CHAPTER 75: CHAPTER 75: BLOOD ESCAPE

Zhouyang wasn’t the kind of person to dilly-dally. Once he made a decision, he acted on it immediately.

With a swift motion, he tapped his storage bag and retrieved a Tier Three Middle-Grade Spirit Talisman, which he activated at once.

This Tier Three Middle-Grade Spirit Talisman was given to him by the old clan leader, Zhou Minghan, after his Foundation Establishment, to use for self-defense. Upon activation, it transformed into a towering earth-yellow mountain, smashing fiercely toward the sand bandit.

The sand bandit was already having a hard time dealing with Zhouyang’s two Tier Three Spiritual Artifacts. Upon seeing the mountain crashing down, his face changed drastically. Hastily, he brought out a trump card, a Tier Three Middle-Grade Spirit Talisman, and activated it, transforming it into a golden long halberd to block the incoming yellow mountain.

However, with this, he no longer had any significant attack treasures left.

But Zhouyang still had more.

With a thought, the protective "Qianyang Golden Light" he used, instantly condensed into hundreds to thousands of half-foot-long golden needles. With another thought, the thousand needles shot towards the sand bandit with a "swish, swish, swish" sound.

At the same time, while the sand bandit’s attention was fully captured by the rain of needles, Zhouyang’s finger suddenly flicked ever so slightly, releasing a faint, almost invisible, thread of fire.

On the other side, seeing the rain of needles rushing towards him, the sand bandit’s pupils shrank. Swiftly, he mobilized all his magical power, releasing the defense divine technique that came with his cultivated technique, a turtle-patterned giant shield made of earth-yellow spiritual power.

Earth magic is famous for its defense. When the sand bandit, with his Third-Layer Foundation Establishment cultivation, used the technique’s inherent divine technique, it was equivalent to unleashing a Tier Three Lower Grade Defense Spell. Thus, after deploying the defense spell, he focused his attention on controlling his flying sword.

Using a flying sword to counter Zhouyang’s two Tier Three Lower Grade Spiritual Artifacts really left him no room for distraction.

This response couldn’t be considered wrong.

Although the flying needles transformed from Zhouyang’s "Qianyang Golden Light" made a grand display, limited by his mere First-Layer Foundation Establishment cultivation, their power couldn’t exceed a Tier Three Lower Grade Technique.

When the rain of flying needles hit the turtle-patterned giant shield, although they succeeded in shredding it, their power waned, and they were entirely blocked by the sand bandit’s original protective shield, unable to harm him at all.

But just when the sand bandit thought he could breathe easy after seeing the needle rain dissipate, a red gleam suddenly drilled out from the sand beneath him, piercing "pop" through the protective shield outside his body, narrowly grazing his pant leg and raising a streak of bright blood beads.

"Flying Needle Spiritual Artifact! You are treacherous!"

The injured leg of the sand bandit trembled as he looked at Zhouyang, who wore a regretful expression, a look of horror in his eyes.

Fortunately, he sensed something was amiss and retreated a step, or else the needle would’ve pierced through his body instead of just grazing his pant leg.

"Hmph, lucky you!"

With a flash of cold light in his eyes, Zhouyang snorted displeased, and with a wave of his hand, recalled the bloodstained flying needle, storing it back in the storage bag.

This small incident didn’t give the sand bandit time to think much, nor did he have the time.

Although the flying needle didn’t hit his body, it scraped his pant leg, causing him to get poisoned by the "Poisonous Fire Scorpion" of Tier Two Demon Beasts, forcing him to expend magical power to suppress the fire poison.

Now, having to control the flying sword to counter Zhouyang’s two Tier Three Spiritual Artifact attacks, while also suppressing the fire poison within and remaining vigilant against sudden occurrences like before, left him with no room for other thoughts.

By this point, the sand bandit had abandoned any hope of defeating Zhouyang. He just hoped he could hold out until Zhouyang exhausted his magical power, or until reinforcements arrived from his companion.

Zhouyang, however, after achieving his objective, was reluctant to continue entangling with the sand bandit. He never forgot that the sand bandit had another ten or so Foundation Establishment companions.

Now that two or three moments had passed since they began their magical combat, if there were other companions nearby, they would’ve noticed the commotion by now and rushed over.

If he waited for the sand bandit’s companions to arrive, safely withdrawing would become difficult.

With the intention to retreat forming in his heart, Zhouyang suddenly intensified his assault again, as if intending to go down together with the sand bandit.

Just when the sand bandit, tense-faced, laid down layers of protection in anticipation of his relentless attack, Zhouyang suddenly withdrew his artifact, swiftly stepping onto his flying sword and fled towards the direction of the Baisha River Oasis.

The sand bandit, realizing too late that he had been tricked, gazed at Zhouyang’s back as he sped out of the range of his flying sword. He wanted to follow his previous companion’s example and follow with sword control but feared falling into Zhouyang’s trap. For a while, he was stuck in indecision, unable to chase yet unable not to, standing there dumbstruck.

Just as the sand bandit stood frozen, not knowing what to do, a thunderous shout suddenly rang out from the distant sky.

"Leave him to me!"

Hearing this shout, the sand bandit shuddered all over, and without any further hesitation, immediately formed a sword technique, stepping onto his flying sword, and pursued Zhouyang.

A few kilometers away, Zhouyang, who had escaped earlier, heard the shout, and couldn’t help but turn back towards the direction of the voice. His whole face turned ashen.

In the sky tens of thousands of meters away from him, a golden sword light, like a golden lightning bolt, was rapidly shooting towards him. Behind this golden sword light, tens of thousands of meters away, were two other sword lights, one blue and one red, also flying towards him.

Needless to say, these must be other sand bandits who were alerted by the commotion caused by the "Vermilion Bird Fire Talisman" earlier and came to investigate.

Discovering this situation, Zhouyang’s face immediately turned as black as coal.

Judging from the speed of that golden sword light, the sand bandit on top, even if not the Ninth-Layer Foundation Establishment leader from Golden Dawn Mountain, must certainly be a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert.

Having such a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator chasing him from behind, he might not have been able to escape even in his prime, let alone now when his magical power and divine sense are less than half of what they were at their peak.

Under such circumstances, if he wants to escape unscathed, at the moment, it seems like he can only rely on that "Blood Escape Technique" secret technique he acquired earlier.

However, with his First-Layer Foundation Establishment cultivation, once he uses the "Blood Escape Technique," even if he manages to escape with his life, the time it takes to advance to Second-Layer Foundation Establishment might be delayed by several years.

"It’s a loss, a complete loss! If I had known this would happen, I shouldn’t have held back. I should have used all my trump cards earlier to get rid of those two sand bandits and left here long ago!"

He regretted it in his heart, feeling quite like losing what he already had while trying to gain a little more.

The Foundation Establishment Pill offered as a reward by the Chen Family Ancestor was still nowhere in sight, and he was about to pay a huge price for his momentary greed by damaging his cultivation.

But at this point, there was no use in regretting, and he could only proceed with a dark face, quickly forming a hand sign to activate the "Blood Escape Technique.".

He had already thoroughly understood the method of this "Blood Escape Technique," but performing this technique once requires consuming at least twenty percent of his essence blood, which is why he has never used it before.

Yet today, to save his life, he considered it worth applying what he had learned.

Because it was his first time using the "Blood Escape Technique," Zhouyang took quite a while, preparing for a full twenty to thirty breaths before successfully casting the spell.

When the secret technique reached its final step, he swiftly raised his fist and punched himself in the chest, spitting out a mouthful of bright red essence blood tinged with golden light.

As soon as the bright red essence blood was expelled, Zhouyang’s face turned pale instantly, as if suffering from a severe illness, and his entire essence, qi, and spirit weakened significantly.

However, at this moment, he had no time to worry about any of this. As soon as the essence blood was expelled, he quickly completed the final steps of the "Blood Escape Technique."

In the eyes of those sand bandits chasing from behind, they only saw Zhouyang ahead suddenly enveloped in a dazzling blood light, and then with a flash, Zhouyang and the flying sword beneath him transformed into a streak of blood light soaring into the sky, disappearing from their view in the blink of an eye.

"Damn it, it’s the Blood Escape Technique! How does he know such a demonic secret technique!"

In the sky, the owner of the golden sword light halted, revealing the figure of a masked man in a black robe, his eyes widened as he looked in the direction Zhouyang disappeared with a face full of shock and anger beneath his mask.

Others might not know the effects of the "Blood Escape Technique," but he was fully aware, because he also knew this secret technique.

He just couldn’t figure out how Zhouyang, this young man, could know a life-saving secret technique he had learned at a great cost.

Could it be...

The expression on the face of the masked man changed, and he fell into deep thought.

.....

White Camel Peak, Chen Family Ancestor’s Shrine.

Just as Zhouyang was forced to use the "Blood Escape Technique" to save his life, a strange cracking sound suddenly emanated from a quiet room inside the Chen Family Ancestor’s Shrine.

An old Chen Family Qi Cultivation Ninth Layer cultivator guarding outside the quiet room, who was originally dozing off sleepily on the doorstep, shuddered at the hearing of this sound and hurriedly stood up to push open the door and walk into the room.

Inside the small quiet room, there was only an elongated offering table about two zhang long and five chi wide. On the table, more than a dozen pitch-black nameless spirit tablets were placed from left to right, and in front of each spirit tablet, a piece of white paper with a Chen Family cultivator’s name written in cinnabar was stuck.

A closer look would reveal that all of the Chen Family’s more than a dozen high-level Foundation Establishment and Purple Mansion cultivators, including the Chen Family Ancestor Chen Yaohui, had their names under the tablets.

However, at this moment, the pitch-black spirit tablet originally standing upright above the piece of paper with the three red words "Chen Pingzhi" had somehow toppled over onto the offering table, covered in countless cracks.

The old Chen Family cultivator who pushed the door open and came in, upon seeing this scene, immediately turned pale, stumbling backward and sitting straight onto the ground.

As a guardian cultivator of the "Soul Hall," he certainly knew what the result of these soul tablets, which were refined using Tier Four Spirit Wood "Soul-Storage Wood," shattering meant. It meant that the cultivator who had a wisp of their divine soul lodged in the soul tablet had already perished!