"Whoosh! Whoosh!"
As Wang Yin charged straight at him, a rare look of panic surfaced in the Shaman Witch's eyes. His shrill bone whistle shrieked without pause.
Invisible sound waves gathered in the air, seeming to transform into venomous arrows capable of taking lives!
But Wang Yin darted forward like a swift serpent, weaving along a winding path and ducking low from time to time to avoid the invisible, poisonous force. In the blink of an eye, he was before the Shaman Witch. His spear thrust out, ready to skewer the foreign demon with a single strike.
Pfft!
A blossom of blood appeared on the Shaman Witch's right hand, and the bone whistle fell. Wu Ming had seized his chance and loosed an arrow—it had nearly cost the man his life.
"You... will all die!!!"
The Shaman Witch shot Wang Yin and Wu Ming a venomous look. In stiff, halting Great Xia speech, he spat out a curse. Ignoring the wound in his right hand, he took down the Dharma Drum and struck it with all his might!
Boom!
The drumbeat was even more terrifying than before. In an instant, Wu Ming felt the blood in his body freeze. Vengeful spirits seemed to wail in his ears, and golden sparks burst before his eyes. He nearly blacked out on the spot.
Wang Yin fared even worse.
The spear he had been about to thrust drooped limply. Blood spilled from his nose and mouth, and two streams of red ran from his ears!
That single strike had wounded two great warriors at once!
But this did not seem to be an attack he could use often. After striking the drum, the Shaman Witch staggered too, nearly collapsing to the ground.
He gave a chilling laugh, then took a black scorpion from his waist pouch and flicked it at Wang Yin's face.
"Ah!"
With a scream, Wang Yin failed to dodge in time. The scorpion stung him in the face, and he fell to the ground in an instant, making no further sound.
"What a deadly poison!"
Wu Ming felt as if he were carrying a thousand-jun burden, trapped in a nightmare from which he could not wake. The Shaman Witch's sinister eyes were fixed on him. Behind him, the flames had begun to die down, and the silhouettes of Hu cavalry appeared amid their shouts.
Move! Move!
Wu Ming screamed at himself inwardly. His Qi and Blood surged to their peak. Suddenly, something seemed to crack apart with a snap, and a wisp of the purest True Qi appeared in his dantian, rapidly coursing through his body.
"True Qi Realm!"
Feeling his body recover its ability to move—and grow stronger than before—Wu Ming immediately realized that he had broken through in martial arts.
The Shaman Witch's attack just now must have been an area attack. The closer you are, the greater the damage. Wang Yin was in the True Qi Realm, but he was too close, so he bled from all seven orifices. I was farther away, so my Qi and Blood only went into temporary disarray. Now that I've broken through into the True Qi Realm, I can suppress it...
Thoughts flashed through Wu Ming's mind. On the surface, as he watched the Shaman Witch approach with a sinister grin, he looked utterly panicked. The Shaman Witch was reaching for a two-tailed centipede.
"Han... you will die a most agonizing death..."
The Shaman Witch put away the Dharma Drum with deep reluctance, then carried the centipede forward with a wicked grin. "I'll peel off your skin whole and use it to make a Dharma Drum..."
"Why not peel off your own?"
Wu Ming suddenly looked up with a bright smile. He fitted an arrow to his bow and loosed a wolf-fang arrow.
He did not hesitate after the first shot. He drew and fired again.
The two wolf-fang arrows followed one another so closely they seemed to chase each other. The Shaman Witch had never imagined Wu Ming could still move. He whipped around and retreated, a layer of blood-red light appearing over his body. It deflected the first arrow, but he could not dodge the second!
Pfft!
A blossom of blood appeared at his throat. The Shaman Witch fell to the ground, his mask slipping off to reveal a cold, sinister face. "N-no... impossible..."
"Eek! Eek!"
Now beset by every woe, his aura weakened. The poisonous creature in his hand turned on him at once. The two-tailed centipede hissed and bit his thumb, killing him on the spot.
[Killed Shaman Witch. Gained 300 minor merit!]
"What a pity..."
Wu Ming heard the Main God Hall's notification and looked at the cavalry charging in nearby, then at the Shaman Witch's corpse as swarms of insects crawled out of it. Reluctantly, he retreated and quickly vanished into an alley.
The Shaman Witch's blood drum and whistle both looked like valuable treasures. He might even have had a manual of witchcraft on him. But the dense layer of tiny black insects made Wu Ming's skin crawl.
He had barely managed to kill the man. If he got himself killed while searching the corpse, wouldn't that be the bitterest joke?
Amid the chaos, Wu Ming moved through the village with ease. He soon reached the back of a splendid courtyard, scraped away the earth, and lifted a stone slab.
"You're here!"
In the light, the beauty's eyes gleamed like stars.
"Mm!"
Wu Ming glanced around, then suddenly struck out with both palms, knocking down a brick wall. He darted inside and covered the stone slab behind him.
Rumble!
The ground shook with a deafening crash. The entrance had clearly been sealed off.
In the darkness, all he could sense was Huang Ying beside him, her fragrant scent drifting over as he let out a long breath.
"Is the Hu leader dead?"
Huang Ying asked.
"Of course. Now we just have to wait here until the time is up!"
Wu Ming worked to regulate his breathing and recover the strength he had lost. His ears stayed alert, listening for any sound from outside.
Amid the faint waves of heat, voices drifted over: "The Hu people are gone!" "Fire!" "Save the people! Put out the fire!" Wu Ming's mind remained as still as a placid well.
He had spent the past few nights with Huang Ying, but not in the wild abandon Qin Hu had imagined. Instead, they had surveyed the terrain and dug a cellar.
The fire outside had been set by Wu Ming in secret.
The outskirts of Da Qing Village were much like a slum, with homes made of grass and wood that caught fire at the slightest spark. The place Wu Ming had chosen, however, was in the village's wealthy district, near the ancestral hall and the village chief's residence. At the center of the village, its buildings were made of brick and tile, so they were harder to burn. The villagers had gathered there too, and with their lives at stake, they were sure to do everything they could to put out the fire. The damage would be minimal.
Huang Ying remained silent. She did not ask why they had to hide.
Qin Hu had betrayed them, and then Wu Ming had set the fire. Even if it had been for the good of the people of Da Qing Village, the news would still have stirred the villagers into a fury. They might beat him to death on the spot.
But not setting the fire would have been even worse.
If the Hu people won, they would surely slaughter even more villagers.
Besides, Wu Ming knew full well that if hiding away were all it took to get through this, he could have played the coward from the very start.
The Hu Shaman Witch must have had a way to search for living creatures. Wu Ming had to set a trap and kill him. Otherwise, they would have been turtles trapped in a jar.
With everything thrown into chaos, it no longer mattered whether the Hu people or the villagers won. Neither side could do anything to him now.
The turmoil lasted all night.
The next day, Wu Ming could still hear a great deal of weeping through the ventilation shaft. Mixed in with it were shouts like "Catch that shameless couple!" and "Burn the outsider alive!" Clearly, the villagers had learned about Qin Hu and Wu Ming's affair, and they were making them the targets of their rage.
"Aren't you angry?"
Huang Ying's voice came through. "If you hadn't made that painful choice and cut off your own arm, perhaps no one in all of Da Qing Village would have survived today!"
"I knew it would come to this. Why waste energy worrying about it?"
Wu Ming closed his eyes. "Miss Huang Ying, if you still have the strength, you should get some more rest. We still have a while to wait."
They had prepared some dry rations and fresh water in the cellar. There was more than enough to last them through the remaining time, but Wu Ming still made a habit of conserving his strength in case anything changed.
Now, as he focused his thoughts, he could feel wisps of True Qi forming in his dantian and flowing through his limbs and bones.
This really is a blessing in disguise... I never expected the Shaman Witch to be so powerful, even though I'd already thought highly of him. His strength still exceeded all my expectations...
Wu Ming pondered in silence.
He had taken almost everything into account this time. The only thing he had misjudged was the Shaman Witch's astonishing power—and the fact that he had a long-range area attack!
If Wang Yin hadn't taken the brunt of it, and Wu Ming hadn't broken through in the middle of the fight, he would surely have faced death nine times out of ten.
"But... I finally reached the True Qi Realm!"
Wu Ming sank his Qi into his dantian, feeling the strength that was several times greater than before. He felt a little comforted.
In this world, the Body Refinement Realm had nine stages: Heart Settling, Skin and Flesh, Sinew and Bone, Internal Strengthening, True Qi, Innate, External Gang, Internal Gang, and Extreme Transformation.
Heart Settling was the beginning of the path. The stages that followed—Skin and Flesh, Sinew and Bone, and Internal Strengthening—were all about continually tempering the body's orifices and building a foundation through the training of Qi and Blood, sinews, bones, muscles, and even the internal organs.
The spoiled young master had abundant resources. In truth, he had long since completed the basics, but he lacked experience and discipline, leaving him stuck at Internal Strengthening, unable to form True Qi.
Now that Wu Ming had taken his place, he had broken through in the midst of a bloody fight. It was only natural; everything had fallen into place.
In the darkness, with no sense of time passing, the wait was agonizing.
Wu Ming tried to make the best of it, studying his own martial progress.
"Once a warrior has formed True Qi, every movement carries strength beyond that of ordinary people. The next step is to keep cultivating and strengthening True Qi until it fills the dantian, the acupoints, and the meridians, washing through the whole body. That's how you return from the acquired to the innate!"
"But... do I really have to follow the martial path? A tank warrior has no future. Should I get in touch with Taoists and cultivators of Qi when I get back? No! With the Main God Hall here, doesn't that mean I can follow whatever path I want? As long as I have enough reward points! No, merit!"
"Young Master Wuming?!"
Just as Wu Ming was deep in thought, Huang Ying's soft voice came from beside him, gentle and tender, yet trembling with an indescribable quality.
"What is it?"
Wu Ming was slightly taken aback. Then a scorching, fragrant body slipped into his arms, and the beauty whispered in his ear, "You saved my life... I have no way to repay you. I can only..."
Having lived two lives, Wu Ming was no longer a paragon of propriety. Besides, nothing stirred a man's desire more than standing between life and death.
He did not refuse. His hands began to roam without restraint...
Huang Ying yielded to him, her voice soft and lilting. Just as the two were about to go further, a grand, mighty voice rang out at the most inopportune moment:
[Main Quest complete! Reincarnator returning!]
The world spun around him. Wu Ming could only give the Main God Hall the middle finger in his heart before everything went black.
"Where... is this?"
Wu Ming stood in the void, gazing at the scene around him, which seemed like the beginning of the primordial age, before chaos had parted. A thought stirred in his mind. "Huang Ying isn't here. It seems we each returned to our own private space?"
[Mission complete! Beginning settlement!]
A voice that shook the soul rang out, and a curtain of light appeared before Wu Ming in an instant.
But he abruptly looked up and saw, above the primordial chaos, a celestial palace blazing with boundless light. Majestic and vast beyond all description, it stood proudly as if it had existed since time immemorial, transcending the universe itself!
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