Chapter Eighteen: Escape

  Barely dodging a powerful blast that grazed his forehead, Ling Lin's chest heaved violently as his face turned deathly pale. His true energy consumption was too high; although he possessed the power of absorption, his recovery speed was already quite fast, but even with such rapid recovery, it couldn't keep up with his current rate of depletion - he had to think of a solution quickly, or else he wouldn't be able to hold on. Looking at what seemed like another evenly matched battle, Ling Lin knew that everything now depended solely on himself.

  With a flip of his palm, the Nourishing Qi Pill suddenly appeared in his hand. Taking a deep breath, Ling Lin swallowed it down. A cool sensation slid down his throat, and immediately, the nearly depleted spiritual energy within him surged up violently, with more and more spiritual energy beginning to wildly rampage through his body. Ling Lin's slightly frail body was inflated by several sizes due to the spiritual energy. On the back of his hands, one could faintly see a network of blue veins throbbing!

  Ling Lin didn't have time to think much, and while dispersing the spiritual energy inside his body to all parts, he also activated his devouring power, stuffing large amounts of spiritual energy into his sea of consciousness. Although this was very dangerous, Ling Lin currently had no other choice. Rather than waiting for death, it was better to take a risk, and fortunately, when his sea of consciousness started to feel a slight stinging pain from the spiritual energy, the Nourishing Qi Pellet stopped releasing spiritual energy, and a pellet that had clearly shrunk in size quietly sank into his sea of consciousness, no longer moving.

  In the midst of battle, consuming these pellets that weren't originally meant to replenish spiritual energy is an extremely perilous affair. It's easy to be burst by the massive spiritual energy contained within the pellets and die from explosion! The Nourishing Pellet is a relatively mild pellet; it doesn't release all its spiritual energy at once but rather does so gradually, and only when Ling Lin breaks through to the Pre-Heavenly stage can he fully absorb the spiritual energy of the Nourishing Pellet. That's why Ling Lin dares to take such a risk.

  He slightly calmed the raging spiritual energy within his body, and Ling Lin raised his head to gaze at the distant Meng Mountain. A faint smile played on his lips, but no matter how one looked at it, this smile seemed to be filled with an unshakeable chill, as if a gust of wind had blown in from the glaciers, bringing with it a bone-piercing coldness. "Let's have a good fight."

  Another battlefield.

  "Soul Devouring!" Du Han finally decided to stop entangling, took a step forward and suddenly appeared beside Shi Ning, his five fingers turned into claws, fiercely grasping towards Shi Ning's heart, the claw force emitted a piercing howling sound, like a night ghost wailing, making one's hair stand on end.

  Facing this claw, Shi Ning's expression remained unchanged, a red silk ribbon blocking her body, it was her "Amber Red Ribbon". Her jade arm danced lightly, the Amber Red Ribbon transformed into a vast red mist, blocking the layered and dense claw shadows outside.

  "Die!" Du Han shouted loudly, a gigantic claw shadow suddenly enlarged and covered the sky, pouncing on Shi Ning.

  "Seal!" Amber silk instantly rolled towards the claw shadow, but at this moment, Shi Ning saw a hint of evil smile at the corner of Du Han's mouth. "Not good!" Shi Ning's heart tightened, and she quickly controlled the amber silk to fly back.

  "Found it? But it's too late! Boom!" Just as Du Han's last word fell.

  "Boom!" The huge claw shadow exploded the moment it touched Amber Zhu's body. "Whoosh..." A powerful gust of wind blew Jin Lie Shi, causing Ling Lin and others in the distance to stumble about.

  With a forceful push of his right foot, Lin Ling stabilized his body and looked towards the place where Shi Cong and Cong were fighting. The dust scattered everywhere, revealing a massive crater with a diameter of nearly ten meters! Where's Shifu? There was no sign of her at the entrance of the cave. Where did she go? Lin Ling found himself getting anxious, "It can't be, it can't be." He muttered to himself. Although he would have definitely been severely injured or killed if he were in her place, it was unlikely that Shifu's body would be completely destroyed, especially since she was a Xiantian cultivator.

  "There!" A familiar figure stepped on the gravel, slowly emerging from a dark alley of the street. The shadow gradually dispersed, and Po Jing's figure clearly appeared in front of Lin Lin's eyes. His face was pale, and the broken amber-colored jade pendant lay dimly in his hand. Lin Lin could obviously feel that Po Jing's breath had weakened a lot.

  "Pffft" Zhang spat out a mouthful of fresh blood, Shi Ning's body seemed to be swaying precariously, her face was even paler, like snowflakes. The pale face, with red lips stained with blood, the swaying body, had a desolate beauty.

  "You're not dead yet." Du Han walked step by step towards Shi Ning, with a sly smile, as if playing with his prey in his hands, the corners of his mouth curled up with cruelty, and his eyes flashed with abnormal excitement.

  "Sister!" Ling Lin's heart was anxious, and he took a step forward, about to rush towards Shi Ning.

  "Little one, you're asking for trouble!" A strong gust of wind came from behind, Ling Lin gritted his teeth and didn't even turn his head, his figure unwavering, his eyes filled with madness, completely disregarding the attack from behind. "Bang." The massive force sent Ling Lin stumbling back, blood splattering in mid-air. Taking advantage of the momentum, Ling Lin's speed increased by several folds, almost in the blink of an eye, he arrived in front of Shi Ningning. With a flick of his sleeve, he swept up Shi Ningning and charged towards the small path to the side.

  "Want to leave, did you ask me?" Looking at the prey in front of him who still wanted to escape, Du Han's bloodthirsty smile emerged, like a black whirlwind, speeding up to the extreme, instantly dashing towards Ling Lin. "Zi Lin, I'm counting on you." In this critical moment, Ling Lin suddenly threw out the purple-blooded sword in his hand.

  Inside the Purple Blood Sword, Zilin sat cross-legged, his small face filled with solemnity. A faint glow slowly floated out from his young body, and every time a thread of light emerged, Zilin's body dimmed slightly, while the Purple Blood Sword's glow grew even more radiant. His hands quickly formed one mysterious seal after another, and the divine light in Zilin's eyes burst forth, his hands pointing to the sky. A small purple column of light suddenly shot out from his crown, connecting heaven and earth, piercing through the black sun hanging in the sky, as if opening a gap. Threads of black aura surrounded the purple light column, slowly flowing out from the black sun and seeping into Zilin's body. Enduring the intense pain of the fierce and evil energy entering his body, Zilin's young body trembled violently.

  The purple light pillar and black horns disappeared, and Zilin suddenly stood up, with a change in his hand seal. "Go!" With a soft shout, Zilin condensed the evil energy that had been summoned, and a small black line shot out from his hand, breaking through space and disappearing into nothingness. Watching the disappearance of the black thread, Zilin smiled happily and muttered: "Brother, I can finally help you...". Suddenly, Zilin's dim figure fell to the crimson ground, his eyes closed as if he was asleep, with a satisfied smile on his face.

  "Boom!" The purple blood sword stabbed into the black whirlwind, causing a fierce collision, and the black whirlwind suddenly paused. At this moment, a thin black thread suddenly shot out from the purple blood sword, and the black thread seemed to merge with the black whirlwind in an extremely subtle way.

  "Pfft." A faint sound, like a needle piercing through fabric. The black whirlwind suddenly dispersed, and a small hole appeared on Du Han's shoulder, as if it had been scorched, with a charred black color. Upon closer inspection, there was not a single thread of flesh or blood in the wound, and even the bone seemed to have melted away, leaving a transparent cavity on his entire shoulder.

  "Hiss..." He took a deep breath, and Du Han recalled the scene from earlier. His heart was still racing with fear. If he hadn't sensed the danger in advance and dodged slightly, what had almost pierced through his shoulder would have been his brow! Feeling the remaining malevolent energy inside him, he took another breath, and it was highly concentrated evil energy! If there wasn't just a small amount of this energy, he would have died already. However, even now, he would have to expend a lot of yuanqi to expel the evil energy from his body.

  "What a terrifying divine sword! It's a huge waste to leave it on that kid." He licked his lips, gazing at the gradually disappearing figures of Ling Lin and the other, Du Han shouted: "Chase!"

  ……

  The night color shrouds the earth, the icy moonlight pours down, and dresses the earth in a layer of gauze, making it look exceptionally quiet.

  Hiss.

  In the quiet sky, a sudden and extremely rapid breaking wind sound came through.

  A figure flew in from a distance at high speed. It wasn't until it got closer that I realized there was someone on its back. Ling Lin's face was as pale as snow, and sweat kept dripping down his cheeks.

  A pellet of medicine appeared in the palm of her hand, and she looked at Ling Lin with a flash of self-blame. If it weren't for her own carelessness, things wouldn't have turned out like this now. Du Han's strength was only slightly different from hers, but now she was seriously injured, while the other party was only lightly injured. She was really useless, and had even dragged Mu Tou down with her.

  She knew that Ling Lin was also approaching his limit and couldn't hold on for much longer, while behind them, those two guys who were like shadows couldn't be shaken off. Shi Ning's self-blame grew stronger, and she looked at Ling Lin with a gentle gaze, her eyes flashing with determination as she said: "Wooden head, eat this Return to the Void Pill and put me down, if we continue like this, neither of us will be able to escape, I know you can shake them off by yourself."

  Without a word, Lin Ling swiftly swallowed the last Rejuvenation Pill. The nearly depleted true energy within him was like withered wood encountering spring, and it suddenly recovered a lot. However, this was already the last Rejuvenation Pill, and when his true energy dried up next time, it would be his own death sentence. How long could these true energies sustain himself? The Martial Path realm wouldn't allow flight, and Lin Ling had only temporarily gained flying ability through his unique method. Nevertheless, this method of compressing spiritual energy to propel flight was also extremely exhausting for his true energy. Moreover, his heart and spirit had been pushed to the verge of collapse several times, like a rope being pulled tighter and tighter, with the possibility of snapping at any moment. He was truly exhausted, but he couldn't let himself give up and allow Poetic Condensation to escape alone. "I, Lin Ling, can't do that!"

  Eyes full of bloodshot scanned the surroundings, Ling Lin was observing the most advantageous escape route. All the way fleeing, he didn't know how many roads he had run. Along the way, he also didn't know how many small paths, tree clusters, and mountain forests they had crossed. It was precisely because of these easy-to-get-lost places that Ling Lin and his companion hadn't been caught up yet.

  "This is it." A massive mountain range, like a long dragon lying horizontally, appeared before Ling Lin's eyes. His gaze contracted, and Ling Lin instinctively felt a thrill of fear, for such a huge mountain range was absolutely fraught with danger. But did he still have room to choose now?

  In the darkness, Ling Lin carried Shi Ning and swiftly ran towards the mountain range. At the entrance, it was as if a big mouth had opened up, silently swallowing two more lives.