Extraordinary Power

"Extraordinary Power—this was Extraordinary Power." Zhong Lin was beside himself with excitement.

In his previous life, as an ordinary citizen of the Heavenly Dynasty, how could he not have longed for the legendary Extraordinary Power? What was more, he had the cheat-like System Panel. Otherwise, being limited to practicing a few ordinary crafts would have been such a waste of his "golden finger."

Zhu Jie and the others also saw that Mountain-Suppressing Tiger was no ordinary man. Their faces changed drastically, terror written all over them.

"A Ranked Martial Artist—it's a Ranked Martial Artist."

The village chief of Immortal Deer Village collapsed onto the ground, his eyes full of despair.

"Impossible, impossible. Why would a ranked martial artist come all the way here to become a bandit?"

"Old Cui, what is a Ranked Martial Artist? Why can't arrows pierce his skin?" Zhu Jie asked fearfully as he watched Mountain-Suppressing Tiger charge toward them.

The village chief of Immortal Deer Village slowly got to his feet, despair covering his face.

"A martial artist is someone who has cultivated martial arts to a rank. Ordinary people who practice martial arts might at most become a little stronger and learn a few farming-yard moves, but once they enter a rank, it is entirely different. They can be called martial artists, capable of taking on ten men alone with ease. Ordinary people are no match for them. Arrows cannot break their skin, blades leave only white marks—these are traits possessed only by ninth-rank Skin Grinding."

Ranked martial artists—even those at the ninth-rank Skin Grinding realm—could make arrows fail to pierce their skin and blades leave only white marks, as though clad in armor. Taking on ten men alone was no difficult feat.

Martial artists... ranked... Skin Grinding...

Zhong Lin listened intently, unable to suppress the excitement in his heart. This world truly had Extraordinary Power.

"Heh heh, the old bastard has sharp eyes. Boys, surround them! No one is leaving today."

Mountain-Suppressing Tiger strode over, his face twisted with savagery.

The bandits behind him also whooped as they closed in. Pairs of eyes greedily stared at the valuables on the ox carts and the women riding them. No one doubted what would happen if they fell into these bandits' hands.

Zhong Lin's expression changed as well, because he realized that in his eagerness to get a better look at the "extraordinary," he had gotten too close. He was actually inside the bandits' encirclement too.

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhong Lin turned and bolted toward the left.

The encirclement on the left had not yet fully formed. A bandit in tattered clothes, with disheveled hair and a weapon in hand that could, at best, be called a spear, kept approaching him.

"Kid, stop right there, or I'll poke two holes in you."

The bandit threatened him, his face full of malice.

With Little Shi on his back, Zhong Lin did not slow down. His right hand reached for the cloth pouch at his waist, and the instant his fingers touched a diamond-shaped stone, he hurled it.

Whoosh!

They were only seven or eight meters apart. At such a distance, for a max-level Flying Locust Stone skill, it was like striking wherever he pointed. Under Zhong Lin's control, it shot straight for the bandit's face.

"Ah! My eye..."

The bandit dropped at once. Blood streamed through the gaps between the fingers clutching his face as he screamed without stop. Taking the opportunity, Zhong Lin fled toward the distant forest with Little Shi on his back.

It seemed like quite some time had passed, but it had happened in only an instant. The bandit's screams drew Mountain-Suppressing Tiger's attention.

"You damned useless trash! Surround him!"

Mountain-Suppressing Tiger let out an angry roar. The earlier volley of arrows had already cost him seven or eight brothers. He had thought that once he displayed the power of a ranked martial artist, everyone would bow their heads in submission. Yet someone still dared defy him. What else was that if not a slap in the face?

At Mountain-Suppressing Tiger's command, five or six nearby bandits immediately closed in on Zhong Lin.

Zhong Lin's face turned extremely ugly. The mountain road was rugged, and he still had Little Shi on his back. There was no way he could outrun them. If they surrounded him, then with his reed-thin build, he would undoubtedly die against these bandits.

"Shi Tou, jump down."

Little Shi did not question him. Obeying his second brother's instruction, he released the arms wrapped around Zhong Lin's neck and leaped straight off his back.

Zhong Lin pulled an arrow from the quiver at his waist with his right hand, nocked it, drew the bow, and spun around sharply.

Whoosh!

Without warning, a cold arrow shot in from an oblique angle, flying straight toward Mountain-Suppressing Tiger.

It was too sudden, and the angle was too tricky.

Mountain-Suppressing Tiger had not expected Zhong Lin to shoot an arrow at him instead of fleeing at such a moment. The angle was so tricky and the arrow so fast that he had no chance to dodge. All he saw was the arrow growing larger and larger before his eyes.

Mountain-Suppressing Tiger felt a stabbing pain in his right eye. The next moment, the arrow pierced through his eye socket and skull, half of its tip protruding from the back of his head.

"Boss?"

The bandits stood dumbstruck, horrified beyond measure.

None of them had expected those cold arrows to come so suddenly. Even Zhu Jie, Old Cui, and the others wore faces full of disbelief.

Just a moment ago, they had been saying that ninth-rank martial artists could not be pierced by arrows and would take only white marks from blades. The next moment, he had been shot through the eye with an arrow.

So it was not that arrows could not pierce him. They had simply failed to hit the right spot.

The hell they had.

Everyone knew the eyes were a weak point, but what kind of archery did it take to hit an eye with a single shot?

The village chief of Immortal Deer Village was the first to react. He shouted, "Mountain-Suppressing Tiger is dead! Follow me and kill the bandits!"

His shout snapped everyone awake. Zhu Jie and the others also called for their own men to attack the bandits.

Zhong Lin stopped running as well. Rather than flee, he raised the bow in his hand. Every tremor of the bowstring claimed another bandit's life. He never missed, every shot finding its mark, like the Death Warden come to reap souls. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen bandits had died beneath his arrows.

"Run!"

"Don't kill me, don't kill me!"

"Run!"

Their leader was dead, and they had encountered a Death Warden who came to reap lives. At that moment, the bandits' spirits truly broke. They turned and fled madly, wishing their parents had given them two more legs.

Zhong Lin let out a sigh of relief and began retrieving his arrows while searching the corpses.

"Young brother, you are truly an extraordinary man, a true hero. This old man thanks you."

After Zhu Jie and the others instructed their men to clean up the battlefield, they gathered around Zhong Lin. The village chief of Immortal Deer Village even bowed deeply before him.

They knew very well that if Zhong Lin had not killed Mountain-Suppressing Tiger with that cold arrow, they could never have survived this calamity so easily. They might even have all been left here.

Zhong Lin made a casual lifting gesture with his hand and said evenly, "No need to be polite. I was only protecting myself."

Zhong Lin was not exaggerating. His shot had merely been intended to create trouble for Mountain-Suppressing Tiger so he could seize the chance to escape. He had not expected to kill him in one strike.

All he could say was that max-level archery was badass.

"This is not a place to talk. We should leave quickly!"

"Yes, yes, young brother is right."

The few of them said no more. After tidying up, they once again urged the ox carts onward.

Zhong Lin recovered all the arrows, then finally stopped beside Mountain-Suppressing Tiger's corpse.

Mountain-Suppressing Tiger lay on the ground with his right eye shot through. Blood and brain matter ran down the arrow shaft. His left eye was wide open, his face frozen in an expression as though he had seen a ghost.

He probably had not expected to die to a single cold arrow either.