Yue Hongsheng's Fury!

Lin Xia gritted his teeth and got to his feet, quickly pulling a spare set of coarse cloth clothes from his pack and putting them over his original fitted outfit.

He then hastily smeared mud mixed with moss and decaying leaves over his clothes and exposed skin, concealing his scent and physical features as much as possible.

"Bulba!"

Bulbasaur understood. Its Vine Whip shot out, its tip secreting a thick, dark-purple venom that dripped onto the roots of the tree Lin Xia had just leaned against.

The venom gave off a pungent odor as it rapidly corroded organic matter, destroying the traces of his lingering scent.

"Move!"

Lin Xia barked in a low voice. Bulbasaur followed without the slightest hesitation.

Rather than taking any path, Lin Xia led Bulbasaur diagonally into dense undergrowth with barely any trails, heading west-southwest—the complete opposite of the direction he had planned before!

Sharp branches scraped against his disguise, rustling loudly, but he paid them no mind. Instead of slowing down, he accelerated.

Lin Xia no longer traveled in a straight line. Every few hundred meters, he abruptly changed direction. Along the way, he repeatedly climbed over steep rock faces, doubled back, and crossed streams to disrupt his scent.

He even used Poison Vine Bone Wings to leap between trees, leaving behind a bewilderingly tangled trail.

Lin Xia was like a startled hare, every turn utterly unpredictable, taking chaos to its very limit.

Within the forest, that dark-purple streak of light darted through the lush woods like a chilly ghost flame.

Yue Hongsheng's face was so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

Within his sensory range, Lin Xia's aura had become exceedingly elusive and intermittent. At times it was so faint it nearly vanished, only for a trace to suddenly appear somewhere completely unexpected.

The rage of having been fooled by the false trail had yet to subside when a new wave of frustration rose in his heart.

"You cunning little bastard!"

Yue Hongsheng growled.

The direction Lin Xia had chosen for his escape was completely contrary to his expectations, and the traces he had left behind were a chaotic mess, full of misdirection.

Beside a muddy stream, he caught the scent of Lin Xia entering the water. Yet after pursuing it downstream for several miles, the scent vanished completely at another shallow bank.

When he turned back upstream to search the tributaries, he sensed another faint trace more than a li from the stream, on a steep rock face covered in poisonous mushrooms. Several fresh drops of mucus remained there—carrying a hint of Bulbasaur's toxin!

Perched in a tree, Yue Hongsheng spread his powerful spiritual power outward like rippling water, carefully catching every fluctuation of Soul Power in the air, even the traces left where vegetation had been forcibly pushed aside.

Suddenly, from deep within a dense forest roughly two li to the northwest, came an incredibly faint but unmistakable burst of Life Poison, with Lin Xia's Soul Power being driven at full force!

At the same time, there came the distinct growls of a soul beast and the crash of falling trees!

It was as though he had accidentally provoked a powerful soul beast?

Yue Hongsheng snorted, a cruel sneer flashing across his face.

"Can't hide any longer? Running around in a panic?"

He believed Lin Xia had been forced to use a soul skill while being pursued by a soul beast.

With that thought, Yue Hongsheng shot toward that direction without hesitation!

He had to seize this chance and capture him with overwhelming force!

He absolutely could not give him another chance to slip away!

After all, that brat was far too clever!

However, when Yue Hongsheng descended upon the site of the outburst like a demon god, shrouded in chilling poisonous mist, what he saw nearly drove him mad on the spot!

There was only a thousand-year Iron-Armed Ape, its head pierced through by dark-purple thorns, its death utterly miserable!

Several streams of dark-green light carrying the familiar aura of Life Poison were coiled around its body, while several large trees nearby had been violently smashed apart.

Where was Lin Xia?!

Beside the Iron-Armed Ape's corpse, Yue Hongsheng sensed a very fresh poison-type marker scent left by Bulbasaur. It seemed to deliberately point toward the northeast!

Yue Hongsheng followed the scent with his senses, but after extending only a few hundred meters, it vanished completely in the strangest manner!

"Pfft!"

Yue Hongsheng was so furious that a mouthful of black blood surged up his throat, only for him to force it back down.

What fleeing in panic from a soul beast?

This was clearly a meticulously arranged trap!

Lin Xia had used a soul skill to create the illusion of battle, leaving behind a powerful aura to lure him over, then used a false marker in another direction to buy time!

Lin Xia had never been here at all!

From the very beginning, that brat had deliberately hunted a soul beast here, leaving behind the aura of his soul skill and his pet as bait!

His real body had long since fled far away in some predetermined direction!

"Ah—!"

Unable to restrain himself any longer, Yue Hongsheng threw back his head and let out a shrill howl. The terrifying pressure of a Soul Saint erupted instantly, and dense poisonous mist billowed forth, corroding the Iron-Armed Ape's corpse and the broken trees around it into nothingness!

A dignified Soul Saint had actually been toyed with by a greenhorn brat, fooled and led in circles twice in a row!

"Lin! Xia!"

Yue Hongsheng's voice was like the cold wind of the Nine Netherworlds, every word steeped in deadly poison.

"I'll capture you and turn you, along with that damned garlic toad, into fuel for my advancement!"

The hunt grew even more frenzied.

Yue Hongsheng completely abandoned all pretense of elegance, sweeping his spiritual power over the entire forest as recklessly as a searchlight.

He began tracking every subtle shift in terrain, every abnormality in the airflow, every disturbance left behind by residual Soul Power.

He summoned his martial soul, the Evil Shadow Nether Poison Chrysanthemum, which hovered above his head. As its petals trembled, they scattered countless nearly transparent particles of fine Poison Powder, which drifted down slowly and seeped into every corner of the forest.

The moment it touched him, Lin Xia would have no choice but to reveal himself!

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the precious time bought by the deception, Lin Xia had already fled to a river in the northern part of the forest. He jumped into the water and traveled along the riverbed with Bulbasaur.

Yet Lin Xia knew that although he had temporarily shaken off the most direct pursuit, that chilling gaze, like a maggot clinging to bone, still seemed to hang above him, ready to strike at any moment.

And judging from how Yue Hongsheng was making such a huge commotion, he certainly would not let him and Bulbasaur go so easily.

At that moment, Lin Xia could not help but feel fortunate that he had noticed something. Otherwise, if he had only realized it when the other man made his move, with no time left to react, the consequences would have been unimaginable!

The river flowed on for an unknown length of time. Only when it reached a relatively calm bend did Lin Xia suddenly break through the surface and take a deep breath of the damp, icy air.

Moonlight pierced through the thin clouds and spilled across the wet riverbank.

He looked back in the direction he had come from. Emerald Forest had long since vanished beyond the horizon, leaving only endless mountains and woods, along with the murmur of flowing water.

"Bulba..."

Bulbasaur poked its little head out from Lin Xia's slightly open collar, warily surveying its surroundings. Its red eyes glimmered faintly in the night.

Though they had escaped immediate danger, Bulbasaur's vigilance had not diminished in the slightest.

Lin Xia quickly scanned the area.

I need to confirm it again.

The warning in his heart had not entirely faded. Yue Hongsheng's methods were definitely not as simple as they appeared on the surface.

With that in mind, Lin Xia decided to conduct a thorough inspection.