Ye Fan had just turned to look back when his heart began pounding wildly.
The old woman was only a hundred meters away. She could reach them in the blink of an eye.
"You juniors should stop and come with me quietly. Don't put up a pointless struggle."
The old woman's voice was calm, but she was astonished.
With her cultivation at the Great Power level, she had somehow let these Dao Palace juniors run for so long.
These people had to be human prodigies.
The thought only strengthened her resolve to capture them.
She stamped her foot, and a dragon-shaped Dao Pattern appeared out of thin air. The next moment, she shot toward Ye Fan and the others as if she had teleported.
"We're done for! Is Dao Master really going to bite the dust here today?"
Duan De piloted a White Jade Bowl with a hole in it, leaving a streak of white light across the sky.
"Old Demoness, why the hell are you chasing us? Picking on the weak—shameless old hag! If Dao Master ever becomes a Great Power, I'll kill you with one move!"
Duan De kept running his mouth, buying Black Emperor time.
"What a sharp tongue!"
The old woman glared at Duan De, her face darkening as killing intent burst from her eyes.
"Woof, woof, woof! Done!"
Just then, Black Emperor cried out excitedly. A White Jade Platform covered in formation patterns appeared before him.
"Void Teleportation Array. One use will send us thousands of miles!"
Black Emperor held up the White Jade Platform and spoke smugly.
"Quit dawdling! I can't hold out much longer!"
Ye Fan's face was pale. After running the Xuanji Step for so long, even his Sea of Suffering—several times larger than an ordinary cultivator's—was nearly drained.
Duan De wasn't doing any better. He was panting with his tongue hanging out.
It would have been one thing if they were only saving themselves, but they had been carrying Black Emperor along the whole way. Naturally, that had multiplied their exhaustion several times over.
Hearing this, Black Emperor didn't dare waste any time. Their pursuer was a Great Power, after all, two major realms above the Dao Palace realm, with the Four Extremes and Dragon Transformation realms in between.
If she caught up, even his copper skin and iron bones wouldn't last more than a few blows.
A flash of white light passed. Void Runes glittered as the Teleportation Array transformed into a Dao Platform, opening a rift in space before them.
"Hold tight to the platform! If you get lost in the spatial rift, you'll be dead even if the Old Demoness doesn't get you!"
Black Emperor hurriedly warned them. Then he formed a hand seal, and a thin curtain of light appeared over the White Jade Platform as it hurtled into the spatial rift.
"You think you can get away?!"
The old woman's gaze sharpened. Without a second thought, she flung the Dragon Head Staff—her Natal Dao Soldier—out of her hand.
The Dragon Head Staff tore through the void and appeared above Ye Fan and the others the next moment. A golden light descended, freezing the surrounding space. The spatial rift warped, as if it might vanish at any moment.
The White Jade Platform was also pinned in midair.
"Bad news! That Old Demoness has sealed off space!"
Black Emperor looked up at the Dragon Head Staff in horror.
"Ye Kid, hurry and figure out how to knock that Magic Treasure down, or we're all doomed!"
"That's a Great Power's Dao Soldier! You think I can just knock it down because you say so?!"
Ye Fan's face darkened as he replied irritably, but he still summoned the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron from his Sea of Suffering.
"Nine Secrets: Jie!"
Ye Fan's cultivation technique worked at full speed, squeezing out the last of his strength.
Under the strain, a trace of power from the True Dragon Essence Blood—which had fallen dormant—surfaced, and his exhausted divine power rapidly recovered.
"Go!"
Ye Fan triggered the tenfold power of Nine Secrets: Jie, poured all his magical power into the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron, and swung it at the Dragon Head Staff.
Boom!
A piercing crash rang out. Every wisp of Mysterious Yellow Mother Qi was as heavy as a mountain, and the entire Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron was forged from it.
The Dragon Head Staff was knocked askew, and the space that had been frozen loosened slightly.
"Quick!"
Ye Fan's face went pale. The rebound from the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron was far too powerful. Even with his Ancient Desolate Sacred Body, he was gravely injured.
Black Emperor didn't hesitate for a second and plunged into the spatial passage.
"Dragon Qi! So it really was you! You won't get away!"
A voice rang out, delighted yet icy, and the spatial rift closed with it.
Outside the spatial rift!
The old woman caught the Dragon Head Staff and looked at the spot where the Xuanhuang Mother Qi Cauldron had struck it. Excitement gleamed in her eyes.
"The aura of a true dragon. That's it!"
The old woman grew more and more excited. Scales even appeared on her cheeks. Then she turned to look at where the spatial rift had vanished.
"You won't get away!"
She wasn't in a hurry. Tracking wasn't her specialty, but someone else was good at it. With that thought, she immediately formed a hand seal. A flash of spiritual light vanished into the void, carrying word of her discovery to her clansmen.
An unknown mountain range!
A spatial rift appeared out of nowhere atop a mountain peak. A White Jade Platform shot out of it, but before the people on it could steady themselves, it broke apart in an instant.
Ye Fan and the others tumbled down, smashing several craters into the ground.
"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!"
A hand suddenly emerged from a human-shaped crater, grabbed the edge, and pulled its owner upright. He spat out the dust he had swallowed.
"Blackie, where did you send us?"
Duan De looked around and asked Black Emperor.
"Woof! How would I know?"
Black Emperor had fared better. He flew right out and picked up the ruined White Jade Platform from the ground.
"The formation patterns I carved are for random teleportation. I don't know where we are now, but we're at least five thousand miles away."
Black Emperor made a calculation and answered Duan De.
"Right, where's Ye Kid?"
Only then did Black Emperor remember there was one more person.
When they found Ye Fan, he had already passed out.
They had no choice but to carry him to a nearby cave abode and start treating his injuries.
A few hours later, Ye Fan opened his eyes and stood up.
With a wave of his hand, a gust of wind swept the scraps of Source Stones and medicinal herbs left in the cave abode outside.
"Ye Kid, how are your injuries?"
Black Emperor immediately asked when he saw Ye Fan.
"We need to leave at once. We're several thousand miles away from that Old Demoness, but it still isn't safe."
"Good thing I repaired the White Jade Platform. We can teleport again."
Ye Fan nodded. "I've recovered about seventy or eighty percent. I'm out of danger."
Just as Black Emperor opened his mouth to speak, Duan De walked in from outside.
His expression was serious, unlike his usual cheeky self.
He held a yellowed ancient book in his hand. When he saw Ye Fan, he passed it to him.
"Ye Kid, that Old Demoness's aura seemed familiar to me earlier. Take a look at this..."
"This is a biography I found in the tomb of a God King from the Central Land. It records what he witnessed throughout his life."
"It mentions an Ancient Race that has lived in the Myriad Dragon Nest for generations. They possess dragon bloodlines and can transform into Flood Dragons. The physiques of their royal clan are only a notch weaker than those of the Ancient Desolate Sacred Body."
Ye Fan leafed through the ancient book. Its account matched Duan De's almost exactly.
Before you continue