Li Guanqi flickered as he fled at breakneck speed into the distance.
Opening his mouth, he spat out a mouthful of blackened blood that fully splattered across the mask.
In the blink of an eye, the bizarre tentacles absorbed the blood essence.
A raging fire blazed in the mountains behind him.
This was the last thing he could do, for he already sensed several powerful auras rapidly closing in.
The scouting inscribed talismans he had left behind in the forest vanished in an instant.
A thousand li away, in a forest strewn with severed limbs and broken arms, an area of over a thousand zhang across had been cleared away by a single sword strike!
Chen Tianhua's face was dark as he commanded in a chilling voice, "Pursue!"
Chen Tianhua's expression was ugly in the extreme, and a sense of alarm stirred in his heart.
He had not expected that the other party could slay Tianlong and Diya purely by his own strength!
Back then, Chen Tianhua had not made a move merely to teach the two a lesson.
He had planted tracking methods on them, yet for a period during the hunt, he had been completely unable to detect their whereabouts.
That interval had coincided precisely with when Tianlong and Diya concealed their tracks to chase Li Guanqi.
After speeding across nearly a thousand li, Li Guanqi finally took off the mask.
His wounds were no longer bleeding. If this continued, the Rakshasa Ghost Mask would drain him into a shriveled corpse!
Yet Li Guanqi dared not lower his guard, for he noticed the inscribed talismans he had left behind were disappearing at a rapid pace.
His face fell. Every talisman Gu Li crafted was exceptionally well-concealed!
For the pursuers to discover them so effortlessly meant there was very likely a talisman master in their ranks!
Li Guanqi's heart sank. The sensory inscribed talismans he had left behind had likely become beacons guiding the enemy right to him!
Cold sweat broke out on his forehead.
Pale as a sheet of paper, his immortal primal energy was exhausted, and the lightning seed in his nascent soul had grown dull and dim.
One immortal crystal after another shattered in his palms, but absorbing energy at this rate was a drop in the ocean.
Gritting his teeth with grim resolve, Li Guanqi wheeled around and hurtled toward a small city a hundred li away!
He streaked straight through the city gate!
"Wait, who..."
The gate guards barely started to speak before several hundred immortal crystals came flying, pelting them square in the face.
The guards could not keep their lips from curling into a grin, calling out cheerfully, "Take your time, sir!"
Li Guanqi swept out his perception and bolted straight for an apothecary.
Quite a few patrons were startled by his sudden entrance.
With a loud clatter, Li Guanqi hurled out a full ten thousand immortal crystals, the dense pile nearly filling the entire shop.
"Xuanyuan Pills! Blood Supplementing Pills! Give them to me!"
Seeing the fortune, the old shopkeeper moved with incredible agility. With a flick of his sleeve, several bottles of pills appeared on the counter.
"There's only one bottle of Blood Supplementing Pills left. Let me go fetch—"
Li Guanqi swept them up and turned to leave, crushing the jade bottles and swallowing the Blood Supplementing Pills and Xuanyuan Pills down in one gulp.
He vaulted into the air, threw on a black cloak, and sped off toward the distance.
Rumble!
The sky and earth changed color. The aura of a True Immortal was nothing to take lightly.
Seeing the disturbance, the old shopkeeper swept up all the immortal crystals and hastily put up the wooden shop shutters at astonishing speed.
Clouds gathered and fierce winds howled.
The tavern banners along the street fluttered and snapped violently. Many people stepped out of the shops and looked up toward the horizon.
Inside Li Guanqi's body, the Thunder Execution Divine Art circulated wildly. His cheeks bulged as he crunched down the medicinal pills raw!
Even so, his pursuers were far faster than him; before long, they would catch up.
Feeling some of his blood essence recover, Li Guanqi did not hesitate to don the Rakshasa Ghost Mask once more.
The power of a seventh-stage Mystic Immortal erupted with a roar, causing his speed to surge drastically.
Yet even so, when Li Guanqi glanced over his shoulder, he could still faintly make out a squad of pursuers tearing through the distant horizon!
Li Guanqi's expression shifted continuously. In his current state, they would overtake him in the time it took an incense stick to burn at most.
The teleportation talismans he had left along the way had all been rooted out and destroyed.
Li Guanqi pulled out a map, his gaze flickering as he raced to devise a countermeasure.
Under these circumstances, without external help, his situation was precarious in the extreme...
Should he find a way to return to Yuxu City?
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Li Guanqi shook his head.
If he fled to Yuxu City now, it was uncertain whether Lin Chuanqing could even withstand the enraged Chen Tianhua.
Even if Lin Chuanqing could protect him, the favor would be far too immense.
Furthermore, he would be trapped inside Yuxu City.
Yuxu City was not far from Donghua City; Chen Tianhua would spare no effort to send people into the city to lay an ambush and kill him!
*What should I do...*
Li Guanqi had spent his whole life pursuing cultivation and fought countless battles, but he had never faced such a perilous crisis.
Against a True Immortal, even if he forcibly drew his sword... it would not be enough.
Besides, the sword spirit had fallen into a slumber, clearly wary of hidden enemies lurking in the Immortal Realm.
Rumble!
A faint roar echoed across the distant sky, and Li Guanqi grew increasingly anxious.
*Abandon Xue Ming?*
Li Guanqi dismissed the thought almost immediately.
How could he yield a divine sword he had obtained with so much blood and sweat to someone else?
If he did that, what had all his perseverance been for?
*Bastard, he's dead set on killing me!*
If this were the Spirit Realm, no sect master would personally step in to murder someone over a few dead disciples.
Yet the sects in the Immortal Realm cared nothing for such restraint. They understood the necessity of weeding out threats at the root all too well.
Even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit—a saying embodied to the fullest by the cultivators of the Immortal Realm!
Just as Li Guanqi was at his wit's end, a transmission abruptly caught his attention.
"Brother Li, head southeast!"
A sharp light flashed in Li Guanqi's eyes upon hearing the words, and without hesitation, he dissolved into a phantom and shot toward the southeast!
An incense stick's time later, an aura rapidly approached Li Guanqi from the side.
Li Guanqi swept the Xue Ming Sword around in a vicious backhand slash!
Clang!
A thin line of blood slowly surfaced on Qisha's neck as he was knocked back over a hundred zhang!
Holding his sabre defensively at his side, a glimmer of light passed through Qisha's eyes as he took in the heavily injured Li Guanqi.
"Let's go!"
Qisha flashed to Li Guanqi's side and sent a grave voice transmission.
"Open your mind."
Li Guanqi complied. Immediately, Qisha flipped his wrist, revealing a tiny, ring-sized grey hall.
As Qisha's immortal primal energy circulated, both of their figures shrank into microscopic specks and were drawn into the hall.
The hall then turned into a speck of dust, settling quietly beneath an enormous boulder.
With that, their presence completely vanished from the world.
Inside a chamber measuring merely five zhang across, Li Guanqi dropped to one knee with a thud, tore off the mask, and slumped onto the floor.
Qisha leaned down and pressed a hand against Li Guanqi's wrist, his expression shifting drastically.
Not even one-tenth of Li Guanqi's blood essence remained!
Fishing through his storage ring, Qisha retrieved two Blood Augmenting Pills of supreme quality and shoved them into Li Guanqi's mouth.
He then pulled out two green woven-reed cushions and helped Li Guanqi sit up on one of them.
Pressing both hands against Li Guanqi's back, Qisha channeled vast, pure immortal primal energy into his body.
A gentle voice resonated quietly in Li Guanqi's mind.
"Rest easy. No one below the Golden Immortal realm can detect this Xumi Dust Hall. It is more than enough to evade their search."
"Heal your injuries first. We can talk about everything else later. If you delay any longer, you might suffer permanent damage to your foundation."
Li Guanqi gave a slight nod. His furrowed brow smoothed out, and his shoulders relaxed.
Under Qisha's guidance, the congested medicinal power of the Xuanyuan Pills and Blood Supplementing Pills within his body began to dissolve and disperse, bit by bit.
Chapter 1630