Chapter 95: Killing the Ghost

A cliff a thousand zhang high stretched for a hundred li, standing like a city wall before Ji Hao.

Ji Hao was studying how to scale the precipice without leaving a trace, but his spiritual perception remained utterly vigilant.

The moment the Ga warrior behind him leaped into the air, Ji Hao had already locked onto his opponent's position. As the Ga warrior tore through the void like a meteor, fist descending toward the Manman slung across Ji Hao's back, Ji Hao turned his head and shouted, hands forming seals.

His pitch-black pupils suddenly blazed gold-red, nine faintly visible runes whirling rapidly at the edges of his irises.

His keen soul-force spread outward in every direction like an octopus's tentacles. In that instant, Ji Hao felt like a deity of a small world, clearly sensing the vast, profound, immeasurably powerful cosmic forces surrounding him.

Though he was far too weak, and only a minuscule fraction of the boundless heavenly might was available for his use, that fraction was enough to overturn heaven and earth.

The Nine-Character Mantra rang out in unbroken succession. Ji Hao's essence, energy, and spirit fused into one. His elixir power surged forth like a roaring tide, instantly mobilizing more than a hundred times the cosmic force around him. The ground trembled faintly, and a wall of rock a full zhang thick split open from the earth, rising to block the Ga warrior's path.

At the same time, Ji Hao let out a great shout. The flowing-light fire wings on his back beat furiously, his body trailing a host of afterimages as he carried himself across the hundred-zhang chasm in an instant and vanished into the boundless dense forest atop the cliff.

He had not used the flowing-light fire wings earlier only because he feared that the shamanic power fluctuations radiating from the wings would alert the Blood Fang Group.

But since someone had already discovered him, it was time to unleash all his strength to cross this cliff and flee with the greatest possible speed.

The moment Ji Hao struck, he had clearly seen the cruelty and greed surging like a tsunami in the four pupils of the Ga warrior coming from behind. He instantly grasped that savage creature's intent—this man wanted to hog all the spoils! Diro had surely offered a massive reward, and this Ga warrior wanted to claim every bit of merit for himself.

The precondition for claiming it all alone was that no rival capable of competing with him existed nearby. Which meant there would be no other Ga warriors within ten li in any direction. Ji Hao confidently unleashed his flowing-light fire wings and flew straight over the cliff.

A dull thud rang out as the Ga warrior's heavy fist shattered the stone wall Ji Hao had summoned. His massive frame flickered like a specter across the chasm, and with one more step, trailing several afterimages, he plunged into the forest.

Ga warriors were tall and burly, but they possessed unique racial combat techniques—their movements were dexterous and agile, even somewhat swifter than Ji Hao's current speed. In a few bounds, the hulking Ga warrior caught up to Ji Hao from behind.

"Little one, you've been spotted by me, so there's no escape!" the Ga warrior panted excitedly, his breath coming in wheezing gasps, and let out a low, cruel chuckle. "Kneel and surrender obediently, and I promise only to break your limbs. I won't do anything more brutal to you."

"If you keep running, don't blame me for doing something to you... and this little girl—something that would please my eyes but prove rather too cruel for you. Especially this little girl. Lord Diro only said to kill her; he never said what method I had to use!"

The Ga warrior laughed savagely, his laughter laced with a sliver of primal beastliness.

Ji Hao's feet traced a few spiraling steps, his body stirring up a whirlwind as he wove around several towering trees blocking his path.

But the Ga warrior moved like the wind. His body was even more nimble and quick than Ji Hao's, his strides longer and faster. With a few flickering movements of his own, he appeared abruptly before Ji Hao like a wall.

Fearing that a single cleave might split Ji Hao in two, the Ga warrior sheathed two heavy serrated greatswords on his back and reached out with both hands, slapping down with tremendous force. A strange tearing sound filled the air as the Ga warrior's palms suddenly swelled to several times their size, like two small mountains bearing down on Ji Hao with a stifling gust of murky wind.

This must be a special Ga combat art. The warrior had only two hands, yet they sealed off every angle by which Ji Hao might advance or retreat.

The vicious wind stirred up by the suddenly expanded palms pressed down so hard that Ji Hao could barely breathe. The air around him seemed to congeal, the light dimmed, and even space itself warped beneath the weight of those two strikes.

"You. Can't. Escape!" the Ga warrior rumbled in his deep, muffled voice. "Lord Diro's reward is mine. And that beautiful witch-priestess... heh heh, perhaps I'll get a taste of something sweet too."

Ji Hao's heart turned icy. His pupils shrank to pinpricks as he stared coldly at his opponent.

These Ga warriors, whose strength reached the Great Shaman realm, were more agile than Ji Hao, faster than Ji Hao, stronger than Ji Hao, and sharper in their five senses than Ji Hao. They suppressed him in every aspect. Before such foes, if Ji Hao showed even a moment's hesitation or any shred of fear, he and Manman would face only one path—death.

"When two meet on a narrow road, the one who doesn't fear death wins!" Ji Hao let out a low, guttural roar. The blood vessels across his body suddenly bulged, and he activated the desperate technique from the Nine-Character Mantra Elixir Scripture: Nine Stars Collapse. It was a suicidal art, similar to a demonic body-sacrifice, learned in his previous life. The moment he spurred the secret method, countless fissures split across his five viscera and six bowels.

Gushing blood in torrents from his mouth, Ji Hao laughed coldly and thrust out his chest to meet the Ga warrior's palms.

"Stop struggling. It's useless!" The Ga warrior sneered with contempt. Though he was not a strong warrior of the Blood Fang Group, only a special member most skilled in tracking, he still possessed the power of a Great Shaman. How could Ji Hao possibly be his match?

A desperate little wildcat could never defeat a lion!

The Ga warrior laughed soundlessly, his greedy gaze sweeping over Manman's terrified, utterly pitiful little face. With both palms, he slammed viciously into the chest Ji Hao had deliberately offered.

Even as his palms struck Ji Hao's chest, the Ga warrior, afraid he might kill him in a single blow, instinctively pulled back half his strength.

The armor A Bao had refined and Ji Hao wore against his skin emitted a faint, clear glow. On the thin armor's surface, the light coalesced into the shadowy image of a lotus flower, firmly resisting the terrifying force of the Ga warrior's palms.

Ji Hao's fourth innate divine ability, Golden Crow Heavenly Garment, activated. Countless feather-shaped, somber runes surfaced across his body. The tremendous power unleashed by the Ga warrior's two palms transformed into a howling hurricane that was split and dispersed by the feather-shaped runes, sweeping past Ji Hao's body without breaking through.

Before Ji Hao's eyes flashed the image of that perfect Heaven-Opening Strike delivered by the phantom. His right hand swung out as bones across his body snapped one after another, muscles and sinews screaming with overburdened cracks. With the Nine Stars Collapse secret method, he forcibly unleashed the strongest Heaven-Opening Strike he could possibly manage at this moment.

A faint glimmer of darkness flickered at his fingertip. Like a specter, Ji Hao's finger slipped through the single gap between the Ga warrior's two palms and lightly tapped his throat.

One strike. The Adam's apple shattered. The neck bones blasted apart. The Ga warrior let out a muffled groan and toppled backward.

The Ga warrior's enormous head burst open. Ji Hao spat out blood in great gushes, staggering, stumbling, and crawling as he fled into the deep forest.

***

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