Life and Death Duel?

Fang Moqi strolled forward to the riverbank. That "log" was barely a meter from shore.

He extended a bamboo pole and slapped the "log," provoking it.

"Hiss!"

The scene went from utter stillness to explosive motion. The log sprang up, its gaping bloody jaws lunging straight at Fang Moqi. It was indeed a massive crocodile.

Including its tail, the crocodile was around 2.5 meters long—an adult Malai Crocodile.

Fang Moqi reacted swiftly. Clearly prepared, he stepped back and narrowly avoided the crocodile's first bite.

With a crack, the bamboo pole lashed against the crocodile's belly, making its entire body stiffen. The instant it landed, it scrambled forward on all fours and charged with startling speed, its huge jaws opened to the limit.

Fang Moqi ducked beneath the frontal attack. At the same time, he thrust the bamboo pole into the crocodile's upper fangs, levering its head aside and causing its second bite to miss as well.

Then Fang Moqi lunged cleanly onto the crocodile's back, pinning its huge jaws shut with both hands as he straddled it.

By provoking the crocodile twice and retreating, Fang Moqi had drawn it onto shore and into a much more favorable battlefield.

"Stop struggling. You're lunch today!"

Fang Moqi drew the Senuai people's blade, pressing his chest and right hand against the crocodile's jaws with all his strength.

With his remaining left hand, he held the knife beneath the crocodile's foreleg, at its armpit, preparing to stab into its heart.

Suddenly, frantic splashing erupted behind him. Every hair on Fang Moqi's body stood on end.

He did not even need to turn around to know another crocodile was attacking from behind!

Fang Moqi's position was terrible. His entire body was pressed atop the Malai Crocodile, and the arm holding the knife had already spent its strength. He was at the moment when old force had run out and new force had yet to rise.

Without looking back or hesitating in the slightest, he rolled. With his left hand, he drove the knife into the Malai Crocodile's heart, then used that force to roll left, releasing the Malai Crocodile beneath him.

Its heart pierced through, the Malai Crocodile thrashed its huge body wildly. Its tail lashed a few times before it died with its mouth half-open.

The crocodile that had attacked him from behind was three meters long. Having missed its pounce, it was now lying with its jaws shut atop the dead Malai Crocodile's back.

It had been a hair's breadth from disaster. If Fang Moqi had been even one second slower, it would have bitten him.

Being bitten by a crocodile was practically a death sentence. Their bite force was terrifying, and once they seized prey, they never let go. They would also perform a death roll.

A human's fragile body would be shredded in an instant, then dragged underwater to drown. There was simply no way to save oneself.

Only after dodging the attack from behind did Fang Moqi have time to assess the situation. To his horror, more than one crocodile had charged ashore.

Another Malai Crocodile over two meters long burst from the water, following close behind the previous one with less than two seconds between them. Fang Moqi did not even have time to stand.

Fang Moqi kicked off with both legs, forming the posture of a backflip, but his upper body remained on the ground. As his lower body rose into the air and evaded the crocodile's bite, he was supporting nearly all his weight with only his shoulders and the back of his neck.

He completed the flip and landed prone on the ground again. Raising his face, he found himself directly before the crocodile's gaping jaws after its missed bite.

After such consecutive evasions, Fang Moqi was almost pushing the limits of human movement. Anyone else would have died long ago.

He had used the force of the stab to roll away, then performed consecutive backflips. He had already abandoned that knife.

Now Fang Moqi was empty-handed, his face less than two feet from the crocodile's mouth!

The two crocodiles scrambled frantically on all fours. Their short-distance burst speed was incredibly fast, and the stench from their open jaws rushed into his face.

This had nearly sealed off every possibility of escape. He had no weapon, and the situation was almost hopeless.

Just as Fang Moqi seemed about to die in the crocodiles' jaws, his gaze suddenly changed. It became exceptionally sharp, like that of a maddened beast.

Every muscle in his body tensed, veins and tendons bulging as though he were a wolf about to pounce.

At that moment, an arrow shot in like lightning and wind, striking the crocodile closest to Fang Moqi. It entered diagonally through the crocodile's mouth and pierced out through its skull.

Fang Moqi's eyes flashed with surprise at the fierce arrow, but his body sprang up without the slightest delay.

Rising explosively, Fang Moqi punched the crocodile beneath its jaw and forcibly shut its mouth. Then his right leg instantly bent before stepping down.

He steadied himself in a strange stance, leaning forward and driving his shoulder into the crocodile, knocking it over in a single blow.

Fang Moqi did not stop. His hands moved astonishingly fast as he grabbed the crocodile and slammed it to the ground, pinning it beneath him.

His right hand reached out and gripped the knife still embedded in the first Malai Crocodile's chest. The blade rose and fell, plunging into this crocodile's heart with a wet thrust and killing it instantly.

After taking down the crocodile, Fang Moqi exhaled and stood up. He first looked toward the river, making sure no fourth crocodile appeared, before smiling at everyone.

Everyone stared at him in shock, unable to believe a human could perform such movements.

His actions throughout had been far too crisp—agile and fierce from beginning to end, every reaction at the very limit of human capability.

From the moment he began fighting the first crocodile until all three were dead, the entire process had taken no more than seven seconds.

The sight left people dazzled. Many had not even seen clearly what had just happened.

The crocodiles' attacks and Fang Moqi's counterattacks had both been too fast. Of everyone present, Zheng Hui was probably the only one who understood what had happened.

As for Lan Mu, he had not seen much clearly at first. Only when Fang Moqi was surrounded by two crocodiles did he instantly transform and fire an arrow, killing one of them.

Only with an elf's eyesight had he been able to see clearly how Fang Moqi killed the last crocodile.

The group cheered and rushed forward to greet Fang Moqi, then hurriedly helped drag away the crocodile carcasses.

Only Zheng Hui and Du Yu looked at Lan Mu. While everyone else had watched stupidly from the sidelines, only he had reacted in time to fire an instant arrow and kill a crocodile.

Zheng Hui did not know how capable Lan Mu was. He looked at him uncertainly, unable to believe that arrow had been fired by him. Even Zheng Hui himself had not reacted quickly enough to help.

Du Yu, on the other hand, blindly admired Lan Mu and praised him without reservation, while Lan Mu paid it no mind.

Covered in blood and grime, Fang Moqi walked over. Ignoring everyone else's cheers, he reached out and patted Lan Mu on the shoulder.

"Thanks. That arrow may not have been necessary, but I owe you one."

Only then did the others remember that someone had fired an arrow earlier. It had happened too quickly, killing the crocodile outright. Fang Moqi's string of counterattacks afterward had distracted everyone.

"Was that arrow fired by him? I thought it was Zheng Hui!"

"Isn't he a reporter? He killed a crocodile with one arrow?"

"It really seems like it. If Zheng Hui had fired it, he would've shouted about it already."

Lan Mu ignored them and said to Fang Moqi, "You owe me one? Sounds like you think you didn't need my help."

Fang Moqi smiled but did not answer immediately. Instead, he first directed the others to handle the crocodile corpses.

"Zheng Hui, teach everyone how to deal with crocodiles. I remember you know how."

"Start a fire here. We're having a crocodile feast for lunch. Hurry—the bodies will start rotting in five hours."

"Lan Mu and I will be right back. You all get on with your work."

After saying that, Fang Moqi picked up his bow and arrows and pulled Lan Mu into the jungle. The trees concealed them from sight. The others watched for a moment, then obediently did not follow.

"What is it? What do you need to say that you can't say in front of everyone?" Lan Mu was puzzled that Fang Moqi had dragged him into the woods.

Fang Moqi gave a mysterious smile. "You react quickly. I mean, you react quickly in critical moments."

"Without real combat experience, even someone exceptionally talented might not be able to bring out his true strength in a crisis."

"I've seen plenty of excellent archers panic when facing truly vicious beasts skilled in combat. They could not even display half their ability, ending up dead or crippled, with psychological scars that prevented them from ever becoming real hunters."

Lan Mu nodded. "That seems right. As they say, talking tactics on paper is one thing. No matter how strong someone is in theory, that does not mean he is strong in real combat."

"Exactly. When the body grows accustomed to training intensity, muscles can go slack in a life-and-death fight and fail to react. Or fear can destroy one's composure and leave the mind blank. All of that comes from lacking real combat experience." Fang Moqi spoke while smiling at Lan Mu.

Lan Mu asked in confusion, "What exactly are you trying to say?"

Fang Moqi raised the bow in his hand. "I want another duel with you! A true shooting duel to determine which of us is the superior combat archer!"

"A shooting duel? You shoot me, I shoot you, and we see who is faster?" Lan Mu was even more confused.

Fang Moqi smiled. "Of course not. Did you know I once won second place in the Global Amateur Archery Competition?"

Lan Mu nodded. He had heard of it, though the name alone made it clear that it was not any official major competition.

Fang Moqi said seriously, "It was indeed merely an amateur competition. Though global in scope, it was funded by a group of tycoons. It had no charitable purpose whatsoever; it was simply a ranking competition for non-professional archers around the world."

"To decide who's number one in the world?" Lan Mu asked.

"Yes, you could put it that way." For some reason, Fang Moqi suddenly became wistful.

Seeing his mood darken, Lan Mu thought, Someone as skilled as him entered an amateur competition and only took second place. Who got first?

So he said, "Don't be upset. It was only second place! What would all the people who lost to you think? It's fine. Win first place next time."

Fang Moqi shook his head with a bitter smile. "There won't be another chance. I'll never have another chance to become the true number one."

"Why?" Lan Mu asked.

"Three years ago, when I was twenty-nine, I had already risen to fame as a world-renowned Extreme Hunter. I was invited to take part in the Global Amateur Archery Competition. At first, I refused. But later I learned that it was not an ordinary amateur contest—it was the highest honor for true combat archers."

"All its competitors were elite combat archers, the finest from every country. They fought life-and-death duels, conducting practical shooting battles in all kinds of terrain. Each was both hunter and prey to the others. It tested hand speed, movement speed, reaction, strength, awareness, skill, experience, strategy..."

Lan Mu exclaimed, "Life-and-death duels? Practical shooting battles? Do you mean fighting until one side dies and blood flows like rivers?"

Fang Moqi sighed. "Not exactly. The organizers did not want too many people to die, after all, so they required everyone to wear a steel plate over the chest to protect the heart from being pierced from front or back. Other than that, every part of the body could be targeted."

"In truth, those protective measures meant little, because in the eyes of true combat archers, the human body has far too many vital points."

"So that kind of competition was ultimately only amateur and was not recognized by any official body, because quite a few people died every time."

"After all, only in a true Life and Death Duel could two experts of similar strength determine a victor."

"Some people had long since cast life and death aside for glory."

At that point, Fang Moqi let out a long sigh.