1428: Pursuit

With a bang!

A Nightmare Ghost resembling a praying mantis crashed heavily to the ground, kicking up countless rocks and sand.

The next second, Wang Chen's figure suddenly appeared beside the fallen Nightmare Ghost.

Fourteen hours had passed since he first arrived at Level Three; calculating the time, it should be midnight at the base outside.

However, the demi-plane seemed to have no distinction between day and night; the sky was always dim, unchanging, making it impossible to tell the passage of time by the sky alone.

"Just a little more."

After finishing the kill and absorbing the experience, Wang Chen's eyes showed a hint of satisfaction.

Having stayed at Level Three for fourteen hours, he had already filled the progress bar to level two hundred eighty-one to ninety-nine percent.

He was just the last one percent away from completing the upgrade.

"Kill two more Five Realm Middle Stage Nightmare Ghosts, or one Five Realm Late Stage Nightmare Ghost…"

"The last one percent of the progress will be filled."

Wang Chen calculated briefly in his mind and immediately became full of fighting spirit again.

During these fourteen hours, he had swept through most of Level Three, killing hundreds of Five Realm Middle and Late Stage Nightmare Ghosts, and in the process, he had attracted almost all of the Five Realm Peak Nightmare Ghosts in Level Three.

It could be said that after half of the fourteen hours had passed, Wang Chen had been constantly maintaining the process of being chased and then counter-ambushing, playing a game of "hide-and-seek" with the Five Realm Peak Nightmare Ghosts pursuing him.

"Soon, after I upgrade, my strength will increase again, and then I won't be afraid of facing multiple Five Realm Peak Nightmare Ghosts."

Sensing the appearance of Five Realm Peak Nightmare Ghosts' Qi again, a fierce aura surged on Wang Chen's face:

"All you guys who are chasing this young master now, you'll all be ganked then!"

He angrily withdrew his gaze from his surroundings, and his figure once again disappeared into the ground.

…

"Roar!!"

Not long after Wang Chen left, a hoarse roar filled with anger suddenly echoed in this area.

"Damn human!!"

"I'm going to tear you to pieces!"

A Nightmare Ghost with a bull's head, a burly physique, and muscles that seemed forged from molten iron, roared and stomped the ground with its hooves.

The powerful Qi of a Five Realm Peak continuously spread from its body, and each time its hooves fell, the ground rumbled, causing cracks to spread into the distance.

"Evil Ox, don't waste your strength!"

"Even if you turn over all the surrounding land, you won't find that human Little Mouse; he must have run far away already!"

As the bull-headed Nightmare Ghost furiously destroyed the surrounding land, a faint voice suddenly sounded.

The voice was not loud, even slightly gentle, but it was filled with an indescribable power, and the moment it sounded, it inexplicably suppressed the huge commotion made by the bull-headed Nightmare Ghost.

"Long Tongue, what do we do now?"

"In the past, when humans came in, we could have a real fight, and sometimes, we could even transform new kin, or at least taste fresh flesh and blood."

"This time, it's just too frustrating!"

"That bastard is too slippery; he doesn't confront us directly at all. As soon as he senses our Qi, he runs away, and since he burrows underground, we have no way to catch him."

The bull-headed Nightmare Ghost, called Evil Ox, turned to look at the source of the voice, speaking with great annoyance.

As soon as he finished speaking, a "petite" figure appeared not far away.

This was also a Five Realm Peak Nightmare Ghost, but unlike the burly and tall Evil Ox, this Nightmare Ghost, called Long Tongue, was very distinctive among the entire Nightmare Ghost group.

Its appearance resembled a monkey; it was very short, less than a meter tall, but its tongue was very long, hanging down to its chest, almost touching the ground.

As the Nightmare Ghost Long Tongue appeared, four more Nightmare Ghosts, whose Qi was similar to his and whose forms were even more bizarre, appeared one after another around him.

"This human Little Mouse should have come in specifically for training. We've encountered similar situations a few times in the past, but none of those people had means as troublesome as this guy."

Long Tongue said indifferently at this moment:

"But it's not impossible to catch him."

"He can't hide forever. During our pursuit, we also found that after he escapes our lock, he will target our isolated kin."

"Since that's the case, we'll use his plan against him and set a trap to lure him in."

As he spoke, Long Tongue's tongue, which hung in front of his body, swayed eerily, as if it had a consciousness, constantly pointing at the surrounding Nightmare Ghosts.

"Humans are the most insidious and cunning. Will this Little Mouse be so easily fooled?"

At this moment, a Nightmare Ghost whose body shape changed like a cloud and whose voice was also strangely uncertain, spoke:

"Moreover, he can burrow underground and instantly escape our lock range. Even if we set a trap, it will be difficult to kill this Little Mouse."

"Black Cloud is right; this human Little Mouse's burrowing method is simply too troublesome. Although his strength is weaker than ours, if he's determined to escape, we simply can't stop him."

Another strangely shaped Nightmare Ghost said:

"When we enter underground, we can only open paths with brute force, and our speed is less than one-tenth of normal. But this human Little Mouse is like he's integrated with the earth; his speed not only doesn't slow down when traveling through the earth, but it's even a bit faster than on the surface."

"With such burrowing means, without absolute power suppression, it's impossible to kill him. No matter how many of us there are, we can do nothing."

"That's true."

The Nightmare Ghost Long Tongue nodded at this point, affirming what his companion had said earlier, but then he changed the subject and said:

"This human Little Mouse's burrowing method is indeed troublesome, but what if there's no earth for him to escape into?"

"There's a swamp to the east, quite large. Flooding it with water would make it a suitable battlefield."

"With water as an obstacle to slow him down, before he can burrow underground, we'll have enough time to intercept him."

As soon as the Nightmare Ghost Long Tongue finished speaking, the surrounding atmosphere quieted slightly.

"That's a good idea. As long as that human Little Mouse can't enter deep underground in the blink of an eye, we can make a move to force him out and kill him."

After a while, the Nightmare Ghost Evil Ox spoke excitedly.

"Indeed, as long as we follow the plan, this human Little Mouse will soon become our plaything, however…"

The Nightmare Ghost Long Tongue nodded and said:

"That human Little Mouse has been hunting our isolated kin, and he's getting bolder, with the kin he targets becoming stronger and stronger."

"To get him into an encirclement, some of us need to act as bait."