Chapter 5302: Wandera Catei

"Seriously...?"

Davis scoffed as he saw the flickering light pass by the star. It was just a burst of corona from a celestial body that crashed into it like an asteroid, which then turned into a comet from the bursting nova as it streaked past the horizon.

He imagined it would become a meteor containing an Empyrean Grade Ore by the time it struck some continent or a realm years later.

He narrowed his eyes, continuing to watch with wide eyes before finally heaving a sigh and leaning back again.

For a moment, he nearly feared that Fairy Runalise had gotten hold of his location by predicting his actions again somehow. Fortunately, that didn’t happen. She and Venerable Knight Lussandra did appear to have gone somewhere else instead of chasing him, and although he didn’t know where they went, he did have an idea after much deliberation.

Especially Venerable Knight Lussandra, who had been intent on ending him to get rid of a calamity, didn’t chase him at all.

He considered that they might give him a surprise by appearing here. After all, Venerable Knight Lussandra did seem capable of following them with her Verdant Seraph Wings. She had even shot a star down with her arrow and might be totally capable of hindering Fairy Qiyra Darkstar’s speed.

He started ruminating over many things he didn’t have time to think about before.

Time passed as dawn eventually approached.

Amidst the innumerable stars, the light of Solar Reverence eclipsed the continent and turned the skies blue, making the stars less visible. He had never blinked even once, keeping his eyes wide open along with his senses that covered the entirety of the continent at its edges and the space above.

If anyone managed to chance upon it, they might feel utterly chilled to the core over how constricting and unraveling it was, exposing their emotions.

"Hmm, they’re not coming, are they?"

Davis asked himself, wondering if they had seriously lost sight of their trail. Did their plan really work?

He felt it was a bit of a stretch, even though they had planned ahead for this escape, coming up with various retreat strategies, but then deciding on this due to time and resource constraints. Hence, he was more inclined to think that Zest Hyluan intentionally delayed the Celestial Transcendent at certain junctions of the chase.

’I would know if I asked him later...’

Davis thought. With Heart Intent, he didn’t have many problems determining the veracity of an issue.

A moment later, he laughed at himself at the words he said to Zest Hyluan. After all, he had claimed to not be a devourer, yet all he did in his life was devour soul essences. Immortal law essences and soul essences, what was the difference?

He was just as bad as those Supremes.

But Davis didn’t have any thoughts of telling a lie about protecting the First Haven World Master’s corpse. He was indeed going to protect it, even revive it if possible.

A hot dawn wind rolled across the desert and lifted something past his head.

Davis’s eyes followed it without sitting up at first. A small flowering plant drifted by, still mounted on a broken lump of soil and stone as though the earth itself had decided to travel with it. The wind carried the whole piece toward some cooler, greener hollow farther across the wastes.

"Is that a floating Wandera Catei Flower?"

His voice echoed in an inquisitive tone, unsure of himself.

It was that kind of plant that never left its original soil behind, tearing a piece of the ground free whenever the wind or its own roots chose to move, so it would never forget where it first took root. People in many localities named it the same way they named the habit. It was called the Rootbound Wanderer, or something close enough in the old records, but its alchemical name was Wandera Catei, used as an auxiliary ingredient to firmly hold the medicinal efficacy from dispersing in a pill.

It was a rather common ingredient found in deserts.

But seeing this scene, Davis’s expression had frozen, his pupils dilating. He looked like he had been struck by lightning as he completely stopped moving for a few moments.

He slowly sat up, watching it shrink into the distance until the heat haze swallowed it.

"That’s one way to make an escape... but would that even work...?’

He sounded it out to himself before he laughed bitterly and soundlessly, shaking his head.

This escape plan depended on too many individuals, mainly trees, but their power could be limited when it came to this matter, so he couldn’t tell how feasible this plan from the sudden inspiration was.

He leaned back and finally closed his eyes, appearing quite tired, not energy-wise, but psychologically, because he had fled time and time again and would keep fleeing as long as that was what it took to survive, but he wanted to keep his roots as well.

He continued to remain like this for the next few hours until a full day had gone by from the moment he had arrived here.

’This is too much time to follow a trail, and Fairy Qiyra Darkstar said that the spatial distortion traces she leaves behind after using the astral escape technique will disappear in a few minutes, fifteen minutes at worst. If they still can’t find us, then doesn’t that mean they would no longer be able to catch up to us?’

Davis’s gaze flickered.

With the power of the stars unleashed, he continued to search for more stars to jump from one place to another, but they were all limited in range, making the few stars around the only thing that could still be used to get to them faster than just cruising in space; yet no one would take it because he was using his powers to keep the stars in check.

As the sun rose to the top of the sky, he stood up and stretched his body.

"It seems like they really have lost us. We won..."

He uttered absentmindedly, suddenly not knowing how to proceed, The gong of victory in his head came too late!