FLEE!
"Haa! Haa!" Breathily gasping, He Yanglei kept urging his Astral Force, Aquatic Dragonborn Heart, and innate energies to their maximum limits, pushing himself as he traversed through Everworld.
He Yanglei could never have predicted that that idiotic lovesick girl was sisters with the Extreme Yin Empress! While they were definitely not blood-related, the feeling of her chilling death-delivering stare he had sensed was undeniably authentic.
He was left with only one choice: Run Away! If he stayed, at the very least, he'd be fighting against three individuals. At worst, who knew how many 'kind-hearted' men would jump to the Extreme Yin Empress' aid to seek her favor?
Rushing through the foliage and greenery of Everworld, He Yanglei cautiously, speedily, and aggressively escaped. He didn't dare to spread out his Spiritual Sense too far, keeping it limited in range, trying to avoid attracting attention. He was warned that Everworld was incredibly strange, and reckless actions could lead to an early grave. He refused to die here.
Absolutely refused!
"Hm?!" Abruptly, a prickling sensation stung his back, and his eyes constricted.
Ba-Dum!
When it came to survival instincts, the beasts of the world were considerably more sensitive than the average human, cultivator or not, and the Aquatic Dragonborn Heart was a Flood Dragon's Heart, instilled within its blood that had been diluted through the ages was wild, savage, and deadly memories passed through the genetics.
Throughout the decades, the Aquatic Dragonborn Heart had granted him a preternatural sense of danger, allowing him to traverse dangerous Secret Realms and react with a hair's breadth at all the incoming threats. He had survived by the grace of Lian Yu's fortune.
Now, that same sensation reacted with ferocious intensity. Instinctively, he pushed additional power into his legs, leaping forward in an explosive burst. The sound of his legs kicking down thundered across for hundreds of miles! The act sent him barreling haphazardly a dozen or so miles in an instant.
From where he originally was, a slicing blade of compressed wind force penetrated through the earth deeply, forming a chasm across a mile. If hit, He Yanglei would no doubt have lost limbs, skin, or his life!
Lin Ziyan landed at the spot where He Yanglei dodged with furrowed brows. She could've sworn her attack could avoid his Spiritual Sense, a perfect assassination attack. Moreover, he barely reacted. Strange.
Woosh! Woosh!
Two lovely figures arrived beside her.
"Are you crazy?!" Na Xinyi rebuked Lin Ziyan immediately.
"...?!" Lin Ziyan was taken aback. She had almost killed the bastard! Why was she being scolded? She glared back at Na Xinyi.
Wu Baozhai interfered at this point, "Don't attack recklessly; this is Everworld. It's a strange planet, and the quickest way to die is to act without thought." Her tone was calm yet severe.
"Really?" Lin Ziyan was skeptical. She recalled Wei Wuyin saying that she didn't need to fear anything with the items he had given her, not even an Earthly Saint. If she wanted to cause chaos, do so. All she had to ensure was that she had fun on this adventure of hers. Thinking of him, her eyes subconsciously softened.
Na Xinyi frowned, "Do you think we can't capture him? We're chasing him to get him to kill himself. Fighting isn't prohibited in the Everworld, but the planet is extremely strange."
Wu Baozhai looked at the fleeing He Yanglei. Despite being a hundred or so miles away, she accurately pinpointed his location. As long as he was on this tiny-sized planet, he couldn't escape their senses. Moreover, Na Xinyi and her cultivation were at the Star Core Phase, while He Yanglei was a mere Timelord. The stage difference was already lethal, especially if they don't factor in their abnormal cultivation bases.
They were Valkyries for a reason!
"Then what? Do we just chase him? Isn't the Chosen King Competition going to start soon?" Lin Ziyan didn't argue with them. While she had often taken the path of the older sister in their earlier dynamic, Wu Baozhai was always frighteningly cunning and intelligent with her actions. She was more reliable than anyone she knew.
Wu Baozhai's brows furrowed. She turned to Na Xinyi, "Did you notice?"
Na Xinyi stared in He Yanglei's direction, "Yeah. He had Lian Yu's unique sense of danger and sleek movements." Lin Ziyan might not be a devoted cultivator pursuing the peak of power like them, but she experienced Wei Wuyin's tailored and spoiled form of cultivation resources from the beginning. She could, in a single attack, kill He Yanglei even at two stages lower.
However, He Yanglei dodged the attack.
"Is it from her heart?" Lin Ziyan knew from Wei Wuyin that Lian Yu was killed and was missing her heart.
"Likely," Wu Baozhai nodded. "Let's not allow too much distance to accumulate." The trio agreed, following as they emitted killing intent. He Yanglei began to panic as he scoured for a way to escape! Unlike normal Trials by Fire, the Chosen King Competition did not have an escape mechanism.
You either survived or died.
After being chased for ten full minutes, He Yanglei was at his wit's end. The pressure from the trio was breaking down his mental state. One time, he nearly fumbled his steps, almost falling into a pile of strange bushes. If it wasn't for Lian Yu's Aquatic Dragonborn Heart, he wouldn't have exhausted additional power to dodge.
"Why is flying restricted here?!" He cursed in his heart as he tried to fly once again. However, the moment he did, an unbearable amount of World Pressure pressed against his
The trio kept following from a distance. Lin Ziyan's patience began to grow thin as she watched Lian Yu's killer continue to breathe their air.
"When is the Chosen King Competition going to begin?" She asked the two. They had avoided her question earlier, but she didn't quite understand the Chosen King Competition enough.
"It's already started. Did you not hear Earth-Saint Tri-Vision say that?" Na Xinyi said grumpily. She, too, felt increasingly uncomfortable with He Yanglei staying alive. The urge to recklessly attack was becoming increasingly difficult to resist.
"Started?" Lin Ziyan was confused.
Wu Baozhai decided to clarify Lin Ziyan's confusion, "The Chosen King Competition has begun. But there's a proving period before the first challenge begins-that's here. You don't feel it because your cultivation base is simply too sturdy. Try sensing your innate energies, the flow of it."
Lin Ziyan sensed her four innate energy flows, and as she did, she was astonished to find minute quantities of the four essential energies flowing out. It was so insignificant that it was barely noticeable.
"What is this?" She sensed its direction, realizing it was flowing into the ground. As she executed her Ocular Spell, she could see traces of energies being absorbed by the plants and trees as if they were undergoing photosynthesis.
"To us, this extraction was insignificant. But to most others, this process is extremely draining." Wu Baozhai gestured to a middle-aged-looking man that was heavily heaving at the base of a large tree. It's been less than half an hour yet he seemed to have run a marathon and then some.
Just as she was curious about this, Lin Ziyan saw the middle-aged man lying on the tree for some respite. Just as he breathed out a sigh of comforting relief, a branch of piercing sharpness moved like lightning, piercing through his glabella.
In an instant, he was dead.
He couldn't even scream, but his arms tried to reach out for salvation as lingering regret echoed out from his Astral Soul. The sight was extremely brutal."...!" She jumped at the sight.
"The Chosen King Competition is not a simple trial of fire," Na Xinyi said as she looked away from the middle-aged man without the faintest sign of emotional disturbance. As a cultivator that was intending to forge her name through the cultivation world, she had long since grown used to death and killing.
Especially since countless individuals kept seeking death, believing they could covet her body and cultivation. All they received, however, was a free trip to Hell.
"Neither are the rewards," Wu Baozhai added. However, Na Xinyi lightly snorted in retort. Shockingly, her reaction even caused Wu Baozhai to become a little awkward. Given how Wei Wuyin treated them, the things they could get in this competition greatly paled in comparison.
As for why they were here. Wasn't it simple?
The Chosen King Competition was a competition of the most elite in the world! How could they not challenge themselves?
"Oh! He's slowing down," Wu Baozhai remarked with a tinge of frost in her tone.
"The more energy you use, the greater the exhaustion." Wu Baozhai explained to Lin Ziyan who understood why the two were waiting, not trying to attack. Since He Yanglei wanted to exhaust himself, then let him run. When there was nowhere to go, his life would end.
"I do not intend to make it slow," Na Xinyi glanced at Wu Baozhai.
"I would never ask you to do anything else," Wu Baozhai's reply would terrify ghosts and devils alike.
"I'll make him experience what Sister Yu felt!" Lin Ziyan clenched her teeth.
"Haaa! Haaa! HAAAÃ He Yanglei was extremely exhausted. He couldn't fathom why. Given his cultivation foundation and this world's size, he should've been able to flee for months. Not a single hour had passed yet, but he was dead tired. His power source was nearly bottomed out, and he felt lethargic.
Ba-Dum!
Danger?!
He tried to move, but his legs failed to listen to him.
"You really just traveled everywhere, didn't you? Quite a curious fellow you are, to just breathe in all that nasty seeds." An amused voice resounded. It belonged to a white-robed hooded figure, his eyes blood-red and shining beneath the hood. "What strong blood power source you have! I can smell it from halfway across this planet."
"Who are you?" He Yanglei was vigilant and ready to defend himself at any moment.
The trio soon arrived and He Yanglei's expression instantly fell to the depths of hell.
