Slaughter in the Torrential Rain

Lightning flashed and thunder roared across the sky. The rain fell harder and harder, as if someone were pouring it down from above.

Chen Shouyi could barely hear. "What? What did you say?"

Shell Girl hurriedly pressed herself against his ear, her head nearly burrowing inside, and screamed herself hoarse, "Giants like the ones from last time have come from the sea—so many of them!"

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning tore through the air and struck the sea directly, exploding into a burst of electric light that lit up heaven and earth.

What?

His whole body jolted. He had finally heard her clearly. Wiping the rain from his face, he quickly ran toward a massive rock nearby. Grabbing and climbing, he soon scrambled to the top and looked into the distance from high ground.

The rain was falling heavily, severely impairing his vision.

Through the hazy curtain of rain, he could only make out several long, narrow shadows that seemed to be dugout canoes, slowly approaching this way.

One boat, two boats, three boats.

His heart sank straight down. Before he could recover—

Standing on his shoulder, Shell Girl shouted again, "There! There are more over there!"

Chen Shouyi hurriedly looked in the direction she pointed. After staring for a long while, he finally faintly made out another shadow.

If she had not reminded him, he might have overlooked it entirely.

Only then did he suddenly realize that Shell Girl's eyesight seemed extraordinarily sharp. He quickly asked, "Take a look. How many giants are there?"

After several days of learning the Common Tongue, Chen Shouyi no longer had much trouble with the conversations he used most often. It was like learning English—middle school English was enough to support simple conversations.

Shell Girl stared carefully for a while, then leaned close to his ear and shouted, "One, one, one..."

At first, Chen Shouyi was completely baffled, but he quickly understood.

She seemed unable to count beyond one. Perhaps she knew how to say other numbers, but simply did not know how to use them. There was probably no need for them where she came from.

"Count again!"

Shell Girl repeated, "One, one, one... one."

He silently kept count and discovered that Shell Girl had said "one" twenty-three times in a row.

Twenty-three people.

He could not help drawing in a sharp breath, his face turning grim.

He had considered that other barbarians might come looking for the two who had disappeared. He had considered that barbarians might find this place. But he had never imagined that, as if he had poked a hornet's nest, so many barbarians would come all at once.

This was fucking insane!

Chen Shouyi wanted to roar aloud, to vent the frustration and unease churning inside him.

Twenty-three barbarians—every one of them physically stronger than a martial artist.

In weather like this, with rain pouring from the heavens, they definitely had not come to fetch water.

They would search the entire island, looking for the slightest trace.

On a small island less than one square kilometer in area, what were the chances of finding the Space Channel after searching it once?

Or rather, what were the chances that it would not be discovered?

He realized that he had completely screwed this up!

It was like playing a perilous gamble, only for everything to suddenly come crashing down!

If these barbarians passed through the Space Channel and entered the downtown area, it would likely trigger a horrifying slaughter. Many innocent people would die because of it. Besides, his home was only a few streets away from here.

Chen Shouyi could not help feeling regretful. Out of selfish greed, he had concealed this channel.

If troops had been stationed here, then no matter how many barbarians came, they would not have been able to break out through this channel.

Unfortunately, it was already too late to go back and report it. He saw that the nearest dugout canoe was gradually running aground at the shore.

He immediately jumped down from the rock, which was over two meters high. Ignoring the numbness jolting through his feet, he grabbed the War Bow and Long Sword and ran toward the channel.

In little more than ten seconds, he reached the channel.

Looking at the channel more than ten meters away, he felt slightly relieved.

This was his final escape route. If he could not hold them off, he would retreat at once.

As for anything else, he could no longer care about it.

He quickly checked the arrows in the quiver on his body.

Twenty in total. Not one was missing.

Feeling the cold touch of the metal arrows, he gradually calmed down.

He wiped the rainwater from his face.

There was no use regretting anything now. He took several deep breaths, and his expression hardened with resolve.

Seeing that Chen Shouyi did not seem to be leaving, Shell Girl grew so anxious that she stomped her feet and kept shouting, "Run! Run! Run!"

But Chen Shouyi turned a deaf ear. This place was halfway up the mountain, and he stood on a patch of high ground with a good view. He could vaguely see five barbarians jumping down from the first dugout canoe to arrive.

At that moment, something stirred in his mind, and he suddenly thought of striking them mid-crossing!

There was only one dugout canoe reaching shore at the moment, and the barbarians were wading through the shallows, their mobility greatly restricted. This was the best possible time to fight.

The mountainside was only two or three hundred meters from the shore. Even if he charged over now, he would still make it in time.

His thoughts raced.

Gritting his teeth, he decided the risk was worth taking and immediately charged down from the mountainside.

Startled by his movement, Shell Girl immediately flew up. She looked at the distant Chen Shouyi racing away, then at the nearby Space Channel. Her little face struggled for a moment, but she still did not dare enter the channel alone.

Chen Shouyi raced down the mountain, his body tearing through the impenetrable curtain of rain as he sprinted all the way.

On this small island in the Otherworld, he had never run as fast as he did today. It was as if a ball of flame filled his body, leaving him with inexhaustible strength in every limb.

In just over twenty seconds, he had reached the foot of the mountain.

At that moment, the foremost barbarian, carrying a long spear, finally spotted Chen Shouyi charging toward them. He let out a terrified roar, seemingly warning his companions, then strode through waist-deep seawater toward the shore.

Every second counted.

Chen Shouyi knew that once the barbarian reached land, killing him with an arrow would become far more difficult.

Blood surged into Chen Shouyi's face. He threw all his strength into it and sprinted desperately.

One hundred meters. Eighty meters. Fifty meters.

Chen Shouyi abruptly stopped. Before he could even catch his breath, he swiftly nocked an arrow and drew his bow, pulling the five-hundred-pound heavy bow into a full moon.

At that moment, the barbarian had just stepped onto the beach with one foot.

The next instant, accompanied by a piercing shriek, the arrow tore through the impenetrable rain curtain like lightning, leaving a long trail in its wake.

The barbarian raised his spear as if intending to block it, but before he could even lift it halfway, a sharp arrow pierced his skull with lightning speed. The arrowhead burst out through the back of his head.

His entire body jolted, and he fell backward.

Compared to traditional bows, recurve bows were not only more accurate, but could also store more energy, giving their arrows greater kinetic force.

On Earth, a five-hundred-pound recurve heavy bow designed specifically for martial artists could launch arrows at an initial velocity of four to five hundred meters per second, far surpassing the speed of sound.

Moreover, because arrows had greater mass, their kinetic energy far exceeded that of rifle bullets. At short and medium ranges, their killing power was exceedingly terrifying.

Just as the first barbarian fell and the barbarians behind him had yet to react, the second arrow arrived, instantly drilling into one man's eye socket.

He kept drawing arrows, drawing the bow, and firing.

Though Chen Shouyi was so tense that his mind felt faintly dizzy, his daily practice of shooting at least a thousand arrows had turned everything into instinct. He did not need to think at all.

In merely a few seconds, all five barbarians in the first dugout canoe had been wiped out. Blood gradually dyed the sea red, while corpses bobbed up and down in the water.

The smooth opening steadied Chen Shouyi considerably, and some of his tension receded.

Seeing that the second dugout canoe was still more than a hundred meters away, he quickly stepped forward and pulled the arrow from the first barbarian's head.

There were twenty-three barbarians in total, but he had only twenty arrows. One more arrow meant one less measure of danger.

But just as he slipped the arrow into his quiver, a sharp short spear shot across the sea toward him like lightning.

The instant a warning flared in Chen Shouyi's heart, a fierce gust of wind grazed past the side of his face, making his skin sting.

His scalp went numb.

At that moment, he could almost feel Death's icy breath against his back.

As Chen Shouyi hurriedly retreated, he swiftly nocked an arrow and drew his bow, aiming ahead.

On a dugout canoe in the distance, a tall, muscular barbarian stood upright at the bow, glaring at him with a savage expression.

"You! Die!"