Deep within the dense forest, Marquis Ying was looking down at Long Chen’s tracks. His expression was so dark that it was frightening. That was because he had realized Long Chen was extremely crafty. Sometimes he would purposely leave footprints to mislead him.
He would follow those footprints and find that any trace of Long Chen completely disappeared after a while. With his tracks completely disappearing, it meant that Long Chen must have backtracked into a previous location and once more fled in a different direction.
These footprints were purposely a bit more clear to intentionally let Marquis Ying see them. Now he would have to go back and spend even more time searching for where Long Chen had split off into a different direction.
Marquis Ying was completely infuriated. Long Chen was too cunning. Sometimes, the footprints he left behind intentionally would actually be the direction he went, so Marquis Ying couldn’t even rule that out.
In order to tell his true direction, Marquis Ying had no choice but to patiently follow along slowly. He could sense Long Chen wasn’t that far, but he was unable to find him. He was so angry that his lungs felt like they were about to explode.
A whole day had already passed since they had entered the forest. Marquis Ying was starting to get impatient. However, he also had no way around this. He could only continue searching for his tracks.
In this manner, the two of them continued playing hide-and-seek in the endless forest. Although Long Chen had a slight advantage at this time, he didn’t dare to be the slightest bit overconfident.
If Long Chen wanted to, he would actually able to quickly break away from Marquis Ying’s pursuit. However, he refused to do that. He only continued to keep Marquis Ying at a distance of five miles.
That was the perfect distance from which a Tendon Transformation expert could sense an enemy in the vicinity, but would be unable to pinpoint that enemy’s location. This was done intentionally by Long Chen.
After sending Long Chen to kill Xia Changfeng, the fourth prince had sent Marquis Ying to kill him. This meant the fourth prince was no longer worried about his father.
In other words, the entire Long household was in danger. He had to continue this in order to stall Marquis Ying. One reason for this stalling was that as long as Wilde was doing what he had told him, he would quickly return to the capital.
Wilde would bring his household’s people to the alchemist guild. With his relationship to grandmaster Yun Qi, he would definitely not ignore them. At that time, even the fourth prince would have to reconsider whether he should make any moves against them.
The other reason was that if Marquis Ying continued not to return to the capital, the fourth prince who hadn’t received a report of his death would definitely not attack the Long household.
That was why Long Chen continued to risk his life to hold Marquis Ying up. It was also why he had no other options. He had to do this.
He carefully continued advancing. Long Chen suddenly saw a huge tree with a fist-sized beetle on it.
Seeing that beetle, Long Chen’s eyes brightened. He recognized that beetle as the ‘horned bull beetle’. That was because it had a horn on its nose that was just like a bull’s horn.
This was a very mildly tempered beetle. Its movements were especially slow. But it shouldn’t be underestimated for being small. Its strength was actually shocking.
Just such a small beetle was capable of moving ten to twenty pounds. He smiled, “Hehe, little guy, help me out a bit.”
Ignoring its outrage, Long Chen picked up the little beetle and placed it into his robes. Once more advancing another mile, he found a good location and stopped.
He took out a thin thread from his spatial ring. That was black silk, and despite its thinness, it was extremely sturdy. Just one thread of it could withstand half a ton of force. Most adventurers would also keep a bit of it on hand.
Whether it was to use as a rope or to make a snare, it was extremely convenient. The most popular thing about it was that it was made from black silkworms that were raised by humans, so it could be bought cheaply.
Long Chen looked around and nodded in approval. The black silk’s color was not easy to notice against the background.
He found a short bush around the size of an egg and gently pushed on it, feeling a good elasticity. He lightly twined the black silk around the bush.
By tying it back with the black silk, the bush was just like an arm ready to pitch. Once it lost the force of the black silk, it would immediately shoot forward.
Long Chen did all of this extremely carefully. The slightest mistake might make a large enough noise to attract Marquis Ying.
But thinking about the result of this trap if it worked, this little danger was definitely worth it.
He finished setting up his ‘slingshot’. Looking around the vicinity, he saw both sides were covered by thorny thistles and there was only one straight path through this area.
While people were rushing, they would naturally choose the easiest path. So this was the ideal spot to place the trigger.
Putting up several obstacles around his slingshot to protect it, he confirmed the distance. No matter how Marquis Ying arrived, he would definitely step upon a certain root.
He took out the horned beetle and bound one of its legs with the black silk. Placing it on top of a large tree, the beetle began to slowly crawl, but it wasn’t randomly crawling around. It was crawling up to a spot ten meters up on the tree.
That was because Long Chen had placed a petal from a Butterfly Orchid there. That was a kind of medicinal ingredient. That petal contained a very rich sweetness.
It was also the favorite food of the horned bull beetle. Although that petal was half withered, with the beetle’s amazing sense of smell, it immediately noticed it and began to crawl over to it with all its might.
Its speed was extremely slow though. It only managed to reach there after the time it took for an incense stick to burn.
But just as it was preparing to eat its favorite food, Long Chen picked up the pitiful fellow and pulled it away.
Long Chen made some calculations and tied a knot over the beetle, keeping it in place. That knot had a small loop in it. If that loop was touched, then the knot would immediately loosen, releasing it.
After carefully setting up all these preparations, he placed a small stone on the other side of the black silk. He confirmed everything was set.
Once the beetle crawled up to the Butterfly Orchid’s petal, it would activate and release the knot, causing the stone to fall to the ground.
Long Chen once more looked over his trap from start to end. A strange smile appeared on his face. He found a large leaf and then sneakily hid behind a large tree.
He watched for a moment as the beetle continued according to its original route, crawling towards the petal. But due to it now pulling along a stone, its speed had slowed down a bit.
Long Chen nodded and quietly retreated. Now there was only one tiny crucial item remaining. As for whether the trap would succeed, that would depend on Marquis Ying. He stealthily disappeared deeper into the forest.
An hour later, Marquis Ying, who was searching for any of Long Chen’s tracks, suddenly heard a strange sound, the sound of a stone rolling.
That sound was extremely quiet, but within the keen listening ears of Marquis Ying, it was practically a thunderclap.
Marquis Ying didn’t even think about it before rushing over. He was just like a wild gale, and three or four miles was instantly traversed.
That sound had definitely not been natural. He knew it was the sound of someone accidentally tripping on a stone.
Within this silent forest, other than him, the only one who would make such a noise was Long Chen.
Thinking of Long Chen, flames of fury rose inside him. Last night, he hadn’t gotten the slightest bit of sleep and hadn’t even had time to rest his wounds.
Those damn beasts had become enraged and continuously attacked him. Although they were unable to pose any danger to him, they had troubled his internal injury.
It was impossible for a medicinal pill alone to completely heal his injury. He had to combine it with spiritual qi in order to recover. But he hadn’t had any time or opportunity to do so.
He was forced into being unable to maintain his peak combat ability, causing him to feel a great sense of unease. So he urgently needed to kill Long Chen and return to the capital to recover.
In just a couple of breaths’ time, Marquis Ying arrived at where the sound had come from, but there was no sign of Long Chen anywhere. Under a tree was the rock that had made the noise, and it seemed the rock had writings on it.
Marquis Ying looked over the surroundings and his expression became ugly when he saw no sign of Long Chen. He knew that he had most likely been played.
He slowly walked over to that rock, wanting to know what Long Chen had wanted to show him. He had just walked a couple of steps when he suddenly stepped on a string that activated the short bush not far from him. A ball of something wrapped in a green leaf shot towards him.
Marquis Ying coldly laughed and raised his sword, slicing that ball in half.
“Hmph, you little insec-”
He hadn’t expected that the moment his sword touched that ball, the ball exploded, filling the air with juice.
Due to that happening so fast and being so close, Marquis Ying was unable to get away in time and was completely drenched by that juice. An incomparably disgusting smell filled the air.
Some of it had also gotten into his mouth, so now his mouth was also full of that disgusting stench. Marquis Ying hastily retreated, his first thought being that it was poison.
But although that thing had been incomparably disgusting, it didn’t have traces of poison in it. His spiritual qi was circulating completely normally.
Now that he had time, he noticed that the rock on the ground had flipped over to reveal the following words:
“Just a small gift which is unworthy of you. Originally, I wanted to send you a large lump, but recently my stomach hasn’t been feeling well. Please forgive my helplessness.”
Looking at the words, Marquis Ying’s face suddenly turned completely white. Looking at the sticky residue left on his clothes, his stomach began to heave and he vomited.
“LONG CHEN!!!”
Marquis Ying’s incredibly angry roar practically blew apart the clouds above him. It caused the entire forest to shake, and countless birds and beasts were frightened into flight.
Long Chen was on a distant tree watching those birds. He smiled heartily. He had finally released some of his anger at being chased like this.
Ever since that day, Marquis Ying’s face became even darker and Long Chen became even more careful, not daring to set up such a trap again.
If he ended up making a slight mistake when setting it up, he would definitely be doomed. That small trap had been to relieve his anger and to increase his self-confidence.
Since he had managed to do that, it wouldn’t be smart to set something like that up again. Only by being careful could he survive. He didn’t want his hard-worked advantage to be reversed.
One fled while one chased. Eight days quickly passed by. Over that time, Long Chen fled during the day and recuperated during the night after using all kinds of different techniques to hide from the wild beasts.
Due to the assistance of his medicinal pills, Long Chen’s recovery was extremely quick. His right hand’s meridians had almost completely recovered. His inner injuries had also nearly healed.
Ever since the first night where he had drawn over many beasts, Marquis Ying had become smarter and also rested during the night. He would jump up into a high tree, using the time to rest and heal his wounds. His efficiency was also very fast.
This continued up until the ninth day. Long Chen was crossing a small stream when he sensed a strange movement above his head.
Looking up, his expression greatly changed. Crap, I’m screwed.
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