192: Chapter 192 Scheme! Flying Knife!

Lin Tian did not look back.

He dashed out from under the city wall of Yunzhou Prefecture, and after rushing less than a mile along the official road, he turned into the dense forest of the Taixuan Mountain Range.

The mountain forest in the night was a completely different world from the daytime—the canopy above blocked the moonlight, and the forest was as black as a pool of thick ink, with only a few strands of pale moonlight leaking through the gaps in the leaves, barely illuminating the rugged mountain path underfoot.

From the depths of the dense forest in the distance, the low roars of beasts could be heard from time to time, and their ghostly green eyes flickered in the darkness, as if someone had lit one ghost fire after another in the shadows.

Under normal circumstances, he would never enter the mountains at this hour.

Having stayed at the Yunhai Fishery for nearly two years, he knew all too well how dangerous the mountain forest was at night—the Vicious Beasts that lay dormant during the day all came out to forage at night, and fourth or fifth-grade big guys could pounce out from the bushes at any moment.

Usually, he would stay in Yunzhou Prefecture for the night and wait until dawn to continue his journey.

But not tonight.

The Demonic Cult Martial Artists brought by that Woman in Black Dress were all in the Fifth-Grade Transformation Realm; with one dead, there were still several left, and it wouldn't be long before more Demonic Cult experts arrived upon hearing the news.

Staying in the city was waiting for death, and staying on the official road was also waiting for death; only by diving into this deep mountain forest that even hunters dared not enter at night would he have a chance to shake off his pursuers.

He pushed his Cloud Shadow Step to the limit, his toes lightly touching tree roots, bluestones, and fallen deadwood to borrow force, and his entire body stretched into a blurry arc in the darkness.

He did not go around bushes but drilled through them sideways; he did not wade through streams but leaped over them.

Vines and thorns scraped against the skin protected by his Dragon Roar Iron Shirt, making a hissing sound, but they couldn't even leave a white mark.

He dared not leave any marks, nor dared he light any fire, relying entirely on a Transcendent Martial Artist's night vision and perception, which were far superior to ordinary people, to travel at high speed through the forest.

About a stick of incense later, footsteps came from behind.

It was not the sound of Vicious Beasts, but people—at least two of them, their footsteps rapid and powerful, their soles making a dense rustling sound as they stepped on dry leaves.

Occasionally, there were low human voices, as if they were signaling directions to each other.

The pursuers had not been shaken off.

Lin Tian took a deep breath and increased the rhythm of his Cloud Shadow Step.

He abruptly changed direction in front of an ancient pine as thick as a person could embrace, his body tilting sideways to slide past the root, and then he used the force to rebound and dart in another direction.

The footsteps of the pursuers behind were disrupted by this sudden change in direction; the two had to stop to re-identify the direction, and the distance between them widened by several dozen zhang.

But before long, the footsteps drew near again.

The opponent's tracking methods were obviously extremely seasoned, and they were by no means ordinary Fifth-Grade Martial Artists.

Two hours.

Lin Tian sprinted in the pitch-black mountain forest for two full hours, traveling all the way from the outskirts of Yunzhou Prefecture to the depths of the Taixuan Mountain Range.

He lost count of how many times he had changed direction, and he couldn't remember how many streams he had waded through or how many mountain ridges he had crossed.

The Internal Energy in his Dantian, which was full and abundant at the beginning, later had to be calculated and used with every thread.

Finally, the footsteps behind him, which were like maggots on a tarsal bone, grew further and further away, from several dozen zhang to nearly a hundred zhang, from clear to blurred, and finally disappeared completely into the sound of the wind in the distant dense forest.

He stopped and leaned against a depression in a mountain wall.

This was a naturally formed rock cave, not deep, just enough for one person to sit cross-legged.

He leaned against the stone wall, gasping for air, sweat soaking the robe under his cloak, and the muscles in his legs began to tremble involuntarily after he stopped.

He took out a small deerskin bag from his bosom, pulled out the stopper, poured out two Blood-Coagulating Medicinal Pills to restore his Internal Energy, and swallowed them with water.

The Medicinal Pill dissolved in his stomach, and a wave of warm medicinal power slowly spread along his Meridians, and the Qi Sea in his Dantian, which was almost bottomed out, began to refill bit by bit.

He closed his eyes, formed a seal with his palms, and the Purple Qi Diagram slowly circulated within his body.

The Spiritual Qi was guided by his Mind-Cultivation Technique to rise from the Dantian, washing through his Meridians in circles, and the consumed Internal Energy was steadily restored under the dual push of the medicinal power and the Mind-Cultivation Technique.

The wind outside the stone cave howled, occasionally mixed with the howls of wolves in the distance.

Amidst this noise, he forced himself to enter a semi-meditative state, the pores on his skin slightly opening, absorbing the thin Spiritual Qi of the mountain forest into his body bit by bit.

About half an hour later, footsteps suddenly came from outside the stone cave.

Not from afar, but very close—the soles of feet stepping on gravel made a faint crunching sound, approaching the direction of the stone cave.

Someone was coming; was it the Demonic Cult?

Lin Tian opened his eyes abruptly, and his right hand had already flicked out as he opened his eyes.

A moyuan flying dagger flew out silently from his sleeve, drawing a very thin black line in the darkness, precisely nailing toward the direction where the footsteps came from.

"Who is it!" An exclamation came from the darkness, followed by the muffled sound of the flying dagger nailing into a tree trunk.

Lin Tian had already rushed out of the stone cave, the palm force of the Great Strength Vajra Palm condensing in his palm, ready to strike whoever came, regardless of who it was.

Then he saw a familiar, pale, and thin face—

The hood was mostly blown off by the Qi, revealing a head of gray, messy hair and a forehead full of wrinkles, with a trace of un-wiped blood on the corner of his mouth.

The moyuan flying dagger was nailed to the trunk of a large tree behind him, three inches into the wood, and the tail of the dagger was still trembling slightly.

That strike just now had been dodged by him tilting his head at the critical moment.

"It's you." Lin Tian frowned; the palm force did not dissipate, but he didn't strike immediately either.

He recognized that the person who came was not from the Demonic Cult, but the Black-robed Elder from before.

Seeing it was Lin Tian, the Black-robed Elder first tensed up, then let out a long sigh of relief. "Great, it's not the remnant of the Demonic Cult."

He reached out to wipe the blood foam from the corner of his mouth, squeezed out a smile, his voice hoarse but filled with sincere relief, "Young Hero has good footwork to be able to shake off the people of the Demonic Cult! This old man admires you, admires you."

Lin Tian did not respond.

He stood on the spot, looking at the elder expressionlessly.

Then he moved—the Cloud Shadow Step erupted suddenly in the square inch, his whole body pulling a straight afterimage under the moonlight, instantly closing in on the elder.

The Great Strength Vajra Palm, already fully charged in his right palm, struck at the elder's chest without mercy, the Internal Energy wrapped around the palm force, and before the palm arrived, the palm wind had already blown the fallen leaves behind the elder flying in all directions.

The smile on the elder's face froze instantly.

He didn't expect Lin Tian to take action without saying a word.

In his haste, he tilted his body sharply, his feet tapping the ground three times in succession, and his figure narrowly avoided this palm with an agility that an old man should not have.

He retreated several steps in a row, his hands waving repeatedly in front of him, and his voice carried a bit of urgency and confusion: "Young Hero! Why do you want to attack this old man?"

Lin Tian did not answer, stepped forward, and the second and third palms were struck one after another.

The power of the Great Strength Vajra Palm went up another level after he entered the Transcendent realm; the palm force compressed the air, and every strike pressed a shallow palm print on the ground.

The elder struggled to parry, his movement technique was strange but he was clearly injured, and after dodging a few moves, his movements were half a beat slower; he was grazed by a palm on his left shoulder, flew sideways, broke a dead tree as thick as a bowl, and slid several feet after falling to the ground before stopping.

He struggled to prop up his upper body, spat a mouthful of blood onto the dead leaves, looked up at Lin Tian who was approaching step by step, and hissed: "Young Hero! You must at least let me understand why you want to take action, right?"

Lin Tian walked to a spot three steps in front of him and stood still, looking down at him.

The moonlight shone on half of his face under the cloak, his expression as cold as an iron plate.

"Why take action? It had nothing to do with me before, but because of your words, I was hunted by the Demonic Cult and almost died in the mountains. You tell me why I want to take action?"

When this old thing was besieged at the alley entrance, he deliberately shouted out the Demonic Cult's identity in public; it wasn't a call for help at all, but shifting the disaster—dragging him, who was passing by, into the water so the Demonic Cult would be distracted and chase him, creating an opportunity for himself to escape.

Now, surprisingly, he actually had the face to catch up and try to get close to him.

Lin Tian flipped his right hand, and another moyuan flying dagger slid between his fingers, the tip of the blade gleaming with a faint cold light under the moonlight.

If he didn't give him a lesson today, he would really be treated as a sucker who was easy to calculate.