Devouring Soul Emperor

After his pursuers had moved on, Chu Qingyun kept the Hidden Qi Technique active and quickly fled in the opposite direction.

With his current strength, he might be able to kill a single Great Xia Guard Captain. Against two, he could perhaps escape unscathed. But facing three or even four at once, he stood no chance of victory.

After all, his Realm was only that of a Fifth-level Martial Artist, a full four levels below them.

Chu Qingyun desperately wanted to go back and kick Zhang Yunqiu to death, but he knew that once Huang Ju and his men realized they’d been tricked, they would certainly return to find Zhang Yunqiu.

Therefore, to be safe, Chu Qingyun suppressed his murderous intent. He chose to avoid a direct confrontation for now, planning to find an opportunity later to deal with them and reclaim his Puppet.

As long as he could find enough cultivation resources to raise his Realm, Chu Qingyun was confident he could handle them!

About three minutes later, the Puppet’s Primordial Power fluctuations began to weaken. Its remaining energy was insufficient to maintain the speed of a ninth-level Martial Artist, and it gradually slowed.

Behind it, Huang Ju and his two companions were ecstatic. "Keep chasing! The Puppet is slowing down!"

"I’ve heard that keeping a Puppet active in a fight consumes a huge amount of Primordial Stones. That kid must have run out."

"Chu Qingyun, stop this pointless struggle! Surrender now, and we might leave your corpse intact!"

However, no response came from ahead.

Just as before, the Puppet continued straight ahead, brutally smashing through any trees or boulders in its path.

After another minute of pursuit, the Puppet had slowed considerably. Huang Ju put on a burst of speed, surged forward, and landed a kick on it.

THUD!

A muffled bang.

The Puppet was sent flying, crashing heavily to the ground. The impact smashed a dense, spiderweb-like pattern of cracks into the hard earth, centered on its body.

The immense rebound force shot up his leg, causing Huang Ju to let out a strange cry as he was thrown backward.

"Haha, I’ll be taking this, then!" The other Great Xia Guard Captain roared with laughter, leaping past Huang Ju and pouncing toward the fallen Puppet.

"Dream on!"

Not to be outdone, Wen Yanlie followed closely behind him.

However, when the two reached the Puppet’s side, their eyes widened in shock. There was only the motionless Puppet on the ground. Where was Chu Qingyun?

"Dammit! Not again!"

When Huang Ju caught up, his expression turned foul.

This was the second time. The second time Chu Qingyun had silently slipped right through his fingers!

"How could this be? It’s impossible! I was focused on sensing his aura the entire time. There’s no way he could have escaped halfway through!"

The Great Xia Guard Captain who had been the first to reach the Puppet said, his brow deeply furrowed in confusion.

Huang Ju was furious and full of regret. "I was careless! The kid pulled the same trick on me and Old Zhang when we first entered the valley. I was so focused on the Storage Ring just now that I completely forgot!"

Just then, Wen Yanlie spoke up. "Sirs, from what I know, Chu Qingyun must cultivate a special Magic Skill or Secret Technique that allows him to completely conceal his aura. When I encountered him before, I couldn’t sense it at all, even standing right in front of him."

Hearing this, the other two raised their eyebrows.

"A Secret Technique that amazing exists?" Huang Ju asked in surprise.

The other captain frowned, pondering for a moment before speaking. "They exist. I know for a fact that some Assassins cultivate similar Secret Techniques to increase their success rate. I witnessed it once on a mission. For him to have such a strange technique... what exactly is that kid’s background? We haven’t... gotten ourselves into real trouble, have we?"

As their greed faded slightly, a sense of unease began to creep into their minds.

After all, Chu Qingyun possessed too many Treasures and secrets. No matter how they looked at it, he didn’t seem like some nobody without a powerful backer.

Huang Ju’s expression turned vicious. "What’s done is done. We’re already his enemies. Who cares what his background is? We just have to make sure our work is clean. As long as we can get those Treasures, the risk is worth it!"

Wen Yanlie nodded. "There’s one more thing we must agree on. We absolutely cannot tell anyone else about this. Otherwise, if word gets to the Lord Guardian, not only will we lose out on the rewards, but we’ll also be in danger of being silenced permanently!"

The expressions of all three men turned grave as they immediately understood the gravity of the situation.

A Storage Ring was something only a supreme expert at the Martial King Level was qualified to possess. Even Liu Canghai, a Martial Spirit Level expert, was not worthy of owning one.

If word got out, Liu Canghai would very likely kill them all to keep the secret safe!

Huang Ju’s expression suddenly changed as a thought struck him. "Crap! That idiot Zhang Yunqiu is still back there. The guy is a fool with a big mouth—he’s the most likely one to let this slip!"

The three of them hid the Puppet and rushed back. No matter what, they could not let this news spread; it would be disastrous for everyone involved.

After escaping from Huang Ju and his three companions, Chu Qingyun once again found himself lost in the valley, needing to take some time to find his bearings.

Moreover, he seemed to have wandered into a peculiar area. The mist here was far denser than any he had encountered before.

Previously, even in the fog, he could still make out the blurry shape of a person from ten or twenty meters away.

But in this region, forget ten or twenty meters—he couldn’t even see his own fingertips when he held his arm outstretched!

Keep in mind, Chu Qingyun was a Fifth-level Martial Artist whose vision was already far superior to that of an ordinary person. But here, he was practically blind.

In such a thick fog, sight was completely useless. The only things he could rely on were his hearing and his other senses.

Unable to determine his direction, Chu Qingyun could only focus his concentration, remain constantly vigilant, and try to discern the surrounding sounds and auras as he felt his way forward.

He was completely disoriented. After stumbling through the dense fog for ten-odd minutes, he happened to glance down and suddenly noticed something strange. From the scabbard of the Thundercloud Sword at his waist, tiny arcs of lightning were sparking intermittently.

Chu Qingyun had never seen anything like this before.

When sheathed, the Thundercloud Sword was normally completely inert, showing no unusual signs.

Puzzled, Chu Qingyun drew the Thundercloud Sword. The violent Thunderous Slime built up inside the scabbard erupted, momentarily forcing back the surrounding mist, but the dense fog quickly closed in again.

Once unsheathed, the Thundercloud Sword’s dark blade was covered in a dense web of dazzling, fine threads of lightning, resembling stars in the night sky and giving off a grand yet mysterious aura.

Furthermore, as the master of the Thundercloud Sword, Chu Qingyun keenly sensed that the Thunder Power on the blade was far more active than usual.

’Such a dense fog... This must be the deepest part of the Mist Forest...’

’Thundercloud Sword... Thundercloud Lion...’

’Could this be the territory of the Tier Three Demon Beast, the Thundercloud Lion!?’