Chapter 802: Relentless Pursuit

The leaning tree did not fall. Its upper half caught in the branches of the surrounding trees.

How could Yan Baoru allow Niu Youdao to escape? She swept away the exploding splinters with a sleeve and shot after him.

Sword back in hand, Niu Youdao twisted through the air. His blade whirled, spinning out streak after streak of sword qi that slashed furiously toward Yan Baoru.

Yan Baoru's great sleeves streamed like clouds yet struck like iron. As they flew, they smashed the incoming sword qi apart with booming impacts, while she twisted aside from the arcs that swept past her body.

Trees struck by the sword qi cracked and toppled.

The two figures shot back and forth through the forest, repeatedly borrowing force from tree trunks in midair, coming and going like shadows. One pursued with killing intent; the other flew backward, slashing again and again to hinder her advance.

In the midst of the chase, Yan Baoru suddenly kicked off a tree trunk and flashed sideways. The trunk she had just used for leverage was shredded by the sword qi.

Crash!

The globe of purple crystal balanced in one hand broke apart and spilled across the ground.

Yan Baoru landed off to one side and swayed. One hand braced against a nearby tree while the other pressed to her chest. She no longer had the attention to spare for the Spirit Seeds.

Niu Youdao, who had been fleeing her pursuit, stopped as well. He flashed out from behind a tree ahead, blood still at the corner of his mouth, face expressionless, sword angled in one hand. Seeing Yan Baoru's condition, a cold, detached smile surfaced on his face.

He did not flee again, nor was he in any hurry to attack. He simply waited, intending to wear her down until she collapsed.

They stood a dozen-odd zhang apart. Supporting herself against the tree and clutching her chest, Yan Baoru slowly raised her head and said sharply, "You're not at the Foundation Establishment Realm!"

She had realized something was wrong the moment they exchanged blows. At first, the sword qi Niu Youdao released had not been very powerful, no more than what one would expect from a Foundation Establishment cultivator. But just now its power had suddenly surged. That was absolutely not force a Foundation Establishment cultivator could produce. It was genuine strength, impossible to fake.

Niu Youdao replied flatly, "So what?"

Yan Baoru said, "You took a palm strike from me and you're fine? You weren't injured?"

"Does that matter? If I told you I injured myself, and that the wound wasn't very serious, would you believe me?"

Yan Baoru could scarcely believe it. Her cultivation stood near the very top of the Golden Core Realm. Even if her opponent were also a Golden Core cultivator, no one could take one of her palm strikes cleanly and simply walk away unharmed.

Surely he could not be at the Nascent Soul Realm?

Impossible. If he were a Nascent Soul cultivator, why would he have gone to all this trouble with her?

Understanding finally dawned. Yan Baoru ground out through clenched teeth, "Niu Youdao, you treacherous little bastard. You've hidden yourself deeply indeed!"

She was furious enough to grind her teeth to powder. She had been tricked. The man had gone so far as to injure himself merely to land one palm strike on her, and she had already begun to taste what that strike had done.

Niu Youdao said, "Whether I conceal myself is my own affair. It has nothing to do with you. I have no grievance or grudge with you, yet you insist on making trouble for me. Blaming me for the consequences seems rather unreasonable."

He had patience to spare. He could slowly drag this out with her. Sooner or later, she would be the one who could no longer endure.

Seeing that he had no intention of moving, Yan Baoru understood what he was doing. She knew her own physical condition better than anyone. Suddenly she shot forward, pouring everything she had into her cultivation in an attempt to kill Niu Youdao outright.

The force of her attack rose explosively. Niu Youdao was inwardly startled, and his body made a rapid, subtle sway.

Everything around him sank into a dim, undifferentiated haze. Forget everything around him. Disregard even the self. Hold fast only to a single intent.

Beyond the heart, all is primal chaos; within my heart, a lotus, rising from the mud unstained. This is the Primal Chaos Green Lotus Intent of the Taiyi Sword Art.

That single intent was sword intent, also called Green Lotus Sword Intent.

The sword intent, rising from the mud unstained, emerged with the force to cleave open this world of primal chaos.

Niu Youdao flicked his wrist. In that instant, the Taiyi Light-Splitting Sword was unleashed. His entire cultivation bloomed like a lotus at the most beautiful instant of its flowering, all his spiritual power driving a brilliant blaze of sword light.

Currents surged through the forest. Streak after streak of sword light seemed ready to tear through the void, as though hundreds upon thousands of streams of radiance had burst forth, dazzling to the eye.

The sword light came so fast, so violently, that Yan Baoru's expression changed in alarm. The assault of densely packed sword intent was too rapid for her sweeping sleeves to completely neutralize.

At that desperate moment, Yan Baoru was still airborne. Her sleeves spread like the wings of a great Peng as she thrust both arms outward, exhausting the full force of her cultivation and casting with both hands at once.

The air congealed.

The brilliant streaks of sword light seemed to freeze in the void as well. They continued forward at an excruciatingly slow pace until at last they could move no farther.

Niu Youdao likewise felt an immense pressure. Even the agile wrist guiding his sword became sluggish. His whole body seemed sealed inside amber-like resin.

"Ha!"

Faced with the bind, Niu Youdao suddenly shouted. He abandoned any attempt to contest her spiritual power head-on and circulated the Qiankun Art. Dragging his sword in one hand, he relied instead on his physical body and broke into a sudden sprint, feet pounding forward as he charged straight at Yan Baoru.

How was this possible?

Yan Baoru was shocked. Her technique could borrow the might of Heaven and Earth to exert crushing pressure, yet it seemed to have almost no effect on Niu Youdao.

She could feel it clearly. Within this space controlled by her spiritual power, Niu Youdao's body moved freely and at ease.

If the space under her control was a deep sea of overwhelming pressure, then Niu Youdao was a fish within that sea. His figure flashed again and again, weaving around the sword lights suspended motionless in the void.

Yan Baoru refused to believe it. She drove the pressure higher with everything she had, determined to restrain him.

"Qiankun shields the body; the Great River rolls east—break!"

Niu Youdao roared the words and drew a deep breath of power. He leapt into the air. The sword trailing in his hand came alive, and a magnificent flash swept out, fleeting as the glimpse of a startled swan.

Yan Baoru, suspended in the air, felt her soul jolt. She twisted aside with all speed and narrowly evaded the lethal strike.

The first sword missed.

In the same instant, Niu Youdao gripped the hilt with both hands, twisted at the waist in midair, and carved out a second slash.

Blood sprayed.

The sword edge tore open the clothes across Yan Baoru's back and split flesh in an instant. It missed cleaving diagonally through her spine by the barest margin.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The sword lights frozen in the void were suddenly released. Without the control that had driven them forward, they exploded one after another in a dense chain.

Earth and stone burst into the air.

From the spreading cloud of dust and debris, Yan Baoru flashed out, nearly frightened out of her wits. She landed and tried to turn back to fight, but her body shuddered involuntarily and both hands clutched her chest.

Only she knew what was happening inside her body now.

The hatred of it burned.

Without another word, she fled at full speed into the depths of the forest, no longer caring about the bloody sword wound across her back.

Niu Youdao flashed out of the exploding dust immediately after her. His cold gaze swept ahead and caught sight of the pile of glittering purple Spirit Seeds on the ground.

Spirit Seeds or no Spirit Seeds, he ignored them. Dragging his sword, he tore through the forest after Yan Baoru at full speed.

Even as the distance between them continued to widen, Niu Youdao refused to give up the pursuit.

He had no choice.

Yan Baoru knew the secret here. She knew that he had joined forces with the people from overseas. That threatened his plan, which meant it threatened his chance to stay alive. How could he possibly let her go?

Why had he ignored earlier chances to escape and deliberately made a sound instead?

Why had he intentionally injured himself, then pretended that her strike had wounded him?

Because regardless of whether he concealed his true strength, there was still a substantial gap between his cultivation and Yan Baoru's. Once she escaped, he simply would not be able to catch her.

Yan Baoru knew too much. He absolutely could not allow her to get away.

He had to silence her.

As Yan Baoru fled, she kept glancing back. Niu Youdao was still pursuing her relentlessly. He would not stop until she was dead.

She ignored the wound on her back and the increasingly severe changes inside her body, devoting everything to escape.

The grief and fury in her heart were impossible to describe. Joke or not, she was still the cultivator ranked second on the Golden Core Ranking. Yet this time she had capsized in a gutter and run straight into a man pretending to be a pig so he could eat the tiger.

Wasn't he supposed to be at the Foundation Establishment Realm?

How could no one in the entire cultivation world know that bastard's true cultivation? Had the identity verification and inspection before entering Tiangu somehow failed to uncover his cultivation too?

With this kind of ability, he had actually hidden in that forgotten corner for so long. He had even pretended to be injured after being struck.

Yan Baoru knew there were people in the world who concealed themselves deeply. But for someone who had spent so long entangled in the grudges and conflicts of the cultivation world to hide this thoroughly—this was the first time she had ever seen it.

Then again, if he had not hidden it so thoroughly, if she had harbored even the slightest suspicion, she never would have fallen into a trap like this.

The more Yan Baoru thought about how badly she had been fooled through her own carelessness, the more stifled and humiliated she felt. She was so furious she could have vomited blood. She regretted it so bitterly her guts seemed to turn green.

She knew that in her present condition, the best thing she could do was find somewhere to treat her wounds immediately and use her spiritual power to resolve the abnormal changes inside her body.

But she did not dare keep tangling with Niu Youdao. She knew exactly what fate awaited her if she fell into his hands. She could only grit her teeth and force herself onward.

Flashing through the forest as she fled, she found it harder and harder to endure. Suddenly she shot upward through the canopy and began skimming over the treetops at high speed.

Niu Youdao burst out after her, sword dragging in one hand, still pursuing without mercy.

At first, the distance between them grew wider and wider.

Gradually, Yan Baoru's speed through the air began to slow.

The gap started shrinking.

As she flew, her body trembled from time to time. One side of her face was flushed red, the other pale white.

Whenever she glanced back and saw the figure drawing closer, despair welled up inside her.

One fled. One pursued.

They left the mountain forest behind and rushed one after the other into a broad stretch of open country.

The two skimmed over the grass, the forest receding farther and farther behind them.

Suddenly Yan Baoru's footing failed. The foot she meant to touch lightly against the waves of grass for leverage came down solidly. She stumbled and tumbled into the grass.

Swish!

A streak of sword qi hissed forward, cleaving a channel through the grass like a blade parting waves. Yan Baoru threw herself aside and avoided it.

When she staggered back to her feet, frost had actually formed over half her hair.

She looked up.

Niu Youdao stood before her, sword held at an angle.

Yan Baoru, battered and disheveled, stopped running. She could not run anymore. Her face was filled with grief and fury.

Blood still stained the corner of Niu Youdao's mouth. His expression remained cold. "Run. Why aren't you running? If you can't run anymore, then say it. Who sent you to kill me? Tell me the truth, and I'll spare your life."

Clutching her chest and gasping, Yan Baoru said, "If you're going to kill me, then kill me. Spare me the nonsense!"

Niu Youdao flashed forward and swung his arm.

Smack!

The slap spun Yan Baoru completely around and knocked her to the ground, blood spraying from both her mouth and nose.

Afterward, she slowly pushed herself back up at Niu Youdao's feet, carrying something of the air of one who would rather die than submit. Blood choked her voice as she said indistinctly, "Treacherous little bastard. If you hadn't used such shameless, despicable methods, how could you possibly be my match?"

Niu Youdao looked down at her with cold indifference. He showed not the slightest inclination to go easy on her because she was a beauty.

He raised one leg and kicked.

Bang!

The blow struck Yan Baoru squarely in the abdomen and sent her flying two zhang before she crashed to the ground. Another mouthful of blood burst from her lips, accompanied by the sharp crack of breaking ribs.

[End of Chapter 802]