Chapter 84: Being Hunted

Bam!

His foot stomped heavily upon the soldier’s stomach.

Treasured armor could defend against sword strikes to a great extent!

However, it wasn’t very effective against blunt weapons and direct force.

A pained expression appeared on the soldier’s face, and he dropped his spear as he fell to his knees while gripping his stomach in pain.

Qi Ying quickly picked up the ruined net before kicking the spear away. He then tied the soldier up before searching him for badges. Soon, he found three badges in his robes, and an additional one in his boot.

Four badges!

He had nine badges in total following that latest haul.

As expected, the more powerful a warrior was, the more badges they generally had.

Qi Ying was quite elated as he stowed the badges away.

All of a sudden, a sense of peril suddenly exploded like a thunderclap in his mind. Qi Ying could sense an extremely vicious attack hurtling toward him. He didn’t have time to evade, so he immediately injected his True Energy into his Golden Blood Armor, upon which a red defensive barrier appeared around his body.

Crack!

The defensive barrier was shattered.

A golden finger projection crashed into Qi Ying’s body!

Bam!

The barrier had only blunted the force of the finger projection slightly, before ramming into his body. An immense burst of power sent him flying for several dozens of feet. Qi Ying was only able to barely arrest his momentum, after driving his Dragon Tiger Demon-Slaying Staff into the ground with all his might.

He had fallen prey to a sneak attack!

Furthermore, the assailant was extremely powerful; most likely a Spirit Martial Stage warrior!

Whoosh!

Qi Ying didn’t even turn around to try and identify who his assailant was. He immediately circulated his True Energy to the soles of his feet, before frantically rushing deeper into the forest.

He was still not powerful enough to face a Spirit Martial Stage opponent yet.

As such, he had to run!

Whoosh!

Behind him, a well-built figure in a suit of chainmail armor appeared.

He aimed his cold gaze directly at Qi Ying.

“That kid has nine badges!”

He was just passing by and coincidentally caught Qi Ying in the act of putting away his badges, an action that abruptly stunned him.

One would need to acquire about twenty badges to make it into the top ten among the two hundred and sixty disciples, thus winning them a spot to enter the Yun Xiao Academy.

At that point in time, he had secured fifteen!

If he could get nine more, then he would almost be guaranteed a spot in the top ten.

However, it was simply too difficult to find people with badges. Those that were easy to find were all large groups comprising of warriors from major families.

He didn’t want to fight the four major families yet. Even a Spirit Martial Stage warrior like him had to think twice before challenging so many opponents at once.

However, that kid appeared to only be at the Fifth Energy Martial Stage, but he had nine badges!

What a brilliant opportunity!

Whoosh!

The chainmail-clad man immediately gave chase.

He couldn’t allow such delectable prey to get away!

The audience outside the hunting grounds erupted into an uproar.

“Feng Hemu is chasing Qi Ying!”

“He’s a Spirit Martial Stage warrior!”

Many people knew that chainmail-clad man. He was a prodigy who had graduated from the Celestial River Academy four years prior, and was one of the few Spirit Martial Stage warriors in the county.

Even though he had yet to awaken his Battle Spirit, he was still far more powerful than Ninth Energy Martial Stage warriors.

Within the crowd, An Ruyi immediately became anxious.

She had her eyes fixed on Qi Ying the entire time, and for some reason, she was elated when he secured badges, but became extremely anxious when he was in danger.

“Qi Ying, please don’t get hurt!”

In the air above, Qin Susu’s brows were also tightly furrowed.

“Susu, what are you looking at?”

A cold voice sounded.

An indifferent expression immediately appeared on Qin Susu’s face. “Nothing.”

Nearby, a complex expression appeared on Madam Butterfly’s face, as a hint of killing intent flashed through her cold eyes.

…

‘F*ck you!’

Qi Ying fled for his life as he roared in his heart.

He could sense that the Spirit Martial Stage warrior was pursuing him relentlessly, like a starving wolf who had caught sight of a fat rabbit.

Dammit!

There were only two Spirit Martial Stage warriors in the entire tournament! How unlucky did he have to be to bump into one?

Logically speaking, two hours had already passed since the commencement of the tournament, and everyone who required badges was gathering at the same small mountain. As such, the chances of encountering one of the two Spirit Martial Stage warriors weren’t actually all that low.

However, what was even more unlucky was that his pursuer definitely knew that he had many badges!

That was the worst part!

Qi Ying didn’t want to relinquish his badges.

Badges would be very difficult to obtain from that point onward, and just a single badge could prove to be the difference between whether he could go to the Yun Xiao Academy or not.

Hence, he had to keep them!

Fortunately, the mountain was almost entirely covered in dense forestry.

Qi Ying traversed through the forest, and unleashed his Flowing Shadow Strike from time to time as a means to throw off his pursuer.

The densely packed trees acted as a constant impediment to Feng Hemu.

Slowly, he was beginning to lose patience.

“He’s as fast as a rabbit!”

Whoosh!

Feng Hemu glided through the air and unleashed a golden Spiritual Energy blade.

Boom! Boom!

One tree was felled after another, triggering a string of resounding booms in the forest.

Many of the warriors in the forest were startled by the commotion.

“Is that… Feng Hemu?”

“He seems to be chasing someone!”

“Who is it?”

“It’s… Qi Ying?!”

The nearby warriors were all stunned by the scenes unfolding before their eyes.

The most powerful participant in the tournament, Feng Hemu, was pursuing the most renowned young warrior in the Celestial River County, Qi Ying!

‘Could it be… that Qi Ying had a lot of badges?’

Many people began to speculate.

However, no one dared to intervene.

Both Qi Ying and Feng Hemu were not to be messed with!

Of course, there were also warriors from the Duan, Wang, and Sun families who had noticed Qi Ying’s situation.

“Report to the young master! Tell him Feng Hemu is pursuing Qi Ying!”

“Young Master Changyu, Qi Ying is suspected to be carrying many badges, and is being chased by Feng Hemu!”

“Young Master Wang…”

Soon, the news was heard by the leaders of all of the major families.

“Chase him down!”

All of them issued the same command!

Other people wouldn’t dare to mess with Feng Hemu, but they certainly would!

Qi Ying was someone that they had to kill anyway.

If he just so happened to have a large number of badges on him, then those couldn’t be allowed to fall into someone else’s hands!

Even though each of the three major families already had several dozens of badges, thereby guaranteeing at least one person’s entry into the Yun Xiao Academy, there was no such thing as having too many badges!

“Let’s go!”

“Everyone, chase down Qi Ying!”

Whoosh!

Almost all of the warriors on the entire mountain began to converge toward Qi Ying.

…

Qi Ying swallowed an Energy Blast Pill to quickly recover his True Energy, while injecting his True Energy into his Feather Tread Boots. In doing so, he was able to further accelerate in his frantic escape from Feng Hemu.

He couldn’t even use the same method to kill him as he did with Xue Yuesha!

Even if he could immobilize a Spirit Martial Stage warrior, everyone else was already onto him, so he wouldn’t even have time to absorb energy.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep