Chapter 522: Chapter 522. Invisible Stalker
Amon stood over a land filled with white sand. It was a world with an open field. One could see far in the distance. The only thing that obstructed the view were giant white bones protruding from the sand. These bones were sparsely placed, so they weren’t truly obstructions.
They had entered this trial stage almost two days ago. As usual, they spread out to increase the chance of them finding the exit points and the key.
"Everyone, I found the correct exit point. It is a deep well with a bottom filled with raging fire." Amon heard Huang San’s words inside his mind.
They were in a world filled with the Earth elements. They were looking for the exit point marked by fire elements, and a key of wood elements.
"Good. Yang Li, bring the key to His Highness’ location," Amon commanded.
They had already found the key earlier. It was one of the giant bones spread all around the land.
Amon realized the bones were unusual after he touched one of them. Its feel was nothing like a bone. The thing he touched was more akin to metal. When he went to touch another bone, he discovered it was made of special colored ice. If one only relied on sight, one could not tell these bones were made of different materials.
From that experience, he realized the key should be one of these bones. He asked everyone to touch every giant bone they encountered during their search. Thanks to that instruction, they didn’t miss the key, which was indeed one of the bones. The bone was made of white wood. Yang Li only knew it was wood when she touched the bone using her hand.
Despite the bone being gigantic, Yang Li had no problem lifting it out of the sand. She was only waiting for the location of the exit point.
After Huang San found the correct exit point, everyone headed there, including Amon. On his way, his danger sense suddenly blared. He zoomed away just as something burst out of the sand. This something turned out to be a human who was wielding a claw weapon.
The human seemed surprised that his ambush failed. He said, "Colonel Amon, aren’t you? I have heard how it is impossible to sneak on you. It seems the news isn’t exaggerated."
"... You are Gan Zhang," Amon said. He memorized all the participants. Gan Zhang was Prince Huang Zhan’s follower. He looked at the sand around him while floating higher. "You have a good concealment art. Are your teammates inside the ground as well?"
"No, only I can move fast inside the ground thanks to my burrowing arcane art," Gan Zhang answered. "But they are on their way here."
"That is good to know," Amon said.
"Good to know? Why would it be good to..."
Gan Zhang didn’t finish his sentence because Amon had lunged toward him. He slashed forward using his claw weapon. He didn’t fear direct clash. He was a Peak Mystic Stage, while Amon was an Intermediate Mystic Stage.
However, once their weapon collided with one another, he knew he had made a mistake. His claw weapon broke from first contact. Amon’s ceremonial dagger resumed its path and sliced through his hand. Thankfully, his reflex was good. He jumped away before the black dagger could cut his head.
The pain of losing his hand was overwhelming, but his attention remained on the battle. He saw Amon throw the black dagger away. The dagger was tied to a yellow cloth, and they snaked around as if alive. He quickly burrowed into the sand before the dagger struck him.
Amon couldn’t sense Gan Zhang’s aura, especially under the white sand. He again flew up to put a distance between him and the sand.
Half of Gan Zhang’s head popped out from the sand. His eyes were staring at Amon.
"No wonder you were bestowed the rank of Colonel at such a young age," Gan Zhang said. "You are even stronger than most Peak Mystic Stage cultivators I know."
"Are you going to keep hiding inside the sand like a mole?" Amon asked. He intentionally made his tone sound as contemptuous as possible.
Gan Zhang didn’t take the bait, though. He stayed under the sand. "I already know I can’t win after our clash just now. Don’t worry. Someone who can defeat you will come soon enough."
When Amon was about to leave, Gan Zhang said, "Don’t think that you can escape from me. My speed underground is not slower than my flying speed."
Amon didn’t take Gan Zhang at his word. He flew away with his fastest speed. He looked back and saw Gan Zhang’s head was no longer visible. The guy had burrowed back into the ground. He looked at the expansive sand under him. There was no movement on the sand. Gan Zhang’s arcane art allowed him to move underground without disturbing the surface. He couldn’t tell if Gan Zhang was truly keeping up with him.
Amon couldn’t fly too high. Like other trial stages, there was a ceiling limit. This stage’s ceiling limit was ten meters high, which meant he was within reach of Gan Zhang’s burst attack if Gan Zhang performed an ambush.
Amon didn’t stop. He continued moving. Gan Zhang’s team could track his location, but it would make it harder for them to catch up if he continued moving. Also, he was moving away from Huang San’s location. After he was ambushed, he immediately notified everyone else.
He told Yang Li to hurry toward Huang San’s location. He told Xin Wuming to head toward Yang Li and protect her in case the enemy found her. If they found him instead, he was to change direction and lead the enemy away from Yang Li and Huang San. As for An Guan and Wu Di, he told them to come to him.
What they relied on was to complete this stage and escape, just like when they met Princess Huang Er’s team. They didn’t have the manpower to survive a direct clash with Huang Zhan’s team.
Amon saw someone approaching from the direction he was heading to. It was another enemy because he knew from his team’s mental connection that none of his allies were nearby.
Amon turned in another direction, but the ground beneath him suddenly burst. He sensed the incoming danger and dodged Gan Zhang’s attack in time. His ceremonial dagger went for Gan Zhang, but Gan Zhang was also prepared. The guy didn’t directly clash with his dagger again. Gan Zhang somersaulted to dodge his dagger before diving back into the sand.
Gan Zhang did that several more times. Amon understood what Gan Zhang was doing. His disruption caused Amon to be unable to fly fast. Amon used his needles to chase Gan Zhang after he left the sand, but Gan Zhang easily deflected them. His needles were even weaker than his usual flying knives. Its advantage was that they were hard to see, but this advantage was nullified for Mystic Stage cultivators who could sense aura. Amon couldn’t stop Gan Zhang from diving back into the sand.
Without being able to fly higher or strike Gan Zhang inside the sand, there was nothing much Amon could do. The enemy finally caught up.
Amon identified this new enemy as Gan Xi, Gan Zhang’s cousin. He was an Intermediate Mystic Stage cultivator carrying a heavy mace.
Gan Zhang’s head popped out of the sand. He told Gan Xi, "Cousin, be careful of his black dagger. That weapon is unusual. Don’t clash directly with him."
"Hm, thank you for the heads-up," Gan Xi replied. He placed his hand on his large mace and the weapon was slowly covered with a golden layer. Amon recognized the art as Gold Enhancement, the same arcane art Yan Wang used.
Gan Xi started spinning with his golden mace extending forward. The spinning picked up in speed until he turned into a golden hurricane. This golden hurricane moved toward Amon.
Amon threw his ceremonial dagger, but it was deflected after clashing with the golden hurricane. When Amon was about to move away, Gan Zhang performed his burst ambush.
Like before, the burst ambush failed to hit Amon, but it forced Amon to dodge in the direction of the golden hurricane. Amon grabbed his ceremonial dagger directly and slashed the golden hurricane. The resulting impact threw Amon off-balance. Gan Zhang burst out again then. Amon was forced to use his left arm to block.
While Amon seemed to lose the clash with Gan Xi, the golden hurricane itself recoiled slightly from the impact. Gan Xi was secretly shocked. He never encountered an enemy with the same cultivation level who could knock him back when he was using this martial art.
"Hmph! I suppose I have lured you far enough," Amon muttered. He took a chance after dodging his two enemies to perform the body-strengthening meridian points technique. He also activated the Great Virulent Serpent.
With his power skyrocketing, he performed another direct clash with the golden hurricane. This time, the hurricane did not just recoil. It was annihilated. Gan Xi stopped spinning. His golden mace couldn’t withstand the impact. Although it was not broken, it flew out of Gan Xi’s grip.