Chapter 1 Gu Xiaoman's Choice

Gu Xiaoman silently clenched her fist.

Xidaer's sword was sharper than she had imagined.

Judging from their brief exchange, the Yun Hu and Xuan Gui candidates were at least at the Deep Sea eighth layer. Those who could inherit the position of Divine Envoy were by no means mediocre. It was highly likely that these two had completed a Transcendence at the third tier…

Two against one, she couldn't win.

She had to escape.

As soon as the thought took root, Gu Xiaoman instantly took a step forward. She once again dashed towards Dong Seyue, who was surrounded by ink wash paintings, with one hand behind her back, faintly gathering strength.

The latter chuckled softly, seeing everything in her eyes. She didn't confront her head-on, but chose to retreat again.

In Dong Seyue's view, no matter what trump cards Gu Xiaoman had.

The situation had already formed a siege!

She didn't need to confront her head-on, nor did she need to expend her own strength. It would be bad if she was careless and Gu Xiaoman escaped… At this moment, she only needed to ensure that she trapped the target.

As for the hard and tiring work, the sword fanatic who only knew how to kill would naturally do it!

But as soon as Dong Seyue took a step back, her heart skipped a beat, and she sensed something was wrong.

The scene of two figures chasing each other in the air, one advancing and one retreating, did not appear.

Gu Xiaoman paused, only taking a heavy step, pretending to lunge at Dong Seyue, then immediately changed direction, turning around and colliding with Xidaer behind her.

After their brief exchange.

She had already figured out the personalities of these two Divine Envoy candidates.

If she wanted to break through before the Enforcers arrived and create an opening… the best choice was not the seemingly weak Dong Seyue, but Xidaer, who was obsessed with head-on attacks!

Sure enough!

Faced with Gu Xiaoman's sharp attack, Xidaer advanced instead of retreating. He held his sword in his backhand, and a wisp of slender lightning clung to the blade, instantly slashing down—

Gu Xiaoman glanced at the position of her wrist, a trace of reluctance flashed in her eyes…

The Leiming Hand Zhu (Thunderclap Beads) shimmered with a faint luster.

There were seven beads in this string. They were extremely destructive. Although Gu Xiaoman told Bai Xiu that she was doing well in the Source Tower when they reunited at Frozen Lake, the truth was that they both knew the real situation without having to say it out loud.

Qing Long, the Sky God Seat, concealed Gu Xiaoman's true identity and aroused the jealousy of the Divine Envoys under her command through Divine Scrolls.

Qing Long didn't need to show her face, and pieces were willing to sit down.

Gu Xiaoman had encountered many assassinations in these five years, both openly and secretly, narrowly escaping death. This was also why she was so skilled at dealing with the assassination at Frozen Lake.

She had long been accustomed to such days. This was a necessary ordeal in the path of the Lord of Wine's growth.

The two Leiming Hand Zhu that were missing had also been used in previous assassinations.

But this time the situation…

Was more severe than any previous time!

Gu Xiaoman had no chance to hesitate. If she couldn't break through the encirclement laid by Dong Seyue and Xidaer at this moment, then what awaited her would be a joint attack from dozens of Enforcers. That would be a real dead end!

Maybe if she dragged it on for a while, Yun Hu and Xuan Gui would arrive in person!

She took a deep breath, and finally gritted her teeth, pulling out all of the Leiming Hand Zhu that Bai Xiu had given her.

"Boom boom boom boom boom!"

Five overlapping thunderclap explosions instantly erupted on the ice field.

Dong Seyue, who had just stopped and wanted to counterattack, saw this scene and her pupils suddenly contracted. She quickly stopped her forward momentum and retreated again in a very embarrassed manner!

The power of this sudden explosion was extremely powerful!

The five thunderclaps detonated one after another, and several arcs of electricity even swept across Dong Seyue's cheek, causing a crackling sound—

Countless snow dust splattered and swayed, obscuring half of the sky.

Dong Seyue felt lingering fear. She didn't dare to step directly into the range of the snow dust that still had static electricity. Soon, the Enforcers arrived.

"Where is Gu Xiaoman?"

After arriving, a woman in red hurriedly asked.

This person was Hong Lin, who had fought Gu Xiaoman once in Yun Hu's hall before. After that fight, Yun Hu seemed angry and gave her a warning punishment, but after the meeting, he personally gave her an award, not only healing her injuries, but also bestowing her with a sealed item, allowing Hong Lin to go south to sea with him.

Dong Seyue said faintly, "She escaped."

"Escaped?"

Another young candidate wearing golden exoskeleton armor frowned as he looked at the scattered snow dust in front of him. He waved his hand. The snow dust obscured his vision, making it impossible to see the distant scenery. "We rushed here as soon as we received the message. How long has it been?"

"Dong Seyue, it's fortunate that Lord Xuan Gui praised you for your extraordinary talent and potential to become the next Divine Envoy. But you can't even deal with a child who is just over ten years old?"

Dong Seyue looked at the golden-armored youth stepping into the snow dust while scolding her with a smile on her face.

The next moment—

"Snap!"

A static electricity explosion sounded.

The golden-armored youth felt something was wrong, but it was too late. The residual power of the Leiming Hand Zhu still existed. Countless arcs of electricity wandering in the void were gradually dissipating while searching for a target to release on. At this moment, the golden-armored youth stepped in, and these arcs of electricity gathered together, instantly erupting on the golden armor.

Countless lightning lights detonated, and the golden-armored youth was blasted out of the snow dust-covered barrier, directly passing out.

This scene made Hong Lin's expression become a little ugly.

The Central Continent geniuses who arrived later also fell silent when they saw this scene.

"Just a reminder, the hunt for Gu Xiaoman is inherently a matter of whoever gets there first… Lords Yun Hu and Xuan Gui don't care about the process, only the result. So everyone relies on their own abilities. If there are any mistakes, no one has the right to blame anyone."

Dong Seyue said lightly, "I have no obligation to help you delay Gu Xiaoman."

"Also…"

"The ambush just now was not just me alone."

She pointed to the inside where the snow dust was flying, and said casually, "Xidaer is faster than me. You can see his situation for yourselves."

Everyone looked at each other. There was another person in this snow dust and lightning storm?

But everyone had seen what happened to the golden-armored candidate before.

No one dared to step into the snow dust.

"Ka… Ka…"

After a few seconds of silence, slight footsteps actually sounded from within the lightning storm covered by snow dust!

After a while, a slightly hunched and tall figure, leaning on a long sword, slowly walked out of the lightning storm. Xidaer, dressed in white, was still surrounded by constantly bursting arcs of electricity. He looked quite embarrassed at the moment. There were dozens of large and small cuts on his body, but the blood had been burned dry by the high temperature.

"He's not dead yet. He has a big life."

No one dared to laugh. Only Dong Seyue dared to joke like that.

"…"

Xidaer just silently looked at the Ying Hai woman, too lazy to say anything. He silently propped up his sword and left.

During this Divine Envoy trial, Xidaer gave people the strongest sense of oppression. Where he was, it would often become very silent, and depressing.

It wasn't until after he left that the atmosphere became a little more relaxed.

Hong Lin stopped Dong Seyue, who was about to turn around and leave, and asked with a complicated expression, "Just now… what happened?"

"Do I have an obligation to tell you?"

Dong Seyue said with a smile. She took out a hairpin and pinned up her hair that reached the ground little by little, making her whole person's temperament become much cleaner and neater.

Hong Lin was speechless.

This hunt for Gu Xiaoman was a competition between Divine Envoy candidates. It was normal not to share such key information.

"Oh, I remember."

She looked at Hong Lin and said with a smile, "You are a competitor under Yun Hu. Your final opponent is Xidaer…"

Hong Lin was stunned.

"Actually, it doesn't matter if I tell you, or even tell all of you."

Dong Seyue stretched out two fingers and gestured before saying indifferently, "That commotion was created by Gu Xiaoman. She threw out a few small beads, um, about this big… If Xidaer wasn't a lightning-type transcendent, he should have lost his ability to fight again like that guy who passed out, right?"

"A few small beads almost killed Xidaer?"

Everyone who arrived here changed their expressions after hearing this, especially those low-level Enforcers.

How could they withstand such an attack?

"So everyone… the reward for hunting Gu Xiaoman is great, but you also have to weigh your own strength. It may not be a good thing if you encounter her first next time."

Dong Seyue fiddled with her hairpin, as if stretching her body and stretching her waist, revealing her graceful waist. She didn't turn her head, just lightly left a sentence.

"Who knows how many treasures like those beads she still has in her hand?"

……

……

Far away in the snowfield, there were snow-capped mountains that no one had ever reached.

At the foot of the mountain, there was a damaged cave entrance, which was extremely narrow. Even Gu Xiaoman could only barely pass through, but the inside was still quite wide.

She took off her black cloak, hung it up, and then started a fire.

The firelight reflected a pale little face.

Gu Xiaoman tore open her black shirt and took a deep breath. She clenched her left forearm hard with her right hand.

Blood spread, dyeing her entire arm red.

The sound of crackling thunder exploded in her flesh, and this excruciating pain almost spread to her bone marrow.

But she didn't utter a sound…

Gu Xiaoman used her mental power to take out a withered wooden branch. This was a sealed item used to heal injuries.

"Buzz!"

The withered wooden branch slowly floated.

Strands of green light emanated from the wooden branch, drilling into her flesh, repairing her skin, and relieving the excruciating pain.

Gu Xiaoman closed her eyes, responding to the scene of escaping from the snowfield.

Xidaer was a real madman.

At the moment when the Leiming Hand Zhu detonated, he actually advanced instead of retreating.

He was willing to withstand five thunder explosions in order to stab her with his sword!

The final result was naturally a lose-lose situation.

Her injuries would probably need a period of recuperation to fully recover, and Xidaer… wasn't much better than her.

Gu Xiaoman leaned against the boulder, breathing heavily, and running the breathing technique to gradually restore peace to her mind.

The blood had stopped flowing.

But… this didn't mean that her left arm had returned to its original state.

The Hundred Explosion Finger Tiger couldn't be used for a short time.

The current situation was very bad. Hiding in this place, Gu Xiaoman didn't feel safe. Her mental intuition told her that it wouldn't be long before someone came looking for her again.

Regarding this…

She couldn't figure it out.

Gu Xiaoman had long sensed that there were hidden dangers in this mission, so she deliberately waited on the cloud ship for a long time, waiting until everyone had completely left before setting off.

Moreover, she never forgot to eliminate her traces along the way.

Logically speaking, acting so cautiously wouldn't allow her to be discovered by anyone.

But how did Dong Seyue and Xidaer find her?

And those Enforcers who came one after another… There was no Deep Sea link here. How did they lock onto her?