txolops Chapter 195 Escape First
Chapter 195 Escape First
He stayed in the Jiang Kingdom for several months, severing all ties with the world.
Li Ping then prepared to return to the Immortal City. Before parting, he smiled and received the cultivators from the Ji and Yan families, and bestowed upon them pills one by one.
On the flying boat, Li Ping glanced at the scene below, then turned his head. Under his mental control, the shuttle shot out, transforming into a streak of light and flying towards the Western Regions.
After this, he may not return to the Jiang Kingdom for many years to come.
……
Just as Li Ping was piloting the flying boat back to Fenglan Immortal City, in a canyon thousands of miles away from the city...
Two figures landed one after the other.
However, the aloof young woman in front seemed to have a strong aversion to the young man behind her, and deliberately kept a distance from him as she landed.
These two were Wei Yiling and Hua Hong, cultivators from the Blood Shadow Sect, who had been sent to Immortal City to investigate Yan Liming's leak of secrets.
Wei Yiling scanned the valley with her divine sense but found no trace. Her expression instantly turned cold: "You said you suspected you found traces of Yan Liming. Where?"
"Senior Sister Wei, don't worry." Hua Hong smiled and shook her head. "I found this place by following the trail of this item."
As he spoke, he took out a ring-shaped magical artifact from his storage bag: "Senior Sister, please take a look."
Upon closer inspection, Wei Yiling immediately recognized that this was indeed a unique artifact of the Blood Shadow Sect, and the aura emanating from it was none other than that old bastard Yan Liming's.
If Li Ping were here, he would recognize that these were items he had discarded after checking Yan Liming's storage bag. He wondered how Hua Hong had found them.
After confirming that the item belonged to Yan Liming, Wei Yiling's expression softened slightly, but her tone remained cold: "So what if this item belongs to Yan Liming?"
She knew that her master and Hua Hong practiced the same martial arts technique, which included a secret method that allowed them to track and hide based on the aura of the enemy, making it impossible for the enemy to escape even if they were tens of thousands of miles away.
It is possible that Hua Hong was able to find Yan Liming's items through this secret method.
Ignoring Wei Yiling, Hua Hong suddenly changed his expression, walked straight to the side of the valley, silently sensed for a moment, and then directly used his magic weapon to smash it.
"Boom!"
After a loud bang, a large crack appeared in the mountain wall, revealing the hollow inside.
Wei Yiling then discovered that there was actually a hollow section in the mountain wall. She probed the hollow with her divine sense and saw a cave deep inside the cave. However, her attempts to explore the interior were blocked by an array.
"Could Yan Liming be hiding here?" she couldn't help but wonder.
Before she could figure out the reason, Hua Hong had already rushed into the cave, seemingly trying to catch Yan Liming and gain merit before she could.
"Hmph... Yan Liming is mine." She snorted coldly, not having time to think further, and followed Hua Hong inside.
……
A few moments later, a violent roar erupted from the cave, and Wei Yiling rushed out of it, looking rather disheveled and unsteady on her feet.
Behind her, Hua Hong rushed out, laughing loudly as he chased after her: "Senior sister, you've been poisoned by the Soft Dragon Powder. Even if you forcefully use your magic to escape, how far can you fly? You might as well just obediently submit to me, and wouldn't it be wonderful for the two of us to cultivate together from now on?"
Upon hearing this, Wei Yiling was furious: "Aren't you afraid of Master's wrath for doing this?"
Although she disliked this junior brother, they were, after all, from the same sect, and she never considered taking action against him.
But to her surprise, the other party dared to poison her. If it weren't for her special condition, she would probably have fainted by now.
Even if she mustered a bit of her magic power, it was no match for a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, so she had no choice but to flee.
"The Ancestor blames me?" Hua Hong laughed heartily. "Haha... I was sent to Immortal City by the Ancestor himself. Even the Soft Dragon Powder was given to me by the Ancestor. Do you think the Ancestor will blame me?"
"It really is Master..." Wei Yiling thought in disbelief.
However, what she didn't know was that Hua Wuji sent Hua Hong to the Immortal City with the intention of bringing them together, but the Soft Dragon Powder was obtained by Hua Hong himself, not given to him by Hua Wuji.
Hua Hong said this mainly to demoralize Wei Yiling and make her give up resistance in despair.
He knew the ancestor's place in Wei Yiling's heart.
"Despicable and shameless scoundrel!" Wei Yiling's eyes flashed with a cold light as she sped away into the distance.
Hua Hong followed behind at a leisurely pace, waiting for Wei Yiling to exhaust her magical power in order to avoid being seriously injured by her counterattack.
"As expected, he possesses a Spirit Gathering Body. That's right, absolutely." While pursuing, his expression revealed excitement: "This kind of spiritual body, once absorbed, not only can one gain several decades of cultivation out of thin air, but with marrow cleansing and meridian transformation, the probability of breaking through to the Core Formation stage in the future can also increase by more than 30%!"
"After I've replenished Wei Yiling's essence, I'll return to my sect to attempt to break through to the Core Formation stage!" Hua Hong said excitedly.
A hundred years ago, by chance, he discovered that Wei Yiling seemed to possess the legendary Spirit Gathering Body, and the benefits of such a spirit body as a Daoist partner are self-evident.
So he began to try to become Daoist partners with Wei Yiling through the patriarch.
But Wei Yiling had always been cold to him, not even giving face to the patriarch. In the end, he had no choice but to resort to this drastic measure.
"Senior sister, you must be feeling unwell. Let me take care of you!"
"He said smugly in a telepathic message.
In addition to the Soft Dragon Powder, he had also previously poisoned the other party with the Hehuan Powder.
Normally, with the protective magic power of a Core Formation level cultivator, this kind of poison would not affect Wei Yiling. However, now that Wei Yiling's entire body is paralyzed by the Soft Dragon Powder, she cannot use her magic power at all, so the Hehuan Powder poison can penetrate her without any resistance.
"mean!"
Wei Yiling also felt the effects of the aphrodisiac at this time. Strange images kept flashing through her mind, her face turned red, and a layer of fine sweat appeared on her forehead.
Seeing that the last vestige of her magical power was about to run out, despair welled up in her heart: "I've lost everything today..."
But at that moment, her divine sense detected a black flying boat speeding toward Fenglan Immortal City, and inside the flying boat was a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator sitting cross-legged.
"Never mind, let Hua Hong fight him. Maybe I can take the opportunity to leave!" Wei Yiling gritted her teeth, instantly changed direction, and flew towards the direction where her divine sense had detected the flying boat.
Hua Hong's divine sense covered a smaller area than hers, so he naturally failed to detect the flying boat.
But his target was Wei Yiling, and since she changed direction, Hua Hong naturally changed direction as well.
"Senior sister..." While relentlessly pursuing her, he also deliberately used his voice to say some flirtatious words.
Wei Yiling ignored his telepathic message, but the effects of the aphrodisiac in her body still caused her skin to blush with an intoxicating red, and her mind became even more aroused.
"Soon!"
……
Li Ping sat inside the flying boat, urging it forward while meditating cross-legged to calm his mind.
Suddenly—
He frowned, his gaze falling on the two streaks of light flying in from afar.
"Young master, my sister is being chased and killed. Please help me deal with them. I promise I will get my revenge in the future." Wei Yiling pinched her throat, trying to make her voice sound as pitiful as possible.
She knew that righteous people were most susceptible to the "hero saves the beauty" trope, which was why she deliberately spoke in a way that evoked pity.
After transmitting her thoughts, she silently thought, "I've already said that, surely this mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator won't abandon me. You go deal with Hua Hong, and I'll take this opportunity to leave and find a safe place to neutralize the toxins in my body!"
But the next moment—
She saw that the mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator not only had no intention of "playing the hero and saving the beauty," but instead directly controlled the flying boat to change direction.
Then... they fled at top speed.
Upon witnessing this scene, even Wei Yiling, with her aloof personality, couldn't help but mutter to herself, "I, a weak woman, was in danger and asked him for help, but he ran away first. Fellow cultivators, does anyone understand...?"
However, seeing that Hua Hong was already approaching, she gritted her teeth and flew in the direction the flying boat had left.
……
Upon seeing the two people chasing each other and hearing the female cultivator's telepathic message, Li Ping immediately became vigilant.
He knew that honey traps weren't just a thing in the mortal world.
Cultivators can also play the honey trap, and they can jump even higher.
Similar to "fake invitations to adventure" and "fake treasure maps," many cultivators fall victim to these scams every year.
These two people in front of him are using the "hero saves the beauty" trick to scam people; it's an old trick, so how could he possibly fall for it?
If he stops to play the hero and saves the damsel in distress, he might get surrounded and attacked by the damsel and thugs, and something bad could happen.
Although he believed he had many skills and that his combat abilities were second to none among Foundation Establishment cultivators.
However, in a duel, winning only grants you the opponent's storage bag and some spirit stones, while losing means losing your life. Compared to the losses, the gains are simply not worth it.
Even a Core Formation cultivator wouldn't dare say they could win every battle and never capsize.
How could he dare to look down on all cultivators in the world?
When not necessary, Li Ping's principle regarding combat is to avoid it if possible, and if it is unavoidable, to unleash a thunderous strike to eliminate the enemy in a short time and not give the opponent a chance to use their trump cards.
Under these circumstances, Li Ping naturally wants to try to avoid this battle first.
In fact, his immediate escape could give the enemy the illusion that he is weak, causing them to underestimate him when a real fight breaks out.
The enemy's contempt is exactly what Li Ping is happy about.
So... he ran away without hesitation.
Of course, Li Ping couldn't rule out the possibility that this wasn't a scam, and that the female cultivator in front of him was genuinely being chased.
But what does this have to do with him, a rogue cultivator?
This female cultivator was not related to him at all, so why would he risk his life to interfere? Countless cultivators die every day in the cultivation world.
His purpose in cultivating immortality was to seek the Dao and achieve longevity, not to be a hero and save a damsel in distress.
Of course, he wouldn't mind rescuing a damsel in distress along the way on his quest for immortality.
However, if there is a conflict between the two, then seeking immortality should be the highest priority.
On the rapidly fleeing airship, Li Ping looked back and couldn't help but frown.
However, if there is a conflict between the two, then seeking immortality should be the highest priority.
On the rapidly fleeing airship, Li Ping looked back and couldn't help but frown.
Because the two cultivators, a man and a woman, actually chased straight after him.
"It really is a 'hero saves the beauty' type of honey trap." Li Ping was speechless.
With such rampant treacherous cultivators, it seems the security around the Immortal City is getting worse and worse.