Chapter 15: Pursuit in the Mountains

  In just two moments, a large bird-like figure appeared in the distant mountains, swooping down on the rocks like flying, and swept past all the guards to land beside the dead Gong Sunli.

  "Leave me..."

  His face was deathly pale, and he quickly knelt beside Gong Sunli's corpse, holding the young master's head in his arms, gently stroking the wound on Gong Sunli's chest with his hand, almost spitting out a mouthful of blood in his rage.

  It was the seventh elder of the Gong Sun family, Gong Sun Hong. He had only one son, and he doted on him extremely. Although his son's qualifications for cultivation were somewhat poor, relying on the power of being a seventh elder of the Gong Sun family, he could use various spiritual objects to force his son to grow rapidly.

  On this son, Gong Sun Hong had invested too much of his heart's blood. Alas, a lifetime of hard work was all for naught in an instant, and Gong Sun Hong was almost driven mad with grief.

  He suddenly turned his head, Gong Sun's forehead bulged with blue veins, and he roared downwards: "Who is the murderer? I want to flay him alive."

  A bald-headed captain-like man quickly walked up and said cautiously:

  "Seven elders, three corpses were found nearby, which was the group of hunters who attacked Young Master last time..."

  Gongsun Hong bellowed: "Just fart, can that group of people move Young Master's hair? Iron Sixteen, gather all the men and divide them into eight small teams to search along the mountain. Dig three feet underground if you have to, but find me that murderer!"

  Bald-headed Captain nodded vigorously: "Yes, Seventh Elder."

  Gongsun Hong stopped him again: "Slow down, Tie Liu. Remember, if we can't find him in the mountains, there are four towns within a hundred miles nearby. I want you to thoroughly investigate all cultivators with pure yang energy at the sixth level or above, no, fifth level and above, in these towns. Anyone who can't account for their whereabouts during this time is a suspect, and I want them all brought before me in the name of the Gongsun family."

  Gongsun Hong's only son died a miserable death, and in his rage he had become even more ruthless.

  He was too clear about the strength of his son and Xuan's killing slaves. These two together, if they didn't have a strength above the fifth layer of Jingyuan, how could they kill the two so cleanly?

  The bald captain promised to organize people to disperse into the mountains, Gong Sunhong gritted his teeth and personally led a team of people, slightly identifying the direction, choosing a direction with the most dangerous mountain rocks to search for, which was exactly due east.

  Killing Gong Sunli, Li Ran's knife knew that he had provoked a huge trouble. The Gong Sun family was powerful and had hundreds of cultivators in the Jingyuan layer. There were nine strong practitioners in the Shendong period, and the head of the Gong Sun family, Gong Sunyi, had even passed the Small Heavenly Tribulation and entered the Dan Xiang period as a high-ranking immortal.

  Li Ran's current strength is nothing, and others can easily crush him with just one hand.

  Gongsun Li was not the heir of the Gongsun clan, but just a young master from a side branch. He couldn't mobilize the entire clan's strength. However, Gongsun Li's father, Gongsun Hong, was a powerful expert in the Divine Movement period, an upper-level cultivator who could release his divine sense to control spirit artifacts. If he wanted to kill Li Fuchen, it would be just a matter of waving his hand.

  Li Ran's eyes gleamed with a cold smile in his heart: "Danger? That's assuming you can find out that I'm the murderer."

  Li Ran's Triple Blade Essence was already quite robust, and he circulated the Wild Goose Feather Heart Method within his body. Gritting his teeth, he sprinted towards the ancient town of Guzhuang eighty miles away at top speed.

  "Faster, I need to go even faster, the farther away from Mystic Stone Valley the better, the farther away I leave, the safer I'll be."

  Li Ran's sword tip lightly touched the mountain stone, and his entire body slid out like a flying bird for over ten zhang, then again on the mountain stone, a flowing light flashed out, his movements were light and agile, and the vital energy inside his body was endless.

  Yanling Gong is the ultimate body technique of Gu Ding Mountain, privately passed down by Su Su to Li Ruo Dao. In his past life, this technique was also Li Ruo Dao's strongest escape method.

  At the level of Jingyuan Jin's triple layer, a sweep was over ten zhang, which was an extremely terrifying speed. However, Li Ran's knife didn't dare to relax at all. If Gong Sun Hong really wanted to chase after him, with his Shen Dong period cultivation, it would be easy for him to catch up.

  Li Ruo's reliance was on the time difference between Gong Sun Hong catching up and now.

  Eighty miles of road, Li Ran had been running for nearly half an hour, his face was pale with exhaustion. He gazed at the ancient town of Guzhuang in the distance, took a deep breath and thought to himself: as long as he could blend into the crowd, he would be like a fish in the sea, and no one would ever know that he was the murderer.

  Li Ran Dao stopped slowly in front of a mountain stone, exerting himself to calm the breath inside his body. He didn't want to enter the town panting and attract other people's curiosity.

  But Li Ruo didn't know that, in a mountain road twenty miles away from here, Gong Sun Hong was panting and leading more than thirty people to rush to Guzhuang Town at high speed.

  Along the mountain road, no one was seen, and Gong Sun became more and more angry, his teeth clenched tightly. Later on, he didn't even care about the people behind him, running faster and faster alone, searching along the way to rush to Guzhuang Town, getting closer and closer to where Li Ran's knife was.

  If the murderer escapes in this direction, Gong Sun Hong will never let him go.

  Li Ruo Knife leaned against the mountain wall, panting rapidly, and felt a little relieved. He was very interested in the short crossbow he had just obtained, and involuntarily took it out from his bosom, holding it in his hand. The heavy feeling made Li Ruo Knife's heart vibrate. He opened the long, bar-shaped beast skin bag, and saw that there were still three sharp arrows inside, with fine spiral steel craftsmanship. Each arrowhead was shining with dazzling cold light.

  He casually pulled out an arrow and placed it on the short crossbow, Li Ran's arm was strong as he pulled open the short crossbow, the energy in his body surged rapidly into the crossbow, like a dam breaking, the energy flowed rapidly.

  Li Ran's knife was startled, his right hand relaxed, and with a swish, a gleam of light flashed by, the sharp arrow shot straight into the mountain stone and disappeared without a trace, leaving only a small hole on the outside that seemed bottomless.

  This blow made Li Ruo's knife both shocked and delighted.

  The semi-spiritual artifact lives up to its reputation, it's indeed a killer of the refined spirit level. If Gong Sunli hadn't been too weak in actual combat and failed to bring out the power of the short crossbow, Li Ran's current strength might not have been able to leave his hand.

  Li Ran Knife secretly congratulated himself, quickly put the short crossbow into his arms, looked at the deep hole left by the sharp arrow on the mountain stone, and suddenly frowned, scolding himself for being too proud and reckless.

  There were only two arrows left in the beast skin bag. This one was shot too deep, and Li Ran's knife didn't have time to dig out the mountain stone.

  And it's not just a waste of a single arrow, this hole is likely to expose the short crossbow, this semi-spiritual instrument.

  "Never mind, in such a big mountain, who would notice such an inconspicuous hole and think of many things?"

  Li Ranbiao took advantage of the chaos to escape, gathering everything on his body and rushing towards the distant ancient town of Guzhuang, disappearing into the crowd.

  Li Ruo's knife had just left for a moment when a figure flashed by, rushing towards Gushu Town without stopping.

  In mid-air, Gong Sun Hong suddenly let out a loud "hmm" and sensed an unusual feeling in his divine consciousness. He abruptly stopped in his tracks, turned around on the mountain rocks, and strode to a nearby boulder, where the cave entrance came into view, shocking him.

  The divine sense spread like water into the cave, and he could feel a faint energy fluctuation of that half-spiritual bow. Gong Sun Hong's face changed drastically, his palm lifted up, a layer of pale blue color condensed, as if slow but urgent, a slap on the mountain stone, a loud explosion, the mountain stone burst open, and the precision screw steel forged sharp arrow fell to the ground with a clang.

  "This is indeed the arrow used by Lü Bu!"

  Gongsun Hong's whole body was trembling and his eyes were red.