Li Qiuchen had conducted experiments. When he had visited those villages before, he had only been able to sense the lingering traces of spells cast by the Medicine Master’s followers when he was within a hundred zhang of the village.
And at that distance, the other party could not sense his presence at all.
Yet you charged straight at me from four or five li away. Is that some extraordinary innate talent, or did you mutate after drinking the Medicine Master’s foot-washing water?
Or perhaps there was another possibility. No, two possibilities.
Either there was an invisible hand behind the scenes arranging their fates, forcibly pushing the two of them together.
Or… in the online novels Li Qiuchen had read before transmigrating, there was a very wondrous concept.
It was called the Law of Beyonder Characteristic Convergence.
Whatever the reason, this Perfected Mohe had clearly set his sights on him.
Then I… would be rude to refuse, wouldn’t I?
If the man gave up the chase, Li Qiuchen would not bother making a fuss with him. There had been no personal grudge between them in the first place. If you’re so capable, go trade blows head-on with the government cavalry. What kind of thing is chasing me?
But since Perfected Mohe had assumed an attitude of never giving up, determined to taste the saltiness of this blood bag today no matter what—
Then why should I stand on ceremony with you?
“Same old routine. I’ll draw his attention and pin him down, then you rush up and cut him. You have to be quick. Cut once and run. Whatever you do, don’t linger beside him.”
Li Qiuchen lowered his voice and laid out the tactics for the white crane.
“Gah?”
The white crane was somewhat puzzled.
Could the same trick really be used twice?
“Maybe not on others, but on him, yes.”
Li Qiuchen made his judgment: “This Perfected One’s brain doesn’t work very well.”
Of course, they still had to run. If one wanted to use the same trick to trap the same person again, the simplest method was to divert his attention and make him forget that he had once been tricked by it.
What followed was another marathon of pursuit and flight.
They crossed one mountain after another, until the sun set and the moon rose.
Perfected Mohe dragged his heavy steps along, limping as he climbed to the mountaintop. Looking at Li Qiuchen, who was sitting beneath a tree meditating and cultivating to recover his strength, he raised a hand and pointed, wanting to say something, but in the end, he weakly lowered his finger.
This little bastard could fucking run.
“You… cough, cough, cough…”
The moment he opened his mouth, he could not help coughing violently.
Li Qiuchen sighed. “Senior, you and I had no grievances in the past and bear no grudges now. Why make things difficult for a junior like me?”
Perfected Mohe plopped down on the ground. After taking a long while to catch his breath, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and said sternly, “You can’t fool me… I smell… treasure on you… Hand it over, and I’ll spare your life!”
What treasure?
Li Qiuchen frowned, raised his hand, and sniffed himself.
There was no smell?
“Senior, are you mistaken? These clothes were given to me by an elder…”
“Not the clothes!”
Perfected Mohe gritted his teeth. “On you… is the scent of the Tianchi Immortal Elder!”
So that was it.
Li Qiuchen suddenly understood. In that case, everything made sense.
Back then, he had conspired with the crawfish spirit and Boss Guan to steal the old peach tree’s core.
To the old peach tree, that was far more unforgettable than the hatred of having one’s father killed or one’s wife stolen.
That had been the life essence it had accumulated over several hundred years!
Although they had all run quickly at the time, the old peach tree’s true cultivation was far above theirs. Perhaps it had left some tracking mark on them, and they themselves had been completely unaware of it.
Later, the old peach tree had been slain by that Sword Immortal. Before it died, it had shot out its roots and fled in all directions, and the largest portion had been obtained by Perfected Mohe.
From the look of things, he really had researched something from those roots—perhaps even more than Li Qiuchen had imagined.
“Senior, you’ve already been possessed.”
Having figured out this question that had puzzled him all along, Li Qiuchen’s gaze toward Perfected Mohe became filled with pity.
“Bullshit! Hurry up… hand over the treasure, and I’ll leave you a path to life!”
Perfected Mohe did not care in the slightest and threatened viciously, “Otherwise, this place will be your burial ground!”
Li Qiuchen shook his head. “The treasure you’re talking about isn’t on me. If you truly want it, I can take you to retrieve it?”
“Do you take me for an idiot?”
Perfected Mohe flew into a rage. Did I look like some ignorant little girl who had never seen the world? Isn’t that expression of yours—“Uncle will take you home to see a big treasure”—a bit too insulting?
In truth, he was also speaking to stall for time.
There was no helping it. The expenditure had been far too great.
What true cultivator did not sit in his own Daoist temple, dining on wind and drinking dew, comprehending the mysteries of heaven and earth?
What decent person would be chased out like a dog and forced to flee madly, then have to run for his life like a wild boar through these old mountain forests?
Once he had caught his breath, Perfected Mohe said nothing more and lunged toward Li Qiuchen in a single stride.
Li Qiuchen raised his palm and shot out a palm thorn.
“Little bastard, you think you can use the same move a second time? My cultivation is above yours…”
Thud—!
Perfected Mohe, already on guard, raised his hand to shield his face, thinking that would block the other party’s illusion art. To his surprise, the ground beneath his feet suddenly vanished, and caught off guard, he fell straight into an earthen pit trap as tall as a person.
The white crane descended from the sky, folding its wings together and turning itself into a streak of sword light that plunged straight into the pit.
Flesh and blood flew everywhere!
Tsk. It wouldn’t listen. It refused to believe.
Li Qiuchen shook his head helplessly and took out a Spirit-Gathering Pill from his storage bracelet.
He had repeatedly warned it before: slash once and run, absolutely do not linger. But clearly, the white crane had not taken it to heart.
The stupid bird seemed to feel that its strength had improved, and now that it had newly obtained a flying sword, it would feel uncomfortable if it did not test the blade.
In its view, Perfected Mohe had already exhausted his strength. Even if he still had some trump card left, it was nothing to fear. As long as it put in a little more effort, it could completely kill him.
It isn’t that simple, you pig.
Just as Li Qiuchen had predicted, the white crane’s all-out strike nearly chopped Perfected Mohe’s body into mincemeat.
But at the same time, countless bizarre branches and shoots began growing wildly from that lump of mangled flesh. In an instant, they wrapped around the white crane before it could dodge. From among those branches and shoots, countless sharp barbs grew and pierced into the white crane’s body, beginning to madly seize the blood within it.
A strange ancient pine rose from the ground. Perfected Mohe’s face appeared upon its thick trunk, and beneath him was a string of heads, each wearing an expression of terror and despair.
“Little bastard, do you think relying on a single spirit beast can make up for the gap in strength between us?”
Perfected Mohe looked coldly at Li Qiuchen. This little bastard was far too sinister; he had actually forced out his Yimu Dharma Body. If he failed to catch him this time, then he would truly have lost everything down to his underwear.
“Of course not.”
Li Qiuchen swallowed the second Spirit-Gathering Pill. Feeling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth around him begin to tremble, he slowly stood up.
“If you don’t have any other trump cards left, then this is you seeking your own death.”
“Because this move of yours—I can do it too.”