Running for his life

In the wilderness of the Greater World

Crack

A young looking man can be seen running through a forest at high speeds, such that normal people would only see an afterimage.

The young man had an average appearance, and in a world where handsome men and beautiful women were everywhere, his face could even be called unattractive.

Whoosh

A whooshing sound came from behind. The young man quickly changed directions and jumped to the left, barely avoiding an energy fist that went past his head and smashed into a tree. 

Boom

The tree instantly turned to dust, and the resulting shockwave slightly destabilized the young man's footing, but he quickly leaned forward and continued running. Not a moment later, a bullet filled with mental energy, enough to level a building, went behind the young man's head, breaking a few of his hair strands. 

'Dammit.' The young man cursed in his mind, but continued running. 

A swordlight destroyed the environment in front of him, forcing him to slide to a stop. Before the young man could even completely stop and stabilize his footing, an explosion from something landing behind him, and rising a cloud of smoke, sent him flying.

Without giving him time to catch his bearings, a fist, aimed at his head, came from the smoke cloud, intending to crush his skull. The young man dodged the fist at an impossible angle, surprising the buff old man who just tried to kill him.

As the young man tried to regain his balance in mid air, another swordlight attacked him. Again, the young man avoided the swordlight at an impossible angle, and just as he landed, another energy fist came flying at him. 

Unable to dodge after just landing, and unable to defend with his preoccupied hands, the young man could only send a kick at the energy fist, which sent him flying through the air once again. As the young man landed, he ignored the pain in his leg and continued running.

'How did this happen?' Despairing thoughts started overwhelming the young man's mind, but he pushed them to the back of his mind. However those thoughts, along with guilt and regret, came back as he glanced at the heavily injured women in his arms. 

"Guild Leader *cough*, just leave me behind. Save yourself." The red haired woman with an alluring figure in his arms tried to convince the young man, as she coughed up blood.

"Don't say anything, just save your strength. I'll get us out of this." Said the young man to the woman, who was bleeding profusely, trying to sound calm. However, his shaky voice, heavy breathing and pained expression didn't convince the woman. 

Another swordlight came at the young man from behind. He tried to dodge it, for the god knows what time today, however, with his previous injuries and now injured leg, his dodge wasn't as flawless as before; and his shoulder ended up getting cut. 

As if that wasn't bad enough, the swordlight had corrosive energy which he had to push out of his system, which wasted his own energy and concertation, which was being continuously attacked by mental attacks. 

"How can you geezers be this shameless!" The young man shouted at his attackers in rage as he continued running. 

But the only response was an energy fist. 

"Brat, you can only blame yourself." The buff old man answered with a laugh, however, he was also feeling extremely bitter and frustrated that they were ganging up on a kid. 

They were all proud experts who have surpassed the Three-star Mental Strength Grandmasters standard and were peerless even among other Great Grandmasters, yet they had to work together to kill a single person, who was barely in his thirties.

If news of this was to get out, even if none dared to say anything out loud, they'd surely laugh at them in private.

However, circumstances have forced them, and there was no going back now. When someone breaks through to the Great Grandmaster standard, they fuse their energy with the world and unlock special abilities. This was why they were trying to kill the young man.

Normally, no matter what kind of ability someone unlocked, these proud individuals wouldn't care. However the ability this young man they were hunting unlocked was too frightening, so much so that one of their peers, who had prediction abilities which have never been wrong, had predicted there would be a disaster, without even knowing what the ability the young man unlocked is. 

Originally, they were doubtful even when that person stressed how important it was to eliminate the young man, however, to respect their peer who had never been wrong, they investigated the young man. 

The more they looked into him the more interested and less doubtful they became, so they decided to take action. And when they did, all of their doubts disappeared. 

Indeed that old man had never been wrong, and now was no exception. The simple proof was that the young man was still alive. 

The young man was none other than Shi Feng. Even though he hadn't completely broken through to the Great Grandmaster standard, and only unlocked an ability, he was still able to survive an onslaught from these old monsters, which made them think he had already broken through. 

If they new they were putting this much effort into killing a Half-step Mental Strength Great Grandmaster, god knew what they'd do, so Shi Feng thought it best not to correct their thinking. 

While in the process of breaking through, he was called for an emergency meeting by his close allies. Though a bit suspicious he didn't think any of them would betray him.

They were all close allies and friends who wouldn't betray him even if their lives or guilds were threatened, so he didn't think any of them would betray him. LET ALONE ALL OF THEM!

However, when he got there and saw the guilt in their eyes, he immediately knew something was wrong. But before he could react, he was ambushed by these old bastards. Even though he defended himself, he was injured, and an old assassin took the chance to try and kill him.

Thankfully, Fire Dance had accompanied him and saved him from a strike that should have killed him. But due to the huge difference in strength between her and the assassin, she ended up lethally wounded. 

As she was about to die, Shi Feng intervened and managed to save her before escaping; while being attacked and injured by the assassin and the other old monsters.

Thinking about the traitors, rage overwhelmed Shi Feng's mind; but he tried to calm himself by remembering their eyes full of guilt.

He knew they wouldn't betray him even if their lives were threatened, or they would have at least tried to somehow inform him while pretending. However, it's a different story if their families or close ones were threatened.

As the buff old man said, Shi Feng could only blame himself for being careless.

But his mind was once again overwhelmed with despair and guilt as he glanced at Fire Dance, who was barely still alive.

'Was he going to die here?' Such thoughts permeated in his mind, causing him him to lose focus and get more injuries.

Shi Feng suppressed those thoughts, knowing it was an ability of one of the old monsters hunting him. He had previously tried to kill the woman with that ability, but the others pushed him back, forcing him to aimlessly run into the wilderness of the Greater World for hours; until he got into the situation he was in now.

'Dammit, if I had broken through, I could have already killed all these fuckers.' Despite trying to keep a calm mind, rage resurfaced, and because of his tired mind, he didn't notice it was being amplified.

'Got him.' An old women smirked while running after Shi Feng, while still keeping a safe distance from him; thus preventing him from attacking her, which caused further rage in his mind 'His beginning to lose it. Hasten your attacks.' The old woman sent a mental message to the other attackers.

'Witch, don't order me around.' The buff old man replied as he sent another, but stronger energy fist at Shi Feng's back.

This is what they were waiting for. For this woman to cause chaos in Shi Feng's emotions. Now when they sent stronger attacks and injured him even more, those thoughts will cause him to lose even more focus, slowly breaking him.

With Shi Feng's tired mind and body, after being on complete alert and fighting opponents at a higher realm from him for hours, he will start to fall apart.

Shi Feng knew that too, but there was nothing he could do...

He could only try his best to survive for as long a possible, and hope for a miracle. To try to create a miracle like he always did. But deep down, he knew that he was really screwed this time. Even if he somehow managed to break through to the Great Grandmaster stage right now, he was too injured. Sooner or later, they would still get him. He might unlock a second ability, but he doubted something like that would happen.

The only thing he could do is hope that Fire Dance recovers enough to run away while he slows them down, but...

He glanced down at her, who was barely hanging on by a thread. Sensing his gaze, Fire Dance opened her eyes slightly, and seeing the guilt and worry in Shi Feng's eyes, she put on a loving smile. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't.

Oh how she wanted to tell him...