Chapter 702: In the Deep Underground
Translator: WQL Editor: Aleem
Zhang Tie didn’t know that Elder Muray had rushed towards him. He just exerted his full effort to run with the effect of senior rapid moving skill and Kuafu Bloodline. Additionally, he even triggered his “mental arithmetic by abacus”. When he sensed the chaser’s movements and strikes with knight’s consciousness, he kept seeking for the most proper road to escape.
Any other LV 12 great battle master or powerhouse such as battle general or battle demon would have long died hundreds of times in Zhang Tie’s case. However, Zhang Tie still escaped crazily.
That demon knight flew over 50 m above the ground while its powerful battle qi booms constantly exploded in all directions near Zhang Tie like meteors. Although being embarrassed, Zhang Tie could always dodge from its strikes.
In the eyes of that demon knight, Zhang Tie was more like an oily flea with eyes on his back. The demon knight could not attack him.
Actually, The knight’s flight speed was directly proportional to its height. The higher, the faster. At this moment, Zhang Tie calculated the knight’s flight speed calmly. He could make full use of the conflict between the knight’s height and speed. If that demon knight wanted to catch up with him, it had to stay over 200 m above the ground; however, in that height, the demon knight’s strike posed no threat to him; if that demon knight wanted to launch effective strikes to him, it had to descend its height and speed. As a result, it would lose its advantage in speed, sparing time for him to respond.
Additionally, the knight was affected by its flight inertia. Previously, his agility was not influenced too much by such an inertia; however, in front of Zhang Tie, its flight inertia was amplified numerous times by Zhang Tie’s extremely swift movements. As a result, its flight feature became a shortcoming. When he sensed that he was going to be caught up by that demon knight, Zhang Tie would mystically change his direction, enlarging the distance between him and the demon knight.
Although Zhang Tie was embarrassed in this process; that demon knight was also driven mad as it kept roaring.
That demon knight had also attempted to catch Zhang Tie on the ground; however, the moment it landed had the demon knight realized that it had no advantage on speed and agility compared to that guy who was escaping crazily.
The longer it chased after Zhang Tie, the more shocked was that demon knight. Gradually, it made its decision to kill Zhang Tie.
In the beginning, the demon knight was following the Demon General’s order to kill Zhang Tie; however, at this moment, it had become its strong desire and firm target to kill Zhang Tie. The demon knight didn’t know about Zhang Tie’s level; in his opinion, Zhang Tie should be a battle spirit or an exceptionally gifted 5-star battle demon. However, it could do no harm to such a person at all. ‘Such a human, who could match a knight in certain aspects before promoting to a knight, would be unrivaled once he promoted to a knight. If such a person is not killed at this moment, he would cause much greater destructions or disasters to demons in the future.’
‘He has to die today.’ The demon knight made up its mind.
Zhang Tie also felt the demon knight’s firm killing intent and faster-attacking speed. Heart pounding, he accelerated a bit faster.
The mountain peak was close as he could already hear the surging river. Zhang Tie became excited.
In a split second, Zhang Tie felt the air on his back was broken by numerous strands of powerful battle qi. The strike was as fast as a lightning bolt just like the javelins that Zhang Tie had ever thrown out. The powerful battle qi tossed towards Zhang Tie in the shape of a huge net, leaving him nowhere to retreat. This strike almost covered dozens sq m.
With a roar, Zhang Tie instantly turned around and released over 300 punches towards one point of the huge net before finally making a crack on the fierce battle-qi net.
Only by such a counterattack, Zhang Tie consumed one-third of his entire battle qi in his qi sea.
After making a crack on the battle qi net, Zhang Tie instantly popped out of the crack in an impossibly twisted way by huddling up his body as a ball.
With a sound “boom…”, everything within 100 sq m near Zhang Tie was sent flying in all directions, including that hill where Zhang Tie was in just now and the mud and rocks on the ground. The ground quivered a short time while half of the hill was moved away.
Although that strike didn’t hit Zhang Tie, its aftermath and the shattered mud and broken stones caused numerous holes on Zhang Tie’s warrior’s costume in a split second. If Zhang Tie’s body was not as firm as a stone, those high-speed broken stones would have penetrated through his body. Even though, Zhang Tie still felt salty in the mouth as he almost spurted out a mouthful of blood.
Zhang Tie didn’t spurt out the blood; instead, he swallowed it back. Closely after that, he stomped onto the ground, stretched out his limbs and straightly flew off the hill like a glider based on the pneumatic effect of the surrounding airflow while being covered by the flying dust. He directly accelerated towards the surging river.
With such a battle-qi net strike, the demon knight was almost confident to kill a 5-star battle spirit; however, it was out of his imagination that his opponent could dodge away from his strike in such a mystical method; meanwhile, he even gained a greater momentum. Therefore, the demon knight became more afraid of Zhang Tie; furthermore, his killing intent rocketed.
Right then, shrill sonic booms sounded behind Zhang Tie and the demon knight…
After hearing the booms, Zhang Tie was surprised inside as he knew that Elder Muray was coming. However, he still dared not postpone; instead, he continued to rush forward.
It would take Elder Muray at least 2 minutes to arrive here. However, it would take the demon knight less than 2 seconds to kill Zhang Tie. Therefore, Zhang Tie dared not rely on Elder Muray for the time being.
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Tie had rushed to the riverside.
The surging river was over 200 m in width with snowwhite ripples. The source of the river was the melted snow water on the snowypeak of the Kalay Mountain Range in the distance. It diverted into a pitch-dark mountain cave which was over 200 m in width in the lower reach. The mountain cave was devouring the surging river like an opening of the bloody mouth.
Zhang Tie didn’t know where would this river lead to; he presumed that it should converge into a subterranean stream. Because there wasn’t another river within 200 sq m.
As long as it was in the water, Zhang Tie would survive himself.
The moment Zhang Tie dove into the river had the demon knight launched a strike towards the point where he entered the water.
Zhang Tie instantly felt that the surrounding water flow became as firm as a steel plate while a great stress pushed towards him. If Zhang Tie didn’t move, he would have been squeezed into a flesh paste.
Thankfully, Zhang Tie’s diving ability had already reached a terrifying degree. His sensing ability in changing water flows was almost above that of his knight’s consciousness. The moment he found the change of the water flows had he slid dozens of meters away in the water like a slippery loach.
With a shock in the water, dozens of meters high sprays rose from the water. Feeling breathless, Zhang Tie realized that his innards had been injured once again.
With the effect of the waterproof body, Zhang Tie’s moving speed in water was even faster than that on the ground.
Zhang Tie showed his head above the water in the lower reach over 200 m away. Watching that demon knight who was still constantly exploding the river while suspending above the water, Zhang Tie erected his middle finger towards that demon knight before bursting out into laughter. ‘Elder Muray is coming. I don’t believe that this guy will dare to loiter here at the risk of his life.’
The fact was that Zhang Tie and the demon knight were both wrong.
Zhang Tie misestimated the demon knight’s determination to kill him.
However, that demon knight had not imagined that Zhang Tie could have such a proficient diving skill. When Zhang Tie jumped into the river, the demon knight felt excited inside as he thought that Zhang Tie had no other choice but to jump into the river. As the density of water was greater than that of air, waves and shocks could be better transmitted in the water. As battle qi attack would be more destructive and influential in the water than that in the air, the demon knight kept striking the water like striking fishes with explosives, causing dozens of meters high snowwhite ripples.
When the demon knight caught sight of Zhang Tie who was over 200 m away and heard the increasingly closer shrill sonic booms on his back, it was shocked at once. However, after hesitating for a short while, he confirmed his determination and flew towards Zhang Tie immediately.
Zhang Tie was really scared by the demon knight’s choice. He then instantly dove back into the water and slid away. The demon knight also followed him in as it gazed at Zhang Tie tightly and moved even swifter than fish.
The alleged knights could walk upstairs and downstairs in the air, would not drown in the water and would not burn in the fire.
Until then did Zhang Tie know how terrifying were knights in the water.
The moment the demon knight entered the water had it isolated the water by its waterproof battle qi. With his great strength, only by kicking his feet and drawing his arms had he accelerated towards Zhang Tie.
Realizing that he was closely followed by that demon knight, Zhang Tie became flurried.
If it was on the bank, Zhang Tie couldn’t match him; however, as it was in the water, Zhang Tie didn’t believe that anyone else could match him in this world. Because Zhang Tie was not afraid of cold at all. Besides, he could get fresh air from Castle of Black Iron at any time. That was to say, he could stay as long as he wanted in the water.
Zhang Tie swam in the water, keeping him in the vision of that knight yet out of the striking distance of it. He kept moving towards the pitch-dark mountain cave in the hinterland.
At this moment, the demon knight thought, ‘As a knight, I could never lose the battle to a weaker human in the water.’
After entering the hinterland, the surging river became more torrential. There was a huge bottomless swirl beneath the mountain hinterland, which devoured the entire river into the underground space. Being dauntless, Zhang Tie straightly dove into the swirl, closely followed by that demon knight…
…
It was a wonderful underground world. Being pushed by the torrential water flow, Zhang Tie felt like falling into an underground maze being composed of water and secret tunnels. After activating his dark vision, Zhang Tie saw clearly numerous underground karst caves, which contained smaller ones which rooted in the deep underground space…
Zhang Tie was led into a subterranean stream which further led him into a deeper underground space…
…
A couple of minutes later, Elder Muray arrived at the spot where Zhang Tie and that demon knight dove in the water.
Watching this river, Elder Muray also directly jumped into it…
…
Over 10 hours later, before dawn, Elder Muray finally flew out of the water and landed on the river bank in the distance, with a splash at the entrance of the mountain cave. However, he was dry all over.
Over the past 10 hours, Elder Muray had searched over hundreds of miles underground, yet got no trace of Zhang Tie at all. Finally, he had to admit that Zhang Tie and that demon knight had disappeared. The underground waterway was as complex as an extremely large maze. As long as someone got lost inside, it would be much more difficult to find him than finding a needle out of the sea. Even if Elder Muray re-grouped all the other elders of Huaiyuan Palace here, they might still not find Zhang Tie in one year.
Elder Muray just watched the surging river with a sophisticated look. Finally, he let out a helpless sigh and he stomped onto the ground before flying towards the north…
…
After Elder Muray left the river, Zhang Tie felt a bit fear, which didn’t come from the demon knight who was closely chasing after him but from the water flow on his side. Zhang Tie didn’t know where he was while the water flow beside him was sucked into an underground swirl whose diameter was over 10 miles by a great suction towards the bottomless underground abyss in a speed of above hundreds of miles per hour along with him…
‘F*ck, it’s a big trouble!’
Zhang Tie looked back and found the demon knight was still closely chasing after him with a strong killing intent. Zhang Tie also saw a flurried look in its eyes. If that demon knight turned around and intended to return at this moment, Zhang Tie even doubted whether it would be able to find the way back…
Facing such an unknown underground world, even demons would have a bit fear.
