After Chu Li unleashed Imminent Skyline, he stopped by a river and washed his hands and face off the blood, revealing a gradually healed appearance.
He rubbed his face then shook his head.
With the safeguard of Sentient Menace and the mastery of the Art of White Tiger, his flesh reached the degree whereby knives and spears couldn’t penetrate him. Never would he had thought that there would be such a day of him to suffer this much of damage as regrettably frustrating as this.
Through the reflection of the Omniscient Mirror, he saw the wounds upon his face healed gradually and only left a light scar. Based on his calculations, he had another two more days for full recovery.
His own body’s durability did not just amount to being impenetrable from knives and spears alone. There was also the rapid healing from his wounds, adding the revitalization from Grass Wood Aura. His speed of recovery was truly astonishing.
After he had washed his face, he walked back to the shore and took a few sips of water and continued to unleash Imminent Skyline.
He assumed that Siao Shi must be starving and parched at this moment, possibly near the edge of fainting.
He dashed forth as he recalled the situation of the exchange earlier.
There was a distinct difference between Divine Footwork and his Imminent Skyline.
Imminent Skyline traversed between empty spaces. As long as it was within his sight, he could reach there in a flash. With a meter of range in his sight, he could reappear a meter away, if it was two meters, he will reappear two meters away.
If he stood on high ground, he could reappear ten meters away in one motion.
As he possessed the Omniscient Mirror, he could see as far as five meters hence he could instantly move about within five meters.
Divine Footwork was different. As there would be no need for line of sight, one could just directly dash to wherever he pleased.
Chu Li speculated that for the old monk to keep up with him, he must have relied upon his inner energy to sense his presence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so accurate to locate his whereabouts every single time.
There were similarities between Divine Footwork and his Imminent Skyline. The further they instantaneously reappeared in another space, the more inner energy will be consumed. Otherwise, he definitely wouldn’t have been able to escape with his life, not even had the chance to set up the formation to trap the man.
With two divine skills at the man’s disposal, this old monk was truly terrifying.
If both All-Seeing Divine Power and Divine Footwork were unleashed together, who could escape from the man’s grasp?
If this was the case, this man would’ve reached Siao Shi before him. There would be no reason to wait this long.
From the looks of things, both skills can’t be unleashed simultaneously.
After deep in thought briefly, Chu Li now understood the reasons behind it. Both skills exhausted one’s inner and spiritual energy. The old monk’s inner energy couldn’t withstand all of it hence he couldn’t use both at the same time.
“PHWAH!” He shot out another stream of blood, nonchalantly wiped his lips.
At this moment, he had already altered his Strength Amplifying technique.
After six folds of energy from the Infinite Azure Sea, he gained strengths equal to that of High Duke Lu’s fists and amplified within his body, dramatically boosting in destructive power. Yet it couldn’t come close to the old monk’s palm power.
This technique caused great damage to his meridians. If not for his strengthened and toughened meridians at that moment, he definitely wouldn’t have dared to throw punches to that of the High Duke Lu’s power.
To avoid the old monk, first, he needed to convert his inner energy but for such immense amount of pure inner energy, it would’ve taken days.
There was no telling how many days that formation could hold the old monk.
Though unfamiliar with the Temple of Titanium, he knew that their concrete foundation was deep. No short of mastery in ancient and lost arts that the man may not be able to break out of the formation, even more so that the formation was hastily set up, unformidable as it could have been.
No matter the case, it could trap the man for two to three days.
He must take this opportunity to set up another huge formation to utterly trap the man until the end of the man’s days even if he couldn’t kill him.
As he passed by a small town, he picked up some water and fruits, dry food, various meats and vegetable dishes, and wrapped them in a cloth bundle, then continued his journey.
As he entered the formation, Siao Shi sat upright without moving an inch. Her beautiful face was pale, and her body drenched in sweat as her breathing was shallow, as if she could lose her breath at any given moment.
This jolted Chu Li and he immediately approached her and placed his palms upon her back, then heaved a sigh of relief.
Siao Shi gradually opened her unendingly deep, gleaming eyes, “And here I thought you were going to abandon me.”
Chu Li quickly passed the water pouch, “I wouldn’t dare!”
Tiny fragments of white had already dotted around her red lips, like a wilting flower in the wild. It was disheartening to see her like this.
Siao Shi took the water pouch but didn’t drink in a hurry.
Dazzling eyes darted about his face where she spotted the faint scar. She understood that for his face to be harmed this much, he must have endured a lot of suffering.
Siao Shi lightly sipped a drink, then put it down, “Was that old monk formidable?”
Her self-control was strong, ignoring the thirst for water which her body craved, and drank slowly.
Chu Li smiled bittersweetly, “Truly one who belonged to the Temple of Titanium, equipped with Divine Footwork and deep mastery in the arts. I didn’t come close to him.”
“Divine Footwork?” Siao Shi was stunned, “Then how did you escape?”
Also known as Free-moving Footwork, Divine Footwork could freely traverse between spaces, instantly reappear at wherever he pleased with the vast lands of the earth as his backyard.
Not many from the Temple of Titanium could master such Divine Footwork. To be targeted by an old monk who possessed such Divine Footwork, none could even think of escaping.
“Trapped him with a formation,” Chu Li huffed, “I figured it wouldn’t hold for long. You should first nourish yourself, don’t think too much. I’m going to set up another formation.”
“Are you hurt?” Siao Shi asked.
She knew from how he casually explained everything in detail as if it was nothing, yet there was no way he could be this laxed based on the wounds upon his face. In addition to his irregular breathing and pale-as-white face, he had obviously suffered some heavy damage.
Without recovering from his heavy wounds, he couldn’t care less about healing as he made his way back here as soon as he could, just so to prevent herself from starving.
Even her cold, dull heart was moved by this.
Chu Li smiled as he said, “It’s nothing.”
Looking at her expression, he couldn’t help but heaved a sigh to himself. He couldn’t possibly tell her that he placed her well-being before him; best not to let her overthink matters.
“You’re barely holding on. You should first heal yourself,” Siao Shi said.
Chu Li replied, “First I must set up another formation, taking the opportunity before he could break out of this one, otherwise we can’t escape.”
“Very well, be careful.” Upon realizing that he had made up his mind, she understood that she couldn’t persuade him otherwise.
She opened the cloth bundle, picked up a piece of dry food to munch slowly without losing her gracefulness.
Chu Li avoided where Gu Yue was present and arrived at another side of the mountain peak.
The Modesty Sword acted as a shovel once more and dug up holes from a total of ten trees.
As he shifted the trees about, he spat out blood four more times. The old monk’s palm strike had diminished by a tenth of its effect. The pure essence of his palm strike faired stronger than High Duke Lu’s by many folds and it was truly terrifying.
He tilted his head up to observe an immense pool of energy descended from the empty skies which fell upon the formation, inseparably fused with this mountain as one. He was satisfied with his work.
For such formation, its power would be enough to trap the old monk for up to ten days or more, eventually starving the man to death.
—
The old monk sat with his legs crossed within the formation with a posture reflecting that of a Buddha. The rubbing of the Buddha bead in his right hand grew slower as time passed. Then, he opened his eyes and heaved a long sigh.
He revealed a helpless gaze with his head dipped to look at the Śarīra Buddhist bead, doubt filled his mind.
A full day and night had passed. No matter what ideas came to his mind, none could help him break out. “Sigh…forgive me, ancestral masters, one could only resort to this!”
He heaved a sigh, clapped both of his palms together and muttered chants to himself. He meditated a line of sentence to the true way, both hands formed prints.
The breathing of his body changed as it followed the true way and his handprints, awakening
the solemn divinity within.
“Amitabha!” He chanted aloud. With the Śarīra Buddhist beads worn on his left wrist, his right hand picked out a Śarīra bead and gently crushed it.
The Śarīra transformed into a ray of brilliant colors, shot up to an inch above his forehead, solidified into a halo of dazzling colors round in shape, shining brightly. It descended slowly and settled down upon the back of his head.
A ray of light descended from the skies above and fell upon the old monk.
The old monk’s body gradually became translucent and transformed into a glass body which radiated a calm spiritual energy and beams of light.
Chu Li had set up the huge formation. He instantly reappeared in another formation and saw Siao Shi stretching. After partaking some food, she wanted to exercise a little, revealing her slim curves.
Chu Li grinned.
Then, his grin froze upon his face.