed to lock his eyes with the elder and chased after him at an extreme speed.
Behind him, although the snake beast was also not slow, it was still not as fast as Ye Chen's sword light flying art. After two to three breaths of time, Ye Chen had lost the snake beast completely, whose eyes were filled with anger.
"Old man, hand over the Dragon Blood Plant and I will pretend nothing had happened!" Soon, Ye Chen caught up with the elder; only one mile away from the latter.
The elder wore a palm-bark raincoat and bamboo hat. He did not look back while saying with a laugher, "Little bro, you were able to break through my qi wall and avoid the Blood Dragon Snake. I admit that your power is impressive. But, in front of me, you are still nothing. If you are smart enough, then you will know not continue chasing me. Do not make me angry."
"Oh! So I guess you have made up your mind to not return it then." Ye Chen sounded calm, giving people the impression that he could be extremely powerful.
"The treasure belongs to the person who finds it. It should belong to me."
"Then, you can die now!"
After three hundred meters, Ye Chen pointed at the empty air with his left hand. A waist thick, blue colored Zhen yuan finger appeared and attacked toward his opponent, bringing up water pattern again in the air.
"Eh? This is the space mentality!" The elder looked back, and his pupils shrunk instantly at the sight of the attack. He did not have the time to avoid, so he reached out his left hand and threw out a counterattack.
Dang!
A golden light shone brightly in the elder's hand, and the gold shield of his appeared out of the blue. Ye Chen's Zhen yuan finger landed on it, generating a huge, metal exploding sound. The sparks that spilled out of the clash looked like fireworks.
Backing out couple of steps to regain his balance, the elder stood on a huge rock while looking over at Ye Chen, "Since you really are asking for death, then I will definitely grant it to you."
There were plenty of treasures in the island. The elder did not want to struggle with Ye Chen in the beginning at all, but it would be under the condition that the latter was not trying to piss him off.
"Who will live and who will die, we do not know it for sure yet."
As he stopped walking, a strong killing intent appeared in Ye Chen's eyes while he also looked a bit more serious. That Void Shattering Finger Attack was already at forty percent completion, its power just slightly weaker than his Gold Resonant Radiance Art Attack, which was already trained to eighty percent. The opponent not being killed by that attack was expected, but he only stepped back for a few steps was definitely out of Ye Chen's expectation.
"This fish rod of mine has killed so many people. And today, I can add one more to the bunch." The elder shook the fish rod in his hand while looking toward Ye Chen with an emotionless expression as if he were looking at a fish that had voluntarily walked up to him.
"I am afraid that the result will surprise you."
Ye Chen did not attack first. The elder was very powerful, and that fish rod of his as a killing weapon was also full of uncertain factors, and would be hard to predict. Without the full information on the elder, attacking recklessly would only provide killing opportunities for his opponent, which was something Ye Chen knew very well.
Whooo!
A wave of heavy wind blew out as the air had been dyed with the special color of the island.
The elder waved the fish rod in his hand, causing a beam of silver light to disappear into the surreal space. Without a sound or image, it attacked toward Ye Chen's neck, as if there was no space between them at all. The string had been tightened and blended in with the color in the air, which made it impossible to tell if it was actually there.
Ye Chen did not expect that his opponent would attack this fast. He leaned back his body and flicked his left hand; the sword qi and the silver light clashed together.
Ting!
It was the sound of the silver blade being bounced away.
The elder sneered. The dried out hand that was holding the fish rod sank a little. His Zhen yuan followed his fish string and traveled at an extreme speed. All of a sudden, a cold light shone on the tip of the silver sharp blade. The elder shook at toward the sky, attacking Ye Chan again, who was falling down backward.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The silver blade was like annoying flies, always haunting one from a close distance. Ye Chen's protective Zhen yuan layer seemed to be as thin as paper under the effect of the silver sharp blade.
"Shadows!"
Turning his body into a shadow, Ye Chen suddenly lowered his body and shot out closer to the ground.
"Earthquake Sand!"
That dried out palm pressed on the ground while the yellow colored light spread out, bringing up a bombing sound. The tough mud and rock suddenly shook hundreds of times as it was transformed into pure sand and power. Ye Chen had to let go of the shadows he had let out while backing out once again.
"This warrior is powerful!"
It was Ye Chen's first time meeting a warrior who could be at par in a battle with him. The elder had rather rich battling experience; each attack of his had been thrown out at the perfect moment from the perfect angle. While not showing any flaws, he managed to get closer and closer to Ye Chen.
"Come back!"
The elder shook his head slightly as the arm holding the fish rod pulled back. In front of him, that silver blade drew a circle in the air with Ye Chen being at the centre. The see-through fish string had wrapped around Ye Chen. As soon as the string was tightened, even if Ye Chen's defense was twice as strong as right now, he could be separated into two halves easily.
"Shadows!"
In that critical moment, Ye Chen left behind a shadow while his real body shot up into the sky. He was at least ten meters away from the ground now.
"Old man, it is now my turn to attack."
Once getting up in the sky, Ye Chen's both hands became busy. The patterns in the space spread out while his lotus heart sword qi rained down on the elder.
"Ah!"
The elder took a deep breath, pressing his palm onto the ground heavily.
Boom!
A muddy-yellow sand wall had been built up, blocking in front of the sword qi.
There were just too many sword qi. It only took Ye Chen half a blink worth of time to slice through the sand wall before landing onto the elder's protective Zhen yuan.
"Earth Travel Spell!"
The elder had been hit by the sword qi a couple of times. While he was shocked, he subconsciously sank his feet into the sand, soon disappearing completely into the ground.
Seeing this, Ye Chen sneered in midair. The lotus heart sword qi had a huge attacking range, like a stormy rain on a summer day.
"Shattering Mud Palm!"
A human figure with blood all over his body shot out of the sand below Ye Chen, and a palm attack followed it. Its power was so intense that anyone could feel death arriving at the mere touch of this palm attack.
"Gold Resonant Radiance Art!"
Ye Chen had been waiting for this very moment. He knew that the elder would try to ambush him, so he had waited patiently, sliding back for one step while his right hand with the sword waved down in the elder's direction.
Boom!
The golden blue sword light and the muddy yellow palm power clashed. One contained a vibration power while the other contained the power that could shatter anything. A light ball had appeared at the clash point, devouring the two within as it grew bigger and bigger.
Pooh!
The elder puked out a chunk of blood as he fell down from the sky and landed in the deep part of the sand hole. Ye Chen's body bended slightly, bouncing to the higher sky while trying to handle the extreme pressure up there.
"Take another sword of mine!" Ye Chen regained his control of his stiff body and then fell down along with the extreme gravity while throwing another sword attack. The bright sword light was like a fiery tornado. Before the sword qi had even arrived, a sword hole had already appeared on the ground. Countless rocks had been shattered completely into tiny particles by the vibration.
"What a tricky boy!"
The elder crawled even deeper into the ground. Even when he was hundred meters deep under the ground, he could still the waves after waves of impact.
Because of his soul power, Ye Chen knew that the elder was not dead yet, so he continued to throw out attack after attack. The power of his Gold Resonant Radiance Art had been demonstrated perfectly at this moment.
"Damn!"
Right then, the elder finally freaked out, taking out a small tower from his storage ring, it was just one inch tall, but the qi coming out of it was a dozen times heavier than a mountain. As he poured in his Zhen yuan, the small tower started to shine with a bright light, and then grew bigger and bigger, breaking through the surface of the sand ground.
"What is this?"
Ye Chen hurried to increase the distance in between. He was curious and alert at the same time.
Boom!
A sand wave spread out aggressively as the whole tower revealed itself in the air. On the first floor of the tower, the elder covered in blood was popping pellets into his mouth.
"It contains the qi vibration of an extreme rank weapon…It is a half-step extreme rank item!" Ye Chen had figured it out. The tower was a treasure item, and that too an extremely rare one with a high defensive power. Defensive items did not limit to armors, and could come in different shapes and forms. But, items that were able to change size on demand would have to be extreme rank ones, or the replicas of the extreme rank ones, which made them half-step extreme rank itemms.
'I wonder where this old man managed to get his hands on this kind of a thing.' Although it was just a replica, it still contained at least forty percent of an extreme rank item's power. Some of the top ones of its category would even have sixty percent of the extreme rank item's power. Even Life and Death Realm warriors would not underestimate such an item.
"Little bro, I am willing to give you back your Dragon Blood Plant. How about we call it an even?" The elder continued to pour in more Zhen yuan into the tower as he raised the conditions to Ye Chen.
Ye Chen flicked his eyebrows, "You are willing to return it?"
The appearance of the half extreme rank item made Ye Chen think that this might become a long-lasting battle after all, since he knew that he would not be able to break it open easily, and the elder could very well decide to stay in there for a while to recover completely.
"Indeed, I am willing to return it." The elder was very decisive as he took out the plant and threw it out of the tower.
Letting the plant fall onto the ground, Ye Chen got close to it carefully. After finding nothing suspicious, he then grabbed it into his hand.
"It is indeed the Dragon Blood Plant. What is this guy thinking now?" Ye Chen obviously did not trust the elder.
The elder was anxious, but he still looked calm on the surface while speaking, "You can also tell that my tower is very powerful at defense. It will be impossible for you to attack through. And, I cannot attack you from here either. Therefore, the best solution will be to stop fighting."
"Needless to explain, I am not interested." Ye Chen did not count on him for telling the truth. Before the tower had appeared, he would have spent some time and tried to kill the man. But right now, the situation had changed, and he had to consider about the consequences he would have to face if he decided to attack forcibly, since he would not be able to know if the other was hiding something. The situation with both of them being badly wounded would be something that he did not want to see. Therefore, getting back the Dragon Blood Plant after wounding the elder would probably be the best outcome.
Shoo!
His body flashed once before turning into a beam of light that shot into the distance.
Letting out a breath, the elder watched Ye Chen left, his eyes covered in an evil mist.
"The Yuan Separating Tower is one of the bad replicas, so each usage would damage it slightly. I wonder how much longer it can hold out after this time."
The elder giving back this Dragon Blood Plant was not because of any other reason but the state of his beloved tower. Even if it were a damaged item, it was still a life-saving treasure. Hence, he would definitely not use it unless if it were a life and death matter.
Putting away his tower, the elder left the area at the fastest speed possible, disappearing into the horizon.