Although the bare-chested youth was a powerful cultivator, he was used to acting with impunity on the Tianlan Prairie. Whether they were from his own clan or outsiders, anyone who knew his name would avoid him if they could. Otherwise, they could only hope to escape disaster by suffering some financial loss. Over time, his vigilance had been greatly eroded. Furthermore, his master had assigned a Pseudo-Nascent Soul Realm expert from the clan to protect him, so he had never imagined that someone would dare to attack him on the Tianlan Prairie. For a moment, he failed to even react.
But the gray-haired old man's premonition of death was bone-deep. Although Li Yan and Zhao Min's target was the bare-chested youth alone, the moment their figures blurred, his heart went cold. He felt as if he had been locked onto by a peerless, ferocious beast. Without a second thought, he grabbed the bare-chested youth and immediately retreated. In that hasty moment, he made the most correct choice, not standing his ground to block them. Otherwise, if even one of them had turned their attack on him, he would have had to block, and the bare-chested youth would still have been struck by the other attack.
The bare-chested youth vanished in an instant, and the two alluring bodies that had been leaning against him fell where he had been. In a flash, the two women were pierced by two powerful forces and exploded into a shower of blood. As for the roc-like demonic beast, it was kicked toward the ground by the gray-haired old man, and thus, it escaped disaster.
Staring at the bloody mist and flesh that had not yet dispersed in the air and the stench of blood that filled it, the bare-chested youth only now came to his senses. His dazed expression suddenly turned ferocious, and he pointed a finger at the two of them. "So you are spies from the Tingyun Kingdom! How dare you ambush Tie Lianggu, the Prairie Eagle, and kill my women! With a wave of my hand, I can stir a storm across the Tianlan Prairie…"
Just as the youth, who called himself Tie Lianggu, began his furious tirade, his expression suddenly went blank. In the distance, the two assailants, having failed in their attack, suddenly had a willow leaf rise up from under their feet and then shot away toward the south.
"Cowards! You won't escape! Wutu, after them!" Tie Lianggu suddenly flew into a rage. He had not expected that after their failed attack, the two wouldn't even have the courage to face him and would immediately flee. They fled so decisively, a complete contrast to their previous ferocious attack!
As Tie Lianggu called out to the gray-haired old man, he himself had already transformed into a streak of rainbow light and given chase.
Tie Lianggu was not stupid. Although he felt he could heavily injure the two, he wasn't necessarily confident he could keep them there by himself. From their thunderous strike just now, he could already tell that they were not ordinary Golden Core cultivators. He had rarely encountered such sharp and decisive killing intent. If one of them managed to escape, he would consider it a disgrace. Therefore, it was more prudent to call on Wutu.
As for the demonic beast, it was just for transportation. It was useless in a battle between Golden Core cultivators. It could fly back to the clan on its own later.
Night fell quickly on the prairie. In just that short time, the sky had turned dark, and the stars twinkled remotely. Under the night sky, three streaks of rainbow light, one in front and two behind, shot across like meteors.
After chasing for more than half an hour, Tie Lianggu's face grew increasingly grim. He and Wutu were gradually being left further and further behind.
"Damn it, their flying magical treasure is of a very high grade! Wutu, can you catch up and intercept them if you go all out?"
"It would be difficult. My advantage is a burst of speed over short distances, but they were prepared. They fled immediately after their first failed strike, creating a huge gap. At my full speed now, I can only be about ten percent faster than them, but I can't maintain that for long." Wutu's gray eyebrows were also knitted together. He hadn't expected the other party to possess a flying magical treasure of such a high grade. Even he wasn't very confident. Going all out would consume a massive amount of his magical power, and even if he caught up, he might not be able to stop them. Tie Lianggu thought for a moment.
"Hmph! This is our territory. If they escape, I'll definitely be ridiculed by Tuo En and the others when I get back! I'll send a message to have someone block them from the front. Die, you all must die!"
Before he finished speaking, a small stalk of red grass appeared in his palm. The grass was only the length of a finger, with slender stems and leaves, hollow inside. The two ends of the grass curled up slightly, and its bright red color looked somewhat eerie. Tie Lianggu placed it before his mouth, and his lips began to move rapidly, but no sound came out.
Soon, Tie Lianggu lowered the red grass. He and Wutu continued their pursuit without slowing down. Five breaths later, the small red grass in Tie Lianggu's hand suddenly began to tremble lightly. He quickly immersed his Divine Sense into it and soon looked up, a savage smile on his face.
"Trying to run? Not a chance!"
"Tie Lianggu, who's ahead?" Wutu asked.
"As it happens, Bate and Balu are leading a team of green-clad guards on patrol at the border today. They will be waiting there for these two," Tie Lianggu said excitedly. As he spoke, the red grass in his hand began to shake again. A moment later, the smile on his face grew wider.
"Haha, what luck today! There are two other Golden Core experts from our clan nearby. They are even closer and are already on their way to intercept them!"
"That's even better!" Wutu said, his face a mask of grim coldness.
After their failed attempt to kill their target, Li Yan and Zhao Min did not dare to linger in enemy territory and fled at top speed.
"That gray-haired old man is not easy to deal with. We can't let him tie us down, or we'll definitely be surrounded!" Li Yan glanced behind them. The gray-haired old man's aura was extremely long and steady. He seemed to be at ease, clearly not having used his full strength even after chasing for so long.
"They aren't rushing to catch up. We might be in even greater danger!" Zhao Min's cold voice rang out.
They had been flying for over half an hour, and the enemy had been tailing them relentlessly, making them feel like they had thorns in their backs.
Suddenly, Li Yan's expression changed. "There's someone flying toward us from the front left!"
Zhao Min already knew that Li Yan's Divine Sense was stronger than hers. She didn't say anything. Li Yan was just informing her of the situation; she didn't need to offer any suggestions, as Li Yan would naturally avoid them from a distance.
Sure enough, the Cloud-Piercing Willow suddenly carved an arc and flew toward the front right. The person he had detected was also a Mid-stage Golden Core cultivator. Based on the distance, he shouldn't have been able to detect Li Yan and his companion in advance. But now he was flying in a straight line toward them, his target extremely clear. Li Yan and Zhao Min had already guessed that he was connected to the enemies chasing them from behind, who had pinpointed their location.
At this time, the pursuing enemies were only about four hundred li behind them. This was because the Cloud-Piercing Willow was incredibly fast. After the sneak attack, Li Yan had fled without hesitation, covering a hundred li in a flash. By the time the enemy reacted, they were another two hundred li away. The subsequent distance was only gained bit by bit over more than half an hour.
With a distance of four hundred li, if Li Yan and his companion were entangled for even a few breaths, the pursuers from behind would catch up. Now, although Li Yan had changed direction, he hadn't completely shaken off the person blocking them from the front left. A few breaths after Li Yan changed direction, that person also changed direction, once again closing in on Li Yan. In terms of direction, they were basically still heading toward each other, one from the north and one from the south. Therefore, the distance between them was shrinking even faster than with Tie Lianggu behind them, and they were getting closer and closer.
As Li Yan was flying, he suddenly felt a chill in his heart. At the same time, a sense of crisis rose in Zhao Min's heart as well. A bolt of lightning suddenly struck from the void in front of them. The night sky was full of stars; this lightning was obviously not real lightning.
"You engage the enemy!" Li Yan transmitted his voice, and he had already left the Cloud-Piercing Willow.
Without a second thought, Zhao Min also acted. A blue light flashed under her feet, and in an instant, she too had flown off the Cloud-Piercing Willow to meet the lightning bolt. Her fair, snow-white hand quickly rose, and a palm pressed against the bolt of lightning.
Zhao Min's natal magical treasure was originally a slender, azure sword with blue flames, but this natal magical treasure was not a growth-type one. After she formed her core, it could no longer fully bear her vigorous magical power. This magical treasure had been with Zhao Min for a long time, and she was reluctant to just abandon it. She wanted to find suitable materials later to melt it down and reforge it. Therefore, she rarely used her magical treasure now.
The demon clan had always treated their own physical bodies as a special kind of magical treasure to cultivate. Unless they encountered a particularly exceptional cultivation method, they were willing to cultivate it to increase their own attack power with the help of a magical treasure. For example, Mu Guyue's handguard crescent sabers were an extremely formidable cultivation method that could increase her combat power by twenty to thirty percent, so she naturally wouldn't give up cultivating it. The "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate" that Zhao Min cultivated was one of the most top-tier cultivation methods of the original demon clan. It had a complete set of cultivation methods and attack arts. If Zhao Min had focused solely on cultivating the "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate," it wouldn't have mattered whether she had a natal magical treasure in the future.
The moment Zhao Min's palm made contact with the lightning, the head of a large, bronze-colored hammer was revealed within the lightning. The hammerhead alone was half the size of Zhao Min's body. Compared to Zhao Min's slender jade palm, it looked incredibly shocking and powerful.
But there was not a trace of fear on Zhao Min's face. Her otherwise ordinary appearance took on a different meaning at this moment.
With a "boom," Zhao Min's body, suspended in mid-air, remained motionless. The great hammer's unstoppable strike, empowered by the electricity in the air, seemed to have smashed against an ancient mountain. The body of the hammer came to an abrupt halt, and the hammerhead was sent flying high into the air, but the lightning on the hammer still instantly covered Zhao Min's arm!
Under the electric light, Zhao Min's long hair danced wildly!
Li Yan and Zhao Min suddenly separated. Li Yan flashed into the dark night sky and silently vanished.
The person who had ambushed them was an expert in concealment, likely an Initial-stage Golden Core cultivator. Neither Li Yan nor Zhao Min had been able to detect his aura before, until he suddenly launched a sneak attack. In that instant, Li Yan had locked onto him. The person was hiding in the half-man-high grass below. The grass had not been disturbed by his presence and was swaying naturally with the night wind, making his concealment perfect. But he had to attack.
This Tianlan Clan cultivator had gone silent after launching his attack. His goal was to harass them; he was not confident he could deal with two cultivators of the same rank at once. He only needed to harass them for three breaths, and one of his clansmen would arrive. In five breaths, Tie Lianggu and Wutu would also be there. Less than half a breath had passed since his sneak attack. He only saw a figure flash from the flying magical treasure and arrive beneath his own magical treasure. It was a woman, and she raised her hand to meet his sudden assault!
Just then, a heart-wrenching palpitation shot through his soul, giving him a sense of impending doom. He was a battle-hardened warrior, accustomed to ambushing others on the Tianlan Prairie. The instinct to kill and be killed was ingrained in him. Without a moment's hesitation, he didn't even make the simple move of looking up. Instead, his body twisted strangely, and like a boneless serpent, he shot out through the grass. The green grass in his path remained undisturbed, giving no indication that a living being was moving through it.