Crossing Over: The Strongest Mage

"Haha! In the mountains, I was always chasing wild beasts, but this is the first time I'm chasing someone." Yan Huo leaped lightly and landed at the top of the tree outside the courtyard. He looked towards the east and said, "Why is this person moving so slowly? They're not even as quick as the wild beasts in the mountains. Should I wait a bit longer for them to run? It's too easy if I catch them too soon!" Yan Huo then turned his gaze to the west. "On the other hand, my second brother and Yang Lue are quite fast. It shouldn't be difficult to catch that person. I'll wait a little longer." He stood in the tree, waiting for the person to run farther.

"Oh my god! Master Yan, how are you standing on the tree? Where are Master and Second Young Master Liu?" Zhang Cheng, who had entered the courtyard to serve the meal, was surprised to see that the three were missing. Looking up, he saw Yan Huo standing in the tree, which startled him so much that he nearly lost his wits. He quickly ran to the wall and shouted at Yan Huo, "Master Yan, what are you doing up there? What happened to your master and Second Young Master Liu?"

"Don't worry, they went to chase someone, and I'll go after the other one. We'll be back shortly," Yan Huo reassured him.

But Zhang Cheng wasn't convinced. His primary concern was that if something happened to Yan Huo, his master would definitely break his legs. Without hesitation, he climbed the wooden ladder next to the wall, crying out, "My young master! How did you get up there? Come down quickly!"

At that moment, Yan Huo saw the person running eastward already use lightness skill to leap over a twenty-meter high city wall. Yan Huo immediately gathered his internal energy and prepared to pursue.

"Yan..." The words Zhang Cheng was about to shout were cut off by Yan Huo's sudden movement.

"By the gods!" Zhang Cheng, who had been with Yang Lue for many years and had seen many skilled practitioners, had never seen anything like Yan Huo's ability. Yan Huo seemed to leap effortlessly, and in the blink of an eye, his figure had already moved over a hundred meters away. Zhang Cheng understood that the higher a person's martial arts skills, the better their lightness skill, but this was beyond anything he'd expected.

Yan Huo had originally thought that he could quickly catch up to the person, but what he hadn't expected was that the person's leap had alarmed the city guards. Though the person had successfully passed, when Yan Huo reached the city wall, he was greeted by a storm of arrows.

"Who goes there? How dare you jump over the city wall so boldly? If you don't want to die, come down and surrender immediately!" a military officer on the city wall shouted at Yan Huo.

Yan Huo, who didn't understand the importance of the city wall, calmly replied, "I'm here to chase the person ahead of me."

"Ridiculous! I know you're together!" The officer, who had failed to stop the person earlier, couldn't afford to let Yan Huo pass as well. If he did, his career would be over. "I can't be bothered to argue with you. If I keep talking, I'll lose track of that person!" Yan Huo dismissed the surrounding soldiers and leaped towards the city outskirts.

"Fire the arrows! Fire!" The officer ordered, panic in his voice.

But none of the arrows even grazed Yan Huo's clothes. The dozens of soldiers on the city wall could only watch helplessly as Yan Huo soared outside the city.

Beyond the eastern city wall, two hundred meters away, was a dense forest. A road leading to Xiangcheng cut through the forest, splitting it into two parts. When Yan Huo was on the city wall, he saw the person enter the left side of the forest. However, after circling the small forest for a while, Yan Huo still couldn't find any trace of them.

After passing through the forest, there was a vast expanse of farmland with several rural households clustered together.

"Strange! How could the person disappear after crossing the forest? Did I lose them? No, that's impossible!" Yan Huo muttered to himself. Just as he was puzzled, a faint breeze blew toward him, carrying a trace of blood in the air.

"Where is this smell of blood coming from? It seems to be from the right side of the forest. What could it be?" Yan Huo leapt over the official road and entered the right-side forest. The forest on this side was located near the foothills of the Yan Mountain, and as soon as Yan Huo entered, he immediately felt the stench of blood become even stronger. He paused for a moment and listened carefully. From deeper within the forest, he could hear not only the scent of blood but also the sharp sounds of violent collisions, followed by a continuous rising and falling motion.

"Could it be hunters chasing wild beasts? No, wild beasts prefer staying in the mountains. They wouldn't come to a plain like this, let alone a forest," Yan Huo thought, frowning. Having dealt with wild animals in the mountains for many years, he knew their habits well, which made him even more puzzled.

"What could it be?" His curiosity drove him to investigate further. Yan Huo restrained his aura and, like a hunter stalking his prey, silently approached the source of the sounds.

Meanwhile, Wang Mang was severely injured. From the time he was born until he made his name in the martial world, he had never been injured this badly. His internal energy was nearly depleted. Even when he had once fought alone against thirteen Magic Eagles, he hadn't felt this drained.

Wang Mang knew that he was going to die here today. Although he was only a few hundred meters from Yan City, from safety, that small distance might as well have been a vast chasm. No matter what he did, he couldn't cross it. He even thought that if the enemies let him go now, he still wouldn't make it back to Yan City alive. Normally, if he died at any other time, at the hands of any other opponent, he would die without regret. But today was different. If he died here, he wouldn't be able to face the two hundred seventy-one lives of the Wang family that he carried on his shoulders. Even if he died, he had to bring the important item and crucial information back to Yan City. Otherwise, the tragedy of the Wang family would repeat itself.

Surrounded by over a dozen skilled martial artists, Wang Mang knew he wouldn't be able to kill another enemy, yet he still fought back, still evaded, because he refused to accept his fate. After being struck by an enemy's sword in the abdomen, Wang Mang finally collapsed to the ground. The dozen or so enemies surrounding him, all dressed in black with their faces covered, stopped their attacks. It wasn't out of mercy for Wang Mang, but because they had seen their leader's signal to stop.

The leader of the black-clad men stood at a distance under a tree, silently observing the battle as if he were an outsider. His subordinates knew that this was his way of not wanting to get blood on his white robes. Beside the white-robed leader stood another person. This man had a sharp, monkey-like face, and his thin frame was barely concealed by his gray outfit. This was the person Yan Huo had just lost track of.

The white-robed leader listened to the report from the gray-robed man and seemed unconcerned. He smiled lightly and said, "Heh heh! So what if he was discovered? As long as he returns, that's enough. I never expected you to do anything of value for me to watch anyway."