Different from the mostly peaceful circumstances of the Star Shattering Sect who didn't really have anything dangerous taking place, outside of the infestation of demonic cultivators that appeared in the kingdom bordering the Azure Sky Kingdom, Chun Hua, whom Xuan Hao had seen off to the core of the continent not too long ago, was caught in a dangerous situation as she found herself face to face with a powerful cultivator who had chased after her for the past few days.
The reason was simple, he had realized that she wasn't human… But more importantly, her special physique could be refined into a special kind of pill that would be able to help a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator safely establish a domain and step into the Domain Lord Realm without any of the normal dangers associated with reaching the Domain Lord Realm.
Even worse, the pill that could be refined by using her body was not only useful to people in the Nascent Soul Realm, but also people who had reached the Domain Lord Realm, Soul Ascension Realm… And to a certain extend. Even those who had surpassed the Soul Ascension Realm!
This was one of the main reason why she had been trying to keep her identity secret. Outside of the fact that she was not a member of the human race…
"Hehe, why don't you just give up! Given the difference between our cultivation realms, you won't be able to win against me. At least if you surrender obediently, I will give you a swift death!"
"Hmph! You are dreaming!"
At this point in time, she had already been backed into a corner with no chance of running away.
The two stood facing each other without saying anything for a short moment.
One was a tall, muscular man with an arrogant expression and a powerful aura. The other a lithe, agile woman, whose eyes shone with a fierce determination.
"If you want it that way, it looks like I will make sure you regret your choice!"
Swish-!
Without warning, the man attacked, his fist crashing down like a hammer. But Chun Hua was ready for this attack, dodging to the side before striking back with a swift and fierce kick enhanced by the qi spewing forth from her dantian into her leg. Giving it an eerie glow as it headed towards the man.
Bang-bang-bang!
The man was not one to be underestimated and countered with a flurry of punches, but Chun Hua was too quick, dodging and weaving through his attacks before striking back with a series of punches and kicks of her own.
Boom-boom-boom!
As the battle raged on, both of them summoned their inner energies, each drawing even more qi from their own dantian to enhance their physical abilities far beyond their limits. For a moment, the two were evenly matched due to Chun Hua's skilful movements allowing her to dodge most of the attacks, both exchanging blows at lightning-fast speed-
Fwoosh-!
However, it was at this moment that the man unleashed a powerful energy blast that could not be dodged. Understanding very well that the Chun Hua was not as easy to defeat as he had first expected. Forcing Chun Hua to go on the defensive-
Boom-!
Only barely managing to summon her own inner energy to take the shape of a green coloured protective shield that deflected the blast. Allowing her to avoid getting blown up by the sudden powerful attack.
"Die!"
Understanding that most of her qi had been drained to stop the powerful energy blast, Chun Hua let out a fierce cry before using a moment to close the distance between herself and the muscular man. Wanting to take advantage of the fact that the man should be in a similar exhausted state as herself after the powerful energy blast he had thrown towards-
Bang-bang-bang!
BOOM-!
Not wasting a single second to use the last bit of energy left in her already tried body to unleash a barrage of strikes that finally broke through his guard.
"This… Impossible!" The man could not believe what had just happened as he stumbled back before collapsing on the ground, badly wounded, Chun Hua now standing over him, her eyes blazing with killing intent.
"You may be stronger than me, but you are far too arrogant! If you had just gone all out against me from the start, you might have ended up winning!" And with that, she launched one final blow towards the man looking towards her filled with disbelief on the ground-
Bang!
Killing him before he got a chance to get back up again. The battle was won, and Chun Hua emerged as the undisputed champion.
"Hah… I have to get out of here and find a safe place to recover…"
Although not without cost, the man had been of a far higher cultivation base than herself, so even if she had managed to win, it would still take her weeks, if not months to recover from the damage she had sustained.
Ever since she had managed to make her way back to the core of the continent again, she had constantly been faced with dangerous situations like this. The only problem this time around was that she had not been able to escape from her pursuer no matter how much she tried to use everything she had leant.
Is this person perhaps in possession of some kind of special artifact that allows him to track down my location…?
Narrowing her eyes as this thought occurred to her, Chun Hua didn't dare waste a single moment before searching through the belongings of the man-
Rustle~
"Here it is!"
Not taking long to find his interspatial ring.
Whoosh~
"Hm? This is…!"
Taking out everything from her now dead pursuers interspatial ring, Chun Hua could not help freezing on the spot as she discovered a small token with a pure black lotus engraved into it located among the many different artifacts, pills, books, clothes and other things that the man had been carrying along with him.
The main reason why Chun Hua froze up on the spot was not because the small token was some kind of precious artifact. Instead, it was what the small token represented!
"The Shadow Lotus Sect… To think that man was a member of the Shadow Lotus Sect…" Almost whispering this to herself as she looked at the token with the small black lotus engraved into it, Chun Hua didn't dare stay around any longer as she used all of her remaining energy to use her movement technique to leave the location of the fight.
Although she did not have a good understand of the core region of the continent where the most powerful empires and powers were located, she still knew about the sect that the token on the man she had just killed belonged to.
The Shadow Lotus Sect, a sect that was known throughout the core region of the continent as the masters of information gathering. Their members were skilled spies and assassins, known for their unique ability to blend into the shadows and gather information without being noticed by divine sense. The more powerful members were even capable of hiding themselves inside the domain of a Domain Lord Realm Expert!
Despite their reputation as assassins and spies, there was also a few members of the Shadow Lotus Sect who were not assassins and acted as guardians for the different branches of the Shadow Lotus Sect located all across the core region of the continent where one could buy information… Or facilitate the disappearance of one's enemies...
Considering the fact that the man she had just killed did not display any of the Shadow Lotus Sect's famous assassin techniques when fighting with her just now, Chun Hua was almost certain that the man she had just killed was one of these guardians in charge of protecting one of the core regions branch sects.
Well… Considering that the man had only reached the Nascent Soul Realm, he should still be a guardian in training. After all, the weakest guardian of the Shadow Lotus Sect in charge of guarding a branch would be in the Domain Lord Realm, the biggest branch she had heard about even had multiple Soul Ascension Realm guardians…
In the end, she could not really be completely sure about this. The Shadow Lotus Sect was highly secretive, and very few outsiders knew anything about them.
For all she knew, the token that the man had been carrying with him could be fake and he could have used it to scare people when he was close to getting killed.
Although this might be rather stupid as there was no way the Shadow Lotus Sect would let something like this go after finding out, it would always be a good way to safe himself in a dangerous situation.
Swish-!
No matter what, Chun Hua did not dare stay around to find out whether or not the man she had just killed truly belonged to the Shadow Lotus Sect.
After all, if he really was a member of the Shadow Lotus Sect, the person coming to investigate the matter would almost certainly be the Domain Lord Realm branch guardian who had been in charge training him. Not someone she had the ability to resist with her current strength…