The Bram leopard was chasing Elder Zihao De and his two companions.
"Now!" shouted Zihao De.
At his command, the other two elders split, turning left and right respectively.
When this happened, the Bram leopard slowed down for a second. However, it didn't stop and kept on chasing Zihao De.
"Uh," one of the enemy cultivators muttered, glancing into the forest. He thought he had heard something.
He saw someone exit the forest and run towards him. He dodged the man successfully and quickly turned around to look at the one who had just come at him.
"Zihao De?" he asked, uncertain.
However, after a few seconds, the bram leopard also jumped out of the forest. It pounced at the man.
The man felt like something was behind him and turned to look. However, the moment he did, he saw a huge paw just a few inches away from his eyes. It struck him in the next moment, and his head burst open.
A cultivator couldn't always keep their detection methods active to stay aware of their surroundings; void power also had a limit, just like essence water. Even though it was said that the black sun had the power to go against the heavens, it was just a legend. Nobody knew if it was true or not. Only a few extremely rich cultivators could keep their detection methods active all the time. Alternatively, high-level cultivators could use low-level methods.
Another consideration was that when a person activated their methods, an aura was released into the air, which almost every cultivator could sense without any methods. However, almost nobody depended on them because of sneak attacks, quick strikes, and aura or strength-hiding methods. Even though these methods were rare and uncommon, they still existed. Additionally, for that, a person's reaction speed had to be fast.
Thus, the man couldn't sense Zihao De and the leopard. He was only able to dodge Zihao De because he heard a noise coming from the forest and was ready to move. However, he didn't know that a bram leopard was chasing Zihao De.
The reason Yang Zhai was able to sense danger and dodge attacks—such as during the competition breaks when he was attacked by two rank 3 cultivators—was because his senses had become very keen from hundreds of years of battles and his habit of staying cautious all the time. Even he couldn't sense dangers all the time, just like when his heart was pulled out of his chest in his final war before resurrection.
Zihao De didn't stop and took a sharp turn and entered the forest again.
The Bram leopard wanted to chase Zihao De but didn't as it saw many cultivators around it and became alert.
He didn't stop to ask for Shu Ti or others' help. He kept on running at his full speed.
Three rank 4 cultivators did run after Zihao De.
Bram leopard stood its ground and growled.
Everyone became alert. The Bram leopard was poised to pounce. Being all rank 4 cultivators, they dared not attack first, knowing that the one who struck first would become its target.
The leopard jumped at the nearest target.
…..
"Zihao De? You really are Zihao De!" one out of the three men exclaimed.
They were told that the Bai clan leader and the second and third elders were not present in the Bai clan. But they were looking at Zihao De in front of them now, even though he was outside the village.
Three men—who chased Zihao De into the forest—stood in front of him.
"You guys are really foolish. Do you think you have trapped me?" Zihao De smiled and looked behind his enemies.
The three men followed Zihao De's gaze and saw four cultivators standing 20 meters away from them. The distance between Zihao De and the three men was also around 20 meters. Their eyes narrowed and their expressions grew serious. They had expected Zihao De to be alone.
This distance range was accessible even to rank 1 cultivators.
"Listen to me!" Zihao De shouted and attacked them.
From this location, the cultivators near the Bai village could neither hear nor sense them.
A fight ensued. He could have sneak attacked, but his enemies were also no joke, so a sneak attack here was unfeasible. However, he attacked them while shouting, drawing their attention and disrupting their formation.
As a result, at least two people tried to defend against Zihao De while also attacking him. On the other hand, one of the three men tried to run in a different direction.
Despite this, the four cultivators who were with Zihao De didn't attack, which confused the fleeing man. Noticing this, one of the two cultivators fighting against Zihao De tried to stop his partner.
"Stop!!" he shouted.
But before that man could react, an extremely sharp and hard knife pierced his neck. As the man was not a body cultivator and was weak in strength, the knife managed to pierce him at a fast speed.
This knife was manifested by a rank 4 technique, making it as strong as a rank 4 attack. However, the result was that the elder who manifested it had his right arm completely turned black. It could be said that if he used it again without cleansing the aftereffects of the technique, his arm might become completely useless, and the damage would even start to spread to his entire body.
"Shit!" the one who shouted for the man to stop muttered.
He knew that the situation was dire. He had already been thinking of running the moment he got a chance, especially when he saw four cultivators appear. They could manage to hold off five cultivators for a while. But now what? From their side, one was dead while there was an extra member in the opposition.
He didn't wait and turned around to run.
"I need to get out of here before being overpowered!" he thought, running in the direction where no one was guarding.
He saw that two elders out of the four who were behind them ran towards him.
Meanwhile, his partner was fighting Zihao De. When he saw his companion run, he became angry as well as scared. He was angry because his partner abandoned him and ran without warning, leaving him in a dangerous spot. He was scared because if his partner left, he would be alone, surrounded, and would no doubt die.
In desperation, he also attacked Zihao De fiercely and tried to run. He activated his defensive ire and ran without a care in the world.
His partner was also running but saw someone appear in front of him. It was none other than Elder Shu.
"Shu Ti?" the first man muttered and was scared.
He was not even confident of being able to defeat Zihao De alone, but now appeared a man who was second only to the Bai clan leader.
He wanted to turn left but saw that he was already surrounded by four Bai clan elders. When he saw that—a fear could clearly be seen in his eyes.
In desperation, he tried to strike a deal, or to be more accurate—beg.
"Elder Bai Shu Ti, can't we handle this peacefully? If you want I can even help you guys fight off the enemy." said the man.
"Sorry, you should have thought about it before attacking the Bai clan." Elder Shu Ti did not wait and attacked the man.
Not only him, but others also attacked him. He managed to dodge two elders' attacks, but the other two managed to strike him.
As his ire was active, he managed to lessen the damage, but he was still injured since the attack was launched from close range.
The man, indignant, shouted.
"You bastards!!!"
After that, he attacked the elder to his left crazily. When this happened, the other three attacked the man from behind and injured him gravely.
Meanwhile, the man who had been running from Zihao De was already lying on the ground, defeated miserably and close to death. Elder Zihao De did not wait and killed him.
On the other hand, Shu Ti was about to kill the man on his side as well, but…
"Clan leader!"
When Shu Ti heard this, he inadvertently stopped his attack and looked in a certain direction and saw a man covered in blood appear from behind the trees. With him was a Bai clan elder.
Tai Qi was injured, his clothes torn, and he bore a huge scar that stretched from the upper side of his right eye to his chest.
Other elders also looked at the clan leader and were shocked.
"Now!" The man who was just saved by Tai Qi's appearance from Shu Ti's attack saw that the time was ripe and ran.
Since he was injured and surrounded by many elders, they didn't take the situation seriously. Otherwise, no one would dare to look away during a battle or get distracted. Even a little bit of carelessness was enough to turn the tides.
As everyone was shocked by Tai Qi's appearance and didn't pay attention to the man, he managed to slip through and ran towards the Bai clan, hoping to reunite with his companions.
Shu Ti and one other elder chased him. But he was already nearing the Bai village and if he managed to do so, then the situation could go either way.
"That bast**d, isn't he gravely injured, how is his speed so fast?! Damn him!" said elder Shu.
"Second elder, forget about reaching the Bai clan, if he even manages to get close enough to make his voice reach the Bai village, we will be in trouble." said the elder next to Elder Shu Ti.
Elder Shu Ti desired to go faster but still wasn't sure if he would be able to catch his enemy before he managed to get near enough to the Bai clan. On top of that, there was an elder close to him. So, there was a chance that if he used a rank 5 method to catch the man, he would get caught that he was a rank 5 cultivator.
As a result, the man was running out of their reach.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!"
Suddenly, the man shrieked.
"What happened?" said Elder Shu with a serious expression.
He managed to catch the man.
"Elder, I only saw something coming from behind the tree and striking the man's face." said the elder who was with Shu Ti.
Shu Ti saw that the man's face was rotting. Elder Shu examined it and…
"Oh, it's only a rank 2 technique!" he exclaimed.
"Really!" the Bai elder near him also exclaimed.
It wasn't that rank 2 techniques couldn't hurt rank 4 cultivators; it was just that these techniques were too weak, and rank 4 cultivators had stronger bodies than those at lower ranks. Some cultivators, like Jen Wung, focused on one aspect, leaving other aspects, including their bodies, weaker.
However, even Jen Wung's body was too strong to be hurt by rank 2 or rank 3 techniques. At rank 2, a person's body becomes a cultivator's body, gaining some strength. Advancing to rank 3 gives even more strength, and even more at rank 4. So, it was obvious why Elder Shu was shocked.
"Isn't it the place where our clan disciples are hiding?"
"Yes, second elder."
"Yang Zhai," said Elder Shu after looking at the boy.
/!*****!*****!/