Under such circumstances, Shi Hao couldn’t afford to linger. If it were only He Ziming alone, he would have turned back for a decisive battle.
But now, several great cultivators at the Dunyi Realm were in pursuit. Stopping would mean certain death.
Though he had suspected it, the confirmation that these so-called rescuers were actually traitors filled Shi Hao with rage. He wished he could uproot them entirely.
At the same time, a sense of helplessness washed over him. A powerful clan from the Imperial Pass had defected to the foreign realm, betraying the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths.
This clan had yet to be exposed, but when the final battle came, they would undoubtedly become a major threat.
“Fleeing again, Desolate? Are you afraid to fight? If you dare to stop, I’ll give you ten moves!” He Ziming shouted.
Golden light surged around him, far more intense than before. His strength had advanced by leaps and bounds, no longer comparable to their last encounter. The vortex of divine power he summoned resembled a vast golden ocean.
“If it were just you, I’d cut off your head right now!” Shi Hao retorted bluntly, his words brimming with confidence.
Whoosh!
A divine radiance streaked across the heavens, impossibly fast. It swept over mountains and forests, transforming into a bolt of chaotic lightning as it pursued relentlessly.
This was the young lord of the Imperial Clan. Silent and ruthless, he joined the chase, intent on intercepting Shi Hao and reclaiming the rotten wooden chest.
Not only did he possess absolute confidence—boasting invincibility among the younger generation—but he also harbored deep resentment. The last time they met in the cursed land, Shi Hao had walked away with the supreme treasure unearthed from the dark-red tomb.
For the Imperial Clan, this was an intolerable outcome.
The Imperial Clan, hailed as the supreme race, had once produced undefeated immortals who ruled the heavens and looked down upon all other clans. They never knew defeat.
For tens of thousands of years, no youth from this clan had ventured beyond their ancient lands. He had been summoned to suppress all enemies—to slaughter every young prodigy from the Imperial Pass.
To be precise, he had emerged in response to an external plea—to kill Desolate.
Half of the so-called Ten Young Kings of the foreign realm’s younger generation had already fallen. He had been called forth from the primordial lands for one purpose: to crush Shi Hao!
The void trembled as the inheritor of the Gu Clan made his move. This clan could sever time with one hand and space with the other!
Though the Beast Forest was a forbidden land that severely restricted the full manifestation of taboo laws, the Gu Clan still displayed its terrifying prowess.
A spear of the void silently materialized behind Shi Hao, infused with unparalleled demonic power, aiming straight for the back of his skull!
Bang!
Shi Hao reacted swiftly. Instead of forming a fist seal, he swung the rotten wooden chest in his hand, smashing it against the spear and unleashing a storm of divine chains.
A simple strike, yet far from casual. It embodied the principle of the Great Dao—simplicity in extremity. In that instant, Shi Hao channeled the power of the Kun Peng and the laws of thunder, shattering the spear.
The void exploded violently, obliterating vast stretches of forest and causing towering mountains to collapse, releasing chaotic energy.
The onlookers paled. This was no ordinary place—it was the Beast Forest, where ancient peaks stood firm, reinforced by powerful runes. Yet now, a great mountain’s spiritual root had been severed!
Swoosh!
A streak of divine light approached—several figures, all elders at the Dunyi Realm, closing in on Shi Hao.
They moved faster than He Ziming and the others, relentlessly pursuing.
Shi Hao’s eyes turned icy. Among them, four were from the Imperial Pass, likely of the same clan as Yichuan. Only one was a great cultivator from the foreign realm.
“Wretched beast, surrender now! Where do you think you’re fleeing?” an elder roared, unleashing a sonic divine art—the Ancient Savage Bull’s Roar!
The sound was more terrifying than thunder, shaking the heavens and causing mountains to tremble. A colossal black bull, tens of thousands of feet tall, materialized in the air, its horns splitting the sky.
Ferocious and savage, it charged at Shi Hao with overwhelming brutality.
Boom!
The surrounding terrain shattered. Mountains, once deemed indestructible, cracked and exploded. The sight was horrifying!
The black Ancient Savage Bull was merely a manifestation of the elder’s sonic attack, yet its destructive power was immense.
Shi Hao staggered, blood spraying from his mouth as he paled from the injury.
“Young wretch, you won’t escape!” the elder bellowed again.
Another Savage Bull’s Roar erupted, shaking the land even more violently.
Shi Hao whirled around, glaring at the elder with unprecedented hatred. “You, a supposed powerhouse of the Imperial Pass, betray your homeland and kneel before the foreign realm. Have you no shame? You disgrace humanity—worse than a beast!”
He rarely cursed, but now he couldn’t hold back.
Simultaneously, Shi Hao activated the Thunder Emperor’s Treasure Art, summoning a thunder pool in the sky. Lightning rained down, striking the Ancient Savage Bull.
This was his method of countering the sonic attack.
It worked, but it was a pity—he couldn’t summon a true heavenly tribulation. Though the thunder pool manifested and drew lightning from all directions, it lacked the final touch.
He had succeeded before, but now, in haste, he couldn’t invoke the tribulation.
“Foolish brat, what do you know?” the elder sneered coldly, his eyes filled with madness. “You don’t understand the tides of fate, the cycle of eras, or the path of survival. You and those laughable clans in the Imperial Pass will be crushed by the currents of time. The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths are doomed to fall—they must be reborn. We are merely choosing the light over darkness, paving the way for a new epoch. In the end, all clans will thank us, for we shall be the founders of a new era—ascending as immortals and ancestors!”
Shi Hao roared in fury, “You grovel at the feet of the foreign realm, your knees weak and your spines broken. Don’t cloak your cowardice in grand words! Crawling before your masters, you’ll never attain immortality or ancestry—you disgrace those titles!”
“Brat, we should have killed you earlier. Cease your provocations and nonsense!”
The sole foreign realm cultivator among them spoke up. He had once feigned death at Yichuan’s hands, lying before Shi Hao as part of a ruse—all to extract more secrets.
The rotten wooden chest was too significant. The foreign realm wouldn’t let slip even the slightest clue.
“Old bastard, don’t forget how you lay before me like a dead dog not long ago. I should have burned you to ashes!” Shi Hao mocked.
Back then, he had suspected the corpse was merely a shell, its soul intact. Destroying it would have meant immediate retaliation—no more pretenses.
Had he acted, he would have died on the spot. So he bided his time, waiting until he boarded the war chariot before striking.
In the end, he succeeded in slaying a Dunyi Realm powerhouse!
“You—!” The foreign realm cultivator’s face darkened. Never before had a junior dared insult him so. To be called a dead dog by a mere youth—his killing intent surged.
“You won’t escape!” The pursuing cultivators redoubled their efforts, divine light blazing as they closed in like towering giants.
“Speak! Which clan do you belong to?” Shi Hao shook his captive—a young man he had captured—demanding to know which clan had betrayed the Imperial Pass.
He didn’t fully trust Yichuan’s words. The name didn’t match any of the immortal clans, but Shi Hao was certain—any faction bold enough to commit such treachery must have a terrifying background.
The young man clenched his jaw, refusing to answer.
Shi Hao pressed a finger to his brow, attempting to forcibly search his soul. But strange runes flared, and with a sickening crack, the young man’s head burst like a rotten melon, blood and brain matter spraying.
Shi Hao sighed. He had expected countermeasures.
Just like himself, he had layered his own soul with restrictions. If anyone tried to probe his mind, his sea of consciousness would self-destruct.
He wouldn’t let the Unbreakable Scripture or the Six Paths Reincarnation Heavenly Art fall into enemy hands.
A long-life clan would undoubtedly have even more terrifying safeguards.
“Brat, let’s see where you can run!” The pursuers were gaining ground despite Shi Hao’s Kun Peng speed, earth-shrinking divine art, and lightning control.
Yet he remained unshaken. The Beast Forest’s treacherous terrain and perilous zones bought him time.
A madness flickered in Shi Hao’s eyes. “Then let’s make it big. Either I die, or I send you all to the grave!”
He turned and shouted, “Is this all you’ve got, old fools? Too few! Where’s the foreign realm’s mighty army? Bring them all—I’ll bury every last one of you!”
He was provoking them, eager to draw every enemy in the Beast Forest into the chase.
And indeed, as he fled, more and more powerful cultivators joined the pursuit, their numbers swelling.
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