Ye Qingshuang pressed her lips together, bitterness rising in her mouth. She sighed softly. "Instructor Yun, put me down! I can burn my blood essence to hold him off for a while. Take that chance to escape."
"No!" Yun Che refused outright. "You may not know this yet, but the Vice Dean is dead. If anything happens to you too, Falling Moon Academy will have no one to protect it. King Qin can't fight them all alone. Sooner or later, the entire Falling Moon Fief will fall."
Ye Qingshuang looked horrified. Her first reaction was that it was impossible.
The Vice Dean had stood at the peak of the Grandmaster Realm, unquestionably the strongest person beneath the King Realm.
All four King Realm powerhouses had clearly been surrounding and attacking her. How could anyone have killed the Vice Dean?
But Yun Che's expression didn't look like he was lying, and he had no reason to lie to her.
"But if this goes on, neither of us will get away."
Ye Qingshuang's brows knitted tightly. Instructor Yun was merely at the Innate level. How could he escape a King Realm expert? It was pure fantasy.
"Finished saying your last words?"
"Then both of you can die!"
Lu Luxiu swung his axe down, unleashing his strongest move. Facing a mighty mid-stage King Realm expert like Ye Qingshuang, he dared not underestimate her in the slightest.
Even if she was gravely wounded, anything could happen before she was truly dead. That was a lesson he had learned through countless life-and-death battles.
His thinking was sound. Unfortunately, he still made a mistake that powerful experts were all too prone to making: overlooking someone weaker.
Under Lu Luxiu's stunned gaze, Yun Che used Thunder Shadow Divine Movement, turned into a streak of lightning, and sped away.
"Ding! Grab successful. Congratulations, you obtained one gold coin." "Ding! Congratulations, divine blessing triggered. Ordinary gold coin transformed into a mystic osmium gold coin." [Mystic osmium gold coin (single-use treasure): Immeasurably heavy. Throwing it unleashes a weight of ten thousand tons.]
Before fleeing, Yun Che naturally hadn't forgotten to grab something from his opponent, luckily triggering the divine blessing mechanism.
"H-he knows Thunder Shadow Divine Movement too? Isn't that Ye Qingshuang's exclusive movement technique? Could he actually be a disciple that woman secretly raised?"
Lu Luxiu's face darkened thunderously, and his fists clenched in fury. Ye Qingshuang had relied on Thunder Shadow Divine Movement to keep eluding them, eventually even escaping their encirclement.
They both envied and hated that top-grade movement technique.
"Damn ant! Let's see how much spiritual energy you have to fuel such an exquisite movement technique!"
With that, Lu Luxiu used his own high-grade movement technique and gave chase.
Although the two techniques were only one grade apart, a top-grade movement technique was far faster than a high-grade one.
However, King Realm powerhouses had an inherent advantage: they could fly. That narrowed the gap considerably.
Even using Thunder Shadow Divine Movement at full power, Yun Che could only open a gap of roughly a thousand meters. His opponent remained hot on his heels.
Ye Qingshuang was equally shocked that Yun Che knew her movement technique, but they were running for their lives. This wasn't the time to ask.
"If you keep fleeing like this, your spiritual energy will soon run dry. Let me buy you some time. Escape on your own!"
Yun Che fell silent briefly, then said, "Don't worry. If I really can't escape, I'll throw you at him without hesitation."
On Yun Che's back, Ye Qingshuang raised her hand slightly, wanting to crack his skull open. Sure, that makes sense, but saying it so bluntly still hurts, you know!
"I know an underground river. Once we get there, I'll have a way to shake him off."
Lu Luxiu seemed to have grown tired of the chase. He burned a little blood essence and caught up to them in an instant.
"Hmph! Your deaths are already decided. Why struggle so desperately?"
"Chopped Pepper Three-Axe Combo!"
Three axe beams, each over ten feet long, hurtled toward Yun Che from three directions.
Yun Che narrowed his eyes, instantly drew the Radiant Annihilation Sword, and unleashed Frost Heaven's "Severance" sword strike.
His offensive power wasn't weak, but it was clearly still far below that of a King Realm powerhouse.
Of course, he had never intended to fight his opponent. He only needed to hold the attack off briefly before using Thunder Shadow Divine Movement to evade it.
Lu Luxiu stared in disbelief from the air. Who exactly is this fellow? How does he even know the Qin Family's secret combat technique? And how can his strike be so powerful?
"Who exactly are you? The Qin Family has no sons in this generation. You can't be one of them!"
"Why ask so many questions? It's rude not to return a favor. Here's a move for you too!"
Yun Che took out the mystic osmium gold coin and flicked it backward at Lu Luxiu, who was dozens of meters away.
A King Realm powerhouse had excellent eyesight. At a glance, Lu Luxiu could tell that it was nothing more than an ordinary gold coin.
Cautious by nature, however, he didn't catch it with his hand, fearing poison. Instead, he held his battle-axe across his body, intending to casually deflect it.
"Did you pick the wrong hidden weapon? You think a mere gold coin can..."
Before he could finish, the coin struck his battle-axe, and a terrifying force slammed into him.
Lu Luxiu's expression changed drastically. He instantly exerted more strength to resist, but a sharp crack rang out. Despite his King Realm physique, the tremendous force twisted his arm until it broke.
The flat of the battle-axe smashed into Lu Luxiu's chest, forcing him to spit out a mouthful of blood and sending him flying backward.
Lu Luxiu's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. How could he not realize that the strange brat had played him?
An ordinary gold coin couldn't possibly weigh that much. Without a doubt, it had been a treasure.
Lu Luxiu forced himself to land and steady his body, then pried the coin out of the axe blade. Its power had already dissipated.
"A rare, single-use special treasure! Damn it!"
He crushed the coin and, ignoring his injuries, flew after Yun Che again.
This time, he no longer cared about burning blood essence. All he wanted was to kill that sneaky little bastard as soon as possible.
"You bastard! Stop right there!"
Lu Luxiu was furious, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. After all his years of struggle, this was the first time an ant had injured him.
It was no longer a matter of losing face. This was outright humiliation. Only chopping the brat up, stuffing him into buns, and eating him would vent the rage festering inside him.
By then, however, Yun Che had already reached a small river with Ye Qingshuang on his back.
The river itself was ordinary, but countless tangled passages carrying underground currents lay beneath its bed. Anyone unfamiliar with them would never find their way out and would only drown.
Yun Che glanced back at the bearded man hurtling toward him with a savage expression and waved.
"Beardy, next time we meet, I might be the one chasing you down and beating you up. See you."
With that, Yun Che jumped into the river with a splash, carrying Ye Qingshuang, who was watching him with a strange look.
"You think you can escape by jumping into a river? Dream on!"
Lu Luxiu plunged into the river too, only to discover countless underground passages beneath its bed. He froze, dumbfounded. He had no idea which passage to follow.
After a brief silence, the gently flowing river suddenly erupted skyward. A bearded man stood in the water, gripping an axe in his left hand while his broken arm flopped about, wildly unleashing his strongest attacks.
"Aaargh!"
"Damn it! Damn it all!"
Before long, the three other King Realm powerhouses searching the Wuxia Mountains for Ye Qingshuang—Hong Fusheng, Fatty Zhou, and Xu Asi—arrived as well.
Watching Lu Luxiu unleash combat techniques in the river like a madman, the three exchanged bewildered looks.
"What's wrong with him? Has he gone mad?"
"From the look of him, he's badly injured. Could that woman Ye Qingshuang have done it?"
"Impossible, surely! With Ye Qingshuang's current strength, even burning her blood essence would only let her exchange a few moves with Beardy Lu at best. How could she injure him?"
Before you continue