"My flying technique was indeed not practiced enough. I relied entirely on mana to support it, so it looked rather ugly!"
Li Qingyun smiled faintly, tapping off the ground as he glided like a black hawk into a nearby courtyard.
More than a dozen wandering martial artists lived in this courtyard. Jia Song had secretly drugged them with soul-losing, illusion-inducing substances, leaving them as dull as puppets on strings, their movements and minds wholly controlled by Jia Song.
If this state lasted another ten days or half a month, then even if they recovered afterward, their minds would be severely damaged, and they would become fools.
"Thunder Seal!"
"Awaken!"
"Many thanks, Daoist friend, for saving us..."
Li Qingyun had already mastered the Illusion Spirit Spell and understood the ins and outs of such things. Coupled with Lightning Intent Shocking Soul Consciousness, by the time he had passed through two courtyards, he had freed those martial heroes and several other Daoists from their illusion-befuddled, soul-lost states.
Fortunately, these people's souls had not been scattered too severely. Otherwise, even he would have been unable to save them.
Even with their soul-lost state removed now, their minds had still suffered grave harm. Many of them could barely remember what had happened over the past few days.
They would need to take more pills that replenished spiritual vitality before they could slowly recover their former condition.
Chi Hui, Old Daoist Wang, and the others each had their own methods. Some directly used spells to sneak over, while others visited under the pretense of calling on neighbors, gathering everyone and informing them of tonight's operation.
Jia Song had also said that as long as people stayed within the Youdao Division and did not run about outside, visiting one another was still permitted.
After all that rushing about, Li Qingyun felt somewhat exhausted in both body and mind, and he had consumed quite a bit of mana.
He swallowed several Minor Grass Pills and sat in meditation to recover for a while.
When he looked toward the sky beyond the town, a faint thread of dawn had begun to emerge at the end of the dark, heavy horizon.
He grew somewhat anxious. Without waiting for his mana to fully recover, he hurried out of the Youdao Division and sped toward Yinshan Town's city gate.
Fortunately, Jia Song's identity was extremely useful. As he raced along the way, no one dared stop him.
But in the next moment, Li Qingyun nearly gave himself away!
As he hurried through the streets, he unexpectedly ran into Inspector Tu, who was leading troops on patrol. Thinking that things were bad, he immediately changed directions.
"Where are you going, Deputy Commander?"
Tu Xiong called out from afar.
Li Qingyun found it hard to answer and could only pretend not to hear, accelerating away.
He feared that if he spoke, the flaws in his transformed tone and aura would be noticed by Tu Xiong, who was at the fifth layer of Sha Refining, arousing his suspicion.
And if he stopped to talk, he would definitely be exposed!
Tu Xiong was surely extremely familiar with Jia Song.
"Deputy Commander Jia's thirst for human blood is growing stronger and stronger. Didn't he just drain more than a dozen townspeople..."
Tu Xiong watched Li Qingyun's hurriedly departing figure. Suspicion surfaced on his face, and after standing there for a while, he still felt that something was amiss.
"No, that man merely resembles Deputy Commander Jia. He does not carry that obvious stiff, frigid death aura!"
Having reached this thought, Inspector Tu, clad head to toe in armor with strange patterns painted across his face, abruptly changed expression and barked at the small squad under his command:
"Quick, follow me to the north gate!"
A layer of Blood Fiend Qi surged from his body. He stomped down, and cracks immediately spread across the stone slabs beneath his feet. His speed suddenly soared as he pursued Li Qingyun.
Trusting in his own formidable strength, he did not care whether the armored soldiers behind him could keep up.
A Big Black Cat bounded across the rooftops of the residential houses, swift as flight, and soon caught up with her own poop-scooper.
"Meow..."
Yuanbao leaped down and gave the speeding Li Qingyun a worried cry.
"What? Tu Xiong is actually chasing after me?"
Li Qingyun instantly understood Yuanbao's feline words, and his heart jolted in alarm.
Faster!
He looked back over his shoulder and saw Tu Xiong's burly figure pursuing him, his entire body blazing with Blood Fiend Qi. Li Qingyun immediately drove his mana and accelerated once more.
His broad sleeves snapped in the wind, while his hand tightly gripped the golden Azure Blood Talisman.
"Just as Zhou Gang said, only once I reach outside the town can the Azure Blood Talisman's effects be fully unleashed, transmitting the message thousands of miles away!"
A gray, gloomy aura shrouded the sky above the town. He could sense the power of a formation that concealed and sealed the area.
"Who goes there ahead? Stop at once, or you will be cut down without mercy!"
Tu Xiong's threatening roar rang out from behind him.
The shout alarmed the homes on both sides of the street. Townspeople lit lamps and peered outside. Seeing Inspector Tu pursuing Deputy Commander Jia, they were all somewhat bewildered.
Yet the townspeople's gazes toward Tu Xiong and "Deputy Commander Jia" carried thick fear—and hatred!
Something happened in the town every night. Now, more than a dozen people would vanish in a single night at the drop of a hat, yet these Dao officials and inspectors did nothing at all, save harshly suppressing the people.
The whole of Yinshan Town was a place one could neither escape from nor remain in—a living hell...
Li Qingyun turned a deaf ear to Tu Xiong's shouting and charged ahead at high speed.
At this moment, he felt somewhat vexed and regretful that he lacked a more formidable movement technique!
Otherwise, how could a mere Sha Refining brute of an unorthodox path possibly close in with every step of the chase!
Orthodox Daoist methods naturally crushed the unorthodox paths.
Whoosh!
His figure stalled, and Li Qingyun had already arrived before the city gate.
Several armored soldiers, their faces frozen blue, saw that it was "Deputy Commander Jia" and hurriedly moved to open the gate.
"I am Tu Xiong! Stop that thief for this inspector! He is not Deputy Commander Jia!"
Tu Xiong rushed in from behind like a bloody gale, roaring furiously.
The armored soldiers were startled out of their wits. They immediately raised spears and crossbows, preparing to aim at Li Qingyun.
"Insolence! I am Jia Song!"
Li Qingyun's cold eyes flashed like lightning as he shouted sharply, carrying seven or eight parts of Jia Song's bearing!
The armored soldiers immediately shrank back in hesitation, not knowing whom they should obey.
"Listen to Inspector Tu. He truly is not Deputy Commander Jia!"
At that moment, Daoists from the Youdao Division, alerted atop the gate tower, looked down below and urgently warned them.
The armored soldiers could only steel themselves. Their arms trembled slightly as they raised their crossbows and fired at "Deputy Commander Jia."
But in the very next instant, the soldiers only saw a blur before them, followed by a freezing bronze sword flash streaking past like lightning!
Blood sprayed, armor split, bones shattered, and several arms clutching crossbows flew off and landed upon the ground coated in a thin layer of white frost!
"Ah!"
Only then did the wounded armored soldiers' screams ring out!
"Open!"
Li Qingyun shouted. His figure swept past the armored soldiers, mana coursing through him as the bronze shortsword in his hand shot forth several feet of Sword Qi, slashing fiercely at the thick city gate.
Boom!
Wood chips, talisman paper, and frost scattered through the air as the city gate was blasted apart by a single sword strike!
"Courting death!"
"Stop!"
From high atop the gate tower, two Young Daoist priests clad in the standard Daoist robes of the Youdao Division leaped down. With a flick of their fingers, they sent four or five fireball talismans flying straight at Li Qingyun's back.
More than ten meters away, Tu Xiong's powerful, burly body also sprang into the air, his long saber sweeping out a mighty blade light!
Crack!
Lightning flashed, and a bolt of thunder fell. As it struck the leading fireball talisman, it suddenly exploded and transformed into a net of lightning covering the gate entrance.
The instant the lightning net spread, the four or five fireball talismans crashed into it one after another, shattering together with the lightning into violent currents of air!
This ingenious variation of Li Qingyun's Thunder Seal revealed his considerable mastery over lightning arts!
Indeed, under the enhancement of the mysterious Daoist effigy in his mind, his attainments in lightning arts had improved considerably. He had already begun to faintly surpass the scope of power and variations possible with the low-grade spell known as the Lingbao Temple Thunder Seal.
So long as rippling imprints of spells and divine abilities appeared on the dark wall behind the mysterious Daoist effigy, Li Qingyun could continuously observe and comprehend them. At present, there seemed to be no limit to the arts he could learn.
That was the mysterious Daoist effigy's badass quality!
Bang!
Without even turning his head, Li Qingyun swept his sword backward. The bronze Sword Qi collided with Tu Xiong's fierce blade light.
At once, sweetness rose faintly in his throat, and a trace of blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
He was injured!
But in the next moment, he borrowed the force to flip through the air and swept through the breach in the city gate.
Before you continue