Chapter 239: Smooth Sailing?
A figure — no, several figures — were speeding in from his east.
Uhtred frowned immediately, but he maintained Slipstream Stride regardless. Even with his reduced speed, the incoming figures would only ever be able to bite his dust.
He was covering ground at a pace that even he kept marveling at. He reckoned he was traveling at nothing less than Mach 1 speeds.
That was at least a whopping 767 miles per hour — 1235 km/h! He was moving at the speed of sound... with Nayu An on his shoulder to boot!
The further Uhtred ran, the more daring and excited he became. Now that he had kicked into full gear and was no longer pursued by the Ancestor, he had the time to savor just how beautiful and absurdly overpowered Slipstream Stride was.
It was no wonder the technique served as the foundational source for countless other branches of movement arts across the multiverse.
If he wanted, he could actually push himself a little bit faster, but he feared Nayu An’s body wouldn’t be able to handle the strain. There was practically zero air resistance due to how Slipstream Stride shaved off every last bit of drag, but that didn’t mean the sheer momentum of moving at such speeds was sustainable for someone in her state.
He continued dashing forward, and within a few minutes, he left the figures chasing him from the east far in the dust.
He charged straight south, taking in the vastly different terrain here. The lands were bleak and arid, the soil scorched black with some sort of thick soot.
On several occasions, he whizzed past people who, unlike the first group that had tried to pursue him, simply observed the passing blur of his figure from a distance.
Some of them were lone travelers — battle-hardened cultivators with deathly pale faces and dangerous auras. Others were locked in violent combat, fighting to kill in hopes of scavenging whatever valuables lay on the loser’s corpse.
Uhtred offered it all nothing more than a passing glance. Those cultivators carried dangerous, bloodthirsty auras, but Uhtred could tell from a single look that many were still within the Mortal Realm. He hadn’t spotted a single Nascent Realm cultivator yet.
After traveling for a solid hour, he changed directions and began heading east. He recalled the path he had memorized from the map back in the An Clan territory. There was a dense forest area deep within this Demonic Cult wilderness where he could lay low and recover to full strength.
There, he would decide his next course of action and figure out a method to extract the anomalous thing lying within Nayu An.
He could have begun to head east the moment he crossed into the Demonic Cult lands, but he had deliberately chosen not to, mainly because of the distinct trail that Slipstream Stride left behind.
Each of his steps generated a brief, explosive combustion. His fire and earth magic propelled him forward with every stride, allowing him to cover immense distance in tandem with his other elements. As a result, a very obvious trail was left behind him.
Heading south for over an hour ensured that anyone attempting to track him would think twice before following so deeply into the lawless territories of the Demonic Cult.
And if anyone from the An Clan — or any allied righteous sects that might chase after him — was bold enough to follow him this far, he had one more move to throw them off his scent entirely.
There it is, Uhtred smiled as a winding river came into view.
It was the same river that cut through the An Clan territory. It flowed south before branching in two directions: one continuing further south toward the west, and another cutting sharply to the east.
That eastern branch was his target.
He reached the river in no time, and surprisingly, he didn’t slow down.
Uhtred clenched his jaw hard. Despite knowing that what he was about to do was supposed to work, he still couldn’t help the instinctive reaction. He braced himself the moment his feet touched the surface of the river, but to his pleasant surprise, he found that he wasn’t sinking.
Ha! I’m actually running on water!
Uhtred grinned hard. The Slipstream Stride technique was just too good.
This had been his bet. He remembered Lorien’s explanation that the technique used whatever element was available to the user. This meant that the moment he transitioned from running on solid earth to running on the surface of water, the spell also adapted.
He felt the difference immediately. Instead of the explosive combustion of fire and earth beneath his feet, the liquid current itself was now providing the propulsive force.
Naturally, his top speed dipped slightly, but the minor drop was far from a significant drawback.
Now, he would truly throw off anyone attempting to track him. Running across open water left none of the scorch marks or displaced earth trails that Slipstream Stride left behind.
.
.
.
Finally, after running for nearly another hour, Uhtred reached his target — the forest.
Things were actually working really well for him so far.
He had defeated the An Clan Ancestor, and escaped successfully.
Even when talking about his multiversal audience — who largely wanted to see him suffer for his stunt in the interview — he had still managed to maneuver his way out of being forced into a fatal scenario choice thanks to the minority that preferred to watch his journey unfold naturally.
Then there was the matter of Nayu An. She had remained completely unconscious throughout the entire journey, saving him the immense headache that would have come with her waking up while being carried at supersonic speeds.
Now, he had made it all the way into the Demonic Cult lands and directly to the forest he had targeted since reading that map back in the An Clan manor.
He had passed by several demonic cultivators along the way, but he had been far too fast for any of them to engage him.
He had even found a decent hidden cave to rest and recover his strength.
Everything had gone so smoothly that, now that it was time to rest, Uhtred felt genuinely unsettled. He kept feeling like something extremely terrible was about to happen to offset all his good luck
"...Nah. I’m just being paranoid," Uhtred muttered, shaking his head as he sat cross-legged in the dim light of the cave.
He spread his senses outward. Nayu An was still peacefully asleep, fully unconscious. There was no one nearby, nor was there anything out of place in the surrounding woods.
"What’s wrong with you, Uhtred? It’s not every single time that shit has to go wrong to fuck you over," he let out a quiet sigh, chuckling faintly at his own paranoia. "Sometimes a well-executed plan just... works."