Chapter 1135: The Most Insidious Hunter

One Step to Heaven!

Xu Xiaoshou took a step and emerged from the Bu She Ting ruins. Fortunately, this time he faced no obstacles, unlike the last encounter when a madman blocked the maze passage and immediately launched into sealing the gate without a word.

"Calm down, I need to sort out the situation!"

The battle situation had taken an unexpectedly dramatic turn, one that Xu Xiaoshou had never anticipated.

Back within the maze walls of Zui Yi Dian, he watched as Rao Yaoyao, shrouded in holy tribulation and charging like a rabid dog after Han Ye, unleashed a trail of fire and lightning. She blasted through various barriers in Zui Yi Dian before vanishing into the distance. Xu Xiaoshou felt a chill run down his spine.

This was insane!

When had Rao Yaoyao become like this?

She was acting just like a madman!

But there was no denying that this fighting style suited her as a Jian Xian... no, perhaps soon to be called a Jian Sheng. Xu Xiaoshou didn't doubt for a second that she would succeed in sealing the saint.

"Now, the key isn't her. I need to go over everything that happened in Bu She Ting and check if I've missed any details."

Xu Xiaoshou forced his thoughts back to himself. In his vanished state, he had shifted from being a peripheral figure in the battle to an irrelevant bystander, escaping all attention. But that didn't mean he was out of danger.

What if he had overlooked something, and later both Han Ye and Rao Yaoyao turned their sights on him?

"First, I need to deal with Han Ye. Based on what Rao Yaoyao said, this Han Tian Zhi Wei likely came from the inner island of Xu Kong Dao, probably as a pawn of Ba Zun An, though there's a small chance it's not."

"No matter what, now that I know this, I have to risk it and try to communicate. If it leads to cooperation or even using him... well, it's definitely not the time to approach now. Whether Han Ye can escape Rao Yaoyao's holy tribulation is uncertain, but he's good at running, so maybe... no, I definitely can't handle the negotiation myself; I'll leave it to my second true body."

In the span of a breath, Xu Xiaoshou decided on the matter of Han Ye and shifted his focus back to the maze passage behind him, which had sealed shut and vanished.

This meant the only path from Bu She Ting back to the Zui Yi Dian maze was gone.

Xu Xiaoshou had emerged right after the chase between Han Ye and Rao Yaoyao, though he had fled in a different direction.

After coming out, he deliberately waited for a while, but to his regret, he didn't see the other person appear.

"Has Ye Xiao died?"

"Otherwise, why didn't she come out?"

"She shouldn't have died that easily... it was just one holy tribulation, and I made it out unscathed. She looked badly injured, but she must have some life-saving trump card; there's no way she's dead!"

"So, she must have already come out, but why didn't I see her? When did she leave?"

Xu Xiaoshou's eyes darted around as he instinctively examined himself.

There were no signs of possession, no danger alerts in his information panel, and Ye Xiao hadn't turned into a ghost to trail him, always lurking in his blind spot no matter if he looked back.

"This is trouble..."

No matter how chaotic or wild the overt events were—even if it involved semi-saints in a pursuit battle—Xu Xiaoshou wasn't afraid. What he dreaded most was someone slipping into the shadows like him, fishing in troubled waters and subtly guiding the situation.

The head of the dark department lived up to her reputation. Just as he had vanished, she had melted into the darkness.

"What a insidious and disgusting ability!"

Cursing under his breath, Xu Xiaoshou decided not to dwell on it. After all, he was vanished, so Ye Xiao probably couldn't track him anyway.

He carefully recalled every detail from Bu She Ting that he might have overlooked due to the tense situation or his own subjectivity, going over it from start to finish without missing a thing.

After all, dealing with these clever people, one slip could mean death.

"My identity probably hasn't been exposed; Chen Tan played it well. But there's one thing I must be cautious about... when I first entered Bu She Ting, I grabbed Ye Xiao's hand—that was the only physical contact.

"I have 'hidden', and it was my initial reaction upon entering the hall. A normal person's first move would be to resist, not to infuse spiritual energy into the enemy to observe them—that's suicide... and I didn't sense Ye Xiao doing anything like that."

"From Ye Xiao's subsequent reactions, she didn't recognize me, and the information panel didn't alert me..."

Xu Xiaoshou chose to trust his deductions.

Otherwise, if Ye Xiao had been facing someone she knew was really Xu Xiaoshou disguised as Chen Tan, her behavior wouldn't have been so calm.

"And another point..."

"Rao Yaoyao is the red-clad enforcer and sovereign, so it's normal for her to know Han Ye's past. But I'm just an ordinary Chen Tan—why didn't she and Ye Xiao avoid mentioning the Gui Shou when explaining it to me?"

Xu Xiaoshou fell into deep thought; he had noticed this at the time.

When Rao Yaoyao spoke, Ye Xiao's expression clearly changed, but Rao Yaoyao went ahead and revealed all the information about the "Gui Shou" without hesitation.

Gui Shou...

This was information about Gui Shou that everyone on Sheng Shen Continent kept tightly under wraps, yet after arriving on Xu Kong Dao, Rao Yaoyao didn't mind a stranger like him knowing?

Or was she just foolish and didn't realize Chen Tan was eavesdropping?

"She must see me as already in her grasp!"

Xu Xiaoshou quickly arrived at the answer.

... Chen Tan displayed 'evil god power', and even Ye Xiao wouldn't act rashly against him, insisting on the 'Zhan Shen Ling'. Her intention was probably to get me to join Sheng Shen Hall.

"Is it because Chen Tan is so impressive, or because he looks handsome, that Ye Xiao couldn't bring herself to kill him?"

"No! From the moment the 'evil god power aura' appeared, Chen Tan was destined to fall into Sheng Shen Hall's hands, because 'ancestral source power' can't be allowed to leak out, not even just the aura."

Reviewing the entire event from a third-person perspective and putting himself in Sheng Shen Hall's position, Xu Xiaoshou found that everything made sense.

Ye Xiao and Rao Yaoyao knew Chen Tan had grasped the evil god power aura but didn't immediately seize the Zhan Shen Ling; instead, they chose to deal with Han Ye.

That meant, for you, Chen Tan, Sheng Shen Hall has you locked in—no matter now or later.

The Zhan Shen Ling on you is like it's already in Sheng Shen Hall's treasury, because you're already listed in their records.

After all, the aura of evil god power can never be allowed to roam free!

"So Xie Lao was so cautious; after getting this secret technique, not a single person around him knew about it."

"Even his closest confidant, Gui Po, only had a vague idea, knowing he practiced some evil technique from the southern domain but not its true essence."

Xu Xiaoshou felt a shiver.

But thankfully, it was Chen Tan who was targeted, and it had nothing to do with his saint slave identity, Xu Xiaoshou.

From the outcome, it was clear that either Rao Yaoyao would return after her battle with Han Ye and use some method to find Chen Tan.

"Rao Yaoyao specifically told Ye Xiao to keep an eye on Chen Tan before fighting Han Ye—that was the second meaning behind her words." Xu Xiaoshou's eyes sharpened as he realized.

"So after Han Ye's Heng River, Ye Xiao vanished opportunely—was she already watching me? And after the holy tribulation, did Ye Xiao create a 'false appearance' of near death?"

"Right up to now, there's still no sign of her?"

Connecting this to his earlier conclusion that Ye Xiao had already emerged from Bu She Ting, Xu Xiaoshou deduced that she was likely monitoring him at all times...

Suddenly, he felt a wave of horror!

He was in a vanished state, erasing all traces from the world—how could she track him?

"Am I just scaring myself?"

A ridiculous idea flashed through his mind, and while Xu Xiaoshou wanted to dismiss it as unfounded worry, he reconsidered...

Teng Shan Hai, that six-department leader, died at Jiang Buyi's hands, which made sense—he was foolishly led to his death.

Yi Lian stepped into Wu Ji Lao Zu's scheme and still survived for so long. Granted, Yi was clever, but from the current perspective, his abilities weren't suited for combat at all.

Even so, he endured far longer than most Taixu Xu knew.

Individually, Yi was powerful, but in Sheng Shen Hall's six departments, he was just an intelligence operative.

The real fighters were the other four departments besides Dao and Yi, and among them, the dark department specialized in assassination!

"Assassination..."

Xu Xiaoshou didn't dare equate Ye Xiao with Yi. How could an intelligence operative compare to an assassin in terms of combat?

So, his vigilance against Ye Xiao had to be at least as high as against Yi, if not several times more.

"From this angle, it's likely that what I thought earlier isn't me scaring myself—it's probably all happening for real..."

"Ye Xiao is watching me!"

His mind exploded like a bomb, and Xu Xiaoshou felt as if he were back in Bu She Ting, seeing that scene again.

The woman perched on the necromancer's shoulder, hidden in her black cloak, suddenly lifted her gaze. Then, the three-legged black owl on her shoulder let out a startled cry, and the death god owl's eyes behind her engulfed the sky in a cold, dark hue.

With a shiver, Xu Xiaoshou's skin erupted in goosebumps.

He checked himself again for any overlooked spots—any hidden crow feather or trace of that dangerous woman's aura.

But there was nothing.

Everything was normal, and the information panel showed no risks.

Xu Xiaoshou's heart raced. Either he was overthinking, or the situation was even worse than he imagined!

He wasn't an optimist, and thinking about the "dark department," "assassins," and the "three-color hunting order"—something only obtainable by successfully assassinating a semi-saint—made him anxious.

In his mind, he elevated Ye Xiao's threat level several notches.

Then, he thought of something else.

Ye Xiao wielded "death god power," the same kind of ancestral source power as Teng Shan Hai's "magic god power," something only high-level Sheng Di could comprehend.

In other words, could ancestral source power achieve effects only Sheng Di power could?

"Is it possible that I've already been influenced?"

In that instant, in his Yuan Fu world, Xu Xiaoshou's second true body grabbed the Sheng Di dragon scale and repeatedly focused his thoughts:

"Interfere with all external influences on Xu Xiaoshou and Chen Tan, preferably blocking and removing them... interfere, interfere, interfere!"

Over and over.

Whether it was the dragon scale's effect or just psychological, Xu Xiaoshou felt his thoughts clearing up.

"Suppose I'm already the prey being watched, and Ye Xiao is a hunter who's assassinated a semi-saint, then her greatest trait must be patience..."

"Damn, she is patient! She watched me search for the passage in Bu She Ting for a whole day—that's exactly how a hunter eyes its prey!"

Recalling it now, Xu Xiaoshou's face turned pale. He forced himself to calm down.

"To make such a patient hunter lower her guard and reveal herself, what should I do?"

Soon, he had an answer.

"A dying bird might draw the hunter's final shot!" In his vanished state, Xu Xiaoshou guessed—hoped?—that Ye Xiao couldn't see him.

But just as Jiang Buyi could roughly locate him with Sheng Domain, or the storyteller could narrow down the exile space through exhaustive methods, Xu Xiaoshou thought that someone as clever and mysterious as Ye Xiao might have a special way to sense him—especially since she wielded "death god power"!

With that in mind, Xu Xiaoshou decided he had to reveal himself.

If he didn't lift the vanishing technique and lure Ye Xiao out, with the enemy in the shadows and him in the open, he'd feel like a thorn in his back, never at peace.

"One Step to Heaven! Heaven! Heaven!"

He bolted headlong, vanishing state and all, like a headless fly zigzagging through the maze.

After running for over ten li and completely losing his bearings, he finally stopped.

"I've even lost myself—Ye Xiao better be able to follow me in this vanished, teleporting state, or I'll eat shit on live stream!" With this bet, Xu Xiaoshou figured he was just dueling with thin air.

He had imagined an invincible enemy, and the upcoming test would likely go unanswered forever.

He was just gambling on a slim chance...

Glancing down, his clothes were the tattered remnants from the battle, and though his internal injuries had healed somewhat, the lingering holy tribulation aura prevented full recovery.

Xu Xiaoshou gritted his teeth and used a sharp object to cut himself, making himself bleed to recreate the wounds from escaping Bu She Ting. Then, he dispelled the vanishing technique.

With a thud!

In a section of the maze wall, a blood-soaked figure crashed to the ground, skidding forward on his head for about a zhang before coming to a stop, covered in dirt, and propping himself against the wall with his battered body.

Chen Tan's eyes were wide with terror, his pupils shaking, his hands trembling slightly, and upon closer inspection, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably.

"Sealing the saint! Rao Jian Xian actually dared to seal the saint here, and I can barely withstand the absolute ground attributes..."

"Han Ye, that Han Tian Zhi Wei, is actually a Gui Shou..."

Chen Tan murmured in a quivering voice, pulling out a pill from his spatial ring and swallowing it with difficulty. After calming down, he took a deep breath.

"Thankfully..."

He scanned his surroundings, as if checking for pursuers.

Seeing none, he lowered his gaze, unconsciously fiddling with his spatial ring, his eyes unfocused as if deep in thought.

"Ye Xiao..."

"Zhan Shen Ling..."

"Why... no, that's not right... it should be..."

After more than a quarter of an hour, Chen Tan shifted positions several times, still murmuring softly.

He kept up the act for over a quarter of an hour, performing to the extreme, using his "perception" to scan for any nearby presences, and leveraging his information panel and Sheng Di dragon scale.

But there was no one!

A doubt crept in: maybe he was just being a fool, overthinking everything, and if he told his junior sister, she'd laugh at him for life!

But since he'd come this far, the show had to go on.

Better to outsmart thin air than to actually compete in patience with someone.

At this point, the pill must have taken effect, as Chen Tan barely regained his mobility, pushing off the wall to stand, his lips curling slightly.

"No matter what, with the Zhan Shen Ling in hand, next is finding the exit and leaving this damned place!"

He looked around, saw no outsiders or void servants approaching, then took water from his spatial ring and scrubbed his face vigorously.

He scrubbed so hard it seemed he wanted to scrape off not just the blood and dirt, but his skin too.

After a long while, Chen Tan stopped, lowering his hands and lifting his head in the dim maze.

"Well, the Chen Tan identity is about done. Who should I play next? Xu Xiaoshou? Ye Xiao?"

Chen Tan muttered, casually pulling out a bronze mirror from his spatial ring and holding it up.

In the mirror, in the faint light, what appeared was a face with no features after washing—just a flat, horrifying plane!

This was Xu Xiaoshou's ultimate technique: transformation!

He believed that if anyone was watching, seeing Chen Tan mutter to himself after washing his face and glancing in the mirror to find this ghostly appearance, they'd be scared half to death.

Yes, the eerie environment of Zui Yi Dian added to it.

The flat face twitched slightly, and a soft laugh echoed from nowhere as Chen Tan rubbed his face and began reshaping it randomly.

At the same time, he directed his thoughts to the silent information panel, wondering if this ultimate technique would trigger anything.

At one point, perhaps an illusion, Chen Tan's movements froze for a split second, but he quickly resumed, finalizing his direction and continuing to mold his face.

Right now, with no features yet, otherwise, as the essence of Xu Xiaoshou, Chen Tan felt he might have already blown his cover.

The information panel had activated!

A message really popped up!

In the midst of absolute emptiness around him!

"Subjected to terrifying gaze, passive value +1."