Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
If he hadn’t been forced into a corner, Fan Xian would not have thought to use the chest. When he followed the Emperor to Dong Mountain to worship heaven, he had thought the Emperor had set up a ploy to play with people. Thus, he had left the chest on the boat.
The chest had always been surrounded by the 130,000 liang of silver. It had been lying exposed in the main fall in the Hua Garden in Suzhou, welcoming the gazes of all those who passed by. The Emperor and Chen Pingping lost a great deal of sleep thinking about this chest. No one had expected that Fan Xian would so boldly choose such a position. The most dangerous place was the safest place.
Currently, he was headed up the mountain. He knew that in this unfair battle, his biggest advantage was that Yan Xiaoyi had no idea what kind of weapon he was using and no knowledge of terrifying fire-powder weapons.
At a distance of 500 meters, Yan Xiaoyi could only wait to be shot by him. Once Yan Xiaoyi had come within 300 meters, given his speed and expertise with the bow, Fan Xian probably wouldn’t be able to raise his head in the attack much less take aim. Thus, he had to increase the distance between them and, at the same time, wait for Yan Xiaoyi to appear in his sights.
Fan Xian did not immediately mount a counter-attack after grabbing the chest from the boat because he knew Yan Xiaoyi did not need to aim. He could fire 13 arrows in one second. Fan Xian had to take aim for a long time before he could barely manage to make a shot. If he randomly fired on the shore, he would probably become the stupidest time traveler in history.
The assault rifle was not easy to use. This was something Uncle Wu Zhu reminded him when he taught him how to use a gun. Wind speed, air temperature, the refraction of light, and the so-called “off by a millimeter, miss by a thousand li,” were all discussed.
Fan Xian didn’t want to randomly take aim and fire a shot into the tree 50 meters beside Yan Xiaoyi.
Once a warrior as powerful as Yan Xiaoyi experienced the might of a bullet and knew that he had such a terrifying long distance weapon, he would certainly have a way to come closer and decrease the power of the assault rifle. Thus, Fan Xian only gave himself permission to fire once.
Fan Xian had his own reasons for being careful and taking Yan Xiaoyi seriously. Ever since his youth, he had studied under Fei Jie. Before he was 16, he had learned all the Overwatch Council methods for tracking, hiding, and assassinating. When he had killed Xiao En beside the North Sea, he had already proved his ability.
After entering the woods to the north of Danzhou, Fan Xian left traps along the way and obliterated his tracks. With the help of the dense mountain wood and steep, thickly carpeted ground, Fan Xian attempted to throw off Yan Xiaoyi’s tracking. However, he was not successful. Yan Xiaoyi and his group of people continued to maintain a distance of about three hundred meters from him.
It was not until the end that Fan Xian suddenly understood. In the past, Yan Xiaoyi had been a hunter in a large mountain. It seemed that he was innately equipped with a sensitivity toward his prey. Since Fan Xian was his prey, it was difficult for him to waylay his tracking. As for those traps, they were probably nothing in Yan Xiaoyi’s eyes.
While Fan Xian was high in the mountain admiring Yan Xiaoyi, a few tragic cries came from the direction of the large tree he had temporarily rested against earlier.
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Yan Xiaoyi watched coldly as the soldiers were pierced to death by the wooden nails. There was not a glimmer of sorrow in his eyes. On the contrary, a wild fire began to burn brightly in his eyes. Riding from the north of Danzhou to here, three of his five trusted soldiers had died to Fan Xian’s tricks and traps. The person who died in front of him just now was the fourth.
Having chased him to here, the powerful ninth-level official who was very close to the realm of the Great Grandmasters, was thinking the same as Fan Xian. Each developed a sense of admiration for each other.
Yan Xiaoyi knew clearly the kind of injury his shot on the precipice and Ye Liuyun’s attack had caused Fan Xian. If Fan Xian previously hovered at the ninth-level, after receiving such heavy injuries and having run all night, he was, at most, now an eighth-level ace.
He had originally thought coming out personally to chase after a heavily injured Fan Xian would be a simple matter. Despite being heavily injured, Fan Xian was still able to lay out a number of traps in the mountain. Even Yan Xiaoyi couldn’t completely discover all of the traps and triggers. Thus, they killed his subordinates and prevented his movement.
A rotten air pervaded the mountain woods. No one went into the thousand li of primitive forest to the north of Danzhou. Wetlands neighbored the mountain. Wild beasts fought with slowly extending vines. On the side facing the sea, the wet wind blew across the densest vegetation in this world. The denser it was, the more danger was hidden within.
It was unknown whether this rotting scent was from the bodies of animals or a scent released by the blazing sunshine on many years of accumulated fallen leaves. In any case, it smelled terrible and was very pungent.
Yan Xiaoyi’s sniffed and slowly circulated the zhenqi in his body. With great difficulty, he smelled out a scent that had been well hidden by the rotting stench.
The traps and triggers all had this scent. The deaths of Yan Xiaoyi’s capable soldiers had been because of them. If he hadn’t checked carefully just now, he would probably not have smelled it either.
Yan Xiaoyi did not forget that Fan Xian was Fei Jie’s student and was one of the best users of poison in this world.
No one knew where else Fan Xian had put down poison in the mountain woods.
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Yan Xiaoyi gazed up the mountain and narrowed his eyes slightly. He couldn’t understand where Fan Xian’s body obtained all this energy and courage that enabled him able to hold out.
A thought flashed through his mind. A confident smile appeared on the corners of his lips. The stronger the opponent, perhaps the more fun they were to kill.
“Governor…” the only surviving trusted soldier swallowed and said in a trembling voice. “Once someone enters the dense forests, it is difficult for them to walk out alive. After all, unlike you, Fan Xian doesn’t know the secret passages in this group of mountains.”
Yan Xiaoyi glanced coldly at the soldier and didn’t say anything. The group of mountains to the north of Danzhou and primitive forest within the mountain was precisely what prevented land travel between Qing Kingdom and Dongyi. If it wasn’t for that secret passage, it would have been impossible for the siege around Dong Mountain to succeed. For six months, Yan Xiaoyi had put all his attention on the matter of moving soldiers through the secret passage. He had a particular understanding of the horrors around this secret passage and the mountain woods around it.
It was because of this that he felt a glimmer of respect for Fan Xian.
“There are 5,000 brothers at the foot of Dong Mountain waiting for you to return. Are you really comfortable allowing that outsider to be in command?” It was clear that this soldier had been stunned by the deaths of his four brothers and Fan Xian’s poison that killed the moment it touched blood. He didn’t notice the expression in Yan Xiaoyi’s gaze. He said, with his head down, “Even if Fan Xian could get out alive, there is the Eldest Princess holding the fort in Jingdou. Why bother with him?”
Yan Xiaoyi was silent for a moment. He then waved his hand as if indicating for the soldier to stop talking. His hand happened to swing into the soldier’s face.
With a crisp crack, it was as if the soldier’s head was a flattened watermelon. It twisted out of shape. His facial features had been squished to one side with the slap. Without even a muffled grunt, the soldier fell rigidly to the ground.
Yan Xiaoyi glanced coldly at the body on the ground and then walked behind the large tree. He crouched down and gently pressed on the grass that had been flattened by Fan Xian sitting on it. After confirming that Fan Xian hadn’t left too long ago and direction he had left, he silently followed.
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Taking aim through the optical lens at the intermittently visible figure, Fan Xian sucked in a breath of cold air. It pulled on the injury the arrow had caused on his back. He coughed in a low voice. He didn’t have the thought to admire the miraculous nature of the black chest to protect the assault rifle so well and keep the optical lens so clear. He only had time to admire Yan Xiaoyi’s strength of movement and powerful sixth sense.
Having hid in the bushes for a while, he kept a close eye on the region where someone would ascend the mountain. A few times he had almost locked onto Yan Xiaoyi’s figure. However, he seemed to have an innate ability to sense this kind of danger. After being still for half a second, he would begin to move again. Using the large tree and dense branches as cover, he slowly neared the summit of the mountain.
Fan Xian took in a deep breath. He was worried that his coughing earlier would give away his position. Forcefully suppressing the pain on his back, he wormed out of the bush and climbed a few hundred meters up the mountain. He found another tree that needed at least five people to surround and leaned against it, breathing heavily.
The air quickly rushed into his throat. The hot temperature and greed of his body for oxygen meant that each of his breaths came in quickly. His throat felt stabs of dryness and pain. A tearing sensation began to rise in his chest.
Fan Xian loosened the fastenings at his beck and forced himself to close his mouth and use his nose to breath. Silently, he cursed in his heart. He wondered to himself why he still had no confidence despite having an assault rifle. The recoil was not very large, so why didn’t he preemptively attack.
Suddenly, he heard a light thud. The giant tree behind him seemed to shake slightly. It was an arrow.
At first, Fan Xian didn’t have any reaction. He immediately remembered that all of the soldiers had died. This arrow had been fired by Yan Xiaoyi. Thinking of this, his pupils immediately constricted.
He slightly bent his legs, relaxed his knees, and leaned his body slightly forward. This was all the change in posture he could do in an instant.
This posture could mitigate the power by having the powerful force move along his back and push his entire body forward. If he met it head on, the consequences could be tragic.
With a muffled buzzing sound, Fan Xian was rocked forward. A mouthful of fresh blood sprayed out of his mouth. He fell into the thick grass and trees. His face and hands were covered in countless fine scratches.
On the large tree behind him, palm-sized pieces of bark fell off the tree revealing the white tree stem inside. An elegant arrow, which was like a long-hidden venomous snake, extended a black arrow tip. With the tip of the arrow as the center, the white tree stem was shattered inch by inch by the powerful zhenqi in the arrow.
Fan Xian didn’t have time to see the strange sight of the tree behind him. He didn’t have time to congratulate himself for not putting down the chest on his back or wipe away the blood at the corners of his lips. He was already escaping once again. Relying on his Tyrannical zhenqi to support his exhausted body, he bounded toward the summit of the mountain.
Yan Xiaoyi had only disappeared for less than five seconds from his scope, yet he had managed to get within a few hundred meters of him. This kind of technique and terrifying movement power truly made Fan Xian’s heart chill.
A moment later, a light armored god-like Yan Xiaoyi appeared behind the large tree. He was completely covered with mud and also appeared wretched.
Yan Xiaoyi looked around coldly and once again gave chase. As his foot moved, he, once again, unconsciously sprawled into the bushes. He had felt a heart-chilling danger that had almost locked onto him earlier.
He had felt this kind of aura before the night when the alley in Jingdou was filled with white fog. What confused him was that to be able to lock onto him at such a distance, Fan Xian had either already reached the realm of a Great Grandmaster or, like him, had the support of a godly bow.
He continued to crouch carefully in the bush.
Fan Xian, half kneeling and taking aim from higher ground, found his was still hidden in his blind spot. He couldn’t help but secretly curse. Taking back the assault rifle, he swallowed the fresh blood welling into his mouth and charged toward the summit of the mountain.
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To the north of Danzhou, there were a number of tall mountains. Probably no one knew that at the peak of the mountain, where Yan Xiaoyi and Fan Xian were hunting each other down, there was a flat piece of land. The summit of the mountain was flat as grassy plains. There wasn’t even a single tree. There was only knee-deep grass like a green carpet stretching all the way out.
The strange meadow at the summit stretched all the way to the side of the precipice.
In the bushes beside the precipice, Fan Xian set up the frame and calmly placed the black chest at his side. The expression on his face had already sunk into calmness. He knew he had no escape path. Even if he shouldered the chest and climbed down along the precipice, it was daytime. If Yan Xiaoyi fired downward with his bow, his only path would be death.
Furthermore, he didn’t want to run anymore. He felt great shame as a gun-wielding man who was reborn into this world to be hunted down by a primitive man with a bow. If he died like this, he would certainly be laughed at by those who died earlier, particularly the one surnamed Ye.
The optical lens still could not capture Yan Xiaoyi’s figure. Cold sweat began to bead on Fan Xian’s forehead. Although his figure was well hidden, the general area was already known to Yan Xiaoyi. There was only so much space at the end of the meadow near the precipice. Yan Xiaoyi would eventually close in on him.
The closer Yan Xiaoyi was to him, the smaller his chances of victory.
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Yan Xiaoyi finally revealed himself. He moved forward along a strange path in the grass like an eagle. It was clear that although he didn’t know what Fan Xian had in his hands, he knew it was something that could be a threat to him.
The opening of Fan Xian’s gun was extended into the grass and moved endlessly from side to side. He was still unable to lock onto the rapidly moving figure.
Although the other person was moving forward and then retreating back, as if he was drawing a spiral, Fan Xian knew be that a spiral eventually had to rise. Yan Xiaoyi was gradually reducing the distance between them.
Five hundred meters.
The sweat formed faster and faster on his forehead and gradually seeped into his eyes.
Four hundred meters.
Fan Xian felt a glimmer of helplessness. It was an emptiness at first thinking the world was within in his hands and then discovering that everything was just an illusion. He had no way of hitting Yan Xiaoyi in one shot. If Yan Xiaoyi came a bit closer, he would certainly be able to use the bow in his hands and turn him into a hedgehog.
Three hundred and fifty meters.
If he actually let Yan Xiaoyi get closer to him, given Fan Xian’s current condition, it would be impossible for him to escape from a ninth-level ace.
It was not until this moment that Fan Xian finally understood the meaning of the assault rifle in his hand. There was no meaning. No matter how powerful a weapon was, it ultimately depended on who was holding it. It was nothing more than a fool’s nonsense to try and sweep through the world relying on an assault rifle.
He couldn’t even kill Yan Xiaoyi. What chance did he have against the strange old creatures at the summit of Dong Mountain?
Sweat dripped painfully down the small scratches the grass and leaves left earlier. Fan Xian’s heart became gradually calmer and calmer. He knew that he couldn’t allow Yan Xiaoyi to continue coming closer, but he could not accurately aim at the quickly moving figure. At such a crucial juncture, it seemed that he needed some luck.
Other than luck, he also needed courage and decisiveness.
“Yan Xiaoyi!”
A loud cry came from the meadow at the top of the mountain. Wearing all black, Fan Xian suddenly stood up from the bushes and raised the assault rifle in his hands, taking aim at the not so far away Yan Xiaoyi.
This loud cry startled the confused and ignorant creatures in the meadow. A cunning rabbit got ready to race to its nearest burrow. A vole munching on grassroots stopped its movements. Its two front paws lowered slightly as it prepared to run away at any moment. Countless birds hiding in the meadows spread their wings in preparation of flying away from this dangerous area.
Following that cry, in an instant, Yan Xiaoyi made a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life, or perhaps not have the time to regret.
He stopped and took off the gold wire bow from his back as quickly as he could. Standing steadily on the meadow with one foot in the front and one in the back, he used his full strength to stretch the bow into a full moon. An icy arrow was aimed directly at Fan Xian, who had revealed himself.
At that moment, Yan Xiaoyi saw clearly the thing Fan Xian held in his hands. He didn’t recognize it. Perhaps it was the Overwatch Council’s newest crossbow?
Since Fan Xian had already shown himself and was using courage that he had not shown in a day and a night to carry out a direct confrontation with him, Yan Xiaoyi gave Fan Xian this opportunity.
It was not that Governor Yan was arrogant. He knew that if he maintained a high speed of advancement and fired at the same time, it may not harm the pretty boy who was more cunning than a rabbit, more cowardly than a vole, and better at escaping than a flying bird.
At a distance of 300 meters, as long as he stood steadily, he would be able to kill Fan Xian. Even if he couldn’t kill him, he wouldn’t give Fan Xian any chance to retaliate.
As for the strangely shaped thing Fan Xian held in his hands…
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A person’s psychology often resulted in a fear of the unknown toward a mysterious object. That was why Yan Xiaoyi showed caution earlier. After he saw clearly the “plaything” made of metal, he naturally thought it was some powerful weapon newly created by the Third Bureau of the Overwatch Council.
Once one knew what something was, there was no need to fear it, particularly an extraordinary warrior who was as arrogant and conceited as Yan Xiaoyi. Dozens of years of being immersed in the way of the arrow and his natural talents gave him sufficient foundation for his self-confidence. He had always thought that no matter how fast his opponent’s arrows were, they could not be faster than his reaction.
Even if he dodged after hearing the sound of the arrow or the sound of the mechanical lock, he would still be completely unharmed. Could there be an arrow faster than sound in this world?
Yan Xiaoyi didn’t believe that, so he stood in his place silently. Pulling open his longbow, he aimed at Fan Xian and released his finger.
The arrow flew out.
All of this happened in a brief moment. From when Fan Xian stood up bravely from the grass, to when Yan Xiaoyi steadied his figure, and then to when Yan Xiaoyi released his hand, it happened in no more than a blink of an eye to a normal person.
Fan Xian’s speed was clearly not as fast as Yan Xiaoyi’s. It was only when he clearly saw the arrow rapidly spinning closer and closer toward him did he forcefully pull the trigger.
Brilliant parks flew out of the opening of the gun.
The longbow in Yan Xiaoyi’s hand was making a buzzing sound. His posture remained as heroic as a god firing at the sun. Then, his pupils constricted. He had seen the flash of sparks. He had also heard the clear shot. However, he had no way of dodging it.
The other person’s “arrow” was truly faster than sound.
The pop was like a paper bag being popped by a child. It was like the water bucket used in the old Danzhou manor’s baths being split open by a rock.
Half of Yan Xiaoyi’s body was split open in an instant. His powerful muscles and strong flesh all became a flower in an instant—a flower dyed with the color of blood, spraying onto the green meadow.
Without any surprise, he fell heavily to the ground. In this instant, he finally remembered the legend from before.
At the same instant, the arrow Yan Xiaoyi fired also pierced ruthlessly into Fan Xian’s body, sending out a spray of blood. It pinned Fan Xian’s body firmly against the slightly raised meadow at the side of the precipice.
Time once again began to flow. The rabbit burrowed into the narrow hole. The vole put down its front paws and began to run wildly in the dark. The birds in the grass flew up, becoming a large cloud of white feathers that danced in confusion in the air above the meadow at the top of the mountain.
At the two ends of the meadow lay two irreconcilable adversaries.
