Dong Gua looked at Lin Luoyu, fighting one against two. She watched the mountain-cleaving, sea-severing power constantly intersect — even the aftershock alone carried considerable might.
Fortunately, she could still spare some spiritual power to fend off the aftershock. Otherwise, this carriage would have been gone.
Lin Luoyu's strength had indeed exceeded her imagination — that an early Golden Core cultivator could possess this kind of presence.
But what was even harder for Dong Gua to understand was — since when had demonic cultivators been of such high quality too?
Two second- or third-rate Golden Cores, two-on-one, could actually put Lin Luoyu at a brief disadvantage.
Just as Dong Gua was finding this strange, Cui Hao's somewhat smug voice rose from beside her.
"My Senior Sister taking on two single-handedly, easy as you please. How about it — strong or not?"
Dong Gua was startled at his words. She looked at the proud-faced Cui Hao, held back for a moment, then finally said:
"Your Senior Sister… seems to be the one at a disadvantage."
Cui Hao's expression instantly turned solemn at this. He hastily grabbed the whip beside him and struck the horses hard.
"Then why didn't you say so earlier? What are you still watching so leisurely for? Run, already!"
Dong Gua's face also couldn't hide her astonishment. Wasn't the gap between this senior sister and junior brother a bit too large?
The Senior Sister, all Haoran righteousness, dared to take the lead. The Junior Brother, the moment things looked bad, was the first to flee.
The contrast was a bit much. For Cui Hao to be paired with Lin Luoyu on this trip — was he perhaps the descendant of some big shot in the sect?
Cui Hao had whipped the horses, but found the carriage still couldn't go fast. He spoke with some impatience.
"This broken horse is half dead — how is it still this slow?"
Cui Hao's words reached this point, and his gaze turned to Dong Gua beside him, his tone urgent.
"You can't fight, but you can run, right? Hurry up, take the half-Xi Gua inside the carriage, and let's get out of here first."
Dong Gua hesitated for a moment.
Cui Hao did indeed look genuinely afraid of death — it didn't seem like an act. But it never hurt to be careful.
She still put on a righteous-sounding tone and said:
"Your Senior Sister's situation isn't that good, but with me here, I can still lend a hand…"
"What hand! For a peerless genius like me to fall here would be a tremendous loss to the cultivation world!" Cui Hao didn't wait for Dong Gua to finish, cutting her off directly. He continued:
"Didn't you hear — some Cult Leader Li is right behind us, about to catch up?"
"Fighting even a minor lackey takes this much effort. If some Cult Leader shows up, can it possibly go well?"
"Would you only be satisfied if we get wiped out in one net?"
"You just said it yourself — don't burden my Senior Sister, right? If we can run, can't our Eldest Senior Sister?"
"You heard Senior Sister's instructions before the fight, didn't you? Are you running or not? If you're not, I am!"
Dong Gua looked at Cui Hao's anxious expression and suddenly sneered inwardly.
She had been overthinking things — all those layers upon layers.
Sacrificing others for oneself — wasn't that the essence of human nature?
Forget it. His words were enough. If this could drive a wedge between the two of them, so much the better.
Dong Gua raised her hand and pulled the silent half-Xi Gua from the carriage into her grasp. Then, grabbing Cui Hao by the collar with her other hand, she abandoned the carriage and bounded outward.
If Lin Luoyu truly couldn't hold on, then this Cui Hao could directly serve as a chess piece in her hand — that would do too.
Dong Gua's figure carried the two of them in a wild dash. After covering quite some distance, an extremely terrifying blood qi aura suddenly came from behind.
She glanced sideways and saw a blood blade tear through the sky and descend from above. Immediately after, Haoran qi soared upward to parry the blood blade.
This was undoubtedly that Nascent Soul blood cultivator!
Here this fast?
Then Lin Luoyu was probably in real danger.
Dong Gua no longer hesitated, and her pace quickened several notches.
——————
"Junior Sister has reached Golden Core cultivation too."
Li Xingtian raised his hand and recalled the spirit treasure longsaber. His gaze turned to Lin Luoyu, whose Haoran qi was slowly withdrawing around her. Then he involuntarily glanced at the Haoran Sword hovering around Lin Luoyu, on guard against him.
Just a spirit treasure! Li Xingtian naturally wouldn't take it seriously. A spirit treasure naturally couldn't understand that what he cultivated was the orthodox Daoist profound methods.
Only, this Fourth Junior Sister's Haoran righteousness was truly eye-catching.
Lin Luoyu reached out and grasped the still-hovering, still-vigilant spirit treasure. After all, to the always-righteous Second Senior Brother, this was somewhat impolite. She smiled and offered a greeting.
"Just reached Golden Core recently. Has Second Senior Brother been well lately?"
Yu Jing and Wen Zuo stood silently behind Li Xingtian, listening as this cultivator suffused with Haoran qi actually addressed the Cult Leader as Second Senior Brother…
It was truly a singular sensation — something like the righteous and demonic paths teaming up to scheme against people.
Indeed, anyone would easily fall for it.
Li Xingtian nodded gently. "Doing fine. Only — is it all right for Fifth Junior Brother to be traveling alone with them?"
Lin Luoyu replied, "He has protective treasures. Eldest Senior Sister said they were requested from the Heavenly Divination Sect. There are also Tai Dao Sect cultivators secretly trailing along — all arranged by Master."
"As long as Master arranged it, then it's fine."
A faint smile appeared on Li Xingtian's face.
Yu Jing and Wen Zuo, watching from the side, were stunned all over again — so the Cult Leader wasn't just a deadpan with a cold face.
Li Xingtian glanced in the direction Dong Gua had hastily fled, then suddenly proposed:
"It's still early to go back. Why don't we find a place to have some tea and rest a while first?"
Lin Luoyu chuckled. "Whatever Second Senior Brother arranges."
Li Xingtian nodded gently, then the spirit treasure longsaber flew from his hand. Blood qi surged as he slashed once at the open ground.
Lin Luoyu gripped the Haoran Sword, which kept humming softly in vigilance, while maintaining the smile on her face.
At the same time, she continuously sent her divine sense into the sword to notify the sword spirit inside — this is Senior Brother! Not a demonic cultivator!
Li Xingtian finished his slash, completing the final wave of the act. In the end, he involuntarily glanced once more at the still-trembling Haoran Sword.
At first he had looked at it and quite liked it. Now why did it look a bit of an eyesore?
——————
Zhu Yun Luo.
Only about two hundred li from the site of the clash.
According to what Cui Hao said, this was the gathering point he and Lin Luoyu had agreed upon.
Dong Gua thought this place was still somewhat too close, but her whole body was covered in injuries and she genuinely couldn't run much farther.
Right now, with a somewhat hideous expression, she was suppressing the blood qi that kept rolling and shredding her own flesh and blood from within. And this blood qi was extremely insidious — it specifically attacked the part of her divine sense that could numb pain. Once she numbed the pain, the blood qi would seize the moment and tear in.
Under the current situation, Dong Gua could only endure the pain head-on.
This blood qi was pure torture — it killed the body and wounded the spirit.
Under the intense pain, Dong Gua's heart was already somewhat irritated. But what irritated her even more was Cui Hao's still-muttering mouth at a time like this!
"We're done for, done for…" Cui Hao glanced in the direction they had come from, his tone anxious. "Did my Senior Sister fail to stop them? Are we going to keep being hunted?"
Dong Gua couldn't help but glance up at Cui Hao. This man didn't care at all about his own Senior Sister — he was entirely focused on whether his own life would be lost here.
Cui Hao's gaze turned to Dong Gua again, and he suddenly proposed:
"Can you still hold on? Why don't we run a bit more, find somewhere safer?"
Dong Gua forcefully endured her irritation and the pain.
"Given the talent your Senior Sister has shown, the Evil Spirit Sect might not dare truly harm her. They're being hunted by the Buddhist Sect right now."
"If they kill a Haoran cultivator on top of that, and you all have ties to the Tai Dao Sect, then across the entire Eastern Divine Continent, there will be no place left for them."
"They must have important business here. They won't go out of their way to cause extra trouble."
Cui Hao was startled at his words, his expression instantly softening.
"Then with my peerless genius, if they catch me, wouldn't they have to enshrine and serve me?"
Having said this much, Cui Hao looked at Dong Gua with some disdain and said:
"Why didn't you say so earlier? If I'd known, I wouldn't have run."
Dong Gua's face finally turned hideous.
Not because she couldn't endure the pain — because she couldn't endure Cui Hao's face anymore.
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