Chapter 62 – Inexplicably Hunted

Chapter 62 – Inexplicably Hunted

After the strange phenomenon vanished, Li Fan keenly sensed that some indescribable change seemed to have occurred within him.

But after a careful examination, he couldn’t figure out what this change actually was.

Still, it was probably nothing bad.

Li Fan decided to set the matter aside for now, simply making a mental note of it.

After getting his bearings on his current location, Li Fan noticed it was slightly off from where he had appeared in the cultivation world in his previous life.

But the difference wasn’t very far.

This place was closest to Glazed Glass Island, so Li Fan decided to head there first.

After all, in his previous life he had spent a long time on Glazed Glass Island and was quite familiar with it.

The “nice guy” He Zhenghao was a bit greedy, but at least he was fairly reliable when it came to getting things done.

Compared to dealing with strangers, Li Fan preferred working with people he knew, minimizing as many uncertain variables as possible.

Having chosen his direction, Li Fan didn’t summon the Taiyan Vessel. Instead, he formed a wind-riding seal and flew toward Glazed Glass Island.

The identity he wanted to assume this time was that of a rogue cultivator from the Layered Cloud Sea who had, through some stroke of fortune, cultivated to the late Qi Refining stage.

Unable to find a method to break through to Foundation Establishment, he wished to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

In the current cultivation world, the life of a rogue cultivator was extremely difficult.

Unlike members of the Myriad Immortals Alliance or the Five Elders Society, who had established channels to obtain cultivation techniques.

Rogue cultivators who wanted to find a single technique often had to risk their lives exploring the ruins of ancient sects.

Not only did they have to face the dangers and traps within the ruins, they also had to watch out for fellow cultivators eyeing the same prizes.

One moment of carelessness could mean death and the dissolution of one’s Dao.

Yet even so, these rogue cultivators refused to join either of the two great organizations, simply because they were unwilling to submit to others or fight and die on someone else’s behalf.

For rogue cultivators, freedom was above all else.

Different choices merely reflected different philosophies—neither could be called better or worse than the other.

In any case, the Taiyan Vessel was a bit too conspicuous for someone posing as a rogue cultivator.

To avoid unnecessary trouble and suspicion, Li Fan chose to fly on the wind himself.

It was slower, certainly, but Li Fan wasn’t in a hurry. It was a good opportunity to adapt.

The reason he said this was because back in Great Xuan, Li Fan had already vaguely felt that his affinity with spiritual energy had inexplicably increased in this life.

But since the immortal-barren land had no spiritual energy, he had never been able to verify it.

Now that he was in the cultivation world, sensing and absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy, Li Fan finally confirmed that his intuition had been correct.

If in his previous life he had used the Root of Heaven and Earth like a water pump, forcibly extracting spiritual energy from heaven and earth—

Then in this life, he only needed to will it, and the spiritual energy of heaven and earth would cooperatively flow into his dantian without any coercion.

While it still couldn’t compare to the spiritual energy intimacy that Xiao Heng had described, it was vastly better than before.

Li Fan speculated that the cause of this change most likely lay with the Root of Heaven and Earth.

In his previous life, the Root of Heaven and Earth had been cultivated through the five emotions of greed, fear, fury, hatred, and egoism.

But in this life, the Root of Heaven and Earth in Li Fan’s dantian had been directly manifested through 【Return to Truth】.

If the Root of Heaven and Earth cultivated by the Five Spirits Qi Sensing technique was suffused with violent, dark negative emotions, then the Root of Heaven and Earth bestowed by 【Return to Truth】 was balanced, harmonious, calm, and natural.

He hadn’t expected that inheriting his previous life’s cultivation through 【Return to Truth】 would come with such an additional benefit.

While pleased, Li Fan also vaguely felt there might be even deeper reasons behind this.

However, before he could think it through, his expression suddenly changed.

Because in Li Fan’s perception, a wave of killing intent appeared from afar, locking firmly onto him, flying rapidly in his direction.

Moreover, the other party’s aura was powerful—at least Foundation Establishment stage!

Though it felt utterly baffling, Li Fan didn’t hesitate for even a moment.

He immediately summoned the Taiyan Vessel, pushed its speed to maximum, and fled toward the nearest destination—Glazed Glass Island.

The other party seemed not to have expected Li Fan to possess a treasure like a flying vessel. After a moment of surprise, their speed increased even further.

Inside the Taiyan Vessel, Li Fan’s expression was grim.

The distance was too great, exceeding the range of his spiritual sense.

But judging from the slowly encroaching killing intent, the other party’s speed was definitely faster than his Taiyan Vessel.

Li Fan hesitated briefly, then released a wave of Formless Killing Intent toward his pursuer.

His vision suddenly went dark, and faint murmuring reached his ears.

The scenery around him became psychedelic and distorted.

It was as if countless pairs of eyes were watching Li Fan from the shadows.

Fortunately, this hallucination-like scene came and went quickly.

It was merely a momentary flicker before everything returned to normal.

Li Fan understood that what had just happened was a side effect of releasing Formless Killing Intent across cultivation realms.

Formless Killing Intent operated by borrowing the mandate of heaven.

Since it was borrowing heaven’s mandate, there naturally couldn’t be zero risk.

Even a mortal who falsely invoked the emperor’s edict would have their entire clan executed—let alone impersonating the mandate of heaven.

The greater the cultivation gap between himself and the target of the killing intent, the more likely it was to be detected by the will of heaven and earth.

Fortunately, for now, crossing just one major realm didn’t seem to be too much of a problem.

After the Formless Killing Intent was released, there was initially no reaction.

But soon, Li Fan sensed a sudden gust of wind appearing between heaven and earth.

This wind spun ceaselessly along the pursuer’s path, quickly forming into a tornado.

The tornado glowed with a faint azure light, like a great dragon howling as it hurtled toward the pursuer.

Caught completely off guard, the pursuer was struck dead-on by the tornado.

Li Fan seized the opportunity to accelerate his escape.

Before long, a tremendous explosion sounded from behind.

The pursuer seemed to have broken free of the tornado and was flying even faster toward Li Fan’s position.

The killing intent grew more intense.

Just as the pursuer was about to close in on Li Fan again, a massive crocodile shark leaped high out of the sea below, swallowing the pursuer whole in a single bite.

The crocodile shark then fell back into the ocean, sending up an enormous splash.

“Boom!”

A burst of fierce flames erupted from the sea.

The crocodile shark was burned to nothing—not even bones remained. The pursuer flew out of the water looking somewhat disheveled, growing rather frantic.

Sensing the direction of Li Fan’s aura, the pursuer accelerated the chase.

But every time the pursuer drew close to Li Fan, some sudden and unexpected incident would occur.

And so the two continued their chase. Although the pursuer was considerably faster than Li Fan, they simply could not catch up to him.

Finally, Glazed Glass Island came into view.

The pursuer cautiously scanned left and right for a moment. Seeing that no more unexpected incidents seemed to be forthcoming, they let out a sigh of relief. Expression turning grave, they prepared to unleash a Dao technique to blast Li Fan to pieces.

In the sky, beneath the broad daylight, a bolt of lightning suddenly struck down.

It hit the pursuer dead center.

Had a protective glow not flared from the pursuer’s body at the critical moment, absorbing most of the lightning’s damage, they would have lost their life right then and there.

Even so, the pursuer was left charred all over, barely recognizable as human.

Seeing this, Li Fan hurriedly flew toward the central guardian formation of Glazed Glass Island.

The pursuer hung suspended in the air for a moment before recovering.

In a mix of shock and fury, they roared: “He Zhenghao, get out here and help me kill this little thief!”

From Glazed Glass Island came a voice Li Fan recognized: “Protector Wan? How did you end up looking like this?”

…

Li Fan, who had been flying toward Glazed Glass Island, immediately stopped upon hearing the two of them talking.

Surrounded by both of them with no escape in sight, Li Fan cursed inwardly.

Then he silently recited in his mind:

“Return to Truth!”