Chapter 1169: Ways of Fighting (IV)

At the same time, Great Li.

Ying Hongyue shook his head with a sigh.

“Gan Wuliang was just a nameless nobody before,” he frowned. “But to think that he’d be so difficult to shake off now!”

At the moment, the Celestial Sword Immortal lacked her usual otherworldly air—she was rather worse for the wear. Her long hair hung limply and she ground her teeth. “He’s very hard to shake off! A lot of our members have died at his hands, that little bastard! What do we do now? He’s allied with the Great Li king and there are many powerhouses in the Great Li army. Our losses have been significant during our last couple of encounters. Why is Gan Wuliang able to pinpoint our tracks each time?”

The three great organizations had always embraced being mysterious as their core tenet. But this time, their opponent honed in on each of their locations like a hunting dog. They couldn’t escape his pursuit.

Gan Wuliang was a mid Sun and Moon to begin with, the equivalent of an Immortal. There was almost no one who could stand against him and the combination of the Great Li king and Jiang Li. Apart from Ying Hongyue, there was no one else who could muster any resistance.

Their earlier clashes had dealt significant blows to the Celestial Sword Immortal, Yama, and the lord of Yonder Mountain, Gan Wuliang looked at them with an extremely nauseating look each time he saw them. It was like he was gazing upon priceless treasure and wanted nothing more than to eat their heads!

This was for no reason other than Li Hao having said that Gan Wuliang would complete his mission only after he claimed one of the three leaders’ heads. Gan Wuliang himself also knew full well why this was his mission.

He would very likely be shut out of Li Hao’s inner circle if he didn’t complete it. After his selective rescue of Li Hao’s people in Boundless, he was on thin ice due to the young man seeing right through him. Gan Wuliang knew that he would make amends for his actions only after he killed a leader of the three great organizations!

Hence, the pressure on the three great organizations increased more than one hundredfold over the past few days!

Gan Wuliang tracked them without sleep or rest, whittling away at their numbers each time he caught up. He didn’t care how many on his side died because they were all from Great Li!

The Great Li king also wished to expel the intruders from his nation or kill them all, so there was no protest he could muster about the casualties. He could only follow Gan Wuliang’s footsteps. Both Great Li and the three great organizations suffered casualties, only Skystar didn’t since Gan Wuliang was its only representative.

“Withdraw from Great Li,” Ying Hongyue said after taking a deep breath. “The Great Li king and the rest will stop only when we’re gone.”

“We run again?” Yama’s coarse voice was charged with anger. “We ran from the central region to the north, then from the north to Great Li! Where are we to go this time after leaving Great Li? Where else can we go?!”

Great Li was the northernmost reaches of the world! Any further would bring the against the world barrier. That was a limit of the world that they could not pass.

“We go to Divine Nation!” Ying Hongyue decided. “We cannot go to Barren Dynasty as that’s too dangerous. Li Hao and Red Dust both have their eyes on it! Watercloud has surrendered to Li Hao, so that leaves only Divine Nation!”

“Divine Nation?” The others frowned with disapproval. “Li Hao killed a lot of their powerhouses just a short while ago, apparently they lost even Saint level divine spirits. Are we supposed to head there now and seek to partner with them?”

“We can only go there!” Ying Hongyue said softly. “Divine spirits can come back to life and that Moon God of theirs won’t be dying so easily. Additionally, I might be able to help her recover some power! Her strength is sealed inside the moon. She is stuck in most arduous circumstances these days and hates Li Hao. If I help her recover some power and she sets foot into the Saint level, that might usher in a period of tranquility for us.”

Divine Nation was in the extreme west and they were in the extreme north. It was an exceedingly unpleasant thought that they would have to go on the run again. Since when did the three great organizations, masters of the world, have to scurry around like rats in the gutters? They ran from day to night, never getting a moment of respite.

Ying Hongyue suddenly frowned as they conversed.

“Here they are!” A soft chuckle traveled in from outside.

BAM!

A pair of fists slammed through the world and shattered the mountain peak. The Great Li king appeared with a cold look in his eyes. “So the pack of rats really are hiding here! General Gan has quite some skill!”

“We can’t let them get away so easily this time.” The genteel Gan Wuliang flashed a smile. “At the very least, we need to kill everyone apart from Ying Hongyue!”

Red light glinted in his eyes when he looked at Ying Hongyue, Gan Wuliang chuckled. “Ying Hongyue, the marquis said you were a tough opponent and his greatest enemy. I’d like to see if you’ll opt to stay in Great Li and continue to be entangled with us, or will you flee to Divine Nation in the west and look for the Moon God?

Ying Hongyue frowned slightly and looked deeply at Gan Wuliang.

“How about

you

join me?” he asked after a long moment. “Your assignment to Great Li is actually an exile. Li Hao does not value you and wishes to borrow your hand to kill others instead. Come to me. Here, you can command anyone apart from me. I’ll even discuss my plans with you. Why is there a need for us to listen to anyone when we join hands?

“You have ambition, how are you content to bend the knee to Li Hao?”

Boom!

Battle erupted as the Great Li king couldn’t be bothered to listen to any of this. He leapt into motion!

Ying Hongyue did not respond—it was the Celestial Sword Immortal and others who responded with fearsome battle strength. While they were weaker than the Great Li king, they could hold off his force for a bit. Ying Hongyue remained looking at Gan Wuliang, still frowning.

“You wanna try and recruit me, Ying Hongyue?” Gan Wuliang grinned radiantly. “You can try, but do so when you’re completely free of Red Moon power. Otherwise, you aren’t qualified!

“Your Majesty the Great Li king, be careful of an eruption from the Forbidden Sea...”

The king blinked and punched at the ground; a river current appeared following a loud boom! The current churned in all directions and waves reared toward the heavens, blotting out the world and corroding everything in its path. The surroundings were quickly eaten away and turned into the sea.

The Great Li king paled, aghast! How was it this corrosive? Wouldn’t Great Li be doomed if the situation continued in this vein?

Ying Hongyue sent the river current agitating with a wave of his hand, but he remained frowning at Gan Wuliang. Gan Wuliang was also looking at him, identifying after a while, “He doesn’t dare let the current rampage much longer. The Forbidden Sea will rage out of control if he lets it go on for too long. He’ll be done for as well!”

𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

“How interesting.” Ying Hongyue’s expression changed once more and he leveled Gan Wuliang with a cold look. “I am now certain that you can read another’s heart! Gan Wuliang, this is not an ability to be proud of. Li Hao’s group will not tolerate your existence!”

“Leader Ying is overly worried for me,” Gan Wuliang laughed. “The marquis is much more open-minded than the leader thinks!”

Strength surged as a supernatural ability erupted!

All around them, members of the three great organizations lost control and snarled like berserk animals. Ying Hongyue’s eyes widened!

Damn it!

“Hmph!” A cold snort echoed across the land, quieting the berserk members. But just in that short while, royal guards and temple priests killed a large swathe of those from the three great organizations.

“Leader Ying, I will spare the rest of you if you hand over either Yama, Celestial Sword Immortal, or the lord of Yonder Mountain,” Gan Wuliang called out. “Otherwise...”

“Nonsense!” sniffed Ying Hongyue as he materialized in front of Gan Wuliang. He cracked a whip, tearing through the void.

Gan Wuliang had disappeared; one golden boxing glove came crashing back. In the upper air, Jiang Li howled and transformed his body into a skeleton. He took the Great Li king’s position in the fight and brought tremendous Initial Martial strength to bear on the others!

Ying Hongyue’s frown deepened. Running into Gan Wuliang was his greatest drawback. The latter could read minds!

But why... is he able to catch up to us each time?

Ying Hongyue felt that he’d kept his tracks secret enough. Not even someone that he carried around in his pocket would be able to swiftly locate them every single time. He looked down at the members of the three great organizations down beneath the ground, suddenly understanding something.

That treacherous little Gan Wuliang must have left a mark on these members that he hadn’t discovered! They wouldn’t be able to escape his sight if they kept those people with them! The key thing was, these people’s marks had escaped his detection!

The look in Gan Wuliang’s eyes sparkled for a bit before he said softly, “Leader Ying, you’re not thinking of leaving the rest behind and making good your escape, are you? Or perhaps you want to kill everyone else instead. As a lord of a faction, if you kill your followers in order to take shelter... who would dare follow you in the future?”

Ying Hongyue stirred with anger! A surge of power manifested and concealed himself, causing Gan Wuliang’s eyes to sting with pain.

“Not bad!” the man laughed. “Leader Ying is likely invincible in the world. Be careful, Your Majesty. This person has other strength hidden inside his body. He’s refraining from using it only because he’s concerned about drawing attention from the heavenly will with a show of force that is too great.

“Not only does he bear Red Moon power, but the eight bloodlines within him are not balanced. Once they erupt, they’ll be easily invaded by Red Moon power. However, there seems to be a lot less than before. Where did Leader Ying release your Red Moon power? Can it be... within the Forbidden Sea?”

Ying Hongyue’s face flickered through a variety of expressions. He snarled and cracked his whip, sending the Great Li king’s boxing glove flying. He vanished and reappeared over Gan Wuliang’s head. A pair of gloves appeared on his fists as well—the boxing gloves of the Zhaos.

Ying Hongyue punched Gan Wuliang!

This person had to die, he was too dangerous! Was Li Hao not afraid of being backstabbed by this person?! And how could Gan Wuliang be willingly commanded by the young man? It would seem that Li Hao had improved a great deal during this period of time. How else would someone like Gan Wuliang easily fall in line behind the young man?

There was a lot of force behind that punch! There was so much force that it startled the Great Li king. He would be hard pressed to explain himself to Li Hao if Gan Wuliang died here. Who would’ve thought that Ying Hongyue would be so strong? He’d dismissed Li Hao when the young man told him to be careful of Ying Hongyue before, it was only now that the Great Li king realized how wrong he was!

Ying Hongyue was nearing seventh level Sun and Moon, he was terrifying! Gan Wuliang was only fourth level. Just as the Great Li king panicked, Gan Wuliang vanished. Not even Ying Hongyue saw how he’d disappeared. He was equally surprised by his fist landing on empty air.

He realized what had occurred in the next second and shouted, “To shatter all falsehoods!”

BOOM!

Energy rampaged and the void trembled. Gan Wuliang reappeared, blood at the corner of his mouth. “Such incredible methods...” he murmured with disbelief.

“You’re even more unbelievable,” Ying Hongyue frowned. “You are able to affect my senses. You were right beside me, but I did not sense you. Gan Wuliang, your abilities are so uncanny. Li Hao will not permit you to exist with how righteous he is!”

“How can that be...” Gan Wuliang laughed and darted away.

Ying Hongyue appeared where he’d just been standing, he looked at the empty spot gravely. This fellow’s abilities were so eerie that they seemed to be able to predict his movements. The man had known he was going to take action before Ying Hongyue himself showed any signs!

What an irritating fellow. Li Hao was smart to send this guy after him.