NINE STAR HEGEMON BODY ARTS

Deep within the dense forest, Ying Hou was looking down at Long Chen's tracks. His expression was so dark that it was frightening. That was because he had realized Long Chen was extremely crafty. Sometimes he would purposely leave footprints to mislead him.

He would follow those footprints and find that any trace of Long Chen completely disappeared after a while. After just a moment of thought, he realized that Long Chen must have backtracked into a previous location and once more fled in a different direction.

These footprints were purposely a bit more clear to intentionally let Ying Hou see them. Now he had to go back and spend even more searching for where Long Chen had split off into a different direction.

Ying Hou had a stomach full of anger with nowhere to release it. Long Chen was too cunning. Sometimes the footprints he left behind intentionally would actually be the direction he went, so Ying Hou couldn't even rule that out.

In order to tell his true direction, Ying Hou had no choice but to patiently follow along slowly. He could sense Long Chen wasn't that far, but he was unable to find him. He was so angry that his lungs felt like they were about to explode.

A whole day had already pa.s.sed since they had entered the forest. Ying Hou was starting to get impatient. But he also had no way around this. He could only continue searching for his tracks.

In just this manner, the two of them continued playing hide-and-seek in the endless forest. Although Long Chen had a slight advantage at this time, he didn't dare be the slightest bit overconfident.

If Long Chen wanted to, he was actually able to quickly break away from Ying Hou's search. However, he refused to do that. He only continued to keep Ying Hou at a distance of five miles.

That was the perfect distance from which a Muscle Rebirth expert could sense an enemy was in the vicinity, but would be unable to pinpoint that enemy's location. This was done intentionally by Long Chen.

After sending Long Chen to kill Xia Changfeng, the fourth prince had sent Ying Hou to kill him. This meant the fourth prince was no longer worried about his father.

In other words, the entire Long household was in danger. He had to continue this in order to stall Ying Hou. One reason for this stalling was that as long as Aman did what he had told him, he would quickly return to the capital.

Aman would bring his household's people to the alchemist guild. With his relations.h.i.+p to grandmaster Yun Qi, Yun Qi would definitely not ignore them. At that time, even the fourth prince would have to reconsider whether he should make any moves against them.

The other reason was that if Ying Hou continued not to return to the capital, the fourth prince who hadn't received a report of his death would definitely not attack the Long household.

He carefully continued advancing. Long Chen suddenly saw a huge tree with a fist-sized beetle on it.

Seeing that beetle, Long Chen's eyes brightened. He recognized that beetle as the 'horned bull beetle'. That was because it had a horn on its nose that was just like a bull's horn.

This was a very mildly tempered beetle. Its movements were especially slow. But it shouldn't be underestimated for being small. Its strength was actually greatly shocking.

Just such a small beetle was capable of moving ten to twenty kilograms. He smiled, "Hehe, little guy, help me out a bit."

Ignoring its outrage, Long Chen picked up the little beetle and placed it into his robes. Once more advancing another mile, he found a good location and stopped.

He took out a thin thread from his spatial ring. That was black silk, and despite its thinness, it was extremely st.u.r.dy. Just one thread of it could withstand half a ton of force. Most adventurers would also keep a bit of it on hand.

Whether it was to use as rope or to make a snare, it was extremely convenient. Most importantly, it was made from black silkworms that were raised by humans, so its price was extremely low.

Long Chen looked around and nodded in approval. The black silk's color was not easy to notice against the background.

He found a tree brush around the size of an egg and gently pushed on it, feeling a good elasticity. He lightly twined the black silk around the bush.

By tying it back with the black silk, the bush was just like an arm ready to pitch. Once it lost the force of the black silk, it would immediately shoot forward.

Long Chen did all this extremely carefully. The slightest mistake might make a large enough noise to attract Ying Hou.

But thinking about the result of this trap if it worked, that little danger was definitely worth it.

He finished setting up his 'slingshot'. Looking around, both sides were covered by th.o.r.n.y thistles and there was only one straight path through this area.

While people were rus.h.i.+ng they would naturally choose the easiest path. So this was the ideal place to place the trigger.

Putting up a couple obstacles around his 'slingshot' to protect it, he confirmed the distance. No matter how Ying Hou arrived, he would definitely step upon a certain root.

He took out the horned beetle and bound one of its legs with the black silk. Placing it on top a large tree, the beetle began to slowly crawl, but it wasn't randomly crawling around. It was crawling up to a spot ten meters up on the tree.

That was because Long Chen had placed a petal from a b.u.t.terfly Orchid there. That was a kind of medicinal ingredient. That petal contained a very rich sweetness.

It was also the favorite food of the horned bull beetle. Although that petal was half withered, with the beetle's amazing sense of smell, it immediately noticed it and began to crawl over to it with all its might.

Its speed was extremely slow though. In only managed to reach there after the time it took for an incense stick to burn.

But just as it was preparing to eat its favorite food, Long Chen picked up the pitiful fellow and pulled it away.

Long Chen made some calculations and tied a knot over the beetle, keeping it in place. That knot had a small loop in it. If that loop was touched then the knot would immediately loosen, releasing it.

After carefully setting up all these preparations, he placed a small stone on the other side of the black silk. He confirmed everything was set.

Once the beetle crawled up to the b.u.t.terfly Orchid's petal, it would activate and release the knot, causing the stone to fall to the ground.

Long Chen once more looked over his trap from start to end. A strange smiled appeared on his face. He found a large leaf and then sneakily hid behind a large tree.

He watched for a moment as the beetle continued according to its original route, crawling towards the petal. But due to it not pulling on a stone, its speed had slowed down a bit.

Long Chen nodded and quietl retreated. Now there was only one tiny crucial item remaining. As for whether the trap would succeed, that would depend on Ying Hou. He stealthily disappeared deeper into the forest.

An hour later, Ying Hou, who was searching for any of Long Chen's tracks, suddenly heard a strange sound, the sound of a stone rolling.

That sound was extremely quiet, but within the keen listening ears of Ying Hou, it was practically like a thunderclap.

Ying Hou didn't even think about it before rus.h.i.+ng over. He was just like a wild gale, and three or four miles was instantly traversed.

That sound had definitely not been natural. He knew it was the sound of someone accidentally tripping on a stone.

Within this silent forest, other than him, the only one who would make such a noise was Long Chen.

Thinking of Long Chen, flames of fury rose inside him. Last night he hadn't gotten the slightest bit of sleep and hadn't even had time to rest his wounds.

Those d.a.m.n beasts had become enraged and continuously attacked him. Although they were unable to pose any danger to him, they had troubled his internal injury.

It was impossible for a medicinal pill alone to completely heal his injury. He had to combine it with spiritual qi in order to recover. But he hadn't had any time or opportunity to do so.

He was forced into being unable to maintain his peak combat ability, causing him to feel a great sense of unease. So he urgently needed to kill Long Chen and return to the capital to recover.

In just a couple breaths' time, Ying Hou arrived at where the sound had come from. But there was no sign of Long Chen anywhere. Under a tree was the rock that had made the noise, and it seemed the rock had writing on it.

Ying Hou looked over the surroundings and his expression became ugly when he saw no sign of Long Chen. He knew that he had most likely been played.

He slowly walked over to that rock, wanting to know what Long Chen had wanted to show to him. He had just walked a couple steps when he suddenly stepped on a string that activated the short brush not far from him. A ball of something wrapped in a green leaf shot towards him.

Ying Hou coldly laughed and raised his sword, slicing that ball in half.

"Hmph, you little insec-"

He hadn't expected that the moment his sword touched that ball, the ball exploded, filling the air with juice.

Due to that happening so fast and being so close, Ying Hou was unable to get away in time and was completely drenched by that juice. An incomparably disgusting smell filled the air.

Some of it had also gotten into his mouth, so now his mouth was also full of that disgusting stink. Ying Hou hastily retreated, his first thought being that it was poison.

But although that thing had been incomparably disgusting, it didn't have a trace of poison in it. His spiritual qi was circulating completely normally.

Now that he had time, he noticed that the rock on the ground had flipped over to reveal the following words:

"Just a small gift which is unworthy of you. Originally I wanted to send you a large t.u.r.d, but recently my stomach hasn't been feeling well. Please forgive my helplessness."

Looking at the words, Ying Hou's face suddenly turned completely white. Looking at the sticky residue left on his clothes, his stomach began to heave and he vomited.

"LONG CHEN!!!"

Ying Hou's incredibly angry roar practically blew apart the clouds. It caused the entire forest to shake and countless birds and beasts were frightened into flight.

Long Chen was on a distant large tree watching those birds. He smiled heartily. A bit of his anger from being chased by Ying Hou was finally relieved.

Ever since that day, Ying Hou's face became even more dark and Long Chen became even more careful, not daring to set up such a trap again.

If he ended up making slight mistake when setting it up, he would definitely be doomed. That small trap had been to relieve his anger and to increase his self-confidence.

Since he had managed to do that, it wouldn't be smart to set something like that up again. Only by being careful could he survive. He didn't want the advantage he had worked so hard to create to be reversed.

One fled while one chased. Eight days quickly pa.s.sed. Over that time, Long Chen fled during the day and recuperated during the night after using all kinds of techniques to hide from the wild beasts.

Due to the a.s.sistance of his medicinal pills, Long Chen's recovery was extremely quick. His right hand's meridians had almost completely recovered. His inner injuries had also nearly healed.

Ever since the first night where he had drawn over many beasts, Ying Hou had become smarter and also rested during the night. He would jump up into a high tree, using the time to rest and heal his wounds. His efficiency was also very fast.

This continued up till the ninth day. Long Chen was crossing a small stream when he sensed a strange movement above his head.