Da Xuan Martial Saint

The Qiankun Grandmaster, under the age of thirty-two, who had cultivated the Qiankun Martial Body, could directly withstand a strike from the Heavenly Demon Black Tortoise. This level of strength far surpassed any top grandmaster, making him the unrivaled leader among all the grandmasters of Cold North Path.

Even considering the whole Da Xuan Dynasty, Chen Mu's strength was now sufficient to rank him among the top ten grandmasters!

In the future, once Chen Mu's Martial Body had further solidified and he had cultivated the Qiankun Domain, he would undisputedly become the number one grandmaster in the world, for every grandmaster throughout the history of the Da Xuan Calendar who had taken the path of Qiankun had ascended to the top position on the grandmaster list without exception.

"One."

Chen Mu did not pause but continued to lead Murong Yan away through the Earth's Veins to a distant place.
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This place was too close to the camp of the Foreign Race; above them, the Black Tortoise was engaging with the elite military formations of the Foreign Race, and naturally, the area directly below was no place of safety, especially since he was accompanied by Murong Yan, for whom he had some concerns.

Murong Yan belonged to the Qian Heaven lineage and was severely restricted underground, possessing hardly any strength. The residual shocks from the battle between the military formations and the Black Tortoise above posed a considerable threat to her, and he had to stay vigilant to protect her.

Swish! Swish!

Chen Mu moved extremely fast, leading Murong Yan about a hundred zhang deep through the Earth's Veins, shooting through like two swift fish, moving rapidly into the distance while also beginning to feel several formidable impacts bursting from the ground above.

Clearly, the Black Tortoise had already clashed with the military formation of the Foreign Race, causing shockwaves that almost seeped into a hundred zhang below the ground.

However, Chen Mu did not pay attention to the surface. Such a battle between the Heavenly Demon and the Foreign Race's military formation would not yield a quick victory. Having glanced briefly at the military formation previously, which was merely about twenty to thirty thousand soldiers, they were not enough to easily suppress a Heavenly Demon, even if it was in a weakened state; both sides had the capacity to strike against each other.

Behind them,

Wu Gu Marquis, with his hands behind his back, likewise traveled through the Earth's Veins, tracking the aura of Chen Mu and Murong Yan.

His method of earth escaping, however, slightly differed from Chen Mu's. Chen Mu simply ignored the underground layers of mud and rock, turning these substantial layers into something akin to muddy water, through which he could swim directly, whereas Wu Gu Marquis split the mud and rocks naturally to the sides wherever he went, creating a gap for himself.

The Martial Arts of the Foreign Race were actually not off-track from those of Da Xuan, except for many of the most ancient witchcraft techniques, including the iconic "Imperial Heaven Houtu," which actually corresponded to Qian Heaven Kun Earth in Qiankun, with only minor differences.

The lineage that Wu Gu Marquis had cultivated was one of them, "Houtu," very similar to the Grandmasters of Kun Earth. If a comparison had to be made, he was actually most similar to Qin Mengjun, except that Qin Mengjun practiced the opposite, Qian Heaven.

"Qiankun Eight Phases, using everything under heaven?"

Wu Gu Marquis chased from behind while perceiving Chen Mu's movements through the Earth's Veins, estimating that the distance between them was only about a hundred zhang, although Chen Mu's speed underground turned out to be faster than he had anticipated.

As a master of the Houtu lineage who held the absolute geographic advantage, he was still unable to quickly catch up and capture Chen Mu within a short period of time and had to chase at full speed through the Earth's Veins.

However,

on realizing that Chen Mu's speed in the Earth's Veins seemed to still be a tad slower, Wu Gu Marquis's eyes flickered with a subtle gleam. He immediately released his Houtu Domain, boosting his speed a bit further, and dashed straight towards Chen Mu.

Chen Mu's escape technique was indeed unusually fast; he could almost match him even in the depths. Once a certain distance was established, and Chen Mu left the underground to ascend and escape through the air, then Wu Gu Marquis would not be able to catch up no matter what.

Or rather,

even if he could catch up by then, he would no longer pursue.

He wasn't foolish; as a top grandmaster of the Houtu lineage, he feared almost nothing underground, which was why he pursued underground from the start, unwilling to let Chen Mu escape.

But if they were in the sky, away from the ground, his power would be greatly reduced, and Chen Mu was no easy target, being among the top three on the Wind Cloud List, not at all malleable. Regardless of whether he could defeat Chen Mu, capturing him and Murong Yan in the sky was nothing short of a pipe dream!

It was precisely because Chen Mu chose to escape through the earth that he sensed the opportunity and decisively gave chase.

Swish! Swish!

Wu Gu Marquis, with his Houtu Domain activated, accelerated his speed and quickly closed the distance between himself, Chen Mu, and Murong Yan.

One hundred twenty zhang,

One hundred zhang,

Eighty zhang,

...

Finally, the distance closed to within twenty zhang!

Within this range, the coverage of the Houtu Domain already reached where Chen Mu and Murong Yan were.

"Here it comes."

Murong Yan sensed something amiss, a serious look flashed in her eyes.

At this distance, even though she was extremely limited underground, she could still sense Wu Gu Marquis's presence, with the oppression of the Houtu Domain almost enveloping the area, giving her an exceedingly uncomfortable feeling.

If they were on the surface, in the skies above, she would not hesitate to activate her Qian Heaven Domain to counter it, but now at a hundred zhang underground, with Qian Heaven cut off, she was fundamentally unable to deploy her Domain. With the Houtu Domain encroaching, even though the opponent had not yet attacked, she still felt an overwhelming sense of drowning.

However,

with Chen Mu beside her, seeing his consistently calm demeanor, she felt much more composed.

This aura was extraordinary, the domain was likely the Houtu Domain, possibly belonging to the famously distinguished "Wu Gu Marquis" from the Four Departments of the Foreign Race, truly one of the top grandmasters, an existence comparable to Qin Mengjun and Jiang Changsheng.