The Feeling of Winning Was Great

Jing Yang rode Tiger and led Wild Wolf, several freshly picked stones in hand.

He distributed a certain amount of Aura to his fingertips and combined it with techniques like Ten, Ren, and Gyo. In essence, he was enhancing the destructive power of his fingertips. This method of distributing different amounts of Aura to different parts of the body was known as Flow. His fingertips were like blades as he carved Pentagram symbols into the stones stroke by stroke, as easily as cutting tofu.

While Jing Yang was busy on the ground, the sky above was no less active. Five birds controlled by Star Marks were like five reconnaissance planes roaming high overhead, locking onto one, two, three, four... exactly five sneaky figures who appeared to be a group of poachers. Whew... The five birds spread their wings and glided, occasionally giving them light flaps, surveying every direction while guiding Jing Yang below and steadily closing in on their targets.

An eyeball floating high in the sky suddenly turned, its pupil facing the flock of birds flying toward it.

Jing Yang, riding Tiger, felt his eyelid twitch and abruptly looked up. Even with Gyo enhancing his eyes, it was difficult to make out that tiny floating eyeball high above.

It seemed there was an expert among those five poachers...

Without a doubt, that floating eyeball was someone's Nen Ability!

Jing Yang continued forward while controlling the five birds overhead. After passing the eyeball, just as the other side assumed they were merely an ordinary flock of passing birds, they suddenly turned back. Jing Yang controlled a gray bird, which pierced through the air like an arrow loosed from a bow and struck the floating eyeball with perfect accuracy.

Pop. The eyeball burst like a bubble, then turned into a cloud of white Aura and dispersed like smoke in the air.

"Ah!!!"

The bald man leading the poacher group suddenly let out a scream and clutched his right eye.

The other four jumped in fright. "Brother Galo, what's wrong?"

"You damned birds!" The bald man called Galo gritted his teeth and lowered his hand through the pain. His right eye socket was nothing but a dark hollow, with no eyeball inside. "The right eye I put in the sky was attacked by a flock of passing birds..."

The other four were speechless. Could he really be that unlucky?

"Maybe the birds mistook it for a flying insect? Haha, heh..." Someone tried to lighten the mood. He was a burly man carrying a heavy sack on his back, probably weighing several hundred pounds, yet he seemed perfectly at ease. But when he noticed Galo staring coldly at him with his remaining left eye, the big man immediately shut up.

Someone else tried to smooth things over. "Thanks to Brother Galo's God's Third Eye, this trip has gone so smoothly. We found plenty of good goods in plenty of good places, and no one ever discovered us. After all this time, it's only natural for our luck to run out and run into a few stupid passing birds."

"That's right. Brother Galo is a Floor Master of Heaven's Arena! Without him, how could we have the skills we do now? We never would've dared come to Ochima's territory to get our hands on things. We've already gained a lot this trip, and we even managed to catch a Fanged Moon Tiger. I say it's time to call it quits! Once we leave this lousy island and sell it off, we'll be rich!"

"Shut up, all of you!"

A cluster of white Aura gathered in Galo's empty right eye socket and formed into a right eye.

The eyeball turned in its socket. He said coldly, "Animals naturally sense danger. Normal birds wouldn't actively attack my God's Third Eye. Even getting too close would make them instinctively uneasy! Stay alert and look around. I have a feeling this wasn't just bad luck..."

"We'll listen to you, Brother." The other four did not waste any words. Even the burly man carrying the Fanged Moon Tiger raised his rifle and drew a military knife. They spread into a circle and advanced while watching their surroundings.

Galo took out a pistol and chambered a round with a click. A strange gleam seemed to flicker in the pupil of his right eye as he warily scanned the sky, searching for the five birds from earlier.

Whoosh. A faint sound of air tearing was followed by a muffled cry of pain beside him.

The poacher who had been ambushed by something fired from an unknown direction clutched his cheek with one hand and raised his Submachine Gun with the other, unleashing a furious burst of gunfire into the dense forest.

"There really is an enemy? We've been discovered?"

"Stop shooting! You can't even see a damn ghost! Are you trying to draw all of Blanche Company's security guards here?"

The other three cursed, but their nerves were taut as they carefully scanned the surroundings. The four slowly closed in, backs pressed together.

Out of the corner of his eye, the burly man carrying the prey suddenly saw a black shadow pouncing toward him.

It was the Fanged Moon Tiger?

He swung his Submachine Gun around, ready to give the stupid tiger a shower of bullets, when a loud bang exploded nearby. At the same time, he felt a burning numbness in his hand. Looking down, he saw that the hand holding his gun had somehow been struck by something, leaving it a mangled, bloody mess!

Bang!

A sharp gleam flashed in Galo's right eye as he raised his gun and fired. Bang!

A burst of blood bloomed on Wu Er's body, but he did not pause for even an instant. He pounced on the burly human before him. The sack on his back carried the scent of his own kind.

Roar!!

Wu Er knocked him down and bit off half of the big man's head. Then he rolled across the ground, twisted his body, and slammed into the nearest human before sprinting into the forest through the hail of bullets.

Of the remaining three, one merely looked sorrowfully at his companion whose head had been half-devoured by the tiger, his body still twitching. Then his neck suddenly hurt, as though he had been struck by a bullet.

"Ahhhhh!!" Terrified and despairing, he clutched his neck with one hand and fired wildly into the air with the other. "Who the hell is it? Get out here!"

"It's not just the Fanged Moon Tiger! There are other people too!!"

"Don't panic! Calm down!" Galo shouted harshly. A brilliant flash burst from his right eye. He saw it—in the forest, there was a small figure moving at incredible speed!

No matter how fast you were, you could not outrun sight!

Come on!

Galo clenched his pistol and even closed his healthy left eye, using only the right eye created by his Nen Ability to desperately track the small figure darting through the trees.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Galo fired three consecutive sight Nen bullets, stubbornly chasing the darting figure. The last shot struck with a bang and sent the target staggering.

Hit! Galo tightened his grip on his gun.

That didn't have much force... Jing Yang, having been hit, continued using Ken to protect his body as he flashed away and changed positions.

Roar!!

Another beastly roar charged out, but this time it was a wolf.

Pfft pfft pfft!!

The trained poachers were no pushovers. One of them rolled across the ground, raised his gun, and unleashed a stream of muzzle flashes without hesitation. Bullets poured into Wild Wolf's body.

Galo locked onto Wild Wolf with his right eye. A ball of Aura burst from his line of sight. Boom!

The Aura bullet struck Wild Wolf's neck and blew it clean off.

The wolf's head rolled aside amid a spray of blood...

Wait, why had only one person shot the wolf? Galo suddenly sensed something was wrong. The other two beside the man who had just sprayed Wild Wolf with his Submachine Gun were awkwardly raising their own Submachine Guns. In the end, they threw down their guns in frustration. One kicked away the other man's Submachine Gun, while the other clasped his hands together and slammed them down on the man's head, knocking him unconscious on the spot.

Galo roared in fury, "What are you two doing?!"

Whoosh! A black speck shot toward him at extreme speed. Galo's right eye immediately twisted, its pupil shrinking as he locked onto the object and saw it clearly. It was a Pentagram-shaped stone.

He raised his arm to block it and felt only a slight tremor before the stone shattered and scattered. It had not even broken through the Aura protecting his body.

"What are we doing?"

The poacher who had been attacked first turned toward him.

The Pentagram stone stuck to his cheek where he had been struck was covered in cracks. It now fell away with a clatter, revealing a Rose Gold Pentagram mark beneath it that seemed tattooed onto his cheek.

The other man had the same mark on his neck. He too turned to Galo and chuckled. "Poaching protected animals isn't very appropriate, is it? We've turned over a new leaf and are getting ready to turn ourselves in, Boss. You'd better turn back while you still can..."

Bang! Bang!

Without hesitation, Galo fired two precise shots into their foreheads, blasting out two sprays of blood. At the same time, shock filled his heart. Those two had been controlled by the enemy? What kind of ability was this?

The two men crumpled to the ground. At the same time, Galo's right eyeball suddenly twisted. Its pupil had entered his skull, yet it saw through bone, skin, and flesh to spot the boy in the forest off to his flank, finger drawn back and aimed at him.

Bang!

Jing Yang unleashed a Finger Flick Divine Art, tearing through the air.

Galo leaped away with all his might, but the Nen bullet still grazed his thigh, blasting his flesh open.

Enduring the pain, he fired backhandedly.

Bang!

The bullet streaked through the air in a wave of heat. Its sharp tip spun as it bored through the air, and in the blink of an eye, it was less than half a meter from Jing Yang's forehead.

Jing Yang raised his arm. The bullet was less than twenty centimeters away.

Jing Yang opened his palm and held it before his forehead. The bullet struck the wall formed by the Ken Aura spread across his entire body. Under the immense pressure, the metal warhead twisted and deformed even as it continued drilling forward...

Bang...

It had all happened in the flash of lightning. Galo had been attacked by Jing Yang's Nen bullet, leaped aside, then fired back and hit Jing Yang in the forehead, only for Jing Yang to block it with a raised hand.

Jing Yang opened his palm. The shriveled, scorching bullet rolled in his hand, leaving only a tiny wound in his palm. It was quickly healed by the Star Mark at the back of his neck, leaving not even a scar.

Looks like my Ken's defense is pretty strong! Even if I took a pistol bullet to the head just now, it would've only scraped my skin...

Boom!

Galo's right eye fired another ball of Aura at Jing Yang.

Jing Yang did not have time to use Finger Flick Divine Art. Supporting himself with Ken, he did his best to dodge. The sight Nen bullet grazed the Ken protecting him, even knocking his dodging movement off course.

Flap flap flap...

At that moment, a flock of birds came swooping in from all directions, swarming around Galo's head and completely blocking his view.

"Get out of my way!"

Galo flew into a rage and tried to swat the annoying birds away, but he could not hit any of them. Left with no choice, he raised his pistol and fired repeatedly. Bang bang bang bang! Feathers scattered everywhere in a chaotic mess.

Just as he was gathering a Nen bullet in his right eye to blow these birds to pieces, the five birds suddenly flapped away and scattered in every direction.

And directly in front of him, Jing Yang had already drawn back his finger and aimed at him, murmuring, "Nine seconds have passed. Ten seconds have passed..."

"Not good!"

Galo's face changed dramatically. He could feel an extremely dangerous Aura taking shape in the brat's hand. He desperately drove Nen aura into his right eye, turning it into a fist-sized Nen bullet through his line of sight, then roared as he fired it.

Bang!

Jing Yang's Finger Flick Divine Art, charged for a full ten seconds this time, shot out and nearly became a beam as thick as an arm, directly smashing apart the incoming sight Nen bullet!

After the impact from the exploding Nen bullets faded, Galo's clothes across his front seemed to have been burned away. He was covered in blood and wounds, and his eyes rolled white. The eyeball in his right socket turned into a cloud of Nen aura and dissipated...

"Cough, cough, pfft..." Galo spat out blood, swayed unsteadily, and finally fell to his knees. He muttered, "You should... go to Heaven's Arena... and become... a Floor Master..."

Bang. He collapsed heavily and lay face-down on the ground.

"You're the Floor Master. Want me to address you respectfully, too?"

Jing Yang shook out his hand and let out a long breath. A real battle consumed far too much. Every move was an enormous drain on Aura. A fight lasting only a few minutes was hardly easier than an hour of training.

But he had won. The feeling of winning was great.

Only then did Wu Er emerge from the forest. The places where he had been shot had already pushed out the bullets and healed under the Star Mark's treatment. Looking around at the people sprawled across the ground, there had been five poachers in total. Galo had been defeated by Jing Yang, two had been shot in the head by Galo, one had been knocked unconscious by the two men Jing Yang controlled, and the last had had half his head bitten off by Wu Er. He was nearly dead by now.

Wu Er silently walked toward the poacher's sack on the ground, while Jing Yang went over to the severed wolf head.

"Interesting..."

Aura gathered in his eyes as he examined it closely. With the Star Mark on the wolf's body as its core, Wild Wolf's life energy had been forcibly mobilized throughout his entire body. Even the wolf head that had rolled away after being severed was slowly moving back toward the broken neck.

At that moment, an amazed voice came from nearby. "You're really impressive. You took care of them all by yourself?"

Jing Yang turned around and saw a young, striking girl with short green hair emerging from the depths of the forest.