At this moment, Xie Feng was nearly driven mad. She distinctly sensed that the secret mark she had placed upon the Chaos Golden Lotus had been destroyed. There were only two possibilities for such a situation. The first was that the other party had discovered the hidden mark and used magic to dispel it. The second possibility was far worse: it meant the medicine thief had damaged the Chaos Golden Lotus, inadvertently destroying the mark in the process. The damage to a spiritual herb was defined by almost one thing: the thief had directly consumed the Chaos Golden Lotus whole. This outcome was something Xie Feng could never accept.

Immediately, Xie Feng charged headlong in the direction where the mark had last vanished, relying on her divine sense. In her human form, she violently crashed into the heavy, solid rock at the bottom of the Styx River Valley. With a resounding crash, she smashed straight through the rock, her body tearing through the stone. In that instant, she was practically transformed into a bipedal tyrannosaur; nothing could stand in her way.

Whether the rock was several zhang thick or dozens of zhang thick, she burst through, leaving long tunnels in her wake. A cultivator at the Divine Transformation stage—that mighty and ultimate power—was simply not comparable to ordinary living beings.

Such a resounding, strange noise naturally did not escape Lei Dong’s perception. After a brief pause, his expression immediately changed. As the sounds of shuddering impact against the stone walls grew closer, the target was clearly aimed directly at him. Lei Dong, naturally cautious and sharp, immediately realized that no matter what method the pursuer used to lock onto him, that person was coming for him. Lei Dong reacted with extreme speed, immediately swallowing the nine Chaos Golden Lotus seeds in one gulp. A cool sensation instantly flooded his body, transforming into supremely pure Profound Yin True Essence, causing him to shiver violently. He raised a hand, blasted open the massive stone blocking the tunnel entrance, and his figure transformed into a faint ghostly shadow, fleeing desperately toward the deepest recesses of the cliff cave.

In a mere seven or eight breaths, the hidden small opening where Lei Dong had been moments before was violently smashed open by Xie Feng. She sniffed lightly, and the chill on her face was immediately overlaid with a layer of frosty killing intent. Gritting her teeth, she hissed, “It’s that cunning brat! He actually ate the Chaos Golden Lotus whole! I swear I will make him wish he were dead.” After letting out a mournful, desperate cry, she pursued with brutal force in the direction Lei Dong had fled. Lei Dong had not been gone long; the residual scent had not yet dissipated.

That faint cry faintly reached Lei Dong’s ears, immediately letting him know that the person pursuing him was not the Insect Emperor he had anticipated, but Xie Feng. Instantly, the anxiety and unease in his heart intensified several times over. After all, the Insect Emperor had been severely injured by his schemes, and although Lei Dong was still no match for him, the gap between them was significantly smaller. Xie Feng had also suffered some injuries after fighting Lei Long, but compared to the Insect Emperor’s wounds, hers were almost negligible.

Furthermore, Xie Feng’s ability to press an advantage far surpassed that of the Insect Emperor, and the Phoenix Clan was renowned throughout the world for its speed.

The booming sound of breaking through stone grew ever closer, and Xie Feng’s grief-stricken, piercing cry, filled with killing intent, made every hair on Lei Dong’s body stand on end. Given the disparity in their strength and the profound hatred contained within that cry, the consequences if Xie Feng caught up were easy to imagine.

The immense pressure forced Lei Dong to exert unprecedented speed, igniting the potential hidden within his body. Profound Yin True Essence circulated wildly within him, infusing every single cell of his body with power. The speed of the Ghost Shadow Escape was pushed to its absolute limit; phantom images multiplied, covering seven or eight zhang in a flash, leaving a trail of afterimages in his wake.

Under this forced exertion of speed, Xie Feng could not close the distance between them for the time being. This did not mean that Lei Dong’s speed surpassed Xie Feng’s; quite the opposite. If they were in normal circumstances, such as an open area, at such a short distance, Lei Dong would likely be caught within a few dozen breaths. However, they were currently deep within the labyrinthine rock caves at the bottom of the river valley, where passages were inextricably tangled and utterly chaotic. Lei Dong’s Ghost Shadow Escape was precisely famous for its strangeness and agility, making it ideally suited for environments of extreme topographical complexity; straightforward flight was not where it excelled.

Moreover, as Lei Dong fled, he deliberately chose the most complex routes possible. Xie Feng, in pursuit, had to constantly smash through walls. Although she was immensely powerful, every heavy layer of rock she broke through reduced her speed to a certain degree. Thus, a delicate balance was struck between the two.

In the chase, an unusual sensation gradually arose within Lei Dong. The nine Chaos Lotus seeds dissolved inside him, their peculiar medicinal properties constantly surging through his meridians, washing over every inch of his flesh and blood. This process also cleansed the fatigue brought on by his violent escape, invigorating the hidden power within his body.

It was fortunate that his high-speed escape consumed True Essence; otherwise, the boundless power of the Chaos Lotus seeds would have been too much for him to bear. The massive expenditure allowed the pure energy of the seeds to replenish it, and under this constant cycle of consumption, replenishment, and nourishment, his meridians, blood vessels, and cells were undergoing a marvelous transformation, causing a faint golden radiance to emerge around his body.

The Chaos Golden Lotus only grows where Chaos Spiritual Qi congregates, and all the nourishment it requires for development and growth comes from the purest life energy in heaven and earth: Chaos Spiritual Qi. This shows the monstrous degree of its medicinal potency. Even though this was an immature Chaos Golden Lotus, and its seeds were not fully ripened, it was still one of the most supreme spiritual herbs in existence. Ingesting nine seeds at once unleashed an extremely potent force. To fully refine that power for one’s own use was no easy task.

The chase continued, and in the blink of an eye, several hours passed. Although the True Essence of high-level cultivators is immense, under full exertion and intense consumption, if it cannot be replenished in time, exhaustion will eventually set in. At least, this was the case for both Lei Dong and Xie Feng now. In these few short hours, Lei Dong had traversed an unknown distance through the web-like stalactite caves. Even the power contained within the nine Chaos Golden Lotus seeds had been entirely consumed. The supreme elixirs he had taken along the way to replenish True Essence had been overdosed, leaving his meridians fatigued and unable to bear further strain. Small streaks of blood had begun to seep from his pores—a classic symptom of overusing True Essence. If he continued, he risked bleeding from all seven orifices and rupturing his meridians, leading to severe injury.

Yet, Lei Dong had no choice but to persist, for Xie Feng still clung tightly behind him, seemingly determined to give up only upon achieving her goal. She likely hated Lei Dong intensely, as the Chaos Golden Lotus was crucial for her advancement to the Mid-Stage of the Divine Transformation realm. Moreover, his theft had directly forced her to break the meditative trance she had maintained for two hundred years.

However, just as Lei Dong was nearing his limit, Xie Feng was no better off. With the effects of her meditative trance activated, she operated at nearly the level of a Mid-Stage Divine Transformation cultivator, smashing through a rock wall being effortless, even a hundred or a thousand walls posing no issue. But in this chase, she had broken through perhaps ten thousand walls. Even boundless power has a point of exhaustion, especially for a cultivator at the Divine Transformation stage. Consequently, by this point in the pursuit, Xie Feng was also at the end of her tether. The power she had erupted with via her meditative trance had been depleted over these hours of pursuit, dropping her back down to the level of an Early-Stage Divine Transformation cultivator. Unfortunately, no matter how hard she chased, she could not catch that detestable Nascent Soul boy.

That brat was exceedingly cunning; his escape routes were unpredictable, seemingly done on impulse. Furthermore, he periodically released some of the suicidal ghost soldiers he kept to ambush her. Although her cultivation level meant she did not fear those explosions, the constant harassment severely unsettled her mood, making her irascible. Not only did this lead to repeated errors during the pursuit, but her rising temper also caused her to exert significantly more energy than necessary. Otherwise, her power reserves might have lasted a while longer.

“Senior Xie Feng, celestial treasures go to those fated to receive them. I have already consumed the Chaos Golden Lotus, Senior. Even if you shatter my bones, it will be to no avail,” Lei Dong felt he was near his absolute limit, so he gritted his teeth and decided to attempt one last negotiation: “Perhaps I can offer some compensation to make up for your loss.”

“Hmph, brat, you steal the Chaos Golden Lotus and still expect to live?” Xie Feng’s resentful and enraged voice drifted to Lei Dong’s ears. “Compensation? What can you offer as compensation? I seek nothing else now. Even if another Chaos Golden Lotus were here, I would slay you first to quell the hatred in my heart!”

Lei Dong had attempted similar negotiations many times during this flight. But every time, the outcome was largely the same.

It seemed Xie Feng’s temper was truly obstinate. Fortunately, Lei Dong’s desperate escape had stimulated some of the potential within his body, and the benefits from the Chaos Lotus seeds were immense, with most of the effect going into improving his meridians and blood vitality—his very foundation.

As a result, although Lei Dong had only recently advanced to the Nascent Soul stage and was still in the process of stabilizing his realm, with the help of the Chaos Lotus seeds, his overall comprehensive quality had seen a huge and obvious increase. This advancement was equivalent to at least seventy or eighty years of arduous cultivation, making his Nascent Soul realm incredibly stable. Faintly, it seemed he was approaching the peak of the Early Nascent Soul stage, on the verge of breaking through at any moment.

This efficiency was astonishing. This was merely an immature Chaos Golden Lotus, yet it saved Lei Dong at least seventy or eighty years of hard cultivation. Such a spiritual object was truly rare. Sadly, while Lei Dong enjoyed its benefits, he was being chased by Xie Feng like a stray dog, miserable to the extreme—a true example of fortune being intertwined with disaster.

Suddenly, Lei Dong slipped through a narrow path into an open area where the ceiling was studded with various stalactites. His heart immediately sank; he thought, This is big trouble. If they were in a narrow, winding section, he had some chance of escape. But in this open area?... ((To be continued))