Next time you chase someone, remember to bring your brain

As soon as they entered the Black Mist Forest, the light dimmed, making it impossible to see very far.

Gray, poisonous miasma clung to their skin, damp and sticky, carrying a strange, sweet, and fishy stench.

"There's a mud pit three steps to the left that can swallow a person halfway."

Lu Qingshan warned.

He walked in front, hunched over, placing every step firmly and choosing only the safest spots to tread.

Li Pingsheng followed right on his heels.

Having a living map was truly useful.

Without Lu Qingshan to lead the way, no matter how capable he was, he would be stumbling blindly through this miasma.

Li Pingsheng's chest gave a violent twitch, and his meridians throbbed with intense pain, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

He rolled up his sleeve to find blood-red threads crawling beneath the skin of his arm.

The effects of the first Pulse-Suppressing Pill had worn off.

He hurriedly fished a small porcelain bottle from his robes, shook out a second Pulse-Suppressing Pill, and shoved it into his mouth.

As the medicine dissolved, the rampaging blood energy was suppressed, and the red threads beneath his skin receded, the pain vanishing.

Only one pill remained.

He had to obtain the Red Marrow Vine.

The two walked for another incense stick's time before Lu Qingshan stopped in front of an old tree, beneath the roots of which grew several clusters of pitch-black poisonous mushrooms.

"The color of the miasma ahead isn't right."

Lu Qingshan pointed forward, where the mist had turned a pale purple.

"The toxicity is much stronger; hold your breath."

After saying this, he pulled an oil-paper packet from his robes, grabbed some dried herbs to chew on, and handed a black pill to Li Pingsheng.

"Poison-Avoiding Pill, I concocted it myself; it should hold you for a while."

Li Pingsheng took it and swallowed it immediately.

From behind them came the sound of footsteps and branches snapping.

They had come quickly.

"Pursuers."

Lu Qingshan listened, "Are those the people from the ruined temple earlier?"

Li Pingsheng said, "Don't worry about them."

Behind them, Zhou Kuang's face was flushed, and he was using his internal energy to force out the miasma he had inhaled. He felt a bit dizzy, but he didn't take it to heart.

"A piece of trash and a janitor think they can run from me?"

He chuckled, spotting footprints on the ground that had been washed by the rain. The prints were deep and the edges were messy, clearly left by someone running out of strength.

Zhou Kuang was delighted.

"They definitely can't have gone far! That kid is surely at his limit! Everyone, get out here and move faster!"

He had no idea that this was actually a trap Li Pingsheng had intentionally set for him.

"They're catching up."

Lu Qingshan said, listening to the commotion.

Li Pingsheng was not in the least bit anxious; he pulled him behind a large tree, and in the next second, his entire presence vanished completely.

Breath Concealment Art!

He blended into the tree trunk and the shadows, his heartbeat and breathing weakening until they were almost non-existent.

Lu Qingshan watched, dumbfounded.

Before long, Zhou Kuang rushed beneath the tree, cursing and swearing, barely ten yards away from them.

He kicked a nearby bush, panting heavily. Rainwater mixed with sweat streamed down his flushed face, his eyes frantic and chaotic.

Li Pingsheng watched from the shadows, seeing clearly that Zhou Kuang's internal energy was completely disordered.

This guy was nothing but a brute who had no idea how to deal with the toxins in this forest.

He was using his internal energy to force out the poison, but the toxins had already entered his internal organs; he was committing slow suicide.

Only after Zhou Kuang chased off in another direction did Li Pingsheng lead Lu Qingshan out from behind the tree, and the two continued deeper into the forest.

After walking for another half-hour, the scenery before them changed; a Withered Wood Forest draped in white spiderwebs stood before them.

The mist here was neither gray nor purple, but a pale pink, and the air was filled with a cloyingly sweet fragrance.

The moment Lu Qingshan saw those spiderwebs, his entire body stiffened, and he couldn't help but tremble.

He stared fixedly at that patch of pink mist.

"It's right here..." his voice trembled, "Five years ago, it was right here... that I heard my sister's voice..."

"She said she was better, that she had cooked a meal at home and was waiting for me to return..."

His eyes were bloodshot; that memory had tormented him his entire life.

"This mist is wicked; it can conjure up whatever is in a person's heart. Once you fall in, you lose your mind, and in the end, you become fodder for that beast, sucked dry until nothing is left."

Lu Qingshan drew a sharp breath, forcing himself to calm down.

Li Pingsheng also watched the pink mist, his [Martial Wisdom] talent activating.

In his eyes, this mist was not mist at all, but countless spores capable of affecting the human brain.

Once a person inhaled them, whatever they were thinking about would be amplified, leading to hallucinations.

Borrowing a knife to kill.

An idea popped into his head.

"Wait here."

After saying this, Li Pingsheng activated his [Light Body] talent and darted to the edge of the pink mist.

He did not go in; instead, he deliberately left deep footprints near a thicket of thorns covered in spiderwebs and tore a piece of cloth from his hem, hanging it on a thorn.

With everything set, he pulled Lu Qingshan back behind a large rock upwind, falling completely silent.

Everything was arranged.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Zhou Kuang chased him to the outskirts of the Withered Wood Forest.

He followed the scrap of cloth and the footprints to this spot, his internal toxic miasma already beyond his control, his mind muddled.

His eyes held nothing but ferocity and greed.

"Zhao Family... the Zhao Family's bounty... is mine!"

He saw the pink mist and smelled that cloying, sweet fragrance. With the toxins and his inner greed surging to his head, he didn't find anything wrong; instead, he found the scent quite pleasant.

"Li Pingsheng! You piece of trash, get out here!!"

He roared, stepping straight into the pink mist.

The pink fog swallowed him in an instant.

Zhou Kuang's eyes went blank for a moment, then shifted into wild ecstasy.

He seemed to see Li Pingsheng kneeling on the ground kowtowing to him, while the head of the Zhao Family, Zhao Zhentian, smiled at him while holding a tray of gold ingots.

"Hahaha! Li Pingsheng! Go to hell!"

"The bounty is mine! It's all mine!!"

Zhou Kuang was completely trapped, believing he was slaughtering Li Pingsheng to claim the reward, swinging his steel blade wildly at the surrounding dead trees.

"Die! All of you, die for me!"

The blade energy shattered the rotten wood, sending wood chips and dust flying everywhere.

Such a commotion woke the master of this territory.

From a pitch-black cave crawled a spider as large as a water buffalo.

The spider was jet-black, its eight legs long and sharp, and on its back grew a woman's face, eyes closed, a smile playing on its lips.

A Tier 2 demonic beast, the Phantom Face Spider!

It climbed to the top of a dead tree and watched Zhou Kuang, who was hacking away in his hallucination.

The closed eyes on the face on its back snapped open, revealing two hollow, pitch-black orbs.

Zhou Kuang had no idea; he thought he had just cleaved Li Pingsheng's head open with a single strike, laughing heartily in his delight.

"Ha... haha... uh?"

His laughter choked off.

A purple strand of spider silk descended from the sky, binding Zhou Kuang's limbs and body tight in one motion.

The sensation of being bound and the sharp pain jolted Zhou Kuang awake.

He saw that woman's face inches from his own, saw those hollow, emotionless eyes.

His blood ran cold, his mind going blank.

Just as he tried to scream, the silk tightened violently, choking the sound back into his throat.

The Phantom Face Spider moved all eight legs in unison, dragging its struggling "prey" toward its dark, cavernous nest.

The muffled cries from his throat grew fainter and fainter, until they vanished entirely.