Chapter 306: Fleeing for Survival

Feng Sha was also at the late Golden Core stage. If he truly wanted to escape, aside from the Yuan Ying Ancestor, even someone at the peak of the late Golden Core stage would be unable to stop him.
Just as he carved a bloody path through the encirclement, leading several disciples to break through and escape successfully, Feng Ying Ancestor on the other side seized the opportunity to make his escape as well.
“The ocean is boundless!”
Feng Ying specialized in water elements. Though the Arctic sea lacked spiritual energy, it still gave him a slight advantage. Leveraging the power of ocean tides and his own profound cultivation, he unleashed a water-based divine technique, creating a towering wave that surged toward Tai Wu.
The illusion of the giant wave was undoubtedly fake, but its immense force was very real.
Faced with such a powerful attack from a peer, even Tai Wu Ancestor had to avoid it for now—confronting it head-on would only result in mutual destruction.
Whoosh!
Tai Wu was forced back hundreds of feet, realizing in shock, “Is this bastard trying to escape?”
Seizing this chance, Feng Ying transformed into a streak of light, ready to flee.
“Feng Ying, where do you think you’re going?”
Tai Wu, filled with fury, rushed after him.
“No more playing with you—time to go!”
Feng Ying held the massive treasure in his left hand, laughing maniacally. With his water-based skills giving him an edge over the sea, Tai Wu surely couldn’t catch up.
“Die!”
Tai Wu wouldn’t let him escape so easily. In an instant, his divine sword flew out, using sword-swinging techniques to strike at Feng Ying’s back.
This wasn’t some divine technique but the simplest and most direct form of sword-swinging. Yet it was also the strongest attack a cultivator could unleash with the help of magical weapons.
Feng Ying Ancestor remained calm, planning to use defensive techniques to withstand the attack. He could even use Tai Wu’s sword’s force to accelerate his flight.
But then, something utterly shocking happened.
Bang!
The massive treasure in his hands suddenly expanded, growing from the size of a palm back to a giant palace hundreds of feet tall.
If it had grown larger, could Feng Ying, holding it, also grow?
Of course not!
Feng Ying was human, not a Witch Clan member who could transform into a giant. Caught off guard, he was sent flying backward like a ball due to the treasure’s extreme defensive power and explosive expansion force.
“Why?”
The defensive techniques he had planned to use vanished along with the treasure’s powerful rebound and impact. Shock, confusion, astonishment, and disbelief overwhelmed him, drowning his thoughts entirely.

From a peak to a sudden abyss, such a drastic drop is unbearable for anyone. In that instant, Feng Ying completely forgot that behind him was an elite spiritual treasure-level Taiwu Divine Blade, carrying the immense wrath of Taiwu the Ancestor, charging at him with great force.
“Rich Man, why treat me like this?” Feng Ying cried out to the sky, his eyes filled with despair.
Thud!
The Taiwu Divine Blade pierced through his back.
Swish!
With a successful strike, the blade traced an arc in the air before returning to Taiwu’s hands. Yet, this sudden change left Taiwu the Ancestor stunned as well.
“Didn’t Rich Man acknowledge him as his master? How could he turn on him so suddenly? Could it be…”
With his rich experience, Taiwu realized that both he and Feng Ying had been deceived—played by a mere magical artifact!
Whoosh whoosh whoosh…
Rich Man changed direction, flying toward the western end of North Wasteland Island, for in his mind, his true master was waiting for him at Eagle Beak Cliff there.
“Rich Man…”
Watching Rich Man drift farther away, Taiwu the Ancestor in mid-air was heartbroken beyond measure…
No, not just heartbroken—he had already…
Crash!
Like a crystal statue carved with expressions of grief and fury being completely shattered, Taiwu the Ancestor disintegrated into countless glittering fragments, falling toward North Wasteland Island below.
One of those fragments still held his gaze, filled with complex emotions—grief, shock, resentment, confusion. This gaze conveyed all the emotions of his last moment, yet few in the world could truly understand it.
Huh, huh, huh…
As that gaze tumbled downward, it landed on a rock on North Wasteland Island and shattered into pieces, leaving nothing behind.
A Yuan Ying-level ancestor who had once looked down upon all others perished thus, even his inner Yuan Ying failing to escape in time, also turning into crystal fragments and shattering.
In the high skies, Taiwu the Ancestor couldn’t bother to collect Feng Ying’s body. Though that dead man’s storage ring held all the treasures and wealth of the Fengmo Hall—a large sect—it was still less than one ten-thousandth of Rich Man’s palace’s wealth.
Taiwu had no choice but to chase after the fleeing Rich Man.
The flight speed of top-tier Dao artifacts was indescribable—just a few dozen miles could be covered in an instant. The pursuing Taiwu the Ancestor was shocked to see a cloud in the distant sky suddenly dissipate, revealing two figures.
Rich Man was clearly flying toward them.
“Who are they? Who is hiding here?”

A thunderous roar erupted in Tai Wu’s heart. Only then did he truly realize that just now, he and Feng Ying had played the pitiful and ridiculous roles of the heron and the clam. Su Che and True Man Hua Guang appeared, warmly welcoming the arrival of the giant treasure. Whoosh! The gates of the Giant Treasure Palace opened like the maw of a flying beast, swallowing Su Che and Hua Guang in one gulp. Without pause, it rushed forward at incredible speed. “Who is plotting against us?” “Stop it!” Such a scene shattered Tai Wu’s mind completely, as if his entire family—wife, children, elders—had betrayed him all at once, and far more was lost in an instant. “No! No one can take the Giant Treasure from me, absolutely not!” Ancestor Tai Wu wielded the Divine Blade of Tai Wu, moving at the fastest speed of his life, desperately chasing after the giant treasure. Swish! Swish! Even top-tier Dao artifacts and Yuan Ying cultivators moved at extreme speeds; in the blink of an eye, they vanished. The more than 200 Tai Yi Gate cultivators on Beihuang Island could only watch helplessly as they disappeared into the horizon, with no one able to keep up. Fast as lightning, covering thousands of miles in an instant! Yet, it was clear that Ancestor Tai Wu was even faster, and the distance between them was gradually shrinking. This was because the Giant Treasure wasn’t a flying magic artifact to begin with. Moreover, magic artifacts serve cultivators and must be manually controlled and activated to unleash their full power. According to basic principles of the cultivation world, a top-tier Dao artifact requires at least the Cultivation Phase of Transcending Gods to achieve its maximum power. In the later stages of Yuan Ying, only 80% of its power can be utilized; in the middle stages, 70%; and in the early stages, 60%. At this moment, since it was merely the autonomous action of the treasure’s spirit, achieving 40% of its power was already quite impressive. Inside the palace, Su Che felt complete darkness around him—his vision and consciousness were both disabled; he couldn’t see anything, just like a blind man. The same was true for Lao He in the Immortal Prison. So, Su Che sent a message to True Man Hua Guang, asking, “Elder, I can’t see anything. How about you?” “I can see,” True Man Hua Guang replied firmly. “Right now, we are on the outer square of the Giant Treasure Palace. This square is quite large, at least ten li in length and width…” Hearing this answer, Su Che understood that in the Giant Treasure’s perception, Hua Guang was its relative, while he was merely an outsider. That’s why it blocked its vision, leaving him as if blind. Lao He, however, was utterly unwilling to accept this, shouting, “Impossible! The Immortal Prison Pagoda must be more advanced than this. How can it block my detection abilities?”

“This isn’t about being high-end or not,” Su Che analyzed. “This is its internal space, and everything is determined by it. On the contrary, if a wealthy person enters the Immortal Prison, they might even be swallowed by it.”

Lao He responded, feeling much better after that.

In fact, Su Che had already made many guesses about the rank of the Immortal Prison Pagoda: it must be an extremely special spatial magic artifact that is still in the process of development. It could almost certainly not be used to fight enemies and lacked external offensive capabilities… As for its external defensive capabilities, it was also difficult to determine for now.

Yet its internal space was incredibly miraculous and mysterious. Even many Dao artifacts known to Su Che from ancient texts paled in comparison to the wonders within the Immortal Prison. Therefore, the Immortal Prison Pagoda was undoubtedly a treasure far surpassing Dao artifacts—only, it was still growing, and many of its secrets had yet to be uncovered.

Of course, now was not the time to discuss the Immortal Prison. Su Che could only remind True Man Huaguang, “Elder, you must tell the spirit of the wealthy person not to fly south—that area belongs to the Taiyi Sect.”

“Yes, I’ve already said that,” True Man Huaguang replied in a low voice. “It’s flying east now, but the wealthy person is slower than Tai Wu, so he will soon be caught up.”

Su Che responded, having no immediate solution other than to wait and see.

After about fifteen minutes of chasing and fleeing, Tai Wu caught up to the wealthy person and matched his speed, then unleashed a furious strike.

Tai Wu’s Divine Blade served as his flying magic artifact. Although he didn’t use his strongest artifact in this strike, all the anger, humiliation, and frustration from being deceived and mocked earlier were vented through it. The power of this strike was no less than that of the Heaven-Shattering Slash unleashed by the Divine Blade.

Whoosh…

A crimson spiral of energy rushed toward the wealthy person’s right side.

Unwilling to take such a powerful strike for nothing, the wealthy person instantly shrank into a size too small to see with the naked eye, trying to dodge the spiral energy.

But the spiral energy was still under Tai Wu’s control. Even as it adjusted its direction, it still hit the tiny form of the wealthy person accurately.

Boom!

Inside the wealthy person’s palace, both Su Che and the other person felt a distinct shock. Yet the wealthy person lived up to his reputation as one of the best defensive treasures in the Qi Yuan Star’s cultivation world—he endured the strike unharmed, changed direction, and continued to flee.

“If you let him escape, I, Tai Wu, will have lived in vain!”

Tai Wu’s fierce nature became fully apparent; he no longer possessed the magnanimous heart to subdue others with virtue. Relying on his speed advantage, he caught up again and launched another brutal attack.
Boom!
Inside the Palace of the Rich, Su Che and Master Hua Guang were both shaken to their core.
Just as they managed to stabilize themselves, boom! Another impact followed.
“Just taking hits passively isn’t going to work!”
Su Che’s consciousness was under control, and everything before his eyes turned dark. His anxiety at this moment was even greater than that of Master Hua Guang.