Chapter 77: The Archery Master
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Zhang Ruochen and Zi Qian dashed through the danger-ridden jungle, searching for a trace of the warriors from Square Commandery.
From time to time, shrill screams could be heard in the dim light of the night.
“Who… are… you…?”
“I’m the son of General Wei Wu from Square Commandery! You… puff…”
…
The warriors from Square Commandery intended to kill those from Yunwu Commandery as a cruel lesson. They were killed, however, by two mysterious warriors first.
A foul wind and a rain of blood came overnight.
No matter how secretly-hidden a warrior was, he would be eventually found out and slaughtered with Zi Qian’s outstanding Traking Occult Arts and smelling.
By midnight, Zi Qian had already killed eight warriors. Blood dyed her purple outfit red.
Zhang Ruochen did not mind killing, but he would not easily kill someone who did not deserve death.
“I’ve killed eight. There are 12 to go.”
Holding her bloody sword, Zi Qian was ready to hunt more.
“Look out!”
Zhang Ruochen caught her by the shoulder and dragged her three meters backwards.
“Swish!”
A purple Thunder Arrow pierced through the void and crashed into a weighty stone.
With a huge “Boom!”, the stone burst into pieces.
If Zhang Ruochen had not dragged her away, that stone might have been her head.
Zi Qian was cold and sweating. She glanced at Zhang Ruochen with gratitude, and looked up from where the Thunder Arrow came. She said, “What splendid arrow technique! They almost managed to kill me. Among all the young warriors in Square Commandery, there is only one person who can do this. He’s Feng Zhiyi, from the Feng family.”
The Feng’s were one of the eight seventh-class families in Square Commandery. They settled where archery was famous in the Nine Western Prefectures. The Feng’s were known as The Family of Archery.
Feng Zhiyi was one of the top prodigies among the Feng family. He was only 24 years old, but he had already reached the Dawn State of the Black Realm. What’s more, his archery also reached the Intermediate Stage of Following the Mind.
Among all the young warriors in Square Commandery, there were only three who have reached the Dawn State of the Black Realm.
A man’s voice came from the dark. It said, “Well, you deserve to be called the top one among the younger generation in Yunwu Commandery, because you know it is me. But the Ninth Prince surprises me more. I am really curious, how did you sense me in the dark?”
Feng Zhiyi was astonished, because few could escape from his arrow in the same realm.
Moreover, it was a sneak attack just now.
Of course, Zhang Ruochen would never tell Feng Zhiyi how powerful his Spiritual Power was.
Zhang Ruochen released his Space Domain and covered the 10-meter surrounding area with it, in case Feng Zhiyi shot another Thunder Arrow. He said, “Of course you can’t shoot us, because you are so bad at archery.”
“You are the first one to laugh at our family’s archery! Don’t you know that during the Mohe Battle two years ago, it was my grandfather who injured your father, the Yunwu Commandery Prince, with Deer Threatening Bow and Stele Breaking Arrow? Haha!” laughed Feng Zhiyi. “Unfortunately, he missed a little bit, or your loser father could have been a dead man!”
Zhang Ruochen’s look became stone-cold. He said, “Looks like you are quite proud of it?”
Feng Zhiyi laughed and said, “Of course! Our generous king granted us a city for injuring the Yunwu Commandery Prince. There are over all 80,000 slaves in it!
“You know, that city originally belonged to Yunwu Commandery, and the 80,000 slaves once were the Yunwu Commandery’s people. If we destroy you completely, our family will get more rewards. At that time, even you will become a slave in our family. If I asked you to bark, you wouldn’t even dare to say a human word.”
Zhang Ruochen asked, “Do you want to irritate me and find my weakness?”
“Haha! So what? You can’t even kill me!” laughed Feng Zhiyi.
Zhang Ruochen replied, “That being the case, I’ll kill once today.”
“Swish!”
Zhang Ruochen took out the Flash Shinning Sword, and rushed into the dark woods at an extremely fast speed.
In only one breath’s time, Zhang Ruochen found Feng Zhiyi who was hidden in the dark.
Of course, Feng Zhiyi didn’t think Zhang Ruochen could be this fast. He was a little surprised, but quickly drew his bow and shot three times.
It was the unique martial technique of the Feng family, Triple Cloud-splitting Arrows, which was in the Superior Class of the Human Stage.
Three Thunder Arrows dashed out like three streams of purple light.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
Zhang Ruochen struck three times as well. Three shadows appeared in the air, and then the three Thunder Arrows were all knocked away.
“No!”
Feng Zhiyi was very confident of his archery. Even a warrior at the Medium State of the Black Realm could not survive all three arrows at such a close distance.
Zhang Ruochen, however, didn’t hide. Rather, he knocked them all away.
Zi Qian just arrived, and she was also shocked by the scene. Even for a powerful warrior like her, she couldn’t guarantee she would survive all three arrows at 20 meters.
Of course, they knew nothing about Zhang Ruochen’s Space Domain. When the three arrows came into it, Zhang Ruochen could easily see their flight paths, so it was not that hard to knock them away.
After knocking away the arrows, Zhang Ruochen did not stop but kept rushing toward him.
In a single instant, Zhang Ruochen came to be right in front of Feng Zhiyi. He stretched his arm straight out and stabbed.
Zhang Ruochen burst out the Sword Comprehension at the Advanced Stage of Sword Following the Mind. It looked like he was possessed by the god of sword, and a strong radiance about two meters high shined from his blade.
Feng Zhiyi knew he had no chance of using the Thunder Arrow now, so he used his bow as a weapon and struck towards Zhang Ruochen.
After all, he was a warrior in the Dawn State of the Black Realm. There was no way he would be afraid of a warrior in the Initial Stage of the Black Realm.
“Boom!”
They were both shaken backward due to the clash of their weapons.
Feng Zhiyi looked at his scratched wrist. He slightly changed color and said, “What an outstanding sword technique! If I were a warrior at the Advanced Stage of the Black Realm, my arm would have been chopped off.”
“Your family took our city, but now I’ll send your family’s prodigy to hell,” said Zhang Ruochen.
Feng Zhiyi sneered and said, “My grandfather almost killed your father. Who do you think you are? I was only a little inattentive just now. The battle begins, now.”
The word “now” had just finished, and Feng Zhiyi spat a silver thin needle from his mouth.
The silver thin needle flew towards Zhang Ruochen’s heart unexpectedly.
One had no chance to survive if the needle pierced the heart.
But who could he have known Feng Zhiyi had a needle in his mouth?
Any other warrior, even another warrior in the Medium State of the Black Realm, would have been killed by this ambush.
But Zhang Ruochen was not any other warrior. When the needle came into the Space Domain, Zhang Ruochen sensed the danger and blocked it with his sword.
The needle flew backward and scratched Feng Zhiyi’s neck, leaving a shallow blood stain.
Feng Zhiyi touched his wound, and became even more surprised. He said, “Did you just block my Archery Tongue?”
Archery Tongue was a technique that allowed a person to shoot weapons from their mouth with their tongue. It could be very surprising, and it could kill people while talking.
Archery Tongue was a secret technique of the Feng family. It was said that no one had ever survived it, and many warriors with higher cultivations than the users were killed by it.
“Now it’s my turn!
“Sacred Breaking Plum Sword!”
Zhang Ruochen stepped out and stabbed!
The gorgeous radiance was split into seven, like a plum blossom blooming in the void.
Feng Zhiyi quickly stepped back. But no matter how hard he retreated, the seven streaks of radiance kept approaching him like shadows.
Feng Zhiyi finally panicked. He widened his eyes and said, “The Spiritual Stage… How can you…”
“Puff!”
Seven Sword Breaths pierced Feng Zhiyi’s glabella, penetrated his head, and flew away from the back of his head.
A small, bloody plum blossom appeared on his glabella. Seven drops of blood overflowed from there, looking like one stamen and six petals of a plum blossom.
Zhang Ruochen put away his Flash Shinning Sword. He walked towards Feng Zhiyi’s standing body, and touched his body with his sword scabbard.
“Boom!”
Feng Zhiyi’s body fell flat to the ground.
Staring at Zhang Ruochen’s back not far away, Zi Qian let out a long sigh. After a long while, she finally said, “I thought you wouldn’t kill!”
Zhang Ruochen replied, “He would kill me if I didn’t kill him. What else can I do? What’s more, you heard him, he asked for it. This is not my fault.”
Zi Qian said, “You are in the Initial Stage of the Black Realm, but you can kill a warrior in the Dawn State of the Black Realm. If you don’t get yourself killed, with your talent, you can definitely become a Warrior of Division Profound one day.”
Zhang Ruochen said, “In fact, I won because Feng Zhiyi was an archery master. He had the advantage in long range combat, but not in short range combat. In short range combat, he could only be seen as a warrior at the Advanced Stage of the Black Realm.”
Zi Qian nodded. She was also confident that she could kill Feng Zhiyi in three movements in short range combat.
“Feng Zhiyi was a top prodigy of the Feng family, and they have spent a huge amount of money in cultivating him. They have great expectations for him. Now that he has died in an exam of the School of the Martial Market, the older generations in his family will fly into a rage,” said Zi Qian.
Zhang Ruochen squatted and found a small box from Feng Zhiyi’s body. There were eight Beast’s Eyeballs in it, which equaled to four inferior-class level-two savage beasts.
“I need 10 Beast’s Eyeballs to pass this exam. Now there are only two to go.” Zhang Ruochen smiled. He did not suffer from psychological trauma after his first killing.
Zhang Ruochen’s psychological predisposition was even stronger than many warriors in the Heaven Realm.
Later on, Zhang Ruochen found 32 Spiritual Crystals and one two-star VIP card.
One had to save 100,000 silver coins in the Martial Market Bank to get a two-star VIP card.
“He was indeed a genius from a seventh-class family. Look at how rich he was!”
But there was no use in simply getting this card, because the owner had to drip a drop of blood on it to unlock the special Prohibition.
Only when the Prohibition was unlocked could the owner draw money from the Martial Market Bank.
There was no use in collecting Feng Zhiyi’s blood now. After all, Feng Zhiyi was dead, and his blood would lose its essence of life very soon. But without blood activity, the Prohibition couldn’t be unlocked.
Seeing the two-star VIP card, Zi Qian said, “Feng Zhiyi’s lineal relatives’ blood may unlock the Prohibition! According to what I know, one of his brothers is practicing as one of the external students of the Martial School. He is also a prodigy.”
“In that case, I’ll take it with me!” Zhang Ruochen put the two-star VIP card away.
For him, 100,000 coins was not a small fortune.