Ji Ning led Su Youji towards the direction of the side hall.

Whoosh.

A streak of gray fog quickly surged out from that distant side hall, moving far faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos as it poured out of the Yi River Palace.

“That thing is carrying the Mirrorsnow Painting!” Ning’s face changed. “Chase it down!”

He could sense that the Mirrorsnow Painting had originally been within the side hall, but it was now receding from him at high speed. Clearly, it was being taken away by that gray streak of mist.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

Ning and Su Youji immediately chased after it at high speed. Ning had always been extremely fast, while Su Youji was now a Chaos Immortal. Thanks to her powerful Immortal energy and the Jindan chaos region inside her body supporting her, she was now also able to easily overcome the limits of the Heavenly Daos and move just a tiny bit slower than Ning himself did. But of course, this was with Ning not using the Thunderlight Wings.

Boom! An inch-thick streak of golden light shot out of Ning’s eyes, allowing him to clearly make out the true form of that fleeing streak of gray fog.

Although it looked like gray fog, it was actually a strange beast that had a crocodilian body and a dragon-like head. Its four stubby legs propelled it forward at high speed, allowing it move faster than the limits of the Heavenly Daos as gray mist emanated from its body.

“A bugbeast of some sort.”

“It most likely is one of the bugbeasts which Daolord Allgod once reared.”

Both Ning and Su Youji were able to see and identify the creature.

Many bugbeasts lived within the Fog Sea region. It must be understood that Daolord Allgod was skilled in many things, including alchemy, artificing, formations, and more. He had also reached an extremely high level of skill in the art of rearing bugbeasts. Even though he had died long ago, certain formations within the Fog Sea region continuously nurtured and gave birth to multiple generations of World-level bugbeasts.

“GRWAAAR!” The graymist beast let out a howl. Its body suddenly split into nine different pieces, each of which began to flee towards a different direction.

“Don’t even think about fleeing!” Ning roared. He pulled out a giant gourd with his left hand, immediately uncorking it.

Rumble…

Countless thunderbolts blasted out from within the gourd, instantly covering the entire region but centering around the area which included the nine streaks of gray mist that were beginning to flee. The [Ninehorn Lightning Serpent] technique was limited to the speed of the Heavenly Daos, but this Pentabolt Gourd which Ning had purchased during the treasure auction contained five different types of chaos lightning, each of which was able to effortlessly breach the speed of light. They all moved much faster than Ning himself.

The five types of lightning crackled throughout the area and thundered around the gray mist.

“EEEEE! An ear-piercing, soul-piercing cry.

Eight of the nine streaks of gray mist instantly vanished. The remaining streak of gray mist quickly began to expand in size, its scaly crocodilian body beginning to emerge as well. The beast’s body was resisting the attacks of these five types of chaos lightning, and it turned to glare at Ning, its grayish-white eyes filled with rage.

“Hand over that sword-ki diagram and I’ll spare your life,” Ning sent mentally.

“You’ll never catch me.” The creature’s gravelly voice rang out in Ning’s mind.

Swish.

The scaly crocodilian creature once more transformed into mist. This time, the misty gray aura surrounding it brightened dramatically as it began to fly off into the distance at a speed which rendered Ning speechless. Even if he used his Thunderlight Wings, he still wouldn’t be able to catch up to it. His only choice was to use the Pentabolt Gourd to release those five streaks of chaos lightning to slow the creature down…and yet, although the creature seemed to be weakened by the lightning it didn’t slow down in the slightest.

“We can’t catch up to it, Master.” Su Youji was worried. The bugbeast had already flown out of the range of the five types of lightning. This place was quite dangerous, and Ning didn’t dare to let the lightning reach out to a much greater distance, for fear of accidentally striking and irritating other powerful bugbeasts.

“I can sense that it’s been injured.” Ning chuckled. The final blasts of lightning had injured the creature. Although it had managed to escape, its aura had been noticeably weakened.

“It won’t be able to escape me.” Ning could continuously sense the exact location of the Mirrorsnow Painting. So long as the creature remained within the Allgod Estate, Ning would still be able to sense its location.

A short while later.

“It is up ahead. It isn’t moving,” Ning sent.

Soon, Ning and Su Youji saw the creature. It was a crocodilian bugbeast with black scales, and it was resting as it lay atop a giant boulder. It instantly noticed Ning’s arrival and immediately transformed into an aura of gray mist as it once more began to flee.

Bugbeasts were artificially created lifeforms. They had tremendous strength and certain special gifts, and they used these advantages when they fought. However, they didn’t have divine power or Immortal energy. Thus, they were unable to bind magic treasures to themselves. In other words, the bugbeast hadn’t been able to bind the sword-ki painting and thus couldn’t sense Ning’s location.

Boom! Ning didn’t have enough time to chase after the creature. He instead once more pulled out the Pentabolt Gourd and released those five types of chaos lightning to attack.

The aura of the fleeing streak of gray mist began to noticeably weaken yet again.

Swoosh. Swoosh.

Ning and Su Youji continued their chase.

……

“I can sense ripples coming from over there.”

“There’s a battle happening nearby.”

Two men who were seated in the lotus position rose to their feet. One was dressed in golden robes while the other was dressed in black robes. Both had dark, swarthy skin, and their faces were covered with green floral tattoos. Both emanated auras of tremendous power as well. One was a World God, the other a Chaos Immortal.

“Let’s go take a look.” The two exchanged a glance, then quietly began to move towards the direction of the ripples.

……

“It is still fleeing.” Ning and Su Youji continued their pursuit of the bugbeast. By now, the bugbeast could tell that the two cultivators probably had a way to track it and so it continued to frantically run as fast as it could.

“It’s moving farther and farther away.” Ning was worried. “The bugbeast knows the Fog Sea much better than us. It’ll probably end up hiding itself within a dangerous location. We have to catch up to it soon. If too much time passes, we’ll be in trouble.”

“HALT!” Suddenly, an icy shout rang out from afar and blasted into the ears of Ning and Su Youji.

“Eh?”

Ning and Su Youji had been flying at high speed. Both frowned and turned to look at the two figures which had appeared behind them. These two figures both emanated auras of power and savagery.

“Master.” Su Youji’s face tightened as she sent a quick mental message. “I know these two. One is known as World God Foxblaze while the other is Chaos Immortal Foxbold. The two belong to the same race and are extremely savage.”

“Oho, isn’t this Flamefairy Su Youji?” Chaos Immortal Foxbold was dressed in golden robes, and his eyes lit up when he saw the Flamefairy. “You actually broke through to become a Chaos Immortal! I hadn’t heard the news. It must be recent. Huh. Come to think of it, a short while ago the chaos energy within the Allgod Estate was in a state of great turmoil. Was that when you made your breakthrough?”

“Su Youji?” The black-robed World God Foxblaze’s eyes lit up as well. “Oho, what a rare treat…”

Su Youji was a peerless beauty of tremendous charm. After becoming a Chaos Immortal, her aura and demeanor had only grown more graceful. Both of these World-level experts felt a certain itchiness in their hearts when they saw her.

“Please make way! We are busy,” Su Youji barked.

“Make way? Su Youji, you just recently became a World-level expert. Instead of finding a safe place to stabilize your foundation, you instead came here to the Fog Sea. You are lucky that it was the two of us who found you.” World God Foxblaze laughed coldly. “It would be simplicity itself for us to kill you, but we’ll give you a chance to stay alive.”

Newly ascended World-level experts were very weak, especially Chaos Immortals. Chaos Immortals had fairly weak bodies; when they first made their breakthrough, they could be considered as having just barely reached the World-level threshold of power. Although World God Foxblaze and his friend weren’t that powerful, they had still been alive for a very long period of time. It would indeed be quite easy for them to slay a newly ascended Chaos Immortal.

“Right, right. We’ll give you a chance to live.” Chaos Immortal Foxbold stared appraising at Su Youji, licking his lips. “It’s simple. You simply need to swear a lifeblood oath to be our slave.”

“Slave?” A layer of frost appeared on Su Youji’s face.

“Don’t worry. You are a World-level expert as well; we won’t make things too hard for you. After you become our slave, all you’ll have to do is engage in ‘dual cultivation’ with us every so often. Dual cultivation is a source of great joy, as you’ll soon come to know.” World God Foxblaze’s eyes grew colder. “But if you refuse, today is the day you die.”

“All we ask is that you engage in ‘dual cultivation’ with us. You’ll have a much higher position than all the rest of our slaves,” Chaos Immortal Foxbold agreed.

The two had many women, but female Chaos Immortals of such peerless beauty and charm were incredibly rare. Most importantly of all, Su Youji had just recently become a Chaos Immortal. She was still very weak and would be easily captured.

Both of their gazes were fixed upon Su Youji.

As for Ji Ning?

He was merely an Elder God. The two completely ignored him!

“The two of you are going a bit too far.” Ning’s voice rang out. He didn’t want to fight as that would distract him from chasing after the fleeing bugbeast.

“World-level experts are speaking. How dare you interrupt us, you ant?” World God Foxblaze looked at Ning, a lofty look in his eyes. He naturally felt complete contempt towards a mere Elder God like Ning.

“Puny Elder God, how dare you speak so rashly before us? I was planning to simply enslave you as well. I suppose I might as well just kill you instead.” Chaos Immortal Foxbold glanced at Ning as well, a similar look of arrogance in his gaze. He, too, felt as though he was speaking to an ant.