42: Chapter 42 Lin Feng flees in a sorry state, suffering his first defeat.

In the Black Wind Gobi, endless gray-black sand dunes stretched into the distance. Fierce winds carried black sand capable of slicing through ordinary iron, roaring between heaven and earth. The sky was a dim yellow, and the Spiritual Qi was thin and impure, filled with violent Geng Metal Qi and heavy, muddy Earth Evil Qi.

This was a natural chasm at the border between the Central Plains and the "Domain of Chaos," but at this moment, it had become the only path of survival in Lin Feng's eyes.

"Faster! Faster!" Lin Feng pushed his Chaos concealment to the limit, transforming into a gray stream of Qi that merged with the black wind and sand. He fled for his life through the storm. Behind him, three Nascent Soul auras clung to him like maggots on rotting bones, drawing ever closer. The sensing ability of that Truth-Seeing Spirit Fox seemed capable of piercing through his concealment, locking onto him without fail.

"Damn it! What on earth is that beast?" Lin Feng was both shocked and furious. "I must find a way to kill that fox."

While fleeing, he frantically scanned the terrain. The Gobi occasionally contained black thorns, poisonous cacti, and lurking sand scorpions and sand snakes—but these were no different from ants to Nascent Soul Cultivators.

Suddenly, his gaze sharpened. A few miles to his front-left, a massive, super-sized black tornado connected heaven and earth. Lightning flickered within the eye of the storm. This was no ordinary black wind; it was a "Geng Metal Lightning Evil Storm" mixed with Geng Metal Evil Qi and chaotic thunder. Its power was enough to threaten Golden Core Cultivators, and even a Nascent Soul Cultivator would suffer if they ventured into its core.

"That's the place!" Lin Feng gritted his teeth, changed direction, and charged straight toward the edge of the storm.

"Does he want to die?" Silver Fox sensed the unusual movement through the Spirit Fox's perception and frowned.

Tie Kuang let out a cold snort, his dark gold giant hammer held in his hand, the flames of Artifact Refining rising as he prepared to force his way in.

Xing Yanzi was more cautious. The compass in his hand flickered with light as he attempted to deduce Lin Feng's intentions.

Just as the three of them slowed down slightly due to the storm—

Lin Feng, having already approached the edge of the storm, felt a flash of ruthlessness in his eyes. He turned back and smashed a "Chaos Annihilation Thunder" toward the eye of a newly formed tornado nearby, simultaneously activating the chaos bell fragment. A wisp of gray light struck the Annihilation Thunder, arriving after it was thrown but impacting first.

"Explode!"

Boom—!!!

A gray, destructive tide of energy swept outward. Wherever it passed, black sand turned into nothingness, and tiny cracks appeared in the space. The Chaos energy surged into the Geng Metal Lightning Evil Storm like pouring boiling oil onto a fire, instantly spiraling out of control. The storm's diameter doubled, and countless bucket-thick dark golden lightning bolts shot out, bombarding everything indiscriminately.

"Not good! It's a trap!"

"This madman!"

The three's expressions changed drastically. They retreated frantically, each using their own methods to defend.

Xing Yanzi's star chart shook violently, and blood spilled from the corner of his mouth. Several of Tie Kuang's fire walls were shattered, leaving deep, charred wounds on his bronze-colored skin that revealed bone. The silver phantom transformed by Silver Fox was grazed by the lightning, screaming as it was knocked out of the Void Realm, her left arm severed at the shoulder.

"Chase him! He can't have fled far!" Tie Kuang's eyes were bloodshot.

"Wait!" Xing Yanzi held him back, his expression grim. "The energy in the storm is completely chaotic, and the secrets of heaven are obscured to the extreme. That thing contained high-level Chaos Dao resonance, disrupting all traces of aura for hundreds of miles. Unless he uses the chaos bell again, it will be difficult to lock onto him in the short term."

Silver Fox swallowed a Medicinal Pill while enduring the intense pain, her eyes filled with resentment. "Order all outer perimeter teams to assemble at the border and conduct a dragnet search. Increase the bounty: anyone who provides accurate tracking information will be rewarded with an Earth Rank Medium Grade Cultivation Technique and 50 million Spirit Stones. For whoever captures or kills him, the three Sects will guarantee their Sect's prosperity for a hundred years and grant them an Opportunity to reach the Nascent Soul stage."

The order was quickly transmitted, and the entire northwest border of the Central Plains was thrown into total Chaos.

As for Lin Feng, the one who caused all of this, his situation was indeed dire.

Although he had temporarily shaken off the pursuit and severely damaged the core of those tracking him, he had paid a heavy price. Even while fully activating his Chaos Dao Body and using the chaos bell for protection, he had still been struck by several bolts of mixed lightning.

Pfft—!

A large mouthful of dark golden blood, mixed with fragments of internal organs, sprayed out. The Chaos Qi around his body dimmed and flickered. His body was a bloody mess in many places, revealing ghastly white bones. The bones in his left arm were shattered, his Meridians were damaged and blocked in many places, and cracks appeared on the surface of his Chaos Golden Core. His aura plummeted from Golden Core Peak to Golden Core Late Stage, unstable and weak.

"Cough, cough... Damn it..." Lin Feng coughed up a few more mouthfuls of stagnant blood, his face pale as paper.

"System! Exchange for the highest-level healing Medicinal Pill and items for concealment and recovery!"

[Recommendation: Chaos Creation Pill, 8,000 points; Void Evasion Talisman, 3,000 points; Small Heaven-Returning Formation Plate, 1,500 points; Total 12,500 points. Current balance 2,850 points, insufficient.]

"Insufficient?!" Lin Feng's eyes split with rage.

[Host consumed 3,000 points to activate Chaos Concealment, and 2,000 points to exchange for Chaos Annihilation Thunder. Current balance is 2,850 points.]

"Damn it!" Lin Feng cursed crazily in his heart.

[The System does not have a loan or mortgage function; Hint: Killing high-Luck targets, plundering Opportunities, and completing missions can earn destiny points.]

"Killing... Plundering..." A fierce glint reignited in Lin Feng's eyes. He gripped the chaos bell fragment in his arms tightly. He forcibly channeled his remaining True Qi into the fragment, while simultaneously operating the Chaos Treasure Refining Art, frantically devouring the fragment's power to repair his injuries.

This was like drinking poison to quench thirst. Forcibly refining it exacerbated the erosion of his Divine Soul, and his heavily injured body endured even more intense pain, but he had no other choice.

"Ah—!!" An irrepressible roar squeezed out from his throat. He curled up at the bottom of a sand pit, his whole body trembling violently. Sweat and blood mixed with sand, dyeing him into a miserable blood-soaked man. His original arrogant and overbearing aura had vanished, leaving only disarray, pain, and resentment that went deep into his bones.

This was the first time since his Transmigration that he had suffered such a great loss, the first time he had fled so miserably, and the first time he had felt the shadow of death so close.

"Xing Yanzi... Tie Kuang... Silver Fox... Tianji Pavilion... Divine Weapon Valley... Beast Taming Villa... and... Ye Fan!" Lin Feng gritted his teeth, squeezing each name out through his clenched teeth. "You just wait! The humiliation of today, I, Lin Feng, will return a hundredfold, a thousandfold another day! I will refine you all into blood food and uproot your Sects!"

The insane vow echoed faintly amidst the black wind and the gradually subsiding remnants of the lightning. The only response to him was the sound of the Gobi's eternally indifferent sand and wind.

The roles of hunter and prey had not been completely reversed in this first clash, but Lin Feng, this Vicious Beast, had been slashed hard, bleeding and suffering bone-deep injuries. The subsequent flight would surely be even more frantic.

And one of the culprits behind all of this, Ye Fan, who was currently healing and laying out plans in a mountain forest somewhere in the Central Plains, was still unaware of the miserable first setback his "arch-rival" was experiencing.