Lin Jichao chased after the Hundred Feet Lord, his spiritual energy circulating through his meridians.
Even though he exerted all his strength, his figure almost turning into a remnant shadow, he could only trail behind the Hundred Feet Lord, unable to close the distance.
"The Hundred Feet Lord is also at the Fourth Realm, shouldn't it dare to engage in a battle? Why is it running?" Lin Jichao puzzled.
As the man and the demon continued their pursuit and escape, they soon arrived outside the Qing Mountain Range.
Without hesitation, Lin Jichao followed inside, knowing that if he pursued too deeply, he could always retreat.
But as he entered the mountains and took a few steps, Lin Jichao suddenly saw severed limbs under his feet.
It was a child's arm, left alone on the ground, crawling with nauseating parasites.
Seeing this scene, Lin Jichao's expression changed drastically.
"Have you devoured all the abducted children?!" he exclaimed.
"Get lost, keep chasing me, and you'll meet your end!" the Hundred Feet Lord's voice echoed from the front.
"Then come and try!" Lin Jichao gritted his teeth, forming hand seals and clearing his mind.
A surge of star power emanated, mixed with the majestic aura of the Haoran Qi technique, boosting his speed by threefold.
This was the result of the interaction between the North Pole Technique he had learned and his own cultivation of the Haoran Qi technique.
"Radiant sun and moon, dispel the demonic evil!"
Infusing his spiritual energy into the long sword in his hand, the sword radiance extended by three inches.
With a slash, it transformed into sword qi, heading straight for the Hundred Feet Lord's back.
The Hundred Feet Lord had to halt, turning back just as the sword qi reached its front.
Unable to defend, it could only extend countless insect legs from its body to block the attack.
Clang!
A crisp sound, accompanied by splattering flames.
Countless insect legs were severed by the sword qi, flying in all directions.
"Ah! It hurts so much!" the Hundred Feet Lord wailed.
It glared at Lin Jichao with resentment, saying, "If I didn't want to be captured and thrown into the Demon-Sealing Tower again, you, a dog of the Celestial Supervisory Bureau, would have died today!"
"You come from the Demon-Sealing Tower?!" Lin Jichao was astonished.
However, the Hundred Feet Lord remained silent, turning around to flee once more.
But since it had already stopped, Lin Jichao would not let it escape easily.
With a single step, Lin Jichao turned into a remnant shadow, sword in hand, and in just a breath's time, he was already in front of the Hundred Feet Lord.
Seeing this, the Hundred Feet Lord lunged to bite.
Another crisp sound.
Its teeth clamped down on the sword in Lin Jichao's hand, the sharp blade causing significant damage to its mouth.
"Damn it!"
Before Lin Jichao could react, a black smoke completely obscured his vision.
Enveloped by the black smoke, Lin Jichao felt a slight stinging sensation on his exposed skin.
"The black smoke is poisonous? Luckily, I have the star power of the North Pole Technique protecting my body, or else I would have been affected."
Thinking to himself, Lin Jichao noticed the Hundred Feet Lord's body elongating suddenly, transforming into a giant centipede about ten meters long.
It lunged towards Lin Jichao with its mouth wide open.
With his vision obscured by the black mist, even his spiritual awareness was somewhat dulled. When he realized, the ferocious mouth of the Hundred Feet Lord was already close.
Unable to dodge in time, Lin Jichao sidestepped and struck with all his might!
In the blink of an eye, the Hundred Feet Lord's mouth bit into Lin Jichao, tearing only his outer garment.
The glass armor he had just acquired helped mitigate most of the damage from this attack.
The Hundred Feet Lord widened its eyes in realization.
At the same time, Lin Jichao's sword had already descended.
The sharp blade pierced through the body of the Hundred Feet Lord, almost cutting it in half if it hadn't wriggled a few times. Nevertheless, a large amount of foul-smelling sticky fluid, mixed with milky white juice, oozed out of its body.
Upon hitting the ground, the vegetation withered, and black smoke rose.
"So toxic," Lin Jichao's gaze hardened.
Enduring the pain, the Hundred Feet Lord attempted to flee.
Initially confident, thinking Lin Jichao, also at the Fourth Realm, couldn't handle it, it had the audacity to threaten him.
But after a brief exchange, it was already severely wounded, realizing it couldn't afford to linger.
However, if the Hundred Feet Lord wanted to flee, how could Lin Jichao let it go?
Chasing after it and entangling it, Lin Jichao asked, "You came from the Demon-Sealing Tower? Judging by your strength, you've just entered the Fourth Realm. It won't be long before you're caught and thrown in, right?"
The Hundred Feet Lord remained silent, its mind solely focused on escaping.
Lin Jichao continued, "Where have the abducted women and children gone? Tell me the truth!"
"Eaten!"
"Daring to court death. Not good!"
Just as he was about to reprimand, Lin Jichao's expression suddenly changed.
He saw the Hundred Feet Lord voluntarily severing its own wound. Subsequently, a centipede crawled out of the severed body part.
Before Lin Jichao could react, the new centipede opened its mouth, spewing another wave of black mist.
"This poison is even more potent than before."
Lin Jichao looked down, blood seeping from his arm. When the blood touched the black mist, it immediately turned into black smoke.
Simultaneously, his spiritual energy was depleting rapidly, and he even felt a bit dizzy.
The voice of the Hundred Feet Lord echoed, its words identical, overlapping.
"Every time I split my body, I lose ten years of cultivation. Kid, you're dead today, even if you don't die!"
With those words, a tremendous force sent Lin Jichao flying, breaking three or four large trees before coming to a stop.
"Is it because of the poison that I'm a bit slow?" Lin Jichao clutched his chest. Despite the glass armor mitigating much of the damage, the impact had shaken his internal organs.
He spat out a mouthful of blood, tainted by the black mist.
"At the Fourth Realm? I'm not at the Fourth Realm! If it weren't for that damned place, the Demon-Sealing Tower, how could I have ended up in this situation, hunted down by you to this extent!" the Hundred Feet Lord roared with resentment, its two bodies charging at Lin Jichao.
As the Hundred Feet Lord drew closer, Lin Jichao gripped his sword tightly, undaunted.
His only option now was to rely on the Thunder-Inducing Sword Technique to catch it off guard with a fatal strike. Both at the Fourth Realm, he believed the Hundred Feet Lord wouldn't withstand two Thunder Swords.
In the blink of an eye, the distance of several dozen meters was crossed by the Hundred Feet Lord.
It had reached Lin Jichao, so close that he could smell the foul breath from its mouth.
"Inward thunder, the name of the thunder god, profound insight, the five energies surge, thunder strike!" Lin Jichao seized the opportunity and slashed with his sword.
The thunder struck the Hundred Feet Lord directly.
With a scream, both bodies of the Hundred Feet Lord lay charred on the ground.
"Well done, you actually know the Thunder-Inducing Sword Technique. It seems the Celestial Supervisory Bureau came prepared this time."
"Stop the chatter. Where have those children you abducted gone? Are there any survivors?"
"Want to know the answer? Give me a way out, and I'll tell you," the weakened Hundred Feet Lord pleaded.
"Do you still have room to negotiate?"
At that moment, Lin Jichao sensed someone approaching.
Alert, he coldly watched the two struggling Hundred Feet Lords on the ground trying to stand up.
After a few breaths, a cold light suddenly flashed.
Lin Jichao saw a long sword, not coming towards him but piercing through the two struggling Hundred Feet Lords, pinning their severed bodies to a nearby large tree without losing momentum.
The two halves of the Hundred Feet Lord hung on the tree like skewers.
Turning around, Lin Jichao saw a young man in a blue shirt approaching, appearing to be in his early thirties.
Before he could speak, the barely alive Hundred Feet Lord coughed up blood, a look of disbelief on its face: "How could it be..."
Before it could finish, the long sword suddenly emitted dazzling sword energy.
The Hundred Feet Lord was instantly torn apart, completely dead.
After completing all this, the man looked at Lin Jichao and said, "I am Hou Miao of the Taiyi Sect."
Lin Jichao seemed to have guessed something but still calmly replied, "I am Lin Jichao of the Celestial Supervisory Bureau. Thank you for your help."
End of Chapter.