Ling Tian didn't retrace his steps. Po Di and Po Family's Youngest Brother had already cut off the route he'd taken, bringing a large force of cultivators with them.
Not only that, Po Di and the others had laid plenty of traps along the way. If Ling Tian went that way, they would surely hold him up for a while. At the very least, they would make him expend more energy, giving Venerable Sword Saint more chances to capture him. So Ling Tian changed direction, rendering the traps Po Di's group had prepared useless.
Although Chi Xue and the others were a little surprised to see Ling Tian change course so suddenly, they didn't think much of it. Clever as they were, they could figure out why he'd changed direction. More importantly, this was the eastern region of the God Realm, their territory. They could take large Teleportation Formations to get ahead of Ling Tian and intercept him, use the God-Devouring Demon Domain to block him, or lay down array-pattern restrictions. Any of those would cause him trouble to some degree.
The more trouble they caused Ling Tian now, the more energy he would expend—and the better Venerable Sword Saint's chances of capturing or killing him.
And so, Chi Xue and the others blocked the way ahead while Venerable Sword Saint pursued from behind. Ling Tian was caught in a pincer, with foes hemming him in from every side. Anyone else in such a predicament would have been worried sick, but Ling Tian looked perfectly calm—more relaxed than before, in fact. The faint smile on his lips said it all.
"You're still smiling?" Poxiong said irritably. "Venerable Sword Saint is chasing you from behind, while Chi Xue and those God Devouring Bodies have taken Teleportation Formations to get ahead of