Chương 137: Silver Void Descends

Two Goldback Mantises, one at the third level, the other the first, and a Blood Jade Spider, also at the first. Three early-stage Purple Mansion Realm spirit beasts, all charging straight for Huaijin. His face tightened. He didn't waste a single breath before spinning around and fleeing at full speed. A black, spindle-shaped shuttle materialized beneath his feet, the Black Spirit Shuttle. During his recent seclusion, he had refined it to Tier 2 mid grade.

Now, with his cultivation at the sixth level, he poured his qi into the shuttle, and it shot forward like a streak of black lightning. But even at this speed, it couldn't match the terrifying velocity of Tier 3 spirit beasts. Huaijin pushed the shuttle to its absolute limit; its frame groaned, a faint cracking sound emanating from deep within. The distance between hunter and hunted shrank with every passing breath.

A surge of crimson energy erupted from his core as his physical body, a Tier 3 physique he had painstakingly forged, unleashed its most powerful technique.

"Blood Bone Dragon Stele!" This was the ultimate technique recorded in the Blood Demon Bone Tempering Art. It drew upon the potent blood essences of spirit beasts he had absorbed over countless battles, using a single strand of draconic bloodline as the framework to forge an immortal monument of bone and fury. Among the beast essences he'd collected were those with traces of dragon lineage. The technique was already perfected. A roar like a dragon's cry split the heavens.

Phantom images of countless beasts swirled through the sky as blood energy coalesced into a gigantic palm print, nearly nine metres wide, a crimson monolith rising against the grey expanse. The force of Huaijin's body erupted outward. This strike could rival a Tier 3 attack. The Blood Jade Spider was now less than a hundred meters away. Boom! Huaijin whipped around, slamming the massive, blood-colored palm forward. Space itself seemed to scream as the air shattered with a deafening thunderclap.

The spider's blood-red eyes widened in alarm. This human… he cannot be allowed to live! Eight blade-like, blood-crimson legs slashed through the void, unleashing the full force of its first level cultivation. The two powers collided in a cataclysmic explosion that sent shockwaves rippling across the landscape. The Blood Jade Spider shuddered, its massive body skidding backward a full seven or eight meters, legs gouging deep furrows in the earth.

Huaijin paled slightly but used the shockwave to propel himself forward, his speed redoubling. But the Goldback Mantises were relentless, especially the one at the third level. The brief exchange with the spider had cost him precious distance, they were closing in once more. Clang! The Blood Dragon Sword materialized in his hand, a blade of solidified crimson energy that hummed with draconic fury. He swung it backward, unleashing wave after wave of Tier 3 sword strikes.

They screamed toward the pursuing mantises like crimson crescent moons, but against the golden blades of the lead mantis, they shattered like fine porcelain. Each sword strike was casually diced into nothing by the beast's razor-sharp forelimbs, the fragments dissolving into mist. Huaijin's heart sank into an icy pit. The gap between him and a third level beast was simply too vast.

"Zhang Huaijin." The larger Goldback Mantis spoke for the first time, its voice like grinding stone, dripping with centuries of venom.

"You've slaughtered so many of my kin. Today, your life is forfeit." The words were laced with killing intent so thick it felt like a physical weight, a psychic assault meant to rattle his mind and slow his feet. Huaijin said nothing, his jaw set like iron, his eyes fixed forward as he continued to flee. The three spirit beasts, however, had abandoned all caution. They were committed, this chase had gone on far too long. This story originates from a different website.

Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. The human's potential was too terrifying; they couldn't let him escape to grow stronger. He was a sapling that would one day become a forest-destroying flame if not uprooted now. For nearly an hour, the hunt had stretched across a hundred miles of wilderness, the three early-stage spirit beasts unable to land a decisive blow against their quarry. Finally, the Blood Jade Spider's voice cut through the wind, tinged with unease.

"Brothers, we are nearing human territory! Reinforcements from the two great Purple Mansion clans should have arrived by now. Do we continue?" The two Goldback Mantises faltered mid-stride.

"Ten more miles," snarled the larger one. Its multifaceted eyes burned with a cold, venomous light.

"Just ten more." Throughout the long chase, Huaijin had fought back several times. Though pale and his qi reserves heavily taxed, he remained unharmed, not a single wound marred his body. A cultivator like that was a future catastrophe. He had to die. The investment of their pursuit demanded no less. Sensing the relentless killing intent behind him, a flash of savage determination sparked in Huaijin's eyes.

Deep within his dantian, the two thunder seeds he had painstakingly cultivated erupted, flooding his meridians with violent lightning energy, the blazing, scorching heat of Bing Yang Thunder and the chilling, corrosive darkness of Darkwater Yin Thunder. The two opposing forces began to swirl together, spiraling toward each other, on the verge of fusing into something far more destructive.

A wave of dread-inducing energy pulsed from his palm, a pressure that made even the pursuing beasts hesitate for a fraction of a heartbeat. Simultaneously, in his sea of consciousness, hundreds of Yin Yang Divine Needles, woven with the power of Primordial Chaos and the Taiji symbol, whirled into a spiraling storm of annihilation. A faint silhouette of a pine tree, ancient and deadly, flickered into existence behind him, its branches radiating a fatal threat that made the air itself grow cold.

'If I can't escape,' he decided, his eyes hardening to chips of flint, 'then I'll make them pay. I'll drag them down with me.' He spun on his heel, a roar of defiance building in his throat..

"Ha! The human has burned through his strength! Kill him!" The Goldback Mantis at the third level cackled in triumph, its voice shrill with bloodlust. Its two golden forelimbs, like colossal scythes forged by some malevolent god, swept upward, unleashing a devastating double slash that screamed with the full power of its strength. The attack carved twin trenches through the air itself, leaving behind shimmering distortions. Huaijin's hands sparked with lightning, ready to meet it head-on…

And then, at the very precipice of impact, a silver seal materialized in the sky. It swelled instantly, dense with the power of the stars, morphing into a mountain of silver over thirty metres high, its surface etched with constellations that blazed with celestial fury. A crushing, eighth level Tier 3 power descended upon them like the wrath of heaven.

"Silver Void Seal!" Horror dawned in the mantis's eyes, its triumph evaporating into pure terror.

"No! That's Old Ghost Fang Jisheng! FALL BACK!" The beast's massive golden forelimbs detached from its body and merged midair, fusing into a single, monstrously jagged golden blade. It surged forward, a desperate defense powered by the beast's own life-force, a strike that could rival an attack from a mid-stage Tier 3 cultivator. It was everything the mantis had, poured into one final, frantic gambit. Boom! … Crack! The silver mountain slammed down like a falling star.

The golden blade shattered like brittle glass, shards of light raining down in a sad, futile shower. The impact caught the Mantis square on, shattering its carapace like an eggshell and sending a spray of green-black blood arcing across the ground. Mortally wounded, the beast burned its own blood essence without an instant's hesitation, igniting a burst of speed that turned it into a blur of green light fleeing into the distant horizon.

The other Mantis and the Blood Jade Spider had already turned tail, scattering in a panic like leaves before a storm. Huaijin gasped for breath, his body trembling with exhaustion, his eyes fixed on the aura of overwhelming might that now filled the skies. Fang Jisheng, the anchor of the Fang family, had arrived. The Silver Void Seal, a Tier 3 upper grade spirit artifact, could topple mountains with a thought. An eighth level Purple Mansion Realm cultivator wielding it was a force of nature, a walking calamity.

The figure of Fang Jisheng descended before him, robes billowing despite the still air. He was a gaunt man in a black robe, his features sharp as carved jade, his eyes blazing with a barely contained fury that swept the battlefield where the beasts had vanished. He scanned the horizon, his gaze piercing through distance itself, before finally settling on Huaijin.

"You're still alive," Fang Jisheng said, his voice low and rough, carrying the weight of a man who had raced against time itself.

"Good. We have much to discuss. But first, are you hurt?" Huaijin shook his head, still catching his breath. His qi was nearly depleted, his body screaming with exhaustion, but he was whole. Against all odds, he was still standing.

"Then we move," Fang Jisheng said, his eyes narrowing as he glanced toward the direction the beasts had fled.

"They'll regroup. And next time, they won't come alone." Huaijin nodded, forcing himself upright, his gaze following the elder's toward the distant horizon where the last traces of the spirit beasts had vanished. This was far from over.