“Watch out!” Zhao Yunxiao hurriedly dodged out of the way.

Behind him, Nie Hanchang grabbed Lou Yuan and similarly escaped Old Niu’s path.

Even though they had allowed Lou Yuan to come along with the condition of having to take care of himself, their consciences simply would not allow them to leave him for dead in such a situation!

Old Niu charged forward without stopping – straight into a bush of fairymist flowers. The entire bush of flowers collapsed and scattered, unable to bear the weight of his huge body.

Yet despite missing the trio, his charge was not completely meaningless, either.

In the midst of his charge, Old Niu had stepped on the array flag that Zhao Yunxiao had planted, directly crushing it under his hoof.

It would appear that he had caught onto Zhao Yunxiao’s plan.

“Damn it!” Zhao Yunxiao cursed.

Without the support of a killing array, they would have no chance of taking Old Niu down!

[Earthen Clone Technique]

A clone formed beside Zhao Yunxiao, and the two of them immediately scattered in two opposing directions, darting around the prairie and planting array flags along the way.

Since Old Niu had already noticed, there was no need to hide his intention any longer.

In this case, he would just have to create the array much faster than Old Niu can disrupt him!

“Do you really think that I will let you do as you please?!” Old Niu roared as he pulled himself out from the crushed bush of fairymist flowers.

With a powerful stomp, he charged out once again.

But rather than waste time going after the two Zhao Yunxiaos who were running all around the prairie, he targeted Nie Hanchang and Lou Yuan this time.

From what he had observed so far, Nie Hanchang and Lou Yuan were definitely the weakest links here, possessing few means to defend themselves.

Now that he was well aware of Nie Hanchang’s shockwave technique, he was confident of bracing himself for it and adapting accordingly.

And as long as he could get a hold of them, he was certain that someone as righteous-sounding as Zhao Yunxiao would immediately surrender to save the lives of his companions!

That way, he could get rid of all of them in one move!

Unfortunately for Old Niu, Nie Hanchang was no easy target.

There was a wide variety of defensive attributes that cultivators would have to work on simultaneously, just so that they would not have an exploitable weakness in combat.

Parrying, resistance, blocking, etc – the list went on and on.

But as a bow and arrow specialist, Nie Hanchang did not follow the conventional path. Instead, there was only one defensive aspect that Nie Hanchang had always been focusing on.

Agility – or essentially just the ability to put distance between him and his enemies.

As someone who wholeheartedly pursued the path of archery, that was the only form of defence that he believed in.

As a result, Nie Hanchang was actually far more agile than Zhao Yunxiao!

Nie Hanchang had simply been caught by surprise earlier, rendering him unable to react in time. But now that he had identified exactly who his opponent was, Old Niu had no chance of catching him!

Lou Yuan cooperated by jumping onto Nie Hanchang’s back, desperately holding on for dear life as Nie Hanchang sped around the prairie, putting the Xuanwu Movement Art on full display as he changed directions left and right with ease.

Old Niu’s charge was fast and filled with power, but it was simply too predictable. By mixing in numerous changes in directions, Nie Hanchang was basically dancing around Old Niu, sending him crashing into bush after bush of fairymist flowers.

Surprisingly, Lou Yuan seemed to be coping rather well with this arrangement, his grip tight and firm around Nie Hanchang to prevent himself from falling.

Zhao Yunxiao could not help but suspect that he might have had experience doing this in the past.

Old Niu’s expression turned darker and darker.

He thought that he had already gotten a good gauge of their movement speed and stamina earlier during their trek into the valley.

But now, that no longer seemed to be the case. In fact, this brat had already far surpassed his earlier threshold!

Was he the troublesome kind of person who would burst forth with hidden potential in the face of danger?

“Damn it! How unlucky!” Old Niu quickly realised that this was not working, and turned his attention back to Zhao Yunxiao.

By now, there were already dozens of array flags planted all over the prairie, and the number was only increasing by the second.

The two Zhao Yunxiaos in front of him looked identical, but Old Niu showed no signs of confusion. Just in case of unforeseen circumstances like this, he had kept his spiritual sense locked onto the real Zhao Yunxiao right from the very start of the fight!

Old Niu charged straight towards the real Zhao Yunxiao without hesitation, determined to bring him down.

But Zhao Yunxiao was not slow on his feet, either.

Old Niu might still be faster, but Zhao Yunxiao made up for the difference with his greater agility.

Bang-!

Old Niu raised his arm and swatted away another arrow of energy. With the pressure no longer on him, Nie Hanchang had once again started firing arrows at him.

Unfortunately, now that he had reverted to his true form of a bull demon, the arrows no longer seemed to have an effect on him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“It’s no use!” Old Niu sneered as he continued on his warpath.

Even though Zhao Yunxiao was moving around quickly, Old Niu was still slowly creeping up on him. This was especially so, since Zhao Yunxiao had not stopped planting array flags as he moved around, making it impossible to move as quickly as he originally could.

On the other hand, Old Niu chose not to resort to his power charges, simply chasing Zhao Yunxiao around with his innate advantage in speed.

It took a while, but even while constantly swatting away the energy arrows that kept coming at him, Old Niu inevitably managed to close the gap.

Old Niu’s eyes narrowed.

While this brat also seemed to be faring much better than before, it was still not enough to get away from him!

“This is it!” Old Niu excitedly reached out with his arm to grab Zhao Yunxiao’s neck from behind.

“Behind you!” Lou Yuan anxiously cautioned.

But just as he was about to get a hold of Zhao Yunxiao, Old Niu saw his target suddenly dive straight into the ground, completely disappearing from sight right before his very eyes!

[Earth Burrowing Technique]

Old Niu stopped in his tracks, blankly staring at the ground where Zhao Yunxiao had disappeared into.

He had no methods at his disposal to attack below ground!

“Screw you! Stop running around if you are a man!” Old Niu roared in rage. He could feel his blood vessels about burst from frustration.

“Hahaha!” Lou Yuan could not help but laugh. “Stop running around and let you beat us to death? As expected of a bull demon, your body might be developed, but your brains still need a couple thousand years to fully evolve to match the state of a human brain!”

“Damn it!” Old Niu changed direction and started going after the array flags without hesitation, crushing them under his hooves one after another.

After ensuring that he was a safe distance away from Old Niu, Zhao Yunxiao left the safety of the ground and revealed himself once more, quickly resuming what he was doing.

Yet seeing the array flags being destroyed one by one, Zhao Yunxiao could not help but feel his heart bleed.

Those array flags were not cheap!

At this moment, Zhao Yunxiao once again lamented his own lack of talent.

If he were a more talented individual, he might have already figured out the way to create arrays using the archaic characters that Cha had taught him before.

When used together in the right manner, those archaic characters could form arrays with far greater ease, which would in turn allow him to set up the array much faster.

And in this situation, setting up the array faster would naturally mean less of a loss!

Then again, there was no meaning to thinking about such hypothetical scenarios.

Right now, the only way to reduce his losses was by focusing on completing the array faster!

“Hey, stupid bull! Have you gone completely senile?” Lou Yuan shouted. “Why don’t you come at us instead of going after random toys?”

Old Niu did not bother with him, determined to destroy all the array flags that were being planted.

He could similarly see that the rate at which he was destroying the array flags was not as fast as the rate at which the Zhao Yunxiaos were planting them.

However, speed was not the only factor to consider here.

He did not know what kind of array Zhao Yunxiao was trying to set up here. But now, he was betting on the fact that after destroying a sufficient number of his array flags, Zhao Yunxiao would not have enough remaining to complete a fully functioning array!

But at this point, Old Niu suddenly had a bad premonition.

Turning around, he came face to face with an arrow of energy that was aimed straight at his chest. And this arrow of energy was far more concentrated than the ones before!

This time, he no longer dared to take it lightly.

Old Niu tilted his head down slightly, using his sword-like horn to block the arrow.

Bang-!

The impact sent Old Niu staggering back, his expression a mixture of shock and fear. He could sense that his horn had barely held on during the collision, almost getting ripped out by the root!

Even though Zhao Yunxiao did not know the exact extent of the damage, he still involuntarily paused for a moment, astonished by the sudden increase in power behind the arrow that had resulted in Old Niu being pushed back.

On the other hand, Nie Hanchang maintained an expression of indifference, seemingly having expected such a result from the start.

He had been firing the same arrows of energy using the Grand Annihilator, but it did not mean that was all he was capable of.

On the contrary, it was only because he had yet to truly come across a need to increase the power behind his arrows.

By focusing more energy into each draw, Nie Hanchang was able to create arrows of higher energy density, which in turn amplified the power within.

Of course, there was a downside to it as well.

The stronger he wanted the arrow, the more energy he would have to pack within it. This naturally led to a higher energy consumption and a longer draw time as well.

And in front of everyone’s eyes, Nie Hanchang started yet another draw motion on the Grand Annihilator.

“You wish!” Old Niu was no longer able to ignore Nie Hanchang, and started going after him again.

Seeing that he had attracted Old Niu’s attention, Nie Hanchang decisively lowered his bow to focus on evasive measures once again.

Zhao Yunxiao could not help but let out a faint smile upon seeing this.

As expected of the bow obsessed Nie Hanchang!

By revealing his true capability, Nie Hanchang had forced the situation to revert to before, where Old Niu would have to chase him around endlessly.

This allowed Zhao Yunxiao to fully concentrate on setting up the array, and he was not about to let this opportunity go to waste!

One by one, array flags were being rapidly planted upon the misty prairie, each hidden within the thousands of fairymist flowers.

Old Niu could see that as well, but there was simply nothing he could do about it.

He was currently in an awkward situation where he had no real option.

If he chose to go after Nie Hanchang, Zhao Yunxiao would surely be allowed to freely plant those array flags.

But if he chose to go after Zhao Yunxiao or destroy the array flags, Nie Hanchang would be allowed to freely fire arrows at him, and these arrows were currently the only things that truly posed a threat to him!

Rather than worrying about the future dangers, he decided that eliminating the current source of danger was of top priority.

As for what the array flags would summon forth, he could simply worry about it when it happened.

Who knows?

Perhaps Zhao Yunxiao was simply bluffing with the array flags!

Old Niu did not have to wait long to find out.

Weng-!

A golden emblem of light appeared on the ground with a low buzz, adding a golden hue to the thick fog around them.

Zhao Yunxiao finally stopped darting around the prairie.

He knelt down in the centre of the flags that he had planted, placing his palm on the ground to direct the flow of energy.

It might not be the coolest pose, but Zhao Yunxiao cared not about that.

The golden fog started to rotate around him, affected by the storm of world origin energy that was quickly forming within the area.

His robes and hair fluttering wildly in the stirring storm, a cold light flashed across Zhao Yunxiao’s eyes as he glanced towards Old Niu.

Dark Tortoise Devouring Array – this was the single deadliest killing array in Zhao Yunxiao’s arsenal.