It was a joke to expect Li Ling, at the mere Qi Refinement Perfection, to travel from the Qing Shan Region—of which he was escaping—to the Tianmo Empire at the far north. The distance from here to there was far longer than going from the Earth to the moon.
Even this Qing Shan Region was twice the size of the entire Asian continent on Earth, and Li Ling was near the edge already thanks to the location of number 9 marketplace being close to the border.
Luckily, the cultivation world had spent many centuries with this distance issue for lower level cultivators, and they had long devised methods to resolve this. The premier of them was something in which Li Ling hoped to take advantage of, Teleportation Arrays.
The major cities or sects in each region had set up arrays that allowed them to move between the various regions, which was why regional acknowledgment was even a thing. By granting a faction rulership of a region, you brought them into the network and made them become a transit point for traveling across the expansive continent.
The Qing Shan Sect and its major territories had them, and so too did the Boundless Joy Sect. Seeing as he was wanted by the Qing Shan Sect, he obviously could not turn around and head deeper into their lands to make use of their array, as that would be suicide.
As such, his goal was the nearest teleportation array he knew of in the capital city of Hewu Province, one of the four main provinces of the Boundless Joy Region which bordered the Thousand Valleys Range, the place where number 7 to number 9 marketplaces were located and where Li Ling was traveling through at the moment.
Based on the traveling speed of the Steel Feathered Raptor, Li Ling estimated that it would take him slightly less than a week to reach his destination. After that, his biggest problem would be getting the rights to use the teleportation array, because only the major sects that formed the ranking and owned the regions had an automatic pass in any territory.
The rest of the countless itinerant cultivators either had to pay hefty sums in the best case scenario, or would have to make great sacrifices in the worst case. It solely depended on the sect in question that ruled the region and how they wanted to handle it.
The Qing Shan Sect would have been a great choice as they only took money and verified your intentions before letting you use it, but the Boundless Joy Sect would only give such benefits to women. As a man, even a free and powerful one, they would definitely give you a lot of trouble, which was something Li Ling was actually looking forward to.
After all, the power level in Tianmo Empire would be too high for him to go on killing sprees without raising his cultivation higher, so these low-level areas were his last chance to freeload Slaughter Points before going over.
Naturally, he had to make it count.
"Seems like we have some guests." Li Ling remarked as he looked behind to see a few dots rapidly closing in.
It was a small army of Qi Refinement cultivators at higher levels, all with different backgrounds. On the leading flying beast, a Tri-Eyed Hawk, were four people wearing the familiar Qing Shan Sect robes, but their powers were a lot more domineering than those that came before.
To their right was a Red Demon Sparrow, which held seven fellows who were wearing a mishmash of gear and had auras that were clashing with each other, likely outside help hired to take him down or a bunch of bounty hunters looking for a payday.
To the left of the Qing Shan group was a Flat Headed Falcon that housed five fellows, all wearing the garb of Market Guards. Looking at them, Li Ling easily identified them as the Commander, Vice Deputy and three Captains of the Market Guards, literally all of their upper echelon.
When Cai Dong turned to look, her face changed greatly, not being one of hope. She understood deeply that in the coming battle, she would be the easiest to become a casualty as the attackers would not care about her life and death, while Li Ling would definitely not dare to release her seal.
In fact, her best hope was that Li Ling somehow managed to win, and win cleanly with little damage to herself or the raptor, but she knew that this was extremely unlikely. Putting aside whether Li Ling could even survive, he definitely would not be in a good state afterward.
Li Ling however, did not think so. He retained his malicious grin as he purposefully slowed the Steel Feathered Raptor enough for the assailants to reach close enough to speak with him, and even possibly launch daoist arts.
"To what do I owe fellow cultivators the pleasure?" Li Ling asked casually, glancing firstly at the ragtag bunch, the Market Guards, and then the four elite disciples.
Naturally, it was the sect disciples, specifically their leader, who deigned to speak. It was a rather average-looking young man with curly brown hair and dead fish eyes that seemed like he would rather be doing anything but this.
His cultivation was at the Perfection of Qi Refinement, but Li Ling could also sense that his body had been refined, at the fourth level of whatever method he practiced. His qi signature gave him the feeling of the wood element, so both his essence and body cultivation should be related to this.
"Rogue Cultivator Li Ling, come with us back to the Qing Shan Sect for trial for your actions. You have been marked for crimes against the world for your wanton slaughter of innocents in the number 9 marketplace." The fellow spoke simply, seeming more like a veteran beat cop reading out the rights to just another criminal before acting.
"Innocents? Hehe, no matter which world, as long as one lives in this world, they would be intertwined in karma, how can anyone be innocent? Humans slaughter pigs, aren't the pigs innocent?"
Li Ling laughed out loud as he folded his arms behind his back. "Big fish eats small fish, and small fish eats shrimp. In nature, there is only the food chain, there is no innocence!"
"In this world, anybody can live, anybody can die, but nobody is innocent!" Li Ling concluded, shocking everyone by actually taking the initiative to strike first.
SHWWIM!
The Mountain Splitting Sword, which had been released long ago to hover around the Steel Feathered Raptor, zoomed out from the side where it had been silently creeping, slashing at the Red Demon Sparrow carrying the bounty hunters.
Otherwise, did you think Li Ling let them catch up and surround him because he was in a rush to die? Even if he was confident, he had not yet perfected his repertoire of skills to make his combat power so out of this world that all would die in one hit.
Out of those he faced till now, even those first batch of sect disciples, were simply suppressed by the fact that Li Ling had a strong mastery of multiple methods that could overwhelm their defenses, not fighting the way a typical person at his level would.
But these people were all fighters who had bathed in blood and risen from the scores of bodies, very combat-savvy and possessing significant cultivation as well as power on top of their experience.
As such, hearing the flying sword, the bounty hunters did not panic as one of them unveiled his own flying sword, using the Object Control Technique to send it to intercept Li Ling's own. The others applied defensive techniques to themselves and to the mount beneath them, even the other two groups who were not targeted.
After all, in a chase like this, the obvious idea was to disable the flying mount of the other party, and the fall from this height would be enough to sort them out. This was also what Cai Dong had been worried about, as she did not believe that whatever defenses Li Ling could muster for the mount would be able to defend against so many attackers.
Indeed, her worst fears were realized when the Market Guard group began firing daoist arts over at the Steel Feathered Raptor, a mixture of attacks from fireballs, ice spears, wind blades and more. Just like Li Ling, these top elites had trained their offensive daoist arts to a high level, with many being at the Advanced level, based on the power of the fired attacks.
One attack, a thread of silk-like lightning, was definitely at the Expert level, fired from the Commander of the Market Guards who was coldly glancing at Li Ling, his killing intent not at all suppressed. After all, this bastard Li Ling had caused so much chaos on his territory, enough that the Qing Shan Sect was alarmed and dispatched its elite Qi Refinement disciples to take over the matter.
Even if they were to kill him here, the punishment awaiting him and the other Market Guard captains when they went back would be truly heart-stopping. He, more than anyone else, wanted to capture Li Ling and subject him to some of the worst tortures conceivable in order to vent the hatred in his heart, which manifested in how he wantonly burned his spiritual qi to use daoist arts.
The situation seemed dire for Li Ling, his attack intercepted while his base was about to be destroyed, sending him and Cai Dong plummeting to the ground where they would definitely die if not be crippled severely.
However, a shocking upset occurred the next moment.
The Mountain Splitting Sword, which seemed on course to clash with the blade of the intercepting bounty hunter, suddenly accelerated as if teleporting, weaving past the opposing weapon with such fluid movement that a physicist would feel their worldview collapsing, striking at the Red Demon Sparrow.
The bounty hunter who was meant to intercept that attack had his expression change greatly. "Impossible! My Object Control Technique is one of the best among the itinerant cultivators, at the Expert level! How can this be?"
He would never be able to get an answer as the Red Demon Sparrow was pierced by the speeding sword, which cut through the layered defenses placed by the cultivators, none of them able to stop the abhorrently sharp weapon at all.
The demon beast screeched in agony as its blood poured out wantonly, wobbling in the air shakily before beginning to plummet down, the screaming bounty hunter cultivators with pale faces doing all they could to make sure they bore the least brunt from the fall.
Seeing this change, the others were shocked, especially since the Mountain Splitting Sword circled round to surge towards the Market Guards' group.
"Object Control Technique at Mastery… no, Perfection! Interesting!" The leader of the sect disciples muttered with narrowed eyes, his previous lax demeanor shifting greatly.
His compatriots showed expressions of disbelief, but they did not question their leader because they trusted his judgment. If he said Li Ling's daoist art was at the Perfection level, then that was most likely the case.
"It seems like we are dealing with a rare talent, fellow apprentice brothers. It's time to stop spectating and take action!" the fellow said as he rose to his feet on the mount, his aura unfurling greatly.
"Yes, Senior Brother!" the others intoned as they released their auras at Qi Refinement Perfection, none of them having added Body Refinement on top like their Senior Brother.
Meanwhile, Li Ling himself, while having scored a great hit, was not out of the woods yet. He had to deal with the swarm of attacks from the irate Market Guard leaders, all of which were enough to kill the Steel Feathered Raptor and Cai Dong a hundred times over.
As such, he stepped forward and unveiled the reason for his confidence, ready to block the attack bearing down on them murderously.