Just three or four breaths later, Zhou Menglong reached the stream. Looking down at Xu Liang and Zhang Si's bleeding corpses, he roughly guessed what Cui Hao had been thinking. A mocking smile curled his lips.
In the face of absolute strength, everything was futile.
Follow the footprints—chase!
After tracking him for about a mile through the woods, stumbling over uneven ground, Zhou Menglong spotted a leg in the snow, severed cleanly at the root. Its mangled stump still dripped blood.
The mocking smile on Zhou Menglong's lips deepened. A worthless brat's little tricks. He'd catch the little bastard before he ventured farther into the Second Mountain!
Next, Zhou Menglong came across Wang Gouzi's torso, then his head.
Gradually, Zhou Menglong's expression darkened. The woods were difficult to traverse, but the conditions were the same for both of them. Why couldn't he catch up to Cui Hao?
Besides, he was already deep in the Second Mountain, where a terrifying beast could appear at any moment. With the little bastard scattering body parts everywhere, the odds of encountering one had risen considerably.
At this point, Zhou Menglong couldn't help admiring Cui Hao. For a mere young book attendant to make it this far was impressive enough to surprise him.
But today, Cui Hao had to die!
"Xiao Haozi," Zhou Menglong called, looking toward the many trees ahead. "I know you're hiding behind one of them. Join the Mad Wolf Gang and offer Su Yun to me, and I'll make sure you never want for food or clothes."
Cui Hao heard Zhou Menglong calling to him but didn't answer or fall for the bait.
"You can't protect Su Yun. I'm only trying to help you, big brother Zhou is doing this for your own good."
Cui Hao suddenly felt grateful to the Da'an Dynasty, and to the lord of Qingyuan City. Their governance was terrible, but at least they maintained the appearance of order. Otherwise, Zhou Menglong wouldn't have had to go to all this trouble—he could've simply barged into Cui Hao's home and taken her.
Crunch...
Leaning against a large tree, Cui Hao faintly heard snow being crushed underfoot. He snapped out of his thoughts and swiftly searched the area ahead.
A Mountain Demon, its body entirely gray, its face savage and its eyes icy, slowly revealed half its body and one eye from behind a tree not far to the left.
It looked at Cui Hao as if he were already dead.
Cui Hao swallowed, then raised the heart in his hand. The meaning was obvious.
The Mountain Demon broke into a run.
The distance was only six or seven steps. Cui Hao slipped out from behind the tree just in time and hurled the heart at Zhou Menglong.
Zhou Menglong had been about to say something. He instinctively raised a hand and caught the heart neatly.
The Mountain Demon, with its sturdy build and strong teeth, didn't hesitate for a moment. It chased after the heart, charging toward Zhou Menglong.
Zhou Menglong casually tossed the heart aside, thrust both fists forward, and unleashed the Subduing Devil Vajra Fist.
With a bang, his fists collided violently with the charging Mountain Demon.
The Mountain Demon flew backward, smashed through a tree as thick as a bowl, and died.
The Mountain Demon had been weaker than he expected. Cui Hao kept running.
"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Zhou Menglong's laughter rang through the woods. He had finally caught up to Cui Hao. Leaping into the air, he swung his fist down. "Die!"
Sensing the force of the punch, Cui Hao abruptly stopped and turned. Pfft! He flung a handful of white powder behind him.
Zhou Menglong instinctively pulled back his fist to block, but they were too close. He couldn't stop the powder. His eyes burned fiercely, and his vision blurred. Enraged, he swung his fists wildly, but his blows went astray.
Relying on Light as a Swallow, Cui Hao nimbly dodged through the trees, evading the fierce attacks raining down like a storm.
He also avoided the trees Zhou Menglong smashed through, each one as thick as a bowl.
His strength was draining too quickly. Zhou Menglong soon regained his composure.
No longer relying on his eyes, he relied on his senses, listening carefully. By tracking the sound of Cui Hao's feet crunching through the snow and the direction of his breathing, he made his attacks vicious once more.
Cui Hao's heart tightened. He knew he couldn't drag this out. He used the force of Zhou Menglong's punch to fly backward through the air, kicked off a tree to change direction, and landed lightly. Then he took the ironwood bow off his back, removed its cloth wrapping, and revealed its gray-black frame.
He drew an iron arrow and nocked it.
"Hey!" Cui Hao deliberately gave away his position.
Hearing the sound, Zhou Menglong reacted at once and charged straight at him.
Cui Hao raised the bow and drew it to its full length. The arrow flew!
Zhou Menglong's expression changed. He heard the faint creak of the ironwood bowstring pulled taut. In the snowy woods, he abruptly changed course mid-charge, trying with all his might to get away from where he stood.
In the next instant, the iron arrow pierced his flesh. It should have struck his chest, but instead it hit his shoulder.
Without pausing, Cui Hao fired a second arrow, a Wolf Fang Arrow with an iron head and wooden shaft. Then he fired another, and another—three in all.
Zhou Menglong nimbly dodged two, but the last arrow struck his thigh.
"Brother Cui Hao, I was wrong..." Bracing his right hand against a tree and using its trunk to shield his vital parts, Zhou Menglong pleaded with his eyes closed. "Let me off this once, and you'll be my own brother from now on!"
Cui Hao could manage only two more shots from the two-stone bow. He slowly took out his final iron arrow and nocked it. With a mocking smile, he said, "I was the one who killed your two brothers."
Before his words had even faded, Cui Hao raised the bow, drew it to its full length, and loosed the arrow.
Hearing how his two brothers had died, Zhou Menglong's mind faltered for an instant. By the time he tried to dodge, it was too late. The iron arrow punched through his chest with a critical hit, tearing a great chunk of flesh from his back.
Zhou Menglong swayed, but through sheer willpower and formidable strength, he managed to stay upright. His eyes, burned by the lime, seemed ready to spit fire as he glared in Cui Hao's direction.
Seeing Zhou Menglong leaning against the tree without falling, Cui Hao was shaken. So this was how powerful someone at the peak of the Mortal Martial Realm could be!
"I've been to many places and seen many people," Zhou Menglong said, pressing one hand to the wound in his chest and using his inner force to suppress his churning blood and qi. "I've never met anyone as devious as you. My two brothers didn't lose unfairly."
Hearing Zhou Menglong praise him, Cui Hao—who had only just entered the Mortal Martial Realm—felt no pride. Instead, he sensed something strange in the air around him.
The wind had stopped. Every birdcall and ape's cry in the woods vanished in an instant, and an unsettling silence descended.
Every hair on Cui Hao's body stood on end! This fear, born of life instinct, was even worse than what he'd felt facing Zhou Menglong!
Without hesitation, he scattered the remaining lime powder over himself, trying to mask his scent and make himself less appetizing.
At that very moment, the corner of his eye caught movement in the shadows of a dead thicket less than three meters away. A Striped Tiger slowly padded out like a ghost, its golden pupils coldly fixed on them.
Cui Hao's blood turned to ice. His senses told him with absolute certainty that he couldn't beat it. He stood frozen in place.
Bearded Zhou Menglong knew he was doomed. He also knew he had to seize his chance. With a sudden shriek, he unleashed all restraint on his blood and qi and launched a desperate charge at Cui Hao!
The Striped Tiger had been strolling leisurely, intending to eat the Mountain Demon. Just as it was about to pass by, it flashed behind Zhou Menglong as if teleporting and swatted him away with one paw. He hit the ground dead.
Then it sprang at Cui Hao.
Cui Hao promptly hurled the two-stone bow he'd bought for ten taels of silver forward and dived to the side, using a large tree to evade the tiger's first pounce.
He drew a breath and ran! He cursed Cui Bao for not giving him two more legs.
But in these deep woods, how could a human outrun a tiger?
After just a few breaths, the tiger was about to knock him down. Cui Hao leaped high and plunged into a broad, fast-flowing river that hadn't frozen over.
He hit the water with a splash. It was bone-chillingly cold, and the river blocked his vision, yet Cui Hao smiled.
He was grateful to the Mortal Martial Realm, which had sharpened his hearing. He hadn't been running blind through the woods and, just before his death, he'd made it into the river.
He was also grateful for the Light as a Swallow skill he'd received as a reward for Beginner Stealth. Without it, he couldn't have outrun Zhou Menglong, let alone the tiger.
The Striped Tiger watched the human in the water for several breaths, then turned back into the woods.
He'd lost his bow. Unable to bear abandoning his hatchet, Cui Hao struggled toward the bank in the rushing current. He drifted six or seven miles downstream before finally climbing ashore in a flat bend in the river.
Panting heavily, he surveyed his surroundings. His eyes settled on a strange object not far away.
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