"Fellow Daoist Mo Xing, what should we do now? They're chasing us too closely!" Zhiwei urgently transmitted to Li Su as she desperately propelled her escape light.
Her injuries had yet to heal, and she could not flee quickly. Only because Li Su occasionally used arrays to hinder their pursuers was she barely able to avoid being caught at once.
Li Su sped along in his bamboo form, his divine sense constantly monitoring the movements on the battlefield ahead and behind them. He calmly replied, "There is no other way. We can only borrow strength to fight strength! The battlefield ahead is chaotic. We must find a way to lure our pursuers there and create confusion before we can escape amid the chaos!"
Upon hearing this, Zhiwei looked toward the distant sand pit, where treasure lights still flashed wildly, divine abilities exploded, and battle cries shook the heavens. Her little face turned deathly pale.
Any stray burst of energy there could probably tear her apart.
But when she looked at the three increasingly ferocious demon winds closing in behind them, she understood that this was their only path to survival.
"Alright! I'll listen to you, Fellow Daoist!" She gritted her teeth and poured all her remaining Demon Energy into her escape light.
Li Su continued calculating the distance and timing.
He could not charge directly into the center of the melee. That would be suicide.
The best choice was to skim past the edge of the battlefield, leading the pursuers into the vigilance range of the powerful cultivators fighting over the strange treasure. He could borrow those experts' hands to eliminate the pursuers, or at least drag them into battle and leave them with no time to care about anything else.
"The Demonic Path Cultivators on the left have the most mixed auras. Their vigilance may be relatively lower. We'll circle around from their rear flank!" Li Su made his judgment in an instant and adjusted their course.
Behind them, the wolf demon leader had clearly seen through their intentions and roared, "Trying to shift the trouble onto others?
Dream on! Stop at once and hand over the Rabbit Demon and the Moon Essence Stone Core, and I'll spare your lives!" He suddenly accelerated, swiping his claws as a pitch-black blade of demon wind tore through the sky toward Li Su!
Li Su's bamboo body swayed, barely evading it. The demon wind blade struck the sand, blasting black sand high into the air.
He countered by firing several Star Spirit Bamboo Leaf Blades behind him. Though they could not inflict fatal wounds, they continuously harassed the enemy and slowed their advance.
They drew ever closer to the edge of the battlefield!
They could already clearly feel the terrifying energy fluctuations spilling from the experts' clashes, making their hearts tremble.
"Now! Fellow Daoist Zhiwei, use your full strength to burrow into the sand at the lower left and hide!"
Li Su abruptly transmitted the message. At the same time, his bamboo body shone brightly as he instantly set up seven or eight crude Illusion Arrays and barrier arrays behind them, creating a large region of warped light and shadow that temporarily obscured the wolf demons' vision.
Zhiwei did not hesitate. She immediately dove downward and once again burrowed deep beneath the sand.
Li Su changed direction and charged toward the flank of the demonic cultivators, deliberately releasing obvious energy fluctuations to draw their attention.
"Hm? Where did this bamboo spirit come from? You're courting death!" At the outer edge of the demonic cultivators' group, a demon lord with the cultivation of an Early Stage Celestial Immortal had been observing the central battle when he was startled and abruptly turned around.
Seeing Li Su charging straight at him, he did not even pause to think. With a casual wave of his hand, a filthy blood-colored demonic claw reached out. In his eyes, this suicidal spirit creature had come only to throw its life away.
That was exactly what Li Su wanted!
He suddenly stopped and turned, narrowly brushing past the demonic claw. At the same time, he shouted, "Senior, spare my life! This junior was being pursued by evil demons and stumbled into this place by mistake. I had no intention of disturbing you!"
Before his words had even faded, the three wolf demons behind him had already broken through the Illusion Array's obstruction. Their savage figures and peak Earth Immortal demon auras were revealed without the slightest concealment!
The demon lord froze for a moment. Then he saw the three wolf demons pursuing Li Su, especially the wolf demon leader's peak Earth Immortal cultivation, and immediately misunderstood the situation. He let out a vicious laugh.
"So you have accomplices? Mere Earth Immortal demon scum dare to crash into my demonic presence? All of you can die!"
He clearly could not be bothered to distinguish right from wrong. He only felt that he had been offended. Abandoning Li Su at once, he split his demonic claw into three, and the claws seized at the three wolf demons with a stench of blood and filth!
The wolf demon leader was both shocked and furious. He hurriedly explained, "Demon Lord, quell your anger!
We are only pursuing fugitives. We had absolutely no intention of offending you!" But the demon lord did not listen. His attack had already arrived!
Left with no choice, the wolf demon leader roared and swung his claws to meet it! The other two wolf demons were also forced to fight.
Boom!
The demonic claws collided with the demon wind, and energy exploded outward! A peak Earth Immortal against an Early Stage Celestial Immortal—the result was beyond doubt!
The wolf demon leader screamed and was sent flying, blood spraying from his mouth. The other two wolf demons were directly crushed by the demonic claws, their bones shattered and tendons torn. They were gravely injured and near death!
With that brief delay, Li Su had already fled far away. He swiftly concealed his aura and transmitted to Zhiwei beneath the ground, "Go!"
One above and one below, they desperately fled toward the outskirts of the battlefield while the demon lord's attention was drawn to the wolf demons and the other cultivators around the battlefield were distracted by this minor incident!
Behind them came the unwilling roars of the wolf demon leader, the demon lord's arrogant laughter, and even fiercer sounds of battle—clearly, in order to survive, the wolf demon leader had no choice but to fight with all his might, temporarily tying down the demon lord instead.
Li Su did not dare look back. He reunited with Zhiwei after she emerged from beneath the sand and pushed their speed to the limit. Only after they had completely left that chaotic battlefield behind and could no longer sense the terrifying energy fluctuations did they dare stop and catch their breath.
"Th-that was close..." Zhiwei collapsed onto the sand, her little face pale as lingering fear filled her heart. Her gaze toward Li Su was full of gratitude. "Thank you for saving my life, Fellow Daoist Mo Xing! If not for your cleverness, we would surely have died today!"
Li Su's bamboo body swayed as he calmed the surging power within him. His actions just now had seemed simple, but they had in fact posed an enormous test of his divine sense, his application of arrays, and his grasp of timing.
He slowly said, "There is no need to be so polite, Fellow Daoist. We are both wanderers in a foreign land. Helping each other is only natural."
After resting for a moment, Zhiwei seemed to make up her mind. She took a jade box from her robes and opened it, revealing three crystals the size of pigeon eggs. They emitted pure, gentle moonlight power. They were Moon Essence Stone Cores.
"Fellow Daoist Mo Xing, I have no way to repay such a great favor. Though these three Moon Essence Stone Cores are important to my clan, I wish to offer you one as a small token of gratitude. I hope you will not refuse."
She held one in both hands and offered it to Li Su.
Li Su swept it with his divine sense and could feel the pure lunar moonlight power within. It would greatly benefit his cultivation of the stellar Dao, and it truly was a fine treasure. After a brief hesitation, he did not refuse. He gently curled a bamboo branch around it. "Thank you, Fellow Daoist Zhiwei. This item truly is useful to me."
Seeing Li Su accept it, Zhiwei smiled and carefully put away the remaining two pieces.
At that moment, the fragment of the "Bedrock Rune" deep within Li Su's primordial spirit grew faintly warm once more!
At the same time, the Moon Essence Stone Core he had put away seemed to resonate faintly with the "Bedrock Rune." The moonlight power it emitted vaguely pointed toward the northwest!
Immediately afterward, the phantom image of the ancient bronze mirror that had flashed through his mind before appeared once more!
The mirror light was slightly clearer than before, still shining toward the northwest. Within that light, a... blurry path seemed to faintly emerge, winding through endless mountain ranges?
Li Su's heart shook violently!
The Kunlun Mirror! It was guiding him again! And this time, strengthened by a treasure like the Moon Essence Stone Core that contained pure yin power, the guidance had become even clearer! It had even revealed part of the path?
"Fellow Daoist, what is wrong?" Zhiwei noticed Li Su's abnormality—his bamboo body was trembling slightly—and asked with concern.
Li Su suppressed the excitement in his heart and slowly said, "Nothing. I merely felt something... Fellow Daoist Zhiwei, what are your plans from here?"
Zhiwei's expression darkened as she said softly, "Black Fiend Ridge has considerable influence. I cannot return to the Green Rain Plains.
I can only leave far away and find a remote place to cultivate diligently, in the hope that one day I may avenge my clan..." As she spoke, a trace of determination flashed in her eyes.
Li Su fell silent for a moment before saying, "I wish to head northwest, seek out immortal mountains, and find a master to study under.
This is not a place to remain for long. You and I could travel together for a while and look after one another."
Zhiwei's eyes brightened at once, but she soon hesitated. "But... I will only drag you down..."
"It is nothing. Once we leave this region, Black Fiend Ridge's reach may not extend so far.
Besides, one more person means one more source of strength," Li Su said.
He was not simply a softhearted man, but he felt that this Rabbit Demon had a decent nature. Moreover, she was skilled in earth escape and traveling underground, which might make up for some of his own shortcomings.
Traveling together through this dangerous Primordial World would indeed increase their chances of survival somewhat.
Zhiwei considered it, then finally nodded heavily. "Alright! Then thank you, Fellow Daoist! This little demon is willing to follow you northwest!"
Thus, Li Su gained a companion on his westward journey.
After a brief rest, the two of them set out once more toward the northwest, following the mirror light's guidance that Li Su had sensed.
Ahead of them lay a broader, unknown Primordial World, filled with both opportunities and dangers.
What Li Su did not know was that not long after he left, at the bottom of the sand pit deep within the Black Desert, the scarlet light that had sparked countless struggles was, after a brutal battle,
ultimately swept away by a sudden immortal radiance, clear and cold as moonlight. It vanished without a trace, leaving behind only devastation and the furious, unwilling roars of countless experts...
Before you continue