Chapter 551: Counter-Hunting

On February 9th, Xu Jin condensed the first Nine-Horned Cloud Tower of his life.

Under internal vision, a Cloud Tower stood within his body, connecting the Lower Shang Xinggong and the Middle Shang Xinggong, though it could not be called magnificent.

Yet, among the nineteen layers of the Cloud Tower, eighteen were eight-horned, and one was nine-horned; if manifested, it would also possess a sense of grandeur.

Xu Jin sensed it carefully; the total amount of star power in a single Nine-Horned Cloud Tower was over fifteen percent more than that of an Eight-Horned Cloud Tower.

Xu Jin had attempted to re-condense the previously formed Eight-Horned Cloud Towers into Nine-Horned ones.

But he failed.

Once a Cloud Tower is formed, it is difficult to change.

Unless one abandons their cultivation and starts over.

The disadvantages of shattering a tower and re-cultivating are too many; just one point alone makes everyone shrink back in fear.

When shattering the tower, it will damage the Middle and Lower Star Palaces.

The Middle and Lower Star Palaces are the foundation of cultivation; if these are damaged, the consequences are unpredictable.

Even if a Nine-Horned Cloud Tower were forged, it would be a dangerous tower.

Therefore, the thought of shattering the tower to re-cultivate only flashed through Xu Jin's mind before being dismissed by him.

It wasn't worth that little bit.

Because of Xu Jin's deliberate control, this nineteenth layer, the Nine-Horned Cloud Tower, was condensed by him at the very bottom layer.

Subsequently, Xu Jin took out a Seventh-Tier Purification Pearl and began to condense the Cloud Tower once more.

Originally, condensing one layer of an Eight-Horned Cloud Tower took at most three Seventh-Tier Purification Pearls, but now, it required three and a half.

Seven Seventh-Tier Purification Pearls were needed to condense two layers of Nine-Horned Cloud Towers.

The consumption of Sixth-Tier Purification Pearls was even greater.

In this way, the thirty-two Seventh-Tier Purification Pearls Xu Jin had harvested in the Limit-Breaking Secret Realm last time were not considered many; fortunately, he had also harvested over two hundred Sixth-Tier Purification Pearls, which could support Xu Jin's cultivation for a period of time.

Last time in the Limit-Breaking Secret Realm, because Xu Jin was waiting to deduce the Ninth-Tier Star Pattern in order to condense the Nine-Layered Cloud Tower, most of those twenty-one days were spent strengthening the eight-layer star patterns.

Now, however, he had immediately strengthened the relevant Lightning Source, Earth Source, and Space Source star patterns to the ninth layer and begun condensing the Cloud Tower.

With sufficient Seventh-Tier Purification Pearls and day-and-night bitter cultivation, he could condense one layer of the Cloud Tower in less than a day.

Two days later, on February 12th, Xu Jin had already condensed twenty-one layers of the Cloud Tower within his body, three of which were Nine-Horned Cloud Towers, and the fourth Nine-Horned Cloud Tower was currently being condensed; his star power cultivation could be considered to have made great progress.

On the morning of the 12th, Xu Jin began his daily routine of activating the special star arts of the Mingji Star Pattern, "Heaven-Man Sensing" and "Eye of Oversight," to determine the safety situation.

There had been no abnormalities for the past few days, so Xu Jin had reduced his safety sensing to three times a day, once every four hours.

If there were no abnormalities for a few more days, he would reduce it to once a day.

The moment his mind sank into the Mingji Star Pattern and he activated the Heaven-Man Sensing star art, Xu Jin's expression suddenly turned stern.

Amidst the dread in his heart, the Heaven-Man Sensing star art had already brought Xu Jin a faint sense of crisis.

This made Xu Jin's heart sink.

It's here again!

Then, where did this crisis come from?

The next instant, Xu Jin directly activated the Eye of Oversight, overlooking a range of over five thousand miles.

Because the place Xu Jin had chosen for his latent cultivation was far from Blood Moon City and the major cities of the alien races, and he was only cultivating near a small gathering city of an alien race, there were no Eighth-Tier powerhouses.

There wasn't even a single powerhouse at the late Seventh-Tier.

At this moment, under the observation of the Eye of Oversight, no aura of any Eighth-Tier powerhouse was discovered within a range of over five thousand miles.

Then, where did this crisis come from?

Although it was not strong, it was a potential crisis.

The three elements of a crisis: time, place, and person.

Normally, as long as any one of these elements changes, the danger will change or be eliminated accordingly.

Just like the incident of encountering a car accident when going out; theoretically, as long as the time of going out changes, or the travel route changes, one will not encounter a car accident.

The easiest element to change is the location.

The next instant, as Xu Jin's mind moved, spatial fluctuations rose, and his entire person disappeared on the spot.

After three consecutive spatial directional shifts, Xu Jin had already appeared in the depths of a nameless barren mountain two thousand four hundred miles away.

With Xu Jin's Space Source star pattern breaking through to the Ninth-Tier, coupled with the recent improvement in Xu Jin's spirit cultivation, the maximum distance of the spatial directional shift star art had increased from seven hundred miles to nearly eight hundred miles.

Being two or three thousand miles away from the previous location was far enough; the crisis should be resolved, right?

The next instant, Xu Jin activated the Heaven-Man Sensing star art again to sense the crisis.

The moment he sensed it, his heart turned stern again, and the sense of crisis struck.

It was even slightly stronger than before.

Under the Eye of Oversight, within five thousand miles, there were no Eighth-Tier powerhouses.

Xu Jin frowned; this wasn't right!

The spatial directional shift star art was activated continuously again; two breaths later, Xu Jin had already appeared four thousand miles away.

When he sensed it again, Xu Jin's brows were tightly locked.

The sense of crisis still existed, only a sliver weaker than before.

And under the Eye of Oversight, within five thousand miles, there was still no discovery of any Eighth-Tier.

Xu Jin's complexion turned gloomy in an instant.

Changing locations continuously, and at such a long distance, yet failing to resolve the crisis, only causing the sense of crisis to change slightly, made Xu Jin certain of one thing: he had been tracked.

His massive divine sense washed over his entire body like water, discovering no abnormalities.

After the Lingtai star art and the Purification star art were operated in turns, Xu Jin activated the Heaven-Man Sensing star art again; that sense of crisis remained.

Xu Jin's expression became even more solemn.

After various methods of elimination, he could basically determine that he had been tracked and locked onto by some secret technique exceeding his level of cognition.

This was the first time in history.

Who could it be?

Suddenly, Xu Jin thought of the time seven days ago, when, without any warning, the Ninth-Tier King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, had brought over twenty Eighth-Tier elites to surround and kill him.

There were even peak Eighth-Tier powerhouses specifically shaking the void to seal off space, making him unable to use spatial star arts to escape quickly.

The targeting was extremely strong.

At that time, he thought it was a coincidence.

But analyzing it now, it was not a coincidence.

It was that the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, had a certain understanding of him and knew he was proficient in spatial star arts.

But theoretically, the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, could not have such a clear understanding of his own strength.

Then there were only two sources that would allow the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, to learn that he was proficient in spatial star arts and deliberately set up an ambush.

One was the Blood God Sect calling for help.

The second was the traces left in the Limit-Breaking Secret Realm; in the Limit-Breaking Secret Realm, Xu Jin had once used spatial star arts and lightning-type star arts unscrupulously.

Both situations were possible.

Xu Jin had killed the Right Protector Lin Mingshi three times in Blood Moon City, and the time before and after was a full one or two hours, providing an opportunity to call for help.

But if it involved tracking secret techniques, Xu Jin was more inclined to the possibility that it was related to the Limit-Breaking Secret Realm.

Otherwise, how could the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, track him silently?

Now, Xu Jin was completely bewildered about the tracking.

He knew someone was tracking him, and he knew he had been subjected to a tracking secret technique, but he was helpless.

He could only wait!

Quietly wait for this crisis to arrive.

If the one bringing the crisis to Xu Jin this time was still the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, then this matter was confirmed.

However, Xu Jin was not a person who would sit and wait for death.

Last time he was ambushed by the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, Xu Jin's trump cards were nearly exhausted.

The greatest trump card for saving his life, the Seven-Kill Iron Wood Sword, was lost, and the Five-Element Rhyme Power used for bursting out at critical moments was also mostly consumed.

Now, there were only two hundred strands of Sharp Metal Rhyme left, and a little over one hundred strands of Heaven and Earth Fire Rhyme; the others, Nine Heavens Lightning Rhyme, Verdant Wood Rhyme, Profound Water Rhyme, and Earth Heart Soil Rhyme, had all been consumed previously, with only the twenty-one strands accumulated in the last few days remaining.

Therefore, if it really was the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, who came, although Xu Jin's strength had improved, the crisis he faced could only be more severe than the last time.

But this time, it was vastly different from seven days ago.

Seven days ago, Xu Jin was ambushed and surrounded.

Today, he knew in advance that the crisis was coming, and he was fighting a prepared battle.

Xu Jin could pre-set the battlefield; Xu Jin already had the advantage of terrain.

The next instant, Xu Jin stepped into the stars and rose, overlooking this barren mountain of strange rocks with only craggy rocks.

When friends come, there is fine wine.

When enemies come, shouldn't there be an ambush?

Xu Jin was best at pre-setting battlefields.

Based on the characteristics of his star arts, Xu Jin continuously deduced various situations and made various arrangements.

In the eastern part of the Eight Desolations Continent, on the broad back of a giant Hu Weng bird, the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, stood at the bird's head, his brows slightly furrowed.

Behind him were thirty-eight Eighth-Tier alien races with different cultivation levels.

Compared to last time, the number of late and peak Eighth-Tier alien races had reached eight.

Except for the three late Eighth-Tier powerhouses left to guard the Eight Desolations Royal Court, Envoy Ju Zhang had brought all the late Eighth-Tier powerhouses.

He had brought a full thirty Eighth-Tier alien races who were good at speed in the early and middle stages.

He had also brought most of the Eighth-Tier alien races.

The purpose of these Eighth-Tier alien races was not to fight, but to surround and press in. The main force of the battle was him and those eight peak late Eighth-Tier powerhouses.

The battle seven days ago had also taught the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, a lesson.

Especially since his clan uncle Elder Ju Chang's primordial spirit had been severely damaged, which cost him a huge price.

Three Sixth-Tier spirit medicines for the primordial spirit had not recovered it; in the end, he used one Seventh-Tier spirit medicine for the primordial spirit to completely restore Elder Ju Chang's severely damaged primordial spirit.

And as for Seventh-Tier spirit medicines for the primordial spirit, up to now, he, the King of the Eight Desolations, had only collected three.

However, coming out to fight this time, he had brought his clan uncle Elder Ju Chang along again.

Sealing off space was very critical.

Not only that, he also brought another Eighth-Tier Eight Desolations clan expert who could seal off space, Jin Kui, who was a powerhouse of the Gold Spirit clan.

As for this moment, the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, had a bit of a headache.

His father, True Person Jin Shuo, had already helped him resonate with the residual life imprint aura in that Limit-Breaking Secret Realm; this resonated life imprint aura could exist for at most six hours.

And within six hours, he could use that secret technique to sense this resonated life aura at most five times.

Every time he sensed it, the resonated life aura would weaken once.

After the fifth time, it would dissipate.

Up to now today, he had already resonated and sensed it three times.

But what made him quite depressed was that the target locations sensed by activating the secret technique the first two times were quite far apart.

They were actually moving at high speed.

He once thought he had been discovered.

Of course, it could also be a coincidence.

But if this coincidence continued, his pursuit operation this time would fail.

Failing to capture this person alive after locking onto the location twice in a row, his father, True Person Jin Shuo, would probably be furious.

But fortunately, when he activated the secret technique to sense it the third time, this target stopped moving at high speed.

It seemed it should be a coincidence.

But it was also possible that it would move again.

So Envoy Ju Zhang just exerted force with his feet, and a terrifying divine sense poured into the body of the giant Hu Weng bird under his feet; this Eighth-Tier giant Hu Weng bird began to fly at full speed without any nourishment.

That speed was actually no slower than that of a late Eighth-Tier powerhouse.

In his sensing, the target was less than ten thousand miles away from him.

At the speed of this Eighth-Tier giant Hu Weng bird, it would take less than two quarters of an hour to arrive.

And he still had two sensing opportunities left.

After a quarter of an hour, the distance from the location of the third sensing was less than one thousand miles.

The King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, activated the resonance sensing secret technique again, and joy immediately surfaced on his brows.

The target did not move this time and was still in the previous range.

Eighty seconds later, the distance to the target was four hundred miles.

The King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, paused his feet, and the giant Hu Weng bird stopped immediately.

With a wave of his hand, Envoy Ju Zhang used star light to draw a rough encirclement map.

A few breaths later, the thirty-eight Eighth-Tier powerhouses began to surround and detour, surrounding the center point from four directions.

Because they had to hide their tracks, the flying speed was not fast.

The King of the Eight Desolations' requirement was to send him a message after reaching one hundred miles from the target location, wait for his order, and then begin to seal off space, kill with one strike, and preferably capture this person alive.

At the same time, on the peak of the strange rock mountain, Xu Jin forcibly suppressed the extremely intense sense of crisis brought by the Heaven-Man Sensing star art.

He already knew the reason.

Envoy Ju Zhang.

The Ninth-Tier alien aura was still very familiar.

The one sneaking over was definitely the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang.

It could be confirmed that the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, indeed mastered a secret technique to track his location.

Because just now, when Xu Jin was continuously observing Envoy Ju Zhang's party with the Eye of Oversight, his original plan was to escape as the best of the thirty-six stratagems!

Thirty-eight Eighth-Tier powerhouses, plus one Ninth-Tier; no matter how stubborn Xu Jin was, he wouldn't be stupid enough to crash into them!

But he didn't expect that just as Xu Jin was preparing to use the spatial shift star art to escape before they arrived, at a place four hundred miles away from him, the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, actually split his troops!

He was playing the same trick as before.

Splitting troops to surround.

Under the Eye of Oversight, the movement trajectories of these thirty-eight Eighth-Tier powerhouses from four directions all fell into Xu Jin's eyes.

Xu Jin also sensed the aura of the powerhouse who sealed off space last time.

Currently, he was staying with the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, and slowly surrounding him at a speed that was not fast.

Under these circumstances, Xu Jin had room for operation.

The battlefield Xu Jin had carefully pre-set also had its effect.

The next instant, Xu Jin put away the Eye of Oversight and chose a direction in the south.

A total of nine Eighth-Tier alien races, two late Eighth-Tier and seven early-to-middle Eighth-Tier.

This location was about three hundred miles away from the King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang.

Based on the speed of the King of the Eight Desolations that Xu Jin had judged last time, at this distance, the King of the Eight Desolations would need at most thirty seconds, and at fastest twenty-five seconds!

This was Xu Jin's opportunity.

In an instant, Xu Jin's lightning wings gently flapped behind him; as he stood up, he disappeared instantly.

He had already teleported to a distance of fifty miles from that southern team, landing on the inevitable path they were taking to surround Xu Jin.

At this location, the King of the Eight Desolations would need at most twenty-five seconds, and at least twenty seconds, to arrive.

After landing, Xu Jin mobilized the Eye of Oversight to observe, continued to fly to approach that team, and simultaneously activated invisibility.

Six seconds later, that team appeared in Xu Jin's Mingji Star Pattern sensing, ten miles away from Xu Jin.

Three seconds later, this team flew over Xu Jin's head, two hundred meters away from Xu Jin!

Boom!

The moment the terrifying lightning light erupted, the Five-Element Running Thunder Slash was already as fast as rosy clouds, circling the head of a middle Eighth-Tier powerhouse.

The moment the head was slashed away, it had already turned into a piece of charcoal.

The ownerless corpse fell from the sky instantly.

The remaining six early-to-middle Eighth-Tier and two late Eighth-Tier instantly locked onto Xu Jin's aura, roared, and while sending an emergency message, each of them exerted their full defense and killed Xu Jin in a fan shape!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Running Thunder Slash jumped out continuously, but this time, this group of Eighth-Tier had precautions, and while defending with all their might, Xu Jin could not kill them instantly.

However, the moment one of the middle Eighth-Tier had their protective star light shattered by the Running Thunder Slash, suddenly, their head disappeared out of thin air!

Spatial star art, Void!

Second kill!

At the same time, a group of Eighth-Tier had already surrounded Xu Jin, ready to fire together.

But the moment they fired together, Xu Jin's figure circled on the ground, directly collected the two headless corpses, and then disappeared out of thin air.

Seeing this scene, the late Eighth-Tier powerhouse Jin Kui, who was leading the team, had his expression turn stern; he immediately understood why the Great King had repeatedly told him to seal off space the first time he discovered the target.

At this moment, he understood completely.

Without hesitation, terrifying golden light began to condense in front of his chest!

Star arts that can seal off and shake space are all high-power star arts, and the time to activate them is slightly longer.

Other star arts are instantaneous, but such high-power star arts might need half a second.

Xu Jin, whose figure had just emerged, saw this scene instantly.

The terrifying star light rising in front of Jin Kui's chest instinctively gave Xu Jin a feeling of palpitation.

High-power star art!

It could be attacking him, or it could be sealing off space.

If it were before, Xu Jin would really be helpless.

But now, Xu Jin had discovered the greatest use of the spatial star art, Void!

With a surge of massive divine sense, the spatial star art Void was activated!

The next instant, Jin Kui's expression changed drastically; the terrifying white starlight and silver spatial star power on his chest suddenly erupted!

In the end, the silver spatial star power dissipated.

The spatial star art Void did not build merit.

However, the terrifying star art in front of Jin Kui also mostly dissipated!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Running Thunder Slash slashed directly at Jin Kui!

Within a very short time, Xu Jin fired five Running Thunder Slashes in a row, and the moment he slashed at Jin Kui, he took a step and disappeared instantly.

His entire person had already teleported from one thousand meters behind Jin Kui to one thousand meters in front of Jin Kui.

Coincidentally, he avoided the aura attacks of the six Eighth-Tier powerhouses who had just chased over.

At the same instant, a massive primordial spirit fluctuation rose suddenly.

Mind Blade Burst!

Boom!

Two more Five-Element Running Thunder Slashes.

The Five Elements Thunder Slash and the soul attack simultaneously slammed into Jin Kui, an eighth-tier late-stage expert who had already been battered and his starlight shattered by Xu Jin's five previous Five Elements Thunder Slashes.

Chi!

The moment he was hit by the Mind Blade Burst, Jin Kui's head felt like it was being smashed by a mountain, and blood sprayed from his seven orifices in an instant.

The Five-Element Running Thunder Slash slashed past instantly, and the moment the head flew up, it had already turned into charcoal!

Xu Jin flapped his lightning wings behind him, flashed past instantly, and the moment he collected the headless corpse falling from the sky into the Sumeru space, just as he was about to kill Jin Kui's primordial spirit, a golden light shot over from the sky in the distance.

That massive Ninth-Tier aura was sensed by Xu Jin.

The King of the Eight Desolations, Envoy Ju Zhang, had come to support!

Without hesitation, Xu Jin activated the spatial directional shift.

Before the golden light shot over, he disappeared!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 552 =====