Chapter 26: Counterattack (Please follow, favorite, monthly tickets, and recommendation votes)

“Still chasing?”

Su Mu sprinted through the mountain forest, the sound of footsteps pursuing him relentlessly from behind.

He cursed inwardly. *There are so many people over there, why aren't you fighting them? Why are you chasing me?*

*Do you really think I'm a pushover?*

Anger flared in his chest.

He still had a bow in his hand and half a quiver of arrows...

And he had a saber.

If he were truly pushed to the brink, he wasn't incapable of a fight!

He wasn't running because he was afraid.

He was merely worried that if he delayed too long, the Chief of Black Dragon Fortress would catch up.

“You brat, you can't escape!”

The voice of the Black Dragon Fortress's Second-in-Command drifted from behind. “This is Black Dragon Fortress territory; even if you had wings, you couldn't fly away! Now, stop obediently, and I might give you a quick death. Otherwise, I will make you regret ever being born!”

*Pshhh!*

The sound of wind breaking echoed as an arrow streaked toward him.

With a flick of his long spear, the Second-in-Command easily deflected the arrow.

“With your amateur archery, you think you can wound me?”

The Second-in-Command was furious. A mere little mouse actually dared to resist!

His response was another arrow.

The Second-in-Command let out a roar and, ignoring the injury on his back, lunged upward.

With a leap of over ten feet, he kicked off a tree trunk, propelling himself even higher.

He lunged toward Su Mu mid-air.

“Take my smoke bomb!”

Su Mu shouted, throwing something backward with a swing of his hand.

The Second-in-Command’s heart jolted. He had suffered from smoke bombs before and knew how dangerous they were.

*What a clever bastard!* He slammed his spear down violently; the tip struck a large tree, causing the entire shaft to bend at a terrifying angle.

In an instant, the shaft snapped back straight, and using that momentum, the Second-in-Command’s body flew sideways.

*Clack!*

The object Su Mu had thrown whizzed past him and smashed onto the ground, shattering into pieces.

“You dare trick me?!”

Seeing that no smoke had been produced, the Second-in-Command felt both humiliated and enraged.

He had actually been startled by a mere stone!

In the blink of an eye, just as the stone shattered, Su Mu had already run several yards ahead, widening the distance between him and the Second-in-Command.

Having been played by Su Mu, the Second-in-Command's face turned bright red with fury.

He brandished his long spear and lunged forward once more.

...

*Clack! Clack! Clack!*

The spear moved like a venomous dragon, its tip instantly pulverizing several pebbles.

The Second-in-Command sneered. The brat was trying the same trick again; did he think he was an idiot?

“Run! Let's see where else you can run! There is a bottomless abyss ahead—jump if you have the guts!” the Second-in-Command said sinisterly.

Relying on his knowledge of the terrain, he successfully cornered Su Mu at the edge of a cliff.

“Don't come any closer! My archery is very formidable!”

Su Mu stood at the very edge of the cliff, rocks tumbling down beneath his feet. His face appeared somewhat pale.

Holding a mulberry wood longbow, he nocked an arrow and aimed it at the Second-in-Command.

“Come on then! If you can hit me one more time today, I shall spare your life!” the Second-in-Command said confidently.

What could a mere novice who hadn't even undergone Body Tempering do, even if he had learned some archery?

Grinning savagely, he stepped forward one pace at a time.

*Twang!*

Su Mu released the string. The bow vibrated, and the arrow shot forth.

The Second-in-Command looked on with disdain. He merely shifted his body slightly, and the arrow whizzed past him, thudding into the ground.

“Too slow!” the Second-in-Command remarked. “The arrows you shoot are as slow as ants in my eyes.”

Driven by a sadistic desire to toy with his prey like a cat with a mouse, he subjected Su Mu to extreme humiliation.

Su Mu seemed genuinely enraged; his face flushed red as he quickly plucked another arrow.

He drew and released; the arrow was like a falling star.

*Swish! Swish! Swish!*

After the first shot, Su Mu did not stop. In one continuous motion, he fired all the remaining seven or eight arrows in his quiver.

The distance between him and the Second-in-Command was only about two or three yards. This volley was incredibly fast, and the seven or eight arrows seemed to arrive almost simultaneously.

The Second-in-Command only braced himself slightly.

As he had said, Su Mu wasn't even at the first stage of Body Tempering, and he only held an ordinary mulberry bow. The bow's power was too weak, and the arrows were too slow.

He could dodge them even with his eyes closed.

With a mocking attitude, the Second-in-Command intentionally showed off his skills. Keeping his feet planted, he swayed his body left and right. The seven or eight arrows all missed, grazing his clothes before striking the ground.

“Kid, do you realize the gap between us now? Despair! Tremble!”

The Second-in-Command felt as though he could already see Su Mu trembling in terror under his tyranny.

But before he could finish his sentence, he suddenly saw a strange smile spread across Su Mu's face.

“Something's wrong!”

The Second-in-Command realized the error instantly.

At that exact moment, a cloud of pink smoke rose from beneath his feet, instantly enveloping him.

Smoke bombs!

Having fallen victim once before, the Second-in-Command understood immediately what had happened.

This bastard had buried the smoke bombs in the dirt beneath his feet and used arrows to detonate them!

Realizing this, the Second-in-Command held his breath and prepared to burst out of the smoke's range.

He lunged forward with a massive leap of over ten feet, and it looked as though one foot had already cleared the cloud.

Suddenly, a sharp whistling wind rushed toward his face.

A flash of cold light erupted in the Second-in-Command's eyes.

He was both shocked and enraged.

The saber strike was as powerful as thunder—this was clearly a perfected saber technique!

This kid was playing the pig to eat the tiger!

Someone capable of mastering a saber technique to such a level could not possibly be an obscure nobody from the Southern City Bureau.

One must realize that even among ordinary Body Tempering Level 3 martial artists, few could master their arts to such perfection.

There were shortcuts to Body Tempering, but martial arts required extraordinary comprehension.

His mind raced, and the Second-in-Command reacted with lightning speed.

He gripped the middle of the spear shaft with both hands, turning the long spear into a short one, and thrust it toward the incoming saber light.

*Clang!*

The long saber let out a sharp, ringing cry.

A violent force surged forth, sending Su Mu flying backward.

Having landed the hit, the Second-in-Command was also greatly surprised.

He had just been thinking that Su Mu was playing the pig to eat the tiger, only to find that while Su Mu's saber technique was indeed perfected, the actual power behind the blade was far too weak.

This discovery brought a surge of joy to the Second-in-Command.

*So he wasn't playing the pig to eat the tiger; he really is just a pig.*

Seeing Su Mu flying backward, a ferocious expression crossed his face as he prepared to seize the opportunity to take Su Mu's life.

Just as he raised a foot, he saw that Su Mu, while still in mid-air, had dropped his saber and grabbed his bow and arrows.

In the very moment he was knocked back, Su Mu had actually managed to pluck an arrow from the ground.

*Swish!*

The arrow shot straight for the Second-in-Command's throat.

The Second-in-Command's footsteps faltered. He swung his spear to knock the arrow away, but he failed to guard against what came immediately after the arrow.

*Pop!*

A smoke bomb exploded right in front of the Second-in-Command.

Having been holding his breath, the Second-in-Command was so enraged by these successive attacks that he lost control of his breath.

As he exhaled, the smoke rushed straight into his nostrils.

The Second-in-Command immediately began to feel lightheaded and dazed.

By this time, Su Mu had landed on the ground. His face was flushed and his chest felt tight, but he did not hesitate for a second. He lunged forward, his saber light flashing like silk as he slashed into the pink smoke.

Regardless of whether he could hit the target, he unleashed all thirteen forms of the Wave-Subduing Saber technique in one breath.

Then, he leaped back several steps. Not feeling secure, he threw out another smoke bomb and retreated far away.

It took a good while—long enough to eat a meal—before the pink mist was blown away by the mountain wind, revealing the body of the Second-in-Command of Black Dragon Fortress lying flat on his back.

(End of Chapter)