Chapter 22: What are a bunch of paupers risking their lives for?

The night wind howled, thick with murderous intent.

A figure sprinted urgently through a small grove, glancing over his shoulder from time to time.

"Have I lost him?"

Muttering to himself, his gaze sharpened. Gritting his teeth, he channeled his meager spiritual power and continued his frantic dash.

The Wind-Riding Art provided no sense of coolness to his body; instead, it brought a frantic sensation of internal burning.

This was because, pursuing him from behind, a cultivator dressed in blue was rapidly closing in atop a flying saucer.

"Zhou San, you can't run!"

Zhou San turned a deaf ear, charging madly toward the Xiaoyue Mountains.

As long as he entered the Xiaoyue Mountains, he could rely on the complex terrain to shake off Gao Ting'e.

The speed of wind-riding flight was far greater than that of a lotus leaf flying saucer, a mere transportation tool.

However, the spiritual power consumed by casting spells was inevitably much higher than that used by a tool like the lotus saucer.

Gao Ting'e’s face was grim as he followed from a distance.

Whenever he sensed the gap widening sufficiently, he would surge his spiritual power to accelerate the pursuit.

"Heh, instead of running toward the Mountain-Breaker Gang headquarters, he runs blindly into this desolate wilderness. Truly a path to certain death."

With a cold sneer, Gao Ting'e gripped a talisman in his hand, ready to activate it at any moment.

But as the surrounding scenery gradually changed, Gao Ting'e's expression became uncertain.

"Wait, he wants to run into the mountains!"

The members of the Mountain-Breaker Gang were far more familiar with the nearby mountain ranges than those of them who spent their years traveling along the great rivers.

If he truly managed to get inside, he could hide for two or three days, and they really wouldn't be able to do anything about him.

"Fine, I'll just have to waste this Divine Speed Talisman on you."

Without hesitation, Gao Ting'e stowed away the lotus saucer and took out a yellowish talisman, sticking it to his body.

He injected his spiritual power.

In the next instant, a figure wrapped in a murky yellow light surged forward like an earthen dragon, whistling through the air.

The distance between him and his prey grew ever smaller.

Sensing this, Zhou San’s soul nearly fled his body, but no matter how he pushed his spiritual power, he could not widen the gap.

The Wind-Riding Art had its limits.

"Zhou San, die!"

With a light shout, a flying sword soared from hundreds of meters away.

*Ssh!*

Zhou San stumbled, but he did not fall; instead, he ran even more desperately.

Gao Ting'e recalled the flying sword, which was now stained with a layer of bright red blood.

"You're quite resilient. I wonder how many rounds you can last."

Gao Ting'e continued the hunt, the night wind hitting his face providing a somewhat refreshing sensation.

"Fellow Daoist, save me!"

A cry for help drifted through the air, piercing and wretched.

Luo Chen's expression was extremely grim. Hiding behind a door, a stack of talismans hung from his waist, and he gripped a Soul-Breaking Nail in his hand.

"Save your mother! Don't come toward my place!"

His internal complaints were certainly not heard by Zhou San.

On the contrary, Zhou San charged straight toward his house.

"The Great River Gang is on business! Bystanders, get lost!"

With a thunderous roar, a massive fireball suddenly ignited in the pitch-black night sky.

Through the crack in the door, Luo Chen's eyes widened.

*Motherfucker, what are you doing?*

In the next moment, the massive fireball crashed down like a meteor, aiming not just at Zhou San, but at Luo Chen's courtyard as well.

*Boom!*

Gao Ting'e landed gracefully, the yellow light on his body vanishing; the Divine Speed Talisman was completely spent.

Facing the light of the house, which had partially collapsed and was now raging with flames, he looked down at the corpse sprawled on the ground.

"Quite good at playing dead."

Before he could finish his sentence, the corpse on the ground rolled over, and a flying sword pierced through its body, pinning it firmly to the ground.

With a cold sneer, Gao Ting'e glanced sideways.

"Are you going to crawl out yourself, or do you plan to be burned alive in there?"

His answer was a fireball.

"Tricksy little moves! You dare show off your meager skills before me!"

Gao Ting'e raised a hand, and an earthen-yellow light shield enveloped him. The fireball struck the shield, rippled a yellow glow, and then was annihilated.

With a wave of his hand, the flying sword on the ground whistled back into his grasp.

"Senior, please show mercy!"

Gao Ting'e looked at the man scrambling clumsily out of the window and shook his head in disdain.

Just a piece of trash at the fourth level of Qi Refinement.

Suddenly, he barked, "How dare you!"

Another fireball shot toward him.

The fireball itself wasn't scary; what angered him was that this mere fourth-level Qi Refinement cultivator actually dared to attack him after seeing him.

In his fury, he prepared to strike with his flying sword.

As for that fireball, he didn't care at all.

His Earth-Soil Shield possessed a defensive power that surpassed most low-level spells; forget a fireball, even a Meteor Fire Rain could not break it.

However, in the next instant, his expression changed.

After the fireball was annihilated, a streak of black light sliced through his Earth-Soil Shield like a knife through tofu, heading straight for his chest.

*Ssh!*

"Soul-Breaking..."

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Under the cover of night, a figure moved like a ghost, hands constantly forming hand seals as clusters of fireballs were unleashed frantically.

Gao Ting'e had even thought about deploying his Earth-Soil Shield again, but amidst the relentless barrage of fireballs, he was given no room to breathe.

"His casting speed... is too fast!"

This was Gao Ting'e's final thought before he collapsed.

Luo Chen stood two hundred meters away, staring intently at the fallen corpse.

"It might be playing dead. I've used that trick, and that previous person used it too."

"So, I have to test it!"

Without hesitation, Luo Chen fired another fireball.

*Thud!*

The corpse showed no reaction, appearing truly dead.

Luo Chen was still uncertain. At this distance, if the opponent was truly playing dead, he would still have a chance to flee.

But if they weren't truly at death's door, why would they play dead?

Luo Chen's eyes lit up. He muttered a short incantation, and his fingers moved abruptly.

A stream of green light wound out from the ground in the distance like a vine, coiling tightly around the cultivator's neck.

*Zheng!*

A sword hum echoed, startling Luo Chen, who then increased the infusion of spiritual power.

The vine twisted tightly around the neck until the head had been wrung twice before it finally dissipated.

"He really was playing dead. A pity that trick doesn't work on me."

Relieved, Luo Chen walked up to the corpse.

Looking at the neck that resembled a twisted rope and the face frozen in a grotesque expression, Luo Chen felt quite calm this time.

There was no anger at being caught in the crossfire, nor any triumph from slaying a great enemy.

Sometimes, adapting to a certain atmosphere is a very easy thing.

Luo Chen's ability to adapt had always been excellent!

He simply mused that the Entangling Art could actually kill people; he would never mock a certain God-King again.

He shook his head... actually, looking at that twisted neck, the motion of shaking one's head was a bit unsettling.

Luo Chen began looting the corpse with practiced ease.

A swallow-shaped flying sword; its specific quality would be checked later.

A lotus leaf flying saucer; he knew this one—a low-grade flying tool. The Wanbao Pavilion sold it for 150, which was half as expensive as an ordinary first-grade low-grade tool.

The dharma robe was ruined.

Eh? There was also a piece of inner armor. No wonder he remained stiff and unmoving after taking a Soul-Breaking Nail and over a dozen fireballs.

Pity it was mostly destroyed as well.

No spirit stones? No cultivation manuals? Not even a storage bag?

Damn it, what a pauper!

Picking the Soul-Breaking Nail out of the chest, Luo Chen cursed as he went to loot the other corpse.

In the end, he only obtained a set of flying dagger tools and a small pouch of spirit stones; nothing else.

Dammit, another pauper!

"A bunch of paupers, playing with their lives every day!"

After a quick complaint, Luo Chen turned back to look at his burning house, feeling like crying.

"The local gangs are truly ill-mannered!"

(End of Chapter)