Boom!
The battle technique that had dissipated from Xiye's body once again appeared as his skin turned a faint red color.
He stomped on the ground's surface, and his body instantly charged toward Lu Yuan. He slashed his sword at Lu Yuan's neck.
At this moment, the large sword arced through the air, emitting the whistling sound of the raging wind.
Lu Yuan's expression froze as he lifted his sword to parry it.
Keng!
Lu Yuan felt a surge of might that was much greater compared to before.
His expression changed slightly, and he retreated two steps back.
On the contrary, Xiye didn't even retreat a single step.
When Xiye saw this, he revealed a malevolent smile.
He coldly snorted and slashed his sword out again.
The attacks came wave after wave, in a continuous unending manner.
Lu Yuan's expression changed slightly as he unceasingly blocked the attacks while retreating at the same time.
Keng!
Another clash happened and Lu Yuan retreated another step back, getting closer to the wall.
At this moment, Xiye shifted horizontally by a certain distance.
Lu Yuan heard a sharp sound breaking the air while also feeling a scorching heat.
(Oh no!)
His expression changed as he hurriedly dodged to the side.
Woosh~
An arrow shining with black-colored light shot past Lu Yuan's shoulder, opening a hole in the armor protecting that area.
Luckily, the arrow didn't strike Lu Yuan's body.
If not, even with his current defensive prowess, he would still be injured.
The fireball shot above Lu Yuan and slammed into the wall behind him.
Boom!!
The fireball exploded and the heatwave caused hot air to gush forth, landing on Lu Yuan's back.
Lu Yuan's body involuntarily moved two steps forward.
And Xiye, who had hidden away earlier, appeared once again at this moment.
His cat pupils flashed with a cold playful look. His hands gripped his sword's hilt tightly as he slashed at Lu Yuan's waist.
Lu Yuan's pupils narrowed. The muscles in his entire body tensed as he quickly took a step to the side.
However, the catguy's sword arced past his waist and cut open his skin, causing some blood to flow out.
Lu Yuan heaved a sigh of relief. Luckily, he had practiced a movement art.
If not, he would definitely not be able to avoid this attack.
After avoiding Xiye's attack, Lu Yuan continuously retreated a few steps.
He stared at Xiye, as well as Moli and Nanqi, and a sharp expression appeared on his face.
After that, a bottle of black-colored potion appeared in his hands, and he gulped the contents down.
This was a common-grade defensive potion.
After drinking the potion, Lu Yuan could clearly sense that the potion had transformed into an invisible spirit energy fluctuation in his body and formed a special barrier.
He could also sense that this barrier allowed his defensive prowess to be enhanced a great deal.
Common-grade defensive potions could enhance one's defensive prowess by around 20%.
At this moment, how strong exactly was Lu Yuan's defensive prowess?
After it was enhanced by 20%, it would surely reach a ridiculously powerful level.
It was just that the price was too high, a bottle already cost $10,000.
Upon thinking of the price, a hint of pain flashed in Lu Yuan's eyes.
Damn it, he worked so hard in the past and sold all the materials only to get roughly $10,000.
And now, everything was gone.
He looked at Xiye's group with strong killing intent in his eyes.
These few b*stards were all to blame!
Why did they use potions when it was not needed?!
After seeing Lu Yuan drinking a defense-enhancement potion, the expressions of Xiye and his companions changed.
"Damn! This fellow actually bought potions!"
"Xiye!"
Moli called out from afar.
Xiye then looked at Lu Yuan. His gaze flashed as he nodded.
"Retreat!"
He then ran in Moli and Nanqi's direction.
Lu Yuan's face twitched when he saw them fleeing.
"F*** it, the poor me has drunk a potion and made a loss of $10,000. If I still allow you guys to flee, doesn't that mean that I don't have to live on anymore?!"
He directly rushed toward the three catfolks.
He definitely couldn't allow them to escape.
Just when he charged out, Lu Yuan saw that the three of them had run for thirty-plus meters.
One couldn't help but say that his speed was truly inferior when compared to the three of them.
This was especially so after the catfolk swordsman and archer drank a speed potion.
Although that catfolk elementalist didn't drink a potion, he was being carried on the back by the catfolk swordsman so his speed wasn't slow either.
If Lu Yuan wanted to catch them, he most probably had to drink elite-grade speed enhancement potions.
However, that stuff cost $50,000 per bottle!
Since Lu Yuan had made a loss of $10,000, if he killed these three catfolks and they didn't drop any good items, wouldn't that mean that he would have wasted $50,000 if he really used an elite-grade potion?
He truly wasn't able to accept this.
The most important thing was that the potion was a trump card he wanted to use when encountering danger. It wouldn't be worth it at all if he used it here.
But now, he would feel extremely reluctant if he didn't chase after them.
He could only grit his teeth and continued chasing the three catfolk hunters.
At the same time, he silently made a decision.
Once he broke through to the next level, he definitely had to engrave and record a speed-type gene!
…
One of the parties fled, while the other gave chase. Not long later, Lu Yuan discovered the distance between them growing longer and longer.
The three catfolks were now over 50 meters away from him.
In a short span of time, they had run 20 meters more than him.
"Is my zodiac a freaking turtle?!"
Lu Yuan couldn't help but curse at himself.
The lighting in the underground palace tunnels was dimmed, so darkness was the only thing that could be seen stretching out ahead. If they ran for another distance, Lu Yuan most probably wouldn't even be able to see their figures.
Luckily, there were no other forks on this path. If not, he would have long since been shaken by the three catfolks.
However, if this situation continued, they would definitely encounter forks on the road sooner or later.
It meant that sooner or later, he would be shaken off.
Just when Lu Yuan's expression turned unsightly, the sound of a low roaring rang out from afar.
Lu Yuan's eyes brightened. These were the sounds that small stonemen made.
He could see two shattered stone piles far away. Two stonemen were hurling stones at the three catfolks.
Lu Yuan involuntarily revealed a smile.
However, just when his smile appeared, two fireballs slammed into the two stonemen.
Before the stonemen could fully transform themselves, they had become a true pile of shattered stones.
There was no need for the catfolk swordsman and archer to act.
The catfolk elementalist who was being carried along could completely deal with these ferocious beasts.
Seeing how comfortable they were, it could be said that the number of times these three catfolks were chased most probably wasn't little.
The smile on Lu Yuan's face stiffened.
The small stonemen were too stupid.
The current strength of the three catfolks was roughly the same as him after he drank a potion, so the stonemen basically wouldn't be able to block them.
Lu Yuan's heart turned cold once again.
However, Lu Yuan didn't give up chasing them.
He still felt some reluctance in his heart.
(Maybe, this path is a dead-end?)
(At that time, where would these three b*stards run to?)
Lu Yuan felt some anticipation in his heart.
After running for some time, the three catfolks got nearer and nearer to the darkness.
Nanqi was being carried by Xiye. He finished a black scorpion that tried to sneak attack them with a fireball.
He then turned and glanced behind him.
Lu Yuan, who was roughly 70 meters away, was coldly staring at them.
Nanqi felt joy in his heart as he grinned with provocation.
"Human, your speed is like a turtle. You want to catch up to us? Haha, maybe in your next life!"
Moli kept her bow on her back and rolled her eyes at Nanqi.
"We still can't escape."
Xiye's expression was cold. "This human probably hates us to death."
"There's nothing we can do. After all, we met him twice. We didn't expect his strength to improve so quickly. Previously, he clearly found it a chore just to deal with Xiye."
Moli's expression turned unsightly.
"That fellow is most probably a genius."
Nanqi grinned as though he didn't mind it.
"So what if he is a genius? At most, we will just take a detour when we encounter him in the future. He is a guard-type, his speed is so slow. How can he catch up to us?"
"Mn, let's escape this calamity first before we talk more about it."
"Why are there no forks…"
Moli frowned.
But before she could finish her sentence, cracks suddenly appeared on the surface of the ground before her as she stepped on it. A huge crater appeared and her body fell down.
Not only her, but Xiye who was beside her, as well as Nanqi who was being carried by Xiye, had all fallen down.
They fell for roughly five meters before they felt their bodies landing on the ground.
But this time around, their countenances all turned white.
"Damn! It's an ant nest!"
"Aren't we too unlucky? We actually encounter an ant nest?!"
The eyes of Moli and Nanqi were filled with despair.
Meanwhile, the corner of Xiye's lips violently twitched.
He glanced at the two tunnels inside the crater.
The tunnels in an ant nest were extremely dark. Without a torch, one wouldn't be able to see anything more than five meters away even with the strengthened vision of a gene fighter.
They could only see darkness in the distance.
However, the superior hearing of gene fighters could hear scuttling noises that were rapidly closing in on them.
Xiye's eyes narrowed.
"We have to think of a way to climb up!"
"No. That human is above. He wants nothing more than to tear us into pieces!"
Nanqi hurriedly replied.
Xiye's lips twitched.
At this moment, Moli's expression drastically changed. "They are here!"
Upon hearing this, both Nanqi and Xiye's countenances changed.
They glanced at the surroundings and saw two dark tunnels. After they saw one-meter tall ants with yellow bodies that were the size of a huge dog crawling out from the depths of both tunnels.
Underground palace sand ants.
Their strengths ranged from 10% refinement to 99% refinement, and they were one of the strongest monster groups in the Sandstone Underground Palace.
Ant nests in the underground palace could be said to span all across the underground palace.
The deep dark eyes of the underground palace sand ants were fixated on the three catfolks. The antennae on their heads kept twitching.
A moment later, a few of the ants let out a sharp shriek as they began to rush toward the three catfolks frenziedly.
They could judge that these were invaders!