Cat and Mouse
The spiritual awareness marking could only notify the trackers their target’s direction relative to theirs. If the range of the target and the tracker was close enough, within fifty meters, the marking would also allow the trackers to estimate the whereabouts of the target, but still, it could not pinpoint the exact location of the target.
Even a highly skilled tracker would not be able to locate the target’s position accurately. Unless the target had fallen into one of the spells set up by the tracker, and there was also the spiritual awareness marking on the target’s body, it was impossible to locate the target precisely.
Nevertheless, the people tracking Yang Chen could accurately know the location of the spiritual awareness marking on his body. They had come across this same situation a few times already over this past year.
Above the surface of the sea, tens of people gazed unpleasantly downwards to the surface of the sea underneath their feet. Each of them had a nasty look on their face. These people looked like they had been through a lot of hardships and they seemed battered. Among the crowd of people, there was only one Yuanying expert and the rest were Jindan stage experts.
The spiritual awareness marking indicated that Yang Chen was just below them, although uncertain of how far below he actually was, but he was definitely in the vicinity.
“It won’t be just another qiankun pouch this time again right?” The leader was the Yuanying expert. But the look on the his face was not the prideful look of a Yuanying expert, instead it was a look of frustration.
The looks and expressions on the others were not any better. During this one year’s time, every time they had finally tracked Yang Chen down to a direction and spent a substantial amount of energy digging deep into the seabed, only then would they realise it was the lair of a terrifying demon beast.
If it wasn’t for the close cooperation between the tens of people and their considerably high levels of cultivation, in addition to the powerful treasure the Yuanying expert possessed, they would not have been able to escape successfully.
Even so, they still seemed worn out and drained. The issue that was unbearable for them was that every time they would only come across either a qiankun pouch or just an item with a spiritual marking awareness. Whereas the shadow of Yang Chen, not even a single strand of fine hair of his was to be found.
The trackers would just assume that Yang Chen was sly if they had just stumbled upon such situations once or twice. But when the same situation kept happening for eight times or ten times, other than fatigue and soreness, there was nothing else they could think of.
Nonetheless, the trackers still refused to back down. Their superior had asked for Yang Chen and nobody dared to say ‘no’. They could only continue exploring the deep sea again and again, probing for more information.
Many people had wondered how Yang Chen managed to know the location of those powerful demon beasts and how he could place the item so precisely beside the demon beast every time. If they were rushing towards the spiritual awareness marking, they would surely awaken the demon beast, with no exceptions.
Make no mistake, the Yuanying expert was indeed frustrated, but unlike the other Jindan stage experts, he knew clearly that once he was able to capture Yang Chen, he would be doing such a huge favor and many benefits would come from it.
The Heart Questioning Pill, this name was spread from the heavens after the Greater Mountains’ incident. Among the consequences was that the pill had then gone through the trial of Elder Hua Wanting of Clear Sky Sect and Elder Min Huafeng of Green Jade Immortal Island themselves and its formidability being unparalleled. It was said that it could almost equate to the Heaven Seizing Pill, or perhaps even stronger.
The Heaven Seizing Pill could only be taken by a Dacheng stage expert. If someone below the level of a Dacheng stage were to take it, there would only be one consequence, which was the spirit power would expand uncontrollably and then implode, ultimately causing death. But the Heart Questioning Pill was different, regardless of the realm the person was from, he could still take the pill. And from the sounds of it, the lower the realm, the higher the success rate of progression.
If Yang Chen got hold of the Heart Questioning Pill, then it would mean that the secret remedy of the pill was in his hands. And according to the rumours, Yang Chen had kept the amount of medicinal ingredients enough to concoct a furnace full of those pills.. After another thirty years only would the furnace be operating once more. Within thirty years, it was enough time for Yang Chen to cultivate to a higher level. If Yang Chen progressed to the realm of a Jindan expert, it would then meant that with each furnace, the number of Heart Questioning Pills would be more than the previous furnaces.
Even if it was just one pill, at least the Yuanying expert could confirm that progressing into Dacheng stage was no longer just a dream. With the incentive of such a benefit, how could one not search for the pill frantically?
This had not even taken into account the rewards that would be given by the superior. Summing all of that, ignoring a Yuanying expert, even a Dacheng expert would be willing to go through all of these to get hold of the pill.
The superior had expressed his desperation of possessing the Heart Questioning Pill. If not they would not have sent a Yuanying expert and twelve Jindan stage experts to defeat a junior at the foundation building stage. Regardless of the skillfulness of this junior, when outnumbered this way in addition to their mismatched realms, it was impossible for the junior to escape death by sheer luck.
At this moment, Yang Chen sat on his flying shuttle and waited in the sea below the trackers. Those people did not make a complete preparation, as if they were unaware that Yang Chen was coming to the East Sea. All the five attributes were among them, but only three of them were water.
Yang Chen had chosen specifically this position to wait. If not, with the speed of the flying shuttle, those trackers would not even have the chance to catch up to him. Moreover, if Yang Chen had not let go of the sacks with the spiritual marking awareness, they would not even had realised it.
Perhaps it was because the performance of the spiritual awareness marking on Yang Chen’s body was different than before, hence the trackers knew that this place was not just another bait set up by Yang Chen, and should be the true location of Yang Chen’s body.
The clothings on the trackers were different and there were not any sect symbols on them. If they did not do that on purpose, then they must be loose, sectless cultivators.
But based on their experienced way of management, it did not look like they had no organisations. There was only one explanation for it. While they were loose cultivators, they must be supported by a certain big sect secretly to deceive the public or conduct activities which the public could not find out.
There was a piece of empty land in this territory of underwater and Yang Chen quickly stopped there. Holding the Bright Ray Sword that had been bitten by Heavenly Roar, he silently waited for the people above to descend. He was very eager to find out who these people were and which sect had hired these thugs.
There was a bit of suspicions on the Greatest Heaven Sect but there were a few other sects which would do so as well. To deploy a formation like this, it was obvious that they wanted to capture Yang Chen alive. The temptation of the Heart Questioning Pill simply couldn’t be resisted by ordinary people, regardless of the sects.
The three Jindan stage experts who had the water attribute descended quickly from the surface of the sea. The Water Escape Technique was remarkable, even when they were in the sea they showed no signs of nervousness and straightaway charged downwards.
In the sea, the range of the spiritual awareness was greatly reduced. It was blocked by the seawater and was unable to discover, not even to twenty metres. The only way to know what was lurking at the bottom was to dive down and take a closer look. The non-water cultivators could only submerge in the sea but fighting in water was simply too difficult.
The thing that was unfortunate for them was that the strand of spiritual awareness from Yang Chen’s Three Purities Secret was not just limited to this range. When the trackers were still forty metres away from Yang Chen, he could already discover the traces of the three people.
Swoosh! With a sway of his body, Yang Chen vanished from where he had originally stood. The flying shuttle instantly appeared and sped away. Just in the blink of an eye, it appeared behind a Jindan expert. Once the flying shuttle had been compacted, the Bright Ray Sword in Yang Chen’s hands pierced right through the back of the Jindan expert’s heart.
The shuddering in the stream of water and the discovery from the spiritual awareness prompted the Jindan expert to pale with horror. However, he did not panic immediately. Once he opened his mouth, a flying sword materialised out of thin air and headed towards Yang Chen. Initially he was trying his best to balance his body, but he soon turned his body swiftly and was now facing Yang Chen directly.
The thing was, while he was indeed fast, Yang Chen’s speed was even faster. The Bright Ray Sword had already been very close to its opponent in the first place, so the sword managed to get in contact with the opponent’s body first.
An aquamarine armour emerged out of nowhere which appeared to be invisible in the seawater. The sharp tip of the Bright Ray Sword was just in contact with the armour for a slight bit and as if it had poked through something, the next moment the sword had already pierced directly through it.
Clunk! After Yang Chen’s sword had perforated the opponent’s flesh, the opponent’s flying sword had also touched Yang Chen’s body. However, Yang Chen’s body glowed slightly and a golden bell appeared indistinctly on his body surface. The opponent’s flying sword only made a crisp click sound and could not pierce through any further.
Pfttt! The sword tip of the Bright Ray Sword had impaled the back of the Jindan expert. The expert was left in shock but he could no longer make a sound. The air bubbles in his mouth were spurted around and the fresh blood dyed the surrounding seawater red instantaneously.
Clunk! Clunk!
It was now the other two water attribute Jindan experts who had descended together with the Jindan expert who had just died. After discovering Yang Chen’s whereabouts and realising that he had murdered their partner within such a short time, they were stunned. A flying sword followed by another then slashed towards Yang Chen.
It was a futile effort by the two flying swords and the two people were appalled. They did not imagine that a person with such formidability would suddenly appear. And within their brief moment of hesitation, their fate of life and death had been decided.
Once again the flying shuttle emerged and as fast as greased lightning, he was already at the left side of the Jindan expert. Yang Chen’s Bright Ray Sword then swiftly rushed towards the expert’s head. However, the expert managed to raise his hand on time to block the attack. His sleeves then revealed chains of closely packed scales. Before the formation on the scales could be triggered, Yang Chen’s sword had already stabbed his body.
The arm that was raised was now like trash and the sleeve which was on the arm, was stripped together with his arm by Yang Chen with ease. Bright red blood immediately gushed out. The protective armour which was made of whatever material was totally useless. While the Jindan expert was in tremendous pain and at the same time his vision became blurry, the sharp edge of a sword glided across his neck and once more, causing bright red blood to ooze out.
The remaining Jindan expert was left astonished. Ever since they started tracking Yang Chen, even if they had met demon beasts at the Yuanying stage, a situation like this had never happened before until now. Although they were exhausted, none of the ones involved had died.
Just in this short period of time, two of his partners’ life had already been taken, how was this acceptable? The Jindan expert who had lost his guts did not even take a moment to think before fleeing. He dashed upwards the sea and with a splash, launching himself out of the water.
The rest of the people above the sea keeping watch were glaring covetously. The huge splash of water gave everyone a shock and almost messed up their formation. Fortunately the Yuanying expert found this out just in time and shouted at everyone to halt, only then did the crowd settle down to a calm manner.
Nonetheless, the blood-red sea waves were slowly rising and the two corpses were going to float to the surface soon. This would then reveal what demonic incident had just happened, to all those people who were involved.
This time, the Jindan expert who had managed to escape had a clear look of Yang Chen and shouted, “That brat is down there!” He didn’t hope to sacrifice his life just because he wasn’t willing to share the benefits with the people above. Thus, he yelled out loudly.
After hearing this, the looks on their faces didn’t hold astonishment. Instead, they became very excited. After tracking him for a year, battling with underwater demon beasts for more than a hundred times, there were almost no signs of Yang Chen’s location and now they had finally found the culprit.
With the Heart Questioning Pill and the encouragement of the reward, everyone became elevated. Two of their partners had died but that was when they were underwater, where it was not their forte. But Yang Chen was not a water attributed cultivator, he would not be able to hold his breath for a long time. Once he surfaced, he would be reduced to the rank of ordinary people. Ten Jindan experts and a Yuanying expert facing a junior in the foundation building stage, there would not be any other results from this.
Although they were excited, none of them looked down upon their opponent. Two dead bodies of the Jindan experts had explained everything. Anyway, that had happened underwater. Unless Yang Chen did not come out for the rest of his life, if not once he showed even his head out of the water, he would not be able to escape his fate of being captured alive.
Everyone’s treasures started gleaming and without hesitation the Yuanying expert who was the leader tossed a spherical item in his hands into the sea below. When everyone saw that all of them shot up into the sky, they activated their protective treasures, fixing their eyes on the sea surface below.
That was a tenth water magical thunder, refined by the hands of the Yuanying expert. In this sea, its power would even increase by a few times. If Yang Chen was thinking of hiding underwater and a magical thunder had exploded inside the sea, Yang Chen would certainly faint away or even succumb to serious injuries, ultimately death.
The range of the tenth water magical thunder was so large that even if Yang Chen had his flying shuttle, he still would not be able to escape in time. And for obvious reasons, the opponents would not even grant him this opportunity.
Once the tenth water magical thunder entered the sea, Yang Chen immediately sensed that something was not right. With his current cultivation, if he were to resist it forcefully and with the protection of the golden bell, perhaps it was possible. But he would certainly be affected and by then people would probably take advantage of his situation. Thus, it seemed like the only way to avoid the tenth water magical thunder was to exit the sea.
Obviously his opponents wanted to force him out and Yang Chen was very clear on that. But now Yang Chen couldn’t care more and used all his might to escape from the sea, charging towards the surface of the sea.
Yang Chen had not even surfaced from the sea when the tenth water magical thunder exploded below him. Boom! The deafening sound was accompanied by a powerful shock wave, ejecting Yang Chen out of the sea into the sky.
The sea surface within the radius of ten meters burst open and water splashes were all over the sky. Though Yang Chen was already prepared to cover his ears, the thunderous sound still trembled his brain and there was the sound of bells ringing in his ears.
While he was still in the sky, not even done adjusting his balance yet, two demon-like flying swords shot towards Yang Chen’s feet. Until now, his opponents were still planning on capturing him alive.