"That thing... it's too disgusting, too filthy! I don't want to die at its hands!"
Duan Xiaoyu shouted, her face somewhat twisted and contorted from running.
Xu Taiping said nothing.
"Boom!"
Just then, another tremendous crash came from behind them. The ground beneath their feet began shaking violently, and a terrifying surge of spiritual power swept toward them from behind like a tide, carrying a heavy, foul stench.
Even without looking back, the two could guess.
That savage beast must have burrowed out of the ground.
"Clang!"
At this, Xu Taiping held nothing back. He immediately rose into the air on his sword, extending a hand toward Duan Xiaoyu:
"Grab on if you don't want to die!"
"Okay!"
So nervous she was on the verge of tears, Duan Xiaoyu seized Xu Taiping's outstretched hand.
With a whoosh that pierced the air, a streak of sword light shot out of the mountain forest.
In the blink of an eye, it had reached a mountaintop opposite them.
An enraged roar then resounded through the mountain forest where Phoenix Perch Hall stood.
"Yellow Leaf Slope. Good, it's not too far from Starfall Lake."
An incense stick's worth of time later, inside a stone tower built from massive rocks, Xu Taiping carefully searched the map before him and finally confirmed their current location.
He had been so focused on escaping that he had paid no attention to direction or distance, fleeing on his sword until his true qi was nearly exhausted before stopping.
"Urgh!..."
Just then, a bout of vomiting suddenly sounded from an adjoining room in the stone tower.
"Are you... all right?"
Xu Taiping looked up and called toward the next room.
"I'm... I'm fine! I'm fine, Eldest Brother Taiping!"
Duan Xiaoyu's weak voice came from next door.
"Good, as long