Martial Arrogance Dragon Soul-Chapter 254 - 243: The Maze

Qin Qing left the Luochuan Imperial City and proceeded along the main road.

Despite the bustling crowds and dense population of the Luochuan Imperial City, it didn’t take long after leaving it to find oneself in uninhabited wild lands.

The main reason for this is the state of chaos in the world.

In the cities, there are city defense forces and the government office’s soldiers, so bandits don’t dare to intrude.

However, outside the wilderness, those bandits and outlaws are extremely rampant.

Therefore, while the cities are densely populated and lively, it becomes sparse shortly after leaving Luochuan.

Of course, there are also some villages in more remote areas.

The people in those villages gather together to resist the bandits, and typically, the villagers are robust and strong men, even including some martial artists at the Qi Condensation Realm.

Moreover, the villagers tend to band together strongly, and they commonly resist outside bandits as one. Having lived in the wild and battled with ferocious beasts for years, many of them are brave and tough individuals.

So, ordinary bandits don’t dare to casually barge into the villages.

The villagers usually don’t have much money, and the cost of attacking is not low, so it is more loss than gain.

Of course, there are times when an entire village is slaughtered overnight, which usually means someone in the village has come into possession of a valuable treasure.

For instance, an inner core from a Second or Third Rank ferocious beast, or a valuable strain of Spirit Grass unearthed.

Once such news leaks out, it could attract the attention of thieves and bandits.

Qin Qing walked along the main road for half an hour.

Because of Qin Qing’s speed, he had already traversed a hundred miles in that half hour.

And this was without him moving at full speed.

In fact, to an onlooker, Qin Qing’s manner of walking seemed leisurely, as if he was strolling while admiring the scenery on both sides of the road.

But if one wasn’t paying attention, one would find that he had already moved a great distance away.

This type of movement technique was somewhat like the legendary "shrinking the earth to an inch."

One step could carry him over thirty meters.

At this moment, Qin Qing was practicing the Sky-splitting Step Technique, which to the untrained eye appeared mundane, but to those well-versed in movement techniques, it was apparent that with each step Qin Qing took, there were Spiritual Patterns circulating.

Now, Qin Qing was contemplating the fourth step.

And indeed, the best way to comprehend a step technique was simply to walk, especially when you’ve hit a bottleneck with the technique, not knowing how to break through.

The road became increasingly narrow.

After all, not all paths could be as wide as those just outside the imperial city.

However, the peaks on either side grew steeper and loftier, while the flora became denser.

After the onset of spring, the plants in the mountain forests were crisper, and those trees which had shed their leaves in the winter were now sprouting fresh, tender buds.

Walking on the ancient road, Qin Qing practiced his step technique while delighting in the early spring scenery of the mountains and forests.

"Hmm?"

But at that moment, Qin Qing’s brows suddenly furrowed.

His pace slowed down.

Qin Qing possessed an incomparable ability for perception.

He could clearly sense that something was tracking him. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

He immediately quickened his pace.

Qin Qing moved at full speed.

Now, his speed increased even further.

To the naked eye, it seemed as though he was leaving behind a series of afterimages in the air.

With Qin Qing’s rapid pace, it was not an exaggeration to travel thousands of miles in a day.

A Flame Horse could cover three thousand miles in a day.

But after traveling three thousand miles in a day, the entire horse would be exhausted, likely needing ten days to half a month to recover.

Whereas Qin Qing, covering six or seven thousand miles in a day was nothing extraordinary.

This was the strength of a martial artist, especially since Qin Qing was already a Martial Artist of the Divine Might Realm.

Moreover, he possessed the powerful Dragon Blood Physique, combined with the Sky-splitting Step Technique.

Even an ordinary Great Martial Master at the Perfection of the Divine Might Realm would not be able to match Qin Qing in terms of speed and endurance.

As Qin Qing increased his pace, he was also continually sensing behind him, searching for any suspicious targets.

Several times, Qin Qing could clearly feel that the person tracking him was right behind.

Yet, whenever Qin Qing turned around, he failed to catch sight of the target!

"What on earth is going on?"

"Who is tracking me?"

"Is his disguise really that good? Or is he skilled in concealing movement techniques?"

Qin Qing was very perplexed.

Several times, by alternating between speeding up and suddenly slowing down, Qin Qing tried to sense the person chasing him; he could always clearly detect the other’s presence, even feeling the fluctuations of spiritual power, but every time he was confident he would catch the person, there was no trace to be found.

"How can this person’s ability to hide be so strong? Then, his strength must be extraordinary as well. With such capabilities, why would he stealthily track me? If he wanted to kill me, it shouldn’t be difficult, right?"

The more Qin Qing thought about it, the more puzzled he became.

At that moment, he once again detected the presence of the person following behind him.

"Just behind me, about twenty-one feet away."

"I passed by there just now; there was a green banyan tree next to it."

Qin Qing remembered very clearly that the tree was big enough to be encircled by five people.

And the fluctuations of spiritual power he sensed came from that very banyan tree.

Qin Qing suddenly stopped in his tracks!

Then—

He whirled around, twisting his head to sweep his gaze over that green banyan tree.

And this time—

"Huh!"

Qin Qing let out a breath.

In his field of vision, there was still no one!

"How is that possible?"

Qin Qing became even more baffled. He walked back toward the green banyan tree.

Upon a thorough examination, he confirmed that there was no one on it; not even a trace was left behind.

He quickly searched the surrounding jungle and bushes again but came up empty-handed!

"Gugu!"

"Gugu..."

The mountains and forests were silent.

Apart from Qin Qing’s breathing, only the sound of birds chirping could be heard.

This made the atmosphere around him suddenly turn chilly.

"Hiss..."

Qin Qing couldn’t help but inhale a breath of cold air.

"Could it really be a ghost?"

Qin Qing frowned.

Otherwise, there was no explanation.

To disappear so quickly, with no presence within miles around,

this was something not even an expert could accomplish, let alone a Martial Dao Master in the Golden Core Late Stage.

As for the Nascent Soul Realm?

Which Martial Dao ancestor from the Nascent Soul Realm would be so idle?

Besides, a Martial Dao ancestor wouldn’t need to hide so covertly if they wished to harm Qin Qing!

While Qin Qing was deeply furrowing his brows and utterly at a loss, his gaze suddenly fell on that green banyan tree, and a flash of sudden enlightenment shone in his eyes.