CHAPTER 548: CHAPTER 319: ALL IN YE STATE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR DEFENDING THEIR LAND [TWO CHAPTERS COMBINED]_2

He didn’t use any exaggerated words, but this bloody truth was incredibly damaging, piercing the hearts of these hunters.

This was a group of old bandits. Their descendants—their sons and nephews—had once rushed to follow the expedition in order to conquer beautiful lands and be the first to gain the sect ancestral courts’ resources to enhance themselves. In the end, however, they were annihilated, and not a single one returned. Now, the eyes of these people were all red.

A lean middle-aged man spat out a stream of air like thunder light, saying, "I must skin you alive, dismember you, use your soul oil to make the fire source inside a lamp, and refine you for over a hundred years!"

Qin Ming turned back and said, "Why are you getting worked up? Let’s talk this through!"

A burly man with a vicious expression said, "Boy, when we catch you, I hope you can still shoot your mouth off like this. Otherwise, I’ll make you lick the soles of my shoes for a hundred years."

Qin Ming sneered and said, "What bad habits do you all have? You were just laughing, and suddenly you turn hostile. You keep mentioning a hundred years, do you all have that long life? If you care so much about your young ones who died in the desert, why don’t you go join them sooner?"

"You little brat, keep up that tough talk, we’ll deal with you later!"

A group of pursuers stopped making empty threats. Unable to provoke the other side, they found themselves chest-heaving in frustration, as they thought of how their powerful hunting civilization had perished, truly grief-stricken.

"Be careful of that ghost, it’s been following us, hovering nearby." Jin Yuan secretly warned.

It hovered in the night sky, never drifting far away.

"Why is it fixated on us?" Qin Ming’s expression was serious.

This time involved an Earth Immortal, and even if it was just a layer of immortal skin it had shed, it was deeply dreaded.

Jin Yuan said, "Either it’s taken a fancy to you, deeming you suitable for possession and body snatching, or it’s eyeing us two seriously injured grandmasters, wanting to devour our souls to replenish itself."

In any case, that immortal skin tailed them with intense malevolence.

"Be careful." Jin Yuan already knew what Qin Ming intended to do.

"Hmm!" Qin Ming solemnly nodded.

He turned back and yelled, "You gang of bandits, do you want to chase me all the way to Shenshang Plain? You’ll surely be blasted by the ancestors’ figures there."

Then he added, "There are still several Ancestor Masters in the desert, perhaps they’re already on their way back, maybe they’ll catch up in a while, and you’re about to die."

"Speed up!" A group of hunters’ eyes glimmered with cold light, administering secret medicines to their mounts again. Having chased this far, giving up was impossible; they wanted to quickly resolve the two people ahead.

Qin Ming transmitted a message, asking the Thunder King Bird to cooperate, slightly slowing the speed, allowing the pursuers to close in a bit more.

"Swish!"

Someone bent their bow to shoot an arrow, seemingly twisting the night sky.

Grandmaster Jin Yuan conjured a spirit field outside his body, shredding dozens of arrow feathers.

"Almost there!" Qin Ming saw the forest appearing ahead, more Fire Springs emerging. He knew he was close to his destination.

During this time, eighteen riders got even closer, and the hunters laughed heartily, refraining from firing any more arrows, believing they could soon surround and hunt their opponents.

Qin Ming looked back, seeing them all grinning viciously. Those blood-stained armors, gleaming slaughter knives in their hands, and heavy iron rods were all extremely glaring, the depths of his eyes turning icy cold.

On the ground, in a vast primeval forest, Fire Springs pooled, forming lakes, making the place exceptionally radiant.

Qin Ming flew the Thunder King Bird, suddenly soaring upward rapidly, and, fearing instability, worried that he hadn’t alerted certain "existences," he also hurled a long spear fiercely at the ground.

Boom!

Suddenly, on the ground, a gigantic fiery tongue stretched toward the night sky, thousands of meters long, as if toppling mountains and overturning the seas, shattering the sky-full of night fog.

The commotion was extremely terrifying, louder than Heavenly Thunder crashing down, deafening.

Even though Qin Ming had prepared, he was almost "licked" down.

The terrifying airwave, the huge sonic boom, and the spreading fiery runes—if touched, he would surely fall into a desperate plight.

The Thunder King Bird tumbled in the stormy night fog but fortunately wasn’t caught in the light emitted by the giant tongue.

It could be said they were barely on the boundary, actually treading the death line.

Qin Ming had no choice but to take such risks, fearing that if he hid at a sufficiently safe height, a group of pursuers would escape the disaster as well.

"Ah..."

A group of hunters screamed miserably. They had been chasing closely, in high spirits, about to catch up to their prey, but suddenly they were plunged into danger.

Even Qin Ming barely avoided it, let alone those unprepared.

Previously, when Qin Ming and his group traveled by spaceship to the desert, they were attacked here, and he had an extremely profound impression of this place.

According to Yu Gen Sheng, this fire tongue might be a mysterious and terrifying "natural phenomenon."

There’s another possibility, this is a "disastrous remnant" from an Esoteric Buddhism big shot who went deep into Yewu World to breach the barrier, but ended up in an accident. That Ancestor Master failed.

The enormous fiery tongue, densely covered in runes, bound everyone behind it, and not a single hunter could escape.

The Fire Dragon howled in pain, its massive body before the "tongue" as insignificant as a mosquito.

The hunters’ armor shattered instantly in the runes, "dissolving," even the mid-stage Fifth Realm grandmaster couldn’t withstand.

The patched-together body instantly disassembled, with the Consciousness Spiritual Light trying to escape, but was immediately "stuck" back by the "tongue."

Even though Qin Ming and Jin Yuan had retreated to a sufficiently distant place, they were still frightened. The Thunder King Bird hovered high in the sky, its body shivering lightly in fear.