The motorcycle rider had already dismounted. Giving chase on foot, he swiftly drew his pistol, flicking his wrist to loose three shots in rapid succession.
They were ordinary bullets, not ghost-vanquishing rounds.
While ordinary bullets were potent enough to wound an apprentice knight, the knight fired without the slightest hesitation, his face completely devoid of emotion.
Alumnus camaraderie and junior schoolmates... none of that existed here. The Intelligence Bureau's cold-blooded ruthlessness was renowned as second to none throughout all of Liang.
To his dismay, however, the Jin youth's footwork was far too erratic; not a single bullet found its mark.
Instead, distracted by taking aim, the rider's stride lagged by half a beat, causing him to fall to the rear of the pursuit.
"Was that really necessary?" Sister Hua barked at him in annoyance. "Hurry up and catch him!"
The fastest among the three was undoubtedly that swirling cloud of yellowish-brown mist.
Though spread out over a wide area, the mist's density hadn't waned in the least. Like a raging dust storm, it surged toward the youth with terrifying speed.
Yet Wu Youren's evasive footwork was certainly not for show.
Though his movements occasionally looked clumsy and laughable, and his points of exertion were downright bizarre, his maneuverability could only be described as astonishingly elusive.
Weaving left and dodging right, he sprinted over a kilometer without letting any of the three lay a hand on him.
Twice they had been inches away from grabbing him, only for him to slip past by the thinnest of margins.
As they ran, the three pursuers began to notice something unusual. "Is he... heading into the mountains?"
They were still seven or eight kilometers away from the mountain pass.
Yet without question, the youth had initially bolted toward the barren plains, heading neither back to Red Pine nor into the mountains.
The trio had primarily been guarding against him escaping back to the Martial Academy, intending to resolve the matter cleanly out in the wasteland.
Now, mid-sprint, he was actually veering straight for the mountains!
"Is he trying to slip away under the cover of Guizu aura?" The senior alumnus sneered, his gaze turning exceptionally cold. "How arrogant!"
Never mind a mere apprentice knight; even as a full-fledged knight, he himself wouldn't dare charge into the mountains lightly.
He knew the boy possessed sharp perception regarding Guizu aura, and his colleagues had speculated that he might hold some special ability.
So what if he did? The disparity between their cultivation realms was an undeniable fact. Talking about abilities while disregarding actual cultivation was pure lunacy.
Sister Hua called out chillingly, "Keep running, and I'll strike to kill!"
During the pursuit, she had slashed at him with her blade several times, nearly wounding him on the last attempt.
She simply hadn't aimed for vital points, making it relatively easy for him to evade.
Before, she had been reluctant to use lethal force, but now, burning with humiliation and fury, she no longer cared to hold back.
Though Wu Youren was sprinting for his life, he kept a rough grasp of what was happening behind him.
"In my pack... *gasp*... I've got weapons of mass destruction!" he yelled back breathlessly. "Don't push me!!"
To be fair, his proficiency with traps was hardly masterful; even within Liang, plenty of practitioners surpassed him.
The Intelligence Bureau had access to a considerable number of true trap masters.
Even so, there was no denying that his traps had produced substantial results and earned an explosive reputation.
Even the three pursuers behind him harbored some wariness.
Crucially, all three knew that following his previous Guizu kill, he had qualified to purchase explosives.
Ordinary students were barred from purchasing them, let alone a hostage from Jin, but who could argue with his stellar performance during that last mission?
Moreover, explosives had played a massive, decisive role in securing his perfect rating.
They had collapsed rock walls to seal paths, inflicted damage on the Guizu, and stalled the enemy's pursuit...
"Damn it!" Sister Hua's eyes flared with anger, but she didn't dare brush off the threat.
With him sprinting ahead and them trailing behind, any explosives he lobbed backward would prove devastatingly effective.
For the pursuers, attempting to throw explosives while in forward motion would severely compromise their efficacy.
She cast a harsh glare at the yellow mist. "Aren't you going to do something?"
The yellow mist hesitated briefly before answering, "Damn it all... What a loss!"
The next instant, as Wu Youren sprinted at full speed, the earth beneath his feet suddenly shuddered.
Immediately after, his alternating footfalls felt as if they were stepping into a quagmire—the ground grew squishy, denying him any leverage, and his toes began sinking fast!
*Damn it... an ability master!* He finally realized the true nature of that cloud of yellow mist.
Reaching out with his senses, he noticed that faint wisps of yellow mist had gathered around him without his realizing it.
He hadn't paid attention earlier because the faint, barely perceptible vapor had posed no hindrance.
Now, however, the yellow mist exerted a palpable drag—or rather, its consistency had turned viscous.
There was no time to hesitate! He had no idea what fate awaited him if he fell into their hands.
What seemed virtually certain was that they wanted him to do something for them.
As for the methods they might employ, there was no telling.
Judging by their behavior so far, they would likely be ruthless and stop at nothing.
He wasn't even sure if he would survive—after all, out here, there were only the four of them.
Besides, the life of a hostage from Jin was truly worthless in Liang!
Wu Youren made his decision in a heartbeat, funneling his inner breath straight into his toes and stomping down hard.
At the same time, he hurled a dark object behind him, shouting, "Grenade! Take cover!"
Feeling solid resistance underfoot again, he circulated his inner breath through his entire body and bolted forward with all his might.
He kept yelling, "You forced my hand!"
"Grenade!" Hearing the cry, all three figures leapt aside in unison, and the yellow mist couldn't help cursing, "Fuck!"
Within Liang, hand grenades were strictly controlled contraband, rare even on frontlines against the Guizu.
Martial artists battling the Guizu might use ghost-destroying mines, which were custom-modified versions of grenades.
Yet those devices were exorbitant, and more importantly, they inflicted little damage on humans.
Ghost-destroying mines were already scarce, and conventional grenades were rarer still—virtually all of them were reserved for wars against other human nations!
Everyone had heard of such weapons, though few had ever witnessed one in person.
At the mention of a grenade, the three executed emergency evasive maneuvers. How could they afford to focus on chasing him?
Primarily engineered for human warfare, a grenade was fully capable of inflicting severe damage on a knight—even a crippling blow was well within reason!
"Red Pine actually dared to supply him with one!" The motorcycle rider gritted his teeth viciously. "Even I couldn't get my hands on one back then!"
As a former Red Pine student, he knew that while the weapons were under strict lock and key, intermediate martial academies did keep a small stash.
The yellow mist reacted even faster, swirling around the dark projectile and hurtling it far away.
"Who do you think you're looking down on... Fuck! It's a damn shoe!"
"Brat, you're dead meat! Wait, how can he still accelerate?"
That split second of hesitation allowed the running figure ahead to pull even further away.
A moment later, another dark object flew backward. "Damn it, grabbed the wrong thing! You're dead this time!"
However, his pursuers were three knights. Being duped once was excusable, but how could they possibly fall for the exact same trick a second time?
They couldn't afford to be so thoroughly humiliated.
"Heh," Sister Hua sneered. "He's even willing to throw away his first-aid kit. He really is richer than before."
"Wrong one again!" The silhouette hurled a third black object. "Don't say I didn't warn you!"
"Tch," the motorcycle rider scoffed. "Try coming up with some new material. I seriously doubt you could even buy—"
A deafening explosion cut off his words. Soil and debris blasted into the air, and the ground seemed to tremble faintly.
"Holy shit..." Sister Hua darted away, terror flashing in her eyes. "That wasn't a grenade—that blast was way too strong!"
"Pursue!" the yellow mist ordered coldly, its vapor slightly scattered by the shockwave. "Dead or alive, bring him in!"
"I'm out. Chase him yourself," Sister Hua stated without hesitation. "I'm exhausted, and I definitely don't want to go into the mountains!"
"Fine. I will report your conduct," the yellow mist billowed forward, surging after the youth.
The female knight halted and watched him go with a flat expression.
The motorcycle rider stood dumbfounded, unsure whether he should join the pursuit. "Sister Hua, what... what should I do?"
"That's your business," she answered calmly. "If you want to chase him, go right ahead."
"But I came with you!" The rider was flustered.
He hadn't been in the Intelligence Bureau for long and was essentially a small fry.
Though he shared the same cultivation realm as Sister Hua, two knights could occupy vastly different stations in life.
After all, Liang had hundreds of thousands of knights.
They weren't like university grads churned out after massive enrollment expansions—watered down to nothing—but even elite grads from before the expansion still had to respect seniority!
Strictly speaking, he hadn't accompanied Sister Hua here at all; as a Red Pine alumnus, the Intelligence Bureau had dispatched him long ago to investigate the local situation.
Sister Hua had only requisitioned him after hearing that he was stationed here.
Now, whatever he chose to do regarding that fellow was entirely up to him. "Did I drag you here?"
Hearing that, the motorcycle rider grew even more bewildered. "Sister, I really haven't been here long. Faith Master Er Shan wants to pursue..."
"I'm not chasing him, but you can do as you please." Sister Hua couldn't even be bothered to waste more breath; her expression suggested she was on the verge of turning hostile.
Before the rider could respond, another explosion echoed from the distance.
This blast was somewhat less deafening than the previous one, but the sweeping cloud of yellow mist churned violently in response.
"How dare you, wretched brat! Just wait until I get my hands on you!"
"Huh?" Sister Hua raised her eyebrows in surprise, glancing sideways at her companion. "What did he do?"
"A grenade this time," the motorcycle rider said, his senses slightly sharper.
Even so, his expression looked rather peculiar. "Seems to be... a ghost-destroying mine?"
"Then what is Er Shan getting so worked up about?" Sister Hua muttered under her breath, a thoughtful look flitting across her eyes.
"Could it be..." the motorcycle rider whispered, "those rumors?"
"Rumors my ass!" The yellow mist roared in fury upon overhearing them. "Are you really going to just stand there and watch this punk get away?"
"There wasn't much of a grudge to begin with," Sister Hua said leisurely. "You saw it yourself—we did our part."
The motorcycle rider chimed in as well. "I'm just a bit curious. Why are you so furious?"
"This grenade... he dropped the ghost-destroying mine without making a sound!" the yellow mist shouted in exasperation. "He's throwing away everything without care for the cost!"
Being caught off guard by another dirty trick was secondary; the real issue was that ghost-destroying mines were brutally expensive—expending one would make anyone's heart bleed.
For a mere apprentice knight, if only out of sheer grief over such a massive financial loss, he certainly wouldn't let this matter rest.
Chapter 94