Jiang Chen had no time to think. His Goldwing Swordbird was already flying at top speed at this point and there was no possibility raising its speed any further.

Judging from the speed of his pursuers, they would quickly close the gap within only a couple dozen li.

“Don’t hesitate, keep going forward. If he catches up, I’ll hold him back for a while.”

Jiang Chen had no other choice but to pull out the same ploy. It was a good thing that senior brother Liu was alone in chasing him and that the others were still quite a ways off.

Although Jiang Chen couldn’t win against even senior brother Liu, there should be no issues with delaying him for a moment.

Besides, he suspected that the other party must be using some secret art, otherwise the others would’ve raised their speed the moment they had the chance to do so.

Why would he speed up only in this last little bit of distance?

“They must have to pay a price when they raise their speed, otherwise they wouldn’t have waited until now!” Jiang Chen felt somewhat reassured when he thought of this.

Speed that came at a cost couldn’t be maintained for very long. It was the same as a short distance sprint. Speed could be raised to the utmost, but it definitely couldn’t be retained for a prolonged period of time.

It actually wouldn’t take much time to cover the distance of a hundred li when proceeding at maximum speed.

According to Jiang Chen’s estimations, they should have just about entered Qingyang Valley territory by now. In reality, the territories of the Qingyang Valley and the Azure Heaven Northern Palace didn’t actually border each other, but the disciples of the Palace had always been overbearing and had gotten into the habit of overstepping their boundaries.

At this moment, senior brother Liu drove his spirit beast forward and finally made it within five li of Jiang Chen. Jiang Chen suddenly halted and pointed at senior brother Liu with the Da Yu bow in his hand.

Jiang Chen’s vision was extraordinary and his experience was vast. When he saw that the eye sockets of the steed beneath senior brother Liu were sunken in, he knew that the steed must have used some secret art just now, sacrificing its own lifeblood and harming its own being.

“As expected, the disciples of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace will resort to anything. They are so cruel even to their own spirit animals for the sake of profit. These people definitely place personal gain above all else and have not the slightest bit of human emotion.”

When Jiang Chen saw this scene, a few more traces of disgust and contempt for senior brother Liu grew within his heart.

Many practitioners were cruel to their enemies but treated their comrades exceptionally well, especially their steeds.

The kind of person who could sacrifice an intimate partner like a steed was absolutely a person blinded by greed, ruthless and heartless.

Even if this kind of person gave his word for something, he would still be completely untrustable. He would absolutely be the type to commit betrayal.

“Go ahead and run, why aren’t you running anymore?” Senior brother Liu was also quite irritated having chased Jiang Chen for so long.

“What a pity that you’ve spared not even the lifeblood of your animal to increase your speed. You Palace disciples are all cut from the same cloth, eh?” Jiang Chen mocked.

“Trying to enrage me?” Senior brother Liu snorted in contempt. “I’m not the trash that Yi Qiansui is. Kid, I don’t want to waste words with you. Surrender voluntarily and I can grant you a quick death. If you wait for me to capture you, I’ll let you taste all sorts of torture and make it so that even if you beg for death, you are still denied it.”

Jiang Chen laughed heartily. “I’ve heard a lot of grand talk like that just now, four idiots discussing how to split up loot as though taking me for granted. Look at me now, aren’t I perfectly fine?”

“Since this is the case, then…” Senior brother Liu hadn’t even finished his sentence when Jiang Chen drew back on his Da Yu bow, whoosh!

Senior brother Liu didn’t dare treat it lightly when the bow twanged, as he concentrated to prepare to counter the arrow.

But where his eyes focused, there was no arrow shooting towards him. It was just an arrow full of empty posturing.

Jiang Chen laughed loudly, “Idiots are still idiots even after breaking through to the spirit realm!”

Laughing loudly, Jiang Chen spurred the Goldwing Swordbird forward once more and then left swiftly, not wanting to collide head on with senior brother Liu.

That pause just now had just been to obtain a bit more time for Gouyu and the others. Now that his goal had been accomplished, Jiang Chen naturally wouldn’t stick around any longer.

Besides, he could tell that senior brother Liu was burning the spirit animal’s lifeblood to increase his speed. He definitely wouldn’t be able to maintain that for too long.

As such, he grew even more confident.

“Trying to escape? You’re still trying to escape?” Senior brother Liu was greatly enraged as he dug his heels into the spirit animal and chased rapidly.

“Watch my arrows!”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

It was real arrows this time. Although they weren’t the arrows that came as a set with the Da Yu bow, they were still first class arrows.

Three arrows in succession aimed straight for senior brother Liu’s vital parts.

Jiang Chen also knew that it was almost impossible for ordinary arrows to kill a spirit dao practitioner. He hadn’t held out for this hope. He only had one goal, and that was to restrain this fellow and decrease his speed to the greatest of his abilities, and restrain his footsteps.

A practitioner in the spirit realm may be strong, but he wasn’t strong to the point of ignoring the attacks from a spirit weapon.

He swept the three arrows away with a wave of his hand, the arrows causing his qi ocean to tremble slightly. Senior brother Liu was also internally astonished, “That ordinary attack can vibrate my qi ocean, just what kind of perverse existence is the bow in his hand? It’s probably not an ordinary once or twice refined spirit weapon!”

His speed had decreased once again after this small halt, widening the gap between him and Jiang Chen.

Senior brother Liu was also depressed. He too knew that they had already entered the Qingyang Valley territory. Although he wasn’t afraid of much because there weren’t that many Qingyang experts in this region, the chase would be less smooth to pursue someone in another group’s territory.

However, he was caught between a rock and a hard place now that he had reached this step. He couldn’t possibly give up. He’d expended so much that if he gave up now, he would suffer incredible losses.

Not to mention that this person was outfitted from head to toe with fantastic items that were all things that senior brother Liu needed.

Particularly that bow, it was surely a thrice refined spirit weapon. Only the nobles of the Skylaurel Kingdom or disciples of the Precious Tree Sect would have such a fine item like this.

When senior brother Liu’s thoughts traveled down this path, he suddenly started as he realized that he’d seemed to ignore a very important question. Just what kind of background did this person have that he could wield this sort of spirit weapon?

“Yi Qiansui that useless trash! He didn’t even suss out a person’s background before trying to kill them and loot their belongings. We’ve stirred a hornet’s nest now and picked a fight with someone we couldn’t afford to offend!” Some doubt grew in senior brother Liu’s mind, but then he immediately thought, “No, this kid shouldn’t have any great background. Otherwise, he would hardly conceal his identity. If he was from a great noble family or the disciple of a sect, there would be no reason for him to not identify himself.”

Who would be so foolish in the world of martial dao to hide the presence of a great backer, and fail to haul them out even when facing life and death?

“Right, this kid must be a noble from one of those small kingdoms. He must’ve been a bit spoiled and brought his treasures for a pleasure trip into the Skylaurel Kingdom.”

Senior brother Liu felt that this was the only possibility the more he thought about it.

When his thoughts traveled here, he no longer hesitated. He had decided that no matter the cost, this time he must kill everyone in this group.

Seize the good equipment, pass the Precious Tree Sect test, and enter the sect!

This was senior brother Liu’s ambition.

As long as he entered the Sect, it wouldn’t matter even if he killed a few noble disciples. Within the sixteen kingdoms, even the nobles of these mundane kingdoms would have to make way for the disciples of sects such as the Precious tree Sect.

“Kill that kid and steal his treasure!” Senior brother Liu’s rational thought had been completely overcome by greed.

He raised his speed to his limits and could already see Jiang Chen’s figure towards the front. Although the speed of the golden colored light was fast, it was still a bit slower compared to his current speed.

Ten li, eight li, five li…

Senior brother Liu’s emotions became more and more agitated the closer he was to catching up. This fat sheep was almost at the edge of his mouth. He would have to eat it as quickly as possible to prevent long nights of sleepless dreams.

Just as he was posturing, a sudden wave of movement pulsed through the air. Immediately following that, an enormous air current in the shape of a flower formed overhead.

This air current started pressing down on him after forming a flower of spirit qi.

Senior brother Liu was greatly alarmed as he felt a suffocating presence of despair surge directly towards him.

“This is bad!”

He crouched and flipped directly off his steed, hurtling straight for the ground. He also knew that if that attack truly came crashing down on him, he’d be slapped into meat paste.

He’d rather take a fall than be crushed into meat paste.

At least he wouldn’t die from falling from this height. Some injuries of flesh and skin were nothing to a spirit dao practitioner. He’d be fine with some spirit medicine.

Bam!

Senior brother Liu’s spirit animal didn’t have time to react before being hit by this mighty flower shaped air current.

The flower shaped air current crushed it directly into a cloud of blood as its internal organs all exploded, turning into a bloody wind and rain, scattering down towards the ground.

“Those of the Azure Heaven Northern Palace have become more and more bold huh!” A wizened and cold voice sounded coolly from thin air.

Having landed on the ground, senior brother Liu had snatched his life from the jaws of death and had yet to recover his wits. He said hurriedly, “Senior, the fault is mine, I’ll get out of here right away!”

Senior brother Liu completely ignored Jiang Chen and the others after he spoke and thought no further of the spirit weapons and treasures. He suddenly turned around and ran, not daring to look back even once.

The person who’d made his move didn’t kill senior brother Liu with his hit, but didn’t make another move again.

“Go back and tell the Azure Heaven Northern Palace that whoever violates the boundaries again will all die!”

Senior brother Liu covered his head and scurried away like a rat to its hole, the very epitome of being bedraggled.

He also knew that the strength behind that blow was absolutely not something that he could take. The wise choice now was to get the hell away and avoid angering the other as much as possible.

Jiang Chen out in front actually hadn’t made it too far before a mysterious power had stopped him and forced him to land.

When he landed, Jiang Chen discovered that he was in a valley and his father, Gouyu, and the others had long since landed.

There were strange ropes that shimmered in and out of existence on all of them, preventing them from moving a single muscle. When Jiang Chen landed, Jiang Feng, Gouyu, and the others were also incredibly anxious.

Jiang Chen smiled wryly, he knew that this must be Qingyang Valley territory and that Valley experts must surely live here.

Otherwise, that senior brother Liu wouldn’t have scrammed so obligingly.

“Tsk tsk tsk, these people’s training seem to be quite ordinary. However, their steeds look quite nice. Just where are they from?”

“Heh heh, who cares where they’re from. Trespassing into our Qingyang Valley means either becoming fertilizer or medicine servants. Tie them all up and wait for Elder Fei to make his judgment.”

Those speaking were two medicine boys, and were actually younger than Jiang Chen by three or four years old.

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