With great caution, Nie Tian circled around the area, and soon realized that he was indeed under siege from every direction.
The blockade Song Li had set for him this time was even larger than last time. Therefore, even if he decided to use the long-range Starshift again, he might not be able to escape from it.
After a brief assessment, he was convinced that he might need to launch the long-range Starshift three times in a row to get out of the blockade.
However, by doing that, not only would he basically drain all of his star power, but he would also sustain severe damage to himself.
As tough and resilient as his body was, he doubted that he would be able to withstand the damage from three long-range Starshifts.
Even if he could escape from the siege, it would be very likely that he wouldn’t even be able to walk at that point.
At that time, the Hunters in the vicinity would still be able to chase him down and catch him alive.
“This is a bit tricky.” Nie Tian frowned as he pondered the situation. Moments later, he decided not to use the long-range Starshift, but rather to find a weak point in the Hunters’ blockade and break through from there.
Even if he wanted to use long-range Starshift, he would have to approach the Hunter groups that made up the blockade and cast the spell from there. Only by doing that would he be able to arrive far enough out of the blockade.
“Perhaps I won’t need to use long-range Starshift at all. When I’m close enough to the blockade, I might have a chance at escaping just by using the short-range Starshift.”
With these thoughts in mind, Nie Tian soon targeted a group of Hunters in the blockade via his Heaven Eyes.
It was a group of nine Hunters, with three late Heaven stage experts as their most powerful members.
Considering their battle prowess, they didn’t have what it took to injure or capture Nie Tian, but they might be able to stall him for a short while.
Nie Tian rushed towards them without any hesitation.
One of the late Heaven stage Hunters addressed his team members, “Keep your eyes open, everyone! We’ve finally trapped that Hua Tian person again. This is a moment of success or failure!”
“We’re not the strongest team. According to what we’ve learned from the Fang, that kid has a special tool that can detect life auras.
“He might be able to determine our battle prowess with it as well, so it’s very likely that he’ll choose to break through at our part of the blockade!
“The Fang even brought Xiao Lin here to deal with Hua Tian, which shows their great determination. Furthermore, the Blood Skull is coming at us. We need to capture Hua Tian as soon as possible so that we can withdraw from the wasteland and find cover in the hilly land before they get here.
“Ready yourselves. Strike him with your most powerful magics the moment he appears!”
While he was yapping nonstop, his pupils suddenly shrank as he screamed, “He’s here!”
Three spiritual energy balls that looked like three clusters of misty gray energy suddenly appeared in his sight, and were flying towards him at an extremely fast speed.
“Watch out for those spiritual energy balls! Spread out, now!”
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Just as the man was shouting at his team members, the three spiritual energy balls, which contained all kinds of filth and impurities, exploded before reaching the group of Hunters, since the energy within them was too violent and unstable.
As multicolored lights sputtered everywhere, all nine Hunters jumped away in different directions, hoping to prevent the impurities from making contact with their spiritual power shields.
The man who had been talking took out his Sound Stone at the first possible moment and shouted into it, “Hua Tian is here with us!”
SHEW!
As he did, Nie Tian appeared in his sight.
Meanwhile, one of Nie Tian’s Heaven Eyes rapidly floated towards a location behind the Hunters. Immediately afterwards, Nie Tian cast the Starshift spell, relying on the mysterious connection between him and that Heaven Eye.
In the location behind the nine Hunters, a small area became blurry and, in the next moment, Nie Tian appeared out of thin air.
Nie Tian didn’t even spare the Hunters a single glance. As soon as he appeared behind them, he began running at full speed.
PHEW!
All of a sudden, a thin, white bone rose out of the dark-brown ground in front of him.
On top of the bone was a white banner. On the banner was the pattern of a small, life-like, green snake, which squirmed as the banner fluttered against the wind.
Moments later, the banner began to a unleash faint light. At the same time, Xiao Lin’s voice rang out from within the small snake, “Hua Tian! I can’t wait to see how you’re going to escape this time!”
Suddenly, faint light spread out from the banner like ripples on water, creating a vertical spiritual power ward in front of Nie Tian.
BANG!!!
Nie Tian’s dashing body rammed right into the strange ward. As he did, the originally misty and dim light ward suddenly began to shine with clear, bright light.
At this moment, the spiritual power ward seemed like a transparent water curtain, blocking Nie Tian’s path.
Numerous complicated spell formations could be seen operating within the ward, which seemed to be strengthening its intensity and resilience.
The strong impact made Nie Tian’s protective shield, which was created by his jade bracelet, twist and flicker out of shape.
He immediately realized that not only did the spiritual power ward stop him, but it even destroyed his jade bracelet.
With a cold harrumph, he rapidly put away his jade bracelet and created a chaotic magnetic field around him.
Without even thinking, he once again charged towards the spiritual power ward.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
The moment his chaotic magnetic field, which was formed by various types of power, made contact with the spiritual power ward, the complicated spell formations within it began to fall apart as if they were being sliced by numerous invisible blades.
Moments later, the part of the ward in contact with Nie Tian’s chaotic magnetic field shattered and vanished.
SHEW!
Like a bolt of lightning, Nie Tian whizzed through the broken ward and kept running madly.
“I knew the ward wouldn’t stop you.” Xiao Lin’s voice once again echoed out from within the fluttering white flag. “But all I want it to do is to stall you for a bit and allow me to obtain your location.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered upon hearing Xiao Lin’s voice echo out for a second time.
The reason was that this time he also heard another voice echo the same words from a further location, which made Nie Tian realize that Xiao Lin was rapidly approaching him!
He immediately sent one of his Heaven Eyes to inspect the source of Xiao Lin’s real voice.
Soon, that Heaven Eye of his discovered that Xiao Lin was gliding down from midair like a bird diving towards its prey.
Seconds later, as he approached the ground, the tip of his foot tapped on the ground, propelling him to shoot into the heavens again. Just like that, he repeated the ritual.
With every repetition, he could cover close to a thousand meters.
“Hua Tian! Don’t you imagine you’ll return to Shatter City alive!” At that moment, Song Li’s sharp voice rang out from another direction, where she and Han Mu were also dashing towards Nie Tian.
All of a sudden, clamors broke out from each and every direction. “Capture him alive!”
“He humiliated us good, and he got many of our brothers killed! If we let him live, how will we have the face to call ourselves Hunters and prey on explorers in the Void Illusion Mountain Range and here?!”
“If he somehow returns to Shatter City alive and improves his cultivation base, he’ll surely retaliate against us.”
“We can’t give him time to grow!”
It seemed that a large number of Hunters had received the directions given by Xiao Lin and were converging upon Nie Tian at their fastest possible speed.
A handful of Greater Heaven stage organization leaders were wreathed in thrumming spiritual auras as they charged towards Nie Tian like slithering lightning bolts. Apparently, they were going all-out.
Nie Tian immediately realized that he was trapped inside multiple blockades.
The Hunters seemed much more cautious this time. Not only did they go all-out to lay their siege, but they had even planned it much better than the last time.
Nie Tian quickly found that all those who were charging towards him were Greater Heaven stage experts.
Meanwhile, more Heaven stage Hunters were waiting in further locations. From the way they were deployed, they had obviously formed two blockades around Nie Tian.
Nie Tian was now facing the Greater Heaven stage experts in the smaller blockade. Once he launched Starshift and jumped out of the smaller blockade, he would still end up inside the bigger blockade.
This two layered siege was the new tactic they had designed for Nie Tian’s long-range Starshift, which he had used to escape last time.
“I’m in serious trouble this time.”
