“You’re right. Time is indeed not on my side…”
Even as he realized that Kong shi was prepared to kill him, Zhang Xuan did not display the slightest hint of fear.
“If I were to foolishly wait here for you to make a move against me, there’s no way I would have enough time. However, I could always choose to hide, just like you. It won’t be too late for me to exact vengeance when I make my breakthrough eventually.”
“Hide?” A cold glint flashed across Kong shi’s eyes. “Do you think that I will allow you to escape in my presence?”
With a wave of his hand, Kong shi began to seal the space around Zhang Xuan.
Hu!
But at that very instant, Zhang Xuan suddenly vanished from the spot. At the same time, Wu Chen took out an Ethereal Token and placed a storage ring on it. With a resounding buzz, the storage ring disappeared from sight.
“A storage ring and an Ethereal Token? I see…” Kong shi was initially stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter. “It would indeed be possible to achieve spatial teleportation using such a method. However, you have neglected one important fact. I am the head of the Ethereal Hall, and I hold the authority to track down the movement of any item in the Ethereal Hall!”
He had been wondering what kind of ingenious plan Zhang Xuan had in mind to flee from him. Yet, it turned out to be such a meaningless and futile maneuver!
The only reason cultivators were able to remain anonymous in the Ethereal Hall was because the Ethereal Hall allowed them to! Was the young man really so naive as to think that he, the head of the Ethereal Hall, would not be able to track down someone moving through it?
He had thought that it would be a great deal of trouble to obtain the Library of Heaven’s Path after Zhang Xuan reached the level of the gods, but it seemed like he had overestimated the latter’s intelligence.
It was just a change of battlefield.
“Humph! Did you think that I would allow you to escape?”
Paying no heed to the war happening all around him, Kong shi flicked his wrist and took out an Ethereal Token.
His Ethereal Token was very different from what was distributed to the others. It was golden in color. Most likely, it was the token reserved specially for the hall master’s use.
Holding tightly onto the token, a glint flashed across Kong shi’s eyes. “Of all places, you have chosen to head to the Ethereal Hall headquarters? Very well… It seems like you are courting death!”
After uncovering the location where Zhang Xuan had teleported, Kong shi was dazed for a moment before a cold sneer formed on his lips.
Hu!
He took out a mirror and reflected the Ethereal Token against the mirror. A moment later, a majestic palace appeared in the reflection of the mirror.
The palace was the Ethereal Hall headquarters located on the Azure Bridge.
With his Evanescent Boots, he stepped into the mirror.
A moment later, he was already standing right in front of the Ethereal Hall headquarters.
“As the adage goes, the most dangerous place is often the safest place. It wasn’t a bad decision for you to choose to escape here, but it’s unfortunate that you neglected one important detail. It’s possible to track the location of others through the Ethereal Hall. This works in my favor as well. The interference of the heavens is limited here, so it’ll be much more convenient for me to extract the Heavens’ Imperfections from your body here…” Kong shi chuckled softly as he released his Spiritual Perception into the surroundings.
Through his earlier checks, he had found that Zhang Xuan had hidden in a folded space and placed the folded space in a storage ring. After that, the adolescent youth conducting the ritual had swiftly sold the storage ring through the Ethereal Hall, and it had been bought right after.
The buyer had then made use of the Teleportation Formation embedded within the Ethereal Token to bring the storage ring over here.
The chances were that Zhang Xuan was hidden in the Ethereal Hall headquarters.
It was not a bad move at all. He never would have thought that Zhang Xuan would be so bold as to choose to hide in his home ground if not for the records of his movement.
“He isn’t here?”
Kong shi swiftly scanned the entire palace with his Spiritual Perception, but other than a Semi-Divinity realm Serpentine Dragon trembling fearfully in one corner, he could not find any trace of Zhang Xuan.
The Serpentine Dragon was likely the buyer that had purchased the storage ring that Zhang Xuan was hiding in. He would deal with that Serpentine Dragon in due course, but his priority was to capture Zhang Xuan before he was able to do anything.
So, he scanned the palace once more with his Spiritual Perception, but the results were still the same. Frustrated, he raised his head, only to see a figure climbing up the pillars of the Ethereal Hall headquarters using just his physical strength.
“There you are!” Kong shi’s eyes lit up.
At that moment, that figure was very close to the boundary between the Ethereal Hall and the Hall of Gods.
“Where do you think you are escaping to?” Kong shi sneered as he soared up alongside the pillar.
Semi-Divinity realm cultivators had to scale the pillar by climbing it with their hands and feet, but those who had reached the level of the gods were spared this hassle. They were able to fly right up the pillar.
“Stop right there!” Kong shi bellowed as he launched a palm strike to knock Zhang Xuan down.
Zhang Xuan dared not stop. He swiftly climbed up the pillar with the dexterity of a monkey. Just as the palm strike was about to strike him, his body suddenly flickered before vanishing.
He had finally passed through the boundary between the Ethereal Hall headquarters and the Hall of Gods.
“I see… You are thinking of biding your time in the Hall of Gods because you think that I’m unable to get in there. Hahaha! You really do impress me time and time again with your sharp wits, but it won’t work!”
With a cold harrumph, Kong shi passed through the boundary as well.
The next instant, his entire surroundings suddenly flipped upside down. He should have been heading upward, but all of a sudden, he found himself heading downward instead.
His center of gravity had been flipped.
He had been there many times before, so he was not thrown off guard. He quickly drove his zhenqi and steadied himself before swiftly assessing his surroundings.
Glancing downward, perhaps because the other party knew that he could not get away anymore and had resigned himself to his fate, he saw Zhang Xuan holding tightly onto the pillar, not escaping anymore.
“I didn’t expect you to come chasing after me so quickly,” Zhang Xuan remarked nonchalantly.
“There are many more things that are beyond your expectations. Since you have realized that it’s impossible for you to escape anymore, why don’t you just obediently hand the Heavens’ Imperfections over?” Kong shi smirked as he charged forward to strike Zhang Xuan.
Before his palm strike even landed, the surrounding space froze, sealing off all possible routes of escape.
Just as he was about to be killed, Zhang Xuan suddenly raised his palm and said, “There’s something that I would like to say…”
However, Kong shi’s palm continued surging forward, only stopping when it was less than half a meter away from Zhang Xuan. He looked at the young man with eyes filled with ridicule.
“Speak. I’ll listen to your final words.”
“That would be much appreciated.” Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief.
Then, he started counting down.
“Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four…”
“Huh?” Kong shi was taken aback.
Did this fellow lose his mind from fear?
He had been wondering what kind of last words Zhang Xuan was going to utter when he started to do a countdown instead… Was he mentally ill or something?
“What are you doing?” Kong shi bellowed furiously.
“I’m not doing anything much. I’m just counting down. There’s no need to get so agitated,” Zhang Xuan replied with a smile before continuing on with his countdown. “Three, two, one!”
When he finally counted down to the very last number, a smile as brilliant as the sun blossomed on his face. He stretched his back with a refreshed look on his face.
“Is that it? Since you are done with your last words, I hope that you are prepared to move on!”
Boom!
Right after those words were spoken, a resounding explosion filled the air.
As if there was a massive dragon circling his body, rumbling thunder roared from Zhang Xuan’s body. A powerful aura surged into the void.
At this point, the young man suddenly released his grip on the stone pillar. Yet, instead of falling endlessly into space, he was floating quietly in midair.
Flight!
“Y-you… You have managed to achieve a breakthrough?” Kong shi could hardly believe his eyes.
He had started cultivating right after he acquired the Aura of Divinity, but even so, it had taken him nearly an entire month before he was able to overcome the final hurdle.
Even though the young man before him possessed a fragment of the heavens and was able to cultivate at an unprecedented rate, just like that b*stard, it should not have been possible to achieve a breakthrough without at least an entire day of cultivation!
It was precisely for this reason that he had not been too worried about the situation.
As long as he could capture Zhang Xuan within a single day, the latter would not be able to pose a threat to him.
Yet… how did the other party suddenly reach the level of the gods?
All in all, it had only been five minutes since the other party consumed the Aura of Divinity and ran all the way there!
Was it really possible for a person to make a breakthrough within just five minutes?
Not even that b*stard would be able to pull off something as ridiculous as this off!
“I don’t believe it! There’s no way this is true!” Kong shi roared furiously as he charged forth and launched a palm strike.
“It’s already too late…” Zhang Xuan looked at Kong shi with killing intent flaring in his eyes.
He was calm and rational, but the rage from witnessing the death of Little Chick had not been quelled yet.
He flicked his finger lightly.
Peng!
Kong shi had channeled his full strength into the palm strike, but as if a bolt of lightning, Zhang Xuan’s finger flick still sent him flying back.
Kong shi staggered for over several hundred meters before he was finally to regain his balance. Taking in large mouthfuls of air, he looked at the young man before him with a look of disbelief on his pale face.
That single finger flick had not just dispelled his attack; it had nearly crushed his cultivation!
Granted, he had already sustained significant injuries in the earlier battle, but the might of Zhang Xuan’s attack had still surpassed his imagination. If the other party was able to sustain his might, he was not sure if he would really be able to achieve victory.
“Did he really manage to achieve a breakthrough?” Kong shi clenched his fists tightly.
Even up to this point, he was still unable to believe that he had been foiled by such a ridiculous turn of events.
Gritting his teeth, he coldly spat, “So what if you have reached the level of the gods, too? I don’t believe that you’ll be able to master your powers so quickly!”
The powers of a god were vastly different from that of a Semi-Divinity. Familiarizing oneself with it would take a significant period of time.
It was impossible to exert the full strength of a god right after achieving a breakthrough!
Even though he had gone into seclusion for a month, the truth was that he had already reached the level of gods within twenty days. He had spent the last ten days reinforcing his cultivation and familiarizing himself with the powers of the gods before reappearing.
Even if Zhang Xuan had used some kind of secret art to accelerate the rate of his breakthrough, there was no way he would be able to familiarize himself with the powers of the gods so quickly!
With such a thought in mind, Kong shi released a punch toward Zhang Xuan with a ferocious roar.
In that instant, everything seemed to dim before Kong shi. It was as if the world was displaying its subservience to a superior being.
A god exerting his full strength was not something to be made light of.
In response, Zhang Xuan raised a single finger up.
Hu!
The incredible momentum of Kong shi’s punch was halted by a single finger. It was almost as if there was a metal barrier that stood in its place, preventing it from advancing any further.
“Crumble.” Zhang Xuan flicked his finger once more.
Pu! Pu!
Kong shi was sent tumbling back dozens of li. The bones in his arm were fractured, and fresh blood spurted from his mouth. The sheer impact of this single move had nearly claimed his life.
“How is this possible?” Kong shi murmured fearfully as he struggled to regain his balance.
In this clash, he realized that the other party had not just reached the level of the gods in terms of cultivation. The other party had also managed to familiarize himself with its powers, such that he was able to use it even more smoothly than him!
And all of this was done within a few short minutes!
This was impossible! Utterly impossible!
With confusion reflected in his eyes, Kong shi fell into a daze.
