Two figures broke out of the Valley of Decline, one after another.
It was none other than the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie and Hei Cheng!
Fang Yuan's eyes narrowed, his gaze locked onto the pair, but he didn't rush out to give chase.
He waited for a while, but no Central Continent Gu Immortal emerged from the Valley of Decline.
Fang Yuan mused to himself, "It seems that although I deliberately held back the Snow Pine Seed, it only delayed the inevitable by three days. The Shadow Sect still lost. As far as things stand, it looks like only the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie and Hei Cheng managed to escape."
In truth, this outcome wasn't strange at all.
The key to deciding this battle still lay with Feng Jiu Ge and Qin Bai Sheng.
Fang Yuan had held onto the Snow Pine Seed, but a single Snow Pine Seed wouldn't have made much of a difference to those two.
"The question is, what changes will this life's Hundred-Day Battle in the Valley of Decline bring?" As Fang Yuan pondered, he silently set off in pursuit.
The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie fled at breakneck speed. His velocity was extraordinary—his figure had become nothing more than a black line hurtling through the air.
"Who goes there?!" Without warning, the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie halted, eyes blazing with fury.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng materialized before him, a cold smirk on his face. "You've finally come. Today, you're going to die—no question!"
"Just a Sixth Transformation? Hmph!" The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie erupted with killing intent and lunged like a bolt of lightning.
BOOM!
He struck Tai Bai Yun Sheng squarely, and the latter dissolved into a cluster of foam, dissipating on the spot.
"A fake!" The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie's heart jolted violently. "He's only at the Sixth Transformation, yet he dares to intercept me at the Seventh? More importantly—how did he know my route? Is he a piece the Central Continent placed in the Northern Plains? Was he absent from the Hundred-Day Battle because his combat power was too low to make a difference? Or did he only just arrive? Or perhaps the Central Continent Gu Immortals don't fully trust him?"
Though the Yan Huang Lei Ze was an Immortal Zombie, his attainment in the Wisdom Path was no small matter. In the blink of an eye, a flurry of thoughts cycled through his mind, and he grasped Tai Bai Yun Sheng's purpose.
"He's only Sixth Transformation, while I'm Seventh and still retain forty percent of my combat power! He's no match for me, and his aura clearly belongs to a Northern Plains Gu Immortal. So his most likely goal is to hinder me—slow my escape!"
"Heh heh heh. Take your time. No rush." The phantom of Tai Bai Yun Sheng flickered into view once more.
The illusion was strikingly lifelike. The first time, the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie had been careless and failed to notice, mistaking it for the real body.
But now, the Immortal Zombie activated his divination methods, glanced over, and immediately detected the flaw.
"Hmph." He sneered and shot off again.
Tai Bai Yun Sheng's combat strength was lacking, and he had no powerful movement techniques, so all he could do was create a nuisance.
But the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie saw through his intentions and ignored him completely, focused solely on fleeing as fast as he could.
"You think you can run? Stay right here today." Fang Yuan finally caught up.
He had the Fixed Immortal Travel in his possession, and he'd arranged for Tai Bai Yun Sheng to keep harassing the target. With communication-path methods keeping constant track of the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie, catching up was inevitable.
Had Fang Yuan not wanted to reveal Fixed Immortal Travel and his own identity before the Immortal Zombie, he could have arrived much sooner.
When Tai Bai Yun Sheng saw Fang Yuan approach, his heart shot up into his throat.
Now came the critical moment.
The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie saw Fang Yuan, and his heart lurched with a cold chill that ran through his entire body.
"Feng Jiu Ge!" he cried out in alarm.
It turned out Fang Yuan had long since used the Meeting Familiar Face technique to assume Feng Jiu Ge's appearance.
His own combat power was only at the peak of the Sixth Transformation, and enslaving the Featherman Gu Immortal had further degraded it significantly. In an actual fight, he wouldn't be able to perform well.
However, Fang Yuan had his trump card.
That card was the Star Soul Battlefield.
The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie was only at the Seventh Transformation level. Having just fought through the Hundred-Day Battle and narrowly broken free, he'd be fortunate to have half his combat power remaining.
Under these circumstances, if Fang Yuan could force the Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie into the Star Soul Battlefield and use the battlefield to continuously wear him down, the odds of victory would be firmly in Fang Yuan's favor.
"Hei Cheng can be left alone for now. He's fleeing like a stray dog—most likely, just like in my previous life, he's already lost his Immortal Gu House in the Valley of Decline. Otherwise, why wouldn't the Central Continent Gu Immortals have chased after him? He's wounded, carries only a single Dark Arrow Immortal Gu, and poses no real threat."
"But this Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie is the key figure. Qin Bai Sheng and Jiang Yu went to enormous lengths to keep him alive. During the Battle of Yi Tian Mountain, he was even one of the Ten Absolute Immortal Zombie Formation's nodes!"
"He carries a heavy responsibility and won't die easily. In my previous life, Old Ancestor Snow Hu captured him alive, and he simply waited for the Zombie Alliance's rescue. So the chances of me taking him prisoner are quite high."
"As long as I capture him, I can perform a soul search. The Shadow Sect's secrets will be laid bare before my eyes. Of course, if his soul has been tampered with—like the Snow Pine Seed from my previous life—then even killing him would deal considerable damage to the Shadow Sect's plans."
Fang Yuan harbored dark calculations. The Shadow Sect was a formidable force, and to claim the Jing Hong Luan Dou Tai, he would inevitably have to contend with this mysterious and powerful Gu Immortal organization.
Given Fang Yuan's cunning, ruthlessness, and deeply aggressive nature, how could he possibly sit back and wait for the Shadow Sect to come to him?
Fang Yuan would never wait passively.
This time, he had spotted the viper's most vulnerable spot—and he was striking with full force.
"Is it really Feng Jiu Ge?" The Yan Huang Lei Ze Immortal Zombie watched as Fang Yuan drew closer and closer, and a sudden thought flickered through his mind.