Chapter Sixty: Arriving in the Nick of Time

After escaping from Elephant Valley, Chen Yi hurried toward the location he and Fu Aoxuan had planned in advance. Before entering Elephant Valley, Chen Yi, Fu Aoxuan, Wang Haochen, and Yu Ming had carefully discussed a detailed plan. As soon as Chen Yi succeeded, he would head straight for a mountain peak not far from Elephant Valley, where Fu Aoxuan and the others would be waiting to assist him. Upon seeing Chen Yi, Fu Aoxuan would immediately summon the flying vessel, soar above the Sky Mountains, and hurry toward the Five Elements Sect, ensuring Chen Yi need not worry about pursuers from Elephant Valley or the elephant clan’s Nascent Soul stage leader.

But if Chen Yi were discovered in Elephant Valley, Fu Aoxuan and his companions would pilot the flying vessel directly to the valley to rescue him. The vessel’s speed was extraordinarily fast; typically, cultivators at the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages could not keep up. If Fu Aoxuan was willing to use high-grade spirit stones as the vessel’s core power source, its speed would increase even further, making it possible for even Nascent Soul stage cultivators to fail in their pursuit. Relying on the vessel’s unparalleled speed, Chen Yi and his friends had devised the audacious plan for Chen Yi to infiltrate the forbidden Elephant Tomb and steal the ivory.

Chen Yi raced above the treetops, his toes lightly brushing the leaves as he ran. His body resembled a feather carried by a fierce wind; in the blink of an eye, he drifted from one end of the forest to the other, covering dozens of miles in a single leap.

Behind him, a dark cloud gathered, blocking out the sun and casting the world into darkness. On closer inspection, this was not a cloud, but a horde of demonic elephants from the valley. Their eyes gleamed red, and their pillar-like legs spun madly like wheels of fire. Driven to desperation, the elephants chased Chen Yi relentlessly.

Besides Chen Yi, a group of elephant clan experts, transformed into human shape, pursued him overhead. At their head was the elephant clan leader, a formidable Nascent Soul stage cultivator. The leader was furious and indignant to discover that Chen Yi, a mere Qi Refining stage cultivator, had escaped from right under the noses of two peak Golden Core stage demonic elephants.

After Chen Yi broke out of the valley, the elephant clan leader immediately mobilized his spiritual power, instantly moving from the valley’s center to its outermost gorge. Suspended in midair, he radiated an imposing aura, so fierce that even the surrounding clouds fled from his presence.

Despite his awe-inspiring demeanor, the leader’s face was cold and drawn, his mood sour. He could not fathom how a Qi Refining stage junior had slipped through the myriad layers of the elephant clan’s defenses. The clan boasted countless seasoned elephant warriors, each far stronger than Chen Yi, yet under their very noses—including the leader’s own—the Qi Refining cultivator had escaped.

It was this failure to stop Chen Yi himself that made the leader so angry. As a dignified Nascent Soul stage master, being unable to catch a junior was a source of deep shame and fury.

Unwittingly, Chen Yi glanced back, and his face paled. He saw the elephant clan leader speeding toward him from just a few dozen miles away, closing the gap with alarming speed. In that moment of hesitation, the leader drew even nearer.

At such close range, Chen Yi could clearly see the murderous intent etched on the leader’s face. If he were caught, the leader would surely tear him apart with the Five Elephant Split. Determined to avoid such a fate, Chen Yi desperately activated the Five Elements Technique, restoring his spiritual power and channeling it into the Wind Movement Talisman.

With his spiritual energy infused, the talisman’s power surged, and Chen Yi’s speed increased dramatically. In an instant, he widened the distance between himself and the leader. Though his speed soared, it was only temporary; he could not sustain it. The leader’s Nascent Soul stage cultivation would soon allow him to catch up, placing Chen Yi in grave danger.

Half an hour later, Chen Yi’s spiritual power was nearly depleted. The Five Elements Technique could no longer absorb energy fast enough to keep up with his consumption. Soon, he would be forced to stop, and the leader, who persistently pursued him, would capture him with ease.

Just as Chen Yi was on the verge of exhaustion and crisis, he suddenly spotted a flying vessel ahead. Looking closely, he recognized it as Fu Aoxuan’s vessel. Ecstatic, Chen Yi felt his spirits rise from the depths of despair to the heights of hope.

“Chen Yi, hurry aboard!” As Chen Yi rejoiced, Fu Aoxuan’s voice rang out from the vessel. Remembering the leader less than a hundred meters behind him, Chen Yi quickly summoned the last of his spiritual power, leapt forward, and landed on the vessel.

As soon as Chen Yi boarded, Fu Aoxuan turned the vessel around and, under Yu Ming’s pained gaze, poured a small bag of high-grade spirit stones into the vessel’s core. With the new power source, the vessel’s speed transformed drastically, as if a slow-moving ox cart had suddenly become a speeding locomotive.

With a thunderous roar, the vessel accelerated with unrivaled speed. In the blink of an eye, Chen Yi found himself hundreds of miles away. The leader, once close, was now far behind. Watching the vessel disappear into the distance as a mere shadow, the leader stood motionless, stunned by its sudden burst of speed.

He had already noticed Chen Yi’s dwindling spiritual power and thought that, with a bit more pursuit, he could easily capture him. Yet fate proved unpredictable. Just as he was about to seize Chen Yi, the flying vessel appeared, and the Qi Refining stage youth vaulted aboard, then sped away at a rate even a Nascent Soul stage master could not match.