A Narrow Escape

"Everyone, wait for my command. Then dart out together and attack your chosen targets at the fastest speed possible!"

"Try to severely wound the four leading Demon Beasts with a single wave of attacks!"

Behind a jagged boulder used for concealment, Li Dingguo spoke in a low voice to Ai Nengqi, Liu Wenxiu, and Zhang Huier.

"Alright!"...

A moment later, Li Dingguo, who had finished preparing, nodded to the three beside him, who were likewise drawing Low-Grade Spirit Weapon bows and nocking arrows. His gaze sharpened, and he immediately darted out!

The moment the four of them had arrived, they had quietly observed the area, assigned their respective targets, and locked onto those adult Iron Tusk Pigs with the strongest auras.

Though it was his first time using a spirit weapon bow to attack Demon Beasts, Li Dingguo did not feel the slightest bit nervous.

His current cultivation, techniques, and skills were no weaker than those of anyone at the same level. He had that confidence.

As the saying went, great skill bred great courage.

Before he even landed, Li Dingguo had already fired the Low-Grade Spirit Weapon arrow, drawn to its full arc, at the Iron Tusk Pig leader locked onto by his mind!

A true master archer never needed to aim when shooting.

The instant they saw their target, they had already released the arrow.

What mattered was that when the eye arrived, the heart arrived; when the heart arrived, the arrow arrived.

Those television fantasy war dramas from Li Dingguo's previous life only added such amateurish performances to catch the audience's eye.

Just like in real wartime, those true sharpshooters who never missed simply raised their guns and fired. They did not need to aim either.

Whether true master archers or sharpshooters, they relied on absolute confidence and instinct, striking like lightning and killing with one blow!

Li Dingguo was still quite some distance from that realm.

But with his own strength supporting him, he already possessed such conviction. Besides, his target was only around twenty zhang away.

The Thunderbolt Arrow Technique he cultivated had already reached the proficient realm. Calling it piercing a willow leaf from a hundred paces away would not be an exaggeration.

Of course, in this wondrous greater world, that level did not make him a particularly formidable archer.

After all, this world's martial power was simply too terrifying.

With spirit weapons and Martial Dao in existence, truly powerful master archers could kill with a single strike from several hundred zhang away.

Yet to reach that realm, one needed at least arrowsmanship at the perfected realm and cultivation at the Fourth Layer of Martial Dao before one could be called a master archer who never missed.

As Li Dingguo darted out and leaped forward, before his feet even touched the ground, the arrow fired from the spirit weapon in his hand had already struck one eye of the target!

The spirit weapon arrow, empowered by Qi and Blood Power, possessed astonishing might. The arrow, nearly two chi long, sank halfway into the Iron Tusk Pig leader's brain, almost piercing straight through its massive head.

Yet what would have been instantly fatal to a human did not cause this enormous Demon Beast, at the peak of the late First Level, to drop dead on the spot.

"Roar!"

It roared furiously and abruptly rose to its feet, glaring with its remaining uninjured eye at Li Dingguo, the human Martial Artist who had wounded it.

Having lost its reason to pain and rage, it burst forth at full speed, charging straight at Li Dingguo like a bolt of lightning!

At the same time, Ai Nengqi, Liu Wenxiu, and Zhang Huier, whose attacks had also found their mark, saw that their targets had likewise not died on the spot. Roaring without end, they followed the Iron Tusk Pig leader and launched savage charges at the humans who had wounded them!

Were Demon Beasts really this tenacious?

Without question, the strike the four of them had delivered was enough to kill.

But this deathbed counterattack from the Demon Beasts left Li Dingguo and the others greatly shocked!

No matter what, they had to withstand this frenzied counterattack first!

Li Dingguo had no time to think further. He immediately tossed the longbow in his hand aside, gripped his long spear with both hands, gathered his strength, and stared fixedly at the Iron Tusk Pig leader charging toward him at breakneck speed!

In merely one or two breaths, it had reached him. A gust of foul wind rushed straight into his face!

"Wuu wuu..."

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, the Iron Tusk Pig leader leaped into the air before him, opened its blood-filled maw, and snapped viciously at Li Dingguo with a mouthful of gleaming white fangs!

Since it was his first close-quarters battle against such a powerful foe, Li Dingguo's heart involuntarily tightened. Before he could thrust out his spear, it was already too late.

He hurriedly twisted his body aside and shifted his footing, just barely dodging out of the way in time and avoiding injury.

"Roar!"

This massive Iron Tusk Pig was exceedingly agile. After landing, it gave a furious roar, and the instant its four limbs touched the ground, they kicked off hard, completing its turn in an instant!

With its lone eye blazing red, it leaped through the air again, opening its bloody jaws wide as it tore viciously toward Li Dingguo, who had only just steadied himself and had not even had time to turn around!

"Turning Spear Technique!"

"Die!"

Now fully immersed in battle, Li Dingguo forgot his fear. Thoughts flashed through his mind like lightning. He stepped forward into a bow stance, lowered his body, flicked his wrist, spun his spear, then whirled around and thrust fiercely!

"Pfft!"

He activated all of his Qi and Blood Power and poured it entirely into the spirit weapon long spear. From a bizarre and tricky angle, he thrust with incomparable precision into the open blood-filled maw of the Iron Tusk Pig leader pouncing through the air behind him!

At that moment, the sharpness of the spirit weapon long spear was fully displayed. The black, gleaming spirit weapon spear pierced into that bloody maw under Li Dingguo's full-force strike, punched through the enormous pig head, and even had its tip emerge from the back of the beast's skull!

Before the Iron Tusk Pig leader's huge body could fall, Li Dingguo twisted and yanked his spear. As he swiftly withdrew it, he rolled to the side in time, avoiding being crushed beneath the body of the giant Demon Beast, now dead and breathless.

In truth, after delivering that killing blow, he could have simply abandoned his spear and immediately darted aside, rather than looking so bedraggled.

But on the battlefield, a Martial Artist's primary weapon was their second life. Unless there was absolutely no other choice, it could not be allowed to leave their hand.

The situation on a battlefield changed constantly. Most of the time, there would not be only one enemy nearby.

If you lost the weapon in your hand, when the enemies at your side launched their next attack, you would be thrown into a flurry of panic—or even surrounded and killed!

Therefore, even if it meant rolling on the ground in embarrassment to avoid being crushed beneath that giant Demon Beast's corpse, he would rather do that and reclaim his primary spirit weapon spear in time.

That was the correct battlefield conduct of a qualified soldier.

"Thud!"

Li Dingguo had only just used the force of his roll to spring back to his feet when the Iron Tusk Pig, thoroughly dead from his full-force strike, crashed heavily onto the ground!

Amid swirling dust, the dead behemoth's body twitched a few times before finally becoming still, its aura of life gone.

"Heh heh..."

Having completed his first Demon Beast kill in this life, Li Dingguo was filled with joy. Yet when he lowered his head and saw himself covered in dust, he chuckled self-mockingly.

Fortunately, though he had looked somewhat disheveled, the outcome had been perfect.

He looked around and saw that Ai Nengqi had already slain the target Demon Beast he had faced head-on.

Liu Wenxiu and Zhang Huier, however, were still fighting the adult Iron Tusk Pigs they had each confronted.

The two of them were only at the peak of the Martial Dao First Level Middle Stage. Since this was also their first time facing Demon Beasts in a frenzied deathbed counterattack, such a performance was only normal.

"What are you all standing there for?"

Li Dingguo had no time for further thought. Turning to the sixty young Martial Artists behind him, he shouted, "Advance in formation by squad! Charge into this basin at once and wipe out the remaining Demon Beasts!"

He knew clearly that the purpose of this journey outside the city was for these young Martial Artists to gain experience through real combat.

Ideally, every single young Martial Artist needed to see blood, or personally kill Demon Beasts, before the desired effect of training through real battle could be achieved.

Thus, he grabbed Ai Nengqi, who was about to keep charging ahead, with one hand, and issued orders to the soldiers of the Youth Camp behind him, scolding these youths who had been stunned speechless back to their senses.

In any case, the four strongest Demon Beasts among the herd had either been killed or were being held back. The twenty-odd Demon Beasts of varying sizes still trapped in the basin ahead had already descended into chaos.

As long as these young Martial Artists were careful, they could easily surround and kill every last one of them.

"Oh! Oh..."

Startled awake by Li Dingguo's words, the sixty youths all changed expression. Then, led by the twelve Genius Martial Artists, they hurriedly formed up and charged toward the Iron Tusk Pigs of all sizes before them!

They all understood why Li Dingguo would not continue attacking: their first real-combat training was not yet complete. Now the true test had arrived!

Knowing that the remaining Demon Beasts should pose little threat to their side, these youths seemed as if they had been pumped full of chicken blood. Howling at the top of their lungs, they charged into the small basin ahead...