"Perhaps we can talk,"
Xu Mu gripped the hilt of his saber tightly, his gaze wary as he looked at the young girl before him.
From their first encounter, he had known this girl possessed the power to kill him.
She had hidden in the grass, and in the blink of an eye, a dagger was at his throat. His mind had reacted, but his body was a beat too slow, a testament to Zhao Qingdong's speed.
He had thought Zhao Qingdong was someone with whom he had no dealings, but unexpectedly, they had become teammates.
Even more unexpectedly, in the next moment, they had become enemies.
Zhao Qingdong wanted to kill him, and then go after Zuo Mingqiu.
What could he do?
"Talk about what? Do you need to rest?" Zhao Qingdong said, a sudden realization dawning on her as she raised a finger.
"Right, if I kill you now, Zuo Mingqiu will say I won unfairly, and he'll try to wriggle out of it.
So, I'll let you rest for an hour. Once you've recovered, we'll fight again."
Xu Mu's lips twitched slightly at her words.
Lan Yu and the others were equally taken aback.
Someone cautiously sent a telepathic message:
"Senior Sister, our formation... it probably can't be maintained for an hour. What if this kid runs away then?"
Lan Yu's voice was stern as he rebuked:
"Nonsense!"
"No matter how fast he runs, can he be faster than Senior Sister Qingdong? Even the Dao Child isn't as fast as Senior Sister. Where can this weirdo run?"
The person who spoke immediately understood.
"If that's the case, can we break the grand formation now? We don't need to exert ourselves."
The person said with some surprise. He was already at the limit of his energy depletion from the fight, and continuing would likely damage his core.
Lan Yu nodded slightly. He too was not lightly injured. If Zhao Qingdong was to act, they truly wouldn't need to maintain the grand formation.
However, for some reason, he felt an ominous premonition, a sense of unease.
"Perhaps... we should wait a little longer?"
"If this kid escapes, we'll live in fear from now on," Qing Si said seriously.
"He can't escape," Zhao Qingdong replied calmly. "Even Zuo Mingqiu couldn't escape if he were here."
"He can't be faster than me."
"In the entire Hundred Tribes Alliance, there is no one faster than me."
Xu Mu smiled at this.
"The White Cloud Daoist Temple has one, named Yan Yu."
Zhao Qingdong frowned upon hearing this.
"The Human King's disciple, the one who eliminated Chen Changkong?"
Xu Mu nodded.
"Precisely."
"His sword is the fastest I've ever seen in this world."
Zhao Qingdong was silent for a moment, then said confidently, "That's because you haven't seen my sword yet."
"I will definitely be faster than him."
Xu Mu shook his head, smiling.
"How can you know if you haven't fought him?"
"Why don't you go fight him? He's also among the top ten in the Myriad Races Assembly. If you defeat him, Zuo Mingqiu will definitely fight you."
"And Yan Yu is from the White Cloud Daoist Temple. As a disciple of the Celestial Master Mountain, defeating the Human King's chief disciple from the White Cloud Daoist Temple will undoubtedly boost your reputation significantly. Not only will it suppress the White Cloud Daoist Temple, but it will also gain you many supporters within Celestial Master Mountain, which will be of great convenience for your future bid for the position of Celestial Master."
These words held a lot of logic.
Lan Yu and the others listened, and their hearts grew tense.
If Zhao Qingdong truly did that and abandoned the hunt, it would be much harder for them to kill this strange person.
Because finding another cloud with such potent lightning elemental energy as before would be very difficult.
And Xu Mu's condition was also better than before.
If they continued to stalemate, it was truly hard to say who would win and who would lose.
"No."
Zhao Qingdong gave her answer.
Lan Yu and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
"Whether it's that Yan Yu, or Xu Mu who defeated Zuo Mingqiu, or the Nan Gong Saintess who won the Supreme position, I will fight them in the future."
"But before that, I must defeat Zuo Mingqiu."
"I cultivated in seclusion for three years, not even participating in the Myriad Races Assembly, all for the sake of defeating him."
"I can't wait any longer."
"Defeating you is the fastest way to fight him. As for the Celestial Master position, I actually don't care about it."
Looking at Zhao Qingdong's resolute eyes, Xu Mu felt helpless.
He could not fight Zhao Qingdong.
The opponent's strength was infinitely close to Zuo Mingqiu, possibly even stronger, and this was within Celestial Master Mountain.
On her home turf, if he wanted to defeat Zhao Qingdong, the price he would have to pay would be far greater than breaking that grand formation.
Most crucially, he could kill Lan Yu and the others to silence them, but he couldn't kill Zhao Qingdong.
If Zhao Qingdong died, Celestial Master Mountain and White Cloud Daoist Temple would never merge, and it might even ignite a major war.
And he would not be able to escape Celestial Master Mountain.
What to do?
"I can only try to run."
Xu Mu, helpless, recovered his strength while contemplating an escape route.
Just then, Lan Yu and the others dismantled the grand formation.
"Since Senior Sister Qingdong has decided to act, there's no need for us to interfere further."
Lan Yu said with a smile.
Zhao Qingdong's expression was calm.
Xu Mu felt a stirring of intent.
The dismantling of the grand formation meant he could go all out to escape. The only one on the field who could catch him was Zhao Qingdong, so he needed to find a way to keep her here for a while.
How to keep her?
"Formation... I know formations..."
Xu Mu narrowed his eyes, suddenly recalling that he had learned about teleportation formations and understood the basic principles of formation array construction.
Since he had been trapped by Lan Yu and the others with a formation, he could also use a formation to restrain Zhao Qingdong.
No sooner said than done.
Xu Mu controlled his shadow ability, moving stealthily, ghost-like, blending into the rubble. No one noticed.
"Fourteen stars of Heaven, Wolf Star three, nine positions, twenty-eight earthly branches, Gu Yang ten, seven, Kan water position..."
Xu Mu meticulously calculated the positions. The innate Eight Trigrams formation disk spun, and Xu Mu slowly calculated the points required for a confining formation.
Then, using his shadow ability, Xu Mu began to stealthily etch the inscription lines at those formation nodes, bit by bit.
Time ticked by.
The formation gradually took shape.
A faint, inexplicable pressure appeared in the space. Lan Yu, holding his formation disk, seemed to sense something, and his brow furrowed.
"Is it an illusion?"
Lan Yu scratched his head and extended his perception.
He then sensed a mysterious energy residue everywhere in the space, subtly connected to each other, appearing to be a... formation.
"Formation."
"Formation!?"
Lan Yu's expression changed, and he shouted,
"Senior Sister, strike quickly!"
Zhao Qingdong opened her eyes and instantly gripped her sword hilt.
Xu Mu's expression remained calm.
He stepped on the "Xun" character and flew out of that space.
Zhao Qingdong raised her leg to pursue but was intercepted by an invisible barrier. She swung her sword at it, but it felt like hacking through a swamp, sluggish and sticky.
She couldn't break through the formation immediately.
"Chase quickly!!!"
Lan Yu was frantic, directing Qing Si to chase Xu Mu like a madman, but no one dared to move.
Firstly, they couldn't catch up.
Secondly, without the support of the formation, anyone who encountered Xu Mu would undoubtedly die.
"Help me break the formation, and I'll chase."
At this moment, Zhao Qingdong spoke.
The small red sword in her hand continuously hacked at the surrounding great Dao of space, attempting to break the formation, but it had little effect.
Xu Mu's formation, laid out according to the innate Eight Trigrams, had strong interconnectivity. It could only be broken by destroying all nodes simultaneously, a task of extreme difficulty.
Zhao Qingdong, however, did not understand formations.
"Quick, help Senior Sister break the formation!"
Lan Yu's expression was grim. The others took out their formation disks and began to study the formation Xu Mu had laid out. Not long after, they found the key to breaking it.
"Attack together!"
Twenty-five people stood in their respective positions, with Zhao Qingdong in the center. They unleashed a lightning strike simultaneously.
Then, the formation broke.
Zhao Qingdong emerged from within.
Lan Yu's expression was bleak. Although the formation was broken, nearly an hour had passed. Xu Mu had long since fled. Even with Zhao Qingdong's speed, the chances of catching him were slim.
"I know what you're thinking."
A chilling glint appeared in Zhao Qingdong's eyes. She stepped onto her red sword and sped into the distance.
In an instant, she vanished from their sight, her speed even slightly faster than Xu Mu's departure, almost doubling it!
"Don't worry, I will catch up to him."
"He will die!"