The sudden appearance of Hei Gou and Xue Wei caused an instant reaction from the many people who were scanning the area.
Although the ones on the ground did not notice what was happening, the ones in the sky were much more alert when it came to changes in their vision. When they saw a black line shoot through the air, all of them instantly gave chase.
Xue Wei had been unaware of Hei Gou's ability to fly, but these hunters had seen it before. They knew that he could fly and were as a result even more alert when it came to the sky.
"They are desperate!" someone exclaimed. "They are too naive if they think they can escape from us!"
"Be careful!" another yelled. "We don't know what tricks that Crimson Devil has at his disposal. Remember how the lightning sparrow was taken from its owner? Maybe he can take our beasts away from us, or make them turn against us if he so pleases!"
"This is not simple at all. We need to be careful. However, we have been given our orders and capturing the Crimson Devil is our most important task; even hunting Primordial Beasts has been put on pause to ensure that he dies!"
"The bounty is great, so I will be the one who captures him!" someone laughed. He was flying on a Fierce Beast of the swallow family. His beast had a speed that was not much inferior to the Lightning Sparrow.
"You can keep dreaming. This kid is only an Earth Warrior, and although he has a flying Primordial Beast with him, it’s only equivalent to a Sky Warrior. Those two alone are weak compared to us! Killing them will be my achievement!"
"Stop bragging both of you!" a third one yelled with a voice filled with annoyance. "Although those two are weak, they have managed to stay alive up until now. We also don't know if the Ice Harpy is going to show up."
"We do not know if the Crimson Devil is human or Primordial Beast, but it is clear that he is very important to some of the high ranked Primordial Beasts. Furthermore, having been given the task to act as Xiao Lei's nephew for years, he cannot be simple."
"In fact, we should realize that he is as conniving as a sly old fox." Despite all of them pushing their mounts to fly at their fastest speed in pursuit of Xue Wei and Hei Gou, they were able to speak to each other almost leisurely.
Truth be told, the Primordial Beast hunters were having a hard time taking Xue Wei and Hei Gou seriously.
Both of them were incredibly weak compared to the hunters. If they were standing right in front of the hunters, both Xue Wei and Hei Gou would be killed with a simple slap from any one of them. They could not fight back. They could not even decide how they would die, and everything would be in the hands of the hunters.
"Well, the dog is able to fly rather fast," someone commented with surprise as they continued the pursuit.
"Even if it is fast, it is only at the Sky Warrior stage. Our beasts have a slight advantage, so the dog is just tiring itself out. If they think they can escape us, they are seriously naive."
Everyone else seemed to agree with this person. At this point, none of them were truly giving it their all. They were just leisurely following Xue Wei and Hei Gou. Although their tamed mounts had to fly at the fastest speed that they could handle, these hunters never feared losing track of their target.
At the start, Xue Wei had observed that Hei Gou moved as fast as lightning, but his speed dropped around the half-hour mark.
When he looked back at the pursuing hunters, he could see that the gap between them was closing. But Xue Wei did not panic this time. Instead, he placed his hands on Hei Gou's shoulders and closed his eyes.
He found his inner center, his dantian, and started rotating the energy within his body before pouring it into Hei Gou.
Hei Gou, who was feeling his energy depleting at a rapid pace and who was getting more and more worried, suddenly felt his body swell with energy.
He felt a pure energy enter his body, an energy which was far purer than his own. When it entered his body, he suddenly felt incredibly comfortable.
The fatigue he had been feeling was being pushed back. His aching body hurt less, and his speed started picking up again.
Hei Gou felt invigorated, so much so that a smile displaying his canines spread on his face.
He wanted to ask Xue Wei how he had managed to get such pure energy, but recalling the fact that Xue Wei practiced the Azure Dragon Scripture made him understand.
Hei Gou cultivated the Moon Eating Scripture, which was a scripture passed down from his ancestor Tian Gou. When perfected, one could devour any light source and use it to attack.
The Moon Eating Scripture was specially tailored to the Celestial Dogs. Their affinity with devouring light was so strong that this would be the most perfect scripture for them to cultivate. On the other hand, the blood purity of the Celestial Dogs had decreased constantly, causing their affinity with the scripture to decrease as time went on.
Although Hei Gou's body had mutated, he still had Qi within his body from before, and this Qi was not even half as pure as Xue Wei's. As time went on, the body would naturally purify it to suit its new constitution, but this was a long process of removing impurities. Furthermore, although it had been three months since his physique had mutated, he had not even purified a tenth of his Qi.
The purity of Qi determined many things. With purer Qi, the consumption of energy was reduced when using a technique, and the technique would be more powerful.
If two experts were facing off and one of them had purer Qi than the other, he would hold the upper hand in the battle because the pure Qi would enhance his performance.
The Qi's purity was determined by the scripture one cultivated. The cultivation method that Xue Wei originally would have trained back in Lingyun town was of the lowest quality, which meant that the Qi he would have gathered would also have been rubbish compared to the Qi he possessed now that he cultivated the Azure Dragon Scripture.
Another thing that determined the purity of one's Qi was the condition of one's body.
If one had many impurities in the body, these impurities would cause leaks in the flow of one’s Qi and make it less pure.
Impurities could come from having consumed medicinal pills with low purity or from allowing one’s body to be in bad condition for a long period of time. This was also the reason why so little of Hei Gou's Qi had been purified. He had neglected his body to keep watch over Xue Wei, which had in return caused his Qi to deteriorate.
One’s body would always be accustomed to its own purity of Qi. So albeit feeling much better because of Xue Wei sharing his pure energy with him, Hei Gou soon started to feel a sharp pain in his head .
His body was simply not used to such pure Qi. He could feel that his body, from tissue to meridian, was bursting with energy like never before. However, at the same time, his body could not withstand this level of energy purity.
Xue Wei could feel that Hei Gou was in pain. He could feel the dog’s body trembling beneath him, but he gritted his teeth and prayed that the black dog could endure the pain.
Their only chance of escaping was to use Xue Wei’s pure Qi. While it was painful for him, Hei Gou noticed that Xue Wei’s pure Qi mixed with his own rapidly expedited the purification process that he had neglected so far.
Noticing this, he was excited. Although it was painful, he was gaining something from it, which also implied that they were able to continue their escape.
"They are not bad," one of the pursuers praised them with laughter. "We have chased them for three hours now, and they’re still going strong. Some of the other hunters have already dropped out of the chase because their mounts cannot keep up."
"I know," another agreed, "a Primordial Beast is indeed different from a Fierce Beast. Although it is only equivalent to a Sky Warrior, it can move as fast as our Fierce Beasts with strength similar to Heavenly Warriors, not to mention it also has the energy to prolong the pursuit for this long."
"Well, it does not matter," a third man shrugged his shoulders. "It might be a Primordial Beast, but it is still only as strong as a Sky Warrior. Eventually, that dog will run out of Qi and then we will catch up to them. It is just a matter of time."
These Primordial Beast Hunters were certain of their victory so they took the time to chat amongst themselves mid-flight. It would only be a matter of time before they catch up at this pace.
"It is a shame we have to kill the Primordial Beast," a fourth man that was pursuing them lamented. "That thing is a flying black dog. I have never heard about this species before, but it is certain that it would be worth a lot. Since it is a dog, it would be great in battle, and the wings give it the abilities of a flying beast. In every aspect, it is a perfect pet."
"We can always try to subdue it," the second man suggested. "We might be able to capture it alive and have a Diviner tame it for us. We can share it between us since we are all working together."
"Dream on, it’s obviously the Crimson Devil’s bodyguard. I am sure it is someone that the Ice Harpy has prepared for him," the third man interjected. "Since this is the case, I doubt he will give up easily and allow us to subdue him. Especially not since we are killing the Crimson Devil as soon as we get close enough."
"I know I am not supposed to say this, but have any of you ever considered that there is a chance that Xiao Lei will take his vengeance on us for killing his beloved nephew? We all know he doted on him more than anything else... he might even forgive him for having colluded with Primordial Beasts."
"Don't say things like that!" the first person scolded him. "Xiao Lei is a victim of the Primordial Beasts' schemes. He would kill that Crimson Devil himself if he had the chance."
At that point, the group looked back at Xue Wei and Hei Gou, only for their faces to turn slightly pale.
Hei Gou had accelerated in a flash. In an instant, he had moved so fast that only a black blur could be seen in the distance.
"How did he do that?!" the pursuing beast hunters were shocked. "That dog is only as strong as a Sky Warrior. Its strength should be used up by now, but it is moving faster? Can we even catch up now? It must be their final desperate attempt to escape, so the dog probably can't continue at this speed for a long time, right?"
They were all speechless and waited for the sudden boost in strength to stop, but that never happened. They urged their beasts to move faster, but even then it was impossible to catch up to Xue Wei and Hei Gou.