Chapter 674 - 674: Choosing to Give Up

It wasn't until Chu Qingyun had completely concealed his aura that the Special Envoy snapped back to his senses.

"Damn it! After him!"

"We must kill him!"

The Special Envoy roared and shot forward, leading his men in pursuit of Chu Qingyun.

The seven Martial Kings from the Martial Soul Hall immediately erupted with their full speed, chasing after him like streaks of light.

Among the seven, including the Special Envoy, there were a total of three Sixth-level Martial Kings.

The three of them were obviously a great deal faster than the other four. A moment later, they had pulled away from their companions and taken the lead.

The three Sixth-level Martial Kings quickly closed the distance on Chu Qingyun.

If he were fleeing normally, Chu Qingyun would have undoubtedly been caught in less than a minute.

Fortunately, by this point, Chu Qingyun had already used his Shadow Martial Soul and the Hidden Qi Technique to completely hide himself within the darkness of the night.

But even so, it was still incredibly dangerous. To escape, he had to move, and the slightest disturbance would easily draw the attention of the men from the Martial Soul Hall.

Chu Qingyun's mind raced, and he quickly came up with a plan.

'Shadow Splitting Clone Skill!'

With a mental command, Chu Qingyun activated a Soul Technique of his Shadow Martial Soul. This time, however, he deliberately used only his own Primordial Power to fuel it, not drawing upon the Heaven and Earth Primordial Power.

A shadow of Chu Qingyun shot out from the cover of his Shadow Martial Soul, streaking at extreme speed in the direction of the Saint Extreme Sect.

"There it is!"

"Quick, after it!"

The seven from the Martial Soul Hall instantly spotted a shadow flash past in that direction. They immediately gave chase, sprinting after it.

Meanwhile, Chu Qingyun seized the opportunity to escape in the opposite direction, completely shaking off the pursuit from the Martial Soul Hall members.

After chasing for a while, the shadow the seven Martial Soul Hall members were pursuing suddenly vanished into thin air.

The seven of them searched the vicinity meticulously for more than ten minutes, but they still came up empty. It was as if Chu Qingyun had vanished into thin air, leaving not a single trace behind.

"Enough. Stop searching. Let's pull back for now! We're too close to the Saint Extreme Sect, after all."

After searching a while longer, the Special Envoy chose to give up and led his men in a retreat.

"Special Envoy, that Jiang Gaofeng was definitely hiding his strength! That terrifying sword strike directly split apart the beast claw I manifested. His attack power is no weaker than a Fifth-level Martial King's!"

Tian Ji said, filled with resentment.

Even now, a hideous sword mark remained on his right hand, continuously leaking Martial Soul Power.

The beast claw from before had been a partial manifestation of his True Martial Soul.

Although having the beast claw split open hadn't crippled him, his right hand had suffered a grievous wound. The power of the Sword Intent was continuously damaging his body, and it was not an injury that would heal anytime soon.

"Hmph, no wonder that guy dared to come out and trade in the dead of night. Turns out he was actually quite capable!"

"That cunning brat actually caught us off guard."

"The next time we run into him, we can't let him get away!"

These Martial Kings from the Martial Soul Hall all believed that Jiang Gaofeng had previously hidden his true strength from them, and that it had only been forced out today.

From start to finish, not one of them ever suspected that the person wasn't Jiang Gaofeng at all, but an imposter.

The imitation produced by the Thousand-faced Martial Soul was simply too perfect!

The only flaw was the difference in the intensity of his aura, but that was incredibly difficult to notice. Even if they had noticed, they would have only assumed that Jiang Gaofeng had intentionally restrained and concealed it.

"Special Envoy, what should we do now? Should we try to lure out someone else from the Saint Extreme Sect and give it another shot?" one of them suggested.

The Martial Soul Hall's Special Envoy thought for a moment before shaking his head.

"Forget it. Since Chu Qingyun sent a fake to trick us, it proves he's already on guard. It would be very difficult to succeed even if we tried to find someone else."

"I knew it wouldn't be this easy. It's a shame the plan at the Withered Wood Forest didn't succeed!"

"If we had managed to let that blood-colored orb fall into someone else's hands, they wouldn't have known its origins, and it would have been much easier for us to acquire..."

The Martial Soul Hall's Special Envoy said with great regret.

Back during the Withered Wood Forest trial, which was the first part of the Inner Sect qualification competition, the disciple from the Stone Spirit Sect who went berserk and the Martial King Essence Pill with the strange aura were all part of their prior arrangements.

The goal was to make Chu Qingyun a public enemy, causing the blood-colored orb to fall into someone else's hands along with Chu Qingyun's Storage Ring.

Unfortunately, they had miscalculated Chu Qingyun's strength.

As a result, not only did the plan fail, but they also ended up handing Chu Qingyun a Martial King Essence Pill, giving him the opportunity to rapidly advance to a ninth-level Martial Spirit and break through to the Martial King Realm.

"Sir, what if... we find a way to get some people and just snatch Chu Qingyun right out of the Saint Extreme Sect?" a Sixth-level Martial King said.

"Go into the Saint Extreme Sect to snatch someone with our meager strength? Are you insane?!"

Someone next to him immediately retorted.

Seven Martial Kings, without a single Celestial King Realm expert among them, thinking of infiltrating the mighty Saint Extreme Sect to capture one of their Core Disciples? That was pure fantasy!

Any Elder Level expert could have easily obliterated them.

"Relying on just ourselves is impossible, of course. But the Martial Soul Hall's power in the Northern Domain is no weaker than those sects. With the Special Envoy's status..."

Before he could finish, the Special Envoy suddenly cut him off. "That's enough. Don't even think about it. Borrowing the power of the Black Demon Tower to attack the Saint Extreme Sect is impossible!"

"The Black Demon Tower has its own missions and plans. It's tied to the Martial Soul Hall's entire grand strategy. They won't ruin our deployment in the Northern Domain over a small matter like this."

"Moving against the Saint Extreme Sect would absolutely trigger the final, decisive battle for the Northern Domain ahead of schedule!"

The Martial Soul Hall's Special Envoy was, at least, rational.

Besides, while he held himself in high esteem and considered himself nobler than others, he was also keenly aware that the true higher-ups in the Black Demon Tower didn't particularly care for him.

"Then what should we do? Are we just going to give up? This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!" one man said, unwilling to let it go.

"Of course we can't just give up. However, it'll be difficult to make any headway with Chu Qingyun now."

"The other sects will be opening the Blood Sect ruins soon. We'll head over as well. Let's enter the ruins first and see what happens. Perhaps an opportunity will present itself there."

The Special Envoy made his final decision.

Soon, the seven of them disappeared into the night.

As for Chu Qingyun, after fleeing a certain distance in the direction opposite the Saint Extreme Sect, he circled around and silently returned to the sect from another direction.

By the time he successfully passed through the Sect Protection Array and returned to his residence, the distant horizon was already beginning to pale with the light of dawn.

After a long night on the run, at least he had something to show for it.