Chapter 145: Following the Trail

Han Li felt his vision engulfed by a dazzling white light that vanished in a flash. The next moment, he found himself inside a green stone hall, standing on a teleportation array.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

As soon as the group stepped out of the teleportation array, several people transformed into streaks of light and flew out of the hall, disappearing into the distance. Among them were the burly man and his two companions from before.

After all, this mission could only be completed by one person, making the competition extremely fierce.

Han Li and the remaining few exchanged glances, then silently walked out of the hall.

Outside the hall was a high ground. Looking around, one could faintly see crisscrossing streets below and tiny figures moving about like sesame seeds.

This was clearly a city as well, not small and quite bustling, but it paled in comparison to Black Wind City.

“Brother Liu looks quite confident. Do you have a lead already?” Guan Yong walked over and asked with a chuckle.

“I’m racking my brains over where Miss Lu might have gone. How could I have a lead? Brother Guan, have you thought of any clues?” Han Li replied with a wry smile, turning the question back.

“I’m clueless too. It seems we’ll have to search slowly,” Guan Yong sighed.

After exchanging a few more words, they parted ways. The others had already dispersed.

Han Li flipped his hand and took out a jade slip—a detailed map of the Black Wind Sea. He released his divine sense into it and quickly located the position of Condensing Emerald Island, where he stood.

“Just as I thought.”

A thoughtful look flashed in his eyes. Then he transformed into a streak of green light and sped into the distance. Soon, he flew out of Condensing Emerald Island, circled around the nearby sea area, and, after making sure no one was following, formed a hand seal.

With a crackling sound!

Countless silver arcs of electricity emerged on his body, then flashed and formed a circular lightning teleportation array over a hundred feet in diameter, with countless silver runes flickering within.

A thunderous roar shook the heavens. The silver array vanished without a trace, leaving only a few residual silver arcs flickering in the air before dissipating.

A few days later.

In a certain part of the Black Wind Sea, a flash of lightning appeared, and a silver array materialized out of thin air. As it dissipated, Han Li’s figure emerged, his expression slightly weary.

He scanned his surroundings and saw a faint black dot on the distant horizon, seemingly an island.

“Finally here.”

He muttered to himself. Instead of using the lightning teleportation array again, he transformed into a green streak of light and flew toward the island.

With his current flying speed, he soon reached the vicinity of the island.

The island before him had an eerie red ground, and the trees and vegetation were almost entirely the same color. It was none other than Red Moon Island, where he had once been on a mission for the Unchanging Alliance.

From the territory of Black Wind Island to Red Moon Island, the nearest point was Condensing Emerald Island, and there was also Lu Mo’s mask.

All these clues pointed to one possibility: Lu Mo was very likely Jiao Sixteen, and Lu Yuqing had probably followed these leads and come toward Red Moon Island after her investigation.

Although this was just Han Li’s speculation, he had no other leads. Rather than wandering aimlessly...

Han Li looked at Red Moon Island ahead, frowning slightly.

Red Moon Island was too vast. Even with his powerful divine sense, searching the entire island would take an unknown amount of time.

After a moment’s deliberation, he suddenly transformed into a green rainbow and shot toward Kunzhou’s Red Moon City, where Jiao Sixteen had fallen.

At the same time, he fully extended his divine sense to sense the surroundings.

Since he couldn’t search everything, he had to focus on the most likely places.

With his cultivation restored, he flew at full speed and covered nearly half the distance in half a day, but he detected no traces along the way.

“Eh!”

He seemed to notice something and halted his flight, descending downward.

In a dense forest below, a long gash stretched across the ground, hundreds of feet long. The soil appeared charred black, as if scorched by fire.

“The traces of battle are still fresh. This must have happened not long ago,” Han Li murmured, his eyes flickering.

In the blackened soil, a faint warmth still lingered, not yet fully dissipated.

Judging by the traces, the attacker was at least at the Great Vehicle stage.

Han Li didn’t linger. He flickered and rose into the air, continuing forward.

With deliberate attention, he indeed found many similar battle traces along the way.

Half an hour later, Han Li stood on a grassland.

The ground ahead was charred black, riddled with countless large craters, some hundreds of feet deep. Clearly, a fierce battle had taken place here not long ago.

Han Li extended his divine sense, then reached out with one hand and beckoned toward a certain spot.

The soil in a large crater stirred, and a black piece of cloth shot out, landing in his hand.

Han Li’s gaze fell on the cloth. In his mind, he recalled the black garments worn by the attendants on Black Wind Island—the material was identical.

With that thought, he instantly transformed into a green rainbow and vanished into the distant sky.

But in just two or three breaths, a flash of silver lightning appeared above the crater, and he flew back.

He found no further battle traces ahead.

Although he didn’t know who Lu Yuqing’s enemy was, it was clear that she and her companions had been thoroughly defeated here. He just didn’t know if she was alive or dead.

As thoughts raced through Han Li’s mind, his eyes suddenly blazed with blue light, and a black light flickered on his brow as the Destruction Eye emerged.

The two blue and one black beams converged before him, forming a massive black-and-blue vertical eye. Waves of black-blue light radiated outward.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth in the surrounding void appeared clearly in his mind, like countless specks of light leaping up and down, tracing lines of trajectories in a chaotic mess.

Amidst the chaotic specks, though disorderly, he still caught a trace of residual red light drifting in a certain direction.

His heart stirred. Without a word, he shot off in that direction, pushing his flying speed to the limit. With a blur, he vanished into the distant horizon.

But after flying a short distance, Han Li suddenly raised an eyebrow and stopped. Then he turned and flew in another direction.

The person who left the trail had changed direction here.

After several changes of direction, the residual trail finally stopped altering and began to follow a straight path.

Seeing this, Han Li let out a thunderous roar from within his body, and silver arcs of electricity appeared on his skin.

With a thunderclap, his figure vanished from the spot. The next moment, he appeared hundreds of miles away, then flashed with lightning and disappeared again.

He didn’t dare teleport too far with lightning techniques each time, fearing the target might change direction again.

Even so, he pursued at an incredible speed.

The trail ahead grew clearer, and the distance between them shrank rapidly.

Above a certain sea area near Red Moon Island, a dazzling red light sped forward at great speed. Within the red light was a fiery red flying boat.

On the boat stood three figures: a square-faced middle-aged man and an old man with graying beard, both wearing green feathered robes with a pair of green feathers embroidered on the cuffs.

Beside them stood a stunningly beautiful white-clad girl, bound by a chain-shaped red light, her eyes filled with indignation.

“Speed it up a bit more,” the feathered-robed old man urged, glancing around frequently with furrowed white brows.

“Brother Qi, this is already the full speed of the Dragon Feather Flying Boat. Forcing it faster will damage its spirit. Besides, we’ve already dealt with those from Black Wind Island and taken many detours. Surely no one can actually catch up?” the square-faced man said dismissively.

“Don’t let your guard down until we return to Green Feather Island. Speed up; I’ll handle the boat’s damage later,” the old man said solemnly.

“Fine.” The square-faced man shrugged helplessly and began forming hand seals.

Countless red runes suddenly appeared around the flying boat, rolling like waves.

The red boat’s speed abruptly increased by about thirty percent, shooting forward like lightning, blurring everything around it.

Only then did the old man relax slightly. He flipped his hand and took out a formation plate, about to form a hand seal to activate it.

At that moment, his expression suddenly changed. He whirled around and looked behind him.

“Brother Qi, what’s wrong?” the square-faced man asked in confusion.

“Not good! Someone’s chasing us!” the old man barked, his face darkening.

The square-faced man immediately turned to look behind him, and his expression shifted several times.

In the far distance, a faint silver electric light flickered intermittently.

But with each flicker, the silver lightning grew larger, and the distance between them shrank rapidly.

“Such speed!” the old man’s pupils contracted.

Seeing this, the white-clad girl’s beautiful eyes lit up with a hint of surprise and joy.

“Damn it!”

The square-faced man gritted his teeth and spat out a mouthful of essence blood, which turned into a ball of blood light and merged into the flying boat. His hands spun like wheels as he formed seals.

Puff!

The flying boat suddenly emitted fiery red light like flames, the entire vessel seeming to burn. Its speed doubled instantly, turning into a red phantom as it shot forward.

Although the boat’s speed increased, it was still no match for the silver lightning behind. The distance between them slowly closed, and after a while, it was only a few dozen miles.

The old man’s face darkened. Green light flickered on his body as he prepared to act.

At that moment, the silver lightning behind him flared up again, erupting with dazzling thunderous light before vanishing in a flash.

The next moment, a thunderclap rang out above their heads, and a mass of silver lightning appeared.

Then another thunderclap split the sky!

A silver arc of lightning as thick as a water barrel suddenly descended from the sky, striking fiercely at the flying boat.