Chapter 568: Fleeing at Full Speed

Meanwhile.

Somewhere behind Han Li, countless miles away, a dazzling golden light the size of a mu roiled and surged, emitting a thunderous roar as it shot forward at an inconceivable speed.

Within the golden light was a giant golden beetle, shimmering all over as if forged from pure gold, its wings flapping wildly behind it.

This was none other than the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle that Han Li and Gold童 had spoken of.

Its eyes were filled with icy coldness, but also a hint of surprise.

The aura of the same kind ahead was clearly only at the Golden Immortal level, yet its escape speed was extremely fast—though not as fast as its own, it seemed even faster than some ordinary Taiyi-stage true spirits.

But then, a flicker of doubt passed through its eyes. The golden light around it rippled, and it halted its flight.

In its perception, the aura of the same kind ahead had suddenly vanished without a trace!

The Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle recalled that when it had gone to the Beastfolk earlier, the aura of that same kind had also disappeared like this, and during the time it was recovering from its injuries, this situation had occurred several times.

However, after only a moment's consideration, it flared its golden light once more and continued flying in the original direction.

About an hour and a half later, the aura of the same kind ahead reappeared, but it had shifted to another direction, once again putting some distance between them.

The Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle snorted coldly, unconcerned, and immediately adjusted its course to fly toward that location.

…

Above a mountain range, an emerald flying carriage sped forward.

Gold童 seemed to have just flown out of the Pixiu's body, his face pale and his breathing unsteady, while the Pixiu drooped its head, looking listless.

Seeing Gold童 like this, Han Li frowned slightly, then waved his hand.

With a rustling sound, a pile of spirit treasures appeared on the carriage, shimmering with various spiritual lights, all of considerable quality.

Gold童 said nothing, sat down on the carriage, grabbed a spirit treasure, and stuffed it into his mouth.

Little White, watching these treasures radiating light, felt a pang of envy.

But given the special circumstances, it wisely refrained from causing trouble or competing, and instead found a spot on the carriage to lie down.

Just then, with a “ding,” a purple-gold storage ring landed before it, and Han Li's voice transmission sounded in its ear:

“Little White, you should also replenish yourself while you have the chance.”

“Thank you, Master!” Little White's spirits lifted immediately, and it opened its mouth to swallow the storage ring.

After doing this, Han Li sat down cross-legged again, formed hand seals, and focused all his energy on driving the carriage forward.

Since Gold童 had not hidden himself this time, Han Li did not change direction and continued flying straight ahead.

About an hour later, Gold童 stood up, his complexion fully restored.

Without any hesitation, Han Li immediately had Gold童 hide inside the Pixiu again, and then he once more changed the direction of flight.

The Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle behind sensed the aura ahead disappear again and was furious.

Having finally closed the distance a bit, losing track of the other's position would inevitably widen the gap again.

Though filled with resentment, it had no other choice but to continue flying forward.

An hour and a half later, the aura of Gold童 ahead reappeared, and as expected, it had changed direction again, increasing the distance once more, nearly nullifying all its previous efforts.

But by now, the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle had gradually calmed down.

It understood that the other party must be using some method to periodically conceal its aura and greatly boost its escape speed.

However, in its view, such methods inevitably came with many drawbacks and could not be maintained for long. As long as it kept a close watch, the other party would eventually be unable to escape its control.

Yet in the following months, contrary to the Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle's expectations, the other party maintained this high speed without any sign of slowing down.

The aura of the same kind ahead appeared and disappeared as before, each time after concealing its aura, it would change direction and flee a certain distance.

Thus, although the other party's speed was inferior to its own, it held the initiative. After months of pursuit, the distance between them had barely narrowed.

The Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle was both shocked and enraged, but there was nothing it could do.

…

Above a dense forest, an emerald flying carriage sped forward like the wind.

Han Li formed hand seals to drive the carriage, his expression somewhat more relaxed than before.

As long as he could maintain this state, that Taiyi-stage Devouring Immortal Beetle would not be able to catch up. Although maintaining this state consumed a considerable amount of immortal essence stones, fortunately he was now quite wealthy and could theoretically sustain it for another twenty or thirty years.

He did not believe the other party would follow him forever; it would eventually give up.

But now that he himself was venturing deep into the wildlands, everything here was utterly unfamiliar. Along the way, he had already encountered countless sieges by beast tribes. Though he had narrowly avoided each one, this was no long-term solution.

The deeper he went into the wildlands, the more unforeseen risks multiplied.

At this moment, Golden Child was clutching a spirit treasure in his hand, gnawing at it voraciously, while the Pixiu lay nearby resting with its eyes closed.

Just then, a harsh, screeching cry rang out from the dense forest below.

Han Li felt a sharp sting in his soul as the sound entered his ears, and he quickly stood up.

A massive gray shadow shot up from the forest below, charging at the flying carriage with incredible speed, almost matching its pace.

A blue light flickered in Han Li's eyes as he discerned the true form of the gray shadow: an enormous gray giant bird, with a gray-black fleshy comb on its head, a sharp beak and talons, no feathers on its body, only a layer of short gray down clinging to its skin, making it look quite ugly.

Though the gray giant bird was hideous, its aura was immense, having reached the peak of Golden Immortal, seemingly even more formidable than Golden Child.

Han Li had no interest in battling this Golden Immortal beast. Without a word, he formed a hand seal and waved his hand.

A white light shot out from his hand—a small white flag. It spun around and expanded to several hundred zhang in size, unfurling with a rustle to reveal a pattern of surging clouds and seas. This was an immortal artifact seized from Gongshu Jiu.

The pattern of surging clouds and seas on the white flag glowed with spiritual light, and countless white mists rolled out from it, transforming into a sea of white clouds that descended upon the gray giant bird.

The gray giant bird suddenly let out a cry, and the gray-black fleshy comb on its head blazed with gray light. Then it flapped its wings, and a gray hurricane materialized out of thin air, forming a gray tornado column that emanated waves of law fluctuations.

The white cloud sea summoned by Han Li was easily torn apart by the gray hurricane, scattering into nothingness.

The gray hurricane paused briefly, then continued to roll forward from directly ahead toward the emerald green flying carriage.

Within the hurricane, a gray light flickered, and countless door-sized gray wind blades emerged, flickering in and out of sight. They were clearly no ordinary wind blades, and a loud whistling arose.

Seeing this, Han Li quickly formed a hand seal to halt the flying carriage, and at the same time waved his hand again.

Three earthen-yellow token immortal artifacts shot out, appearing in an instant to the left, front, and right of the flying carriage.

Waves of yellow light surged from the token artifacts, coalescing into a thick earthen-yellow light barrier around the carriage.

Just as the yellow light barrier took shape, countless gray wind blades whistled in, striking against it.

In an instant, the spiritual light of the yellow barrier rippled incessantly, blocking all the gray wind blades.

Not only that, as the yellow barrier's light flickered, it even rebounded some of the wind blades, sending them hurtling back toward the gray giant bird.

The gray giant bird seemed quite wary of these wind blades, flapping its wings to dodge aside.

Seeing this, Han Li immediately spat out a beam of green light that shot into the white flag, and he quickly formed hand seals to urge it on.

Once again, a vast amount of white mist surged from the white flag, rolling and condensing into seven or eight white mist dragons that, taking advantage of the gray giant bird's evasion, coiled around its body.

The white mist dragons contained a considerable amount of Han Li's immortal spiritual power and were quite resilient, temporarily trapping the giant bird.

Han Li did not seize the opportunity to try to kill the gray giant bird. Instead, he formed a hand seal to urge the flying carriage, which turned into a green phantom that bypassed the gray giant bird and shot forward like lightning.

He had not flown far when a muffled explosive sound came from behind.

The gray giant bird had already broken free from the mist dragons and, with a harsh screech, gave chase.

Han Li paid it no heed, urging the carriage to fly onward.

The gray giant bird's speed was still somewhat inferior to that of the emerald green carriage, and it was soon left behind.

Having shaken off the gray giant bird, Han Li breathed a slight sigh of relief. He waved his hand to put away the two immortal artifacts, formed a hand seal, and urged the emerald green carriage to continue forward.

After flying for less than another hour, a buzzing sound came from ahead, and a massive purple cloud suddenly emerged from the dense forest below, charging toward the emerald green flying boat.

Han Li fixed his gaze on it, and his expression changed.

The red cloud turned out to be countless purple poisonous bees, each the size of a millstone, with a giant sword-like stinger trailing behind them, gleaming with a deep blue light, clearly extremely venomous. They swarmed toward the flying carriage in a sky-covering mass.

Seeing this, Han Li once again sacrificed the three earthen-yellow tokens to protect the carriage.

At the same time, he waved his hand, and a crimson red banner shot out. Rolling flames spewed from the banner's surface, forming a sea of crimson fire around the carriage, which charged unceasingly into the purple swarm ahead.

It took a full half hour before the carriage finally broke through the purple bee swarm.

But Han Li's face showed no sign of relief; instead, his brows were tightly furrowed.

What he had feared had indeed come to pass.

The journey ahead, as expected, encountered more and more dangers—sometimes dozens of beast attacks in a single day, interspersed with the involvement of some wildland alien races.

Fortunately, Han Li had prepared thoroughly beforehand, so no accidents occurred, but his forward speed was noticeably slowed.

What troubled him greatly was that the Taiyi-stage Devouring Gold Immortal seemed unaffected by these wildland beasts. According to Golden Child, this was because its strength was immense and its aura extremely ferocious, intimidating the beast tribes along the way.

Faced with this situation, Han Li could do nothing but exhaust all his efforts to press on.

But no matter how hard he tried, the distance between them continued to shrink.