Hunted

Lu Ze shot forward like an arrow loosed from its bow, rushing toward the abandoned well in the rear courtyard that had once been used to wash medicinal herbs.

"Trying to leave?"

Mu Li snorted coldly and stamped his left foot hard against the ground, making it collapse with a crash.

His body became a long, earthen-yellow streak that pierced through the poisonous mist and appeared above the well in an instant. His broad saber slashed straight at the back of Lu Ze's head with the crushing force of Mount Tai.

The blade struck his body, sending a sharp sting across Lu Ze's scalp.

He forcibly twisted his body in midair and thrust his left palm toward the stone platform beside the well.

Suction Palm.

A bluestone millstone weighing as much as half a person was torn from the platform by the suction, meeting the saber's edge with perfect precision.

Bang!

The millstone exploded into a shower of rubble. The blade's momentum faltered slightly, and Lu Ze used the recoil to slip into the well like a swimming fish.

Splash!

Water sprayed in all directions.

Mu Li landed on the edge of the well and hacked at its rim, cutting a half-foot-deep fissure into the hard bluestone.

He looked down into the well. The water was only half a foot deep, clear enough to see the bottom, yet there was no one inside.

A concealed drainage tunnel, just large enough for one person to pass through, seeped water from the side of the well wall.

"A secret passage."

Mu Li straightened and swept his gaze toward the storeroom window. The yellow smoke was gradually dispersing in the rain, and Xiao Yi Xian had already retreated deeper into the storeroom.

"Surround the medicine shop. Don't let so much as a fly escape."

Mu Li coldly issued the order toward the alley behind him.

Dozens of members of the Wolf Head Mercenary Group surged in from every direction, surrounding the Myriad Medicine Pavilion so tightly that not a drop of water could escape.

Mu Li walked to the well, crouched, and reached into the hidden tunnel. His fingertips touched the moss on its walls, along with a trace of lingering body heat.

"You won't get far."

He stood and surveyed the ruined medicine shop, the corpses strewn across the ground, and the pungent medicinal smell filling the air.

"Search! Turn all of Qingshan Town upside down!"

Mu Li's voice carried a bone-piercing chill through the rainy night.

"Dig three feet into the ground if you have to, but find me that Fire Spirit Marrow!"

At an abandoned Earth God Temple three li outside Qingshan Town.

Lu Ze crawled out of a muddy hole behind the Earth God Statue, his entire body coated in fresh, foul-smelling sludge.

He leaned against the statue's base, panting heavily.

Xiao Yi Xian climbed out of the opening after him. He pulled the wet cloth from his face, revealing a pale complexion, strands of hair plastered to his cheeks as water dripped from his chin.

The two faced each other in silence, with only the howling wind and rain outside the temple.

Lu Ze took a dose of High-Rank Qi Recovery Powder from his Storage Ring and swallowed it dry. Its medicinal power spread, suppressing the stabbing pain in his meridians and restoring his Dou Qi.

"The Myriad Medicine Pavilion is gone."

Xiao Yi Xian gazed into the pitch-black night outside the temple, her voice very soft.

"I'm sorry..."

A long silence followed.

Lu Ze swallowed the medicinal dregs in his mouth. His gaze fell on the Emerald Water Sword in his hand, which had been reduced to utterly useless scrap.

He tossed the Emerald Water Sword into the muddy water and took out the Yellow Tier High Rank Vajra Heavy Sword he had looted from Mu Li's treasury.

The blade was heavy, gleaming with a cold metallic luster.

"Mu Li won't let this rest."

Xiao Yi Xian walked over to Lu Ze and took a small jade bottle from her sleeve.

"This is the last of the Purple-Leaf Half-Demon Grass venom. This is all I have left."

Lu Ze accepted the jade bottle and held it in his palm. The bottle was icy cold, yet it gave him a trace of warmth.

Lu Ze's gaze fell on the Vajra Heavy Sword.

A dark-red speck the size of a grain of rice marked its edge-a tiny piece of slag that had splashed onto the blade when the Crimson Flame Gold-Copper Ore Mother exploded.

He reached out and gently scraped off the speck of slag, then held it on his fingertip and sniffed it. A faint, dry heat with a fire attribute entered his nostrils.

"Xiao Yi Xian." Lu Ze put away the slag and turned toward the rolling mountains outside the temple.

"We can't stay here anymore. Have you heard of a place called Cliffside Valley?"

Xiao Yi Xian paused slightly, a trace of puzzlement flashing through her clear eyes.

"Cliffside Valley?"

She shook her head.

"It's on the edge of the central region of the Magical Beast Mountain Range, shrouded in miasma all year round. Even high-ranking mercenaries are unwilling to set foot there. What would we go there for?"

Lu Ze tightened his grip on the Vajra Heavy Sword, the patterns on its hilt pressing into the calluses of his palm.

"I need to find some things."

He stood and pushed open the Earth God Temple's dilapidated wooden door. Wind and rain struck his face.

In the distance, illuminated by lightning, the Magical Beast Mountain Range resembled an ancient beast lying in wait, its enormous black maw open as it awaited its prey.

Rainwater mixed with mud poured into their worn straw sandals, producing a sticky squelch with every step.

Lu Ze walked ahead, planting the Vajra Heavy Sword in the mud as a walking stick to probe the way.

The heavy blade dragged a deep furrow through the mire.

His left arm was bound tightly against his chest with a strip torn from his robe's hem, keeping it from moving and pulling at his reopened wounds. The back of his right hand was covered in fine, bloody scratches left by thorns.

Xiao Yi Xian followed half a step behind him. Her once-clean white clothes had long since become covered in muddy water and dark-red bloodstains.

Her hair was loosely tied behind her head with a withered vine. Her face was pale, her lips purple from the cold.

Yet her steps were firm. She picked out the hard ground beside Lu Ze's footprints, trying not to make any unnecessary noise.

The two had been making their way through this unfamiliar, dense forest for more than half the night.

"There's a cave ahead." Lu Ze stopped.

He used the heavy sword to push aside a dense patch of ferns.

The entrance was narrow, only wide enough for one person to squeeze through sideways. There was little space inside.

The ground was dry, and a faint smell of lime hung in the air, just enough to mask the scent of blood on them.

Lu Ze stepped aside, and Xiaoyu bent down and crawled in.

Outside the cave, the rain gradually eased, but scattered torchlights could still be seen moving through the distant mountain forest.

Those were the Wolf Head Mercenary Group's search parties.

The soul perception of a Seven-Star Great Dou Master was like an enormous, invisible net, combing through the mountain forest section by section.

Lu Ze leaned against the cave wall and slid down its wet, slippery surface into a sitting position.

He laid the Vajra Heavy Sword across his knees, took a few pieces of dry, hard jerky from his Storage Ring, and handed them to Xiao Yi Xian.

Xiao Yi Xian accepted the jerky and placed it on the dry grass beside her.

He untied a small cloth bundle from his waist. Inside were several medicinal herbs he had picked along the escape route.

He selected a few leaves with serrated edges, placed them on a clean stone, and slowly crushed them with the back of a dagger, squeezing out their green juice.

Then he took a small porcelain bottle from inside his clothes, poured out a little white powder, and mixed it into the juice.

Stirring the medicinal paste with a twig, Xiao Yi Xian said softly,

"The remaining herbs can only make some ordinary Hemostatic Powder and Miasma-Repelling Salve. The miasma in Cliffside Valley is ten times thicker than on the outskirts. These medicines may only last four to six hours."

She spread the medicinal paste evenly over Lu Ze's reopened wounds. Its cool medicinal power seeped into his flesh, gradually replacing the burning pain with numbness.

Lu Ze chewed the jerky and swallowed, then formed a strange seal before him with both hands, crossing his index fingers and lightly touching his thumbs together.

[Earth Shaman]

An invisible ripple silently seeped into the underground rock layers, centered on him and Xiao Yi Xian.

Lu Ze focused his mind, making no attempt to observe the enemies several li away. That exceeded the limits of his current realm.

Guided by the hand seal, he gradually merged his body heat, heartbeat, and the flow of his Dou Qi into the cold rock and muddy water beneath him.

Withered and flourishing intent circulated. To anyone else's perception, every trace of living presence in this corner dissolved completely, becoming a lifeless stone, a basin of cold, rotting mud.