Shadow

For a moment, arrows flew like rain.

In the short span of five seconds, Chen Shouyi fired eight arrows in succession.

Unfortunately, only five struck their targets.

A distance of seventy or eighty meters was still somewhat too far for him. On top of that, the canoe was rocking unsteadily on the sea, making his accuracy even worse.

Fortunately, numbers made up for everything.

Seeing the two barbarians fall one after another, he let out a long breath and set the War Bow aside.

Then he continued rowing, slowly drawing closer to the canoe.

Shell Girl, who had just been frightened into hiding, saw that everything was fine now. Without waiting for Chen Shouyi to coax her out, she eagerly flew from the cabin and took the initiative to scout the distant canoe. She soon flew back in terror, her face filled with panic.

"Not good, not good! One giant is dead! One giant is still alive!"

Could you stop making such a fuss? I thought something serious had happened!

Chen Shouyi looked at Shell Girl, who was anxiously warning him about the situation ahead, and felt somewhat speechless.

Apart from the one who had been shot in the head and died on the spot, the other had merely been struck by two arrows in the chest. How could he die so quickly?

He rowed slowly. A minute later, he finally reached the canoe.

The barbarian who was still alive kept spitting blood, terror filling his eyes.

Chen Shouyi pulled over the boat rope with one hand, raised his sword with the other, and leaped onto the other canoe.

The barbarian struggled desperately a few times, but the two sharp, three-edged arrows lodged in his chest had already drained him of all his strength.

"How many people are in your tribe?" Chen Shouyi walked forward, pointed his sword at the barbarian's throat, and asked coldly.

The barbarian glared furiously.

"Xikluo, Hobigusuobadaya, will kill you."

He mumbled the sentence, then suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and fell completely silent.

Chen Shouyi listened intently, but in the end, he understood only the last few words.

His expression grew solemn.

Although he had no idea what the first part meant, from the latter sentence alone, he could tell that this Barbarian Tribe clearly still had something to rely on—and was certain it could kill him.

He had no time to deal with this canoe and immediately jumped back.

He took out the universal dictionary.

Then he quickly searched according to the pronunciation.

Before long, he found the first part.

It was a word that roughly meant a departed soul, hell, or the Evil One. Judging by the context, it was clearly addressing him. It should mean the Evil One.

Is this how the barbarians see me?

He fell silent for a moment.

He continued searching for the latter part. The barbarian had pronounced the sentence quite unclearly, so Chen Shouyi could only search based on his rough recollection.

In the end, he found only two syllables. One meant tree, while the other meant holy or sacred. He searched through the rest but could not find anything corresponding to it.

"A sacred tree?"

"Or a holy tree?"

The meanings seemed to be the same either way.

So this tribe has a tree that will kill him?

If this had been Earth, and someone had said that a tree would kill him, Chen Shouyi would have scoffed at them.

But in this world, some powerful plants possessed extraordinary abilities as well. Some could even walk across the earth like animals.

At that moment, he could not help recalling the mysterious object, resembling a nut, that he had obtained from the Barbarian Tribe chief.

A shadow settled over his heart.

He looked toward the Small Island still far away.

It was lush with greenery, and from a distance, it looked like a dense, flourishing forest.

Perhaps because he had stared at it for too long, the forest suddenly seemed gloomy in his eyes for no apparent reason, as if shrouded in a layer of shadow.

He hurriedly blinked and looked again carefully. Everything had returned to normal.

"Was that an illusion, or a psychological effect?"

Chen Shouyi was somewhat uncertain.

However, he had come in such haste today that he did not have enough time. He had merely come to scout the route and confirm the situation; he had never intended to land on the island.

It had already been noon when he left, and roughly three hours had probably passed. Even if the return journey took just as long, it would already be dark on Earth.

After watching from afar for a while, he decided to return first.

He would make plans again in a day or two.

He tied the other canoe to his own with rope, then began rowing back.

With a canoe in tow, his speed became even slower. By the time he returned to the Small Island, five hours had passed.

Before leaving the Small Island, he took a bath beside the nearby Water Pool, washing the grime from his body and removing the few spots of blood that had stained his clothes.

By the time he emerged from the passageway,

apart from several independently powered buildings in the distance that still gave off light, everything outside was pitch-black.

The power still had not returned.

The streets were deserted. Apart from a few scattered cars trailing thick exhaust as they drove past, he was the only person walking along the entire street.

Of course, there were also several police officers.

Because his movements seemed suspicious, Chen Shouyi was questioned by the police several times along the way.

Fortunately, his slightly youthful face provided the best camouflage.

Who would have thought that not long before, he had killed two barbarians without changing expression and dealt with a human corpse?

"Don't wander around in the streets, understand? Where do you live? Get back there at once!"

"All right, all right. I'm on my way home!"

"Dad! Mom! I'm back. Open the door quickly!"

"You should've died outside instead of coming back! What are you doing coming home at this hour?" Mother Chen scolded him with a dark expression as she pulled open the rolling shutter door.

"Mom, something really came up today. I went rather far, and by the time I came back, it was already late." Chen Shouyi ducked his head and hurried inside through the rolling shutter door.

"Then tell me what it was."

"I can't say. Anyway, it was something important!" Chen Shouyi tried to brush it off vaguely.

Mother Chen seemed to think of something, and her attitude immediately softened. "Even so, you shouldn't come back this late. It's dangerous outside. Someone else was killed near here today."

"Mom, what are you worrying about for nothing? If examinations were possible right now, I'd already be a Martial Apprentice!"

Feeling Mother Chen's fear and worry, Chen Shouyi suddenly felt that he should show her some of his strength. Otherwise, every time he came home late, his parents would be left anxiously fretting.

He looked left and right, then picked up a bowl from the restaurant's square table. He snapped off a piece as easily as breaking a biscuit, then held it in his hand, apparently intending to crush it between his fingers.

"Do you not want your hand anymore?" Mother Chen was so frightened that her expression changed drastically, and she could not help crying out.

Before she could finish, Chen Shouyi's fingers tightened and twisted. With a frightening cracking sound, countless fragments scattered down like powder.

"Let me see. Did you cut your hand?" Mother Chen hurriedly grabbed Chen Shouyi's hand, her face tense with worry.

Chen Shouyi opened his hand. Apart from his fingers and thumb being slightly red from exerting too much force, his palm was completely unharmed.

"See? Nothing happened at all." Chen Shouyi looked rather smug.

His astonishing Constitution of 138 made his seemingly baby-soft skin exceptionally tough. If an ordinary person used an ordinary dagger without putting in all their strength, they probably would not even be able to stab through it.

"Smack!" Pain flared at the back of Chen Shouyi's head.

"Look at you, getting so full of yourself. Do you think I can't control you anymore? If you do something like that again, watch your hide!"