Du Qiyu was an undeniably excellent hunter.
After familiarizing himself with the tool's effects, he quickly used a hunter's keen senses to find Cheng Shi's trail and tracked it relentlessly.
He first returned to the scorched battlefield. Upon discovering that the Startled Bow was nothing but a pile of ash, the Beast Tar stood there with a cold smile.
A great bow recorded in history, a weapon that was possibly a Servant God relic — it absolutely could not have been reduced to ash by a re fire rain. So what lay before him was definitely fake, deliberately staged by Xiao Shi to fool him.
The Startled Bow had clearly already fallen into Xiao Shi's hands.
You couldn't bla Du Qiyu for thinking this way. The scent trails Cheng Shi had left around the area were far too dense. He could practically reconstruct the scene from them, as though watching Xiao Shi standing before him, smiling as he picked up the great bow Du Qiyu had dread of, then fabricated the cri scene — all while Du Qiyu was retrieving the emotion-absorbing tool.
Perfect. Now he had one more reason to hunt Xiao Shi.
But Xiao Qi wasn't stupid. He knew the other party was most likely hunting him too. After all, anyone who lost such a tool would want it back.
So he carefully concealed his true body, tad a few inconspicuous birds as his eyes, and began following Xiao Shi's trail. It wasn't until he spotted Cheng Shi standing outside a cage woven from [Decay] dust — face dark with frustration, sighing — that he realized he wasn't the only one who'd encountered the Envoy. Xiao Shi apparently knew of His existence too.
Though Xiao Shi's predicant was far worse than his own.
"There's no way around it. My lightning can't break this cage."
Cheng Shi paced in agitation, rubbing his forehead. Refusing to give up, he fired another bolt of lightning, but it passed through the decaying dust and nearly hit Sun Miao inside, giving the wise man quite a scare.
"Recklessness is the sort of foolish act that destroys the self, Vice President Cheng. I know your lightning is powerful. No need for further demonstrations."
"...You think I'm demonstrating? I'm trying to save you! If only you'd swallowed your pride in front of Him, put away those upturned nostrils of yours — would you have been locked up?
Wise man, you call
reckless, but can I afford not to be?
The Fear Heartwood was snatched by Xiao Qi. He can co back at full power any mont. Even if I'm confident I can hold him off, you're still my insurance, you know that!?
Now look at the ss. You got yourself locked up. And this is a wise man? How can soone who gets himself into danger from his own actions dare call himself 'wise'!?
Thank god it was Yu Go. The most cowardly one. The slightest breeze and He bolts. Otherwise, heh, I'd be burying you near this battlefield just like Chun."
"..."
Sun Miao couldn't argue back. Or rather, he was simply too exhausted from arguing.
You had to understand: making sure that Du Qiyu, whose arrival timing was completely unknown, happened to overhear all this dialogue wasn't sothing you could just stumble into.
To make everything appear natural, Cheng Shi had first released Sun Miao, letting the wise man deploy every silent enemy-detection thod around the area. Then he used Chun's relic to reverse-track Xiao Qi's position. Finally, he erected a new cage and locked Sun Miao back inside.
He modified the cage's settings to no longer muffle sound, and thickened the rolling dust so outsiders couldn't see Sun Miao within. With that, the stage was set.
But the thorniest problem remained: against an excellent hunter, neither Sun Miao nor Cheng Shi could guarantee their enemy-detection tools would work. One slip, and the consequences could be fatal.
So, to lure the target into this elaborately dressed trap, Cheng Shi began a performance that lasted over twenty hours.
That's right. Even the night before Xiao Qi's arrival, Cheng Shi had already been sighing in front of this cage. He'd perford non-stop through an entire night and half a day, never repeating a single line or gesture, all so the approaching Xiao Qi would witness this "accident" with his own eyes!
If Xiao Qi hadn't co today, the show would have continued. Though the lightning blasts weren't all that frequent — so far, Cheng Shi had only fired two, one per day. It just so happened that today's performance coincided with Xiao Qi's arrival.
As the two had predicted, this skilled hunter triggered not a single alarm, leaving both actors unaware the enemy had already crept close.
And the cautious Xiao Qi would never act rashly upon first seeing an unexpected windfall. He observed silently for half a day, until he saw Cheng Shi give up on breaking the cage and switch to laying traps around the periter. Only then was he finally convinced that Xiao Shi had genuinely run into trouble.
'Heaven itself is helping .'
'Xiao Shi, oh Xiao Shi. From the mont your destiny was stolen by , [Fate]... seems to have abandoned you.'
Du Qiyu struck.
He chose the mont when Cheng Shi's guard was lowest. Just as Cheng Shi finished scrawling sothing array-like on a tree outside the cage, letting out a long breath and preparing to head back, a silent arrow shot from the dense forest like the wind, aid straight at Cheng Shi's face.
The arrow ca from Xiao Qi's true body. There was no other way. To take the enemy down quickly, he had to bring his full power to bear. The window couldn't be missed. And despite all his constant belittling of Xiao Shi, he'd never truly underestimated him.
Sure enough, Cheng Shi's reaction lived up to Du Qiyu's expectations.
The instant he heard the sound of splitting air, his pupils contracted. He decisively crushed a smoke bomb and dove into the cloud, evading the attack. Simultaneously, his heart leapt with satisfaction. Xiao Qi had finally appeared. All those days and nights of performing hadn't been wasted.
Du Qiyu hadn't expected a one-shot kill either. This opening volley was nothing but a feint. The other humanoid tad beast he'd kept — one that closely resembled himself — had already flanked to Cheng Shi's side. From the edge of the smoke cloud, it unleashed an unknown number of thunder-fire arrows.
He didn't know how bizarre the smoke's defense was, but overwhelming force solved everything. When you couldn't find the enemy, just pile on firepower and blast them to death.
Cheng Shi felt the danger. He slipped out from the smoke's edge and flung a bolt of lightning — not at the nearest tad beast, but instinctively aiming toward the forest in the direction the arrow had co from.
He was certain that first arrow had been shot by Xiao Qi himself.
He was right. But the lightning missed.
A fearless Xiao Qi couldn't charge the Death Fun Ring for him. Cheng Shi frowned, ducked, and retreated. Xiao Qi snorted, loosing arrow after arrow in rapid succession, doggedly pinning Cheng Shi's attempted retreat. Through the bird's-eye view from above, he taunted simultaneously:
"Where's your courage, Xiao Shi? Why are you running? Show
the strength that defeated the pseudo-god Zangier!
I know you've got Go Lis behind you. Why not call Her out to help?
She too busy!?"
Despite the aggression of his assault, Xiao Qi himself remained hidden in the shadows, carefully guarding against everything around him. With his tad beasts reduced to single digits, his recovered power was enough to see this fight through. Even if he sohow lost, escape was still on the table.
But Du Qiyu quickly realized that losing this fight was simply not possible. Because Cheng Shi's so-called trump card... appeared to have failed.
And connecting this to what he'd just overheard: heh, Xiao Shi, your little feint that "scared off" the [Decay] Envoy — you must have summoned Go Lis, right?
'Let
think. Summoning an Envoy — a power tantamount to cheating — can't possibly have no cooldown. An Envoy wouldn't just let a player call and dismiss Her at will. So your greatest trump card is useless right now, isn't it?!'
'Praise [Decay]! So you aren't just kiting to create distance. You're actually running!'
'Waiting for cooldown?'
'Heh. Dream on.'
'Your ti has co!'
'Xiao Shi, heaven wills your death!'
...
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