Chapter 194: Chapter 194: A Respectful Escape

After spending several months in the Jiang Kingdom, he had settled his worldly affairs.

Only then did Li Ping prepare to return to the Immortal City. Before departing, he also received the cultivators from the Ji and Yan families with a smile, bestowing a Pill upon each of them.

Aboard the Flying Ship, Li Ping glanced at the scenery below, then turned his head. With a command from his mind, the Flying Shuttle shot forth, transforming into a streak of light as it flew toward the Western Realm.

After this, he likely wouldn’t return to the Jiang Kingdom for many years.

...

While Li Ping was piloting his Flying Ship back to Fenglan Immortal City, in a canyon thousands of miles from the Immortal City...

Two figures landed, one in front of the other.

However, the cold and beautiful young woman in the lead seemed to utterly detest the young man behind her. When they landed, she intentionally put some distance between them.

These two were none other than the Blood Shadow Sect cultivators, Wei Yiling and Hua Hong, who had been sent to the Immortal City to investigate Yan Liming’s leak of secrets.

Wei Yiling’s Divine Sense swept over the valley but found not a single trace. Her expression instantly turned cold. "You said you suspected you’d found a trace of Yan Liming. Where is it?"

"Don’t be so hasty, Senior Sister Wei." Hua Hong shook his head with a smile. "I followed the trail of this item to get here."

As he spoke, he took out a ring-shaped Demon Dao artifact from his Storage Bag. "Senior Sister, please take a look."

Wei Yiling looked closely and recognized at a glance that it was indeed a unique artifact of the Blood Shadow Sect. Moreover, the aura it emitted was unmistakably that of that old bastard, Yan Liming.

If Li Ping had been there, he would have recognized it as an item he had discarded after inspecting Yan Liming’s Storage Bag. He would have had no idea how Hua Hong had managed to find it.

Confirming that the item did indeed belong to Yan Liming, Wei Yiling’s expression softened slightly, but her tone remained just as cold. "So what if this item belonged to Yan Liming?"

She knew that her Master and Hua Hong both practiced the same Cultivation Technique. Within that technique was a Secret Technique that could track a person’s aura, leaving an enemy with no escape even from thousands of miles away.

Hua Hong had probably used this Secret Technique to find Yan Liming’s item.

Ignoring Wei Yiling, Hua Hong’s expression suddenly shifted. He walked straight to one side of the valley, silently focused his senses for a moment, then directed his Dharma Artifact to smash forward.

BOOM!

After the loud bang, the cliff face split open, revealing a hollow space within.

Only then did Wei Yiling realize that a section of the cliff wall was actually hollow. She extended her Divine Sense into the space and saw a cave residence deep within the cavern, but when she tried to inspect its interior, she was blocked by an Array.

’Could Yan Liming be hiding in here?’ she couldn’t help but wonder.

But before she could figure it out, Hua Hong had already darted into the cavern, as if he wanted to beat her to capturing Yan Liming and claim the credit.

’Hmph... Yan Liming is mine.’ She snorted coldly and, with no time for further thought, flew in after Hua Hong.

...

Several moments later, a violent roar erupted from the cave. Wei Yiling shot out from within, looking rather disheveled, her posture unsteady.

Behind her, Hua Hong charged out in hot pursuit, laughing boisterously as he gave chase. "Senior Sister, you’ve been hit with Soft Flood Dragon Powder! Even if you forcibly muster your Magical Power to execute a Flying Escape, how far can you get? Just be a good girl and submit to me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful for the two of us to dual cultivate from now on?"

Hearing this, Wei Yiling was enraged. "Aren’t you afraid of Master’s wrath for doing this?"

Although she despised this junior brother of hers, they were from the same sect. She had never considered acting against him.

But she never imagined he would dare to poison her. If not for her unique constitution, she would have long since been paralyzed and unconscious.

Even though she managed to forcibly summon a sliver of Magical Power, it was nowhere near enough to deal with a Late-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator. Her only option was to flee.

"The Old Ancestor will punish me?" Hua Hong roared with laughter. "Haha... The Old Ancestor was the one who sent me to the Immortal City in the first place! He even gave me the Soft Flood Dragon Powder. Do you think he’s going to punish me?"

’It really was Master...’ A flash of disbelief crossed Wei Yiling’s mind.

What she didn’t know, however, was that while Hua Wuji had indeed sent Hua Hong to the Immortal City with the idea of setting them up, Hua Hong had acquired the Soft Flood Dragon Powder on his own; it was not a gift from Hua Wuji.

The reason Hua Hong said this was to crush Wei Yiling’s spirit, hoping she would abandon all resistance in her despair.

He knew the place the Old Ancestor held in Wei Yiling’s heart.

"You despicable, shameless bastard!" A cold glint flashed in Wei Yiling’s eyes as she accelerated, fleeing into the distance.

Hua Hong, however, followed unhurriedly behind, waiting for Wei Yiling’s Magical Power to run out to avoid being seriously injured by a counterattack.

’It really is a Gathering Spirit Body. Excellent, it must be.’ A look of excitement appeared on his face as he gave chase. ’If I plunder this kind of Spirit Body, not only will I gain several decades of Cultivation out of thin air, but with the resulting bodily purification, my chances of breaking through to Core Formation in the future will increase by more than thirty percent!’

’Once I’ve plundered Wei Yiling, I’ll return to the Sect and break through to Core Formation!’ Hua Hong’s expression was ecstatic.

A hundred years ago, by a stroke of luck, he discovered that Wei Yiling seemed to possess the legendary Gathering Spirit Body. The benefits of having such a Spirit Body as a Dao companion were, of course, self-evident.

Thus, he began trying to become Dao companions with Wei Yiling by going through the Old Ancestor.

But Wei Yiling had always treated him with cold disdain, not even giving the Old Ancestor any face. In the end, he was forced to resort to this dirty trick.

"Senior Sister, you must be feeling awful. Why don’t you let your junior brother here take care of you!" he transmitted smugly.

In addition to the Soft Flood Dragon Powder, he had also dosed her with Joyful Gathering Powder.

Normally, with the protection of her Core Formation Level Magical Power, such a poison would have no effect on Wei Yiling. But now, with her entire body paralyzed by the Soft Flood Dragon Powder, she couldn’t call upon her Magical Power at all, allowing the Joyful Gathering Powder’s poison to invade unimpeded.

"Despicable!"

Wei Yiling could now feel the effects of the Joyful Gathering Powder as well. Strange images flashed uncontrollably through her mind, her face flushed crimson, and a fine layer of sweat beaded on her forehead.

Seeing that the sliver of Magical Power she had forcibly summoned was about to run out, despair filled her heart. ’Today, I...’

But just then, her Divine Sense swept over a black Flying Ship speeding toward Fenglan Immortal City. Inside the Flying Ship, a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator sat cross-legged.

’I don’t care anymore! I’ll make Hua Hong fight him, and maybe I can use the chance to escape!’ Wei Yiling gritted her teeth, instantly changed direction, and flew toward the Flying Ship she had discovered with her Divine Sense.

The range of Hua Hong’s Divine Sense was not as vast as hers, so naturally, he hadn’t discovered the Flying Ship.

But his target was Wei Yiling, so when she changed direction, Hua Hong naturally followed suit.

"Senior Sister..." As he pursued her relentlessly, he continued to deliberately transmit taunting and provocative words.

Wei Yiling tried to ignore his transmissions, but the effects of the Joyful Gathering Powder still caused an intoxicating blush to appear on her skin, and her mind grew increasingly unsettled.

’Almost there!’

...

Li Ping sat inside the Flying Ship, urging it forward while also sitting cross-legged in meditation to rest his mind.

But suddenly—

He frowned, his gaze falling upon two streaks of light flying toward him from the distance.

"Sir, I am being hunted! I beg you to help me deal with my pursuer. I will surely repay you handsomely in the future." Wei Yiling altered her voice, trying to sound as pitiful as possible.

She knew that those of the Righteous Dao were most susceptible to the ’hero saving a beauty’ trope, which was why she deliberately made herself sound so pitiable.

After sending the transmission, she thought to herself, ’I’ve put it like that. This Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator won’t just abandon me, right? You go deal with Hua Hong, and I’ll use the opportunity to escape and find a safe place to neutralize the poison in my body!’

But the next moment—

She saw that not only did the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator show no intention of playing the hero, he instead directly steered his Flying Ship in a different direction.

And then... he fled at top speed.

Seeing this, even with Wei Yiling’s cold personality, she couldn’t help but curse inwardly: ’I’m a helpless woman in danger, I ask him for help, and he just runs away? Honestly... can anyone even relate?’

However, seeing Hua Hong closing in, she gritted her teeth and continued flying in the direction the Flying Ship had gone.

...

Seeing the two people in pursuit, one chasing the other, and hearing the female cultivator’s transmission, Li Ping immediately grew wary.

He knew that the mortal world wasn’t the only place with honey traps.

Cultivators played them too, and for much higher stakes.

Things like ’fake invitations to explore ruins’ or ’fake treasure maps’... Every year, many cultivators fell for such schemes.

This ’hero saves the beauty’ routine these two were pulling was an ancient trick. How could he possibly fall for it?

If he stopped to play the hero, he’d probably end up being ganged up on by the ’beauty’ and the ’thug’. Things could go very wrong.

Although he considered himself to have many tricks up his sleeve and believed his prowess in Magical Combat was second to none among Foundation Establishment Cultivators...

...in something like Magical Combat, winning only gets you the opponent’s Storage Bag and some Spirit Stones, but losing costs you your life. The potential gains were simply not worth the risk.

Even a Core Formation Cultivator wouldn’t dare claim they could win every battle without ever slipping up.

How could he dare to underestimate the cultivators of the world?

When it wasn’t necessary, Li Ping’s principle regarding Magical Combat was to avoid it if he could. If he absolutely couldn’t, he would unleash a decisive, thunderous strike to finish the enemy in a short time, giving them no opportunity to use their trump cards.

In a situation like this, Li Ping would naturally first try to see if he could avoid the fight altogether.

In fact, his reaction of fleeing immediately would also create the illusion that he was a weakling, causing his enemies to underestimate him if a real fight broke out.

And being underestimated by his enemies was exactly what Li Ping loved to see.

So... he fled without hesitation.

Of course, Li Ping couldn’t rule out the possibility that it wasn’t a scam, that the female cultivator up ahead was genuinely being hunted.

But what did that have to do with him, a mere Loose Cultivator?

This female cultivator was no friend or family to him. Why should he risk his life to intervene? Plenty of cultivators died in the Cultivation Realm every single day.

His purpose in cultivating was to seek the Dao and attain long life, not to be a hero saving a beauty.

Of course, if he could save a beauty along the way while seeking the Dao and long life, he wouldn’t mind.

But if the two were in conflict, then seeking the Dao and long life would always be the highest priority.

On the rapidly fleeing Flying Ship, Li Ping looked behind him, his brow furrowing.

Because that male and female pair of cultivators were now chasing straight after him.

’So it really is a ’hero saves the beauty’ type of honey trap.’ Li Ping was speechless.

’For bandit cultivators to be this rampant, it seems the security around the Immortal City is getting worse and worse.’

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.