White-Robed Chief

Chu Li noticed the four middle-aged men that appeared outside the Heavenly Demonic Sect. They were all level-six martial arts masters.

He raised his eyebrows when he saw the Heavenly Demonic Stone in Lu Chaonan’s hand and noticed how the man was circulating a heart technique to inject his force into the Heavenly Demonic Stone. As a surge of force flowed back into Lu Chaonan’s body from the Heavenly Demonic Stone, a spot of light appeared in Lu Chaonan’s mind, allowing him to sense Chu Li’s presence.

Lu Chaonan turned to the other three men. “He’s on the south side.”

He performed the Light-body technique and glided toward the mountaintop where Chu Li was at.

Chu Li’s eyebrows twitched. As expected, Heavenly Demonic Sect had many unique martial arts and antique studies. This Demon Hunting Technique was specially designed to locate cultivators of the Heavenly Demonic Power. Based on what he had seen in Lu Chaonan’s mind, the Demon Hunting Technique could sense the presence of such people as long as they were within its thirty-mile radius. Chu Li never imagined that the Heavenly Demonic Stone could be used in this way.

A thirty-mile radius was not a short distance. No one would expect to be detected by their enemy over a distance of up to thirty miles because this seemed beyond what martial arts were capable of. While this demonstrated just how mysterious and profound the Demon Hunting Technique was, Chu Li knew that the Heavenly Demonic Stone played a more important role here.

It was said the Heavenly Demonic Stone came from Outland and did not originate from this world, so it seemed like this object had a mystery of its own.

Chu Li waited until they were roughly a mile and a half away from him before vanishing abruptly and reappearing three miles away from his original position. This time, he was on their north side.

A smile appeared on his face. Since he had learned the Demon Hunting Technique from Lu Chaonan and was already in possession of a Heavenly Demonic Stone, it would be much easier for him to find more Heavenly Demonic Sect disciples after this!

“Hmm…” Lu Chaonan suddenly frowned and said, “Wait, no, he’s on the north side.”

The other three men did not question him and followed him as he turned around and moved in the opposite direction.

After they had traveled over a mile and a half, Chu Li suddenly appeared back on the mountaintop he had previously been on.

Lu Chaonan stopped in his tracks again with a dark expression.

“Senior Brother Lu, what’s the matter?” a thin middle-aged man asked with a frown.

“He’s on the south side now,” Lu Chaonan said and huffed.

He immediately turned around and increased his speed as he glided in the other direction.

The other three men shook their heads and continued to trail closely behind him.

After they had traveled over a mile and a half, Lu Chaonan stopped in his tracks once more, and his expression grew even darker.

“What now, Senior Brother Lu?” the thin man from before asked.

“He’s on the north side now!” Lu Chaonan muttered grimly.

“So is he actually on the south side, or the north side?” The other three men glared at him with discontent and felt as though Lu Chaonan was toying with them.

They could not understand how Zhe Ying could be on the south side at one moment and then suddenly appear on the north side at the next moment. They had been moving around in circles unnecessarily by going back and forth repeatedly between both sides.

Lu Chaonan was visibly upset, and his gaze grew intense as he kept circulating the Demon Hunting Technique to inject his force into his Heavenly Demonic Stone. His eyebrows became tightly knitted together when he sensed Chu Li flashing back and forth from the south side to the north side. Chu Li’s location was constantly changing every second, but it never occurred to him that Chu Li was using divine power to make fun of him.

He believed that no one could possibly have such a fast Light-body technique that would allow them to shift their location back and forth instantaneously from the south side to the north side. The only explanation for this situation was that they were dealing with two or three people here!

“Could it be that there’s something wrong with the Heavenly Demonic Stone?” the thin man asked.

Lu Chaonan shook his head and replied, “There should be two people!”

“So there’s another disciple in the area?” the thin man asked while shaking his head. “That seems unlikely, though, doesn’t it?”

“Perhaps someone is coincidentally on their way back to the ravine right now,” a plump middle-aged man suggested.

Lu Chaonan slowly nodded.

“What should we do then?”

“Let’s wait for a while!” Lu Chaonan said.

“How about this? I’ll become the bait,” the thin man suggested. “In any case, he’s not looking to kill anyone. He just wants to devour Heavenly Demonic Orbs, so he won’t kill me. Since it would take some time to devour a Heavenly Demonic Orb, you guys should be able to get to him in time if you stay a kilometer behind me, right?”

“Sounds like a plan.” Lu Chaonan slowly nodded and said, “Well then, let’s head southward. I have a feeling that he’s on the south side.”

“Okay!” The other three men had no further objections and glided away with him.

Lu Chaonan ignored the force he was sensing on the other side and moved at an incredibly fast speed.

The Light-body technique of Heavenly Demonic Sect was called the Great Freedom Technique, which allowed one to move at an extremely fast and ghostly speed.

They traveled through the deeper parts of a forest soundlessly. The dense forest did not hinder their movements in any way, and neither did it affect their speed.

Their Light-body technique was unlike all the other Light-body techniques. Instead of having to glide over the treetops, they could swiftly move through the dense forest without much effort and could easily squeeze their way through every nook and cranny.

Soon, they arrived at the mountaintop where Chu Li had been earlier.

The thin man continued to move southward while Lu Chaonan and the other two men stayed on the mountaintop and stood beside the huge rock to examine it.

They could faintly sense the force of the Heavenly Demonic Power around this place, so a cultivator of the Heavenly Demonic Power had clearly stayed here for some time.

“Zhe Ying is very quick-witted. He must have sensed us coming and escaped already.” Lu Chaonan frowned.

“Will he take the bait and devour another Heavenly Demonic Orb?”

“Yes!” Lu Chaonan laughed coldly. “Once he takes the bait and devours Junior Brother Qi’s Heavenly Demonic Orb, his cultivation will reach the peak of the seventh level, and he won’t have to fear us anymore. Judging by his personality, he’ll certainly take that risk!”

“Well then, we’ll have to be careful not to let him devour Junior Brother Qi’s Heavenly Demonic Orb!” the plump man said.

Lu Chaonan replied, “Junior Brother Qi’s cultivation is also at the sixth level, but unlike us, he’s been on a battlefield before. I’d like to see which one of them is capable of overpowering the other person!”

“We should increase our speed in case anything happens,” the plump man said.

Lu Chaonan and the other square-faced man nodded and followed the force they had detected to catch up to Chu Li.

He suddenly looked alarmed and hurriedly said, “Junior Brother Zhu, send a signal for Junior Brother Qi to come back!”

“What’s the matter?” the plump man asked anxiously.

The square-faced man took out a round cylinder from his inner pocket without hesitation and shot it at the sky.

“Bang!” As a cloud of flame appeared in the sky with a thunderous explosion, its golden-red light illuminated the sky like the rays of the setting sun.

Lu Chaonan muttered, “Zhe Ying is desperately running away in front of us!”

“He defeated Junior Brother Qi?” the plump man asked.

Lu Chaonan stared into the distance and gradually nodded. “Zhe Ying is impressive indeed!”

Qi Feng would have immediately turned around and made his way back to them if he had managed to keep out of harm’s way. However, through the Demon Hunting Technique, Lu Chaonan could sense that Qi Feng was rapidly growing weaker. Clearly, Zhe Ying had subdued Qi Feng and rapidly performed the Heavenly Demonic Spirit Devouring Technique on him.

Lu Chaonan was well aware of Qi Feng’s skills. Although the four of them were all at the sixth level, Lu Chaonan was the only one among the other three to have a slight advantage over Qi Feng. In fact, almost all the other level-six martial arts masters in the ravine were no match for Qi Feng. However, seeing as Zhe Ying had managed to overpower Qi Feng when he had just advanced to the seventh level, Zhe Ying was indeed a formidable figure.

“Get him!” Lu Chaonan huffed.

The three of them performed the Light-body technique and charged southward at an incredibly fast and ghostly speed.

Ten breaths later, they saw Qi Feng.

Qi Feng was sitting under a tree and was weakly leaning against the tree trunk. His face was pale white while his eyes burned with rage.

The three men rushed over to him.

“Junior Brother Qi!” Lu Chaonan asked gravely, “Was it Zhe Ying?”

“It’s him!” Qi Feng gritted his teeth and muttered resentfully, “That little brat has become smarter now!”

“How could he have defeated you?”

“He has learned some new martial arts, so he managed to sneak up on me without making a sound before launching a surprise attack. I wasn’t able to guard myself against him at all!” Qi Feng’s face became flushed with anger as he said hatefully, “When we capture him, I’ll devour his Heavenly Demonic Orb to restore my cultivation!”

“Junior Brother Qi, you should head back first. We’ll continue hunting him down. We won’t let him get away!” Lu Chaonan said.

Qi Feng was left with only one level of his Heavenly Demonic Power so he would not be able to keep up with their speed.

Seeing as the four of them had failed to hunt down a junior, they could not bring themselves to go back just yet. This time, the remaining three of them would not move separately anymore. Lu Chaonan wanted to see just how powerful Zhe Ying was.

“That little brat has become very powerful. You guys have to be more careful!” Qi Feng said grimly.

He knew that he would be a burden to them if he stayed, so the only thing he could do at this point was to go back and start cultivating all over again.

The three other men nodded. Then, based on what he was sensing, Lu Chaonan said, “Keep moving southward!”

They waved a hand at Qi Feng before gliding into the forest and disappearing from his sight.

The three men continued to discuss what had happened while traveling ahead swiftly. “I can’t believe he defeated Junior Brother Qi as well!”

“Junior Brother Qi was probably careless knowing that we were behind him. On top of that, it’s easy to underestimate Zhe Ying since he’s our junior after all,” Lu Chaonan said and shook his head while sighing. “If Zhe Ying had not made this mistake, he could have turned out to be an outstanding talent too. Unfortunately, his temperament isn’t good enough!”

“It’s all because he has been spoiled by Master’s Juniors!” The other two men huffed.

Lu Chaonan nodded.

He agreed with them on this point. Indeed, Zhe Ying was a spoiled child, and that was exactly why he dared to disregard the sect rules when he clearly knew that he would end up being punished. Perhaps he thought that he would not be punished too severely since the four elders loved him dearly.

However, Zhe Ying had forgotten that he was violating a strict prohibition of Heavenly Demonic Sect. No matter how much the four elders favored him, he still had to face severe punishment!