Chapter 547: Repeatedly Encountering Opportunities

Back in the present, Kang Village's forces had suffered heavy casualties.

Si, who had been secretly observing, was also seething with rage. He had never imagined that Han Yi could truly summon fire from the heavens, just like a deity. Not only had the plan to ambush and kill Han Yi failed, but even Zhu Village, where he had lived and loved since childhood, was almost completely destroyed in the catastrophe. Many familiar faces had already been reduced to broken, charred corpses.

Anger, jealousy, resentment… All these emotions surged through Si's mind, ultimately coalescing into a single cry: "Kill him! Kill him!"

In the vastness of the night, Han Yi had completely vanished without a trace. However, Si had served as High Priest for decades, and his methods of communing with spirits were genuine. Although the energy fluctuations around Han Yi differed from those of the deity Si worshipped, he nonetheless followed the faint residual ripples in the air, tracking Han Yi until he finally caught up.

"Perish! So-called deities have no place on this earth!" Si's face was contorted with malice as he uttered the words he had suppressed in his heart for so long. As he chanted continuously, Han Yi was horrified to discover that the wind in the air was steadily gathering towards Si's hand. Once compressed to its extreme, it instantly launched towards Han Yi.

"So Providence can be used this way?" Han Yi was both astonished and pleased. Even as another wound opened on his body, Han Yi's eyes grew increasingly bright. As he dodged, he sensed and learned Si's method of manipulating wind blades. When he was bleeding profusely and on the verge of collapse, he finally succeeded in his attempt.

When he first summoned a wind blade, its color was more profound than the one Si had used, and its power was far greater. It whistled through the air, and after shattering the wind blade Si had released, its force remained undiminished. In his opponent's astonished and resentful eyes, it pierced Si's body, delivering a fatal blow.

Han Yi, covered in wounds, breathed a sigh of relief and fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke, he discovered that his injuries had completely healed overnight. Unable to pinpoint the cause, Han Yi didn't dwell on it. He simply continued his flight into the uninhabited wilderness.

But soon, he discovered that search parties were everywhere, actively hunting him down. That night, the spectacle of falling meteors had been truly magnificent. The destruction of one village and the severe devastation of another simply could not be kept secret. As a result, rumors of a "deity's arrival" quickly spread throughout the wilderness.

Regardless of whether Han Yi's divine identity was true or false, his ability to summon wind and rain, and to make meteors crash to the earth, was undeniably real. If he could be controlled, unifying the wilderness would no longer be a dream, both by right and by might. Driven by the ambition to claim the title of "Emperor," almost every tribe launched a hunt for Han Yi. His purely human appearance was also far too conspicuous in this wilderness teeming with demonic beasts. There was simply no way to conceal it.

To save his own life, Han Yi was forced to flee in constant disarray. Fortunately, with Providence protecting him, his sense of impending danger was incredibly keen. Moreover, ever since his battle with Si, Han Yi had not only mastered wind blades but also learned the art of controlling wind. While not as swift as a cultivator's flight techniques, it was significantly faster than simply traveling on foot. Thus, despite being constantly harried by his pursuers, Han Yi was never actually caught.

"Wind, water, fire, thunder..." Han Yi muttered to himself one day, lying in a freshly dug underground den. A faint flame flickered at his fingertip, illuminating the dark space around him. "They are all parts of this world. With the aid of Providence, I can exert control over these energies. Using them to eliminate enemies poses no problem."

"According to the 'Sutra of Providence,' the earliest cultivators seemed to be just like this: they sought the authority of Heaven to manipulate all things. Back then, they seemed to call themselves sorcerers."

Having grown accustomed to a life of constant hiding and wandering the wilderness, he had lost track of how much time had passed. Even though this world lacked spiritual energy, he had accomplished something that seemed possible only for cultivators. "If I can fully integrate with the fragmented Providence of this world, then the power I'll be able to display here will be comparable to that of an Immortal Celestial Venerable in the Xuanhuang Realm."

A look of longing flashed in his eyes, and just as Han Yi rekindled his hope for the future, he suddenly felt the ground begin to tremble faintly. "Thump! Thump!" Thunderous footsteps echoed from afar, growing steadily louder, seeming to approach continuously. Han Yi's expression subtly shifted, as a tide of dread surged through his heart. Cursing under his breath, Han Yi burst out of the ground, quickly discerned his direction, and dashed away using his wind manipulation.

Close behind him, in relentless pursuit, was a white elephant as colossal as a mountain. The white elephant's body was immense, yet its speed was remarkably swift. Ignoring all obstacles in its path, it thundered forward on all four legs, charging directly towards Han Yi. Han Yi pushed his wind manipulation technique to its limit, yet he still couldn't shake off the white elephant. The chase between the two also attracted the attention of the surrounding demonic beasts. They quickly spotted Han Yi and joined the chase.

As more and more demonic beasts joined the encirclement, Han Yi's available escape routes rapidly diminished. Feeling cornered, a hint of desperation flashed in Han Yi's eyes. The amount of Providence he had absorbed during this period had already reached a very considerable level. If fully unleashed, it would be enough to cause a cataclysmic disaster, burying all those cursed creatures beneath landslides and quakes. However, doing so would not only render all his efforts futile but also cause him to suffer a severe backlash, leaving him gravely wounded.

Just as Han Yi hesitated for a moment, he suddenly sensed a faint ripple of spiritual energy nearby. Although extremely weak, Han Yi, who had long been deprived of spiritual energy, knew he couldn't be mistaken. The presence of spiritual energy meant he could cast spells. Even the weakest Qi Condensation spell was far more potent than anything these demonic beasts, who relied solely on their brute physical strength, could muster!

Overjoyed, Han Yi immediately raced off in the direction from which the spiritual energy emanated. He finally halted at the edge of a deep ravine. "This place..." Han Yi felt the faint, flowing spiritual energy below, which seemed to halt just outside the ravine's boundary, and his heart surged with delight. "This... could it be a passage to the Xuanhuang Realm?"

Ever since arriving in this minor realm, Han Yi had continuously focused on returning to the Xuanhuang Realm. However, he had searched all around Zhu Village without success in finding the passage he came through. This minor realm was also quite vast, and for him to find a way back on his own was truly like looking for a needle in a haystack. Yet, unexpectedly, today, in his desperate straits, a twist of fate had led him coincidentally to the path back.

"Indeed, Heaven has not abandoned me!" Han Yi glanced back at the throng of demonic beasts scrambling to catch up. He scoffed coldly in his heart: "Just wait until I return, achieve mastery through cultivation, and come back fully prepared to settle scores with all of you!"

With that thought, Han Yi plunged headfirst into the deep ravine below.