The shadows of two figures streaked across the landscape, their movements swift and desperate.
One of them appeared almost double-headed—a closer look revealed a youth carrying a small child on his shoulders.
The fading light of the sunset painted the scene in hues of gold and crimson, casting long, jagged shadows that seemed to stretch endlessly.
The youth, clad in blood-red daoist robes, panted heavily as he fled, his body battered and his spirit weary. Clinging to his back was a four-year-old child, whose rhythmic sobs echoed faintly in the air.
Chasing them was an old man, his face contorted with rage. His plain daoist robes fluttered wildly as he pursued the pair, his movements fueled by a mixture of fury and determination.
His voice, thick with venom, roared across the landscape, shaking the very air.
"Graaa! Xiao Yunhai, you bastard! Get down here! Aargh!!!" the old man bellowed, his voice carrying the weight of his grudges.
The child's cries grew louder, a heartbreaking counterpoint to the old man's rage.
Xiao Yunhai, the youth, gritted his teeth as he forced a laugh, though his pale face betrayed the toll the chase had taken on him.
"Haha! Old Man Dao Li, you comfy baldie! The little poison you used was too petty. Compared to your Divine Immortal Sect's Dao Physique Liquid I took for little Mingming, it's a joke. The Withering Rose is just too weak—look at me, I'm still alive! You can't take the kid, and as for Wushuang… well, that's a death sentence, hehe!" His words were laced with defiance, but his voice trembled slightly, a sign of the pain and exhaustion he was enduring.
The chase had been relentless. Xiao Yunhai had fled from the faraway Sheng Yun Realm, pursued by Dao Li, a Pseudo God-level cultivator from the Divine Immortal Sect.
The reason for this relentless pursuit was the theft of the sect's precious Dao Physique Liquid, a rare and sacred elixir meant to stabilize and enhance the physiques of the sect's most promising disciples.
Xiao Yunhai had stolen it for his son, Xiao Ming, whose incomplete Ancient Dao Body threatened to cripple him if left untreated.
The child's condition was a tragic consequence of his parents' unique physiques. Xiao Yunhai possessed the Ancient Yang Body, while his wife, Qin Wushuang, had the Ancient Yin Body.
Their union was supposed to produce a child with the perfect Ancient Dao Body, a physique of unparalleled potential. But something had gone wrong.
Xiao Ming's physique was incomplete, and without the Dao Physique Liquid, he would never reach his full potential—or worse, he might not survive.
Xiao Yunhai and Qin Wushuang had devised a plan to secure the elixir, but betrayal had shattered their efforts.
Feng Xi, their supposed ally, had exposed Xiao Yunhai to the sect, framing him as a thief and earning himself a reputation as a hero.
The sect, enraged by the theft, had sent Dao Li to hunt Xiao Yunhai down. The chase had lasted an entire month, pushing Xiao Yunhai to his limits.
His Royal Spirit cultivation was no match for Dao Li's Pseudo God-level strength, and the added burden of carrying Xiao Ming had slowed him considerably.
To make matters worse, Dao Li had tricked Xiao Yunhai using the Cross Visual Sight illusion technique, disguising himself as Qin Wushuang.
In that moment of vulnerability, Dao Li had fed Xiao Yunhai the Withering Rose poison, a deadly toxin meant to kill him instantly.
But Xiao Yunhai's vitality was extraordinary. He had survived the poison, though it continued to rage within him, sapping his strength and slowing his movements.
The sound of an explosion shattered the air, pulling Xiao Yunhai from his thoughts. Dao Li, incited by Xiao Yunhai's taunts, unleashed a barrage of godly energy attacks.
The ground trembled as energy blasts rained down, each one threatening to obliterate Xiao Yunhai and the child he carried.
"Netherworld Spin!" Dao Li roared, his voice echoing like thunder.
He raised his hands, and an enormous, illusory halberd materialized, spinning with terrifying speed.
The sky darkened, as if the Netherworld itself had descended, and an eerie breeze swept through the area.
With a violent swing, Dao Li unleashed the technique, its power distorting the very fabric of reality.
SWOOSH!
BANG!
The world seemed to twist and turn, and in an instant, Xiao Yunhai and Dao Li's positions were reversed.
Xiao Yunhai found himself face-to-face with Dao Li, who wore a sinister grin. Without hesitation, Xiao Yunhai activated a divine-level movement technique.
"Illusory Shadows!" he shouted, his voice strained but resolute.
SWOOSH!
Eighteen shadowy afterimages appeared, each one indistinguishable from the real Xiao Yunhai. Dao Li, being furious, began shattering the illusions one by one, his attacks growing more frantic with each passing second. By the time he destroyed the last shadow, Xiao Yunhai had vanished.
"Bastard! I won't let you off so easily!" Dao Li snarled, his pseudo god sense scanning the surroundings.
He soon detected Xiao Yunhai's presence near the edge of a steep cliff, the child still clinging to his back.
"Wind Fury Charge!" Dao Li bellowed, activating a transcendent divine-level movement technique.
His body blurred as he teleported through the air, arriving just in time to see Xiao Yunhai leap off the cliff into the abyss below.
"Grrh! Damn brat! You'd rather die than face me? Fine! That monstrous child will perish with you. Hmph! Treacherous fool!" Dao Li cursed, his voice dripping with malice.
He stared into the bottomless chasm, his eyes narrowing into slits. A cruel smile spread across his face as he turned away.
"This old man is quite lucky. With Xiao Yunhai dead, I'll make his wife, Wushuang, my dao furnace. Haha! It's time to reap my rewards," Dao Li cackled, his laughter echoing eerily in the deserted landscape.
With a final flick of his robes, he teleported away, leaving the cliffside silent and empty.
Below, in the depths of the abyss, Xiao Yunhai's figure disappeared into the darkness, the fate of him and his child unknown. The wind howled mournfully, as if mourning the tragic end of a father's desperate struggle to save his son.