Whoosh! A pair of enormous, translucent purple wings beat furiously behind the Black Old Devil. His hand clamped around Li Xiaoya's neck, leaving him unable to breathe or muster any strength. He shot forward at a terrifying speed, flashing across the sky and vanishing beyond the horizon in the blink of an eye. The other three elders behind him gradually caught up, hurtling onward without pause.
Master Long and his companions lagged dozens of miles behind them. They had started too late, and with their cultivation levels so close, they could not narrow the gap despite pursuing with all their might. Master Long kept trying to provoke the Black Old Devil, but he received no response whatsoever. Their suspicions only deepened. They had no idea what scheme the Black Old Devil was plotting, but they could only steel themselves and keep chasing.
Before long, the two groups of cultivators had pursued one another for hundreds of miles...
While the chase ahead had descended into a bubbling cauldron of chaos, a figure suddenly materialized in the sky above the little valley where Li Xiaoya had been captured. It was Hua Xiuxian. Looking thoroughly pleased with himself, he murmured, "Li Xiaoya, oh, Li Xiaoya, let's hope you survive. Hahaha!" Then he burst into smug laughter.
"Hey, Shadow? Are you still there?" After laughing for a while, Hua Xiuxian suddenly seemed to remember something and called out.
Whoosh! Shadow appeared dozens of yards away from Hua Xiuxian and said with a laugh, "Haha! We really owe you for your help this time, Fellow Daoist Hua. Here's what you wanted." With that, he took out a Storage Pouch and tossed it to Hua Xiuxian.
"Thank you, then!" Hua Xiuxian swept his divine sense over the Storage Pouch and, finding nothing amiss, accepted it without