Chapter 101: The Snowy South Edict (7)
Translator: Kelaude Editor: Milkbiscuit
The three dragon steeds reared, with their rear hooves drawing a couple of long deep grooves into the ground and stopped.
On either sides of the path, the trees of the mountain forests were covered with layers upon layers of snow. Up ahead, a man was riding his dragon steed across the the road alone. Strangely, he was wearing a mask on his face.
This unusual scene made Miao Yi and two others aware that the man didn’t come with friendly intent.
The gazes of both party locked on to each other and the surrounding became extremely quiet. Occasionally, there would be snow crashing down onto the ground from the treetops whilst the nostrils of the four dragon steeds breathed out streams of warm air.
A silver spear flashed into Miao Yi’s hand. He slowly lifted it up and pointed at the other party before uttering in a low voice, “Friend, you are blocking the path. What are your intentions?”
Zheng Jinlong’s and Wang Zifa’s eyes revealed a trace of coldness as the faint glow of a three-petaled White Lotus flower quickly emerged between their brows. Clutching onto their weapons, together, they urged forward the dragon steeds under them to protect Miao Yi.
“I’m not doing anything. I just want to borrow your head!”
With a cold scoff, the dragon steed under the masked man suddenly charged forwards akin to a drawn arrow being released from the bowstring.
“You’re courting death!” Bellowing out in fury, Zheng Jinglong and Wang Zifa sprinted forward, brandishing their spears to block him.
The opponent hoisted his spear to stab and with a loud rumble, lashed out with substantial transcendence energy .
Zheng Jinlong and Wang Zifa were taken completely by surprise, but they had nowhere to hide. They had no other choice but to brandish their spears, using all their might to attack forcefully, with the sole intent of combining their forces to break through the opponent’s transcendence energy attack.
‘Boom!’
A large sound reverberated throughout, and under the shockwaves of the reverberating transcendence energy, a mixture of mud and snow burst from the ground to fly in all directions. Even the snow on the treetops came crashing down from the nearby mountain forests.
It was just one frontal attack, even combining their forces together, Zheng Jinlong and Wang Zifa could not match the opponent in delivering a deadly blow. Although they had combined forces attempting to smash their opponent’s transcendence energy attack, yet they were the ones facing towards the sky, spurting out blood, and being jolted till they were sent flying off the back of their dragon steeds.
The transcendence energy exhibited seemed to be similar to an attack of considerable substance. This could only be achieved by those with a cultivation at White Lotus Fifth Grade and above.
Miao Yi was also alarmed as he was completely outmatched by this powerful cultivator. At the moment, only one thought flashed through his mind - ‘Run!’
Underneath him, Charcoal hastily swung his body around and turned to dash out with a ‘Swoosh!’. He loosened his four limbs into a mad run.
The masked man completely did not pay any heed to Zheng Jinlong and Wang Zifa. Once he had jolted the both of them and sent them flying, he did not bother to waste any more time in killing them. The dragon steed carrying him brushed past the two who were sent flying post haste, directly giving chase to Miao Yi. His only target appeared to be Miao Yi.
The two dragon steeds, carrying the two became embroiled in a chase, there was a gap of a dozen of metres distant between the two parties in this tight pursuit.
At times Miao Yi would glance behind feeling extremely anxious, because once the opponent caught up, he would definitely be dead!
‘Hurry up and run faster! Do you want me to become the second Luo Zhen?!’
Miao Yi furiously roared at Charcoal with his mind.
‘Neigh!’ Charcoal was running madly, and let out a blood-curdling neigh. Instantly, its eyes widened greatly and became slightly bloodshot; its four hooves once again picked up speed to the point of it being akin to a phantom.
The strong wind blowing in his face brought about a tremendous resistance. Swiftly, Miao Yi leaned over, pressing against Charcoal’s back.
Immediately, the difference in speed between the dragon steeds in pursuit, caused them to gradually pull apart.
The masked man gritted his teeth. He had already increase the speed of his dragon steed underneath him with the support of his transcendence energy, and he still couldn’t catch up to that fat dragon steed?! It was so fat and it could run this fast, damn it!
Clearly, he did not wish to give up so easily just yet. To one’s surprise, he brandished his spear and stabbed his dragon steed in its rear with a strike. His dragon steed let out a neigh of pain and sped up a little more.
Still, the increase in speed wasn’t enough to catch up to Charcoal. The distance between the two parties continued to slowly pull apart.
This left the masked man without anymore ideas. His transcendence energy was still inadequate to launch a long distance attack on Miao Yi, and since Miao Yi was not an ordinary mortal, he was sure to have the transcendence energy defense ability.
Amidst the wind, Miao Yi lay pressed against Charcoal’s back. At times, he would shoot a backwards glance, and upon seeing that the distance was getting wider apart, he somewhat breathed out a sigh of relief.
But the other party obviously did not want to let him escape that easily and allowing it to go on like this wasn’t a plausible solution.
He promptly decided to head to South Edict Manor, as in this region, only South Edict Manor was a good place to take refuge.
But what he had never expected, was the moment he dashed forth on the mountain path leading to South Edict Manor, a wave of transcendence energy struck out diagonally and charged towards him with a loud rumble.
“Tai!”
To his surprise, there was an ambush! With nowhere to dodge, Miao Yi let out a dejected snarl and swiftly brandished his spear, using his entire strength in all out effort to strike out with his spear towards the incoming transcendence energy attack, intending to pierce through it.
‘Boom!’
At that exact moment, he suffered a crushing defeat; Miao Yi spat out blood and was sent flying away even the silver spear he held was also flung far from his hand.
As soon as he crashed down onto the snowy ground and tumbled, another mount had already leapt out from the mountain forest; the rider was also wearing a mask on his face.
The other party had obviously done their share in preparing for any eventualities, and had evidently guessed if by any chance Miao Yi had escaped the ordeal, then there was a great possibility that he would attempt to escape back to South Edict Manor, so he had waited here. He hadn’t expected that Miao Yi would actually escape the attack.
These two men were none other than Fan Renfang and Fang Ziyue, who had been sent by Xiong Xiao. The latter had been the first to intercept in attempting to kill him, whereas the one now before him was Fan Renfang.
The struggling Miao Yi spat out a few mouthfuls of blood onto the snowy ground. Both of the webs between the thumb and forefinger of his hands had split into large wounds. Amidst the blood-drenched hands, they could see ghastly white bones.
Just when Fan Renfang was about to charged forth and deliver another killing blow, Charcoal clambered up from tumbling on the snowy ground. With immense and unbelievable speed, he rushed out, swiftly lowering his head and bit onto Miao Yi’s belt before flinging Miao Yi onto his back afterwards.
With his hands still trembling, Miao Yi adjusted his posture without delay, both of his legs clutched tightly onto Charcoal, allowing it to carry him as he fled wildly.
“This…” Fan Renfang was stunned by the scene. The bastard Charcoal’s actions sparked a look of amazement to flash in his eyes.
Alas, Charcoal was too fat to the point of being incredibly conspicuous. Even if he manage to capture it, he couldn’t use it because once he did, then the culprit for killing Miao Yi would obviously be revealed.
But Fan Renfang’s reaction was quick, he knew that he mustn’t let Miao Yi return to South Edict, so he immediately went on a roundabout route to intercept and kill. Meanwhile, Fang Ziyu having just recently rushed over in time, rapidly cooperated with Fan Renfang; one of them remained blocking while the other was hot in pursuit.
Having spat out two mouthfuls of blood, the grief and indignation that Miao Yi felt deep down was beyond description.
There were actually two cultivators, with at least cultivation levels at White Lotus Fifth Grade or above, wanting to kill him. Just who exactly had it in for him, desiring to send him to his death?
It was not difficult to guess the answer. At this point in time, the person has to have the ability to send out two cultivators at White Lotus Fifth Grade or higher, and even be able to guess that he would return to South Edict Manor. Also, there weren’t many who desired to send him to his doom, and not only that, he also had not not offend a lot of ‘higher ups’. Other than Xiong Xiao and Qin Weiwei, there wasn’t anyone else.
However, Qin Weiwei was a less likely candidate since he had been promoted personally by Yang Qing, she wasn’t likely to go so far as to do something like this behind her father’s back. With Qin Weiwei’s status at South Edict, if she was really determined to deal with him, there would be other means to do so; it was not worthwhile to do this.
‘Xiong Xiao, you fucking scum! I swear I will destroy you!’ Miao Yi violently roared in his heart.
Once the condition of his body had recuperated a little, another long spear once again flicked out from the storage ring into his hand.
When he invoked his arts to retrieve the spear, he was caught by surprise on noticing the group of small mantids in his storage ring.
How could he have forgotten that he still had a hidden trump card in his hand?
Miao Yi was engulfed by euphoria and yet, he felt slightly apprehensive. He wasn’t sure if the little ones would be of use in dealing with cultivators at White Lotus Fifth Grade and above; he was completely uncertain.
But right now, he had no other options. The other party obviously would not let him return to South Edict Manor, and he wasn’t certain whether or not there would be another raid from the front. Should he decide not return to South Edict Manor, even if he borrowed Charcoal’s leg power and escaped back to East Arrival Cave, it was also futile. All the forces of East Arrival Cave combined would not be a match for these two, so returning there was also very much unsound.