Chapter 59: Chaos

"Bah!"

Spitting out a mouthful of phlegm, Su Xiuyan's handsome face revealed a trace of coldness.

He had already caught up to Shen Chang'an.

His order to disperse the scouts had worked. Shen Chang'an's escape route was gradually becoming clear, and Su Xiuyan easily grasped this.

However, the dispersed scouts were even less of a match for Shen Chang'an.

That fellow seemed inexhaustible. No matter when he encountered him, he still retained his utmost strength and could easily kill the men under his command.

Even so, their pursuit of Shen Chang'an's trail was becoming increasingly distinct.

As they closed in, quite a few people had already captured Shen Chang'an's aura. Various tracking arts were deployed, and Shen Chang'an's trajectory of movement was now clear to them.

At the closest point, he had even laid eyes on Shen Chang'an.

Yet the opponent simply swiftly slaughtered one of his subordinates and left without looking back.

Unable to help himself, Su Xiuyan ordered his men to launch an attack directly. However, the distance was too great; whether it was crossbows or mystical arts, by the time they reached Shen Chang'an, they could no longer harm him.

He merely swung a rock and blocked those feeble arrows.

"Demon-breaking arrows! Equip them all for me!"

Su Xiuyan saw that Shen Chang'an was using spiritual telekinesis to transport objects, and immediately ordered his subordinates to equip arrows specifically designed to shatter mystical arts.

Such demon-breaking arrows were extremely precious, entwined with law-breaking talismans and inscribed with various runes on the arrowheads. With the two complementing each other, ordinary mystical arts simply could not resist them.

Shen Chang'an's telekinetic divine ability was extremely exquisite, but in terms of sheer force, it could not be considered all that powerful.

Even so, to shoot and kill Shen Chang'an, the consumption of demon-breaking arrows would certainly not be a small number. In order to seize the Dragon Maiden, Su Xiuyan cast aside these trivial details.

"Whoosh!"

Another explosive sound rang through the sky, and Su Xiuyan instantly regained his spirit, knowing that Shen Chang'an's whereabouts had been found once again.

"Pursue! Pursue immediately!"

They had been very close to Shen Chang'an last time; catching up this time, they would surely slaughter this fellow.

The crowd surged forward one after another, and this time, Shen Chang'an had already leaped out of the mountain forest and rushed into a desolate wilderness.

"Hahahaha, have you run out of options in your panic?" Su Xiuyan was overjoyed at the sight.

Fleeing outside the mountain forest into the desolate wilderness, Shen Chang'an's figure could no longer be concealed. As a result, finding him would become even easier.

The crowd pursued him one after another, watching the distance between them and Shen Chang'an continuously shrink. At that very moment, Shen Chang'an suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at the crowd before him.

"Those not afraid of death, come on!" he coldly snorted.

Su Xiuyan did not know what medicine Shen Chang'an was selling in his gourd, but right now the Dragon Maiden Jiang Yunyi had yet to appear, so he could not simply kill Shen Chang'an outright.

"Daoist Priest Shen, hand over the Dragon Maiden, and I can still make the call to spare your life!"

Shen Chang'an remained silent, merely waiting for the people around to slowly close in before speaking, "Still not going to make a move?"

Hearing these words, for some reason, Su Xiuyan felt a chill in his heart, and an irrepressible sense of crisis surged into his mind.

Hum!

A sharp blade suddenly pierced through the air. Su Xiuyan immediately swung his sword to parry, but the moment the sword edge collided with the blade, the blade shattered with a resounding crash.

"What?!"

Su Xiuyan was shocked in alarm, only to see those shattered blade fragments spinning and intersecting as they slashed toward his body!

"In your dreams!"

Su Xiuyan instantly let out an angry roar, his inner magic power surging forth like a torrent. In an instant, a heart-protecting mirror on his chest flashed, transforming into a massive golden shield that blocked his front.

Clang, clang, clang!

All the blade fragments were intercepted by the golden shield and fell entirely to the ground, failing to harm Su Xiuyan by even a fraction.

Yet Su Xiuyan could not help breaking out in a cold sweat.

"Li Qingqing!" He gritted his teeth and spat out the name, anger burning in his eyes.

"Long time no see, Su Xiuyan."

Li Qingqing's figure drifted down, standing atop a large tree, looking down at them from on high.

Su Xiuyan took a deep breath, looked at Li Qingqing's figure, and sneered, "There were rumors before that you and this Shen Chang'an were in cahoots. I originally thought you only had some friendship with him, but never did I expect you would actually ruin the sacred sect's grand plan for his sake."

Li Qingqing, however, said indifferently, "Su Xiuyan, stop gilding your own lily. The White Lotus Sect's foundation is currently unstable; rashly acquiring the dragon vein will only make you the prey of the Dragon Emperor. You came purely for your own selfish desires, yet you frame it as a grand plan for the sect—truly laughable."

"Hoh, acquiring the dragon vein might not need to be rushed for a moment, but the Dragon Maiden can be imprisoned first, can she not? As for you, walking the same path as this Shen Chang'an, it seems to me you have already betrayed the sacred sect!"

This accusation was levied quite heavily, and under the current circumstances, if he were to kill Li Qingqing, truly no one would speak up to defend her.

Li Qingqing let out a mocking laugh and said, "Su Xiuyan, you don't really think you have the current situation under your control, do you?"

Su Xiuyan's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous thought suddenly arose.

"What do you mean?" Su Xiuyan asked.

"What do I mean? Heh, those brothers who are still willing to follow me, raise your right arms high! Today, we kill Su Xiuyan and restore our status!"

Su Xiuyan's heart shook violently. Glancing around, he suddenly noticed the arms of certain individuals twitching slightly upward before quickly lowering again, while others directly raised their right arms high.

"What?!" Su Xiuyan's eyes widened, and a wave of chill instantly surged into his heart.

The people right beside him were actually dark chess pieces planted by Li Qingqing?

How could this be? Why would Li Qingqing have so many loyal hidden agents?

Before he could ponder further, a stern shout suddenly echoed from the crowd: "Protect the Holy Son! Kill these traitors!"

Immediately afterward, someone fiercely thrust out a blade. A massive head flew into the air, and the situation instantly spiraled out of control!

It was not just Li Qingqing who noticed people wanting to raise their hands; the subordinates by his side noticed it too.

Therefore, apart from their original old comrades and people they knew, they trusted no one else.

Even those who hadn't raised their hands—perhaps they had simply wanted to raise them but didn't in time?

Harboring such thoughts, this chaotic battle quickly devolved into a mutual slaughter between the two factions.

"Are you all out of your minds? I am loyal to the Holy Son!"

"You lackeys of the Holy Maiden, do you still have the face to deceive people here?"

As the killing progressed to the end, no one remembered the original purpose of this battle anymore. No one bothered to distinguish who was a traitor and who wasn't; they had only a single thought: to slaughter the people on the opposite side clean and preserve their own lives.

No one noticed that amidst their slaughter, Shen Chang'an and Li Qingqing had already quietly slipped away.