64: Chapter 64: The Dragon Enters the Sea, The Tiger Returns to the Mountain 64: Chapter 64: The Dragon Enters the Sea, The Tiger Returns to the Mountain Its face was hidden by a helt, but from the gaps spilled an unfathomable darkness, shadowy and slick like a cat’s whiskers or an octopus’s tentacle, snaking out from the inside of the helt as if searching for sothing.
But before it could find any valuable information, a piercing whistle sounded through the surrounding airspace.
“Target sighted!”
“A demon appears!”
Centered around Hanging Fate Valley, a large number of Red Armored Guards patrolling the vicinity imdiately converged on the area where the Divided Demon was spotted.
They shouted their slogans, and on their armor, tiny text-ford fla patterns flowed and burned, faintly linking together into a massive Military Formation that cast the surrounding forest in a reddish glow.
In what was originally Hanging Fate Manor, now a Red Armored Guard encampnt, shone bright lights of Daoist arts, brightening ten miles around as vividly as daylight and banishing all evil spirits.
The overwhelming presence of the Red Armored Guards and the Demon Illuminating Spirit Light forced the Demon Man to abandon its investigation and once again blend into the shadows.
As a Divided Demon of the Great Heavenly Demon ‘Decay,’ it excelled in the Daoist arts related to Blood Qi, and under normal circumstances, it could have located An Jing’s aura imdiately.
However, An Jing’s sudden disappearance for three days forced it to lurk around Hanging Fate Valley, eventually surrounded by a large number of Da Chen soldiers clearing the residues of demonic influence.
Even though it had a swallowed human’s body as a ‘shell’ to conceal its Demonic Qi, the Demon Monitoring Formation severely restricted its movents, like now when it found so clues but had no ti to follow them.
The Demon Man and Da Chen’s soldiers continued their ga of cat and mouse.
anwhile, the real target, An Jing, had already crossed three mountains and reached an unnad valley two hundred miles away.
The mobility of a Martial Artist is indeed terrifying.
Especially since An Jing was born on the frontier, had experiences as a refugee, and later frequently practiced mountainous terrain walking in Hanging Fate Manor, his strength in his feet was comparable to a human Qianlima (thousand-mile horse).
“Let’s rest for a bit, replenish so water and energy, then keep running.
If we run day and night, we should be roughly out of the deep mountains.”
Unlike other worlds, Embracing the Void world has no acid rain, and the river water is very fresh.
An Jing bent down by the side of the valley to drink deeply from the clear stream, then took out a smoked pork leg, chewing vigorously to replenish his strength as quickly as possible.
His mory was excellent, and he roughly rembered that after the Demon Sect’s carriage entered the mountains, it took about five or six days to reach Hanging Fate Manor.
The carriage wasn’t fast, at least not faster than his full-speed sprint, especially since it needed to rest at night; running at full speed for a day and a night, he would roughly reach the mountain villages and towns near the northwestern border of Da Chen.
As the saying goes, like a dragon entering the sea, or a tiger returning to the mountains, as long as he finds the right opportunity to sneak into the town, he would completely escape the Demon Sect and regain his freedom!
After replenishing his water and energy, An Jing climbed to the highest hill nearby to observe the surrounding terrain and decide the next course of action.
Under the bright moon, a vast and untad wilderness unfolded, a vast expanse of dense forest filled with giant trees that several n could not encircle, ancient trees dozens to hundreds of ters tall whose leaves and branches could completely obscure the moonlight, making the interior of the forest go without sunlight for centuries.
However, even without sunlight, the Northwest Ancient Forest was not devoid of light sources.
On these towering trees, nurous fungi and vines emitted a faint cold glow, similar to the Glowing Vine found deep in the caves of other worlds, nurturing a variety of bizarre plants and insects.
Under the eerie blue luminescence, countless branches and roots intertwined like roads, forming a peculiar and complex labyrinthine ecosystem.
In the overly primitive mountains, it was even impossible to determine the directions by the stars and moon, so An Jing had to reach the summit to decide the next course of action.
“It’s a bit off, but no big problem, the main direction is correct.”
Standing at the treetop of a giant tree, halfway through the climb, An Jing even saw an abandoned bird’s nest, which was enormous.
The fragnts of eggshells inside were half the height of a person, and the adult bird must have been at least seven or eight ters long—a gigantic Ferocious Beast.
“What a monster, better keep my distance.”
This made An Jing vigilant, and he resolved to leave the deep mountains as quickly as possible.
After correcting his direction, An Jing continued to run at high speed.
Along the way, he indeed encountered so Ferocious Beasts and birds that could see through his Mysterious Steps and Abyssal Qi Nourishing.
But these beasts weren’t foolish.
An Jing was clearly tough to deal with, and since he was obviously hurrying on his way, it was utterly unnecessary to provoke such a formidable opponent for no reason.
Except when An Jing was on their territory—where these Ferocious Beasts followed him for a while—they mostly just watched from the sidelines.
However, so Ferocious Beasts weren’t so cooperative.
For instance, one looked like a hybrid of a gecko and a chaleon.
It typically lurked on a giant tree and ambushed passing beasts.
While An Jing was focused on his journey, it shot its tongue out swiftly like a flying sword from the side, intending to wrap An Jing up and pull him into its belly.
If it were an ordinary rchant caravan or a mountain runner encountering such a Ferocious Beast, several would be swept away without finding a mont to retaliate, and the beast would dive into the dense maze of the forest at the first sign of trouble.
The only options would be to hasten out of its territory or wait for the beast to fill its belly to calm down.
But An Jing was different.
He had a gun!
Without needing the Sword Spirit’s hint, An Jing, who had already awakened his Spirit Root and had perception sharper than a normal Martial Artist, sensed sothing was off.
He easily sidestepped the Ferocious Beast’s long tongue, turned around, drew his gun, and fired.
The gunshot thundered like roaring thunder.
The gecko-like Ferocious Beast’s tongue was agile, but its body was rather slow.
It was hit by seven or eight bullets, emitted a sharp cry of pain, and retreated, then quickly hid in the dense forest’s maze and fled.
An Jing naturally didn’t have ti to pursue it and continued on his way.
Perhaps it was because the gecko-like Ferocious Beast had suffered a significant setback and its shriek had alerted other Ferocious Beasts; throughout the rest of his journey, An Jing no longer encountered any other beasts that dared to attack him.
“After awakening the Spirit Root, my perception has beco extrely sharp.”
Because of his high perception and after dodging a spider-like Ferocious Beast’s web trap, An Jing, during his third energy replenishing session, sat cross-legged in ditation and fell into contemplation: “Although the Spirit Root doesn’t co with any Divine Skills, the increase in sharp perception and control over Inner Breath is also significant.”
“Why hasn’t anyone from Embracing the Void realm continued with ‘Spirit Root Qi Refinent’?”
The Sword Spirit, who had been silently observing An Jing’s actions, spoke up at this point, “Indeed strange, I had always wanted you to try ‘Qi Refinent’ in the Embracing the Void realm, but there was never enough ti to find the opportunity.”
It clearly couldn’t quite understand this either, so it offered a suggestion, “Now, we’ve traveled hundreds of miles, and it would be hard for anyone to catch up to us…
We do have so breathing space.”
“Indeed, it’s worth a try.” An Jing nodded slightly, found a secluded tree trunk, sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes, and concentrated.
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