A metal war chariot was charging across the open wasteland, on which a large black banner was fluttering against the wind.
On the black banner was the pattern of a giant skull, which unleashed eye-catching scarlet light in the sharp, cold wind, giving it a terrifying appearance.
Sticking out of both sides of the war chariot were incomparably sharp, long spears, which emanated icy-cold light.
A handful of people, including Liu Kang, Shi Qing, Cai Yuan, and Li Ye, were standing on the war chariot.
Like Hua Mu’s Lightning Shuttle, this war chariot was also a transportation spiritual tool.
These kinds of spiritual tools were usually powered by enormous amounts of spirit stones; some could sail through the heavens and others could travel thousands of miles on the ground.
In the nine realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars, only powerful Qi warrior sects with deep-rooted foundations, and a few independent cultivators with high cultivation bases, possessed these kinds of spiritual tools.
The war chariot was a low-grade transportation spiritual tool, since it couldn’t soar through the sky.
Even though the Blood Skull was one of the three most powerful forces in the Realm of Split Void, compared to the powerful Qi warrior sects in the other nine realms, which had thousands of years of history, their strength and deposits were still rather shallow.
Therefore, they only possessed these low-grade transportation spiritual tools.
However, throughout the entire Realm of Split Void, only the Blood Skull, Wild Fire, and Dark Moon possessed these kinds of transportation spiritual tools.
None of the Hunter organizations or tough rogue cultivators had enough wealth and connections to purchase one of them.
“Strange,” Shi Qing said with a frown. “It’s been days since we left Shatter City, but we still haven’t come across a single Hunter organization. Even if they’ve learned about our operation, they shouldn’t have cleared out of this region so quickly.”
They had left Shatter City and had been traveling at a high speed for a few days already. They had encountered quite a few explorers on their way, but they hadn’t come across a single Hunter in all this time.
This obviously didn’t make sense to them.
After all, they didn’t know that all the Hunter organizations in this region had been summoned by Song Li, and joined the Fang’s operation to capture Nie Tian in the border area where the wasteland met the hilly land.
Since that area was rather far from Shatter City, it was natural that they hadn’t encountered any Hunters so far.
Li Ye opened his flask, threw his head back and gulped down a few mouthfuls of liquor. Seeming somewhat tipsy, he said, “I wonder how Hua Tian is doing. Those despicable rats! What the hell did Hua Tian do that made them so mad that they needed to chase after him together?”
Surprise could be seen in Liu Kang’s eyes as he said, “We just learned from our scouts that Hua Tian is still alive. Considering his cultivation base, it’s very impressive that he made it so far. I hope he can hang on till we get there.”
As a late Greater Heaven stage expert, Liu Kang had lead a few cleansing operations against the Hunter organizations outside Shatter City.
Although this operation had been arranged in a bit of hurry, as a seasoned raid-leader, he was confident that they would be able to dominate the situation and bring Nie Tian back to Shatter City as long as he was still alive.
His only worry was that Nie Tian might be killed or captured by the Fang or other Hunter organizations before they could get to his location.
As a matter of fact, after learning of Nie Tian’s deeds from Shi Qing and Cai Yuan, Liu Kang had been looking forward to meeting him.
Not only was Nie Tian a guest elder of the Blood Skull, and nephew of a close friend of Li Ye’s master, but he had also saved Cai Yuan’s life in the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
Therefore, for both organizational and personal reasons, Cai Yuan couldn’t just sit back and watch when Nie Tian was trapped in a dangerous situation.
Cai Yuan, who had remained silent so far, said, “Uncle Liu, Uncle Shi, let’s push the speed of this war chariot to the limit. I think we should try to get there as soon as possible instead of limiting our speed just to keep pace with the others. Considering the strength of the several of us, we should be able to handle those Hunters for some time. We can’t afford to lose the best timing by insisting on arriving at the same time.”
The reason why they hadn’t been traveling at full speed was to keep pace with the other Blood Skull members.
Finding no trace of Nie Tian or his pursuers after traveling for a few days, Cai Yuan had a bad feeling about Nie Tian’s situation, and thus made a decision.
Without turning his head, Li Ye looked at Cai Yuan out of the corner of his eyes and said, “I didn’t know that you were actually a conscientious person.”
In Li Ye’s eyes, Cai Yuan had been lusting after his senior martial sister, Pei Qiqi, so he had never been fond of him.
He had only decided to come with him because Nie Tian was in danger, Pei Qiqi was in the middle of secluded cultivation, and their master hadn’t returned yet.
Now, he realized that Cai Yuan was indeed going all-out to rescue Nie Tian, and he wasn’t just putting on a show.
Also because of this, his attitude towards Cai Yuan began to change.
With a composed expression, Cai Yuan glanced at Shi Qing and said, “Not only is Hua Tian the Blood Skull’s guest elder, but he also saved my life once. Technically speaking, my sister and Uncle Shi only survived because Li Langfeng made Hua Tian his primary target. I’m not an ingrate. Now that he’s in danger, it’s only right I step up and exert all my power to rescue him.”
Li Ye nodded and didn’t say another word, quite content with Cai Yuan’s attitude.
After hearing Cai Yuan’s words, Liu Kang hesitated for a moment before saying with a nod, “Okay! Since Hua Tian has helped the Blood Skull significantly, I know what to do!”
With these words, he took out a large number of spirit stones and spread them over the bottom of the war chariot, pushing its speed to the limit.
…
BOOM!
A spiritual energy ball that was filled with all kinds of toxins exploded, sending multicolored lights flying in every direction.
An early Heaven stage Hunter was standing right where the spiritual energy ball exploded. Almost simultaneously, his protective light shield shattered.
The extremely strong blast from the explosion turned him into a bloody mess. By the time he was enveloped by corrosive toxins, he was already at his last gasp.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Two thin golden swords suddenly flew into Nie Tian’s chaotic magnetic field, aimed right at Nie Tian’s chest.
Nie Tian snorted coldly as he shot clusters of flames out of his punching fist toward the thin golden swords.
BANG! BANG!
Upon contact, the thin golden swords bounced straight out of Nie Tian’s chaotic magnetic field.
However, a few fragmented golden sparks sputtered and found Nie Tian’s shoulder.
Nie Tian’s skin was immediately ripped open as a bunch of fine wounds appeared on his shoulder.
Not very far behind Nie Tian, the leader of the Blood Hand was pursuing him. His right arm had expanded to be twice as thick as his left arm, and wisps of a bloody aura were swirling within his palm. With strong killing intent, he shouted, “Stop running already!”
Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph. “If I don’t die here today, I’ll come back and slaughter every last Blood Hand member, including you!”
As the man came closer, Nie Tian summoned his star power and cast another short-range Starshift.
In the blink of an eye, he appeared in a location more than three hundred meters away, putting a sizable distance between the Blood Hand’s leader and himself.
A few members of the Scorpion happened to be in this area, and thus rapidly converged on Nie Tian. “Hey, brat! Don’t you imagine that you can get away from us!”
Meanwhile, another white banner rose from the ground. The green snake pattern on the banner unleashed a misty light into its surroundings and formed another spiritual power ward in front of Nie Tian.
With a single look at the banner, Nie Tian decisively dashed off in another direction.
Even though many Hunters were still chasing after him and attempting to flank him, since their main force, all of the Fang members, had run off to attack Li Langfeng, their blockade was no longer watertight. Therefore, Nie Tian could find loopholes in the blockade and break through from there, saving him the trouble of dealing with Xiao Lin’s spiritual power wards.
Since the Hunters’ blockade was no longer impenetrable, Nie Tian also gave up the idea of escaping by casting a long-range Starshift.
On the other hand, his current stock of star power also wouldn’t allow him to do that.
Li Langfeng’s appearance had created an opportunity for him to break through the leaky blockade using only the short-range Starshifts.
As he did, he struck a few times and killed a few more Heaven stage Hunters.
Running through the open wasteland at full speed, Nie Tian gradually saw a hope of escape.
Since, according to his estimation, his reserve of star power was only barely enough for him to cast three more short-range Starshifts, he would only use it when he ran into Greater Heaven stage experts.
Whenever he faced Heaven stage Hunters, he would alway break through using other skills, even though there were late Heaven stage experts among them, and it would mean more wounds added to his body.
As time went by, his fleshy wounds worsened, and his various types of power were also on the verge of running out.
Face covered in blood, he panted heavily. Even his pupils had become as red as blood.
In his view, this entire heaven and earth was cloaked by a shade of redness, giving everything a bloody look.
All of a sudden, Nie Tian heard a loud sound. In the next moment, he saw via one of his Heaven Eyes that a giant war chariot made of only metal was charging through the wasteland like a rampaging, frenzied bull.
His blood-red pupils immediately shone with the light of excitement as an ecstatic expression appeared on his face. “The Blood Skull!”
