Chapter 48: Pursuit and Counter-Pursuit

“Spit it out,” Wang Shuangjiang said, his voice as frigid as a winter’s night in the Arctic. “Which fool did that little bastard Wang Yuanze order you to hit with a Directional Teleportation Talisman?”

Wang Shuangjiang’s eyes were like twin suns boring into An Langpu’s soul.

“Qin Shu—the one who intercepted the Thirteenth Young Master at the God of Food Restaurant,” An Langpu replied without hesitation. He was clearly terrified of death and willing to spill all he knew.

“So that brat killed our Kunning?” The aura surrounding Wang Shuangjiang grew even more menacing.

“I-I believe so,” An Langpu stammered, shaking uncontrollably.

Wang Shuangjiang snorted coldly. “Where did you lay your ambush?”

Without missing a beat, An Langpu answered, “Thirty kilometers due east of Nine Yong City.”

Having heard enough, Wang Shuangjiang could no longer contain his fury. His divine sense erupted from within him, poised to strike down An Langpu once and for all.

Xing Yulin stepped forward, appearing before Wang Shuangjiang in an instant. “That’s far enough.”

“He betrayed my Wang Clan; I have the right to deal with him as I see fit,” Wang Shuangjiang retorted, his brow furrowed deeply.

Unyielding, Xing Yulin countered, “He is now a criminal. Under my jurisdiction, the laws of the Immortal Court reign supreme.”

“Three million spiritual soul coins for his life,” Wang Shuangjiang offered coldly.

“No!” An Langpu pleaded, dropping to his knees. “I’ve already confessed my crimes. Lord Xing, you can’t sell me to him.” As a Moonshadow Rank spiritual soul awakened being who had recently broken through to Foundation Establishment, he had many years left to live and clung desperately to his life.

If An Langpu fell into Wang Shuangjiang’s hands, he wouldn’t even get a chance at reincarnation.

Xing Yulin shook his head. “That’s not enough. A Moonshadow Rank spiritual soul awakened being is worth at least this much.” He made a peace sign with his fingers.

“Twenty million spiritual soul coins? Why don’t you just rob him?” Wang Shuangjiang snapped, enraged. “This is taking advantage of someone in distress.”

“No, no, no!” Xing Yulin countered, shaking his head again. “His inherent value alone exceeds three million spiritual soul coins. The remaining seventeen million is for compensating me for trampling on the Immortal Court’s laws.”

“You bureaucrats make the Money God Shopping Mall look like amateurs,” Wang Shuangjiang glanced at An Langpu, striving to suppress his fury. “But he’s simply not worth it.”

“The door’s right there. Please feel free to leave.” Xing Yulin pointed towards the entrance. “Oh, and remember to pay your fine—five hundred thousand spiritual soul coins for forcibly entering the main yamen. Oh, and since I prevented you from committing a crime, that’ll be another thirty thousand spiritual soul coins. Total is five hundred thirty thousand spiritual soul coins.”

Wang Shuangjiang’s feet froze mid-step. He wanted to erupt in curses, but remembering this was an official government office, he could only obediently pay the fees.

“Thank you, Magistrate Xing! Thank you, Magistrate Xing!” An Langpu dropped to both knees, bowing repeatedly before Xing Yulin. He knew his own worthless life wasn’t remotely worth twenty million spiritual soul coins; Xing Yulin had merely used it to deter Wang Shuangjiang.

“Heh!” Xing Yulin let out a cold laugh. “No need to thank me. If he could truly produce twenty million spiritual soul coins, this venerable one wouldn’t hesitate for a moment.”

What he sold wasn’t An Langpu’s life, but his own professional integrity.

“Never mind, what’s the point in talking to someone like you?” He waved his hand dismissively, ordering for An Langpu to be taken away.

Awaiting An Langpu was an eternity of hard labor, mining in the most inhospitable places.

Based on the severity of his crimes, he faced at least a hundred years of imprisonment.

If he couldn’t endure and perished, even his spirit would be put to use as waste material.

Although it was only a second-order spirit, with moonshadow-tier potential, it could still be refined into a high-quality spirit artifact.

With some luck, it might even yield an exceptional-grade spirit artifact.

On the God Soul Continent, there were myriad methods to refine spirit artifacts. The orthodox approach involved harnessing the innate spiritual energy within materials to create restrictions, thereby imbuing them with sentience.

Such spirit artifacts demanded extraordinary skill from the artificer and required a profound cultivation base.

Only Void Transformation artificers could craft exceptional-grade spirit artifacts.

However, if one could extract a complete spirit and then shape it using additional materials, the requirements for both skill and cultivation base were significantly reduced.

Under certain circumstances, even those at the Golden Core stage could forge exceptional-grade spirit artifacts.

Take Qin Shu, for example. By leveraging the power of the Great Array of Five Elements and circulating karma to borrow strength from heaven and earth, he effortlessly created the exceptional-grade spirit weapon known as the Thunder Flame Tiger Roar Blade.

Spiritual weapons were a type of spiritual artifact, but unlike general spiritual artifacts, they were specifically designed for use by martial artists.

The distinction between them lay in their application: spiritual weapons catered to close-quarters combat for those awakened to the path of Martial arts, while spiritual artifacts favored long-range manipulation for cultivators of the Immortal way.

Above spiritual weapons stood immortal weapons, corresponding to immortal artifacts; and above immortal weapons loomed divine weapons, mirroring heterogeneous spirit treasures.

As for native spirit treasures, there was no such thing as distinctions—they could be wielded freely, regardless of method.

Outside Nine Yong City, Wang Shuangjiang materialized at the scene where Qin Shu and Wang Yuankun had previously clashed.

With a sweep of his divine sense, he detected the lingering fluctuations from the battle.

“An array? It must have been set up instantaneously. He likely possesses an array flag capable of slaying Kun’er—a feat requiring at least a third-rank grand array. Let’s see where you’ve gone.”

He produced a mirror and performed a hand seal with both hands.

In the next moment, the scene froze. Qin Shu transformed into a gentle breeze and dissipated, leaving no trace behind or indication of his direction.

“A wind escape technique! Quite sophisticated,” Wang Shuangjiang mused, his eyes narrowing slightly. His divine sense radiated outward in all directions, forming images from the fluctuations of spiritual energy within the world around him.

Within these visions, faint traces of wind elemental spiritual energy coalesced into a discernible pathway.

“He continued eastward?”

Without delay, Wang Shuangjiang himself became a gust of wind, pursuing along the mental map etched in his mind.

Meanwhile, Qin Shu had been traveling via Wind Escape for an unknown duration when he suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of impending danger.

He immediately ceased his wind-based movement and ignited a fierce blaze around himself. Employing God of Fire Escape, he swiftly covered some distance before burrowing underground with Soil Escape.

After traversing thousands of kilometers beneath the earth, he emerged once more, summoned Flying Sand Sword, and soared into the sky using Metallic Escape.

En route, spotting a vast river stretching towards the heavens, he dove down and flowed effortlessly downstream using Water Escape.

Finally breaking free from the water’s embrace, he called forth Xiao Yan and took flight on her wings.

With this series of transformations, the sensation of imminent peril dissipated.

Initially, Wang Shuangjiang pursued his quarry with remarkable ease.

However, soon enough, the wind elemental spiritual energy trail that guided him mysteriously vanished at a certain point.

This threw him into disarray.

For what seemed like an eternity, he meticulously sifted through sensory data until discerning traces of fire attribute escape technique residue.

Thus, he continued his pursuit anew.

Yet again, not long after, the trail went cold.

Drawing upon his previous experience, he conducted another thorough scan. His gaze fixed on the ground as he gritted his teeth, exclaiming, “Soil Escape—truly a mastermind!”

The entire underground was permeated with earth elemental spiritual energy; his clues had gone cold.

He had no idea where Qin Shu could have gone.

Qin Shu kept changing direction, not even knowing himself where he wanted to go.

“Aaaaaahhh!” Wang Shuangjiang roared at the sky, “Little beast, don’t let this elder find you!”

“Sneeze!” Sitting on Xiao Yan’s back, Qin Shu couldn’t help but sneeze. “Looks like someone’s cursing me.”

“Who’s cursing my master? When Xiao Yan grows a bit more, I’ll help you beat him up,” came the tender voice from Xiao Yan.

Qin Shu patted its back and said with a smile, “Well then, Master will rely on you for protection in the future.”

“It’s all taken care of by Xiao Yan. I’m about to break through soon, and when that happens, I’ll protect my master.”

“Great!” Qin Shu responded with a laugh.

The misty clouds around them rapidly receded as they now traveled over twenty times faster than the speed of sound.

Before long, they caught sight of an enormous mountain range soaring into the heavens ahead.

“Xiao Yan, stop here. Let me see where we’ve ended up.”