Elder Mo Ling screamed in fury and charged at Fang Tian like a curtain of darkness. With terrifying speed, she hurled hundreds of black stakes at him. Grassy springs burst forth beneath Fang Tian's feet, and with the coupling of Wood Origin Gu, he leaped a great distance backward. When he looked back at the spot where he had been standing, the ground had already transformed into a field of rot and poison.
Fang Tian cursed inwardly. He knew that the gap between himself and her was enormous; even if they fought head-on, he would be lucky to escape with his life. Technically, that was exactly what he was doing now. Fang Tian continued to evade by leaping great distances using Jumping Grass Gu. The chase stretched for several kilometers as both he and Mo Ling sped across the terrain.
Mo Ling cursed inwardly in frustration as Fang Tian gradually pulled farther away, and she could no longer keep pace with him.
"Damn it! He just came out of a deadly battle and still has the primeval essence and stamina to flee—what is he, a cockroach or what?! And what damned Gu worm is he using to possess such a vast amount of primeval essence?!"
In truth, Fang Tian's reserves of primeval essence had been weak when he emerged from the battle. He had used multiple rank two Gu worms in rapid succession, and the recovery speed of his primeval essence and Heavenly Essence Treasure Lotus Gu could not keep up before the battle ended. As a result, his usage had become limited to one or two Gu worms at most.
Perhaps the best chance to capture Fang Tian had been immediately after the battle! But Mo Ling had other plans. She had intended to use Fang Tian as bait to lure out the culprit, then capture him and return to the clan with an explanation. Who would have thought that Fang Tian would be so slippery? Now that her primeval essence was gradually declining, she began to fall behind in the pursuit.
All this time, she had been like a black shadow, leaping from tree to tree, pursuing Fang Tian, who bounded through the sky like a monkey, rebounding off cliffs and trees to increase his momentum. But now, her form was clearly visible and no longer concealed beneath the curtain of darkness that had shrouded her movements.
As for Fang Tian, he was struggling to outpace the elder behind him. He had already been pursued for half an hour and was beginning to feel exhausted, yet that madwoman showed no sign of giving up. This filled Fang Tian with intense fury. If he had even the slightest chance against her, he would have turned back long ago and fought her to the death.
The grassy springs beneath his feet made contact with the turf, launching him dozens of meters into the air before he landed far away. Fang Tian attempted to locate the rank three Gu Master pursuing him, but when he used Heat Serpent Gu to scan his surroundings, he found nothing within his two-hundred-foot detection range.
Fang Tian did not relax. Instead, he continued fleeing for another twenty minutes, changing direction multiple times. Sometimes he would veer right and run for a kilometer or so before turning left, or slightly altering his angle of escape.
Only after confirming that no one was following him did Fang Tian finally allow himself to rest at the edge of a rocky cliff. The sun had reached its zenith in the sky, indicating that noon had just arrived. Fang Tian still had plenty of time before nightfall, when he would seek refuge in one of the few caves in this region.
The surrounding area was filled with tall, lush green trees, appearing exceedingly natural and serene. His clothes were torn everywhere, not a single patch left intact. His pale skin was exposed through the holes and tears in his robe, now covered with many healed scars from recent battles.
"This is utterly exhausting… fighting, killing, looting. When did I become like this?"
When he was on Earth, before his death, Fang Tian was not someone who could be called kind or good, yet those values were still deeply rooted within him. When he first arrived in the Gu world, he thought it was merely a nightmare. But as the days passed, he realized that he was living in reality, not a dream.
The hunger was real. The pain was real. The cold was real. And more than anything, the fear was real. When he lived among the hunter family, he felt warmth at first. But as he grew older, the warmth he received gradually diminished, replaced by pity, then contempt and hatred. He was punished for every mistake, deprived of food multiple times, and eventually, when his father despaired of him, he was taken out hunting to contribute to the family's income.
In the middle of a hunt, he was "lost in the mountain." In truth, they had simply abandoned him, leaving him to die when night fell. Yet heaven willed it that he discovered Li Hua's inheritance and cultivated in silence there for several months, relying solely on his Gu worms and Li Hua's wooden remains as his companions. He hunted beasts and spilled their blood. At first, this was understandable—he needed food to survive. Then, after sneaking into the human village and abducting several hunters, he killed a human for the first time.
Fang Tian did not know why he did not react strongly to the hunter's death that time. Was it because he regarded the hunter as less than human? From then on, Fang Tian became embroiled in continuous battles within and beyond Yan Zu Clan, killing many people—whether Gu Masters or mortals, it made no difference. In the end, they were all the same.
"I really have changed. I am no longer who I was."
Fang Tian sighed with an emotion he could not fully comprehend. These few short years had changed him profoundly. If he compared himself to who he had been eighteen years ago, he would say they were two entirely different people. A pure tear slipped from his right eye and fell to the ground.
"Even so, I still feel my emotions from my earliest days—they belong to me. But change is necessary for a person to grow… Even if a leaf falls far from the tree, it still belongs to it. So even if my personality changes, I am still the same person. Even if my name has become Fang Tian and I have forgotten my identity from Earth, I am still the same human."
A torrent of tears poured forth as the emotions he had long suppressed finally spilled out. Along with them, he gained a measure of understanding from this moment of enlightenment. After venting what he had bottled up for several minutes, Fang Tian rose with renewed resolve to face tomorrow without regret.