Watching the two — one attacking, one defending — rapidly disappear from his field of view, Sun Miao was dumbfounded.
'Wait. This isn't what we planned!'
'Cheng Shi, what are you doing!?'
'We finally reeled him in, and you're not letting
out!?'
'You want to take on the Beast Tar alone?'
'Stupid! Arrogant! Preposterous!'
'How can you act this foolishly at a ti like this, clinging to so pointless one-on-one and the illusion of a dignified solo kill?'
'This foolish act will squander our only chance, do you understand!?'
Sun Miao was genuinely frantic. While he wasn't worried about the life of soone who'd defeated Zangier, he refused to waste this window of opportunity they'd waited an entire day and night for.
If this attempt failed, there wouldn't be a next ti. A wary Beast Tar would never walk into the sa trap twice, and that would an a tool of the Fear Heartwood's caliber falling into enemy hands for nothing.
That was harder to accept than failing the trial itself.
But Sun Miao was also powerless. He could hardly shout "Cheng Shi, let
out so I can help you!" That would tip off the Beast Tar to their setup, and the fish that had just taken the bait would swim away even faster!
Yet without shouting, the apparently foolish Fate Weaver seed to have zero intention of releasing him.
So the suddenly sidelined Sun Miao stood still, frowning, and began carefully pondering what this secret-laden Fate Weaver could possibly be planning.
Cheng Shi had made zero preparations beforehand. What confidence did he have to face a peak-state Beast Tar and ensure the man stayed in this trial permanently?
And what about his prolonged refusal to explain how he'd dealt with Yu Go? Was that sohow connected to this planned kill?
Too many questions. The wise man couldn't figure it out.
Xiao Qi couldn't figure it out either. How did this childhood friend have so many bizarre tricks for staying alive?
He'd already hit him with three arrows, yet none of them had slowed Cheng Shi's retreat one bit.
Being a priest who could heal himself was one thing, but the practiced ease with which Xiao Shi chugged potions like water — where had he learned that? Whose potions could even be used like that?
'Did you hack into the backend and edit your potion count?'
Watching the fleeing Xiao Shi still having energy to spare, Du Qiyu's expression gradually darkened.
'If this drags on until Xiao Shi's Go Lis cooldown resets, I'll be the one in danger!'
'I can't let this brief window slip...'
Thinking this, Du Qiyu decisively culled his remaining tad beasts, keeping only one humanoid beast as backup. Then, channeling virtually all his peak-level power, he leveraged his hunter's talents once more and fired a single arrow — one ant to decide the outco — at Cheng Shi's only escape path.
This arrow was his complete understanding of the hunter class in this ga. In a sense, it even resembled the ti-reversal arrows of the Wind Taming Ranger, except the Ranger hit the past, while Xiao Qi hit... the future.
Although the [Corruption] container ceaselessly drained his emotions, at this very instant, the launched arrow was the condensation of his half-life's obsession.
In terms of raw speed alone, this arrow shattered everything Cheng Shi knew about a hunter's upper limits. He couldn't defend. He couldn't dodge!
If he were a Pointer Warrior, he'd have been confident in timing the evasion. But as a priest—
WHOOSH! THWACK! HUMMM—
The fragile human body couldn't slow the arrow by even a fraction. The shaft punched clean through, erupting from Cheng Shi's back in a mist of blood, then buried itself in a tree trunk behind him with a droning vibration.
"GAHH—"
Cheng Shi vomited a mouthful of blood, staggered two steps, and crumpled backward. But before his body even hit the ground, a cascade of arrows rained down with screaming whistles, nailing him to the earth like a voodoo doll stuck full of pins.
This ti, the cautious Xiao Qi didn't play the talkative villain. The instant he seized his opening, he locked victory down tight.
'Won?'
'Xiao Shi is dead?'
As a keen hunter, upon realizing every single arrow had found its mark, he should have been absolutely certain the prey was gone. But this was Xiao Shi. The childhood friend he'd once deceived. The lucky kid who'd supposedly found a father's love. The ga's "new" prodigy who'd allegedly beaten a pseudo-god...
The composure Xiao Shi had shown while running had already proven he was no easy foe. And now, he was dead?
Just like that?
For an instant, the elation of victory nearly reignited the accumulated emotional buildup. Fortunately, the container in his hand siphoned away Du Qiyu's excitent just in ti, restoring calm.
Champagne could be savored anyti, but never at halfti.
So Xiao Qi moved cautiously. After confirming the trapped wise man wasn't getting out anyti soon, the Beast Tar... didn't reveal himself.
He was too cautious. Like the most seasoned of hunters.
Not only did he stay hidden, he even shifted positions and fired arrows from the forest at irregular intervals, lashing the corpse that barely had a square inch of intact flesh left to receive another arrowhead.
This paranoid hunter intended to finish this hunt in the most thorough, most careful way possible.
The shooting continued for nearly half an hour.
No hunter would waste this much ti on a dead prey's corpse. When even Xiao Qi felt he was being excessively cautious, he finally stopped his barrage and allowed himself a smile.
No ecstasy. No unburdened relief. Du Qiyu simply smiled with satisfaction under the container's influence. In that mont, it was as though he'd finally bid farewell to the person he used to be.
As for whether Xiao Shi might resurrect sowhere else...
No. Absolutely impossible.
Because he still had one more tool in his possession — one that could seal a prey's death with absolute finality!
The Flaying Bone Knife!
An SS-rank prize confiscated from so bone-scraper, this knife contained the purest [Death] curse. Once any living being's corpse was cut with it, an eternal burial in [Death]'s bone heap would be the only destination.
Du Qiyu calmly drew the bone knife from his sleeve and walked toward Xiao Shi's corpse, step by step.
Interestingly, even now, the one approaching Cheng Shi's corpse wasn't his true body, but his sole remaining humanoid tad beast.
It had been dressed identically to the Beast Tar — Du Qiyu's proudest masterpiece. Now he would use another version of himself to send this childhood friend to hell once more.
"Safe travels, Xiao Shi. I hope in the next life, you'll still be fooled by ."
With those words, Xiao Qi raised the bone knife and stabbed downward.
But halfway through the plunge, his motion stopped. Because he realized the arrow-riddled corpse didn't even have one spare centiter of skin for the blade's point.
Left with no choice, Xiao Qi pulled out the arrow lodged in Cheng Shi's chest. Under that density of fire, no normal corpse could possibly retain an intact heart. One tug and it should co out with a ss of pulped flesh.
But what Xiao Qi felt through the arrow shaft was unmistakable resistance from living tissue. And more horrifying still, the instant he touched the arrow in Cheng Shi's chest, that heart — which should have been reduced to mush — suddenly thumped and began pumping again!
The tad beast's pupils shrank. With lightning reflexes, abandoning the arrow extraction, it thrust the bone knife straight at the beating heart. But the strike didn't suppress the heartbeat. Instead, the heart beat faster and faster, pumping hot blood directly through the wound and spraying it across the tad beast's face.
At the sa ti, the arrow-studded Cheng Shi suddenly raised both hands, plucked the arrows from his eyes and mouth, and turned to face his stunned old friend beside him. With a ghastly smile — eye sockets streaming blood, mouth mangled yet still curving upward — he rasped through the gaps in his ruined lips:
"Heh. Old friend, your life-saving technique...
Not bad at all."
In that instant, even with the container in hand, both Du Qiyus went cold to the bone.
'No. This is impossible!'
...
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