From the moment Ning Cheng vaguely saw the two shadows, the only thought in his mind had been to escape. When he had first arrived at the outer perimeter of the Mango Sea Area, he had witnessed two extremely fast shadows tearing through the air, leaving a deep impression on him.
Thinking of the one-horned stone scream beast being torn in two, the solid roadside gouged out with a trench dozens of feet long, and the terrifying explosion behind him, how could Ning Cheng not realize that these were two incredibly powerful experts fighting?
In such a battle between experts, staying would be a death wish, the farther he could escape, the better. The two fighting experts would not care about someone as insignificant as a third-level Qi Gathering cultivator like him, so the faster he could escape, the better.
As for fleeing sideways, that was because Ning Cheng knew that Lin the cultivator had fled backwards. He had been figuring out how to avoid Lin, and with this opportunity, he obviously wouldn't escape in the same direction as Lin. Moreover, he was certain that at this moment, Lin wouldn't care in which direction he fled; probably Lin himself was in a hurry to run faster.
Half an incense stick of time later, An Yi, who was tucked in Ning Cheng's arms, whispered, "Brother Ning, I can get down and escape by myself, please let me go."
It was only then that Ning Cheng realized he had been so focused on fleeing, he was still holding An Yi in his arms.
As Ning Cheng released An Yi, he was also feeling relieved, thankful that the two fighting individuals were not coming this way. If they had been, he would have been doomed.
As An Yi continued to follow Ning Cheng in escaping, she finally asked, "Brother Ning, do you not want to team up with that cultivator?"
Although An Yi did not understand worldly affairs well, she was not dumb; Ning Cheng's actions had already made it very clear.
It was only now that Ning Cheng remembered the incident on the beast cart. He quickly took down his package from his back, threw two route maps on the ground, and handed the package to An Yi, saying, "An Yi, can you put this package in your storage pouch?"
"I can," An Yi nodded, not giving it much thought, and directly put the package Ning Cheng gave her into her storage pouch. Then she asked, "Do we still need to escape?"
"Not only do we need to escape, but we also need to speed up. We'll change our direction slightly, the farther we get away, the better," Ning Cheng said, already altering their course slightly and continuing to dash madly forward.
An Yi naturally followed wherever Ning Cheng went.
Both Ning Cheng and An Yi were third-level Qi Gathering cultivators, and with both of them running at full strength, their speed was incredibly fast. After most of the day had passed and the sky had grown dark, they heard the sound of sea water slapping against rocks, upon which Ning Cheng stopped and said, "We should be near the seaside now; no need to keep running. Let's find a place to hide first."
No sooner had Ning Cheng finished speaking than, with a "thud," a shadow fell heavily from the sky.
This abrupt noise startled Ning Cheng, causing him to pull An Yi back quickly, not stopping until they were dozens of meters away before he turned to check the shadow that had fallen from the sky.
A man covered in blood lay on the beach, obviously the one who had just fallen from the sky. His head was less than half a foot away from colliding with a huge boulder. It was unclear whether the man was lucky or if he was able to control his fall.
"Please help me..." This bloody man had not fainted; on the contrary, he was weakly calling out to Ning Cheng and An Yi.
Ning Cheng did not move. He saw An Yi take a step forward and immediately, without a trace of expression, pulled her back. Not every gravely injured person in this world is as kind-hearted as he is. Though the man lying on the beach was gravely wounded, Ning Cheng could not clearly discern his cultivation level. Ning Cheng speculated that this man's cultivation must be above the Condensed Truth level.
Moreover, there was another reason why Ning Cheng was reluctant to help; he had a vague feeling that this person was the same one who had fought another in the sky earlier, the one who killed the one-horned stone scream beast and nearly took his life as well. Someone who had no regard for the lives of innocents during a fight was certainly ruthless.
"I've been ambushed. Please, on the account of being fellow cultivators, help me out," the severely injured man still pleaded earnestly.
In a low voice to An Yi, Ning Cheng said, "An Yi, just follow one step behind me."
An Yi had no doubt about Ning Cheng's words; if Ning Cheng wanted her to follow behind him, she naturally did so closely.
Seeing Ning Cheng and An Yi approach, the man on the ground seemed to exhale in relief and said, "Thank you, fellow Daoists. I am from Mango City, and I will definitely reward you both handsomely..."
Ning Cheng hastily replied, "No need, as the fellow Daoist just said, we're all fellow practitioners; such a small matter really amounts to nothing."
Ning Cheng was not sure if the man before him was the same one who had recklessly taken human lives earlier, he was cautious inside, yet he knew that regardless of whether it was the same man or not, his cultivation level differed greatly from the other party. Fortunately, the other party was severely injured and could not even get up.
As Ning Cheng came within less than two zhang from the man, all of a sudden, without any sign, he pulled An Yi aside and fell to the side. Two zhang was the most threatening distance for wind blades; in Ning Cheng's opinion, despite the other party's severe injuries, if his cultivation was high, his True Yuan would be limited. Apart from being able to use wind blade or fireball techniques, he should not have the ability to cast other spells.
Both wind blades and fireballs are most threatening at a distance of two zhang. He did not care whether the other party would do something like this or not; he preferred to dodge first. Otherwise, even if the opponent was gravely injured, he might not be able to dodge in time.
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"Pff…" A stream of blood flashed by as two wind blades whizzed past Ning Cheng and An Yi.
Despite attempting to dodge first, Ning Cheng was still a moment too slow, and one of the wind blades sliced open a bloody gash across his waist, with blood instantly spraying out.
Ning Cheng thought to himself how close it had been. Had he not cleverly toppled to the side, those two wind blades could have gutted both him and An Yi.
After being slashed by the wind blade, Ning Cheng almost immediately unleashed a fire blade. He felt his Fireball Technique was more powerful than the wind blade. He didn't choose to escape right away because, despite the attacker's higher cultivation, killing him required luring him in close, which clearly indicated his injuries were very severe.
Ning Cheng had prepared his Fireball Technique in advance as he was already on alert when he arrived. Now that he was injured despite his caution, how could he not launch the Fireball Technique immediately?
After Ning Cheng released his first Fireball Technique, An Yi immediately reacted, simultaneously launching two wind blades.
The man who had fallen to the ground was shocked that someone at the third level of Qi Gathering could dodge his wind blade within a two zhang range. This was completely unexpected for him, as he believed that even someone above the fourth level of Qi Gathering would not be able to evade his sneak attack at such a distance. Caught off guard by the shock, he was unable to react before Ning Cheng's Fireball Technique reached him.
The Fireball Technique sliced precisely across his waist. The body of the man, already stained with blood, was once again soaked in blood on one side.
"Wait…" The man only managed to say one word before An Yi's two wind blades arrived as well.
Ning Cheng certainly wasn't going to show mercy. By now, he had come to understand the rules of survival in this world; you must never show mercy to an enemy. Moreover, he knew he had to seize the opportunity immediately. Almost at the same time as he released the Fireball Technique, he launched several more wind blades.
These numerous wind blades, along with An Yi's, chopped the man on the ground into several pieces.
If Ning Cheng's hands trembled a bit when he first killed Gu Fei due to the threat to his own life, which forced him to forget the fear of killing, this time there was no discomfort at all in taking out the man who tried to scheme against him.
As for An Yi, she looked somewhat pale; it was truly her first time killing someone. Fortunately, she was just an accomplice. Even so, she still couldn't understand why this man, who was already dying, would attempt to kill his saviors. If it wasn't for Ning Cheng, she would have been killed by now.
Previously, she had also saved Ning Cheng in the same manner, but why was Ning Cheng so good to her? An Yi glanced subconsciously at Ning Cheng, noticing his pallid face, and suddenly remembered that he had been hit by the wind blade. She quickly pulled out some medicinal powder and sprinkled it on Ning Cheng's wounds.
Ning Cheng, at the third level of Qi Gathering, had already stemmed the bleeding. Now that An Yi applied the medicinal powder, the wound had long stopped bleeding.
An Yi breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps in this world, people like Ning Cheng and her master were not that common.
Ning Cheng walked over to the man he had just killed and pulled the Storage Pouch from his waist.
He also felt around the body and pulled out a jade token. Ning Cheng had no time to examine what the jade token was and immediately said to An Yi, "An Yi, let's quickly use the Fireball Technique to burn this guy, then we need to get out of here fast."
An Yi knew that this was not the time to ask questions. Like Ning Cheng, they both stopped casting Fireball Techniques only when the man's body had been burnt to a char. Ning Cheng then threw the charred remains into the sea.
"Big Brother Ning, what do we do now…" An Yi looked at Ning Cheng with increasing trepidation. She and her master had lived in Lin Heart Hermitage and had never encountered such circumstances before. And how long had she been out here? This wasn't the first time such an incident had happened.
Ning Cheng spoke in a heavy voice, "We need to leave, the farther and the faster, the better."
The two changed direction and once again ran for their lives. It took almost the entire night, but as the sky was about to brighten, Ning Cheng and An Yi finally stopped.
They were now amidst an endless expanse of reefs, and Ning Cheng discovered a cave under a huge rock. After taking refuge in the cave, they finally had the chance to catch their breath.
The sound of waves crashing on the rocks outside, accompanied by the faint light of dawn, allowed Ning Cheng's heart, which had been in suspense, to relax slightly. He had never imagined that one day he would have to run for his life.
"Big Brother Ning, how did you dodge so quickly just now? If it were me, I definitely wouldn't have been able to avoid that wind blade," An Yi was still somewhat shaken. If it weren't for Ning Cheng's pull, she would have been hit by the wind blade launched by the man on the beach.
Ning Cheng sighed and said, "When I went there, I felt something was off about that person, and it turns out I wasn't wrong. Wait for me a moment; my injuries are rather severe, I need to heal."
Ning Cheng didn't have a good way to heal himself. When he was injured the last time, he continuously ran his modified cultivation technique, which allowed his injuries to recover quickly. He intended to use the same method this time.
But before Ning Cheng's True Yuan could complete even one cycle, his face suddenly turned pale.
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