Chapter 273: Ghostrune Race
Xiang Shaoyun activated the white tiger essence within his second star and focused all his astral energy into the pair of wings, allowing himself to fly at a speed faster than even regular Kings.
If it wasn't for the injuries he had sustained, he would be even faster. There was a saying that one's potential was most easily triggered in the course of fleeing for one's life. That was very true.
Under such intense pressure, Xiang Shaoyun was able to dig out more of the hidden medicinal power in his body. Slowly, his internal organs healed, and with the spirit medicine he had dissolved from his astral cosmos sea working in tandem with his hidden medicinal power, he recovered considerably.
Behind him, roars of the old cannibal king rang out. After killing Xiong Bao, he was now chasing after the two escaping humans.
"Damn it! Why is he this fast?" Xiang Shaoyun cursed as he squeezed even more energy out to increase his speed.
The White Tiger Wings was worthy of being an innate ability of the white tigers. Xiang Shaoyun was only able to unleash a tiny part of its true prowess and was already flying at an incredibly astonishing speed. And since the old cannibal king had already sustained some injuries, he failed to catch up with Xiang Shaoyun immediately.
At this time, Liang Zhuangmin suddenly said, "Drop me. I can't drag you down!"
From how Liang Zhuangmin was saying these words in such a situation, one could see that he was a person of decent character. Xiang Shaoyun ignored him and continued flying at full speed, not daring to slow down for even an instant.
"Die, humans!" The old cannibal king had still managed to catch up. He slammed his scepter-like bone club forward, sending a ferocious cannibal head flying toward the two.
With his Nether Soul Domain, Xiang Shaoyun was able to sense the incoming attack. Even though he knew it was coming, he had no way of avoiding it. The only thing he could do was activate his Nether Dragon Soul Headband to protect the minds of both him and Liang Zhuangmin from the brutal energy.
Rumble!
Once again, Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin were hit. Both of them tumbled down from the sky. They crashed and coughed a copious amount of blood out. Just as the old cannibal king was about to follow up with more attacks, a phantom-like silhouette appeared and sent a massive boulder flying toward the old cannibal king.
The old cannibal king swung his bone club and smashed the boulder apart. But after destroying that one boulder, he found that even more boulders were flying toward him from all directions. A petite silhouette could be seen streaking amid the boulders. The silhouette was like a specter that one couldn't easily see.
But it was certain that this specter-like being was an enemy of the old cannibal king. Otherwise, this being wouldn't have attacked. Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin couldn't be bothered about who the newcomer was. They were more than happy to see someone slowing the old cannibal king down. They got back on their feet and started fleeing again.
After fleeing for an unknown amount of time, when they were nearly completely emptied of energy, they finally collapsed onto the ground. Fortunately, both of them were still clear-headed enough to remember that now was not the time to lose consciousness. Both of them started trying to recover from their exhaustion and injuries as quickly as possible.
Xiang Shaoyun was able to survive repeated attacks from the old cannibal king thanks to the armor he had received from the Zither Empress. The armor had resisted a large portion of the damage for him. Otherwise, he would have died by now.
By dissolving some spirit crystals and spirit medicines in his body, he circulated his energy through his nine stars and started recovering at a rapid speed. To the side, Liang Zhuangmin did not hold anything back and started using his own secret recovery techniques as well.
The two seemed to have completely forgotten where they were, fully focused on recovery. Only by recovering would they have more chance at survival. Meanwhile, a few specters were heading toward them from not far away.
These specters all had petite builds. They resemble humans, yet at the same time, they were completely different. They had large eyes, dark skin, long limbs, and a pair of butterfly-like wings. On their wings and faces, odd runes could be seen, causing them to look sinister and terrifying.
It was clear these were the ghostrunes. The ghostrunes were born with a uniquely powerful soul power that granted them telekinetic abilities. Their attacks were extremely hard to defend against, and their ghostrune wings similarly came with some odd abilities as well.
Those were what the ghostrunes had relied on to survive as a race. Naturally, their weakness was quite obvious as well. They were very weak in terms of defense and would almost always lose in close combat.
A short while ago, they had discovered Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin. That was why they were noiselessly approaching the two. This was not the territory of the ghostrunes. Rather, this was the border of the territories of the cannibals, demonic beasts, and ghostrunes.
Here, all three races could appear at any time. Thus, it was nothing weird for a group of ghostrunes to suddenly appear here. In any case, chaos had erupted in the Land of Soul Springs with the invasion of humans and the movement of the three native races.
When the ghostrunes got close, they started talking among themselves as they pointed at Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin. Not long after, one of them used his soul power and lifted two trunks before slamming them toward Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin.
The two trunks arrived before the two instantly. Just as the two were about to be hit, Xiang Shaoyun reacted. He jabbed with his finger, sending forth two finger beams.
Bang! Bang!
The two trunks exploded, and Xiang Shaoyun was able to clearly sense the ghostrunes around him with his Nether Soul Domain. Unfortunately, he still couldn't stand up and fight them as he was still in the midst of circulating his astral energy. If he did that, his injuries would worsen. Thus, he was forced to remain seated and be on the defensive.
The ghostrunes scattered in fear when the attack failed to hit, but when they found that both Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin were still not moving, they regained some of their courage.
Using their soul power, they started lifting numerous objects such as rocks, trunks, and soil and rained them down at Xiang Shaoyun and Liang Zhuangmin. It was obvious the cultivation realm of these ghostrunes were rather low as their attacks were quite weak and posed no threat to Xiang Shaoyun.
Still seated in the same place, Xiang Shaoyun lifted the Purple Lightning Saber with great difficulty before slashing at all the objects.
Liang Zhuangmin had also awakened, but when he wanted to help, Xiang Shaoyun stopped him, saying, "At least one of us has to recover his combat prowess."
Liang Zhuangmin gave Xiang Shaoyun a deep look before he swallowed another stalk of spirit medicine and resumed recovering. Xiang Shaoyun's injuries were worse than Liang Zhuangmin's. Thus, when he forced himself to defend against the attacks, his injuries worsened. Even so, he still persevered.
Just as he was about to fall, a roar suddenly rang out. The ghostrunes shivered when they heard the roar and fled far away. The ghostrunes feared the demonic beasts the most, as their innate talent wasn't too effective when fighting the demonic beasts. However, their soul power was the perfect weapon against the cannibals, whereas the cannibals' brute strength was the perfect weapon against the demonic beasts.
One could say that these three races were akin to a revolving circle countering each other.