Xu Qing had never laid eyes on Master Stillwinter. But based on Grand Prince’s information, he knew some about him.

He’s ranked second in the Firemoon Darkheavens’ echelon!

Xu Qing’s expression was grim. Fan Shishuang was ranked third, but Xu Qing had sensed that, even going all-out, it wasn’t guaranteed that he would win. And even if he did win, it would have been extremely draining, and would have required a significant recovery time. That wouldn’t have been ideal with the second round pending. He had the recovery powers of the violet crystal, but damage to godsource and soul threads would require time to recover from.

Xu Qing remembered that Master Stillwinter had fought Fan Shishuang three times and came out on top easily each time. What was more, the jade slip indicated that in their most recent fight, Sir Firedark interfered, otherwise, Fan Shishuang would have been killed.

Xu Qing knew full well he wasn’t a match for battle prowess like that. In the final analysis, his reserve powers weren’t sufficient.

Xu Qing didn’t care that Master Stillwinter had asked for information about his whereabouts. It was already said and done. As for why exactly Master Stillwinter wanted to find him, well, there was plenty of room for speculation.

Xu Qing stayed quiet as he maintained his invisibility and stayed on guard. He really didn’t want to run into enemies before finding a beast. For one thing, he didn’t want to get involved in a life-or-death fight, and also, he had other plans.

I’m currently about ten days away from my destination….

Xu Qing sped through the rainforest for another five days.

During that time, he stayed out of sight as much as possible. He avoided any Firemoon cultivators, either by keeping his distance or by hiding in place until they passed by.

On some occasions, he couldn’t control how things played out. Cultivators weren’t the only thing to worry about in the Mountain and Sea Region. There were plenty of terrifyingly strong beasts and grues. As long as Xu Qing had Little Shadow around, it wasn’t hard to either avoid or scare off the grues. As for the beasts… encounters with them came down to luck.

But Xu Qing couldn’t rely on good luck all the time. On the fifth day, he reached the spot where the lowlands of the Mountain and Sea Region rose into the highlands. That was also where the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands existed. In that location, Xu Qing encountered a flock of mountain sparrows.

Upon spotting them, Xu Qing unhesitatingly got out of their way and hid off to the side.

These ‘mountain sparrows’ were sparrows that carried mountains on their backs. They were enormous, and because they moved about with mountains on them, what cultivators normally saw first were the mountains floating through the air. It was similar to how the cultivators in the first round of the Great Hunt would carry around mountains.

The ferocious mountain sparrows lived in large flocks, and they hunted in groups, although they left their infants behind. Only the healthy and vigorous would go hunting, and they generally had Void Returning battle prowess, with the weakest being first-stage and the strongest being in the great circle.

When you added in the advantage of numbers… any second round participants who encountered them knew they were trouble. After all, the mountain sparrows weren’t picky eaters. In addition to other beasts, they would also eat cultivators.

Xu Qing had just encountered a flock of hunting mountain sparrows. Given their unusual innate abilities, they noticed Xu Qing right away. Circling around, they flew right toward him.

Xu Qing frowned as he looked at the group of well over a hundred mountain sparrows. After a moment of thought, he turned and fled as fast as he could.

Rumbling sounds filled heaven and earth as the mountain sparrows gave chase. Astonishing fluctuations rolled out in all directions, accompanied by piercing cries as they called out to others of their kind in the area.

Xu Qing’s eyes glittered coldly, then turned pitch black. The violet moon rose behind him, and the threatening aura it sent out caused the pursuing mountain sparrows to slow down. Xu Qing took advantage of the time bought to accelerate.

Unfortunately, the mountain sparrows and their fluctuations had attracted the attention of passing cultivators. Those cultivators looked over in shock, and then flew in the opposite direction. They didn’t dare to get too close. Among them were two Saias. Noting the commotion, they quickly took out jade slips.

They were obviously unique jade slips, as they were the color violet, and they pulsed with glittering light. After checking the jade slips, the two Saias’ expressions flickered, gritting their teeth, they backed away and prepared to send some voice messages.

But then a wind screamed, and a black mist rose up around them. Taboo poison erupted, and hoarse screams echoed out. When the mist faded away, the only thing left behind were puddles of black blood and a few bags of holding.

Xu Qing sped along across the rainforest floor. Scooping up the bags of holding and the two unique jade slips, he shot off into the distance without so much as looking over his shoulder. Yet his brow remained furrowed.

He had managed to kill the two Saia cultivators quickly enough that they didn’t have time to send any messages. But the two violet jade slips gave him a very bad feeling.

After examining them closely, he realized why. They’re made with the blood of violet moon believers, plus a special curse magic. And that allows them to sense me specifically….

He crushed the jade slips. As of now, he realized that it didn’t matter if people relayed information about his position to anyone. There were jade slips that could be used to track him down, and he refused to believe that they didn’t have an auto-transmit function built into them.

Maybe I’m overthinking things. And I’m only five days from my destination anyway.

Eyes narrowing, Xu Qing turned to look in the direction of the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. He wasn’t very far from its border.

From this distance, the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands seemed to be covered with gray fog that the sunlight couldn’t penetrate. It gave off a sensation of age and decay. Occasionally, anguished faces would appear in the fog and emit noiseless screams. There were other images that were too blurry to make out, and were impossible to remember. But it was possible to hear despairing and insane screams coming from the fog.

The sound of it could shake the soul and make one tremble in unease. Especially noteworthy was the fact that Xu Qing’s godsource felt suppressed, as though godly power was incongruous with this location. The fog seemed extremely mysterious and incomprehensible.

“Ninedawns Forbidden Lands…” he murmured.

Though not much about the place was visible, he could sense a stifling pressure. The wind from the place carried with it a sensation of rot as it reached him and stirred his hair. Just the breeze caused his hair to start curling sickeningly, as if the life force was being sucked out of it. All of this only caused Xu Qing to feel even more leery of this habitat of ninedawns.

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He had been to many forbidden regions in his life, as well as some forbidden grounds. But this place was different from any of them.

It seems like a graveyard.

After taking a final close look, he turned away and continued on his way to hillworm territory.

He also tried sending a message to his Eldest Brother. He had been making such attempts on a daily basis. Unfortunately, he was out of range, and thus, sending voice messages was as good as throwing a stone ox into the ocean. He got no responses.

Xu Qing shook his head, put away the transmission jade slip, and continued noiselessly through the rainforest.

The next day, on the border of the lowlands, rumbling booms echoed out, and the surrounding mist seethed. A Saia stumbled out into the open, then collapsed into a pool of blood.

The mist faded, and Xu Qing appeared. Some distance behind him were a few dozen Saia cultivators, all of them dead. Xu Qing looked back at the dissolving corpses and scowled. He had been ambushed.

The enemy had seemed very confident in knowing his location, and had seemed completely suicidal. They had used all sorts of methods in their attack, eventually resorting to insane uses of self-detonation. From that, he could only surmise that they hadn’t been trying to kill him, but rather, to buy time for someone else. What was more, every single one of them had one of those special violet jade slips.

I was right….

He looked in the direction of hillworm territory. He was now only four days away from it.

If these people were trying to buy time, it seems to indicate that Master Stillwinter is probably nearby. The next four days… probably won’t go very smoothly. If he can really track me, then even if I reach hillworm territory, I’ll have a potential calamity breathing down my neck. So that seems kind of pointless.

I need to figure out a way to deal with this Master Stillwinter. And also how to avoid being tracked. Otherwise, things are going to get very difficult.

Xu Qing knew that turning around a deadly situation often involved lots of careful planning.

After some thought, he looked away from hillworm territory and focused instead on the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands. It was one of the most dangerous zones in the Mountain and Sea Region, and it was only a day away. After some more thought, his eyes shone with determination.

I probably can’t match up to Master Stillwinter in battle prowess. But if you want to talk about survival skills….

Xu Qing took a moment to check the violet crystal, then calmed himself, turned, and shot toward the Ninedawns Forbidden Lands.

As it turned out, Xu Qing made the right call. About four hours later, a beam of light appeared. It reached the spot where Xu Qing had stopped earlier, then transformed into Master Stillwinter. As he hovered above the rainforest, he spotted the dead Saia cultivators. He closed his eyes and cast his senses out.

“He’s heading toward the ninedawns?” he murmured. “Very clever. However… it’s still unlikely you can escape me.”

Master Stillwinter turned, whereupon a sonic boom echoed out as he locked onto Xu Qing’s position and headed in that direction.

And thus, the chase began.

Six hours later, Xu Qing’s expression flickered and he looked over his shoulder. He saw the clouds on the horizon shifting and seething. Then a blood-colored light swept out with mountain-toppling, sea-draining force. It was like a blood sea, within which was a figure in black, looking coldly at Xu Qing.