Chapter 591: Cliff (3/10, extra chapter for 'Ruichi Tianxia')

"What on earth did Ye Baiyi provoke?"

"Why is Ye Baiyi being hunted by the weird?"

Based on such questions, many people came to Qingsi County to investigate, and finally discovered that Ye Baiyi had actually sacrificed himself willingly for Qingsi County, and even more so for the stability of the entire Heiqing Shanmai, choosing to leave of his own accord.

Isn't this the hero of their Qingsi County, of their Heiqing Shanmai?

Word of mouth fermented, Fang Yue's reputation rose inexplicably, passed from mouth to mouth, leaving behind a fine name.

However, all of this had nothing to do with Fang Yue, who was now fleeing for his life.

He relied on the horse he had seized by force to get through the most difficult stretch of time.

As the distance to Heiqing Xiagu grew closer, he gradually recovered his spirit.

The aftereffects brought by 【Haijiao Pill】 faded considerably, and the pill poison finally eased up, no longer burning away his lifespan so fiercely.

Everything was moving in a good direction, except for the groups of weird converging from all directions—more numerous, and stronger.

At the very beginning, the quality of the weird groups was uneven, with most leaning toward the weaker Black Grade Initial Stage and Mid Stage weird.

But by now, they were all Black Grade High Stage, Blood Grade Initial Stage weird, and the like.

Killing them wasn't troublesome for Fang Yue; the problem was the consumption of internal force, the consumption of stamina.

On top of that, this wasn't nighttime, so there was no 【Breath of Night】, and he didn't dare casually pop pills to increase the pill poison effect, so every resource had to be conserved wherever possible, and exertion minimized wherever possible.

Fortunately, at this point, Fang Yue didn't need to kill the weird.

His goal was to escape, so a brief repulse was enough for him to ride away.

Unfortunately, by the time he reached Heiqing Xiagu, his horse had its two legs chopped off by a Blood-Trail Weird, rendering it useless.

Dismounting and relying on his own two legs to run, Fang Yue entered Heiqing Xiagu.

Heiqing Shanmai stretched on endlessly, forming a closed loop.

And the starting point was precisely Heiqing Xiagu.

So unless one crossed over Heiqing Shanmai by traversing mountains, every way in and out of Heiqing Shanmai went through Heiqing Xiagu.

Yet Heiqing Shanmai was so vast, and the number of weird within the mountain range so great.

Wanting to safely cross over Heiqing Shanmai was almost an impossibility.

Therefore, in the general sense, Heiqing Xiagu was the sole entrance and exit of Heiqing Shanmai.

When Fang Yue's two feet stepped into Heiqing Xiagu, Fang Yue discovered that Heiqing Xiagu was far larger and far more spacious than he had imagined.

Behind him was a dark, oppressive army of weird, so Fang Yue only did a cursory check and observation before sprinting forward.

Yet by the time Fang Yue entered Heiqing Xiagu and penetrated deep into the middle of the gorge, having shaken off most of the weird far behind him—

Fang Yue suddenly discovered, at the very end of his line of sight, a humanoid weird shrouded entirely in black mist.

"It's useless. You can't escape."

The humanoid weird spoke slowly, as if stating a fact rather than trying to persuade anyone.

Without a doubt, this was yet another consciousness avatar—or one of the possessed bodies—of 【Heiqing Weird】.

Because Heiqing Weird's true body was actually right here: it was this entire Heiqing Shanmai!

This was Heiqing Weird, this was the legendary Transcendence-level Weird!

And such independent individuals were usually merely possessed avatars.

Fang Yue gauged the opponent's strength; from the sensed aura, it was at most a Black Grade High Stage weird.

Not even posting a Rain Grade weird at the exit, and they still think they can stop me?

Fang Yue let out a fierce grin, and instead of slowing down, his foot speed exploded upward.

Yet just at this moment, Heiqing Weird brought its hands together in a clasp—a move called "Hope the Person Is Fine."

Rumble rumble rumble!

The cliffs on both sides, accompanied by the shifting of the earth's crust, rapidly converged and merged toward the center!

What!?

Fang Yue's face changed drastically.

The cliffs on both sides moved rapidly as if alive, as if about to squeeze Fang Yue flat into a meat patty!

Then came the swarming rush, the dark, oppressive army of weird nearly filling the gorge passage.

Ahead was the possessed weird temporarily under Heiqing Weird's personal control.

On the left and right were the gorge cliffs crazily closing in to turn Fang Yue into a sandwich cookie.

In an instant, Fang Yue fell directly into an utterly desperate situation.

After only a slight hesitation, Fang Yue moved!

Retreat was impossible, so there was only one thing Fang Yue could do—and that was… run upward along one side of the cliff!

That's right! Compared to charging forward, where there was still a huge distance to cover, running upward actually offered a chance to reach the cliff's peak before the two sides merged, and then he could charge out from there.

Fang Yue ran very fast, his two feet seeming glued to the cliff face, running vertically upward; under the Shadow Step technique, such a cliff was quickly climbed by Fang Yue to a fifth of its height.

The weird behind, nearly piling up the gorge passage, all bared their fangs and claws, watching the cliff and climbing up after him; those who couldn't climb piled up layer by layer like ants, stacking height for the weird that came after.

Some flying weird even dove straight toward Fang Yue's position.

If all these weird possessed normal spiritual intelligence, with their methods and numbers, Fang Yue might have been knocked down halfway up.

But they didn't, so Fang Yue climbed very steadily; even when flying weird came, he stepped on one with his foot, borrowing the force to leap high and explosively gain a dozen or so meters of height for himself.

Looking down at the scene below—fierce and chaotic, the weird piled high and squeezed by the cliffs on both sides—Fang Yue secretly rejoiced at his decision.

Sure enough, that distance was too far to charge out of Heiqing Xiagu in time.

Leaping up from the right side of the gorge, Fang Yue arrived at the peak of the gorge cliff.

Accompanied by rumbling sounds, looking down, the cliffs on both sides finally completely merged at this moment.

Squeal!!

Like squeezing rotten mud, all the strange creatures below that had been chasing Fang Yue into Heiqing Xiagu were crushed between the merging cliffs into a pulp of flesh, blood surging up like a tide and staining the ground at the top of the cliffs red.

At this moment, the only normal entrance and exit of Heiqing Shanmai was completely sealed shut!

There was no extra time to observe the gruesome state of those strange creatures; more flying ones were already approaching from afar, and Fang Yue kept sprinting, running at the very top of Heiqing Xiagu.

It was at this moment that the black-mist strange creature that had appeared below earlier appeared once more ahead.

Only this time, what it had to defend was no longer the narrow exit of Heiqing Xiagu, but a boundary line behind it.

Past that boundary line was no longer within Heiqing Shanmai's range; its power could not reach anywhere beyond Heiqing Shanmai.

So the Heiqing strange creature had to intercept Fang Yue here.

And now, this moment, was precisely the time to strike.

Feet on Heiqing Shanmai — that's my territory!

The black-mist strange creature, originally only Black Grade, suddenly began a frenzied surge of its strength.

And almost at the moment the black-mist strange creature boosted its strength, Fang Yue synchronized a burst of speed.

Shadow Step!

Black Grade High Stage strange creature!

Black qi coiled around, both feet shrouded in shadow, speed surging!

Blood Grade strange creature!

The final thousand-meter sprint!

Calamity Grade strange creature!

The final five-hundred-meter sprint!

Wrath Grade strange creature!

The final hundred-meter sprint!

Rain Grade strange creature!

(End of chapter)