Eternal Evil Emperor

"Running quite fast!"

Zhao Xuyang slowly emerged from the dense forest, his gaze landing on the fleeing, frail figure a hundred yards away. It wasn't until Xie Tian disappeared that he coldly asked the woman beside him, "Did you see clearly this time?"

Struggle filled the woman's eyes, and after a painful hesitation, she nodded, "Yes, it's him. Please, keep your promise, find him, and then... then let me go..."

"Heh, since when have you heard of Hexi thieves releasing someone?" Zhao Xuyang mocked with a smile, gesturing grandly, "Take her away, do as you please, just don't kill her!"

Master Li Yuanyang, shaking his dark bone fan, slowly stepped forward and glanced at the crying, struggling woman. With a half-amused tone, he said, "Zhao, going back on your word isn't a trait of the strong. How about handing her over to me for safekeeping?"

Zhao Xuyang's brows rose in derision, "A woman? The hardest creatures to kill in this world are women. In my hands, she might just survive; in your hands, Li Yuanyang, I fear even her bones would be crushed and marrow sucked!"

"Haha, the Demon speaks true!" Ten or so leaders appeared together, and the Lord of the Evil God Fort 'Old Undying' chuckled sinisterly, "Li Yuanyang, she just killed one of your men. Besides, didn't your man kill her whole family of five and then desecrate her? Why must you insist on vengeance and further torment a weak woman?"

Li Yuanyang was unfazed, smiling as he folded his iron bone fan, "Enough, let's focus on our pressing concerns. Though we control the area within ten miles, this lad is quite peculiar. I couldn't see through his cultivation level; if we're careless, we might end up laboring in vain this time."

"Indeed, this lad performed strangely on the ten battlefields." Zhao Xuyang pulled out a map and after a moment's reflection, his pupils suddenly narrowed, and he exclaimed, "Old Undying, was your man, who was at the fifth level of the brute force stage, injured during the attack?"

Old Undying, the leader at the entrance of the Hexi Corridor which was also the first battlefield, immediately nodded, "I wouldn't see wrong. Though not heavily wounded, he lost over twenty percent of his blood! In my view, his cultivation couldn't be higher than the fifth level of the brute force stage!"

"Otherwise, my men accounted for five at the sixth level. Although this lad was injured, how could one at the fifth level possibly kill five in a coordinated attack?"

"Heh, it's utterly ridiculous! I just want to know if there's been an instance in the past decade or so on the martial arts world front where anyone of the fifth level attacked close to the ninth level!"

...

The leaders heatedly debated, but Li Yuanyang stayed silent, his triangular eyes flickering mysteriously. He guessed Zhao Xuyang's thoughts, and sure enough, Zhao's eyes flashed, and he declared, "That's it, this lad deserves to die a thousand deaths!"

The leaders were taken aback and hastened to ask, "Demon, what do you mean by that?"

"Heh, I think I grasp what Master Zhao means," Li Yuanyang shook his iron bone fan calmly and smiled, "I suppose you all have heard these two words."

"What two words?"

Li Yuanyang chuckled lightly and uttered two chilling words, "Kill cultivation."

The leaders were staggered as if struck by lightning.

"Kill cultivation!"

"How is that possible!"

"In today's world, who dares to take such an abhorred path of cultivation!"

...

"Do you still not understand?" Li Yuanyang closed his fan and sinisterly explained, "Starting from Old Undying to my Evil God Fort, we have ten battlefields; the Hexi thieves who died tragically at these places had their cultivation incrementally increasing from the fifth to the eighth level of the brute force stage. Plus, although this lad was wounded every time, his combat power surged significantly... need I say more?"

"He must die!"

"Such act in our Hexi warrants a thousand cuts!"

The leaders' rage peaked in an instant, and seizing the opportunity, Li Yuanyang's triangular eyes narrowed into slits, "Since the inception of us Hexi thieves, even with many masters emerging in the martial arts world, none have dared to slight us. Since the Bloody Battle decades ago, our prestige has declined, year after year. Thus, I have a proposal that can restore our might in one fell swoop!"

Zhao Xuyang's brows twitched, and he declared coldly, "I, the Flame Evil Demon, don't ask for much, just the chance to personally carve him up a thousand times!"

"Hahaha, Master Zhao, rest assured, you shall personally flay him alive when the time comes," Li Yuanyang was delighted but concealed his emotions, and said indifferently, "My proposal is to use this event to rally the Hexi thieves, capture this villain openly, then publicly execute him by dismemberment, and spread the news far and wide to boost the might of Hexi thieves!"

"Good!"

"Let's do as you suggest!"

"Li Yuanyang, since you excel in tracking, it's up to you to capture that lad. We'll prepare to leave immediately!"

...

As he watched the leaders depart, a hint of triumph flashed across Li Yuanyang's lips. No longer delaying, he turned and executed light body techniques, pursuing in the direction Xie Tian fled.

"Yuanyang, having lost almost everything, yet possessing such battle prowess—if I could master that cultivation technique..." Li Yuanyang suppressed the excitement in his heart, and as he followed the scent of blood on Xie Tian, he moved rapidly.

As Xie Tian reached the seventh level of brute force stage, his speed increased significantly compared to his time on Anlan Mountain, yet his sense of crisis did not diminish but grew even stronger.

Though no one seemed to be chasing him for the time being, that did not mean he was safe. Xie Tian felt as though hostility was emanating from all directions, a sensation his killing instinct did not misinterpret.

Suddenly, while running, Xie Tian abruptly stopped and hid behind a tree. Shortly after, an extremely faint sound came from twenty yards to his right, the rustling of clothes against bushes.

In that instant, Xie Tian finally realized, he was surrounded by Hexi thieves.

He couldn't fathom how his tracing at Anlan Mountain had been exposed, and as he thought of countless Hexi thieves searching the mountains for him, Xie Tian's body couldn't help but tremble slightly.

He believed that once he really exposed his tracks, even with the ability to turn the sky upside down, he couldn't surpass the great mountain formed by the River West thieves.

After the searching River West thieves had left, Xie Tian did not hesitate to take off the backpack from his back, only taking out a few small items to carry with him. He then rearranged his backpack and, after counting thirty breaths silently, he threw the backpack with all his might towards the north, while he himself crouched down and changed direction to return to the cave where he had initially hidden.

Two hours later, Li Yuanyang stopped in front of the backpack. He bent down to pick it up, but just as he was about to touch the backpack, his right hand stopped.

"Hehe, what a cunning lad, you almost had me fooled,"

Li Yuanyang said in a relaxed tone, but in his heart, he was truly startled. If he had really picked up the backpack, despite his profound Inner Strength, he might not have been able to save his entire right palm.

For this seemingly inconspicuous backpack was smeared with Poisonous Ganoderma.

Poisonous Ganoderma was colorless and tasteless, a special product from Mulan City's Mo Mountain, extremely toxic. There was no need for blood contact; as long as it touched skin, the Poisonous Ganoderma Liquid would seep in. Within half an hour, the meridians of the contacted area would completely necrotize.

Although this poison was colorless and tasteless, seemingly extremely formidable, it was rarely used by martial artists because of one characteristic of Poisonous Ganoderma; once exposed to air, it gradually solidified into a gel-like substance.

Li Yuanyang had discerned that the outer surface of the backpack was somewhat dry and hard, which led him to think of the Poisonous Ganoderma Liquid. He couldn't help but exhale a cold breath, his regard for Xie Tian increasing further.

Ten breaths later, Li Yuanyang reached the tree where Xie Tian had hidden. He sniffed carefully with his nose, then looking in the direction he had come from, he sneered, "Nice try with the diversion, but it's useless!"

After speaking, Li Yuanyang leapt up to the top of the tree in several bounds, sucked in his lips, and blew out a melodious whistle. The whistle fluctuated, varying in length and pitch, understandable only to the River West thieves who could discern the hidden message within the sound.

As soon as the whistling faded away, nearly a thousand River West thieves formed an oval encirclement that narrowed down, with the center pointing towards the cave where Xie Tian had hidden; soon the formation returned to a round shape.

At this moment, Xie Tian halted his stride, looking towards the sinister cave a hundred feet away, shivering involuntarily.

"Tracking..."

Xie Tian sniffed his body odor, realizing he had neglected something, but now with the River West thieves' encirclement tightening immensely, attempting to rid himself of the scent was futile; his only option left was to force a breakthrough.

With this thought, Xie Tian sat cross-legged on the ground, regulated his breathing, and practiced his cultivation technique for a while. When his sense of danger reached its peak, he sped toward the northeast at his fastest speed.

"Who?"

"There's someone!"

"I spotted him!"

"Hurry send the sig... Ah!"

...

With Xie Tian behind and the others in front, when the mace pierced through the necks of three River West thieves and stabbed into the tree trunk, Xie Tian had already reached the side of the tree!

He pulled out the mace with one hand, formed a fist with his left hand, his shoulder trembling thrice, the force of his punch like a tiger, brutally hitting a River West thief who was just getting out near the tree trunk!

The first form of Tiger Soul Fist—Fierce Tiger Down the Mountain!

After killing four River West thieves of the seventh level of brute force, Xie Tian breathed slightly rapidly. He had no time to even out his breath as dozens of River West thieves within a radius of several tens of feet were swiftly closing in, the sound of footsteps indicating there were no less than ten people.

Pulling out a handful of something from his chest and scattering it behind him carelessly, Xie Tian's right leg kicked fiercely, and he continued rushing toward the northeast like an arrow. Just as he dashed not more than ten feet, the sound of whooshing suddenly came from behind, and without hesitation, he tucked his body and rolled to the side. Just as he rolled one foot away, three iron arrows fiercely plunged into the spot where he had just stood!

"**** it, try running again!"

Xie Tian did not run again but instead faced the direction from which the arrows had been shot; he knew that the three iron arrows were shot by the same person, and even someone at the ninth level of brute force wouldn't dare to expose their back to such a fearsome archer.

After three consecutive arrows failed to take down the target, the archer was extremely infuriated. Seeing Xie Tian no longer fleeing but turning to face him, as if deeply fearful of his archery, he took aim at Xie Tian walking out from the woods and sneered menacingly, "Killing my River West thieves, you really... Ah!"

The moment the archer screamed in agony, Xie Tian burst forth; he had to eliminate his opponent while the archer stepped into the ox hair needle trap. Otherwise, he would never escape.

But he had barely taken two steps when he abruptly stopped, his pupils shrinking as he looked to the left.

The next moment, he flung the mace at the archer with all his might, then frantically fled towards the northeast.

"Come to your death!"

Li Yuanyang, his face ashen, retracted his black bone fan that had lost all its ribs and swiftly came beside the archer, only to find that what Xie Tian had left him was a body dripping with blood.

He never expected that just as he stepped within sixty feet, Xie Tian had noticed him and did not hesitate to flee, and before fleeing, he even used the mace to kill his most capable subordinate!

"With my black bone poison, let's see how far you can run!" He collected the ribs from the fan on the tree trunk, noticing one was missing, and a brutal smile appeared on Li Yuanyang's face.

An hour later, Li Yuanyang stood numbly inside the cave where Xie Tian had once hidden. In front of him were a set of tattered blood-stained clothes, a rib of ф fаn, a small pool of darkened flesh, and some charred tree branches.

Li Yuanyang knew that this flesh was what Xie Tian had gouged from his thigh, and the branches were used to stop the bleeding. He also knew that Xie Tian must have had golden sore medicine on him to stop the bleeding, but he had chosen a more cruel method.

Because only by searing the wound with burning charcoal could he quickly seal the wound and completely eliminate the scent of blood.

"You are_the first to escape from my hands, Li Yuanyang..."

Li Yuanyang's face once again broke into a smile, but his triangular eyes were incredibly cold, his fan-clutching fingers exposed veins, and in his heart, he felt an unparalleled sense of fear.

He would never have wanted to provoke such a ruthless person if it weren't for the secret of Yuanyang on Xie Tian's body.