145. Pursuit

Before they could rush back, or even find Tu Qiurong, they ran into trouble.

The sensing jade talisman was a reusable item, somewhere between a spiritual talisman and a magic tool. It was more durable than a communication talisman and cheaper than a magic tool, but correspondingly, its effective range was not very long. They had been separated for three days now, and they were unable to contact Tu Qiurong with the sensing jade talisman.

Just as they were hurrying toward the assembly point, a streak of light returned and landed right in front of them.

When this stream of light flew over, Fang Xinyan had already issued a warning. However, halfway through their evasion, the opponent immediately changed direction and headed straight for them. Unfortunately, invisibility talismans were not cheap items; Ling Yu and Qian Jiale did not have any at all, and Fang Xinyan had only had three, all of which she had already used.

This was a middle-aged cultivator with an ashen complexion. His features and build were utterly ordinary, the kind of person who would be completely lost in a crowd. His cultivation was at the Core Formation stage, though whether he was in the early or middle phase was impossible to tell. Ling Yu noticed that his eyes were sharp and his expression showed no sign of stiffness. If Fang Xinyan had not explicitly stated that this person's primordial spirit belonged to a monster cultivator, she probably would not have noticed at all.

"Where are you three going?" The man's gaze was piercing as he fixed his eyes on them.

Ling Yu felt her heart beating wildly. All three of them managed to maintain a semblance of calm as they saluted the man: "Greetings, Senior. We were ordered to search, rescue, and clear the battlefield here."

"Oh..." The man nodded slightly and asked again, "Were you the ones here just now? Why did you turn back?"

This question made the three of them stiffen. They had used invisibility talismans to make the monster cultivator think they had left, avoiding a direct encounter, but they had not expected this monster cultivator to turn around and find them right where they started.

Fang Xinyan felt even more vexed, having wasted three invisibility talismans for nothing while also arousing the other party's suspicion. If she had known, she should have just faced them directly. As long as she remained calm enough, she could have bluffed her way through; after all, these monster cultivators were here to impersonate humans, not to kill on sight. But she had lacked confidence—those were monster cultivators! Their cultivation far surpassed their own, so how could she dare to just bump into them like that?

"Replying to Senior, we... we got lost..." Pressed for time, she came up with this excuse.

The man's expression was calm, betraying no emotion, and the next moment he said, "Then come with me."

Hearing this, Fang Xinyan wanted to bite her tongue off. Go with him? Did she still want to live? Walking all the way with him in constant terror, only to accidentally reveal a flaw and get exterminated?

"Many thanks, Senior. We still have our team leader here, so I'm afraid it wouldn't be convenient." At the critical moment, Ling Yu had a flash of inspiration and replied.

"Is that so?"

"Indeed." Ling Yu boldly added, "Might we ask Senior to give us some directions?"

The man's brow furrowed slightly. The place was littered with dead bodies from the battlefield, and he wasn't very familiar with it himself either...

"If you want to go back, head southeast. As for your team leader, I have no idea where he is."

Hearing these words, the heavy stones in the three cultivators' hearts slowly dropped. It seemed the other party harbored no murderous intent?

The next moment, Ling Yu's spiritual net twitched imperceptibly, and she abruptly pushed the other two away: "Danger!"

Just as the words fell, several sharp blades formed from spiritual light pierced into the exact spot where they had been standing, radiating a chilling aura.

Looking up, the man's face was filled with killing intent as he swept a rather surprised glance at Ling Yu: "You really do have issues!"

The one with issues is you! Ling Yu inwardly complained while looking at him vigilantly: "We wonder what flaw we revealed for Senior to make a move against us?"

The man sneered: "Flaw? The biggest flaw is that you made me feel quite uneasy. Speak, how did you find out!"

The oppressive aura of a Core Formation cultivator erupted, heavy as a mountain, making it difficult for them to move. This was the first time Ling Yu had faced the pressure of a Core Formation cultivator, and she had not expected that mere pressure could be so powerful.

So that was how it was. A flash of understanding crossed Fang Xinyan's eyes. She had only known that monster cultivators could not be underestimated, so she had treated them like humans, forgetting the very nature of demonic beasts—intuition was what they relied on most! A flaw? No flaw was needed; as long as something felt wrong to them, they would strike immediately!

The monster cultivator continued, "Was it you who discovered Shayang just now?"

Shayang? That really was the name of that monster cultivator? Ling Yu felt that things were taking a turn for the worse. The monster cultivator they had discovered earlier had not yet perfected his夺舍 (seizure of a mortal vessel), and they had caught him in the act. Were they now going to be silenced to cover it up? If so, their entire team would be in danger...

She quietly gave Qian Jiale and Fang Xinyan a look, and both of them gave imperceptible nods.

"It seems it was indeed you." The monster cultivator did not attack immediately; instead, he asked, "Shayang aside, how did you find out that we are not human?"

If she were to confess honestly that Fang Xinyan had discovered anomalies in their primordial spirits due to the special nature of her cultivation technique, she would instantly be splattered in blood. And even if she told the truth, they probably still wouldn't escape the fate of being exterminated. Impersonating humans through soul possession was a new tactic of the monster cultivators; to ensure absolute secrecy, they would never let go of those who first discovered the anomaly, nor would they spare the entire team.

Weighing the two options, no thought was needed to know what to do. All three of them closed their mouths and quietly prepared their life-saving secret arts—

"You..." The monster cultivator was just about to issue a threat, but before he could finish two words, he saw the three of them suddenly spring into action.

Qian Jiale flicked his finger, unleashing a fierce sword qi that did not belong to a Foundation Establishment cultivator. His entire body transformed into a phantom, merging into one with the sword qi as he abruptly fled. Fang Xinyan tossed out a fiery red seed from her hand, and a blazing flame burst open; she had already vanished within the fire. As for Ling Yu, she threw out a palm-sized jade sword, and a water dragon appeared, wrapping around her and whisking her away in an instant.

In less than a breath, three people, three methods, three directions—running for their lives!

After a moment of astonishment, the monster cultivator flew into a rage: "Three Foundation Establishment ants, and you dare to act presumptuously before me!" He flicked his sleeve, and three streaks of spiritual light shot out.

Ling Yu chose to run south. There were three of them, but only one monster cultivator; scattering in different directions was the wise choice. Each of them held a secret treasure for escaping with their lives, and since this monster cultivator could not catch them all in one net unless he split up, he could only choose one. Doing so would carve out a shred of survival for the other two.

As for who lived and who died, it all came down to luck.

Ling Yu's whole body was enveloped within the water dragon, resembling a huge droplet of water. Wei Wuyang cultivated water-type techniques, and the life-saving secret art he provided was also water-type. The characteristic of water was gentleness; although her speed was pushed to the absolute limit, she remained completely steady inside the water droplet. However, there was a drawback: speed was not its strong suit, and compared to the other two, her speed was the slowest.

When the monster cultivator's initial strike missed and the three streaks of spiritual light returned empty-handed, he grew furious. He actually failed to capture all three human ants!

Unfortunately, no matter how angry he was, he could not drag all three people back at once.

With a sweep of his gaze, he instinctively chose to chase the one with the slowest speed, feeling a burning anger deep within his chest.

Things having reached this point, the plan to infiltrate the human cultivators' camp could only be temporarily suspended. He had to hunt down these three ants first; otherwise, wouldn't it be a terrible pity to carelessly ruin the human fleshly bodies they had worked so hard to acquire?

It was all the fault of that useless Shayang, who failed at everything and succeeded at nothing. Not only was he discovered by a group of Foundation Establishment ants, but he also failed to silence them successfully!

The monster cultivator was catching up!

A powerful oppressive aura followed closely behind. Without needing to look back, Ling Yu knew the monster cultivator had chosen her.

Truly terrible luck! If she managed to survive and return, she would definitely give her master a good piece of her mind. What kind of life-saving secret art was this? Its speed was slow as death—how was that supposed to save a life?

One person and one monster, fleeing and pursuing, crossed over a hundred miles in the blink of an eye.

To the south of Bailu Nunnery lay dense, rolling hills. Before the outbreak of the war, this had been a sparsely populated dense forest. Ling Yu quickly plunged into it, constantly scattering talismans as she flew.

This was her first time going toe-to-toe with a Core Formation cultivator. The excruciatingly bitter trials within the Three-Life Mirror finally began to play their part. She had experienced such perilous situations many times inside the Three-Life Mirror, and she quickly steadied her mind, pondering how she could escape alive.

The life-saving means provided by Wei Wuyang would eventually run out of spiritual energy, and it could never outlast a living, breathing Core Formation cultivator trailing behind her. If she wanted to survive, there was only one path: shake off the monster cultivator before her spiritual energy ran dry!

Shaking off a monster cultivator was no easy task. A Core Formation cultivator's spiritual sense far exceeded that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator; at least, she had no way of putting enough distance between them within the span of her remaining spiritual energy to escape his spiritual sense detection range. Thus, she could only use another method: disrupt his spiritual sense!

The talismans she scattered frequently struck the trees in the dense forest. At first, the monster cultivator paid them no mind, but gradually, he noticed something was wrong.

The flames in the dense forest were growing more numerous, gradually flaring into a raging fire that repeatedly cut off his spiritual sense!

With a brief thought, he realized this was the human ant's petty trick, and he let out a cold snort. Did she really think she could escape his pursuit with just this?

The monster cultivator came to a halt, pointed a finger at the center of his brow, and a third eye abruptly opened on his forehead. A wave of light shot from the eye, catching up to Ling Yu, wrapping around her in a circle, and leaving a faint white glow.

Ling Yu was alarmed; she brought her palms together and circulated her true essence, attempting to force it out. To her surprise, that cluster of white light stuck to her like bone-gnawing maggots, unmoving.

The pursuit from behind grew even more urgent.

The more perilous the situation, the calmer Ling Yu's mind became.

Certain that the cluster of white light could not be removed, she abruptly detonated every single fire talisman in her possession.

*Boom—!* With a deafening roar, a mushroom cloud slowly rose into the air, radiating scorching heat.

The monster cultivator abruptly halted his flight, staring dumbfounded at the sea of fire before him.

The fire talismans detonated by Ling Yu directly swallowed an entire patch of dense forest. Since the surrounding area consisted of hills and the weather was dry, the fire quickly spread, engulfing the entire mountain and even licking toward the neighboring mountains.

How could humans act with such ruthless determination? Looking at the sea of fire before him, the monster cultivator shook his head, finding it hard to comprehend. The white light he had attached to Ling Yu slowly faded from his senses; it must have been consumed by the sea of fire.

This ant... actually chose self-destruction.

The monster cultivator stood for a moment, still feeling uneasy, so he cast a protective spiritual barrier and plunged into the sea of fire.

However, this was a blaze ignited by fire talismans, not ordinary flames. Being within it caused spiritual energy fluctuations to become chaotic, making clear perception impossible.

After about the time it takes to brew a cup of tea, the monster cultivator gave up. Even with his Core Formation cultivation, staying in the sea of fire felt extremely uncomfortable, let alone that Foundation Establishment ant—she must have been burned to ashes by now, right?

He scanned the area once more with his spiritual sense, and indeed, he could no longer detect the mark he had left. Sullen and disgruntled, he turned back.