Chapter 221: Tracking Down

Following Aligujin’s fall, all of the Blackwind Bandits descended into chaos…

Yan Liqiang, who had released the arrow, hid himself behind a huge rock nearby with the quickest speed possible. Through a small gap at the bottom of the rocks, he observed the chaotic situation in the Blackwind Bandits’ party.

The Blackwind Bandits’ offensive tempo was messed up. Those who were charging toward the Hui Clan Gathering turned back, and those who were fighting Liang Yijie and the rest also withdrew.

All the Blackwind Bandits started searching around in a frenzy like hornets whose nest had been smashed. Yet none of them could find the source of the arrow.

After releasing an arrow from about five hundred meters away, Yan Liqiang remained still in the darkness. This simply drove those Blackwind Bandits crazy.

When Yan Liqiang released shot, he was aiming for Aligujin’s neck — because even though he was riding on his steed, he was turning his neck around. Therefore, even after Aligujin was shot, the other Blackwind Bandits had difficulty determining the direction where the arrow had come from. For the sake of not exposing his location, Yan Liqiang even controlled the force of that arrow. He didn’t fully draw his bow — he only needed to pierce Aligujin’s neck and throat. The only life he wanted to take was Aligujin’s. If he had fully drawn his bow just now, the arrow would have penetrated through Aligujin’s neck and hit the person behind him. In that case, the moment those two people fell, the remaining Blackwind Bandits would be able to pinpoint his location very easily if they used their brains a little. If such a large crowd of Blackwind Bandits really came after him for a revenge, he’d be in trouble.

Yan Liqiang even carefully considered his hiding spot after releasing that arrow. He had to find a cover that wasn’t visible aerially, so he hid himself entirely under a huge rock.

As proven by reality, Yan Liqiang’s consideration was correct and also extremely vital.

Right after Yan Liqiang hid himself, a crowd of more than a hundred Blackwind Bandits started yelling strangely. They rushed to the foot of the mountain where Yan Liqiang and the rubbles were on their rhinodrake steeds. They then started scanning around the mountain, just fifty or sixty meters away from Yan Liqiang’s location.

A few Blackwind Bandits even tossed their burning torches toward the rubble Yan Liqiang was hiding behind to illuminate the area. The closest torch was resting just about twenty meters away from Yan Liqiang as it burned with crackling noises among the rubble.

Since they couldn’t find any precise targets, the Blackwind Bandits left after searching for a while around the perimeter of the rocky area at the mountain’s foot.

Yan Liqiang remained unmoving because he could see through the cracks that the owl which was perched on a huge tree at the Hui Clan Gathering had flapped its wings and started flying toward the Blackwind Bandits when it noticed the chaos in the party.

The owl circled above the chaotic Blackwind Bandits first, then started wandering around everywhere. Yan Liqiang averted his gaze when he noticed the owl was flying toward the small mountain he was on, and he kept himself well-hidden motionlessly under the huge rock.

The owl was flying very low — just several tens of meters above the ground, seemingly wanting to get a clearer view of the ground. Hiding under the huge rock, Yan Liqiang held his breath with great focus. Although he couldn’t see the owl, he could hear its wings flapping in the night breeze.

The flapping noises from the owl’s wings only faded from Yan Liqiang’s ears two minutes later. Yan Liqiang waited for a while longer. He only quietly poked his head out from under the huge rock five or six minutes later and looked up into the sky.

The sky was completely empty.

It seemed like the owl was no longer around this small mountain and had flown somewhere else.

Yan Liqiang crawled out from under the huge rock. He looked into the distance and realized that the owl had already flown to another mountain and was circling around the top. Yan Liqiang could still very easily spot the owl thanks to the faint moon and starlight in the clear open sky along with his vision.

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Another ten minutes passed. Those berserk Blackwind Bandits searched everywhere for another round. After failing to track Yan Liqiang down, they put out their burning torches and withdrew with Aligujin’s corpse. In just a flash, all of them vanished behind the hills in the distance.

However, that owl was still circling around in the sky and didn’t immediately leave. After circling around for another ten minutes and making no new discoveries, it then flew away toward a forest in the distance.

Upon seeing that the owl had finally left, Yan Liqiang stood up from the rubble. He stared in the direction where the owl had gone off to and frowned. Yan Liqiang only hesitated for a moment before he clenched his teeth and started running toward where the owl had disappeared off to.

Ever since he discovered that owl, Yan Liqiang had a few opportunities where he could have easily taken the owl out, considering his cultivation in archery. Yet he had spared the owl because he wished to find out just who was hiding behind it.

The feeling of being spied on was simply too unpleasant. Over these few days, Yan Liqiang always felt as though a pair of eyes had been persistently watching him and Sun Bingchen’s party. Now that he managed to pick up a clue, he naturally wanted to get to the bottom of this.

Since that owl had no eyes on its back, of course it didn’t notice that someone was watching and sprinting after it on the ground behind it.

It could be said that Yan Liqiang was sprinting with all his might. He used all of his strength and ran as fast as he could. He even pushed the footworks from the ‘Nine Palace Wind Shadow Steps’ to their limits to raise his speed.

The feeling of running against the night wind in his drenched clothes and shoes was not just pleasant. At first, Yan Liqiang still felt a little chilly. But as his body gradually started heating up, the wet clothes he was wearing were as though they had been chucked into a dryer. They were being blown and roasted by him at the same time, and hence they started drying up.

Although Yan Liqiang was chasing after the owl as fast as he could on the ground, the distance between him and the owl was still slowly increasing.

Two thousand meters… Three thousand meters… Four thousand meters… Five thousand meters… Six thousand meters… Seven thousand meters…

After running for half an hour, Yan Liqiang’s legs were about to break and his lungs were about to burst. He had almost never run this hard in his entire life before. Even so, the size of the owl was still gradually diminishing from his sight as it moved further and further away from him, finally becoming a faintly discernible black speck in the sky.

Just when Yan Liqiang felt like he was about to lose the owl and had no choice but to give up, he saw the black speck finally land behind the hills in the distance.

Yan Liqiang could only clench his teeth and continue sprinting toward those hills in his field of vision.

A thought then suddenly emerged in his mind — he wondered, if he cultivated Muscle Tendon Changing and Marrow Cleansing after exhausting his strength in running this time, would his legs be strengthened and hence improve his running capabilities?

Such a thought made Yan Liqiang excited for a moment there. However, the situation before his eyes reminded him that this was not the time to test his thought out. Yan Liqiang locked onto the target ahead of him and continued charging forward.

Yan Liqiang continued sprinting with all his might alone. However, a few orbs of green light in the wilderness noticed Yan Liqiang who was sprinting and quietly came up to surround him.

While running, Yan Liqiang retrieved his Horned Python Bow and nocked an arrow onto it…

“GO TO HELL…!”

Yan Liqiang cursed and sent his arrow flying like a bolt of lightning. The two orbs of green light nearest to him howled in anguish when it was instantly sent flying by Yan Liqiang’s arrow before landing heavily on the ground. This scared off the other orbs of green light which immediately fled, no longer daring to come any closer.

Yan Liqiang’s clothes were first dried by his body heat before they were drenched in his sweat again. Just when Yan Liqiang felt his legs were turning limp like noodles, and his lungs felt as though a few glowing embers had been shoved into them, he finally reached the hill where the owl had landed…