Chapter 370: Too fast! Too fast?

BOOMM!!

Sonic booms exploded in the atmosphere as twelve figures flitted through the sky at extreme speeds!

"W-What a casual manner of flying, befitting someone of his caliber!" Xeng Guan said as he swallowed a mouthful of saliva in disbelief.

This was because Duan Li, or was now known to the Extermination Knights of the Liu Empire as 'Supreme Elder', whom they had mistakenly thought was the Great Patriarch Liu, was flying with an unusual pose, which was sitting cross-legged while folding both arms on his chest!

Xeng Guan was the Captain Commander of the Extermination Knights and his cultivation level was the most powerful of them all. In addition, his silver full plated armor was a personal gift from the Liu Emperor herself after he won the title from a free-for-all battle with his peers back then as a testament and recognition of his powers!

But even he would not be able to fly at the speed they were travelling now if he tried to mimic the pose of the Supreme Elder leading in front of them! After all, not only that the sparrow flying pose was the most efficient in terms of speed and aerodynamics, the majority of the force needed to accelerate one during flight was through expelling spiritual Qi from the numerous acupoints below the feet and palms!

Thus, how was the Supreme Elder able to do it?

The rest of the Extermination Knights also could not help but be further awed by this and thought, "Could it be that he channeled his spiritual Qi to the acupoints on his back and used them to fly?"

It isn't impossible to do that but...

Such a method of flying would be far too wasteful on one's spiritual Qi unless one were to have a huge reserve of it in their dantian!

Knowing that the means of the Supreme Elder was already someone beyond their league, their respect towards the other party subconsciously grew further in deference!

In reality, their point was valid and it was indeed wasteful for Duan Li to be flying in such a manner with their current travelling speed, but Duan Li was someone who cultivated three dantian with a Qi cycle rate that could replenish his dantian in one breath!

This means that his reserve of spiritual Qi was practically infinite, so long as all his nine orifices could still breath!

But of course, the Extermination Knights could not possibly know of this.

After all, Duan Li had modified the cultivation technique he was using right now so that the spiritual Qi inside his body appeared to be originating from one dantian, such that not even soul sense could uncover his true cultivation realm if he does not wills it! This was the most important aspect in his current disguise; to appear mysterious and unfathomable in the eyes of others!

"I've finally found a method to fool soul sense from determining my real cultivation state.." Duan Li nodded in satisfaction. This problem has been a constant headache for him previously because others could easily perceive his cultivation realm. Moreover, Nascent Soul realm could even tell that he cultivated three of his dantian by using their soul sense if he was not guarded against them!

Thus, through redirecting the spiritual Qi from his two other dantians using his modified Qi pathways and circulating them into the same path that his lower abdomen dantian uses, he would be able to appear 'normal' to others!

Of course, Duan Li's term for 'normal' was subjective, as it was not the same as others!

This was because combining three sources of spiritual Qi into one flow radically changed Duan Li's aura, such that he appeared to be no less than a Pinnacle Stage Nascent Soul realm experts! However, at the same time, his aura also became old, archaic and withered. The sort of sensation that could give one as reaching the limits of their life span!

When the Extermination Knights felt this, they became a little emotional and sad that the expert in front of them will soon leave the world like others before him!

Such was the tragic fate of the world; that no matter how one cultivate and extended their lifespans, they would still be unable to run away from the embrace of death!

Completely oblivious to the tumultous emotions of the eleven Extermination Knights behind him, Duan Li yawned under his helmet and felt a little sleepy. Their journey now was already two hours and it would take another four hours for them to reach their destination.

Since this was the case, Duan Li decided to turn his autopilot on and went into a deep sleep as they continued their supersonic flight, splitting numerous big clouds into two and disippating some!

...

"We are almost there... everyone, keep going! We need to catch up to the Supreme Elder!" Xeng Guan said as his breath along with others behind him became increasingly heavy.

They did not know the reason why, but the Supreme Elder in front of them decided to gradually increase his flight speed over time!

At first, the speed increase was only small so they were still able to catch up, but the change was constant and their gap right now was almost a kilometer apart despite them channeling their spiritual Qi onto their feet and palms at maximum power!

How could this be?

One has to remember that they were top notch experts within the Liu Empire, but despite trying their best, they were still unable to catch up, not to mention that the other party was flying with such a pose!

With their current blazing flight speed, their armors had already shown a slight deformation and glowed orange slightly from the extreme temperature due to the increasing resistance with the air! It was only fortunate that they were not travelling with their robes, otherwise, they would be labelled as shameful and perverted exhibitionist due to flying naked in the air as their robes would have been teared into pieces at such speed!

"The Supreme Elder is definitely a terrifying figure!" everyone said in their mind. They could not help but thought that the Supreme Elder was still a little displeased with them from their previous behaviors, so they dare not complained.

"If we continue travelling with this speed, we wouldn't have enough spiritual Qi for batte later!" You Wing said.

"Hmph! Who was it that brought this situation upon us? You still want to complain? Have you not had enough of creating trouble for us?" the rest of them replied to him sharply. They felt a little angry at this comrade of theirs.

"I- that's not what I mean.." You Wing lowered his head in shame.

One hour later, they finally saw a congregation of black dots on the landscape from the distance! This was the combined army of the Xian and Yuan Empire, roughly totaling to about 800,000 soldiers!

"Their empires are really in a league of their own.." the Extermination Knights swallowed a mouthful of saliva as they witnessed this scene nervously.

This was a staggering number of cultivators, even if the majority were only at Qi Condensation realm! Their Liu Empire could only perhaps produce half of that numbers at best, and to make matters worse, this wasn't even the full extent of the army from the Xian and Yuan Empire!

It was no wonder why they always heard foreigners from other empires saying that their Liu Empire and their neighbour Jiu Empire was a backwater nation!

"Let's descend down and get ready- Ah? Supreme Elder? Where are you going?" Xeng Guan was dumbstruck to see that their Supreme Elder was still bolting through the atmosphere at full speed despite reaching their destination!

At this rate, the Supreme Elder will pass by that army!

What is going on?

...

On the ground where the combined army of the Xian and Yuan Empire were marching, around 100 cultivators that seemed to be their leaders also noticed the arrival of the Extermination Knights from the distance.

"Look, here they come!"

"Hahahaha! Fools! Coming to their own death!"

"They must be eager to die so early!"

Each of them was a Nascent Soul realm experts while some were already one foot into that realm, thus the Extermination Knights did not pose any sort of threat to them at all, this was especially the case when they could only see twelve figures coming towards their direction!

But then, they realized that something was amiss.

"Hey, why does it seem like they are travelling at super speed?"

"Look! One of them was even far off from the others behind him by at least 2 kilometers!"

"Are they chasing that man?"

"I don't know, it could be just some random people playing tag.."

"Ah? But I think those armors are only worn by the Extermination Knights according to our intel.."

"That person at the front seemed to be flying in a lotus position. Is he a flying buddha?"

"Flying buddha your head! The correct term is monk you fool!"

"Look! The rest behind him are already slowing down and descending!"

"They are coming in too fast! They are going to collide with the lands!"

"Too fast! Too fast!"

BOOMM!! BAM!! BAM!!

Just like that eleven of the Extermination Knights behind Duan Li crashed onto the ground because they did not have enough time to slow down their descent and created a mess in the landscape with debris and dust!

"Puff!" they stood from the ground among the sand and dust with light-headedness as they clutched at their head, their footing unstable like a drunkard.

It was fortunate that their armors absorbed the brunt of the impact from their crash, but the resulting vibrations inside their armors caused them to feel ringing in their ears!

Furthermore, they were breathing so heavy and was desperate to catch their breath like mortals that just completed a one kilometer sprint!

"..." the hundred or so experts could only become speechless at this terrible mess!

What the heck? Are they amatures?

Who in the world would be travelling at such speed only to crash like that?

"Hey guys! That guy just went pass by us!" one of them pointed to the sky as everyone raised their head to see that the person had bolted through the air above them without a hint of slowing down!

"Woaa!! Watch out!" they screamed while clutching at their head as they saw the person smashing through a pack of migrating birds in the air like it was none of his father's business!

"Nooo!! Birdie!!" some of them felt a little aggrieved by this horrendous sight and felt that they would be having nightmares from witnessing such brutality!

Meanwhile, Duan Li was still sleeping soundly as his armors were now covered with bird feathers while still bolting in the air at full speed!

...