Chapter 00266: You Chase, I Flee
# You Chase, I Flee
Chapter 266
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 266: You Chase, I Flee
The tone of the Rock Wolf, Lu Xin, was filled with self-reproach.
After all, Dong Rui was a notorious enemy of the entire Rock Wolf Clan.
It had finally caught sight of him once, yet had let him escape!
He Lingchuan looked at the numerous slender wounds on its face, one of which even crossed its right eye, almost leaving it blind.
Blood droplets flowed down its cheek, but it had no time to lick them away.
He could only comfort his companion, "If this person were so easy to catch, he wouldn't be a wanted criminal across multiple countries."
From their two encounters, it was evident that Dong Rui was incredibly cunning.
The moment he was struck, he would instantly retreat without entangling himself with his pursuers, not caring if there was still a chance to fight back or not.
With such caution, he was not easy to catch.
It was said that the number of Dong Rui's magical puppets was limited, and each one required meticulous crafting.
They had already lost one werewolf, and now this ghost ape should be his strongest weapon; no matter what, they could not afford to lose it.
Thus, Dong Rui sent a bird to follow, trying to figure out a way to retrieve the ghost ape.
In such circumstances, He Lingchuan ordered everyone to catch up without letting go.
Dong Rui attempted to descend and catch the monkey, but San Youjun shot an arrow, the tip grazing the giant bird’s wing, causing it to panic and soar higher.
He Lingchuan shot him an annoyed glance, "Useless!"
San Youjun couldn't be blamed for his aim, but that strange bird’s reflexes were impressive, and at the last moment, it managed to dodge.
He rubbed his nose and drew two more arrows, preparing to succeed on the next try.
However, after this scare, the giant bird refused to descend again.
If asked why He Lingchuan did not use the Floating Life Blade's "guaranteed hit" effect, the answer was simple: the distance between him and Dong Rui was over ten zhang...
The two sides remained in a stalemate and ran for over ten more miles.
The ghost ape could no longer move; He Lingchuan and the others could hear its labored breaths like a deflated bellows.
Previously, the guards of He Chunhua had drawn the Ghost Eye Bow, injuring its lungs.
Each breath it exhaled sent forth a spray of blood mist.
Continuing like this, it would become He Lingchuan's biggest prey of the year.
At that moment, Dong Rui suddenly played a bamboo flute.
The piercing sound carried far into the dark night sky.
The ghost ape heard it, suddenly howling to the heavens, and sped up once more!
This was a manifestation of its survival instinct.
The Rock Wolf suddenly said, "Not good, I smell the scent of grass and flowing water!"
Ahead? He Lingchuan immediately urged everyone to speed up.
Unfortunately, it was too late.
The giant ape suddenly leaped, its form shrinking rapidly in midair, and then—
It fell!
He Lingchuan chased forward a few steps but then urgently pulled to a stop.
The exotic beast Xi Yu shot a long cry, standing upright.
Taking three steps forward would mean plunging off a cliff.
The cavalrymen also quickly reined in their horses.
Before them lay a pitch-black crevice canyon!
The flat terrain came to an end here; the fissure was over a hundred zhang wide and its depth...
It was too dark to tell.
He Lingchuan dismounted and kicked a rock the size of an ostrich egg down.
With a 'crash,' the sound of the stone tumbling amongst the branches and leaves echoed back.
He Lingchuan focused intently and seemed to hear the sound of flowing water.
There seemed to be a mountain stream down there, with trees at the cliff’s edge and water at the bottom.
The ghost ape jumped straight down, disappearing into the darkness; the giant bird in midair circled and then dove down head-first, clearly heading to meet it at the stream's bottom.
However, Dong Rui flew high and saw far, having prepared early; He Lingchuan and the others were at a disadvantage in this regard.
Was this how their chase would end?
He felt unwilling, and without hesitation, took out a grappling hook, saying to San Youjun, "Get ready, follow me."
Saying that, he leaped off the cliff!
Of course, he would not repeat the mistake of his earlier encounter by the Immortal Spirit Lake, where he was forced off the cliff by the Ghost Eye Bow.
While falling, he tossed out the grappling hook, hooking onto a branch at the cliff's edge, swinging away smoothly.
San Youjun followed suit.
The others, lacking grappling hooks and having not practiced this skill, had no choice but to stand on the cliff and watch, so they found some rope to lower down, preparing to catch the two when they returned...
At the bottom of the canyon, there were few large trees, but dozens of small ones, leading into dense underbrush and mossy ground.
He Lingchuan swung a couple of times before landing.
The canyon floor was darker than the ground above, and swinging with the grappling hook would make it easy to crash into trees.
Moreover, the smaller trees likely couldn't support his weight.
He and San Youjun quickly joined up, heading in the direction where the giant ape had fallen.
The canyon was filled with strange, towering stones, shrouded in darkness, making progress difficult.
Neither of them seemed to hear the commotion from the giant bird overhead, so Dong Rui might still be here?
Fortunately, not long after, San Youjun whispered to him, "Look up."
He Lingchuan followed the direction he pointed, and saw a large protruding rock on the cliff face, with Dong Rui crouching on it, the giant bird perched beside him.
From their perspective, Dong Rui was busy bandaging something, entirely focused.
It wasn't hard to guess that it must be the shrunk-down ghost ape.
Heavily injured before and chased for many miles, it had forced out all its life potential.
After Dong Rui caught it, it was already in a state of severe injury and near death, needing immediate rescue.
Otherwise, Dong Rui shouldn't be taking such a risk by staying here.
He Lingchuan and San Youjun could see this clearly because a light source had lit up beside Dong Rui.
After all, he needed illumination to treat the magical puppet, and he was meticulous enough to choose a semi-high place that allowed for a quick escape when danger approached.
They crouched low and slowly crept forward.
The canyon floor had plenty of grass and leaves; they stepped carefully, afraid to make any noise.
When the giant bird or Dong Rui’s gaze swept over, they would freeze in place.
After a while, they closed the distance between them to within ten zhang.
At this point, He Lingchuan felt much more at ease.
Dong Rui seemed to have finished bandaging the giant ape, and was now pulling out a transparent glass bottle, gently shaking the red liquid inside.
He Lingchuan exchanged a glance with San Youjun and slowly drew out the Floating Life Blade while San Youjun nocked an arrow.
A man like him, who could catch horses, had often bent his bow and shot eagles in the fields; he would not let this strange bird escape a second time under his arrow!
Perhaps sensing their intent, Dong Rui suddenly paused in his movements, casting a glance in their direction.
They could not afford to wait any longer.
He Lingchuan quickly adjusted his aim one last time before throwing the Floating Life Blade.
No matter how restrained this blade was, its edge shimmered much brighter than an arrow tip.
Dong Rui saw a flash of silver in the darkness below, and without thinking, he immediately crouched down.
The giant bird behind him had keen eyesight and suddenly pecked out, directly hitting the blade.
With a "ding!" sound, the sharp tip of the bird's beak was lost.
Having dared to challenge the edge of the blade, the Floating Life naturally showed no mercy, but the blade was also knocked away.
The pursuers were coming! Dong Rui shivered and threw a handful of smoke towards He Lingchuan and the others, then picked up the ghost ape and leaped off the rock.
Having worked with the strange bird for many years, he made hardly any mistakes.
The bird flipped on its side, spreading its wings, and quickly carried him on its back, preparing to soar high.
If it flew into the sky, He Lingchuan would have no means to deal with him.
Fortunately, the Floating Life Blade spun around and suddenly returned.
As Dong Rui looked up, he saw the cold light flash before him, scaring him into a startled cry as he raised his staff to block—
Yes, he had just taken out his short staff, intending to show He Lingchuan and the others a bit of color.
As a result, the Floating Life Blade spun past, slicing both the end of the staff and his fingertips cleanly!
Dong Rui let out a loud "ah," as something slipped from his palm, falling from the bird's back.
At that moment, San Youjun also shot an arrow, aimed directly at the giant bird’s wing.
That creature was incredibly nimble, flipping in the air like a hawk.
However, San Youjun had anticipated its next move; the second arrow arrived just in time, piercing its bat-like wing.
With a loud "ga," the bird squawked, swaying as it glided towards the ground, seemingly preparing to crash.
He Lingchuan and San Youjun hurried towards it.
But they had only run a few steps when the strange bird suddenly steadied itself, flapping its wings twice, performing a low fly and then sliding behind a tree!
With the tree blocking their path, San Youjun’s arrows were powerless; he could only watch as it soared high again.
At that moment, they noticed that its bat wings could actually split into two sections, just like butterfly wings.
San Youjun had shot the lower section, but this did not stop the upper wings from functioning independently; at worst, it would just be less agile in the air.
This creature was clever; knowing it would get shot down if it took off immediately, it pretended to fall after being hit, creating distance between them, before soaring back up.
"Alas!" He Lingchuan knew they couldn’t bring it down now, stamping his foot with a deep sigh.
San Youjun's face turned beet red, but luckily, the night was thick: "Master, I... it was my fault, please punish me!"
The bird squawking above sounded like a continuous mockery of him.
"If punishing you would do something, if it could bring these three back, I would definitely enforce a heavy punishment!" He Lingchuan sighed and said, "Alright, let's head back. We still need manpower at Old Father’s place."
The two walked back in disappointment, and as they passed that protruding rock, He Lingchuan's heart suddenly stirred.
When Dong Rui endured the backstab from the Floating Life Blade earlier, it seemed like he had dropped something?
He approached the spot, casually pulling out a fire starter and lowering his head to search.
Before long, San Youjun shouted, "Found it, found it, this..."
He picked something up, spat, "it's Dong Rui's severed finger."
What He Lingchuan wanted to find was something that had fallen from Dong Rui's hand.
He was about to turn his head when the necklace of divine bones around his neck suddenly grew warm.
Huh?
This item had been quiet for a long time; He Lingchuan had even forgotten about it! How did it suddenly regain its presence?
The last time it heated up was due to something valuable nearby.
He Lingchuan began to circle the area, using its temperature changes to determine the location of the treasure.
Finally, he felt something hard and round brush against his toes, rolling in the grass a couple of times.
What was it?
He pushed the grass aside to pick up the object, holding it up to the light.
"A medicine bottle."
This was the glass bottle Dong Rui had taken out earlier, yet had yet to pull the cap off before He Lingchuan's Floating Life Blade flew past it.
Fortunately, the bottle was remarkably durable; it landed without breaking, and not a drop of the red liquid inside spilled out.
Once he held the bottle, the divine bones necklace calmed down, seemingly no longer anxious.
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(End of this chapter)