“He’s really alone?!” As the evil ghost head shot toward him, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes flickered, and he performed an incantation gesture, summoning a huge violet cauldron, which went on to smash into the huge ghost head.
During the resulting boom, Bai Xiaochun quickly bit his tongue. Blood spurted out of his mouth, and he shrieked as he flew backward. He almost looked like he was scared for his life, and in fact, he even pulled out a handful of teleportation talismans.
However, his eyes continued to dart around; clearly, he still wasn’t convinced that the deva patriarch wasn’t in the area.
When the clan chief saw that Bai Xiaochun had pulled out a handful of teleportation talismans, and was about to crush them, he let out a defiant roar. On the one hand, he was fairly confident that, considering the current speed he was capable of, he would still be able to catch his quarry again even if he teleported away.
But eight teleportation talismans? In the Wildlands, even a single teleportation talisman was extremely expensive, the type of thing that required Heavenspan River water to acquire.
The clan chief’s eyes shone with intense killing intent; by now, he wanted to kill Bai Hao more than anything else. Performing a double-handed incantation gesture, he drew on the explosive power of his mid Nascent Soul cultivation base to summon a massive black hole that instantly caused the air in all directions to distort.
He also sent his divine sense streaming out as he took a step forward, a step that instantly placed him right in front of Bai Xiaochun. Then he reached out with a vicious motion to grab him.
“Even if you flee to the ends of the earth, I’ll still catch you!!”
His hand pierced through the air to appear in front of Bai Xiaochun’s face. If Bai Xiaochun crushed the talismans to teleport away, the clan chief would likely be able to stop him from getting away, but would be injured in the process.
From the vicious expression on the clan chief's face, Bai Xiaochun could tell what he was thinking. However, he was used to keeping his cool. Eyes flickering, it was without the slightest hesitation that he crushed the teleportation talismans!
RUMBLE!
Even as the clan chief’s hand closed in, the power of teleportation rose up, and Bai Xiaochun vanished. The clan chief grabbed nothing but air.
“You’re not getting away!!” the clan chief roared. Waving his sleeve in fury, he leaped back onto the soulship and once again used the violet banner and the divine will seal to give chase.
Enough time passed for half an incense stick to burn. Bai Xiaochun was some distance away, racing along and simultaneously contemplating what to do.
“If there were other people waiting around ready to jump into the fight, they wouldn’t have just sat around and watched me leave.... Don’t tell me that... the clan chief really came after me on his own?” Bai Xiaochun almost couldn’t believe that it was true. The reality of the situation was that although everyone back in the Bai Clan had witnessed him survive the attack of the deva patriarch’s palm, to them, it had seemed like someone in the great circle of Core Formation escaping from a deva by means of a few tricks. In fact, that was how they viewed everything, from the teleportation talismans to the murdersoul spikes.
The only thing that a Nascent Soul cultivator would have to fear was his twelve-colored flame. And yet, any Nascent Soul cultivator who truly went all out in the fight would probably be able to disregard that as a real threat. Besides, the clan chief was in the mid Nascent Soul stage, and was therefore completely convinced that he would be able to kill him.
Bai Xiaochun was still unsure about the situation.
“Another thing. Was it really just a coincidence that the clan chief managed to track me down so quickly and accurately…?” Even as he pondered the matter, he suddenly spun in place, his eyes widening. There, off in the distance, was a violet glow, racing toward him at incredible speed. It was none other than the clan chief!
“He’s still chasing me.... Alright, he obviously knows exactly where I am. Not a bit of time was wasted. He must have a way to track me....” His eyes flashed, and his heart thumped with anxiety, but at the same time, he knew that there was no point in fleeing.
“Mid Nascent Soul stage.... alright, clan chief, you’re really forcing my hand!” Abandoning thoughts of escaping, Bai Xiaochun roared, drawing on the full power of his fleshly body to prepare to fight. Although it didn't look particularly special, the power of the third level of the Undying Live Forever Technique had long since filled his entire body.
He was like an explosive dragon in human form! As the clan chief closed in, Bai Xiaochun took a step forward, propelling himself ahead with such lightning-like speed that he became a blur of afterimages.
And yet, Bai Xiaochun... was still not satisfied with that level of speed!
“Mountain Shaking Bash!” he shouted, using one of the secret magics of the Undying Codex. His already astonishing speed increased, causing rumbling sounds to fill the air as he essentially vanished. When he reappeared, he was right in front of the clan chief, focusing all of the power in his body onto his right hand, which reached out in a grasping motion!
He was using... the Throat Crushing Grasp!!
All of this takes a bit of time to describe, but actually happened in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint. Furthermore, what was occurring seemed completely unbelievable; even the clan chief’s eyes went wide, before settling back into a mask of viciousness.
“Feeling suicidal?!” His hands flashed in a double-handed incantation gesture before waving wide, which caused a violet shield of light to spring up around him. That shield was a defensive mechanism powered by his cultivation base and bolstered by some magical items. The clan chief’s face was filled with murder and hatred as he then lunged toward Bai Xiaochun.
“Your cultivation base might be higher than I’d realized, you unfilial bastard, but I refuse to believe that it's the same with your fleshly body power!!” Even as the clan chief roared, the distance between him and Bai Xiaochun closed.
From a distance, they looked like two shooting stars, streaking through the sky on a collision course!!
The moment they collided, heaven-shaking, earth-shattering rumbling swept out. The air shattered as a huge boom filled the air, a deafening noise that vastly surpassed heavenly thunder. There were even rifts torn open left and right.
An agonized shriek escaped the clan chief’s lips. Blood sprayed out of his mouth as the soulship was sent spinning off to the side, and he tumbled backward head over heels, his hair in complete disarray. Shock and disbelief could be seen on his face as he roared, “You’re not Bai Hao!!”
Bai Xiaochun remained in the spot where they had collided, his body tingling a bit. It had been a long time since he bashed into someone like this, and it was also the first time that he was stricken... by how incredibly powerful his fleshly body was!!
Not only had bashing into his opponent not hurt, but the tingling sensation it left behind was actually slightly pleasurable. Bai Xiaochun’s eyes immediately began to glow brightly.
Of course, there was no time to sit around enjoying the pleasurable feeling. Seeing that the clan chief had lost the initiative in the fight, Bai Xiaochun took a step forward, smacking his bag of holding to produce Zhou Yixing’s greatbow. Without any hesitation, he took advantage of the initiative he had gained to unleash more than a hundred arrows in a single volley!
He didn’t need to summon the arrows himself, all he needed to do was feed some soul power into the bow itself, which would then create the soul arrows. Technically, Bai Xiaochun’s cultivation base didn’t operate on soul power, but after his spiritual energy was changed by his mask, it would function the same.
Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang!
In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred arrows shot into the air, becoming like a rainfall that could destroy anything it landed on.
The arrows moved with blinding speed, piercing through the air with rumbling sounds. Before the clan chief could even react, the first arrow was in front of him, where it exploded. Then, the other arrows arrived, all of them exploding in quick succession. The clan chief had no choice other than to anxiously evade the attack.
However, despite the quickness with which he moved, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes glittered as he opened his Heavenspan Dharma Eye. Instantly, a violet beam of light shot out and landed onto the clan chief.
“Take control!!” Bai Xiaochun shouted. The clan chief’s heart began to pound with shock as he found that, unexpectedly... he had stopped moving.
Considering he couldn’t move, there was nothing he could do to evade the force of more than a hundred exploding arrows!!
The air distorted and the lands quaked, and soon, it was almost impossible to even see the clan chief!
There was even a nearby mountain that collapsed because of the force of the exploding arrows. However, that was when a shout of complete defiance and anger rang out.
“You still don't qualify to kill me!!”