Chapter 94: The Fugitive Pursuit

At the instant Crimson Lian sidestepped Gai Nie’s wave of sword-qi, Sikong Xu, hidden in the thicket, lunged out like a famished tiger, directly targeting her.

“What?”

No sooner had Sikong Xu leapt than Crimson Lian and White Phoenix were both stunned; they had never imagined anyone had been hiding behind them in the bushes.

White Phoenix instinctively tried to dodge backward, but just as his foot lifted, Gai Nie blocked him.

“Let her go!” Sikong Xu roared. The Interpretor in his hand flashed with a sudden streak of cold light, and a fierce slash of qi flew out.

“Child’s tricks!”

Crimson Lian was one of the Four Heavenly Kings of Flowing Sand; she was no fool. As soon as Sikong Xu moved, she noticed his inner strength was far weaker than hers. She flung the Serpent-Chain Soft Sword in return.

Clang.

Sikong Xu’s sword-qi was shattered at once, and the Serpent-Chain Soft Sword, robbed of its force, went limp.

Seeing his qi blocked, Sikong Xu calmly sent out another blast, closing in on Crimson Lian at once.

“Useless!” Again Crimson Lian poured qi into the Serpent-Chain Soft Sword, and it collided with his strike once more.

Then Sikong Xu released several more waves in succession, and all of them were effortlessly checked by her flexible blade.

From this, the gap between Sikong Xu and Gai Nie was clear enough. Had Gai Nie done it, Crimson Lian would hardly have dared to take even a normal incoming wave head-on, and would likely have fled in haste.

But the qi was only Sikong Xu’s method of reaching her; he had already achieved his purpose.

“Release High Moon!”

He screamed and spun his body at breakneck speed.

“Spiral Slash!”

At that instant he used the secret technique he had stolen from the Captain, Spiral Slash. Though he wielded it with one hand only, infused with power and qi it was, by far, far more terrifying than the Captain’s version.

“Behold the Hundred-Pace Flying Sword!”

Sikong Xu shouted, and with a face without color or tremor, he imposed the famed Hundred-Pace Flying Sword upon his Spiral Slash.

“What? The Hundred-Pace Flying Sword!”
Crimson Lian’s composure faltered.

Even though Sikong Xu was still a full level stronger than she was, hearing that name alone made her tense. In the world of The Legend of Qin, even that single name could freeze an opponent.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Sikong Xu spun like a top, and the qi bound to the Interpretor, with its violent centrifugal force, raised a dreadful wind that made Crimson Lian’s cheeks sting.

“Damn it— even if it is the Hundred-Pace Flying Sword, I don’t believe you’re that powerful, little whelp!”

She gritted her teeth, and the very next moment Spiral Slash struck straight against her Serpent-Chain Soft Sword.

Clang!

A violent metallic crash ripped the air. The force running through the chain-sword almost tore the sword from Crimson Lian’s hands.
Her jade-white palms turned crimson from the impact.

Sikong Xu suffered no less. Spiral Slash demanded crushing waist and core power; it already consumed his body, and colliding straight against Crimson Lian nearly snapped his own narrow waist from the rebound.

After all, for all his qi training, Sikong Xu was still an ordinary human body.

“Damn my backside—my waist’s going to break!”

He had only just steadied himself when a savage pain surged through his waist and abdomen, so great he could scarcely notice his numb arms.

Fortunately, his will was iron. He forced down the agony and rushed toward High Moon.

“Run!”

Because Crimson Lian had met Spiral Slash head-on, she was too late to stop him now from taking High Moon away.

Grasping High Moon’s small hand, he saw her lifeless eyes and knew the fire-siren technique still clung to her. He lifted her soft form into his arms and dashed toward Gai Nie.

“Uncle Gai, cover me!”

“White Phoenix—stop him!”

Sikong Xu and Crimson Lian shouted together.

“Hmph. He won’t escape.”

In speed White Phoenix was clearly far ahead of Gai Nie. After accepting Gai Nie’s chopping strike without sparing thought for the cost, he came forward on the rebound and shot straight at Sikong Xu.

As soon as White Phoenix detached from Gai Nie, Sikong Xu felt wrong. White Phoenix’s form blurred into a streak, and in a heartbeat he was only a few steps away.

“You dare go for me when I’m this handsome? You and I are both good-looking men—what’s this about?”

Seeing White Phoenix close in, Sikong Xu ran like a madman toward Gai Nie, flooding his feet with qi to move faster.

Ahead, Gai Nie too saw his mistake and chased after him.

“Cursed be this—faster, faster!”

He had never learned any formal light-body art. His speed came from his physicality and the Lightness Boots, which only added thirty percent.
To an ordinary martial novice that was fast; to White Phoenix, champion of footwork in the world, Sikong Xu moved like a turtle.

“Stay here.”

White Phoenix flicked his right hand, and two bird-feather talismans shot out from nowhere, straight at Sikong Xu’s back.

“Ugh… ah.”

Both hit true. Sikong Xu had no time to dodge. Only because he raised one of his few qi protections on his back did those two talismans fail to shoot through him.

“Hm?”

White Phoenix was startled. By his own measure, those talismans should have killed him, yet Sikong Xu had somehow withstood both by sheer stubbornness.

It was obvious that fighting Gai Nie had drained him heavily.

“You won’t get away!”

With the talismans spent, White Phoenix moved personally. He lightened his step and vanished, then appeared behind Sikong Xu in the next instant and brought down a palm!

“Damn—this footwork is glitched!”

Sikong Xu had never imagined the gap was so huge; he was sprinting at full force and yet caught in the blink of an eye.

Once I top up enough, I’m paying you back!”

Then, in a sudden decision, Sikong Xu hugged High Moon with one arm and, turning, sent out a palm at White Phoenix too.

Thunk.

Their qi currents collided and mingled. For an instant, White Phoenix’s force flung Sikong Xu backward, and at the moment the palms met, Sikong Xu felt distinctly as if his right hand had been shattered to fragments.

“Ugh… ah…”
The pain shot through every nerve at once, and cold sweat broke out over him. For the moment he only hoped the False Giant Recovery charm would also work on a crushing fracture.

At least, White Phoenix’s strike sent him reeling backward, and they gained distance.

“Don’t think to run!”

White Phoenix’s face darkened. This boy always managed impossible surprises; no wonder both the Peerless Phantom and the Gray Wolf King had fallen to his hands.

By White Phoenix’s estimate, he should have appeared behind the boy and struck before he could respond, but this time Sikong Xu had reacted with astonishing speed, acting in a single instant.

“Hm. Let’s see how long you can run!”

White Phoenix looked back at Gai Nie, still some distance away, then took one light step; an afterimage flashed, and he came close again.

“I… damn it!”

Grimly enduring the pain, Sikong Xu activated the Boots of Lightness’s added mode, “Swift.”

His speed erupted instantly, leaping two full grades, and even left a faint afterimage where he stood.

“What? How can this boy be so fast?”

White Phoenix, startled, had the breathless realization that this speed could rival true light-body experts.

“Your dying struggle, then.”

He hesitated only briefly, then surged again toward Sikong Xu.

But at that moment a chilling, heart-stopping dread suddenly surged through White Phoenix, cooling his whole body, as if Death itself had arrived.

A streak of freezing light flashed toward him with terrifying speed.