While Zu An had managed to deal with two enemies thus far, he dared not let his guard down at all.
While he was clashing blows with Shi Zhenxiang earlier, he realized that even though he had defeated a fifth rank cultivator and killed a fourth rank cultivator before, there was a lot of luck at play there. In a real fight, defeating a fourth rank cultivator was definitely no easy feat.
It was fortunate that he had Poisonous Prick and the armor-piercing arrow he had picked up earlier, or else he couldn’t even breach their ki armor. The remaining duo was of even higher cultivation rank, so defeating them would pose much more of an issue.
It looks like I can’t brute force my way through. I need to think up a strategy and make it work.
Looking at Shi Zhenxiang’s corpse, an idea floated into Zu An’s mind.
…
Meanwhile, after searching the forest in vain for quite some time, the remaining two killers realized that they might have run in the wrong direction. So, in accordance with their previous agreement, they headed back to where the bow user was supposed to be camping to meet up, only to bump into one another.
The sword user asked, “Brother Jia, did you find anything on your end?”
“I couldn’t find anything. What about you, Brother Zhen?” asked the spear user.
The sword user’s name was Zhen Liumang whereas the spear user’s name was Jia Zhengjing. They were both death soldiers groomed by the Shi clan. It was in the recent two years that they were dispatched to the Brightmoon Academy, and they soon got on fairly good terms with one another.
“I couldn’t find any trails on my side. Could he have headed northward, to where Shi Zhenxiang is?” asked Zhen Liumang. “Should we head to the north area to take a look?”
Jia Zhengjing shook his head. “Let’s meet up with Brother Po first. If Brother Shi hasn’t returned yet, we’ll head northward to take a look.”
“Alright then!”
With someone to cover them, their movements were less careful this time around. They swiftly raced back to the area where they left Po Zhongyou.
“Say, if neither of us found any traces of Zu An at all, is it possible that he has turned around and headed back to where Brother Po is?” asked Jia Zhengjing.
Zhen Liumang replied with a laugh, “Brother Po would have long shot Zu An to death if he spotted him. Even we would have trouble dealing with his arrows if we can’t get close to him.”
“That’s true.” Jia Zhengjing nodded. He suddenly noticed a silhouette in front and remarked, “Ah, Brother Shi is… back…”
His words carried a hint of doubt as he realized that Shi Zhenxiang was standing a little too high above ground. They quickly rushed over, only for their faces to pale in shock. They realized that Shi Zhenxiang was hanging off a tree with a noose around his neck.
“Brother Shi!” exclaimed Zhen Liumang in horror.
They had been together with one another in Brightmoon Academy some several years now, resulting in them forging a bond of camaraderie. He was horrified to see the other party hanging off the tree. Without any hesitation, he rushed forward to sever the rope so as to put Shi Zhenxiang’s body down.
“Be careful!” warned Jia Zhengjing.
However, it was already too late. The moment the rope was severed, a black shadow suddenly darted across the air.
Stuck in midair, Zhen Liumang was unable to dodge the arrow at all. Fortunately, he wasn’t completely unguarded. He swiftly swung his sword to deflect the arrow, but before he could even heave a sigh of relief, something on Shi Zhenxiang’s body suddenly exploded.
With a scream of horror, he quickly tossed the body away. It was fortunate that he had activated his ki armor to protect himself earlier, so even though the explosion had dealt significant injuries to him, it wasn’t fatal.
The shockwave of the explosion pushed him toward the ground. He was just about to curse at the evil bastard who lay out this series of despicable traps when the ground beneath him suddenly caved in, and he fell into a pit.
Ahhhh!
A scream of horror sounded. There appeared to be some kind of mechanism inside the pit to deal with its unsuspecting victim.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye, catching everyone off guard. Jia Zhengjing was horrified too, but he held back his urge to check on his comrade. Instead, he scanned his surroundings carefully.
All of a sudden, a silhouette darted toward him from the side with a black dagger in hand.
“Over there, huh!” Jia Zhengjing’s spear rushed forth like a silver dragon rising from the sea. In terms of force and speed, his spear thrust was indubitably far stronger than the dagger brandished by the silhouette.
However, he soon sensed that something was amiss and leaped backward. When he finally glanced downward to take a look, he realized that his armor had been slit open, revealing his inner shirt.
Had the enemy moved even a single inch closer, the dagger would have pierced through his skin and skewered his abdomen.
“Where did the dagger in his hand come from?” Jia Zhengjing was shocked. He had been maintaining his ki armor all this while, so ordinary attacks shouldn’t have possibly hurt him at all. Yet, that earlier strike actually managed to penetrate both his ki armor and the soft armor he had bought at a high price. This was inconceivable to him!
On the other hand, Zu An lamented over his failure. The earlier strike was a good one, but the short strike range of Poisonous Prick and the sharp reflexes of his enemy worked against him. Otherwise, he could have bragged about having killed a pinnacle fourth rank cultivator in a single strike.
Thinking about this, he suddenly found himself filled with awe for Dongfang Bubai. While he was lamenting about the shortness of his dagger, the latter was already dominating the world with just a couple of needles in hand.
The battle didn’t stop right after this clash. Jia Zhengjing was, after all, no ordinary student. He had been groomed as a death soldier from a young age, and he had learned many new things in Brightmoon Academy too. He swiftly recovered from his astonishment and charged forth with a furious roar, thrusting the spear in his hand toward Zu An.
With the earlier precedence, his movement was more controlled and careful this time around, but its force was still not to be underestimated. The spear seemed almost to be ripping vacuums in the path of its movement.
Zu An dodged sideward before attempting to make another frontal charge, but he suddenly felt a strong gale coming from his side. He quickly retracted his dagger and pulled it to his side, blocking off the sudden spear sweep.
Despite having successfully blocked the attack, the sheer force from the spear sweep forced Zu An to use Sunflower Phantasm to retreat a few steps before he was able to neutralize the impact.
On the other hand, a cold sneer formed on Jia Zhengjing’s face. He had been learning spearmanship from a very young age, so how could he possibly allow anyone to get close to him so easily? In fact, the attack he had made earlier harnessed the full force he had as a pinnacle fourth rank cultivator, and it should have been more than enough to crush the enemy.
However, the smile on his face soon froze. There wasn’t as much feedback from the blow as he had expected, as if he had struck a bed of cotton.
“Your movement skill…” mumbled Jia Zhengjing. He could tell that the other party had used his bizarre movement skill to neutralize the force of his attack.
He had also heard about how Zu An’s bizarre movement skill had won the limelight at the Clans Tournament, but the intelligence team had also figured out that while the movement skill looked impressive at first sight, it was riddled with openings.
But that was clearly not the case, be it when the other party attacked him or evaded his attack.
On the other hand, after neutralizing the sweep with some difficulty, Zu An charged toward the spear user once more. He heard a groan coming from the trap, which meant that the sword user wasn’t dead yet. He had to quickly eliminate the spear user so as to avoid it turning into a two-on-one situation.
However, all of his offensive attempts were parried by the spear with loud clangs. This was the difference arising from their cultivation rank and combat experience. It wouldn’t be easy for Zu An to catch the spear user off guard.
Zu An’s face turned grim. He dished out blows at an increasingly faster speed, and paired with Sunflower Phantasm, he really looked like a specter haunting the battlefield.
Sweat began trickling down Jia Zhengjing’s face. He finally understood how a fifth rank cultivator like Yuan Wendong ended up getting crippled by Zu An. The world mocked Yuan Wendong for foolishly underestimating his opponent, but that was only because they had yet to have a taste of his swordsmanship themselves.
It was indeed the Thirteen Forms of Elementary Swordplay from Brightmoon Academy, but it was somehow elevated to another level in Zu An’s hands. His attacks looked straightforward, but when paired with the movement skill, they became nearly impossible to predict.
Jia Zhengjing had managed to hold on thus far, but he definitely wasn’t as relaxed as he appeared to be. The cold sweat drenching his body was the best evidence of it.