Xiao Chen retreated swiftly, then reversed direction and charged toward the three pursuing guards, deliberately throwing himself into their encirclement.
But the brown-haired man only smiled coldly. He directed the painting scroll to descend, caring nothing that his own men lay within its range of attack.
Xiao Chen had no choice but to break through the trio's formation. He pushed his power to the utmost limit, a faint light radiating from his body. His palms traced an inexplicable trajectory through the air, stirring violent eddies of primal energy. With a great shout, every dead branch, every stone upon the ground levitated and shot upward toward the hovering scroll.
Nor did he limit his assault to that one scroll; the other seven still-rolled paintings were all caught within the sweep of his attack.
The brown-haired man's countenance shifted. He had no choice but to detonate the descending scroll. A dreadful wave of energy blasted outward.
A white tiger, over five meters in length, coalesced entirely from pure energy. It leaped into the air and plunged toward Xiao Chen, accompanied by dozens of luminous energy blades that shot forth like a storm.
Sensing the terrifying fluctuation of power, Xiao Chen pushed his movement technique to its extreme. He barely avoided the perilous strike. The ground trembled violently as a fearsome crater over four meters deep was gouged from the earth, sending clouds of dust billowing into the air.
Though the three guards were not directly struck, the shockwave sent them tumbling into the dirt.
Xiao Chen did not look back. He fled without pause, racing out of the zone sealed by the energy scrolls.
By the time the dust settled, the brown-haired man's face had turned ashen. He roared, "After him!" He gathered the remaining seven scrolls and led his three guards in pursuit.
At the same time, the little celestial horse—carved as if from divine jade—trod upon the treetops, carrying Zhao Lin'er into view from the distance. She was heading in this direction.
Xiao Chen sensed the urgency of his situation. The terrifying explosion from the scrolls had drawn his mortal enemy here. He left only a blur in the dense forest as he sped deeper into the primeval jungle.
The little single-horned sacred beast caught a glimpse of Xiao Chen's retreating form and seemed to understand what was about to happen. It suddenly wheeled around, carrying Zhao Lin'er away toward the distance.
The brown-haired man stared in astonishment.
Zhao Lin'er was equally shocked. The little celestial horse paid no heed to her commands. It carried her leaping swiftly over the treetops, as if it did not wish her to come into conflict with Xiao Chen.
The Royal Celestial Maiden had no choice. She seized an opportunity and leaped down from the little celestial horse.
Xiao Chen's initiative in revealing himself was an opportunity for Zhao Lin'er, and she was unwilling to let him slip away. Otherwise, she would have begun her own campaign to hunt him down, for the brown-haired man's reinforcements were nearly at hand.
Soon, Zhao Lin'er and the brown-haired man had joined forces. But the endless primeval forest was too dense, and after the delay caused by the little horse, Xiao Chen had vanished without a trace.
The brown-haired man swept away his earlier gloomy expression and said with a confident smile, "Your Highness need not regret this. He has merely escaped for the moment. By tomorrow at the latest, our reinforcements will arrive. Even if a dozen giant apes protect him, we can annihilate them all with ease—even if they were several times more numerous!"
"Many thanks to Brother Guluo for his assistance!" The Royal Celestial Maiden Zhao Lin'er was lovely of feature, her aura transcendent and otherworldly, possessed of an indescribable grace and lightness.
Having shaken off his pursuers and circled around the tyrant lizard's territory, Xiao Chen slowed his pace within the mountain forest. His clean and decisive strike against the enemy, followed by a successful breakout, counted as a triumphant counterattack.
But the addition of a powerful new enemy made Xiao Chen's position threefold more perilous. He had to begin earnestly considering how to deal with it.
By evening, the brown-haired man Guluo stood before the bamboo hut, his face twisted with rage. The slaughter of his five subordinates had stirred a genuine fury within him; his clenched hands were white at the knuckles. Where before he had wanted to kill Xiao Chen for Zhao Lin'er's sake, now he would not allow Xiao Chen to live for his own.
Zhao Lin'er was communing with the little celestial horse by the small lake. But no matter what promises she made, whenever she asked it to seek out Xiao Chen, the little horse would immediately shake its head, leaving her with no recourse.
At this moment, Xiao Chen was advancing into the depths of the island. The edge of the tyrant lizard's territory was no longer safe to inhabit. If he continued to shelter there, a fearsome encirclement might await him come dawn.
But before leaving, he planted false trails, leaving clues that pointed toward extremely dangerous places. If the pursuers ended up encountering certain ferocious beasts, then his objective would be achieved.
Sunset painted the sky crimson. The blazing fiery clouds seemed to cast a dim red glow over the forest as well.
Roars of beasts rang out from the endless primeval woods. Terrifying monsters appeared and disappeared among the trees.
"Rumble!"
A massive elephant covered entirely in cyan scales thundered past not far from Xiao Chen. Its two gleaming ivory tusks were as sharp as broadswords. Its eyes blazed with murderous light as it chased several wild oxen. Soon, the mournful bellow of an ox came from nearby.
Through the gaps in the foliage, Xiao Chen saw the cyan-scaled elephant devouring the wild ox. The scene was so bloody and brutal that he could not help but marvel at the sheer number and ferocity of the exotic beasts on this island.
Cautiously avoiding all manner of unheard-of, unseen monstrous creatures, Xiao Chen covered eight or nine li before the last light of sunset fully vanished. He entered a stretch of dark, damp marshland.
An unnatural stillness reigned over this marsh. Apart from the towering ancient trees, not a single beast was to be seen, not even a bird in flight. Pools and bogs lay silent, as if this were a land of the dead.
In the distance, beasts howled without cease. But here, the dead quiet only made the eeriness all the more pronounced.
As he ventured deeper into the marsh, the air grew more humid. The peculiar, rotting odor of the bog reached his nose. Xiao Chen frowned. How could he not sense that something was amiss here? The yin qi was exceptionally heavy, and a grim, chilling aura seemed to coil about the place.
After advancing another li, he still found no living creature—only the trees. But in the mud and waterlogged pits, he spotted numerous white bones. Some were half-submerged in the silt, others lay exposed on the surface. In the dim forest, they looked dreadfully ominous.
There were skeletons of every kind, including the frames of great beasts ranging from one to over ten meters in size. What shocked Xiao Chen even more was that he saw many human remains. From the color and texture of those bones, they must have lain there for at least several hundred years.
The last traces of sunset disappeared. The world plunged into darkness, and the marsh became even more sinister. The great trees stood like tombstones in this dead, silent bog.
"Crack!"
The sound of snapping bone cut through the stillness without warning, making this swamp of death all the more chilling. Xiao Chen spun around to look, but found nothing. Perhaps it had been only a weathered skeleton crumbling to dust…
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