Du Yulin shouted sharply, her voice ringing like a sword cry through the heavens!
"Born beneath Heaven, die before Yama... Today, I'll send you to meet Lord Yama himself!"
She held her sheathed longsword horizontally. The blade hummed, sword qi spilling forth. Facing the encirclement of more than a dozen people, she showed not the slightest fear. Instead, her fighting spirit surged, and she herself seemed like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath!
"Good!"
Wang Xian, seated beneath the eaves, smiled faintly.
A wooden bow suddenly appeared in his hand.
It was a very ordinary wooden bow. His frame was lean and slight, and holding such a bow made him look somewhat ridiculous—perhaps even a little pitiful.
Du Yulin, charging at the front, naturally could not see the bow.
Nor could she see the pile of bamboo arrows stacked beside Wang Xian—arrows even more ordinary than the bow. Wang Xian had made them by shaving purple bamboo he had cut himself, casually sharpening their tips. They did not even have fletching.
But Wang Mazi, the butcher, saw them.
He saw the blind man calmly nock an arrow and draw the string, his movements unhurried, as though he were doing something entirely mundane. Then, the blind man drew the bow—
The bow bent like a full moon.
The arrow rested on the string.
Wang Mazi's pupils suddenly constricted.
He saw the blind man's hand beneath the tavern eaves. At that moment, it was as steady as a rock, without the slightest tremor.
He saw Wang Xian's stance, flawless as that of an archer who had practiced the craft for decades.
It was as if he could see Wang Xian's eyes—though they were covered by black cloth, he could somehow sense that the fellow holding the bow was looking straight at