Chapter Seventy: Mysterious Pursuit

Within the territory of Azure Snow County lay a mountain range known as the Frostwood, spanning Azure Snow and dozens of other counties. At this moment, deep within the Frostwood, a young man clad in white robes darted swiftly between the trees.

His features were refined, yet his eyes carried a cold, fierce light. Blood dripped from the blade in his hand, still fresh, clearly from a recent encounter.

The youth moved with extreme speed; in a single leap, his body bent and twisted, covering dozens of yards at once. Soon, he stopped beneath a towering tree.

He had barely paused when his gaze flickered, and in an instant, he vanished from sight.

A moment later, three burly men in black martial robes burst from the thick undergrowth. Muscular and savage, their faces wore deadly expressions that would chill the heart of any onlooker. Clearly, they were ruthless bandits accustomed to murder and plunder.

They strode straight to the spot where the youth had lingered, as if they knew he had rested there moments before.

One of them crouched at the site, his enormous hand, as broad as a cauldron, pressed against the snowy ground. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he spotted a crimson stain at the tree's roots.

Standing, he addressed the largest of the trio, "Boss, the kid just left. The blood hasn’t frozen yet. If we hurry, we can catch him!"

The boss grinned with murderous glee. "Finally caught up with that little bastard. Damn it, I’ve lost nearly half my men just for his worthless life!"

"If we’d known earlier that he was under the Jiang family's protection, we wouldn’t have taken the Liu family’s assassination contract or sent men after him. But now, we have to eliminate him for good. If the Jiang family finds out we targeted someone under their care, we’re all dead."

He thought of his Shadow Mercenary Group—a formidable organization of over five hundred, with twenty Qi Vessel cultivators, more than eighty Qi Channeling experts, and himself, a newly advanced Pulse Master.

When he accepted the Liu family's bounty, they claimed Lin Fan was only at the middle stage of Qi Channeling. He hadn’t thought much of it.

Yet, tempted by the astronomical reward and the competition from other groups, he dispatched ten Qi Vessel experts and over forty Qi Channeling fighters.

Excluding the lower ranks, he had mobilized half of his core and elite forces, all for Lin Fan’s head and the Liu family’s reward.

To his shock, in less than three days, news reached him at the Shadow headquarters: his entire force had been wiped out.

This stunned him. With the strength he’d sent, not even a late-stage Qi Vessel cultivator could survive, let alone a mid-stage Qi Channeling one. How could they all be annihilated?

His first suspicion was that another group had taken the opportunity to destroy Shadow.

But he quickly dismissed the idea; only a coalition of the top three families could accomplish such a feat, and they would never join forces.

He then launched a thorough investigation into Lin Fan. What he discovered left him reeling.

Lin Fan was not only a scion of the rising Panlong City family but also a prodigious youth, possessing the power to challenge Qi Vessel cultivators while still in the middle stage of Qi Channeling.

Most importantly, he was under the protection of the Jiang family—the foremost clan in Azure Snow County.

At that, he could no longer sit still. When he took the bounty, he’d been lured by the huge reward and his group’s strength, not caring who Lin Fan was—just another minor clan member from Azure Snow County.

For mercenary groups like his, taking assassination contracts was routine. Even if the target was a top ten clan member, he would dare strike—except for those under the Jiang family’s aegis.

The Jiang family’s power was overwhelming, affecting even neighboring counties. His group was based in Zhan Tian County, adjacent to Azure Snow.

Should the Jiang family learn he’d attacked a Lin family member under their protection, even a mere suggestion from them could prompt their allies in Zhan Tian to crush his mercenary group.

He himself, as a Pulse Master, had little to fear, but his organization could be destroyed overnight.

Everyone aspires to dominance; he had just established a foothold and did not wish to lose it now.

Yet, things had gone too far. To prevent any leaks, he had to act personally and ensure Lin Fan’s death.

With no hesitation, he brought his second and third brothers and pursued Lin Fan directly.

Arriving in the Frostwood, he learned that not only had his Shadow Group suffered heavy losses, but so had Seven Kill, Broken Army, and other groups of similar strength; many of their experts had also fallen.

Like him, the other leaders had gathered their best fighters and rushed over.

Of course, small mercenary bands, unaware of their fate, continued to join the hunt, only to be slaughtered—the blood on the ground belonged to their fallen members.

"After him!" Without another word, the Shadow leader signaled, and with his brothers, vanished into the woods.

Shortly after their disappearance, several more parties arrived, pursuing the same trail.

After some time, when no more appeared, the snow at the root of the distant tree stirred. A figure emerged—it was none other than Lin Fan.

"So that’s why I’ve been hunted—this is the Liu family’s doing!"

Lin Fan’s eyes narrowed. He had only just left Panlong City for the Frostwood, less than three days ago, and had been constantly ambushed; his attackers wasted no words, striking immediately.

He showed no mercy to such foes—he killed them all.

His injuries had healed, his vitality threads numbering over one hundred seventy, equivalent to seventeen thousand in normal terms.

It was common knowledge that reaching the Qi Vessel stage required fusing one’s vitality threads into a single strand—the threshold was ten thousand threads. This transformation caused both a quantitative and qualitative change, making the energy purer and stronger. A freshly advanced Qi Vessel practitioner’s single strand was as potent as twenty thousand threads in Qi Channeling.

Lin Fan was just three thousand threads short of merging his energy, and with the Wind-Thunder Force, his combat power increased fivefold. His sheer energy matched that of a three-aperture Qi Vessel master.

In other words, his energy alone placed him among the three-aperture Qi Vessel ranks. If he invoked Blade Intent, no one in Qi Vessel could withstand a single blow.

And that was just considering his energy and Blade Intent.

In truth, he hardly needed either. Having consumed the First Witch bloodline, his physical strength had reached nine million pounds—a half-step Pulse Master, able to crush any Qi Vessel peak expert with brute force alone.

Any Qi Vessel peak expert who faced him up close would be swatted dead, as easily as a fly.

Of course, if he couldn’t get close, he would rely on energy and Blade Intent.

Yet, despite killing these attackers, he learned nothing of who had sent them.

All were mercenary group members, following orders to kill him and claim the bounty. Beyond that, they knew nothing.

He yearned to discover who had placed a bounty on his head and what grudge lay behind it. So many mercenary organizations hunting him proved just how tempting the reward was.

Now, on the tenth day since entering the Frostwood, he had slaughtered over a dozen waves of mercenary groups.

Some bands numbered in the dozens, others only a handful; their strongest were Qi Vessel peak, their weakest mere Body Tempering novices.

Yet each attacked him with the frenzy of starving dogs, desperate to tear him apart.

He had been hunted endlessly for unknown reasons, but a day ago, he noticed fewer pursuers—though their strength had suddenly increased.

Now, only seven or eight groups sought him out, their weakest members Qi Vessel peak, their strongest Pulse Masters.

Against such odds, he could only evade.

Had his wounds not healed, and his soul force not surpassed even most Pulse Masters, allowing him to sense their approach early, he would have already been surrounded and killed.

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