The Boots of Wind

Han Li sprang up with a swift kip-up, then rushed over as if his tail were on fire. He searched the spot where Feng Yue had vanished for a long while, but found nothing. The storage pouch he had mentally claimed was nowhere to be seen.

“Could the Heavenly Thunder Seed have been that powerful? Did it reduce both the man and his storage pouch to ashes?” After circling that tiny patch of ground several times, Han Li arrived at an answer that depressed him utterly.

Unwilling to accept it, he expanded his search radius several times over, but the result was the same. He did, however, pick up the jewel woman’s small mirror and crystal ball, as well as the short-blade Talisman Treasure, which had reverted to talisman form now that its owner was dead.

Han Li looked at these three items, then thought of the Heavenly Thunder Seed he had lost, the two high-grade magic tools—the Silver Hook and the Green Rope—and the storage pouch the Heavenly Thunder Seed had destroyed. He raised his head to the sky, speechless.

Still, no matter how he looked at it, after such a great battle he was ultimately on the winning side. That was far better than that bastard Feng Yue, who had been reduced to ashes.

Not knowing whether he had come out ahead or behind, Han Li could only console himself with that bitter thought.

Thinking of Feng Yue, Han Li subconsciously glanced at the only thing the man had left in this world—a pair of severed calves, only the lower halves intact. He gently shook his head, then raised his hand and released two fist-sized fireballs, sending them flying toward the remains. Since he had already killed the man, he naturally had to thoroughly destroy the evidence as well, to avoid any trouble if someone else discovered it.

With two soft puff sounds, flames instantly engulfed the legs. In the blink of an eye, everything but a pair of jet-black boots had turned to ash.

Han Li nodded in satisfaction and turned to leave.

“Boots? That’s not right.”

“How could an ordinary boot remain completely unharmed under a Fireball Technique?”

After taking just a single step, Han Li immediately caught his own oversight. He whirled around, a strange expression on his face, and stared at the seemingly ordinary boots.

Now that he was looking more closely, he did find something unusual. Not only had the boots survived the Fireball Technique without a scratch, they showed no signs of having been burned at all. What’s more, they faintly emanated a subtle spiritual aura.

“A magic tool?”

Han Li’s heart wavered between doubt and certainty.

He hesitated for a moment, then walked over, bent down, and picked up the jet-black boots.

“Thin, soft, but very tough. They shouldn’t be cloth or silk boots. They seem to be leather boots made from the hide of some animal.” After examining them for a while, Han Li reached his conclusion.

Now that he was closer, he could sense the faint spiritual energy on the boots even more clearly.

This was indeed a magic tool. And most likely a magic tool made from the hide of some demon beast.

Staring at these boots, a vague thought surfaced in Han Li’s mind. Somewhat impatiently, he took off his cloth shoes and replaced them with the boots.

Very comfortable. Very soft. Like wearing nothing at all. That was Han Li’s first impression after putting them on.

He examined the boots on his feet carefully for a while, but nothing unusual happened.

Frowning slightly, he took a light step forward.

Whoosh.

Han Li’s figure flickered, and his entire body drifted lightly to a spot over three meters away.

“Wind Riding Technique! No, this is even faster than the Wind Riding Technique by a fair margin!” Han Li thought in pleasant surprise.

At last, he understood the secret behind Feng Yue’s astonishing speed. That bastard must have relied on these very boots to move so strangely and strike as fast as lightning.

Wearing the boots, Han Li began walking slowly around the small clearing, gradually familiarizing himself with their performance. Step by step, he moved faster, until finally he activated his Smoke Step technique to accelerate further.

If in the past Han Li’s movement speed at its limit could blur his form and even leave afterimages, now, wearing these boots, his speed had reached a level where several identical phantom figures appeared on the field at once, all performing the same actions and wearing the same faint smile. But when all the phantoms slowly converged toward the center, they merged back into a single Han Li standing in the middle of the clearing.

Han Li stood motionless for a moment, as if lost in thought. Then he suddenly burst into wild laughter. He laughed until his body bent over and tears nearly streamed from his eyes.

After laughing for a good long while, Han Li, still bent over, was suddenly enveloped in a flash of azure light. His entire body turned into a gentle breeze and vanished into thin air.

The entire clearing fell silent. Aside from the occasional rustle of wind sweeping across the ground, no other sound could be heard.

A rumbling series of explosions suddenly rang out. Nearby trees began to split apart from the middle, one after another, with unnerving speed. The severed surfaces were as smooth and flat as a mirror, yet there was clearly no one around.

The trees split apart faster and faster. In the span of a few breaths, every tree within several dozen meters had been reduced to bare stumps.

Only then did Han Li reappear, his body shrouded in a faint azure light, sweat pouring down his face. But the corners of his mouth were slightly upturned, and his face was full of barely concealed joy.

The Smoke Step, the magic leather boots, and the enhancement of the Wind Riding Technique had pushed Han Li to a speed that could temporarily evade the tracking of the ordinary naked eye, as if he had turned invisible and vanished into thin air.

By Han Li’s estimate, even with a cultivator’s keen eyesight enhanced by the Celestial Eye Technique, when he was going all out, he would appear to them as nothing more than a faint blur. That was more than enough to pose a lethal threat if they hadn’t already activated their protective spells.

Now, with just a thought, Han Li could instantly cross to any spot within several meters. Even a distance of over ten meters, he could cover in at most a single breath.

Of course, this speed, which surpassed the body’s physical limits, could only be maintained for the briefest moment. Any longer, and his entire body would completely collapse. After all, given Han Li’s current physique, performing such high-speed movement was still a bit of a stretch.

But for him, that brief moment was enough to kill an opponent dozens of times over. Especially when used in conjunction with his thread-like magic tool—the combination doubled its power.

Han Li lowered his head and gently stroked the leather boots on his feet for a long while, sighing with emotion. This item, he felt, suited him perfectly. Even if someone offered to trade a Talisman Treasure for it, he would never consider it.

His confidence fully restored, Han Li looked around excitedly.

When he saw the corpse of the yellow-clothed woman, he let out a soft sigh. He used a small fireball to dig a large pit and buried her body in a crude, makeshift grave. That was the limit of what Han Li felt he could do.

After finishing, Han Li’s figure flashed, and he vanished into the dense forest. He had to hurry to the central zone now.

What Han Li didn’t know was that after the first day of slaughter in the forbidden land, only a little over seventy disciples from the various sects remained—nearly two-thirds of the original number had been lost. And most of the elite disciples from each sect had already arrived near the central zone, preparing to begin the second day’s purge, lying in wait for prey.

Anyone they deemed weak would be mercilessly eliminated one by one.

Of course, the jewel girl who had already died, and Feng Yue of Tianque Fortress, whom Han Li had killed, were originally meant to be among the designated predators. But since they were now dead, everything had naturally come to nothing.