Chapter 364: Inescapable Net (Two)
Outside the city walls was a flat prairie land that Jian Chen continued to fly across at a breakneck speed. With each step, he traversed at least twenty meters; even though he was not using the Illusionary Flash, he was still traveling quite fast.
Now that this situation had occurred, Jian Chen knew that every single surrounding city was no longer safe. Every single power had already put out an order for him to be arrested in the case they discovered Jian Chen. Because the tiger was far too conspicuous and because Jian Chen had promised Rum Guinness that he would take care of the cub, the cub would have to stay with him. Right now, the tiger cub was far too weak to protect itself. If it were to try and live by itself, then there was a good chance a mercenary group or another magical beast would get to it.
While Jian Chen was running, he suddenly felt something coming from behind. Turning his head behind, an unsightly look graced his face as he saw a figure flying through the air a few hundred meters behind.
Jian Chen’s heart grew a little heavy at this sight. After fighting the ancestor of the Moyun clan in the valley, he knew just how strong a Heaven Saint Master was. Even if he gave it his all, the two sides would end up being heavily injured. There was just too much of a difference between an Earth Saint Master and a Heaven Saint Master, even after using the Heaven’s Stolen Fortune to multiply his strength three-fold, he was only barely able to fight a Heaven Saint Master. Jian Chen wouldn’t be able to do anything either if the Heaven Saint Master fled since they could fly through the air while Jian Chen could not.
Looking at the flying Heaven Saint Master darkly, Jian Chen immediately used the Illusionary Flash in order to explode across the plains and travel ten times faster than before.
Jian Chen’s sudden burst of speed caused the distance between him and the Heaven Saint Master to increase by a large amount. However, the Heaven Saint Master began to increase his speed as well, following close behind Jian Chen and trying to close the distance.
The Illusionary Flash was a Heaven Tier Battle Skill that Jian Chen had only a small grasp of. Despite it increasing his speed many times over, it would not be enough to outrace the Heaven Saint Master. After all, Jian Chen was running on the ground, but the other was flying through the air.
“Jian Chen, you cannot escape. Why not hand over the Seal of Treasure Mountain back to the Shi family and save your energy.” At this moment, the voice of the Heaven Saint Master could be heard like a sound of thunder that rang through the world.
Hearing this familiar sound, Jian Chen turned back once more only to discover that the Heaven Saint Master flying through the air was the person he had talked to back in Mercenary City, it was one of the four Cai brothers.
Jian Chen continued to silently try and run away, while he had the strength to fight against a Heaven Saint Master, he did not wish to fight just yet. Even if he were to beat back the Heaven Saint Master, he would have to pay a heavy price for it. With this heavy price, then if any reinforcements came, there would be no strength left in Jian Chen to fight back.
“Jian Chen, just return the Seal of Treasure Mountain, you cannot escape. You most likely don’t know this, but the Shi Family and Jiede clan have joined forces. Aside from us four Cai brothers, there are another four other Heaven Saint Masters watching out for you at the same time. Knowing that you came out of the Thousand Poison Valley, us eight men were able to go to the surrounding cities nearby and wait for you. I’ve already notified the other seven of our location, you cannot escape.” The Heaven Saint Master spoke.
Hearing this, Jian Chen’s face grew extremely dark. He hadn’t thought that eight Heaven Saint Masters would be chasing him. Facing against just one of them was hard enough, let alone eight. With eight, there would be no chance for him to fight back at all.
Jian Chen’s speed continued to increase as he took out a map. The surrounding area was quickly memorized by Jian Chen before he flew off into a random direction without hesitation. Utilizing the Heaven’s Stolen Fortune to increase his speed by triple the amount, he tried to outrace the Heaven Saint Master once more using the Illusionary Flash. All that was left in Jian Chen’s original spot was a tremendous dust storm.
The sudden burst in speed from Jian Chen had caused the elder from the four Cai brothers to be stunned. Looking at the now gone figure of Jian Chen, he could only stutter out a phrase in amazement, “I-im… impossible! Just how… how could he travel so fast?”
In the next moment, the elder had no other choice but to chase after Jian Chen while trying to ensure that Jian Chen did not get too far away.
With a newfound determination, the elder suddenly flew higher up into the air and began to follow the trail of dust left behind Jian Chen’s extreme speed.
Jian Chen had never traveled at such a speed before. Right now, even the scenery was completely indistinguishable to him since it was going past him at such a blur. The Illusionary Flash and Heaven’s Stolen Fortune combined had allowed Jian Chen to exceed what a Heaven Saint Master could do. However, this would result in an extreme amount of Saint Force being consumed. Being a Fourth Cycle Earth Saint Master, he would only be able to keep this up for two hours. After that, he would be completely out of Saint Force.
Already feeling his Saint Force reserves depleting, Jian Chen quickly took out a Class 5 Monster Core from his Space Ring and began to recover some of the Saint Force while he ran.
Two hours later, Jian Chen had already traveled for well over 2000 kilometers. On the road, he had gone by many cities, but Jian Chen hadn’t dared enter any single one of them.
Now that his Saint Force reserves were empty, Jian Chen took the tiger cub to a giant mountain. The mountain was rather barren, but the peak couldn’t be seen thanks to the clouds.
Carrying the tiger cub, Jian Chen arrived at a stone forest where Jian Chen immediately set about carving a hole in the limestone for him to hide in for now. Aside from the outside markings, there was another giant stone that blocked the entrance so that the cave inside would be hidden.
After all of the preparations were made, Jian Chen stumbled into the cave weakly. Taking out a night pearl to illuminate the cave, he looked around the newly constructed cave.
“Wuuuu… wuuu…” At this moment, the tiger cub began to wail as it started to gnaw on Jian Chen’s arm while pressing its paws against his chest. Occasionally, sounds could be heard coming from its stomach, symbolizing that it was hungry.
By now, even Jian Chen knew that the tiger cub was hungry. Hurriedly taking out a milk bottle to feed the cub. he knew that it had been at least two days since the cub had eaten. If it had been a human infant, it would have long since cried out in hunger.
It was only after it had finished off ten kilograms of milk bottles that the cub had been satisfied. The watching Jian Chen had been astonished; the tiger cub was only so big, but it had managed to drink a surprising amount of magical beast milk.
Jian Chen had a total of fifty kilograms worth of milk, but the tiger had already consumed nearly a fifth of it. If the cub’s appetite continued on like this, then he would only be able to feed the cub like this another four times.
“It seems that I need to collect even more magical beast milk. But I don’t even know where and what other resources to gather so that the tiger cub will grow. Just what is this resource that is needed anyways?” Jian Chen threw the empty bottles with a reflective pondering.
The tiger cub lay on the ground with its eyes closed in satisfaction. Curling up in a cute manner, the tiger cub’s wings were still furrowed close to its body in a way that made them hard to see.
Afterward, Jian Chen took out another monster core to heal his Saint Force. Using both the Illusionary Flash and the Heaven’s Stolen Fortune for such an extended period of time had left Jian Chen empty.
Ten hours later, Jian Chen finally stood back up. With the power of the azure and violet Sword Spirits, his absorption rate was far faster than before. In a short ten hours, his Saint Force had already came back to the maximum amount.
Walking to the side of the cave, Jian Chen peaked out from a small crack of the entrance. It was still early with the sun already starting to rise from the west.
Jian Chen didn’t leave just yet however. Vanishing his presence, he slowly moved the stone to enlarge the hole to see what was happening outside.
An hour later, a single person flew past Jian Chen’s line of sight before quickly disappearing as fast as it had appeared.
In another moment, a fire red colored figure blew past Jian Chen’s line of sight as well.
Jian Chen waited for another four hours before seeing a total of five men fly through the sky. Not too long after, they all disappeared as well.
The sky outside slowly turned to night as the sun began to set. Once more, Jian Chen returned to the inner depths of the cave and began to ponder his next step.
Based off what he had seen earlier, he had known that the two Jiede clan and Shi family were already watching the entire area. Although they hadn’t found his hiding spot thanks to the hidden, well concealed entrance, it was only a matter of time before this secret area would be discovered. So this meant he couldn’t stay here for long.
Furthermore, Jian Chen was worried that the Jiede clan and the Shi family would hire even more Heaven Saint Masters. After all, they wanted the Ruler Armament in his possession. It would make sense if even their ancestors were to come by themselves personally for the sake of retrieving it.