The path ahead grew unbearably hard for Xie Zhaolin.
The dangers of the middle zone far exceeded her expectations. Her fingertips trembled faintly, and if not for the Nether Breathing helping her mask her presence, she would've been torn apart already. But the downside soon revealed itself. The baleful qi in her body was draining away at a frightening pace. This high-grade concealment art devoured her reserves every single moment it was active.
"Hu…"
She leaned against a jagged rock, finally seizing a moment to rest. She'd just halted the flow of Nether Breathing for less than three breaths when a bone-piercing chill climbed up her spine. She didn't dare turn her head. Her Primordial Soul stretched out cautiously. And there, in the shadows thirty zhang behind her, a pair of amber vertical pupils stared straight at her!
A silver-white Ghostface Owl, a third-rank early-stage predator. The edges of its wings gleamed with a metallic sheen, sharp and cold.
Her throat tightened. She activated Nether Breathing again, blurring into her surroundings, but she knew she couldn't hold out long. More than half her baleful qi was gone. If she tried to run outright, she'd collapse in no time. Once her concealment broke, being exposed here in the middle zone was no different from signing her own death sentence.
Sha… sha…
The Ghostface Owl spread wings more than ten feet wide, gliding soundlessly from the canopy.
Her pupils shrank. This beast was testing her! It didn't know her exact spot, but it had already sensed something was wrong. Her whole body went taut. The probing flight drew closer, until it was within ten zhang of the rock hiding her. She knew any sudden move now would bring instant annihilation. Her finger brushed the Shisha Spider puppets inside her storage ring. At the last moment, she hesitated.
"No…" A jolt of alarm shot through her.
The noise from detonating the puppets would be too loud. In this perilous zone, that was the same as painting a target on herself for every beast nearby. Worse—
Her Primordial Soul swept outward and picked up other threats lurking nearby.
Three earthen-yellow pangolins tunneled under the deadwood to her left. Five green-eyed Golden Toads crouched in the thicket to her right. And further away, faint shadows slithered through the mist.
The instant she set off the puppets, all of them would pounce.
The owl's talons scraped the rock's edge, sending chips of stone scattering. Holding her breath, she slid three dark red beads from her ring. They glowed faintly with a sinister hue—poison bombs forged from Soul-Eater Vine venom.
Her fingers trembled slightly as the beads rolled in her palm. Fixing her gaze on the owl, she forced her breath still.
"It has to hit, all at once…" she repeated in her heart.
The venom was vicious, but against a third-rank beast, only a clean strike to the weak points would make it count.
The owl's talon hooked into a crack, barely three feet from her face. She flung the beads in a sharp arc, a triangle aimed straight at its eyes and throat.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three muffled blasts erupted together, and a swirl of purple-black poison mist engulfed the owl. It shrieked, a bone-splitting cry, wings thrashing wildly as the toxic fog seeped into its eyes and beak.
She sensed it clearly—the venom shot along its nerves, slowing its movements, its wingbeats turning erratic.
"It's working!" Her heart leapt. She pulled back fast.
But then her face changed.
Instead of fleeing, the poisoned Ghostface Owl went berserk. It spread its wings wide and loosed a sky-rending screech, waves of sound rolling out in fury, shattering the silence of the entire middle zone.
"Shit!"
Her pupils tightened. Through her Primordial Soul, she felt beasts within a hundred zhang stirring awake, roused by the howl.
"I can't fight them all…" She whipped out a pouch of shimmering powder—Moonflower Dust, refined to muddle a beast's senses.
Scattering the dust into the air, she launched backward.
The surrounding predators wavered, snarls faltering as the dust cloud took hold. She darted through the gap at full speed. But she hadn't gone a hundred zhang when a massive shadow plummeted from above.
The Ghostface Owl had broken free of the confusion, its motions sluggish but eyes still locked on her, talons slicing for her skull.
She twisted desperately, but its claws ripped her shoulder open. Three deep gashes split flesh to the bone. Agonizing pain stole her breath, the blood scent igniting the frenzy of nearby beasts.
No time to think. A golden talisman flashed into her palm.
This was her second Ghost Step Talisman. It could unleash a burst of speed rivaling Golden Core cultivators, and right now, it was her only chance.
"Burn!"
Her voice dropped low as the talisman ignited in her grasp, dissolving into dazzling golden light. Power roared into her veins, and her body shot forward like an arrow loosed from the bow!
Boom!
Air split behind her in an ear-splitting detonation.
She became a golden streak racing through the forest, trees melting into blurred shadows, even her Primordial Soul struggling to keep up.
The owl's claws scraped only her afterimage. It screamed in frustration, wings beating hard, but there was no catching her now.
Still, the talisman's force came at a brutal price. Every meridian in her body burned like fire, muscles tearing under the strain. Worse, the golden surge blazed like a beacon, drawing the hunger of every beast along her path.
Roar!
A colossal Earthsplitting Rhino thundered from the left. She couldn't veer off in time, forced to charge ahead.
At the last instant, her body shot upward, skimming over its horn. The wind sliced her leg, splitting skin to blood.
Pu!
She spat a mouthful of blood. Forcing that aerial twist nearly shattered her meridians. But she didn't dare stop. Behind her, more beasts piled into the chase, their bellows shaking the trees. She swept her senses back, and her stomach sank. Over a dozen third-rank beasts were right on her heels, and further back, she could feel even stronger auras rushing in.
"I've got to shake them…"
Gritting her teeth against the pain, she burned the talisman to its limit. Her speed surged again, a golden meteor tearing across the sky.
Three breaths later, the power began to fade.
She spotted a narrow ravine ahead and didn't hesitate.
Bang!
She slammed into the rocky wall inside, every bone screaming like it was about to shatter.
The talisman's glow fizzled away, leaving her body wracked with tearing pain. Collapsing onto the stone, she gasped for air, blood spilling from her lips. But there was no time to recover. She forced her hands together, weaving Nether Breathing again, sealing away her aura to the faintest thread.
Almost instantly, the pack of predators swarmed the ravine's mouth.