The Azure Ape swiftly lowered its gaze, only to find about a dozen of the little mantids biting and slicing into its arm.

He shook his mighty arm, and about a dozen crisp crunching noises rang out. A single burst of transcendence energy instantly vaporised the little mantids into dust.

While he was escaping, Miao Yi immediately felt a sting in his heart. He had established a distinct psychic connection to the little ones, so he could sense the little mantids' deaths.

That was fifteen of the little ones! And they had died just like that! Miao Yi hated how he couldn't rush back and duke it out with the Azure Ape.

But he knew he wouldn't even be a match for the other demon. Even fifteen little ones combined couldn't restrain him, what could he do besides sending himself to an early grave if he rushed back?

As he continued to run away, he no longer dared make the other little ones hold back the enemy. Knowing that they couldn't stop the demon, he quickly sent his thoughts out and restrained the other little ones from rus.h.i.+ng to their deaths.

In reality, there was somewhat of an effect on the enemy after the little ones had acted.

After suffering a setback because of his carelessness, the Azure Ape wasn't in a rush to catch up to Miao Yi. Instead, it swiftly descended onto a mountain peak. His chest drummed, and his whole body was immediately surrounded by a layer of cold frost. His gigantic figure had turned a snowy-white, trying to force out the dark Yin energy that was inside his body.

But at this exact moment, there was a sudden change. A red flash abruptly shot out from the mountain forest, and hammered down towards the Azure Ape's head.

The Azure Ape was shocked. When he realised that Miao Yi could be the actual person responsible for the murders at Bra.s.s Gong Fort, he had naturally looked to settle his grievances with the true perpetrator. As a result, he had been temporarily blinded by rage, forgetting that there was another enemy in the surroundings.

The two hoops that kept guard by his side shot out instantly in a crimson flash, trying to block the attack.

The sloppy old man hidden inside the red light charged forward with reckless abandon. Using his own transcendence energy to strengthen the transcendent artifact, he crashed down with all his might.

It was as though he already saw that there wouldn't be a second chance if he missed this opportunity, and struck with the belief that victory and defeat depended on this one move.

'BOOM! BOOM!' Two sounds echoed out as the glowing red hoops were knocked away.

At the same time, the sloppy old man shrouded in red quickly waved both his arms. The red glow around his body swiftly solidified into two black bar maces and struck forth, descending ferociously upon the Azure Ape.

The Azure Ape immediately countered with a whirl of his arms, striking back furiously with his toothed club.

Just as the attack was about to land, the two bar maces suddenly split off into two separate directions. 'BOOM!' One crashed violently into the toothed club, while the other had slipped around and continued to hammer down.

Under the constraints imposed by the dark Yin energy, the Azure Ape not only had to deal with this ambush, but he also had to send out a portion of his transcendence energy to restrain the chilling aura within his body. He could no longer be as flexible in adapting with this sudden change. A trace of despair flashed through his eyes, as he realized he was powerless to act despite his intent.

'PA!' A deep noise reverberated throughout.

The glowing-red bar mace landed right on the Azure Ape's head, instantly pounding the brain fluids out of the his head, splitting his large head into pieces.

The Azure Ape's ma.s.sive body trembled as the red glow slowly faded away from the toothed club in his hands.

The two red hoops that had tangled with the sloppy old man had already regressed back into their original black color, and fell to the ground.

As he flew past the body, the sloppy old man waved his arm and immediately stored the two hoops away into his storage ring, obtaining two ownerless transcendent artifacts for free. Upon landing on a nearby mountaintop, the two bar maces wrapped in a glowing red hue floated to his side.

The Azure Ape's large body slid down and knelt before him, his toothed club lodging itself into the ground. His body remained unfallen!

What the sloppy old man found odd was that he hadn't seen blood spurting out from the Azure Ape's broken head. Instead, a cold frost quickly had quickly formed on the damaged area, sealing the hot blood inside and preventing it from leaking out.

"Ay!" The sloppy old man shook his head and sighed as he looked at what remained of the Azure Ape's body.

Over the past few hundred years, he would occasionally sneak over to this island, and would often be chased away by the Azure Ape. Now that had come to an end.

With one hand behind his back, he walked to the Azure Ape's side and reached out with his other hand, extending two fingers to touch the cold frost that had formed on the Azure Ape's body.

After he felt the presence of a strange piercing chill, the sloppy old man was immediately puzzled, realizing that it was different from the cold frost that formed in nature. Rather, it seemed to have formed as a result of an overly dark and heavy Yin aura. No wonder Yuan Kaishan was restrained to such an extent.

The sloppy old man's ear twitched. He quickly twisted his head to look at the direction that Miao Yi was running in. He pointed two fingers at him and shouted, "Go!"

One of the glowing red bar maces floating beside him immediately shot out like a shooting star.

At this moment while Miao Yi was currently escaping on Charcoal, he felt happy deep inside.

On listening to the movements behind him, he had a.s.sumed that the other two had begun fighting again, giving him an opportunity to escape.

Just as he believed he had survived this ordeal, a whoos.h.i.+ng noise echoed out from behind him.

Turning his head to look, he saw a glowing red light shooting towards him. He immediately grew anxious, quickly urging Charcoal to run faster.

'Harrumph!' Charcoal snorted. Its eyes became slightly bloodshot as its hooves stomped into a ghostly silhouette, putting everything on the line in order to escape.

But how could it run away against the speed of a Third Grade transcendent artifact? As the glowing red bar mace closed from behind, it instantly burst into countless red lights. They surged forth, immediately enclosing Miao Yi inside and lifting him swiftly up from Charcoal's body to return just as quickly.

Charcoal came to an immediate halt and turned back. Watching Miao Yi being carried away, it immediately charged in a frenzied stampede. When it couldn't spare the momentum to dodge a large tree, it actually knock it over with a deep 'BOOM!' - focusing all its efforts on the chase.

While he was encased inside the red light, Miao Yi could only feel himself being carried by a strong wind. There was no point in resisting, yet he immediately summoned his silver spear, wildly striking and sweeping the surrounding red light.

'Clink-clang! Clink-clang!…..'

Crisp metallic clas.h.i.+ng resounded in rapid succession. Miao Yi was confounded as he held his silver spear in hand; there was only half of it left. The red lights had left his silver spear useless by chopping it in half like a knife slicing into tofu.

Before he was able to examine the surrounding red light for weaknesses to exploit, it had already dispersed, tossing Miao Yi to the ground. The red light then immediately congealed into a bar mace, standing guard by the sloppy old man's side with its counterpart.

Miao Yi quickly got up as soon as he was knocked to the ground. Wielding half of his silver spear, he glared at the sloppy old man looking at him with his hands behind his back.

He could see even more clearly now that they were face to face. He realized that this old man truly had a wretched face, and looked incredibly slovenly.

"Hmm….?" The old man aimed a fretfully cross expression at him.

Miao Yi cautiously asked, "What are you trying to say?"

"Hmmm…." The old man continued to look disgruntled.

"........" Miao Yi couldn't decipher what he meant, and said, "Senior, I don't seem to have any feud with you. Why did you capture me?"

The old man rolled his eyes, and remained petulant.

Looking as though he had just understood something, Miao Yi slowly turned his head and saw a gigantic body kneeling behind him nestled by a toothed club. He was taken by surprise, and hastily jumped back.

After taking another look from afar, he realized that Yuan Kaishan had already been struck down. His head was split open, and there was a layer of cold white frost covering his body, as though he had been frozen.

Miao Yi took a breath of relief, then turned around to look at the sloppy old man, and asked cautiously, "Senior, if there's nothing, then I'll be making my move first."

"Bulls.h.i.+t! Why would I look for you if there's nothing?" The old man scoffed. He waved his hand and tucked the bar maces away in his storage ring. Hands behind his back, he walked to the Azure Ape's side and grabbed some of the chilling frost in pa.s.sing, "Kid, tell me. What is the meaning of this? What did you do to Yuan Kaishan?"