“My pollen grows on anything, Ye Qing. It can infest flesh and blood and even dissolve into energy. There is nothing you can do to remove it, so you can stop wasting your energy!”
Evergreen Ivy’s voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It was impossible to say if she was near or far away from him.
“But don’t worry, I won’t let you die quickly. You’re the man who ruined the Nether Lord’s descent to this plane after all.”
“I will make sure you live until every part of your body is covered in flowers. You will pass on only after you’ve suffered the cruelest and longest punishment there is in this world!”
“I don’t know if you noticed, Evergreen Ivy, but there is a long list of enemies who want me dead. You’re gonna have to wait for your turn like a good girl!” Ye Qing cackled. He looked like an abomination of hell as he was almost a walking skeleton right now.
“Just give it up, brother. You make me sad with how you look right now.”
This time, it was Xiao Yang who spoke up. “How about this: if you give me the painting you obtained from Zheng Feng, I promise to end your misery as soon as possible. Deal?”
“Thanks, but no thanks, brother! This bit of injury is nothing to me, so just save your good will for when you enter your grave!” Ye Qing shouted back. It was too bad his cheeks and throat were quite holey right now, so he sounded more like a duck than a human being.
He wasn’t lying. For most others, this level of injury was crippling at best or fatal at worst. But to him, it was just a matter of popping a dragon-serpent rune and returning to normal, which he did. Overwhelming vitality rushed out of his body and swiftly regrew his flesh. He was back to normal in practically the blink of an eye.
The root of the problem, however, wasn’t solved. Not only did his body start itching and growing evergreen ivy flowers again, there were a lot more of them than before!
It’s as Evergreen Ivy says. The pollen dissolves even in intangible things like energy, so trying to flush it out with true qi is only going to achieve the opposite effect. Heck, even using true qi is going to exacerbate the problem!
Ye Qing frowned deeply as he muttered under his breath, “How troublesome!”
True qi was the source of a warrior’s power. A warrior without true qi was like a reservoir without a source or a tree without roots. He would be lucky to be able to unleash even one-tenth of his true strength. He would be in serious trouble if Evergreen Ivy and Xiao Yang were to attack him now. Should he use his true qi to defend himself and exacerbate his condition? Or should he not use his true qi but die under their combined attack?
Of course, Evergreen Ivy and Xiao Yang knew his predicament as well. Or rather, this was her plan from the very beginning.
I need to get away from them! Ye Qing arrived at a decision immediately. He pulled out a bronze mask and put it on his face. It was none other than the Bronze Tiger Head!
One of the reasons Ye Qing chose to use the Bronze Tiger Head was because it required blood to activate, not true qi.? All he needed to do to awaken the wrath of a hundred heroic spirits was to offer it some blood.
Blood trickled down the eyes of the bronze mask as soon as he put them on. A deathly, bloodthirsty aura immediately sprang to existence.
Ye Qing didn’t use the power immediately, however. He forced the terrible energy to stay inside the mask so as not to alarm his enemies.
Dew started forming on the plants all around Ye Qing, but they were an eerie reddish black that looked more like blood than water. What looked like a mountain of corpses and thousands upon thousands of vengeful souls started manifesting in his vision as well. Even his eyes had turned red with violence and bloodlust.
This was a sign that his mind was slowly being corroded by the mask, but still he waited for his enemies to show up. He would not act until the time was ripe!
It was at this moment Evergreen Ivy and Xiao Yang appeared behind Ye Qing at the same time. Evergreen Ivy was wearing a black hooded robe that covered her from head to toe. When she raised a hand, vines as thick as barrels burst out of the ground and spread open to reveal rows and rows of sharp, hooked spines. It almost looked like a venom dragon that was barring its venomous teeth at its enemy. The next moment, the vines swooped down on Ye Qing and threatened to swallow him whole!
Contrary to Evergreen Ivy’s swift and ruthless attack, Xiao Yang slowly lifted his right fist into the air before punching down on Ye Qing. At first, his punch was extremely slow and feeble. But the more it fell, the stronger and faster it became. At the end, it was like the sun was setting down on Ye Qing, hopeless and forlorn.
This was the moment Ye Qing was waiting for. He abruptly wheeled around and released the fiendish energy he had been holding back this whole time. The next moment, a general wielding a Green Dragon Crescent Blade appeared behind Ye Qing and roared,
The earth shook, and the sky trembled in fear. Dark clouds converged above the duo as the general unleashed his deadly attack.
“The Bronze Tiger Head!” Xiao Yang exclaimed in terror. As Qing Kui’s junior brother, he knew exactly how powerful the Malice-class Strange Artifact was. The soul fragment within the bronze mask was the amalgamation of countless dead on the battlefield, and their combined hatred and bloodlust were powerful enough to threaten even an Astral Refiner.
The general’s blade easily cut through Xiao Yang’s Sunset Punch like it was an illusion. Evergreen Ivy’s vines were disintegrated inch by inch until nothing was left. Then, the blade energy sent both of them flipping through the air like rag dolls.
Xiao Yang wasn’t in peak form to begin with, so the blade energy easily shattered his arteries and veins and worsened his existing wounds. Blood sprayed out of his lips like crazy.
Evergreen Ivy was throwing up blood as well, but it was green and sprouted evergreen ivy flowers when it splattered against the ground.
Xiao Yang crashed into the ground so hard that he dug a huge pit. Evergreen Ivy was less miserable as she was able to summon her vines and catch herself with a net of vines.
Ye Qing wasn’t done with them, however. The general roared once more and slammed his blade into the ground, causing cracks to form across the earth like a spider web. Then, he lifted the blade with one hand, turned his wrist, caught his weapon in a reverse grip, and executed a left-to-right horizontal sweep.
Murky energy sank into the earth, and clean energy rose into the air. This second attack flying toward Xiao Yang and Evergreen Ivy seemed capable of tearing apart the void and even creating a whole new universe!
Evergreen Ivy immediately summoned more vines and pulled herself away from the deadly attack. Xiao Yang turned tail and ran away.
The crescent energy chased the duo for almost a hundred meters before slamming into the ground. The entire chunk of earth rose at least fifty meters into the air before crashing down on the duo like a tidal wave! It was insane!
Evergreen Ivy and Xiao Yang didn’t fancy their chances of blocking a? landslide head on, so they retreated some more. They had to run another sixty meters before they were finally out of danger.
“Phew… I can’t believe I almost forgot about that mask. That mistake nearly cost me my life!” Xiao Yang wiped his forehead as he stared at the tidal wave of earth slowly crashing down to the ground from a safe distance.
He had just finished saying this when Evergreen Ivy suddenly dashed back into the dust clouds.
“What are you doing?” Xiao Yang scratched his head in confusion when realization struck him. “Oh shit!”
He dashed after Evergreen Ivy as well until they arrived at a deep, seemingly bottomless gorge. When he arrived next to Evergreen Ivy, he asked in a hurry, “Where is he?”
“He escaped!” The Stranger answered directly.
“I knew it!” Xiao Yang didn’t sound surprised. “That cunning bastard. I was so sure that he was going for a do-or-die attack! By the way, why aren’t you giving chase?”
“Because he can’t escape.” Evergreen Ivy replied coolly and calmly. “He can’t use his true qi unless he wants my pollen to spread even faster, and without his true qi, what can he possibly do to save himself?”
“Also, don’t you think it’d be far more satisfying to give him a bit of hope before extinguishing it? To make him suffer through the cycle of helplessness, fear and despair fully before killing him?”
“Damn.” Xiao Yang clicked his tongue. “No wonder they say that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”
All of a sudden, Xiao Yang leaped a few feet away from Evergreen Ivy. Not a moment too soon, a few vines shot out of the earth and skewered the space where he was standing. If not for his quick reaction, the vines would have pierced him and killed him the same way as Shen Xian!
“What are you doing?” Xiao Yang narrowed his eyes dangerously.
Evergreen Ivy said coldly, “I told you not to probe my identity in any way. If you can’t keep to such a simple rule, then we might as well go our separate ways now!”
“You’re too sensitive!” Xiao Yang shot her an uncaring smirk. “Ye Qing called you Evergreen Ivy, and it sounds like a woman’s name. That’s all there is to it!”
“Does that mean that our cooperation has come to an end?”
“Nah. If you don’t like it, then I won’t say it any longer!”
“You better.” Evergreen Ivy sneered. “Anyway, we should start chasing the rabbit now. It is you who will suffer Ye Qing’s wrath first if he somehow escapes!”
“True. The price of underestimating an opponent is very costly!” Xiao Yang said lazily. This was doubly true as he was aiming to kill Ye Qing and take the “Emperor Fuxi Visualization Method” for himself!
And so the duo chased after Ye Qing. Fifteen minutes passed, and the young man was nowhere to be seen. That was fine though. The hunt had just begun.
One hour passed, and Ye Qing was still nowhere to be seen.
Two hours passed, and both man and Stranger were starting to feel a little impatient.
Two hours turned to four, and four hours turned to six. Eventually…
“Are you sure we’re heading in the right direction?” Xiao Yang shot Evergreen Ivy a glance. The Stranger was lazing on her vines and letting them do most of the hard work.
Evergreen Ivy replied coolly, “There’s no mistake!”
Ye Qing was infested with her pollen, and her pollen were leaving behind a clear trail to follow. Unless he eliminated the pollen in his body completely, she could track him even to the ends of the world.
She could understand Xiao Yang’s doubt though. She would be wondering the same thing if she couldn’t feel her pollen.
Xiao Yang continued to voice his puzzlement, “In that case, why haven’t we caught up to him yet? Aren’t you the one who said Ye Qing couldn’t move quickly because he couldn’t use his true qi?”
Her reply was as curt as it was direct. “I don’t know!”
Xiao Yang was unhappy with this answer to say the least. He would’ve turned on her already if he didn’t need her to track down Ye Qing!
“What should we do then?”
“We keep chasing. I can feel his location.”
“Fine, whatever!” Xiao Yang grunted.
The chase continued for another hour. By now, the sun had risen from the horizon and spilled its warm rays across the world. It was a wonderful morning that could set even the most restless minds at ease.
Xiao Yang could not settle down, however. In fact, his restlessness kept building the longer the chase continued. It was almost as if his intuition was warning him about something. A while later, he finally couldn’t hold it any longer and said,
“Don’t you think that Ye Qing is moving kinda strangely? Assuming he’s planning to shake us off, he should either escape to Anyang to call for help, or seek out terrains that are dangerous, complex, and well-hidden. However, the land is growing increasingly flat, and the amount of plants in the area are decreasing over time. He can’t possibly be thinking of hiding in this area, can he?”
“That’s because he isn’t planning to hide from us!” Evergreen Ivy answered, “Past this mountain is a valley called Firewind Valley. It is constantly beset by a fiery wind that is said to be capable of scorching heaven and earth. It is labeled a forbidden zone not just in Jade Spring Village, but also all of Anyang.”
“What? Why is he heading there?” Xiao Yang’s eyes widened in surprise and puzzlement when a possibility struck him. “Wait a second. He… he’s not planning to make a last stand, is here?”
“It’s possible!” Evergreen Ivy added, “He’s definitely the type to drag his hated foes to the grave with him. I’m not worried though. If he couldn’t kill me when he surprised me earlier, there’s no way he will succeed when I’m ready for it.”
You might not be worried, but I am! If he kills himself at the last moment and takes all of his possessions to the grave with him, and he’s most definitely petty enough to do such a thing, then why am I even doing all this?
Xiao Yang’s eyes suddenly turned gold like a pair of suns. Then, he sped up and raced toward Firewind Valley.
Evergreen Ivy sneered as she stared at Xiao Yang’s back. The Astral Refiner thought he hid his intentions well, or maybe he didn’t care if she found out. Regardless, she knew that there was only one way their cooperation would end, and she was fully prepared for that moment.
“You’re the one who wanted to kill me first. Don’t blame me when things don’t go your way!”