Green Mountain

Chapter 537 399: Blood and Living Soul

"Jiang Jue and Jiang Chi passed by one after another, and this kid let Jiang Jue go by and ambushed Jiang Chi from behind."

"Jiang Jue and the two didn't notice him?"

"That's why I say he's a hunter."

The Mountain Hunter squad leader surveyed all the traces on the battlefield, retracing the steps of his fallen comrades along the path they came.

First, he glanced at the tree where Chen Ji was hiding, noticing three arrow holes in the tree: "Jiang Jue shot three arrows, and he dodged them all. His skills are no worse than ours."

The squad leader followed Jiang Jue's footprints, retreating step by step to the clearing: "They were at a standoff here, which means Jiang Jue couldn't sense his position. Ultimately, it was a test of patience, and Jiang Jue lost."

Someone murmured, "Why does it seem like the Fengzi Camp?"

A person sneered under a white bone mask, "Damn the Fengzi Camp, those traitorous people have long since perished."

Amidst the noise, the Mountain Hunter squad leader raised his right fist, and the clamor instantly ceased.

Underneath his white bone mask, his eyes flickered with wild fire, as if frantically thinking: "When he left, he took twelve arrows, but only eight of us are left. Be cautious, we might not be able to deal with him."

The Five Mad Soldiers have always been invincible in duels, and now having to calculate the number of arrows the enemy holds with their lives shows weakness.

But the battlefield only requires victory, not dignity.

Someone whispered, "We won't let this kid escape, will we?"

All eight Mountain Hunters looked into the distance. Dusk was falling, the sun had half sunk behind the distant mountains, the sunset turning their white bone masks orange before fading to gray.

The sun had set.

The Centurion's order was to take Chen Ji's head before sunset. The Mountain Hunters never doubted this, even planning where to drink until leaving the mortal realm by dawn.

But now, thoughts of drinking were cast aside, determined to fight to the end.

The squad leader calmly said, "He can't run away. As he circles around with us, the Centurion has already led people to blockade the mountain. Escape? Wishful thinking."

He continued, "Our advantage is that we don't tire, we don't need rest. This kid, realizing he can't shake us off, intends to eliminate all the Mountain Hunters before leaving. Send someone to report this to the Centurion and bring the main force for an encirclement and suppression."

After his instructions, one Mountain Hunter immediately slung his Bone Bow over his back, turned around, and swiftly departed without hesitation.

One Mountain Hunter glanced at the footprints on the ground: "There are two tracks leaving the ground, which way do we pursue?"

The squad leader briefly pondered, "South three, east four, split up and chase. As soon as you spot him, fire a signal arrow, go."

With that, the lead Mountain Hunter made a strange gesture, drawing his hand like a knife from throat to abdomen. The others exchanged glances and nodded lightly.

In the next moment, seven Mountain Hunters split into two groups, one headed south, the other east.

...

...

The sky grew darker.

The squad leader led three others, advancing in a diamond formation, keeping five steps apart from each other.

Suddenly, the squad leader crouched down, carefully inspecting the bush ahead, noticing broken branches with fresh, moist breaks.

He gently rubbed the break with his thumb, assessing the moisture loss, then affirmed, "The branch broke about 15 minutes ago, he's nearby. He wouldn't be this careless; did he leave this trace on purpose?"

What exactly is this kid planning?

In mountain forest hunting, it's like a game of strategy—the first to reveal their intent becomes the prey.

All four simultaneously halted, nocking Bone Arrows onto their bowstrings, pulling them back slowly, meticulously scanning the surroundings, not missing a single rustle or disturbance.

Suddenly, there was a noise in the forest.

One Mountain Hunter raised his bow and shot, not needing visual confirmation, the Bone Arrow flew towards the sound. In an instant, the Bone Arrow pierced through a spotted turtledove, which fell to the ground, startling the birds into flapping their wings into the sky.

The squad leader coldly scanned the surroundings, nothing happened.

He had thought Chen Ji would take this opportunity to attack, but Chen Ji didn't appear.

The squad leader suddenly said, "He noticed there were more of us here, broke the branch deliberately to instill doubt and keep us here while he ambushes the south, let's go."

In the dim forest, all four moved simultaneously, swiftly converging southward.

However, during their rapid advance, as the trailing Mountain Hunter passed a large tree, suddenly a hand 'grew' out of the tree, gripping a feathered arrow and thrusting it towards the flame in his eyes.

The feathered arrow came directly at him, no way to evade.

The Mountain Hunter could only watch wide-eyed as the feathered arrow pierced into his eye socket, dissolving into white ash that scattered.

The squad leader swiftly turned around, realizing that none of the three had noticed someone hiding by the tree, and this is how Jiang Jue and Jiang Chi were ambushed.

A thought flashed unbidden through his mind about someone's earlier doubt: Fengzi Camp?

The squad leader, quick to react, raised his hand and fired a signal arrow to summon reinforcements, while the other two unleashed a volley of arrows at Chen Ji, one Bone Arrow after another shooting at Chen Ji's evading figure in the dim forest.

There are various rapid-firing techniques with bows. Some like to strap the Arrow Quiver on their back, with the arrow tails hanging just behind their ears, archers raising their elbows when shooting an arrow, where they can seamlessly draw the next from the quiver.

Some prefer to hold the bow with one hand, while the pulling hand grips three to five arrows, immediately notching the next after each shot.

The Five Mad Soldiers are different, they grip nine arrows with the bow hand, using the thumb and forefinger to hold the bow tightly, while the middle, ring, and little fingers clutch a batch of arrows to the bow, arrow tails down, arrowheads up.

After each release, simply a slight shake of the bow hand allows the next arrow to perfectly notch onto the rebounding string without deviation. This rapid-fire technique is known as nine breaths eighteen arrows, and even the Divine Archers of the Ning Dynasty's Imperial Three Camps may not achieve it.

Yet, despite such speed, they still missed each time, forcing Chen Ji to hide behind a large tree.

The three Mountain Hunters exchanged glances, slowly encircling Chen Ji's tree from both sides. As they stepped on the ground, barely a sound was made, and they drew their bowstrings slowly, ready to release the moment they saw Chen Ji.

The next moment, three of them rounded the tree, only to find that Chen Ji had vanished.

The squad leader raised his bow abruptly, aiming at the tree canopy, but it was also empty.

The three were taken aback, turned outward in unison, and searched everywhere for Chen Ji's presence. They backed towards each other step by step, yet Chen Ji was nowhere to be found.

"Where did he go?"

"Did he leave using the blind spot in the field of vision?"

"Don't let your guard down, he's quite patient."

The three of them held their breath, the bowstrings drawn taut without a single movement.

But after waiting for a full thirty minutes, there was still no sign of Chen Ji.

A Mountain Hunter whispered, "Did he really leave?"

Before the words were finished, the sound of a signal arrow suddenly rose from the east, and the flames in the Centurion's eyes jumped fiercely: "Not good, he's gone east."

The Centurion realized that Chen Ji's attack was just to make them release the signal arrow to attract others.

The eastern colleagues, upon hearing the signal arrow, would rush to the location where it was shot without paying attention to any ambushes along the way.

The Centurion sprinted towards the sound of the signal arrow: "Be careful, this person is well-versed in the art of battlefield maneuvering..."

Words from a previous colleague flashed in his mind: Fengzi Camp?

Just these few encounters, with the skill of hiding and holding one's breath, and the style of battlefield maneuvering, made him feel as if he truly encountered the Fengzi Camp.

When the Centurion and his men arrived at the sound of the signal arrow, a handful of white ash already lay on the ground, and the other two left marks on the tree and pursued Chen Ji further.

The Centurion set off in pursuit, while two Mountain Hunters behind him warned, "Be careful of another ambush."

But the Centurion ignored it, seemingly fueled by anger.

The moon hung on the treetops.

As the branches swayed, the mottled moonlight on the ground rippled like waves.

Chasing all the way, the Centurion saw another patch of white ash halfway, another colleague had fallen to Chen Ji.

As he continued to chase, he suddenly saw another handful of white ash ten yards ahead.

The wildfire in the Centurion's eyes leaped wildly: There were only three colleagues to the east, now all three are dead, where is Chen Ji?

No time to think further, there was already a sound of wind overhead.

The Centurion saw in the moonlight on the ground, a shadow crouched on the branch, almost merging with his own shadow.

"Find the Centurion!"

With an angry roar, the Centurion stomped hard, flying backward, as three feathered arrows descended from the sky, nailing the path he flew back upon.

A pause of just a breath, and the feathered arrow would have pierced his skull.

Flying backward in mid-air, the Centurion looked up to see Chen Ji covered in branches, his face smeared with mud and bark.

In one hand he held a bow, and in the other, a bundle of feathered arrows. With each shot, a slight twitch of the wrist would place a new arrow tail on the bowstring.

This action was so familiar, even more skillful than the Five Mad Soldiers.

"You..."

In that instant, the world seemed to slow down a bit.

Or perhaps it was Chen Ji's speed in drawing the bow that made the world seem slow.

Only seeing Chen Ji's wrist twitch again, drawing the bow, shooting arrows, incredibly smooth.

The fourth arrow whizzed and pierced the Centurion's chest.

Chen Ji's wrist twitched again, drawing and shooting the fifth arrow.

In mid-air, the Centurion blocked in front of the white bone mask with the bone bow, with a clanging sound, feeling a strong shock in his hands, blocking the arrow aimed at his eye socket.

Total of five arrows, shot within two breaths, and the Centurion was just landing on his back.

He moved the bone bow from in front of his eyes, only to find Chen Ji had already lunged forward in that instant his eyes were obscured by the bone bow. The bone bow was effective when blocking the white bone mask, but in a fight, losing sight means losing the advantage.

It took just this moment.

The wildfires beneath the Centurion's white bone mask suddenly calmed, as if a certain preparation had been made. He discarded the bone bow in his hand, leaving only a bone arrow in his right hand.

Just as Chen Ji descended from above, driving the feathered arrow into his eye socket, the Centurion swung up with all his might, stabbing a bone arrow towards Chen Ji's left rib.

As the feathered arrow pierced his eye socket, the arrow already reached Chen Ji's left rib, Chen Ji used his left hand to fend off this arrow, but the Centurion with final strength twisted the arrow, cutting Chen Ji's wrist.

The world went silent.

The Centurion and the bone arrow turned into drifting white ash, only the wound on Chen Ji's wrist remained, blood dripping onto the decaying leaves.

Chen Ji stood up, slowly regulating his breath.

He glanced down at the wound on his wrist, stepping back into the moonlight, then turned and ran toward the Incense Burner Peak.

An hour later.

Dozens of Five Mad Soldiers blocked the area, led by the Ever-blade Connecting Bone Centurion striding forward with a long knife.

He inspected the battlefield under the moonlight: "Tell me, what happened?"

Three Mountain Hunters received the order, carefully examining the clues on the battlefield: bent and broken blades of grass, locations of white ash, shreds of branches and bark, missing nothing.

One of them pointed at the path where the Centurion came: "He lured us to shoot the signal arrow, ambushing reinforcements ahead... He hid in the trees and shot five arrows, judging by the arrow distance, he finished within two breaths..."

After the Mountain Hunter finished, the wildfire in the Centurion's eyes leaped suddenly, he whispered, "Fengzi Camp."

Then immediately, the Centurion denied: "No, Fengzi Camp does not have such archery skills."

He looked at the feathered arrows on the ground, then at the white ash and blood.

Beside the Centurion stood two Five Mad Soldiers of the Soul-keeper's Ban, each holding a head in one arm and a high-held White Bone Banner in the other.

One of the Soul-keeper's Ban Five Mad Soldiers lifted the head by the hair, pointing it towards the direction Chen Ji left, and the head greedily said, "The taste of blood and living soul."

The Centurion looked up towards the direction Chen Ji left: "The prey is troublesome enough, Jiang Pan traded a life to give us the scent of blood and living soul, he won't escape."