Desperate Battle

A blast rang out.

The Blood Hound in front had just leaped into the air when it let out a yelp. Blood blossomed across its body, and it shot backward. With a thud, a feathered arrow pinned it to a nearby sapling.

The other four Blood Hounds were startled. Before they could react, two more arrows flashed past, piercing the foreheads of two of them. They dropped dead without making a sound.

"It's the Purple Steel Bow! Quick, get the remaining Blood Hounds to take cover!" Fifth Master Jin took one look at the scene, then glanced at the purple giant bow in Shi Mu's hands. He froze for a moment before hurriedly giving the order.

Even with the Jin Family's resources, raising these Blood Hounds had been no easy feat!

Seeing three of the Blood Hounds killed in an instant, the Hound Servant was already heartbroken. At Fifth Master Jin's words, he immediately let out a piercing howl.

The two remaining Blood Hounds spun around at once. One charged frantically toward a nearby thicket, while the other leaped behind a large tree.

Two arrows whistled through the air.

One Blood Hound had just reached the thicket when an arrow pierced its neck and sent it flying several yards.

The other let out a mournful yelp as an arrow punched through the tree trunk and pinned it to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, Shi Mu had shot all five Blood Hounds dead with the Blood Steel Bow.

"I'll kill you!"

The Hound Servant's eyes instantly turned bloodshot. With a shout, he dropped onto all fours like a beast and charged toward Shi Mu.

He had raised those five Blood Hounds himself from the time they were pups, and treated them like his own sons. Now that Shi Mu had killed them all in an instant, he lost his mind, thinking only of tearing Shi Mu to pieces with his own hands.

"Idiot, get back here!" Fifth Master Jin shouted furiously.

But the Hound Servant acted as if he hadn't heard. Still on all fours, he darted left and right, up and down, becoming almost impossible to track.

Shi Mu's expression turned grave. Without a word, he reached behind himself with one hand and pulled out three arrows. He nocked them all at once, then swept his fingers across the bowstring like he was playing a zither.

Three blasts rang out almost simultaneously. The arrows streaked from the giant bow in such quick succession that they seemed to form a single black line.

The Hound Servant, still charging, suddenly leaped into the air, letting the first arrow streak beneath him. He twisted sharply, and the second arrow flashed past his ear. But there was no dodging the third.

With a scream, he was pierced through the left eye by the third arrow. His corpse flew backward a long way before crashing heavily to the ground.

Fifth Master Jin's face turned livid.

Just then, another blast rang out in the distance. Three more arrows came hurtling toward them. This time, their target was the Eagle Servant beside Fifth Master Jin.

The Eagle Servant had already been shaken and terrified by the fate of the five Blood Hounds and the Hound Servant. When he saw the arrows were aimed at him, he cried, "Fifth Master, save me!" and threw himself flat on the ground.

Fifth Master Jin beside him gave a cold snort. The golden batons in his hands suddenly swept out to the side with three sharp whooshes.

Three crisp cracks rang out. The arrows appeared from thin air nearby, snapped into six pieces, and fell to the ground.

"Useless. Stay here. I'll deal with this bastard myself." Fifth Master Jin cursed at the Eagle Servant. Then he sprang forward, gliding five or six yards with each leap. In the blink of an eye, he had covered more than twenty yards.

Shi Mu watched from afar, his pupils narrowing slightly. He reached behind himself with one hand and grabbed three more arrows, then loosed them together once again.

Three thuds rang out.

As expected, Fifth Master Jin easily knocked all three arrows aside with his golden batons.

Shi Mu drew in a sharp breath. At last, he truly understood the enormous gap between an early Houtian warrior and a mid-stage one. But when he instinctively reached behind himself again, his body suddenly froze.

His quiver was completely empty. Not a single arrow remained.

By then, after a few more leaps, Fifth Master Jin had closed to within a dozen yards.

Shi Mu had no time to think. He gritted his teeth, flung away the purple giant bow, and drew the Sun and Moon Blades from his waist. Stamping down hard with one foot, he charged straight at his powerful foe. His wrist flicked, and nine blade shadows swept out.

"Nine-Slash Breath! You've actually mastered the Wind-Galloping Blade Technique. But even so, you're still going to die!"

Beneath the veil of blade shadows, Fifth Master Jin's voice was ice-cold.

The next instant, a clang like a bronze gong rang out. Golden staff shadows flashed wildly, sweeping away all nine blade shadows.

Shi Mu felt a jolt of heat in his hand. The tremendous force that surged from the golden staff shadows was more than twice what he had faced when fighting Wu Tong. His webbing split open again, and the Sun and Moon Blades flew from his grasp with a whoosh, soaring into the air.

Just then, a gust of wind swept across his face, and a golden blur appeared, smashing heavily toward his face.

There was no time for Shi Mu to dodge. He could only let out a low roar and swing his other arm, slamming his fist hard into the golden baton.

With a boom, the baton veered slightly from the blow. It slid downward and struck him on the shoulder.

Shi Mu felt as if some enormous object had slammed into his shoulder. He staggered back several steps, and pain that pierced to the heart surged through him.

"Hmph. So you're wearing my son's Golden Silk Armor. No wonder my strike didn't shatter your bones. Fine, then. I'll let you taste the power of the Blood Sha Palm I've painstakingly cultivated for years!"

Fifth Master Jin had been surprised that he hadn't smashed Shi Mu's shoulder bone with a single blow. But when he carefully looked at the faint golden glimmer showing through Shi Mu's tattered clothes, he gave a cold snort, seething with rage.

The next instant, he tossed aside the golden batons in his hands and drifted forward, closing the several-yard gap in a single bound. A blood-red palm, swollen to more than twice its size, suddenly appeared in front of Shi Mu. It slammed down with a foul stench that made anyone who caught a whiff want to vomit.

Faced with the other man's bizarre attack, Shi Mu neither dodged nor retreated. A mad gleam flashed through his eyes. With a furious roar, he suddenly jerked the arm that had held the Sun and Moon Blades, and the thin chain wrapped around his wrist clinked sharply.

The Sun and Moon Blades, which had fallen nearby, suddenly sprang back toward Shi Mu. They spun rapidly in midair, transforming into a huge silver blade wheel that slashed viciously toward Fifth Master Jin.

The silver blade wheel came hurtling in with such ferocity that it looked ready to slice Fifth Master Jin and Shi Mu alike into four pieces, taking them both down with it.