Upon encountering a tree hollow, the night owls would also jump into the opening to check.
Under such a large-scale, interwoven sweep by the night owls, relying on their keen night vision, it was almost impossible for any hiding blind spots to exist on or under any tree they passed.
In the sky, on the ground, and in the water, a three-dimensional search was comprehensively launched.
Unaware of this, Yu Qing and Mu Aotie continued to hide while holding two Kunling Mountain disciples hostage.
After finding another suitable spot, Yu Qing woke up the other Kunling Mountain disciple for interrogation. The results proved that the previous one had not lied. However, these two were not high-ranking disciples, so their knowledge was limited, and it was not feasible to ask about various trivial details in their current situation.
Nevertheless, the known information allowed the two martial brothers to somewhat understand their current situation, at least knowing that their identities had not been exposed.
The real trouble was that Yu Qing was now hesitating over how to deal with these two Kunling Mountain disciples. Although the two martial brothers were masked, their body shapes were too obviously exposed during such close contact and communication. If they killed them to silence them and were subsequently caught, the nature of the crime would change entirely for having killed Kunling Mountain disciples.
Not killing them was bad, and killing them was also bad. What was the right course of action?
Seeing more people heading their way, Yu Qing poked the disciple with a finger to knock him out again and said to Mu Aotie, “With the spirit beast Fudi present, it is not suitable to stay long in this searched area. We must escape from this region as quickly as possible.”
Mu Aotie understood his meaning. Once the spirit beast Fudi joined the search, combined with the large number of search personnel, Old Fifteen would likely find no gaps to slip through anymore. However, regarding the two people in front of them, he had some doubts and asked, “What should we do with these two?”
Yu Qing also had a headache over this, but finally gritted his teeth and said, “Take them both with us for now and see if we can escape. If we can escape, we will talk about it then.”
Mu Aotie understood. If they could not escape, these two could not be harmed under any circumstances. He immediately picked up the two again and continued to flee behind Yu Qing.
This time, Yu Qing reduced the winding around and tried to break out in one direction as much as possible.
However, they had not run far when both martial brothers looked up. They saw a night owl swooping from the forest. This was nothing unusual, but strangely, this night owl hovered above them and followed the two fleeing men.
If it had only been this, it would have been fine, but the night owl happened to shriek “ya, ya, ya”, following them as it flew and emitting sharp cries.
Yu Qing casually grabbed a piece of bark from a large tree they passed and threw it out. With a whoosh, the flapping night owl above immediately crashed to the ground like a kite with a cut string, fluttered twice, and went still.
However, its sharp cry before death had already attracted several nearby night owls to swoop in rapidly, and the surrounding Kunling Mountain disciples also rushed towards the source of the cry.
With a rustle, Yu Qing quickly bent down, grabbed a handful of sand and gravel from the ground, and scattered it into the air like a goddess scattering flowers. It struck the branches above with a crackling sound, and the leaves were riddled with holes. Several arriving night owls successively fell to the ground with mournful cries. Some hit the ground and went still immediately, while others fluttered for a long time without dying.
Yu Qing did not kill them all. It was not that he did not want to, but that he was unwilling to waste time on these feathered beasts.
Things had come to this point, how could he not know that these night owls were coming for them? He had not expected that Kunling Mountain would actually resort to such methods just to catch them.
Moreover, his Observation Mantra had already clearly detected that nearby personnel were heading this way. How could he dare to waste time fussing over a few feathered beasts? Any slight delay would likely result in them being surrounded.
The two fled urgently and finally slipped out before the encirclement could form.
However, they had not been free for long before a dozen more night owls interwovenly searched this area. Yu Qing quickly gave Mu Aotie an instruction, randomly hid the two captive Kunling Mountain disciples in a pit, and waved his hand to sweep some leaves over them as cover.
The two pretended to be nonchalant as they strolled through the woods, but who knew that as soon as those night owls saw them, they immediately started shrieking “ya, ya, ya” again.
The test failed, and Yu Qing flew into a rage. “Damn you!”
His left hand scattered a large patch of sand and gravel, knocking down a group of night owls. His right hand immediately scattered another large patch of sand and gravel to follow up, directly taking down the entire flock of noisy night owls.
He also leapt into the air, rapidly rushed up to the tree canopy, and poked his head out to look around. He saw countless night owl figures fluttering in the moonlight, and his face turned green with anger.
He had just been wondering why there were so many night owls that could not be killed off. Now he realised his vision had been too shallow and he had underestimated Kunling Mountain. There were more to come.
Because of the crying report from this side, groups of dozens of night owls had already changed direction and flown this way.
Yu Qing quickly dodged and landed, pulled the two Kunling Mountain disciples out of the pit, threw them to Mu Aotie, and said just one word, “Go!”
It was not that he was being lazy, but that he needed to concentrate on using the Observation Mantra to clear the path.
He had already sensed that a large number of search personnel were pouncing this way again, so he hurriedly led Mu Aotie to slip into a gap in the opportunities.
This time, his Observation Mantra also included those flying birds in its scope. The pebble hidden weapons in his hand were occasionally shot out with a whoosh. Before the night owls could get close enough to discover or confirm them, he would strike and kill them first, giving them no chance to make a sound.
He did not care if they were night owls or not. He had no energy to distinguish carefully now. Even if other birds were startled into flight in the forest, he would shoot them down with pebbles all the same.
Although he knew this was not a proper solution, as the downed birds would indicate the direction of their escape, he had no other choice for the moment. Being entangled by these feathered beasts was truly troublesome. He could only try to shut them up first and buy as much time as possible for their escape.
Under this strategy, the two did indeed buy themselves some breathing room, but they also clearly felt that the number of people participating in the search was increasing.
“Shh…”
A loud whistle pierced the night.
The night owls killed along the way had been discovered, indicating the approximate escape route of the intruders. Upon learning the situation, the person controlling the night owls immediately ordered the scattered owls to converge in one direction and sweep that general area.
Hearing the whistle, Yu Qing also poked his head out from the tree canopy to take a look. Seeing the movement of a large number of fluttering shadows under the moon, he knew things were bad. He turned his head to glance at a nearby cliff, jumped down from the tree, and called for Mu Aotie to sprint towards the cliff edge together.
As he ran, he cursed, “Is Kunling Mountain out of its mind? With no grievances or enmity, without even figuring out if we are friend or foe, they mobilise such a massive force. Is it really worth it?”
Mu Aotie said, “It does feel a bit like they are sparing no cost.”
As soon as he finished speaking, they reached the cliff edge. Seeing Yu Qing jump straight down, he also followed without hesitation, leaping down after him.
The moonlight at the bottom of the cliff grew increasingly cold and hazy. After a bout of running upon landing, Yu Qing found a cave. He waved his hand to signal Mu Aotie to go in with him, then directly pulled one of the people from his grasp and started taking off their clothes, urgently explaining his intention, “We have never met these night owls. With so many people in the mountains, why do they only shriek strangely when they see us? They cannot possibly know us, nor can they know all the search personnel. The problem is almost certainly with the clothes.”
Mu Aotie was slightly stunned, but then quickly started taking off the other person’s clothes as well. In such a critical situation, he trusted Old Fifteen’s mental reaction speed.
After hastily putting on the Kunling Mountain disciples’ clothes, Yu Qing ripped off his own face mask and gave an instruction, “You wait here. I will go and try it out.”
Mu Aotie nodded with an “Mm” while putting on his clothes.
After leaving the cave, Yu Qing soared straight up along the cliff wall. After flying to the top, he landed on the cliff, looked around, and saw a few night owls flying towards them. He deliberately swaggered back and forth to attract their attention, his eyes fixed tightly on the reaction of the few night owls.
Soon, the few night owls arrived. As a result, they only hovered briefly above him before diving into the valley to search. Behind them, a large number of night owls continued to spread and extend in this direction.
Yu Qing glanced around, leapt down the cliff in one bound, landed at the bottom, and waved his arm to drive away the night owls attempting to approach the cave entrance.
Mu Aotie soon popped his head out behind him. “Did it work?”
“Mm.” Yu Qing nodded and turned his head to say, “Escaping should be no problem now. We cannot let anyone notice that we have changed into their clothes.”
Time was of the essence, so Mu Aotie did not waste words. He immediately turned around, squatted in front of the two Kunling Mountain disciples, grabbed their necks with both hands, and without hesitation, gave a sharp twist with a crack. Blood immediately spurted from their mouths and noses, and they died in their unconscious state.
He directly carried the two out, darted to the stream at the bottom of the cliff, and drew his sword under the moonlight, dancing with it. Flesh and blood instantly flew everywhere. The shattered remains were carried away by the stream, and the bloodstains were indistinguishable in the moonlit flowing water.
Sheathing his sword, Mu Aotie saw Yu Qing flying towards the opposite cliff wall. He immediately flew after him to catch up. The clothes on his body did not fit very well and were a bit tight.
In the mountain forest, a woman with her hair tied up by a jade hairpin stared at the night owl corpses that had appeared on the ground again, her brows furrowed.
She had a man’s hairstyle, but her features were dignified and beautiful. Her figure was graceful, yet she possessed an elegant temperament. Her skin was porcelain white and delicate, though her bright eyes carried a murderous intent.
Beside her were four Kunling Mountain disciples who acted as her guardians.
This woman was named Qin Fujun. She was the closed-door disciple of Elder Wan Liqiu of Kunling Mountain and was also the one who had come to lead this pursuit operation.
A black shadow flashed from the tree canopy and landed, transforming into a robust man. It was Di Ling. Upon landing, he asked, “With such a massive encirclement, how is it that we still have not caught anyone?”
His tone seemed to express disbelief.
Qin Fujun shook her head. “The murderer’s movements are erratic. Under such an encirclement, none of our people have actually seen them. If not for the night owls’ warnings and the corpses of the night owls on the ground, we would almost think they had already escaped.” She then turned her head and asked, “By the way, how is Ye Ling’er?”
Speaking of this, a look of grief and indignation emerged on Di Ling’s face. “We have already invited Guest Elder Su, the demon dispeller, to arrive urgently. However, he is not certain how long she can hold on.”
Qin Fujun said anxiously, “Did you not say earlier that it was just burns?”
Di Ling shook his head. “I originally thought the burns were just relatively severe. After Guest Elder Su arrived and examined her, he said those were not ordinary burns. He said whatever burned Ye Ling’er was like a supreme yang fire, which can suppress demonic and evil energy. After injuring Ye Ling’er’s internal organs, it has already severed her body’s regenerative ability.”
Qin Fujun could not help but bare her beautiful white teeth in anger, suddenly turning her head to look into the depths of the night. “Who on earth could be so vicious? Di Ling, it is good that you are here. We absolutely must not let them escape!”
“The Elder said that we must see the person alive or the corpse dead. They cannot escape!”
Di Ling gritted his teeth with a hateful sound, then immediately reverted to his original form, lying flat on the ground with his ear pressed against the earth to listen.