When the Human-faced Jade Essence Flower blooms, anyone who looks at it will be fascinated.
Including the flower itself.
So, the moment it looked into the bronze mirror, it was entranced instead.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, Lin Bei behind it drew his sword, ready to sever the flower stem. As long as this flower was plucked, the mission would be deemed completed.
But at that instant, an unexpected change occurred!
Whoosh!
A white shadow suddenly fell from the sky, landing next to the Human-faced Jade Essence Flower and Lin Bei, slashing with its claws viciously towards Lin Bei's throat!
Quick and deadly!
Fortunately, Lin Bei reacted quickly and blocked with his sword. With a clanging sound, sparks flew, and he was knocked back several steps. Had he been a bit slower, he would have been killed by that claw.
The three people in the outer sword array turned around and saw that what had descended on the scene was a creature as small as a child, jade-white all over, with an oversized skull.
"Human-faced Mandrill!" Fang Ting's expression changed, and he immediately drew his sword.
This extremely rare creature was not part of his calculations.
After repelling Lin Bei, the creature snapped off the blooming Human-faced Jade Essence Flower and turned to flee.
Fang Ting was quick to respond. The Shocking Thunder Sword was raised, his left hand formed a seal, and in an instant, the Sword Qi Golden Dragon filled the field, enveloping the surroundings. It instantly became a Sword Qi Prison, trapping the creature in the middle, like a thunder pool!
The creature didn't dodge at all, and jumped straight up. Its body became transparent for a moment, allowing it to pass through the Sword Qi Prison, leap into the sky, and spring up from another rock hanging upside down.
In the blink of an eye, it had sprinted dozens of feet away!
"You demon, stop!"
Fang Ting became anxious, stepped on his sword, and the sword light instantly transformed into a raging Golden Dragon, rapidly giving chase.
Boom, boom, boom, boom!
But within this valley, full of jumbled and irregular rocks, the creature was exceptionally agile, expertly maneuvering through the rugged terrain.
Although sword riding was fast, it was more suited for straight long-distance flights. This kind of twisting and turning was not agile, and he quickly crashed into several large rocks.
Normally, charging straight through ordinary rocks would not matter, but the stones in this valley were exceptionally hard. It was very dangerous to repeatedly crash into them at high speed while sword riding, and even a Fourth Realm cultivator like Fang Ting was struggling.
After a moment, he twisted his body and switched to using his physical body to advance through the wind. Meanwhile, the Shocking Thunder Sword broke through the air, aiming to directly kill the creature from a distance.
But in doing so, his speed became even slower, and in a blink of an eye, the distance increased significantly. The flying sword chasing after the incredibly agile creature could never lock onto it.
All of this happened in a flash. Both sides moved like the wind, without realizing it, they had already reached the depths of the valley. Just as Fang Ting's mind was still focused on the white shadow of the creature in front of him, he didn't expect a rumbling sound from above, and a large black shadow overshadowed him.
Boom!
He stopped abruptly, only then did he realize it was a gigantic branch! And he himself had arrived in front of a colossal tree!
It turned out that in the center of this valley, there was a tree hundreds of feet tall. Its shade covered the sky, and it seemed that all the vegetation in this valley was all its offspring. Numerous large branches surrounded the tree, attacking any living creature that came close.
Apparently, this colossal tree was the Demon King of this valley!
Fang Ting dodged the first branch, but failed to avoid the second one coming directly at him. Bang!
The blow sent him flying dozens of feet away!
After rolling on the ground, when Fang Ting looked up at the white shadow of the creature again, he saw it dodging and leaping among the relentless attacks from the tree branches, amazingly without a scratch.
It was too agile!
Fang Ting's Shocking Thunder Sword Qi was known for its speed, but it was more suited to large, direct assaults.
If it was in a flat, open space, he was confident that he could catch the Human-faced Mandrill in no time. But in this rugged and complicated valley, he was helpless against it.
Because of the existence of the colossal tree, he didn't dare to continue the chase.
He could only watch as the creature's shadow became more and more distant...
"Damn it!" Fang Ting cursed in anger.
He led a team at the Golden Core Realm, yet the mission was still a failure. He had no idea how his master would view him, how Senior Brother Ziyang would see him, or how Junior Sister Ziqing would look at him... hmm?
Whoosh—
While he was dwelling in self-pity, a nearly indiscernible shadow zoomed past him once again, darting toward the monster with supernatural speed.
Oddly enough, it seemed even faster and more agile! The branches of the gigantic trees didn't even try to strike the shadow, probably because he already passed them before they could react!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!
...
A human-faced mandrill.
This was an extremely rare mountain spirit. When a human-faced jade essence flower matured and was swallowed by a ghost, the ghost would grow a new physical body, becoming a human-faced mandrill.
The main characteristics of this spirit were its astonishing speed and agility.
This mandrill in the valley had been lying in wait for a long time. It wished nothing more than to wipe out any human clans who dared to touch the jade spirit flowers it found.
However, the human clan's cultivation was too strong; the mandrill could only seize the human-faced jade essence flower and run. Once it reached its cave to refine this flower, its cultivation would double, and by that time... Hehehe...
Thinking of the scenario where its cultivation skyrocketed, the human-faced mandrill couldn't help but let out a strange chuckle.
As for the human clan cultivator who was on his tail, the mandrill only felt disdain. Even if he had a strong cultivation, he could only eat dust behind it.
It was intimately familiar with this valley and could easily shake him off. He even hoped to fly a sword here, heh, just wait for him to bang his head and crash!
When it entered the coverage area of the huge tree, the human-faced mandrill knew it was safe.
Besides itself, no other demonic creature could freely traverse the tree's body. As for the humans, even less so!
It moved deftly, like a walk in the park. After a while, it felt it could afford to look back at the frustrated human. Any further and he would be out of sight.
With this thought, the human-faced mandrill turned its head back, chuckling strangely.
Then, the pupils on its large human face suddenly dilated as it seemed to see something extremely horrifying!
What was that?
Its underdeveloped intelligence started to become crazy with doubt.
Because in the moment it turned back, it saw that right behind it, lagging by merely a body's length, a dark shadow was closely following.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
In the blink of an eye, that dark shadow leapt above its head, and then to its side, running abreast with it!
How is that possible?!
Am I seeing a ghost?
No wait, I'm the ghost!
In its memory, ever since it was born, no one had ever caught up with its speed as a human-faced mandrill!
What on earth is happening?
Because they were both moving at high speeds, the dynamic between it and the shadow was relatively static. Therefore, it got a good look at the real appearance of this shadow.
It was a young man in brocaded clothes, strikingly handsome, with a scholarly and gentle demeanor.
How does he have such terrifying movement skills?
When the human-faced mandrill glanced over, the young man also looked up at it.
Then... he stretched out his tongue, licked the palm of his hand... his eyes sparkled, seeming to thoroughly enjoy this chase.
The strange smile on the human-faced mandrill's face fell apart.
Oh my god, he's a freak!