Bullets That Curved

An abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Big Apple City.

This was Cross's secret base. He had converted it into a makeshift shooting range.

Hao Shuai trained here under Cross's instruction, practicing with firearms and learning the Art of the Ricocheting Bullet, which defied the laws of physics!

"Hao, before you practice ricocheting bullets, the first thing you need to do is understand guns and get familiar with all kinds of firearms—rifles, pistols, machine guns, shotguns, submachine guns, grenade launchers, and more. You need to know their parts and be able to quickly take them apart and put them back together."

Cross pointed to a table in front of them. "There are parts for a hundred different guns on this table. Your task is to assemble them into their original forms within the allotted time!"

Hao Shuai looked down at the countless gun parts covering the table, and a huge # appeared on his forehead.

Was this some kind of attempt to make things difficult for me?

If he hadn't known Cross's character, Hao Shuai would have thought he was deliberately giving him a hard time.

For the next week, Hao Shuai spent day and night assembling and disassembling guns.

Fortunately, his memory had improved, and his National Martial Arts training gave him speed and fine control. He finally completed the task within a week.

While learning to assemble guns, Hao Shuai also discovered a way to improve his fine control of Mental Power: using it to assemble several guns at once. At first, he could only control the assembly of one. With practice, he gradually worked his way up to two, then three...

By the time Cross came back to see him, Hao Shuai could use his Mental Power to assemble five guns at once.

After Hao Shuai finished the gun-assembly task, Cross brought in a whole trunk full of bullets and told him to fire them all within a set time, supposedly to develop his feel for guns.

So Hao Shuai began another stretch of shooting day and night. Every day, his arms went numb from firing, and his ears rang.

That was because Cross wouldn't let him wear earmuffs!

Thank goodness his National Martial Arts had reached the Force Emission stage. Otherwise, his arm would have been too exhausted to shoot after the first day.

Later, trying to find a way to slack off, Hao Shuai remembered Magneto from the X-Men and how he could control more than a dozen guns to fire at once. So Hao Shuai began practicing controlling several guns with his Mental Power and shooting them all at once. Once he ran out of bullets, he figured that on a battlefield, he could provide the firepower of an entire squad—though Hao Shuai, who was afraid of dying, probably wouldn't set foot on a modern battlefield.

After a week of shooting at stationary targets, Cross had Hao Shuai move on to moving targets. He started with one, then two, then three...and eventually increased the number to a hundred.

When he began shooting at moving targets, Hao Shuai had considered using his Mental Power, but after trying it a few times, he gave up. His eyes simply couldn't keep up.

A month and a half later, Hao Shuai faced a hundred targets in tricky positions, moving extremely fast and without any pattern. When he hit every single bull's-eye, Cross clapped and said, "Hao, now you can start practicing the Art of the Ricocheting Bullet!"

"Really?" After all that hard work, he could finally learn this awesome skill.

"Ricocheting bullets are a matter of skill and insight. You have to try to understand the gun in your hands completely, then believe that the bullet will hit its target and curve around obstacles! I can't describe this state to you. You have to grasp it for yourself!" Cross explained.

Hao Shuai took his gun and looked at the obstacles in front of him. He raised it and tried, but shot the obstacles several times in a row. He couldn't make the bullets curve around them and hit the target!

Hao Shuai thought back to how Wesley had learned to ricochet bullets in the movie. As he recalled it, Fox had stood in front of the target as an obstacle, putting her life on the line. Under that immense pressure, Wesley had finally mastered the technique.

How about tying Cross up in front and using him as an obstacle?

Hao Shuai eyed Cross with ill intent.

Cross caught the malice in Hao Shuai's eyes and shivered. He quickly said, "How should I put it? The feeling is mysterious—you can only grasp it, not explain it. In short, it's a power that breaks free of conventional limitations. You need to let your mind guide you. You have to believe you can hit the target; then, when you fire, your mind will guide the bullet around the obstacle and into the target. You'll have to figure out the rest for yourself!"

With that, Cross hurried off, afraid Hao Shuai might ask him to serve as an obstacle.

Seeing Cross run off, Hao Shuai had no choice but to work it out by himself.

He remembered an anti-Japanese war drama online that featured a particularly ridiculous scene: a Kuomintang instructor explaining to his men how bullets could curve. The shooter, he claimed, had to jerk his wrist rapidly at the instant the bullet left the barrel, giving it horizontal acceleration and making it travel in an arc. That was Gun Fu.

People had mocked that scene relentlessly online, saying the screenwriter had no brains. It had even become a famous internet meme.

But that was the real world. In the Assassin's Alliance, there were plenty of people who could make bullets curve.

So the instructor's explanation might actually have made sense. To ricochet bullets, the first requirement was being able to jerk your wrist rapidly. That took tremendous physical conditioning, which was why Wesley and the others in the movie could only use the technique in the Blood Burn State.

With Hao Shuai's current cultivation at the Force Emission stage, controlling the movement of his wrist was easy. So he kept practicing that way all night.

The next day, when Cross brought over lunch, Hao Shuai told him about his theory.

After hearing Hao Shuai's analysis, Cross was stunned.

He stared at Hao Shuai as if he were a freak. "Hao, you really are a genius! I've never met anyone with a better understanding. The Art of the Ricocheting Bullet has been passed down through the Alliance for generations, but no one who taught it could put its essence into words. They could only offer vague instructions and a few scattered hints about the technique. And you managed to analyze it so thoroughly, figuring out that the key is the flick—the buildup before you fire."

Seeing that even Cross agreed with his theory, Hao Shuai trained even harder.

Three days later, he could finally make bullets curve around obstacles. His aim was still poor, but at least he had made progress.

When Cross learned that Hao Shuai had managed to curve bullets after just three days, he became so disheartened that he kept muttering one word to himself: "Freak."

Bang!

Hao Shuai whipped his hand to the side. With a bang, the bullet traced a beautiful arc, neatly curving around the obstacle in front of him and flying toward the target behind it.

Smack!

The bullet hit the bull's-eye.

Cross, standing nearby, was stunned.

Cross knew Hao Shuai was a freak, but he had never imagined he could be this abnormal. He had only been practicing the Art of the Ricocheting Bullet for a week, and he'd already mastered it!

What Cross didn't know was that Hao Shuai already had the basic requirements for mastering the technique: powerful Mental Power and a strong body. That's why he'd learned it so quickly.

"You've got the aim now. Next, you need to train your flick until it's as precise as possible, until you're as skilled and proficient with it as you are with an ordinary gun. Practice makes perfect."

With that, Cross patted Hao Shuai on the shoulder and left the training ground.

Hao Shuai's next training sessions were nothing but tedious repetition. Other than supplying bullets, Cross couldn't help much. He'd rather go out and kill a few people from the Alliance than stay here and be outclassed by a freak.

That's right. Aside from going out every so often to drink, have fun, and chase beautiful women, Cross kept a close eye on the Alliance. Whenever he learned that Alliance members were heading out on a mission, he'd immediately tail them, wait for a chance, and take them out with a single shot.

Over the next two months, Cross took out at least seven or eight of the Alliance's top assassins. It made Sloan, the big boss, so furious he nearly had a heart attack. He recalled all the assassins who were out on missions, preparing for a final showdown with Cross.

And that was exactly what Cross wanted. Hao Shuai had promised that once the Alliance's assassins were gathered together, he'd lead Cross in an assault on the Alliance headquarters and wipe them all out, leaving no survivors.

Just as Hao Shuai finished practicing the Art of the Ricocheting Bullet and began training in long-range sniping, Cross came to the warehouse and said, "The Alliance is holding a meeting in a few days. All the assassins will be at headquarters then. That's our chance."

Hao Shuai stopped training and looked at Cross. "Go get a map of headquarters and the files on the assassins. We'll set out in a few days."