Chapter 168 The Ongoing Battle

"Do we still need to fight?" The robed mage who had dispersed the voice transmission spell shouted toward Shao Ke not far away.

"How do you think we should divide the spoils?" Shao Ke adjusted his cloak, working to steady his excited nerves. "State your choice." After speaking, he lightly touched the leather pouch at his waist, tooled with dozens of magical scripts and arrays. He resolved that if the division was unfair, he would not hesitate to strike and kill the other mage.

"You have the right to choose freely." The mage looked at the Green Flame burning on Shao Ke’s back, hesitated slightly, and upon seeing Shao Ke’s somewhat frenzied gaze, finally compromised. "I think this suggestion is quite correct." He pointed at the corpse lying on the ground, signaling Shao Ke to go over and pick the spoils first.

"The identity token!" Shao Ke thought for a moment and quickly made his choice. At this point, he stared intently at the mage and asked, "What is your choice?"

"The spellbook," the mage replied, gently rotating the staff in his hand. Although he was very dissatisfied with Shao Ke’s current demeanor, considering the consequences of another fight, he compromised once again.

Once the spoils distribution was decided, the mages wasted no more time. After recovering slightly, they retrieved their respective spoils from the corpse.

Afterward, both mages openly released their spiritual fluctuations to probe the surroundings, but no other mages were detected. Having done this, the black-robed mage said to Shao Ke, "Let’s hunt the mages here together." He then added, "As for the spoils, we’ll take turns choosing."

"Just a token representing identity," Shao Ke said, the excitement from the recent battle still coursing through him. "Are you sure about this?" He glanced at the other’s plain, jet-black staff that seemed utterly unremarkable, feeling that the other’s spellcasting speed matching his own was entirely due to that staff.

"Two days ago, I encountered three mages," the mage said, though his words didn’t surprise Shao Ke much. "They tried to kill me here. If I hadn’t run fast..."

"Is this your reason for wanting to team up?" Shao Ke looked at the mage before him, not really understanding what the other was saying. All sorts of spells and casting techniques swam in his mind. If it weren’t for the fact that they had just hunted a mage together and this mage’s strength was almost equal to his own, Shao Ke would have been the first to strike to eliminate him.

"If you don’t accept this reason, I won’t force you," the mage said, dissatisfied with Shao Ke’s response, and thus gave up on the idea of an alliance. He had noticed Shao Ke’s spiritual fluctuations growing increasingly intense and believed that if they met again, a fight would be inevitable. With that, the mage slowly retreated backward. "Good luck!"

Watching the mage cautiously retreat, Shao Ke suddenly felt a surge of satisfaction. He didn’t know whether it was satisfaction from the other’s fear of him or something else. As the figure gradually faded into the distance, Shao Ke lay on a large rock, frantically releasing his spiritual power to probe the surroundings.

Although he knew something was wrong with his mental state, aside from calming his irritable emotions during nightly meditation, he had no other solution. And with each dawn, Shao Ke would carry his staff and frantically search for targets across the desolate land.

The completely undisguised spiritual probing quickly alerted the two mages, who then released their spiritual and magical power to search for Shao Ke.

Shao Ke quickly calmed down. A few simple syllables rapidly escaped his lips. As the incantation was chanted, the defensive spells and auxiliary spells on his body were all activated. Several beams of light were finally obscured by a faint layer of deep gray mist.

After a long half magic hour of pursuit, the fugitive and the pursuers finally stopped. The distance between them hadn’t changed at all despite the prolonged chase. Both sides could only sense each other’s positions through spiritual locks and couldn’t cast spells to attack from such a great distance.

After fleeing a bit further, Shao Ke finally could no longer sense the two mages of the same kind chasing him, which secretly relieved him. Although he believed that with his strength on the verge of advancing to the Fourth Rank, he wasn’t afraid of either mage individually, facing the combined assault of two Third Rank Mages, he still wasn’t confident of victory.

Perhaps because the two mages hadn’t changed their route, or perhaps because they were also meditating along the way, Shao Ke quickly detected them with his spiritual power. Even the most subtle probing could be noticed by the two mages, let alone Shao Ke’s blatant detection.

The chase began again, but this time Shao Ke only dispersed his spirit, vaguely locking onto the two mages to determine changes in their positions.

After a chase lasting a full magic hour, the two mages stopped this meaningless pursuit. Prolonged spiritual or magical locks were no longer something they could sustain. Of course, this was also because the two mages refused to take turns locking onto Shao Ke.

Since Shao Ke used more spiritual power to simultaneously lock onto both opponents, his spiritual power was depleted faster. Fortunately, relying on his slightly stronger spiritual power compared to ordinary mages of his kind, he managed to hold out until the two mages gave up.

After several rounds of pursuit, all three mages grew irritable. Shao Ke was angry at being chased for so long, while the other two mages were furious at the constant harassment from their target. By now, the calmness mages should have had was long abandoned.

As darkness fell, when Shao Ke detected the two mages again, the situation had changed. From a distance, Shao Ke sensed the intense magical fluctuations caused by the collision of spells. The spells tore through the night, providing convenient conditions for Shao Ke to locate the exact position.

Through spiritual probing, Shao Ke discovered that four mages were fighting. The mages, in pairs, quickly released spells, hoping to eliminate their opponents as soon as possible. Shao Ke’s spiritual probing as an outsider was quickly noticed by both sides, but neither stopped fighting. Instead, they attacked each other even more frantically, hoping to kill the enemy before the newcomer arrived.

Upon discovering this, Shao Ke grew excited and cautiously moved forward, hoping to take this opportunity to hunt down the two mages who had chased him all day, thereby venting his anger.

As soon as Shao Ke reached his spellcasting range, he quickly locked onto one of the mages who had chased him through spiritual and magical fluctuations and began rapidly preparing a spell.

"We can talk," the mage locked onto by Shao Ke shouted loudly using a voice transmission spell after casting a spell. "There’s no need for us to fight like this. To some extent, we are all of the same kind."

As he spoke, Shao Ke’s spell was ready. Lava Ray. A crimson beam of light shot violently from his hand, flying toward the mage he had locked onto.