Chapter 51

"What are you going to do?" Chu Yan looked at Fu Tao.

"I'm fast, I'll draw them away."

"No way!" Chu Yan immediately rejected the idea. There were thousands of people chasing him, and although Fu Tao was fast, many of those chasing him were at the fifth level of the Moving Dust Realm or higher. No matter how fast Fu Tao was, he couldn't escape them. Doing this now would be like walking to his death.

"Brother Chu!" Fu Tao suddenly raised his voice. He stared at Chu Yan and smiled sincerely, "Don't hesitate. This is the only way now! It doesn't matter if I die, but you can't die. If you die, who will avenge San'er? Besides, they are after you. Once they realize I'm not you, they might let me go!"

Chu Yan fell silent. Ye Xun sighed heavily beside him and glanced at Chu Yan, "Chu Yan, do as the fatty says. You're badly injured, and we can't escape. If the fatty goes, he might survive, but if we stay together, we will all die."

Chu Yan clenched his fists. He knew the fatty was right. Despite his powerful background, it was useless now. He looked at the fatty.

"I have only one request: stay alive! If it comes to it, you can betray me, but you must stay alive. Wait for me at the Ten Thousand Sect Platform. I will take you into the Vast Heaven Sect! No one can stop me!" Chu Yan said firmly.

"Alright!" The fatty agreed readily, then he changed clothes with Chu Yan. He grinned at Chu Yan and got up, running in the direction of the Ten Thousand Sect Platform.

Watching the fatty's back, Chu Yan and Ye Xun felt a heavy weight in their hearts. They knew it was a path leading to certain death.

"Chu Yan, no matter how long it takes, a year, ten years, or a hundred years, we will make them pay for this, right?" Ye Xun said.

"Definitely! Every person involved in this plan must pay with blood!" Chu Yan's eyes turned red. He wasn't a sentimental person, but the fatty's actions today truly moved him. The chubby fatty, though a bit lecherous, was willing to risk his life for Chu Yan at the most critical moment.

Since Chu Yan was wearing a loose, black robe and the fatty had put on a hood, it was hard to recognize him from the back.

"Want to kill me? Come and chase me!" The fatty shouted at the group before running towards the Ten Thousand Sect Platform.

"Where is he! Chase him!"

All those chasing Chu Yan were drawn to the fatty.

"Let's go too!" Although the fatty had lured them away, the place was still unsafe. With the fatty gone, Ye Xun and the little wolf took turns carrying Chu Yan. They didn't head towards the Ten Thousand Sect Platform but ran deeper into the Black Forest.

By midnight, the two had hardly stopped. They encountered some pursuers along the way, but fortunately, they were of low rank, and Ye Xun and the little wolf could handle them. At midnight, Ye Xun put Chu Yan down and lit a campfire.

"When will your essence energy recover?" Ye Xun asked. The situation was critical, and the longer Chu Yan's essence energy didn't recover, the more dangerous it was.

Chu Yan examined himself internally. This time, using the needle technique had been more draining than before. Last time, he had recovered half in a day, but this time, after four days, his body was still empty, showing the difference in essence energy between the Mortal Dust Realm and the Moving Dust Realm.

"I will enter seclusion tonight and should be able to move on my own by tomorrow," Chu Yan said. Ye Xun nodded without a word and took turns with the little wolf to keep watch for Chu Yan.

Chu Yan sat cross-legged in front of the campfire, drawing his spirit into his dantian and entering the second floor of the Nine Heavens Mystic Tower.

Here, essence energy gathered around Chu Yan at more than ten times the normal rate. He felt every particle of the celestial stars, and his essence energy began to flow. After an unknown amount of time, his dry dantian showed a hint of vitality, and new essence energy began to form.

Over the next few days, they traveled during the day, and Chu Yan recovered his essence energy at night. Three days passed, and the Ten Thousand Sect Recruitment was on its tenth day. Over a thousand people had already left the Black Forest, and in five more days, the recruitment would end. Some of those surrounding Chu Yan began to get anxious, and some gave up, heading directly to the Ten Thousand Sect Platform.

In three days, Chu Yan's essence energy was fully restored, reaching its peak. Besides recovering his essence energy, they had hunted many low-level beasts in the Black Forest. Chu Yan used some beast cores and spirit herbs to refine pills, which improved his and Ye Xun's strength. In three days, Chu Yan reached the third level of the Moving Dust Realm, and Ye Xun and the little wolf both broke through to the second level.

On the fifth day, the twelfth day of the Ten Thousand Sect Recruitment, the central part of the Black Forest was almost empty, with most disciples gathered around the Ten Thousand Sect Platform.

This made Ye Xun and Chu Yan breathe a sigh of relief, but unfortunately, on the sixth day, another group surrounded Chu Yan and Ye Xun.

The campfire had just gone out when a group emerged from the dense forest, dozens of people, led by Bai Haohé. His eyes were filled with blood, and he sneered at Chu Yan and Ye Xun, "Heh, you two have quite a bit of luck. So many people chasing you, and you're still alive!"

Seeing the Bai family, Chu Yan and Ye Xun's eyes darkened. Ye Xun snorted, "I didn't expect you to still be chasing us instead of going to the Ten Thousand Sect Platform."

Bai Haohé shook his head, "For others, joining the Ten Thousand Sect is important, but to me, it's meaningless. Once I kill you, I will have a better place to go."

Chu Yan looked at Bai Haohé coldly. The Bai family had sent many assassins, and there were also Zhang family disciples. Their strength was all in the Moving Dust Realm, with Bai Haohé at the sixth level. With the forbidden techniques of the Crimson Moon Valley, his power was several times stronger than the last time Chu Yan saw him.

"What do we do?" Ye Xun glanced at Chu Yan. The situation was dire; fighting would mean certain death.

"Since we can't fight, let's run!" Chu Yan was never one to care about face. Compared to his life, running was the priority. As long as he could survive and leave the Black Forest, he had ways to destroy the Bai family.

Ye Xun nodded. He swung his black dragon, releasing a burst of mystic light, and then he and Chu Yan quickly ran in the opposite direction.

"Bang!"

Bai Haohé waved his sleeve, shattering the mystic light, but Chu Yan and Ye Xun had already run far. However, he wasn't worried and instead smiled playfully, "Want to play cat and mouse? I'll play along! Zhang Feng, can you still track them?"

"Don't worry, my Zhang family can communicate with the earth. All the plants here are my eyes," Zhang Feng nodded with a smile.

"Chase them!"

Bai Haohé and his group pursued Chu Yan quickly, leaving the two of them speechless. No matter how they ran or split up, Bai Haohé seemed to always know their location, making it impossible to escape.

This chase continued for two more days. Fortunately, the Black Forest was taboo at night, and no one dared to attack in the dark. So when dusk fell, it became the only time Chu Yan and Ye Xun could relax.

"Damn! How are they like worms in our stomachs? How can they always find us?" Ye Xun cursed angrily.

"It's the Zhang family's Natural Eye. As long as we're within his range, he can see us through the plants," Chu Yan explained.

"Natural Eye? I've heard my grandfather talk about it. I didn't expect it to be so bizarre," Ye Xun sighed, "Does that mean we have to keep running, letting them chase us?"

"There's another way, so we don't have to run."

"What way?"

"Kill them."

Ye Xun glared at Chu Yan, "You make it sound easy. There are dozens of Moving Dust Realm cultivators. Even if we had a few more like us, we wouldn't be a match."

"Don't worry about that. I have a plan. Follow the route I've planned for tomorrow," Chu Yan smiled wickedly and took out a map from his waist. This was a map he had made during his escape, not very precise but good enough to determine a general direction.

Looking at the map in Chu Yan's hand, Ye Xun asked, "What is this? I've seen you carrying it every day. It's not a treasure map, is it?"

"You'll see tomorrow. At dawn, we'll go there." Chu Yan marked a circle on the map. Over the past few days, besides cultivating, he had explored the first floor of the Nine Heavens Mystic Tower again, finally locating two ancient treasures from the Ten Thousand Ancient List, which were not far from their current location.

Ten Thousand Ancient List, 8,500th: Sun-Extinguishing Sword.

Ten Thousand Ancient List, 7,900th: Iron Dragon Spear.

Ye Xun looked at Chu Yan curiously but didn't ask further. The next morning, they extinguished the campfire and headed towards the marked location on the map, with the Bai family still in hot pursuit.

Around sunset, the sky was still slightly bright, and Chu Yan's eyes gleamed. In front of them was a wide open space with no trees, meaning Zhang Feng couldn't use the Natural Eye to track them anymore.

More astonishingly, in the center of the open space was an ancient city. The city was in ruins, with all the buildings collapsed and unrecognizable, but despite this, it was still magnificent and awe-inspiring, making it easy to imagine its original grandeur.

The city was larger than the capital of Changlong Kingdom. Most astonishingly, in the center was a palace ten zhang high, with a plaque hanging above it. The characters on the plaque were still faintly visible: Sun-Extinguishing Palace!

"Heavens, this is the Sun-Extinguishing King's palace?" Ye Xun swallowed, having heard stories about the ancient world from Ye Tao since childhood. The Sun-Extinguishing King was one of the most memorable figures, having once opened up mountains and rivers and fought three emperors alone, a true war god.

Chu Yan looked at the ruins in front of him, comparing them to the images recorded in the Nine Heavens Mystic Tower, and nodded, "This is it!"