As soon as the h.e.l.lfighting Spike touched the s.p.a.ce between Yan Ziguo’s eyebrows, a black frost began to spread out rapidly. In the blink of an eye, it had covered his entire body. A cracking sound could be heard, and Yan Ziguo’s eyes widened. His pupils shrank, and an astonished expression filled his face. Then, his entire body shattered into chunks of black, frozen flesh, which then fell to the ground.

Originally, Meng Hao had wanted to flee. But Yan Ziguo had arranged for his escape routes to be blocked. Therefore, Meng Hao made the decision to strike him down.

He had been a part of the Cultivation world for a while now, and was well aware of the law of the jungle. Not attacking was fine, but when the time came to attack, it should be without a shred of compa.s.sion; otherwise, it meant your own death.

This sudden turn of events instantly caused expressions of shock and horror to appear on the faces of the surrounding Cold Wind Sect disciples. The three mist beasts that had emerged from Meng Hao’s scroll painting were almost upon them, howling savagely.

Their appearance was fierce, and their roars enveloped the area with a powerful pressure. They looked like three conglomerations of black mist as they charged directly toward the Cultivators, then smashed into them.

A boom resounded out, and an expression of shock appeared on the face of Elder Brother Liu, the Cultivator of the ninth level Qi Condensation. He slapped his hands together and then waved them forward; a red banner flew out. It rippled in the air, causing a ma.s.sive flame conflagration to shoot out, over thirty meters in every direction. The flames shot toward the mist beasts.

Meng Hao ignored the other Cultivation Monks, who were in complete disorder. He moved downward, charging straight toward the woman with the aqua-blue pearl. He could tell that the pearl was the magical item maintaining the special spell.

Her face suddenly filled with anxiety, and she retreated backwards rapidly. But Meng Hao was faster than her; he was upon her in an instant. He waved his hand, sending her spinning, blood spraying from her mouth. Terrified, she released the pearl, which went flying away.

The woman might be beautiful, but her presence here made her Meng Hao’s enemy. He looked at her coldly, then raised up his hand with a claw-like gesture. The pearl shot toward him and landed in his hand.

Almost as soon as it touched him, a thunderous roar could be heard. The three mist beasts were completely destroyed as Elder Brother Liu’s flame conflagration encompa.s.sed them. It then spread out toward Meng Hao.

“You might have a lot of treasures,” said Elder Brother Liu with an unsightly expression, “but you killed members of my Cold Wind Sect. You're dead!” His fellow disciples behind him looked to be in very poor condition. But that was of secondary importance. He would have a hard time explaining the death of Yan Ziguo when he returned to the Sect. He made no attempt to conceal his intention to murder Meng Hao.

Meng Hao said nothing. As the flame conflagration descended towards him, his left hand slapped his bag of holding and a large, black net appeared. He flicked it out, and it shot up into the sky. It pa.s.sed through the flame conflagration, extinguis.h.i.+ng it instantly. The net expanded, growing larger and larger, making a beeline for Elder Brother Liu.

Elder Brother Liu’s face twisted. He lifted his right hand, which contained a jade slip that he snapped. Suddenly, his body blurred as he just barely ducked out of the path of the net. Behind, two of the other disciples were caught up by the net. The net radiated an intense heat, which instantly set their clothing aflame. Within a moment, their charred bodies began to be sliced into pieces.

Horrifying shrieks rang out, causing the remaining Cold Wind Sect disciples’ faces to grow pale. They trembled with fear. Even Elder Brother Liu looked on with wide eyes. He would never have been able to guess that Meng Hao would have magical items such as this.

Even while all of this was happening, Meng Hao continued to move, his right hand grabbing the pearl and smas.h.i.+ng it. The giant sealing spell that covered the area flickered and then began to disperse. Meng Hao’s left hand flickered in an incantation pattern which he aimed at the treasured fan. He grabbed the silver spear as the fan’s sixteen feathers circulated around him to form a s.h.i.+eld, which then carried him forward, shooting toward a hole in the unravelling spell.

“You want to run? Stop dreaming!” Elder Brother Liu jabbed his forehead, whereupon a sword aura emerged from his mouth. A small, translucent flying sword appeared, the size of a pinky finger. A glittering sword aura billowed out as it shot in pursuit of Meng Hao.

Meng Hao was moving fast and seemed just about to make his escape. He waved his hand behind him, and the black net made loud, reverberating noise. The two Cultivators who had been caught up in it were now cut completely into pieces. The net began to roll up, dragging their bags of holding along with it as it flew back into Meng Hao’s sleeve.

By this time, Elder Brother Liu’s glowing, crystalline sword had almost reached Meng Hao. It was just about to stab into him when he sensed the imminent danger. He was not in the position to stand up to the power of the ninth level of Qi Condensation. Seeing the fierceness of the sword aura, Meng Hao’s eyes flashed. The sixteen feathers rolled together and then became sixteen swords which shot toward Elder Brother Liu’s crystalline sword.

A thunderous boom rolled out. Eight of the sixteen feathers were destroyed, and the crystalline sword was sent spinning. The remaining eight feathers returned to form a fan beneath Meng Hao’s feet. However, the fan was clearly slower than before.

“With fewer feathers, your fan just won’t be fast enough!” said Elder Brother Liu with a savage laugh. And yet, even as the words were coming out of his mouth, his eyes widened. Meng Hao slapped his bag of holding, whereupon eight more identical feathers appeared. The treasured fan was once again whole, and Meng Hao transformed into a blur of light as he shot into the distance.

“Dammit!” Elder Brother Liu’s killing intent grew even stronger. He raced off in pursuit. Seeing this, the remaining disciples had little choice but to follow. Gnas.h.i.+ng their teeth, they produced their magical items and ran after him.

Only the female disciple, whose Cultivation base was not strong enough, hesitated and did not follow.

Meng Hao stood on his fan, his face grim, the death aura still emanating from his body. He took out the two bags of holding he had just acquired and looked them over. The magical items and medicinal pills inside were of little value to him. But, he did find three white pearls, items that he definitely needed.

He took one out, and it instantly began to suck in the death aura. In the s.p.a.ce of about ten breaths, it had become completely black and unable to absorb any more.

Meng Hao frowned, looking at the pearl for a moment before dropping it.

“I can’t do any duplication at the moment. Once I shake off these people, then I can make some copies of the pearl. That will take care of the problem of the death aura attracting people’s attention.” He looked behind him to see figurative thunder brewing. A glittering glow surrounded the Cold Wind Sect’s Elder Brother Liu as he soared after Meng Hao in pursuit. Behind him, on the ground, three figures could be seen, racing along at breakneck speed.

“Those three people are nothing,” muttered Meng Hao to himself. “Killing them won’t be a problem. But that guy surnamed Liu is at the ninth level of Qi Condensation. He also has a lot of magical items. In our short battle just now, he didn’t even use any magic. Getting wrapped up in a fight with him wouldn’t be good….” A sneer appeared on his face. Even if Elder Brother Liu was of the ninth level, he couldn’t possibly have as many medicinal pills as Meng Hao. He would just keep running until the other party was exhausted.

His plan settled in his mind, he slapped his bag of holding and retrieved three Earthly Spirit Pills, which he popped into his mouth. He felt a bit of regret.

“I wasted eight duplicated feathers, and now I have to waste medicinal pills. If I keep fighting like this, I’m going to become poorer and poorer. I also forgot to grab Yan Ziguo’s bag of holding. I need to be more careful in the future.” He felt a little depressed. The Earthly Spirit Pills infused into his body, filling him with boundless spiritual energy. His speed increased.

Time pa.s.sed, and soon it was dusk. Meng Hao sped along at top speed the entire time. Sometimes he would soar on the treasure fan, other times he would race along on foot. Elder Brother Liu was behind him the entire time, laughing grimly. Meng Hao was much more experienced now. Even though gliding via flying sword was not as fast as the treasured fan, he was still completely at ease.

Far behind him, the three Cold Wind Sect disciples who had been pulled into the chase were currently moaning and groaning. They didn’t dare give up, though, for fear of arousing Elder Brother Liu’s displeasure.

Meng Hao sped along as dusk fell. Suddenly, his expression grew intent. The death aura which continuously emitted from his body was now floating off into the distance. His heart began to thump. He looked off in that direction and suddenly saw a beam of prismatic light screaming through the air. Behind it were ten or more figures racing along on foot.

The beam of light turned out to be two people. Both were about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and were at the eighth level of Qi Condensation. Each one stood on a green jade flute, nearly two meters long. Their eyes flashed like lightning, especially one of them, who wore a red robe. From the power emanating from his Cultivation base, he was clearly just a hair away from entering the ninth level of Qi Condensation.

Among the people following them on foot was Sun Hua. He carried a pearl in his hand, which was currently absorbing the death aura.

“So, you’re still in the State of Zhao, Meng Hao!” said Sun Hua with a loud laugh. He stared greedily at Meng Hao. “Elder Brother Zhou, Elder Brother Xu, this is Meng Hao. He has the treasure of Patriarch Reliance. Even the Violet Fate Sect is interested in it! He tricked them and aroused their ire. He definitely still has the treasured item with him!” He palpitated with eagerness as he thought about the treasured item that Meng Hao possessed. He had been dreaming of getting his hands on it ever since he’d witnessed what happened that day.

Fortunately, he had run into Elder Sister Han of the Cold Wind Sect a few days before. During an intimate moment, he’d been able to coax some information out of her regarding Meng Hao. Then, he’d immediately found some Elder Brothers from the Sect and begun to use the death aura absorbing pearl to track down Meng Hao.

When they appeared and caught sight of the Elder Brother Liu chasing Meng Hao like thunder, murder on his face, their expressions changed in rapid succession.

Sun Hua’s eyes flickered, and the two soaring in the air, Zhou and Xu, let out cold snorts. They moved to block Meng Hao’s way, fingers flas.h.i.+ng in incantation patterns. The flutes beneath their feet began to emit ghastly, shrieking sounds, accompanied by thin wisps of mist. The mist transformed into a gigantic hand which shot toward Meng Hao.

“Beat it!” said Meng Hao, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng. He raised his right hand, and instantly, a twenty or thirty meter long Flame Python appeared. Radiating intense, scorching heat, it shot to meet the flying hand.

Meng Hao flicked his right sleeve, whereupon two wooden swords appeared. Glowing brightly, they became the fangs of the Flame Python as it surged forward.