Chapter 1152: Rushing to Stone City

"You don't need to sign a Divine Soul Contract with them; just put them away?" Zhu Youfu was utterly puzzled.

He hadn't seen Ye Liuyun sign a Divine Soul Contract with them.

"We got along fine with them earlier; no need now!"

Ye Liuyun smiled, made a joke with him, had him put away the Formation Plate, and continued forward.

His Nine Nether Prelude is far less troublesome than a Slave Seal!

The flying insects in the sky also finally began to retreat. If they don't leave now, they'll be wiped out by Ye Liuyun's Soul Army.

When they arrived, they covered the sky like a vast sheet; when they fled, only a small fragment remained.

The points on Ye Liuyun's Token had already reached over four hundred thousand.

"With over four hundred thousand points, the Fourth Prince is sure to win!" Zhu Youfu said firmly.

"Not necessarily! We could run into this kind of luck, and others could too!" Ye Liuyun said cautiously, without getting carried away.

"You just said the Crown Prince's people are following us? Should we eliminate them first to prevent them from playing dirty later?" Zhu Youfu asked Ye Liuyun.

Ye Liuyun extended his Divine Sense and found that the Crown Prince and his retinue were not within its range.

"They're not within my Divine Sense's range. Let's talk after we leave this canyon!"

Ye Liuyun also didn't insist on taking revenge on the Crown Prince's followers.

Since he had already promised Emperor Xia, he would absolutely not move against the Crown Prince—unless the Crown Prince struck first.

As for others, Ye Liuyun didn't take them to heart; sooner or later he'd have a chance to deal with them.

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince and his group were battling a swarm of evil rats in an underground space.

Their fight was also quite easy. Using a fire-spewing divine artifact, the three of them took turns pouring True Essence into it, continuously spraying fire into the rat burrows.

The evil rats surged forward in crowds, using their bodies to block the flames.

For each evil rat they killed, they likewise earned a point. And these evil rats were countless, slaughter without end!

"Your Highness! You're sure to win this time! Here we can at least gain over two hundred thousand points!" a Martial Cultivator exclaimed happily.

The Crown Prince also felt the points were indeed plenty, but he still regarded Ye Liuyun as a threat.

"I hope Ye Liuyun can't find such a good scoring opportunity! I always feel that with him around, he's a threat to me!"

He now regrets not having befriended Ye Liuyun earlier.

If Ye Liuyun could come help him, he would be sure to win.

"Will that herd of Earth Demon Oxen I just drove off kill him?" another Martial Cultivator asked.

The Crown Prince shook his head and laughed: "Kill him? Not that easy! At most it would drain some of his resources and cause him trouble. You don't need to think about it. Moreover, judging by the Token, they're still moving forward."

"This kid sure has some skill! I wonder how he dealt with that herd of mad oxen!" the Martial Cultivator who had driven off the Earth Demon Oxen muttered.

After wiping out the rat swarm, the Crown Prince prudently had the others transfer their points to his Token first, so that if anything happened to them, the points wouldn't go to someone else.

Then they continued to follow Ye Liuyun from a distance.

The Crown Prince also knew not to get too close, so they kept their distance outside Ye Liuyun's Divine Sense range.

Ye Liuyun's Token could also sense their general direction.

Seeing that the Crown Prince's group kept a steady distance from him, he simply destroyed those three Tokens outright.

Anyway, they already had plenty of points, so losing those few points in the Tokens didn't matter.

He was afraid that if the Crown Prince followed him, he'd find Stone City.

But Ye Liuyun's group was basically moving in a straight line, so his direction was easy to guess. The Crown Prince had already figured out that Ye Liuyun must have found some clue; otherwise he wouldn't keep going straight.

So when the Crown Prince discovered those three Tokens had vanished, he didn't think much of it; he just kept going in the original direction.

Ye Liuyun didn't have time to set traps for him; it was better to buy time and try to reach Stone City ahead of the Crown Prince.

As for tricks like beast swarms, Ye Liuyun also felt they wouldn't do much harm to the Crown Prince.

Even if he set a trap, he'd have to make it vicious—so as not to let Emperor Xia blame him, and also not let the Crown Prince's crew pass easily; at least he'd have to take out a few lackeys.

If he didn't act, fine; but if he did, he had to strike hard.

So Ye Liuyun wasn't in a rush; he kept waiting for an opportunity.

Meanwhile, the Seventh Prince's entourage had obviously also noticed that their direction of advance hadn't changed.

"I'm afraid my older brother has discovered some clue!"

The Seventh Prince immediately sent a group to take a detour and get ahead of the Crown Prince's party as fast as possible.

However, he didn't know that Ye Liuyun was ahead of the Crown Prince.

The men he sent, after going around the Crown Prince, then rushed straight toward Ye Liuyun's direction.

After gaining a large number of points, Ye Liuyun, in order to speed up his journey, hardly killed any ferocious beasts; whenever he encountered a beast herd, if he could detour, he would do so as much as possible.

He learned from Qin Peng that defending a city is far easier than attacking one.

Therefore he needed to get there as quickly as possible.

At the same time, he also notified the Fourth Prince, telling him and his entourage to rush over as quickly as possible, lest someone else get there first.

The Fourth Prince likewise immediately notified the others.

But most people were thinking about how to gain more opportunities for themselves, and they weren't particularly keen on the matter of defending the city.

Fortunately, it wasn't just the Fourth Prince's retinue; the other princes' entourages felt the same way—all wanted to seize the chance to profit, so their advance was slow.

Even the princes themselves had to look out for treasure-hunting opportunities for their retinues; they couldn't simply rush ahead on their own.

Otherwise, once danger struck, they wouldn't even have anyone to protect them—and that would mean total defeat in this battle.

Therefore they all believed that even if they arrived a bit late, as long as they had reinforcements, they still had a chance to turn things around.

Ye Liuyun and Zhu Youfu were hurrying along when he suddenly called Zhu Youfu to a halt.

His Divine Sense detected that nearby there was a valley emanating Demon Qi.

Moreover, he discovered that five of the Seventh Prince's men were at the valley's entrance, preparing to go in and explore.

Their divine sense was not as strong as Ye Liuyun's, so they also didn't discover them.

Ye Liuyun thought, since they had already encountered it, he absolutely had to go there to investigate; he couldn't miss this opportunity.

Moreover, he also wanted to find an opportunity to seize all five of their tokens.

"Demon Qi?"

Just now, when Ye Liuyun was fighting the Skeleton Puppet, Zhu Youfu already knew that Ye Liuyun could emit Demon Qi.

But having him follow him inside, he was somewhat worried that he himself could not withstand the corrosion of Demon Qi.