NOVEL WEB Chapter 242: Arrived
Li Mei was flying through the sky at breakneck speed.
As she flew, she glanced back repeatedly at her pursuers who were steadily gaining ground with each passing moment. The gap between them kept shrinking faster and faster as time went on.
Everything had gone terribly wrong from the very beginning. When she had departed from the Central Continent about a week ago, her flying boat had been attacked by unknown enemies.
Someone actually dared to attack her boat despite it bearing the unmistakable insignia of the Li family, one of the Ten Great Families. This meant that the assailant was either someone from the Ten Holy Lands or another of the Ten Great Families. If that was true, then it meant they didn't think much of her Li family.
It seemed their Li Family was truly in decline.
After her boat had been attacked and severely damaged, she had hastily deployed the emergency escape method built into the vessel. The boat had shot forward at maximum speed, its defensive arrays blazing as they deflected follow-up attacks.
The good news was that she had managed to escape the initial assault zone alive. The bad news was that the boat had sustained so much damage that she could no longer properly control its flight path, causing it to crash-land somewhere in the Eastern Continent.
On the positive side, this was actually her original destination, and she had somehow survived the violent crash landing with only minor injuries. On the negative side, she had crash-landed in some not so nice people's backyard.
Now that she was being chased after, she couldn't go to the Azure Cloud Sect as she didn't want to bring this kind of trouble to her cousin's doorstep. Instead, she chose to flee in the opposite direction.
As she was looking back once again, she noticed that the pursuers had caught up to her.
"Kekeke, little girl, there's no need to be that scared," one of the men called out. "Just stop running and we can have a nice, friendly chat."
Li Mei didn't waste even a second listening to them. Without hesitation, she reached into her sleeve and withdrew another talisman, hurling it toward her attackers.
When the men saw the talisman, they immediately moved away to avoid it. "Dammit, it's this again!" one of them cursed loudly. "Just how many treasures does this kid have?"
"Doesn't matter how many she's got," another replied as the talisman exploded where they were just moments ago. "Once we finally catch her, all of it will belong to us."
They resumed their relentless pursuit as soon as the explosion's effects dissipated.
Li Mei glanced back nervously, confirming that the men were once again closing the distance. Suddenly, something struck her as odd—why were there only two of them now?
"Kekeke, caught you," a sinister voice spoke from directly above her.
Looking up in absolute horror, she saw a massive hand descending toward her. "Let's see what secrets you're hiding, little girl," the third man said with an evil smile stretching across his face as he reached down to grab her.
The moment his hand closed around her, she suddenly transformed into a wooden log. "An illusion?" the man wondered aloud, staring at the piece of wood he now held. Scanning the area frantically, he spotted her true form already fleeing toward the opposite direction.
His expression twisted with rage as he crushed the log into dust between his fingers. Just how long was it going to take three Soul Formation realm experts to capture a single Golden Core realm girl? They had already been pursuing her for hours now, just how many treasures did she possess?
On the other side of the chase, Li Mei pushed herself to fly even faster, her energy reserves depleting rapidly. She thought to herself that all her trump cards were being used up far too quickly. She only had a few talismans remaining.
Her gaze drifted to the translucent wings manifested on her back. This was a pseudo-divine escape treasure that her grandfather had given her. It was the primary reason she had been able to evade three Soul Formation experts for this long. But the treasure was beginning to lose its power, and as someone at the Golden Core realm, she lacked the cultivation base necessary to recharge such a high-level artifact.
She continued flying desperately until she noticed something unusual ahead. Before her was an area filled with crackling lightning that kept gathering more and more. "Tribulation lightning?" she wondered aloud, her voice filled with surprise. "Someone is actually attempting a breakthrough in this remote area?"
As she paused to observe, her pursuers caught up once again.
"There she is!" one shouted with triumph.
"Looks like she's finally run out of tricks and given up!" another added.
"Kekeke," the third man chuckled darkly as they all increased their speed even further.
Seeing their approach, Li Mei made her decision and flew directly toward the lightning-filled mountain. She thought to herself that even though these men were Soul Formation experts, they wouldn't dare act recklessly in an area saturated with tribulation lightning. If they made any careless moves, they might not escape the wrath of heaven.
…
The three men arrived at the area where Li Mei had been moments before, their expressions shifting as they took in their surroundings.
"Tribulation lightning?" one of the men spoke, his earlier confidence wavering as his expression turned noticeably serious.
"Someone is breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm here," the second man observed, studying the lightning patterns.
"Kekeke, so what about it?" the third man scoffed dismissively, his greed overriding any sense of caution. "It just means we have another person to rob once they're weakened from the tribulation."
The other two exchanged uncertain glances, clearly having second thoughts about their pursuit.
"I don't have a good feeling about this," the first man admitted reluctantly. "Maybe we should head back and report what we've found."
"What's there to be afraid of?" the second man argued, though his voice lacked its earlier conviction. "It's just a Nascent Soul realm cultivator. As long as we don't directly interfere with the tribulation process, we should be perfectly fine."
"Kekeke, I've always known you were nothing but a coward," the third man taunted.
The first man thought to himself that this was their very first mission outside the organization's territory. Their leader had specifically instructed them to search for some sort of treasure that had recently appeared in this region, though the details had been quite vague. He let out a resigned sigh, knowing that backing down now would earn him endless mockery from his companions.
"Well, let's go then," he said reluctantly.
He thought to himself that the girl they were pursuing might actually be carrying the treasure they were supposed to locate. With that, the three men reluctantly followed Li Mei's path up the mountain.
…
A/N: Natural Selection