287: Capture the Breath

Suddenly!

Under the expansion of Xiao Shi's Soul Consciousness,

He clearly saw people scattered everywhere.

He did a preliminary count.

Currently, within a few hundred miles of him, there were twelve people in total.

These twelve people were scattered in various places, constantly searching back and forth.

Most of them were in the Martial Soul Realm.

But there was also one Martial Demon Realm Expert.

“They even dispatched a Martial Demon Realm Expert to search!”

Xiao Shi's gaze darkened slightly.

Fortunately, his current position had not entered the search range of these people.

He was safe for the moment.

However, it would be quite difficult to escape under the search of these people.

After all, in their search, they did not look with their eyes, but with their expanded Soul Consciousness.

Although the range of their Soul Consciousness expansion was far from being as large as Xiao Shi's,

It was indeed somewhat difficult to avoid their search range and escape.

“To escape, first of all, I definitely cannot choose the direction where the Martial Demon Realm Expert is located...”

“I need to keep avoiding the Martial Demon Realm Expert.”

“Secondly, I need to maintain the expansion of my Soul Consciousness at all times. Not only must I pay attention to the movement trajectories of these people, but I must also clearly grasp the expansion range of their Soul Consciousness to ensure that I do not enter their range.”

“And then there's...”

“In cases where I don't have to act, I should try not to.”

“Even if I have the ability to kill with one strike through a sneak attack, it's best not to kill!”

Xiao Shi knew.

There was likely some kind of sensing between these people.

Once one of them died, the others would sense it immediately.

If he started killing,

He was afraid his position would be exposed in an instant.

His greatest advantage lay mainly in his Soul Consciousness.

Its Soul Consciousness range was large and its concealment was high; even a Martial Demon Realm Expert could not detect his Soul Consciousness.

This allowed Xiao Shi to keep track of these people's movements at all times.

He could formulate an escape route based on their positions.

Immediately,

Xiao Shi moved.

While keeping an eye on their movements with his Soul Consciousness, he began to head towards the positions they had missed.

Of course,

These people conducting the search were not stationary in one position.

They were also constantly moving.

This required Xiao Shi to make continuous adjustments to his position.

In his Crimson Tiger Form and using the Martial Emperor War Boots, Xiao Shi's speed reached the extreme.

He was like a rapidly shuttling blood-colored light.

He escaped from everyone's search consecutively.

But as he continued to flee,

The position where his Soul Consciousness expanded was also constantly changing.

This allowed him to see more people in the distance.

However, under the diffusion of his Soul Consciousness,

It was not difficult for him to avoid their detection.

As long as he did not enter their Soul Consciousness range, they could not detect him.

And so,

Xiao Shi's escape went very smoothly.

He shuttled and fled all the way without attracting anyone's attention.

But after he had moved forward for a distance and avoided the detection of many people in a row,

An unexpected situation suddenly appeared ahead.

Through his own Soul Consciousness, from a great distance away, he had already detected it in advance.

On the stretch of road ahead,

The search method of these people was fundamentally different from the previous ones.

They were no longer moving while searching through their Soul Consciousness.

Instead, they had their eyes closed,

Sitting on the ground,

Muttering an obscure and complex incantation.

In terms of clothing and appearance, they were also completely different from the previous group.

These people wore deep gray robes that covered their entire bodies, their faces were unclear, and they sat cross-legged on the ground with a staff laid across their laps.

Through their clothing and appearance,

Xiao Shi recognized them at a glance.

These people were clearly from the Prayer God Temple!

“In other words...”

“The ones searching through Soul Consciousness before were from the Nether Antiquity Sect.”

“Now, the area ahead is being searched by people from the Prayer God Temple.”

Xiao Shi frowned secretly at this.

As the most mysterious power among the many forces in Star Luo Province,

The Prayer God Temple was proficient in strange and peculiar powers.

Before this, Xiao Shi had never dealt with people from the Prayer God Temple and did not understand their power system.

This forced him to stop first.

He didn't dare to move forward rashly,

Fearing that as soon as he stepped forward, he would be detected by the mysterious power of the Prayer God Temple.

He had to first figure out how they were searching before he could continue forward.

Thinking of this,

Xiao Shi took out the dream jade stone.

After ensuring his current position was safe and no one else would come,

He directly used the dream jade stone

To enter the Dream World.

Man Gui had clearly been paying attention to Xiao Shi's situation, and upon detecting Xiao Shi's call,

He immediately entered the Dream World.

“I've encountered some situations now.”

Xiao Shi kept it short,

Telling Man Gui about his current predicament.

“In what way are these people from the Prayer God Temple searching?”

Upon hearing this,

Man Gui thought for a moment and said in a heavy voice,

“Based on my understanding of those fellows from the Prayer God Temple, they should be performing Divination!”

“Divination?”

Xiao Shi was startled.

“That's right.”

“However, their Divination is not the kind of foresight that predicts the future, but requires a medium to divine the information they want.”

“For example, if they are currently divining the identity of the person who entered the Ancient Ruins, then once they have your aura, your aura will become the medium for their Divination, and they can use it to divine that you are the person who entered the ruins.”

“Of course.”

“Besides your aura, things like your hair, blood, scent, etc., can also serve as mediums for their Divination.”

“But relatively speaking, your aura is the easiest to seize.”

“If I'm not mistaken...”

“They should have already set up a special field in this area, and the aura of all living beings entering this area will be seized by the field.”

“This is a common tactic used by those fellows from the Prayer God Temple.”

“In this way,”

“Once you enter this area, they can instantly divine you through your aura.”

Man Gui's voice was heavy,

Knowing that Xiao Shi's current situation was very bad.

The Prayer God Temple had always been famous for seizing auras.

In addition to fields, they had various other means of seizing auras.

Once one's aura fell into their hands,

They could use various means such as Divination, Curses, and Fortune-stripping.

“I see.”

Xiao Shi nodded.

He exited the Dream World.

Instead of feeling heavy, he felt that if it was about aura, then things would be very easy.

Buzz!

With a thought,

An entirely pitch-black mask instantly appeared on his face.

It was... the martial emperor mask!

Under the effect of the martial emperor mask, he instantly restrained all of his aura, with not a single trace of aura leaking out.

Then, his figure moved,

And he stepped directly into the area ahead.

The moment he entered this area,

Xiao Shi clearly felt the abnormality of this region.

Although nothing different could be seen on the surface,

A hard-to-detect suction force emanated from the ground.

They must be Seizing the Aura of all living beings entering this area through this suction force.

As long as it's a life form, it will emit an aura.

In particular, the more powerful a life form is, the thicker its aura will be.

Even with deliberate restraint, it's difficult to restrain all aura to the point where not a single trace leaks out.

Only a high-tier treasure like the martial emperor mask could achieve this.

For a time,

Under the effect of the martial emperor mask, Xiao Shi's aura was restrained to the extreme. No matter how the field in this area tried to suck, it could not seize even a bit of aura from him.

“If the Prayer God Temple mainly relies on seizing other people's auras to fight, then I, who possess the martial emperor mask, am the greatest nemesis of the Prayer God Temple!”

Xiao Shi shuttled quickly through this area.

After ensuring that his aura would not leak out,

He was even more relaxed than when he faced those people from the Nether Antiquity Sect.

After all, the people from the Prayer God Temple all had their eyes closed, sitting in one place without moving, and no Soul Consciousness was expanded.

Avoiding them was a very easy task.

In an instant,

Xiao Shi left this area without any pressure.

It had to be said that the dragnet set up by the Nether Antiquity Sect and the Prayer God Temple this time would indeed make it difficult for ordinary people to escape this large net.

But for Xiao Shi, there was no pressure.

However,

When Xiao Shi left this area and moved forward for another distance,

He suddenly frowned.

A huge canyon appeared in front of him now.

The entire canyon had only one path.

And on the path into the canyon, there was actually a person from the Prayer God Temple sitting quietly here.

“There's actually someone guarding!”

Xiao Shi was very surprised by this.

One should know,

He had already left the search area of the Prayer God Temple.

This person staying here

Was presumably to prevent any fish from slipping through the net.

After all, to leave this place, this canyon was the only passage.

As long as this place was guarded, even if there were fish that slipped through the net, they would be blocked in this area.

At the same time, looking at the terrain here,

Xiao Shi could not find a path to avoid the opponent.

To pass through here, there was only one way... and that was to step over the opponent's Corpse!

Due to the different cultivation systems of these people from the Prayer God Temple, even though Xiao Shi had detected the opponent in advance with his Soul Consciousness, he could not see the opponent's specific strength and cultivation.

But he knew

That for this person to be able to stay here, their strength must be extraordinary.

There was a high probability that it would be an existence with strength comparable to the Martial Demon Realm!

“With my current strength, if I go head-to-head with a Martial Demon Realm Expert, I will definitely have no chance of winning...”

Xiao Shi felt that facing a Martial Soul Realm expert,

There were only two ways he had a chance to win with weakness against strength.

One was to release the nether moon soul spirit of the Gen Mountain Sect higher-ups he had previously harvested in the illusory world.

Although these nether moon soul spirits' strength would be greatly reduced in the current era and their existence time would be very short,

They were the best Sharp Weapons for Xiao Shi to face the Martial Demon Realm at present!

The second was to inject the nether moon soul spirit into an Evil Energy User's Corpse and resurrect the Evil Energy User to fight against them.

This would save nether moon soul spirits.

After all, he only needed to inject one nether moon soul spirit into the Evil Energy User's Corpse at a time.

But if he released nether moon soul spirits to fight, then it was likely that he would have to release more than one nether moon soul spirit.

Or else,

He could release many nether moon soul spirits while injecting a nether moon soul spirit into the Evil Energy User's Corpse.

But this was his strongest means and trump card at present.

He didn't want to use it here.

If he were facing another Martial Demon Realm Expert this time,

Then besides these two ways,

There was no other better method.

But in the case that the opponent was a Prayer God Temple expert,

Xiao Shi suddenly had an idea... He felt that this idea might be more suitable than those two ways.

Thinking of this,

Xiao Shi's gaze instantly became sharp.

With a move,

He no longer hid his tracks.

He charged directly towards the Prayer God Temple expert sitting at the canyon entrance ahead.

At this time, sitting at the entrance of the canyon

Was an elderly Prayer God Temple expert.

The moment Xiao Shi no longer hid and came charging, his lowered and tightly closed eyes suddenly snapped open.

He raised his head,

Revealing his weathered eyes beneath the robe.

He stared at Xiao Shi,

Very surprised by this person's appearance.

Logically speaking,

Regardless of whether this person was the one who entered the Ancient Ruins, during this time period, everyone located in this area would be detained by them and not allowed to leave.

This person, however, appeared here mysteriously.

“Could it be that he is the one who entered the Ancient Ruins?”

Thinking of this,

The Prayer God Temple expert's eyes suddenly became deep.

He raised his hand and made a grabbing motion in the air towards Xiao Shi's charging body.

He directly seized Xiao Shi's aura.

He held Xiao Shi's aura firmly in his hand.

He directly applied a Curse to him through Xiao Shi's aura.

This was a common tactic of the Prayer God Temple.

They would only use the field to seize aura when they could not see the enemy.

If it was a face-to-face battle,

They had too many ways to seize aura.

Once one's aura fell into their hands,

They would face their endless stream of methods.

When this Prayer God Temple expert seized Xiao Shi's aura, he immediately began to apply a Curse to him through Xiao Shi's aura.

But at the moment he performed the Curse,

“Hmm?”

His expression suddenly changed.

“Wait!!”

“You... what kind of aura is this!!”

He suddenly noticed something wrong with the other party's aura.

This aura was extremely startling!

When he applied a Curse to this aura, not only did it not succeed, but it also suffered an unprecedentedly startling backlash.

Puff!

A mouthful of blood immediately gushed out of his mouth.

His face was as pale as paper.

His body trembled.

A life-saving pendant hanging around his neck

Actually shattered with a crack!

Broken apart!

Not only that,

Cracks quickly spread all over his body, and a large amount of blood kept flowing out of these cracks, staining the ground red.

The old man's face was terrified.

He clearly knew that if it wasn't for the pendant around his neck, he would be dead by now!!

Such a startling backlash had never happened in his life.

He knew very well.

This level of backlash... only by cursing that kind of supreme existence would one suffer such a terrifying backlash!!

But the person in front of him... how could he be that kind of supreme existence!?