A Chaotic World

Chapter 48: Forbidden Ground on Crimson Mountain

"Weren't you very tyrannical when you killed my subordinates? What happened to you now? Is running all you can do in the face of similarly strong opponents?" Nanhong Yechang yelled out as he chased after Lu Tianzi.

"What do you mean by similarly strong opponents?" Lu Tianzi retorted. "Are all of you demons just this shameless? I killed your subordinates who were at the same cultivation realm as me. That is called similarly strong opponents! As for you, how do you even find the face to call yourself similarly strong when you are clearly one cultivation realm higher than me?"

As a Peak Essence Building realm martial artist, Lu Tianzi was unable to detect the exact cultivation realm that the demons were at.

But back in the cave, Hu Shenwei had mentioned that the leader of the demons was at the Intermediate Essence Condensation realm. This allowed Lu Tianzi to have a better understanding of just what kind of opponents he was facing at the moment.

"If you stop now, I will at least grant you a swift death. Otherwise when I finally catch you, you won't be able to die even if you ask for it!" Nanhong Yechang threatened.

"Tch!" Lu Tianzi cursed in his heart as he ignored Nanhong Yechang's threat.

The current situation was not looking good for him at all.

Without the need to match his speed to the slower Essence Building realm martial artists in the group before, Lu Tianzi was now able to keep up with the speed of his pursuers.

However, it was a fact that he was only at the Essence Building realm while his opponents were at the Essence Condensation realm. His stamina would naturally be unable to match up.

While the gap between them was not closing at the moment, it was not widening either.

It was now only a matter of time until Lu Tianzi ran out of stamina before his pursuers. At that time, the demons would be able to catch up with ease.

On top of that, he was currently running away from the direction of Ivory Rock City, heading deeper and deeper into demon territory!

In this case, Lu Tianzi could not even hope that he would run into human reinforcements who could aid him in battle. In fact, if he were to run into any demons ahead, the situation would definitely go south very quickly.

Lu Tianzi needed to find a way out of this, and the only thing he could think of was the paper talisman in his spatial ring!

But Lu Tianzi was reluctant to use up such a trump card immediately after obtaining it.

Until he absolutely had no other choices, Lu Tianzi would definitely try to hold onto it until the very last moments!

By now, they had already passed the Shadowfront Fortress, and Lu Tianzi decisively headed up one of the two mountains that loomed by the side of the fortress.

When Nanhong Yechang saw where Lu Tianzi was headed, he let out a deep frown.

Up in the mountains lived wild beasts with strength that surpassed their understanding. It was said that each of the two mountains was ruled by a supremely powerful beast that had power equivalent to the Origin Core realm.

These were supreme entities that even the powerful General Nanbai Zhaoyu would avoid if possible!

By barging into their territories, they risked incurring the rage of these very beasts. However, there was no way that he could let the human martial artist go just like that.

The mountain was vast.

If they were to stop chasing after Lu Tianzi here, then it would be extremely difficult for them to track him down in the future.

Without killing off everyone that they saw, how would they answer to the General when he returned to the fortress?

"Spreading your perception wildly like that, are you not afraid of attracting the powerful wild beasts in the mountains?" Nanhong Yechang yelled at Lu Tianzi.

Indeed, afraid of attracting unwanted attention, the demons had already narrowed their perception, focusing solely on Lu Tianzi.

However, Lu Tianzi was in a completely different position.

Not only did he have to keep track of his pursuers, Lu Tianzi was also desperately searching for a way to throw them off. That was why he had to spread out his perception in a wide area, trying to look for anything at all that could be used to his advantage.

This would naturally increase the odds of the group being found by entities in the mountain!

But how could Lu Tianzi care about such things?

The most important thing to him right now was to escape from the demons behind him!

"What? Are you afraid of the wild beasts too? Then stop chasing me and I will stop sending out my perception!" Lu Tianzi retorted.

"You humans are truly brainless. Stop broadcasting your position like a lighthouse or we might all end up dying together!" one of the demons behind Nanhong Yechang yelled out in anger.

"Let's all die together then!" Lu Tianzi could not be bothered to argue further.

What a joke!

Did they really expect him to listen obediently to their demands?

If he really stopped doing so, then what would he rely on to escape?

But at this time, Lu Tianzi suddenly spotted something hidden in the trees. After sweeping his perception over it, his eyes glinted with a cold light.

After that, he actually decided to retract his perception, narrowing it down to just explore the area directly ahead of him.

Seeing that Lu Tianzi had suddenly retracted his perception, the demons were surprised for a moment before letting out malicious grins.

Humans are truly brainless creatures!

To think that this human martial artist would actually be this cooperative in the end, it seemed that they would be able to accomplish this task without much of a problem!

But from time to time, they saw Lu Tianzi reaching out into the vegetation, picking plants from the ground even while running.

"What is he doing?" one of the demons asked doubfully.

Lu Tianzi's actions truly seemed very suspicious.

Due to the current situation, he was forced to pick the plants carelessly when he sped past, and thus each time he picked a plant only took a single moment. However, even if by just a little, doing so was still inevitably slowing him down.

To do such a thing in a life and death situation like this, there was no doubt about it. He must be plotting something!

Nanhong Yechang narrowed his eyes in suspicion in as well.

Even he had no idea as to what Lu Tianzi was doing. All he saw was Lu Tianzi crushing those plants in his hands before smearing the crushed bits all over his own face.

"Ignore him and continue! If he wants to slow himself down with unnecessary actions then so be it!" Nanhong Yechang snorted.

Thus the pursuit continued.

The mountain was truly vast, with its peak reaching deep into the clouds. Even with their speed as martial artists, it would take days if they wanted to scale to the peak in one go.

Nanhong Yechang was the first to feel that something was amiss.

As they progressed up the mountain, his body seemed to be slowing down, and his focus started to waver. Initially he attributed this to his fatigue and injuries from the night before, but it was rapidly getting from bad to worse.

It was only when he inspected his inner world that his eyes widened in shock.

Sending out his perception to scan his environment in closer detail, Nanhong Yechang finally realised that there was an odourless gas that shrouded the entire area!

"Stop chasing!" Nanhong Yechang hurriedly ordered.

"But why, sir?" the two demons behind him hesitated.

"Idiots! Do you not even realise that we have already entered the forbidden ground that the General had warned us about?" Nanhong Yechang berated in irritation.

"The forbidden ground?" both of them exclaimed in shock.

The two mountains to the sides of Shadowfront Fortress were named as the Crimson Mountain to the West and the White Mountain to the East respectively.

The top half of the Crimson Mountain was said to be shrouded in a layer of gas that was odourless and colourless, making it almost impossible to detect with the five senses. But at the same time, this seemingly harmless gas was actually poisonous in nature!

No matter who entered the top half of the Crimson Mountain, they would be subject to the effects of the poisonous gas, causing their bodies to gradually weaken to the point where they would lose all strength to continue moving.

It was fine if they managed to leave the area before it was too late. Given enough time, the poison within their bodies could still be expelled.

But once someone collapsed within the poisonous gas, they would be left with no other choice but to wait patiently for their deaths. That was unless someone else was willing to brave the poisonous gas in order to rescue them.

As a result, General Nanbai Zhaoyu had warned all demons not to scale to the peak of the Crimson Mountain, labelling the top half of the mountain as a forbidden ground!

It had been so long since the warning that even Nanhong Yechang had forgotten about the existence of the forbidden ground.

Nanhong Yechang glared coldly at Lu Tianzi's back as the human martial artist continued to advance into the depths of the mountain, his figure gradually getting smaller and smaller as he disappeared into the distance.

Did he not realise that he was heading into a land of poison?

If that was so, then he would just end up dying in the forbidden ground without Nanhong Yechang having to lift a finger!

"Let's leave! Pass down my orders to surround all main paths leading down the mountain! If anyone spots that guy, do not engage him in combat but immediately inform me instead. I will personally come to crush this insect!" Nanhong Yechang harrumphed as he turned to leave.

Even though he felt extremely infuriated that he had let an Essence Building realm human martial artist escape, Nanhong Yechang also understood that Lu Tianzi was no ordinary martial artist.

Otherwise, there was no way that he would be able to keep up with the speed of their group of Essence Condensation realm martial artists!

It would be one thing if Lu Tianzi ended up dying in the forbidden ground, but if he managed to escape before he ran out of strength, then Nanhong Yechang was determined to personally take see to his death!

At this moment, Lu Tianzi was slightly disappointed to see that the demons behind him had turned to leave.

He had naturally never heard the warning of General Nanbai Zhaoyu about the forbidden ground of Crimson Mountain. In fact, he did not even know of the name of this mountain.

However, what Lu Tianzi possessed was a vast knowledge on herbalism!

This was something that these demon soldiers had no clue about!

While scaling the mountain, he had already noticed the existence of an extremely rare species of plant the Lion Hemlock.

This was a species of plants that released a poisonous gas into the surroundings as a form of self-preservation, deterring predators from approaching.

Even in Uncle Ye's books, there was nothing that could completely prevent the effects of this poison. That was exactly why Lu Tianzi had paid special attention to this plant, hoping to use it as the main ingredient for concocting a poison.

After all, as compared to the gas that it emitted, the poisonous effect of the Lion Hemlock was actually far more potent when consumed directly!

This made it a suitable poison for both combat and assassinations!

However, he eventually gave up on that plan as it was simply impossible to find any of the plant in the regions near Ivory Rock City.

Who knew that there would actually be so many of it here on this mountain?

At the same time, because of how much attention he had given to the Lion Hemlock, Lu Tianzi had also managed to come up with some theories of his own on how to suppress the poison of the plant.

The answer was a variety of plants that could be found growing near the Lion Hemlock.

By crushing these flower petals and applying the crushed mixture on his face, Lu Tianzi was able to temporarily prevent the effects of the Lion Hemlock from affecting his body.

Even so, it was only temporarily suppressing the effects, and not a way to completely remove the poison.

He had initially hoped that the demons would charge in obliviously in pursuit, allowing him to turn around and kill them once they had been weakened to the point of losing most of their combat capabilities.

That would allow him to safely descend from the mountain, quickly getting out of the range of the poisonous gas before the effects of the crushed plants wore out.

Alas, things did not turn out as well as he hoped.

With the demons still waiting behind him, Lu Tianzi could only choose to forge on ahead, hoping that the poisonous gas would eventually clear up when he reached deep enough into the mountain!