Dusk gradually fell.
Deep within the woods near Qingqi County.
Jiu Ying fled at full speed, with two figures in hot pursuit behind him.
Drops of blood scattered from his body. Their brief exchange earlier had left him seriously wounded.
The other side knew his methods extremely well and countered them with precision. In merely a few minutes of fighting, Jiu Ying had been caught off guard and made mistake after mistake.
If his Leg Skill had not been slightly faster than those two, he would likely already have been split into two corpses.
With a step, Jiu Ying borrowed force from a low shrub, swept across a tree trunk, raised his right hand, and fired three poisoned needles arranged in a triangular pattern behind him.
The two prepared pursuers swiftly dodged the needles, leaving them without a single result.
Sweetness rose in Jiu Ying's throat, followed by the taste of rust flooding his mouth. He knew he had recklessly stirred his Jin again, aggravating his injuries.
He sprinted several more miles ahead and gradually sensed that something was wrong.
Though the two behind him pursued relentlessly, they had not truly closed in. Several times, they had had the chance to approach him more quickly, yet deliberately maintained their distance.
It was precisely a distance that made Jiu Ying uncomfortable without pressing him too tightly.
This raised doubts in Jiu Ying's heart.
Could these two be deliberately stringing me along, using me as bait to lure someone out?
He was no fool. Otherwise, he would not have escaped alive from a ring of enemies back then.
When he had first made his name, he had poisoned quite a few formidable figures to death and offended far too many people.
*If they're using me as bait, the only target they could