The Hunt is Underway

The smell of blood was thick and inescapable, clinging to the nasal cavity and drilling into the lungs with every breath.

Crimson blood flowed along the street gutters, pooling into dark red puddles in the low-lying areas that shimmered with an eerie, dark luster under the setting sun.

Severed limbs and disemboweled corpses carpeted the ground; every step sank into the gore, pulling up viscous threads of blood from the soles of his boots, feeling like treading on soaked cotton wool.

In two hours, he had lost count of how many people he had killed.

Halfway through the slaughter, the Brocade Guard and the garrison troops had broken, fleeing in all directions while wailing for their parents.

Yet, the Grandmaster Player overseers were even more ruthless than he was, cutting down the retreating soldiers like wheat.

With four peak Grandmaster players attacking simultaneously, those common soldiers and Brocade Guard likely never understood, even in death, that they would perish at the hands of their own side.

Wang Xuan felt somewhat numb to it all.

He circulated his internal energy through his body a few times, and the fatigue receded like a tide, leaving his spirit refreshed once more.

He flicked his hand, sending droplets of blood flying from his fingertips, tracing dark red arcs against the sunset.

Those four Grandmaster Player overseers had not attacked him once from start to finish.

Once the army was wiped out, they turned and left, sprinting away in four different directions.

Wang Xuan did not pursue; they would cross paths sooner or later, so there was no rush.

"Trying to trap me in a city?" He tugged at the corner of his mouth, his face expressionless. "Dream on."

He engaged his movement technique, his figure flickering as he bolted toward the city outskirts. With several movement techniques pushed to their limits, he moved as fast as a pale golden ghost, vanishing into the twilight in a flash.

Just as he reached the base of the city wall, a figure blocked his path.

It was one of the four overseers who had retreated earlier, dressed in coarse cloth, his face as stiff as if carved from wood, devoid of any human warmth.

Seeing Wang Xuan approach, the man raised a hand and fired a signal flare that whistled into the sky, exploding into a blinding white light in the twilight, visible for dozens of miles around.

Wang Xuan paused for a moment, then realized that three sharp auras were rapidly closing in on his position.

"So that's where you were waiting."

He did not slow his pace, his figure accelerating like an arrow released from a bow. Enveloped in a fierce gale, he lunged straight at the blocking Grandmaster. His internal energy surged wildly into his Blood Blade, causing the blade to hum and vibrate, emitting a piercing, domineering shriek of thirst.

The Grandmaster's dull eyes flickered. His internal energy erupted, condensing into a formless force field that distorted the air and sent loose stones hovering.

Great Shift of Heaven and Earth!

This divine skill could shift force, deflect attacks, and unlock human potential; practiced to its peak, it rendered one nearly invincible.

Wang Xuan pressed his palm to the hilt, and the Blood Blade sprang from its sheath. As the cold light emerged, a blade intent permeated the air.

Divine Blade Slash!

A cyan-red blade light, like an evil crescent moon, cleaved through the twilight and reached his opponent in an instant. The blade intent was bone-chilling, like the breath of death pressed against the man's face.

The last time he used this move at the fifth level of the Grandmaster realm, it could barely break the Indestructible Diamond Divine Skill. Now, with his peak Grandmaster cultivation and the Divine Blade Slash at its limit, the strike caused the world to darken, as if even the wind had been severed.

The skin on the Grandmaster's face buckled under the pressure of the blade intent, his breathing hitching.

The force field of the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth spun frantically, attempting to deflect and shift the strike away.

Formless force coiled around the blade's edge like countless hands pushing at once, trying to alter the trajectory of the light.

But it was all in vain.

The intent of the Divine Blade Slash was like a law of causality; the moment it locked on, the outcome was sealed. No matter how he tried to shift or dissipate the force, he could not escape the fate of this blade.

The blade light passed silently, accompanied only by a faint, thin sound of tearing air.

The Grandmaster froze, his eyes wide with shock. A thin line of blood appeared in the center of his forehead, extending straight down through his brow, nose, lips, and chin, cleaving all the way to his chest.

Wang Xuan acted with lightning speed, his left hand darting out as he unleashed the Energy Absorption Technique at full power.

A stream of internal energy, resembling a blood-red dragon, was forcibly ripped from the wound, tracing an arc through the air before diving into Wang Xuan's palm.

The Grandmaster Player's eyes instantly lost their luster. His body swayed, then split in two with a wet thud. Before the severed corpse could even hit the ground, it withered and shriveled at a visible rate, turning into piles of ash that were scattered by the wind, leaving only an empty set of clothes on the ground.

"Trying to stop me? You aren't worthy."

Wang Xuan sheathed his blade. Without even glancing at the three approaching auras behind him, he tapped his toe and transformed into a blur, rushing out of the Yuhang City territory in the blink of an eye.

By the time he vanished on the horizon, the other three overseer Grandmasters landed on the city wall. They stared at the clothes on the ground and the bottomless blade mark on the bluestone bricks. The residual blade intent in the crevice pricked their throats like needles, making it hard to breathe.

None of the three spoke, their eyes dead and hollow. One of them pulled a carrier pigeon from his robes and tossed it into the sky.

The pigeon flapped its wings and flew away.

Clearly, they had been well-prepared for the failure of the interception.

Rumble.

The ground trembled slightly.

Wang Xuan sat by the roadside, tending to a campfire. A wild chicken roasted to a golden brown on the spit, its fat dripping into the fire with a crackle.

He tore off a leg and chewed it slowly. His internal energy circulated faintly, and wisps of black vapor seeped from his pores, only to be instantly incinerated by his scorching energy.

It had been five days since he fought his way out of Yuhang City.

For the past five days, he had specifically burrowed into uninhabited mountain forests, avoiding towns and official roads, thinking that this would surely shake off his pursuers.

Yet he had still underestimated the methods of the Royal Clan; no matter if it was the wild rabbits or pheasants he hunted, the wild fruits he picked, or even the mountain springs he found, he would always be poisoned after eating or drinking them.

It was not the kind of lethal poison that killed instantly, but a chronic one that eroded his meridians and wore down his true qi bit by bit, seeping deep into his system before he even realized it.

It was as if every step he took forward, someone had already laid poison ahead of time, just waiting for him to consume it.

"How fucking sinister." Wang Xuan cursed, throwing the remaining chicken bones into the campfire.

Fortunately, his cultivation was no longer what it used to be.

The newly acquired Nine Yang Divine Skill, Great Shift of Heaven and Earth, and Wedding Dress Divine Art had all been One-Click Maxed by him.

The Nine-Yang True Qi was extremely yang and rigid, specifically countering cold and evil poisons; the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth unlocked the body's potential, greatly increasing his physical resistance to toxins; the Wedding Dress Divine Art possessed a domineering true qi, acting like a red-hot branding iron that could refine away any poison that dared to enter.

With these divine skills taking turns to purge his system, very few poisons in this martial arts world could affect him.

As for those strange poisons that clearly exceeded the level of this martial arts world, whenever he approached or was about to come into contact with them, his heart would inexplicably skip a beat, giving him a sense of palpitations.

At first, he was puzzled, but later he realized that this was the "Mind-Absorbing Origin Return" property of the Arhat Demon-Subduing Divine Skill at work. After casting aside all distracting thoughts, his mind became absurdly sharp, his perception of the outside world far surpassing mere spiritual intent, allowing him to trigger warnings from the unknown.

Relying on this, he had bypassed several water pools and fruit patches that were clearly problematic.

"So, these past few days have been passable, all things considered."

Wang Xuan clapped his hands and stood up, gazing into the distance.

Dust billowed in the air as a squad of light cavalry led the way, with more figures looming in the shadows behind them, their banners snapping loudly in the wind.

The scouts were becoming more numerous, impossible to shake off like flies. The pressure of being surrounded from all directions felt like a net slowly tightening, making him feel somewhat irritable.

"I can't keep dragging this out."

He exhaled, a decision forming in his mind; since the entire Great Ming had fallen into the hands of the Royal Clan, with their people everywhere in the towns, checkpoints, and ports, he might as well head overseas.

The vast, boundless ocean—let's see how you chase me there.

"Speed up, break through."

Wang Xuan stomped out the campfire and moved, sprinting toward the direction of the coast. Behind him, the scouts of the light cavalry squad had already discovered his trail, and the sound of horns began to wail, echoing across the empty wilderness.