Chapter 1610 - 1505: Run!

In the darkness of the night, a figure traversed the sandy ground.

Occasionally, red moonlight would fall upon the figure’s face, revealing a fierce and twisted expression.

"Damn it! How did this group of bastards find me?"

While running, the person’s face was extremely grim, turning back every few steps. Vaguely, one could see three figures trailing a few hundred meters behind him in the night.

This fleeing person wasn’t someone else; it was Qin Hao.

By his calculations, he had been running for several hours now.

Yet he couldn’t figure out how they kept catching up to him, even though he had used the Wind Escape Technique multiple times to shake them off.

But in the end, they always seemed to suddenly appear again, just like maggots on rotting bones.

"Something’s not right. At their speed, there’s no way they could keep up with me. There’s definitely something fishy here!"

The more Qin Hao thought about it, the more certain he became, his brows furrowing: "Could this be the reason I’m sensing danger?"

"It must be. But why can they always find me? Do I have some kind of mark on me that makes me detectable?"

Qin Hao suddenly remembered that the short man known as Blood Child seemed to have a compass in his hand.

"It’s that damned thing!"

Qin Hao shook his head and looked back, discovering Blood Child chasing him with a sinister grin, holding the compass.

"There’s no way that compass can find me for no reason; there must be something on me attracting it."

Qin Hao suddenly realized and began examining himself.

Starting from his physical body, he quickly found the reason.

"My hand!"

Qin Hao raised his palm to find a conspicuous black dot in the center.

He distinctly remembered that this thing had never been there before.

"Is this the mark that’s attracting the compass?"

Qin Hao tried channeling Spiritual Qi into the palm of his hand.

The black mark emitted a cold aura, which startled him, "This aura is related to that old ghost Shan Xu!"

Previously, when escaping from Daoist Shan Xu, he had sensed this kind of aura.

"It has to be! That old ghost must have cast some strange technique on me when I was intruding!"

The more Qin Hao thought about it, the angrier he got, his face contorting with fury, "What a despicable old ghost! What a shameless bunch!"

Having run so far to no avail, it turned out to be the mark’s doing, making him extremely frustrated.

"Hmph!" Qin Hao chose not to think about how to remove the mark for now. Instead, he planned to deal with the Fatty behind him first.

"It seems your compass can lock onto my location but not pinpoint my exact position."

Glimpsing back, Qin Hao noticed the compass wasn’t perfect, a plan forming in his mind.

Seeing a towering tree not far away, he brightened and swiftly darted toward it.

...

"Blood Child boss! That guy has vanished!"

In the wilderness, Blood Child and his group watched Qin Hao’s figure disappear once again.

"Hey! Why is this bastard so stubborn? Doesn’t he know it doesn’t matter how far he runs?"

The bald man, sweating profusely, laughed with a cunning sneer: "After all, we have the compass!"

He instinctively glanced at the compass in Blood Child’s hand.

"He’s over there!"

Blood Child pointed in a direction, and the three strode over, soon finding a towering tree by the overgrown roadside.

"The pointer has stopped, looks like the kid is near the tree!" The man in black chuckled wickedly, deliberately avoiding looking at the tree, whispering: "Boss Blood Child, this time, we can’t let him escape, shall we surround him?"

"Alright!" Blood Child, thinking this cat-and-mouse game was growing tiring, whispered a plan after some thought, "Let’s circle the tree first."

After speaking, he put away the compass, giving a commanding look.

All three moved in unison, quickly spreading out around the tree, encircling it completely.

Now, with the circle formed once more, they felt much more confident.

"Little brat! We’ve already found you, what are you still hiding for?"

The man in black scanned the tree arrogantly, shouting.

"This tree looks big, but there’s nowhere to hide. Aren’t you tired up there?"

The bald man mocked as well.

Now they had noticed several branches that were unnaturally thick and dense, obscuring what lay within, making it an ideal hiding spot.

Blood Child rubbed his hands excitedly, a cruel gleam in his eyes: "Kid, are you sure you want to keep hiding?"

There was no answer; not even the branches stirred, as if nothing was there.

"You asked for this."

A touch of rage appeared on Blood Child’s face.

He had given Qin Hao a chance, and this was his ungrateful response.

Then, he took out a set of Flying Knives from the Void Storage Ring, tossing a few to the man in black and the bald man when his fingers couldn’t hold them all.

"Listen up, let’s have some fun with flying knives and play with this guy."

With that, Blood Child raised his hand first, holding five flying knives in his plump hand.

With a forceful swing of his right hand.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The five flying knives flew out together, piercing into the dense leaves of the tree.

Pong, pong, pong, pong, pong!

Five hits echoed from within the branches, and then – silence.

"Still holding on?"

Without hearing a scream or sensing any Spiritual Qi fluctuations, Blood Child smirked with a hint of brutality and wrath: "Fine! Keep pretending! Boys, throw together!"

"Yes!"

Instantly, the three threw their flying knives.

The area within the dense foliage filled with rustling sounds, leaves dropping, branches shaking. Anything hiding inside would be attacked from all angles, turned into a pincushion.

Oddly, even after Blood Child and his men’s knives were exhausted, no cries sounded from the branches, nor was there any hint of a Spiritual Qi fluctuation!

"How is this possible!"

Now, Blood Child and his men were bewildered.

No Spiritual Qi fluctuation, yet the guy wouldn’t cry out even if he rather died?

Wrong, if he’d been stabbed, there would surely be blood.

Yet not a drop of blood was in sight; what in the world was going on?

"Go up and check!"

With a puzzled frown, Blood Child ordered grimly.

This menial task of climbing trees was not something he’d willingly do, so he commanded his two subordinates.

"Yes!"

The man in black and the bald man exchanged a glance, leaping up into the dense branches.

They stepped onto the branches, panting as they brushed the thick leaves aside.

Then they froze in place.

In front of them was a talisman.

The talisman was yellow, hidden among the leaves, inscribed with serpentine characters.

Even though they didn’t recognize the script, they vaguely understood the talisman’s purpose.

"What’s going on?" Blood Child’s voice came from below, and the two jumped down, shouting: "Run!"