Mountain and sea lantern

Chapter 678 Pursuit
Wei Mo saw the three groups of men chasing Shi Chun turn and leave. Mu Lan Jin naturally saw it too. This turn of events left him confused. He had just received a message from Han Bao saying that he had safely transferred his daughter.

As soon as his daughter moved, three of the four groups of pursuers immediately left. What the hell? He even started to suspect that the pursuers were after his daughter.

"What's going on? What does it mean that three branches left?" Manxi turned his head and asked Mulan Jin telepathically. It was clearly a situation where they were rushing straight to kill each other, so why did they give up halfway?

Mulan herself was confused and had no idea what was going on.

On the high platform at the center of the West Bull Team, the tall and imposing commander Niu Qian, with long hair flowing down his shoulders and dressed in a magnificent black robe adorned with gold and silver, also noticed the masked squad of the Heavenly Court Team being chased.

He noticed this because the supervisors of each team at Xiniu had mentioned that the command center mirror images of each team were paying attention to the situation of the Heavenly Court's three thousand squads being hunted down.

The reason why they attracted the attention of the supervisors was that a small team shouldn't have garnered such special attention from the other teams, and of course, there was also the reason that they were masked.

When the supervisors at several locations successively reported this news, Commander Niu Qian naturally had to pay attention. He was puzzled by a group of unusual masked men and wanted to see who was being chased, but the masks were so thick that even a ghost wouldn't recognize them.

I deliberately zoomed in on the mirrored image to check the names on the collars of the masked men. The items were small and swayed during flight, so even after my eyes were blurry, I couldn't make out anything special. However, one person named 'Han Bao' was on the list of people I was paying close attention to.

For a moment, he couldn't figure out what was going on, but he could tell that something was wrong. He could only silently note down the relevant information and order someone to keep an eye on it so that he could check it at any time.

The mirrored images kept switching to different places, and judging from what they were watching, they were clearly focusing on the situation of each team in the Nanzhan team.

The constantly switching scenes suddenly stopped, and the mirror image locked onto a man with a languid expression. The general controlling the astronomical mirror immediately reported, "Commander, this is Li Hongjiu."

He had met the man before, which was why he was asked to check him out.

Niu Qian stared sharply at it, then waved to signal Shanhetu to cooperate in checking. Soon, a red dot was magnified to reveal the team number: South 138.

Seeing this, Niu Qian snorted repeatedly, somewhat amused and annoyed. "What a Ming Dynasty style! They've pulled this stunt. I was wondering why I couldn't find the ninth team after searching everywhere. Well done, you've really gone to great lengths for your junior brother."

The supervisors who were previously assigned to the Nanzhan team clearly saw Li Hongjiu in Squad 9, but when they locked onto Squad 9, he was nowhere to be found, causing quite a commotion. Now they realize that the Nanzhan team commander played a trick on them. Li Hongjiu was not actually a member of Squad 9; he was just someone who made people see him in Squad 9. Once he came in, he was immediately switched back to Squad 138.

After a cold laugh, he transmitted his voice to someone and said, "Tell Du Wulang of Team 77 about Li Hongjiu's location."

"Yes." The latter accepted the order and carried it out.

Niu Qian stared at Li Hongjiu in the mirror, revealing a thoughtful expression. It wasn't that he wanted to deliberately deal with Li Hongjiu, but rather that someone had found him before. It was a confidant of the Demon Queen, who had given him something to deal with Li Hongjiu. The reason given was that Li Hongjiu was too strong and might affect the Xiniu team's chances of winning the championship, so he was being given a helping hand.

Although that's what he said, he understood the other person's meaning: don't let Li Hongjiu leave alive.

Although the interests involved in this regional struggle are significant, they may not be of much importance in the eyes of top figures. Whether he is defeated or not, it is a matter of a single word for some people.

So, both morally and logically, he had no choice but to agree...

Manxi's face was very ugly at this moment, and the reflection in the Mirror of Heaven was full of exploding debris.

The team urgently dispatched to rescue Mulan Qingqing was no match for Lu Yin of the Dongsheng team. Lu Yin single-handedly pierced through the entire team in mid-air, causing numerous casualties, and the centurion who was intercepting them head-on was killed.

The process was like a stone being thrown into water, splashing everywhere, demonstrating a formidable strength that was just a step away from the Celestial Immortal realm.

Lu Yin didn't linger. After breaking through the interception team in one move, he didn't bother to deal with the scattered troops or search for any tokens. He simply passed through and continued to chase after his target at lightning speed.

The entire team didn't even cause Lu Yin any pause, and this was a fairly strong reinforcement team that was conveniently dispatched from nearby.

With a grim expression, Manxi turned to Mulan Jin and transmitted his voice, "Commander Mulan, Lu Yin is no ordinary villain. No matter how many reinforcements the other nearby troops send, they will probably only be sending them to their deaths and will not achieve any effect."

He meant that he had done his best, and there was no need to send others to their deaths in haste.

Because Shi Chun and his group were masked, he didn't know that Mulan Qingqing had already left the team. Now he was in a difficult situation, which was hard to explain to Mulan Jin. They could only observe and command from the sidelines and could not personally participate in the battle to rescue her, otherwise they would be judged as defeated.

Mulan replied telepathically, "Didn't you notice? My daughter is no longer in Shi Chun's fleeing group. She must have gotten separated during the pursuit. Commander, just proceed at your own pace."

He sent a telepathic message to relieve the distress at this time because he didn't want unnecessary casualties and didn't want the audience to realize that it was because he was showing favoritism to his daughter.

But by doing this, he was essentially pushing Shi Chun and the others further towards the edge of the cliff. Ah? Man Xi was both surprised and delighted upon hearing this. Without saying anything, and without even bothering to verify the truth, he immediately ordered other reinforcements to cease all support for Shi Chun and his group.

However, he had made a mental note of Lu Yin, and he feared that he would need to mobilize top-tier forces to deal with him in the future.

Shi Chun himself was unaware of what had happened next. Lu Yin's pursuers had wasted a lot of time interrogating the masked man, and by the time they caught up, Shi Chun and his men would no longer be able to see them.

However, Shi Chun received the message from the Heavenly Court team's central command. He learned that three of the four pursuing teams had already left, which puzzled Shi Chun, who wondered what it meant.

He had already repeatedly checked the location with the map, and the direction he was heading was the direction of the Xiniu team that the Demon Path had previously indicated. He was preparing to lead the pursuers in that direction as well.

As a result, three teams left, leaving only the Dongsheng team still in pursuit.

According to details provided by the command center, the centurion leading the Dongsheng team was a disciple of the 'Avan Palace'. He had been hiding for many years to escape punishment after practicing forbidden techniques of the sect. His name was Lu Yin, and he had come after them alone.

The key point is that no matter how he changes his escape direction, the other side can catch up. Shi Chun is now certain that the other side's team command center is personally involved.

As for that so-called Afan Palace, Shi Chun had also heard of it. It was the third largest sect in the entire Dongsheng, and it cultivated wood-based techniques. As for what the so-called forbidden techniques were, he had no idea.

In short, if someone dares to come and chase after him, regardless of whether they are highly skilled or daring, and given that his strength is unknown and there is no conflict of interest involved, Shi Chun would not want to easily engage in combat with him unless absolutely necessary.

No matter how capable you are, you can't just recklessly rush into anything; this is a fundamental principle for longevity.

Since they couldn't waste any available resources, Shi Chun had to ask the command center for help. However, the command center clearly informed them that the reinforcements had been defeated by Lu Yin and there were no more reinforcements in the vicinity. They were told to find their own way to fight back.

"Fight back my ass!" Shi Chun immediately suspected that Mu Lanjin had abandoned the task, but unfortunately he couldn't see it. After thinking it over again, he immediately took out the mother-child talisman that connected with the demonic path. Afraid that the Heavenly Mirror would see it, he covered his hand and sent a message asking: "I'm heading that way, where should we meet?"
Shortly after, the other side replied: "You should operate in that area and collect as many opponent tokens as possible."

Shi Chun couldn't figure out what these demonic cultivators were up to either, so he immediately replied: "We have collected eleven tokens and are being hunted down. We need your help."

The other party seemed somewhat incredulous and sent a message to confirm: "You managed to grab eleven tokens in such a short time?"
Shi Chun replied: Not much. If we hadn't encountered a master who would have entangled us, we could have had more.

The person on the other end seemed to sigh with admiration: Not bad, not bad. No wonder the higher-ups said you were very good at this kind of competition. I've seen it for myself today. Who's after you?
Shi Chun replied: Lu Yin, a disciple of Afan Palace, tried to snatch the token from my hand. His cultivation level is quite high, and I couldn't shake him off.

Upon hearing that more than ten tokens were about to be stolen, the other side quickly reminded them: "Immediately have your team cover the rear."

Shi Chun replied: Almost everyone is dead. Of the hundred men, only a dozen or so remain by our side. We can't stop them.

The person on the other end quickly asked: Where are you?
Shi Chun took out the map again and looked at it. After making a slight assessment based on the estimate from the command center, he replied: On the way from the left wing of the narrow triangular area to the highest peak of the Xiniu area, it is estimated that it will take about an incense stick's time to arrive, and it will be overtaken in about half an incense stick's time.

The other party immediately replied: Got it, hang in there.

After Shi Chun put away the mother-child talisman, Wu Jinliang, who had been peering at the message, muttered under his breath, "The demonic path is still more reliable."

At this point, his height had returned to normal, and his armor was clearly fitting again. Unfortunately, his transformation technique couldn't last.

Shi Chun scoffed, "Reliable my foot! They just saw I had a lot of tokens and assumed I was good at stealing them, thinking I was useful. By the way, how many of those tokens did you make?"

Wu Jinliang: "About seventy yuan."

Shi Chun asked suspiciously, "How come it took so long to refine only about seventy pieces of such a simple thing, even with the help of Tong Mingshan's Two True Fires?"

Speaking of this, Wu Jinliang seemed particularly angry, sighing and saying, "Don't mention Old Tong. It's all because of him. Without him, I could have refined two hundred pieces by now. He always says it's too fake, and I say it's enough, but he seems unable to get over that. Everything else is fine, but this is not, he just has to insist on it. His true fire doesn't cooperate, and it would be difficult for me to make that many in a short time. I could only let him dawdle and make about seventy pieces. I will never work with him on this again."

Shi Chun also wanted to know how the finished product turned out, so he asked, "Let me see it."

Wu Jinliang looked around, then conjured an umbrella out of thin air, opened it, and handed over a token.

Shi Chun took the item, then pulled out the genuine product. After a brief comparison, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise. He then quickly swapped and mixed the two items in his hands, and after comparing them again, he gestured to Wu Jinliang and said, "Look at the pattern, look at the color, look at the size and details, look at the craftsmanship. Without using magic to examine it internally, who could tell the difference between the real and fake? Don't deny it, their craftsmanship is better than yours."

(End of this chapter)