Chapter 216: Close at Hand

After casually dealing with several Snow Domain Silver Wolves that attacked him like mad, Zuo Zhicheng looked into the distance where Ziyun had gone. Only a faint trace of purple remained, now several hundred meters away from him.

“Trying to run away?”

Zuo Zhicheng remained unhurried. He stomped his right foot hard, and the snow beneath him burst apart as if a prehistoric tyrannosaurus had stepped on it. Amid the flying snow, a huge dent appeared on the ground.

Amid the howling wind, Zuo Zhicheng’s figure disappeared completely from his original spot. His body moved so fast it became a blur. With each step, he leaped dozens of meters through the air, chasing after Ziyun at an incredible speed.

Just as Zuo Zhicheng started moving, Ziyun felt a chill down her spine, as if a knife was pressed against her neck. It was an extremely dangerous feeling.

The Snow Domain Silver Wolf she rode was running swiftly, faster than the best racehorse. But Zuo Zhicheng’s speed after gaining Earth Fiend was far beyond what any horse could achieve.

Ziyun carried Long Howl on her back, gripping the wolf’s body tightly with both hands. Besides the roaring wind in her ears, she heard constant explosive sounds coming from behind. She strained to look back and saw a dark figure flickering across the snowy ground, closing in on her position. With each flicker came a loud booming noise.

It was as if Zuo Zhicheng was stepping on bombs with every step, using the tremendous explosive force to fly toward Ziyun like the wind.

Seeing this, Ziyun was terrified. She immediately pulled out a horn from her chest and blew into it.

As she blew the horn, a vast and ancient sound emerged from it, like the sigh of a giant from ancient times. It gave off a sense of timelessness, simplicity, and a touch of wildness. With the sound of the horn, the silver wolf’s running speed increased even more.

But in just the blink of an eye, Zuo Zhicheng had taken several more steps and closed in to within fifty meters behind Ziyun. For others, fifty meters was still very far. But for Zuo Zhicheng, fifty meters was already within his striking range.

Zuo Zhicheng spread his fingers and reached for Ziyun’s head. At the same time, his toes, soles, and heels all tensed and exerted force. In Ziyun’s Spiritual Energy Vision, Zuo Zhicheng’s legs looked like they were igniting gunpowder, riding on wind and fire wheels as they charged forward with blazing flames.

This time, Zuo Zhicheng’s explosive power combined the footwork of Qixing Step, the martial arts he learned in his previous life, and combat and running techniques—all blended together with the power of Earth Fiend. His speed became unimaginably fast. With this claw strike, Ziyun felt that no matter how vast the world was, there was no escape.

But just like last time, as Zuo Zhicheng’s claw shot out, it missed by a few centimeters and grabbed at empty air again. For a martial arts expert like Zuo Zhicheng, who had complete control over every muscle and bone in his body, this seemed impossible.

Yet it happened, and it happened three times in a row.

Zuo Zhicheng wasn’t surprised at all, because he had already guessed what was happening based on the intelligence reports and his own movements.

It was a Dao Arts called Close at Hand. Apparently, this woman had one of the combined Life Groves of Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven—Close at Hand.

This wasn’t just luck for Zuo Zhicheng. After all, there were over two hundred Life Groves in the Daoist Canon, and Ghost Eye Netherworld Heaven required eighty-one. So, any Life Grove he encountered had a thirty to forty percent chance of being useful to him. Perhaps that was the advantage of having many Life Groves needed for the Life Diagram.

As for the Life Grove Close at Hand, it was a rather special one. This Life Grove could release certain special gas molecules from the host’s body.

When these gas molecules entered a person’s nose, eyes, ears, or other sensors, they caused various changes in electricity, magnetism, molecular flow, and ion flow. These changes sent signals to the brain, causing miscalculations in distance, direction, height, and other physical measurements.

A tiny error in distance, a slight mistake in judging height, or a minor miscalculation in direction could lead to major failures.

In essence, this was a Life Grove that made opponents constantly make mistakes, drastically increasing the host’s evasion and escape rates.

At higher levels, Close at Hand could even establish a direct connection between the host and others’ sensors, providing intuition-like evasion that made sneak attacks and assassinations ineffective. Conversely, it could also cloud the opponent’s perception, increasing the host’s chances of successful sneak attacks and assassinations by countless times.

It was called Close at Hand because its discoverer didn’t understand its true function and mistakenly thought it could alter distance and manipulate space.

This was a Life Grove that could be very strong or very weak, but having it appear on Ziyun, a woman without any Innate Primordial Breath, was a waste.

The next moment, just as his claw missed, Zuo Zhicheng suddenly clenched his fist. Ripples visible to the naked eye flowed through his palm. With this squeeze, he crushed the air, causing it to explode like an air bomb behind Ziyun’s body. The blast sent her tumbling down, rolling across the snowy ground.

The Snow Domain Silver Wolf sensed the air explosion and Ziyun’s fall. It immediately turned around, opening its bloody maw to bite Zuo Zhicheng. With its Physique Strength and sharp teeth, it could crush and spit out a steel plate. But facing Zuo Zhicheng, who was several levels higher, this bite was as weak as a puppy’s playful nip.

Zuo Zhicheng took a step, his figure moving like a ghost as he dodged the wolf’s bite and appeared at its side. Then, with a slight movement of his feet, his entire body slammed into the wolf like a city wall. Using a simple Iron Mountain Lean, the silver wolf was sent flying with a thud. It whimpered and spat out a mouthful of blood, unable to get up for a long time.

‘After all, it’s just a beast. Relying on strong vitality and stamina to bully ordinary people is one thing, but how can it compete with a Martial Artist?’

After casually glancing at the struggling silver wolf on the ground, Zuo Zhicheng turned his attention back to Ziyun, who was dizzy and disoriented from the earlier air bomb explosion.

At the same time, the runes in Zuo Zhicheng’s mind and Heartscape lit up again. From the moment he started moving to Ziyun’s escape and now, only a little over half a minute had passed. Zuo Zhicheng activated his Ice Soul Frost Demon Field once more.

A bone-chilling cold accompanied his voice as it pierced into Ziyun’s heart.

“If you don’t want to freeze to death, stop using your Dao Arts.”