'Still chasing?'
Su Mu darted through the mountain forest, the sound of footsteps behind him in relentless pursuit.
He cursed inwardly. 'There are so many people over there to fight, why the hell are you chasing me?'
'Do you really think I'm a pushover?'
A furious anger surged through his chest.
He still had a bow and half a quiver of arrows...
And he still had his saber.
If he was pushed to the brink, it wasn't like he couldn't put up a fight!
He was running, but not because he was scared.
He was just worried that if he tarried too long, the leader of the Black Dragon Stronghold would catch up.
"Hey, kid! You can't escape!"
The voice of the Black Dragon Stronghold's second-in-command echoed from behind him. "This is Black Dragon Stronghold territory! You couldn't escape even if you sprouted wings!"
"Stop right there, and I might give you a quick death. Otherwise, I'll make you regret the day you were born."
SWOOSH!
An arrow whistled through the air, speeding toward him.
The Black Dragon Stronghold's second-in-command flicked his long spear, effortlessly swatting the arrow aside.
"You think you can hurt me with those amateur archery skills?"
The second-in-command was enraged. To think a little mouse like this dared to fight back!
Another arrow was his only reply.
The second-in-command roared in anger. Ignoring the wound on his back, he leaped violently into the air.
In a single leap, he soared ten feet, then kicked off a tree trunk to propel himself another ten feet higher.
He pounced toward Su Mu from mid-air.
"Take this! Smoke bomb!"
Su Mu yelled, flinging something behind him with a flick of his wrist.
The second-in-command's heart jumped. He had suffered from the smoke before and knew how powerful it was.
But the second-in-command was no fool. He slammed his long spear down, the tip instantly piercing a large tree. The entire shaft bent at an alarming angle.
The shaft instantly snapped back straight, and using the momentum, the second-in-command shot sideways through the air.
SMACK!
The object Su Mu had thrown flew past him, hit the ground, and shattered into pieces.
"You dare trick me?!"
Seeing that no smoke appeared, the second-in-command was both humiliated and furious.
He had actually been spooked by a rock!
It all happened in a flash.
In the instant the rock shattered, Su Mu had already sprinted dozens of feet away, widening the gap between himself and the second-in-command.
Having been made a fool of by Su Mu, the second-in-command's face flushed red with rage.
He gripped his long spear and lunged forward once more.
...
SMACK!
SMACK!
SMACK!
The spear struck like a venomous dragon, its tip instantly pulverizing several more pebbles.
A cold sneer spread across the second-in-command's face. 'This damn kid wants to pull the same trick again? Does he really think I'm an idiot?'
"Go on, run! Let's see where you can run now! Ahead of you is a bottomless Abyss! If you've got the guts, jump!"
The second-in-command said with a sinister laugh.
Using his knowledge of the terrain, he had successfully cornered Su Mu at the edge of a cliff.
"Don't come any closer! My archery is really good!"
Su Mu stood on the cliff's edge, loose rocks clattering down into the chasm below. His face looked a little pale.
He held the Sang Wood Bow, an arrow nocked on the string and aimed at the second-in-command.
"Go on! If you can hit me just one more time today, I'll spare your life!"
The second-in-command said with complete confidence.
'A fledgling who hasn't even started Quenching Body... so what if he knows a little archery?'
He advanced step by step, a vicious grin on his face.
TWANG!
Su Mu released the string. With a resonant shudder, the arrow shot forth.
With a look of contempt, the second-in-command simply leaned to the side. The arrow zipped past and thudded into the ground.
"Too slow!"
The second-in-command said, "To me, your arrows move as slow as ants."
He was enjoying this twisted game of cat and mouse, heaping humiliation upon Su Mu.
Su Mu seemed to take the bait, his face flushing red as he quickly nocked another arrow.
He drew and loosed, the arrow flying like a meteor.
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
After the first arrow, Su Mu didn't pause. In a single, fluid motion, he fired off the remaining seven or eight arrows in his quiver.
They were only separated by twenty or thirty feet. This rapid volley was so fast that the seven or eight arrows seemed to arrive at the same instant.
The second-in-command only had to focus a little more.
As he had said, Su Mu hadn't even reached the First Stage of Body Tempering. On top of that, he was only using a common Sang Wood Bow. The draw weight was too weak, and the arrows were too slow.
He could dodge them with his eyes closed.
Feeling playful, the second-in-command decided to show off. Without moving his feet, he simply swayed left and right. All seven or eight arrows missed, grazing the hem of his clothes before embedding themselves in the ground.
"Kid, now do you see how vast the gap between us is? Despair! Tremble!"
The second-in-command could already picture the pathetic sight of Su Mu cowering before his might.
But before he could even get the words out, he suddenly saw a strange smile flicker across Su Mu's face.
'Something's wrong!'
In that instant, the second-in-command realized something was amiss.
Just then, a cloud of pink smoke erupted from the ground at his feet, instantly enveloping him.
Knockout powder!
The second-in-command had already fallen for it once; he immediately understood what was happening.
'That bastard! He buried a powder packet in the dirt right where I was standing and then used the arrows to set it off!'
Realizing this, the second-in-command held his breath and tried to charge out of the smoke cloud.
He lunged forward, covering more than ten feet in a single bound. One foot had just cleared the edge of the smoke...
...when a sharp whistling sound rushed toward his face.
A cold glint of steel suddenly bloomed before his eyes.
The second-in-command was both shocked and enraged.
The saber strike was as swift and powerful as lightning—this was clearly a master-level technique!
'This kid is a wolf in sheep's clothing!'
'Anyone who could master a saber technique like this couldn't possibly be some nobody from the South City Bureau.'
'After all, even among ordinary Martial Artists at the Third Layer of Body Tempering, very few achieve mastery in their techniques.'
'There are shortcuts to advancing through Quenching Body, but martial arts... that requires extraordinary talent and comprehension.'
Though his thoughts raced, the second-in-command's reaction was just as fast.
He gripped the center of the spear's shaft with both hands, using it like a short staff to meet the incoming blade.
DING!
The long saber rang with a sharp, clear tone.
A wave of violent force crashed into him, sending Su Mu flying backward.
Even after landing the blow, the second-in-command was shocked.
Just a moment ago he'd thought Su Mu was a wolf in sheep's clothing. But it turned out that while Su Mu's technique was indeed at a master level, the power behind his strikes was pathetic.
A flicker of delight passed through the second-in-command's heart at this discovery.
'So he wasn't a wolf in sheep's clothing after all—he's just a pig.'
Seeing Su Mu sent flying, a savage look crossed his face. He moved to press his advantage and finish Su Mu off.
He had just lifted his foot when he saw that Su Mu, still airborne, had already dropped his saber and had his bow in hand.
In the instant he was knocked back, he'd managed to snatch one of the arrows from the ground.
WHOOSH!
The arrow flew straight for the second-in-command's throat.
The second-in-command paused. He swung his spear to deflect the arrow, but failed to notice another object hurtling toward him right behind it.
SMACK!
Another packet of knockout powder exploded right in his face.
The second-in-command, who had been holding his breath, was so enraged by the relentless attacks that he couldn't hold it in any longer.
He gasped, and the knockout powder instantly flooded into his nostrils.
The second-in-command immediately started to feel disoriented.
By now, Su Mu had landed. His face was flushed and his chest felt tight, but he didn't hesitate for a second. Stomping his foot, he unleashed a flurry of saber strikes, a torrent of steel that cleaved through the pink smoke.
He didn't know or care if he was hitting his target; he simply executed all thirteen forms of the Submerging Wave Saber Technique from beginning to end.
Then he leaped back a few steps. Still not feeling safe, he tossed out one last packet of knockout powder before retreating to a safe distance.
After enough time to eat a meal had passed, the mountain winds finally blew the last of the pink mist away, revealing the figure of the Black Dragon Stronghold's second-in-command lying face-up on the ground.