Who Will Be the Victor

"Bone Shifting Technique?"

Li Yun recalled the arrow protruding from Leng Yifeng's chest; no wonder it hadn't pierced through.

So that was it—this guy had used the Bone Shifting Technique to forcibly shift his bones and block his vitals.

Li Yun tried to struggle to his feet, but he stumbled and fell again.

Only then did he realize, with a delayed sense of shock, that his arms were completely numb and dead.

He couldn't feel a thing.

Clenching his teeth, he flipped over onto his stomach and pushed hard with his knees, using the momentum to heave himself up.

He staggered forward, trying to escape.

Leng Yifeng hadn't expected that the Bone Shifting Technique, which he had learned to alter his appearance for his "flower-plucking" grand cause, would actually save his life.

He swallowed a Blood Burst Pill to stem his wounds, preparing to finish Li Yun off.

Seeing the other man still attempting a deathbed struggle, he couldn't help but speak:

"Honestly, if you hadn't ruined my plans and left me in this state, I would have genuinely wanted to recommend you to my master.

Someone like you—you can't find many like you in the entire Blood Blade Sect.

What a pity, such a fine talent.

But don't worry, I'll make it quick."

As he spoke, Leng Yifeng limped after him.

However, with one leg pierced through and having lost so much blood, his movement speed was actually slower than Li Yun's.

One fleeing, one chasing.

Though Li Yun walked unsteadily, his legs were not crippled.

The distance between the two actually began to widen.

Seeing the gap between him and Li Yun growing, Leng Yifeng abruptly stopped, realizing the futility of the chase.

His gaze shifted to the Bull Bow that had fallen when Li Yun was knocked back, and he limped toward it.

"If I can't catch him in close quarters, I'll use this brat's bow to shoot him dead!"

With the noise behind him ceasing, Li Yun didn't stop, only glancing back slightly using the momentum of his turn.

At that sight, his heart rate spiked.

Because.

Leng Yifeng had stooped to pick up the Bull Bow and reached out to yank an arrow from the corpse of a guard who had been dead for some time.

His fingers hooked the string, the bow bent into a Gibbous Moon, and the arrowhead, glinting with cold light, locked onto him.

Whoosh—

The sharp whistle of the arrow cutting through the air exploded in his ears.

Li Yun had no time to think; he twisted his waist violently and rolled to the side.

The arrow grazed his heel and struck the ground, the tip burying deep into the earth and spraying dirt everywhere.

"Hahaha~"

Leng Yifeng clutched his injured leg, hunched over, and laughed.

The movement tugged at the wounds in his chest and thigh, causing cold sweat to bead on his forehead, yet he still laughed heartily, his eyes filled with mockery:

"Tell me, you brat, are you stupid?

If you had just shared those three fresh beauties with me and joined my Blood Blade Sect, you could have lived a life of luxury and pleasure. How wonderful would that have been?"

He shook his head while laughing, the regret in his tone entirely fake:

"But you had to go against the tide, ruin my fun, and end up with both arms crippled, scurrying away like a stray dog.

Sigh, what a fool~"

Leng Yifeng clicked his tongue in feigned pity, but his hands didn't stop.

He drew another arrow, preparing to shoot Li Yun dead.

He nocked the arrow onto the Bull Bow, tightened his fingers around the bowstring, and slowly pulled it back.

The arrowhead glinted with a cold light, aimed at Li Yun, and his fingers slowly released.

Whoosh—

Just as he was about to end this farce and strike Li Yun down with the arrow...

The cruel grin on Leng Yifeng's face hadn't even fully bloomed before the curve of his mouth suddenly froze.

The ferocity in his eyes instantly turned into a thick cloud of confusion.

Li Yun in the distance had somehow produced a bow and arrow from thin air.

Lying on the ground, he used his legs to brace the bow frame and his teeth to pull the string, firing off an arrow.

He deflected the arrow he had just fired.

It was not until Li Yun braced his legs again, conjured another arrow from nothing, nocked it, drew the string, and aimed at him that Leng Yifeng finally snapped back to reality.

Had he been running this whole time just to create distance?

Where did he get the bow and arrow?

Did they appear out of thin air?

Li Yun naturally would not answer Leng Yifeng's questions.

Things had reached this point.

It was either him or me.

There was no longer any need to keep the secret of his storage space.

After all, once a person is dead, everything is over.

When he was sent flying by a punch, Li Yun had been thinking about how to turn the tables.

The only chance was to create distance and shoot the opponent to death.

At this moment, the two were only twenty or thirty paces apart, but that was enough!

Bracing the bow, biting the string, aiming, and releasing—it was all done in one fluid motion.

Arrow after arrow followed.

Leng Yifeng was both shocked and furious, instinctively trying to grab the corpse of a nearby guard to use as a meat shield.

But as soon as he put force into his injured leg, a piercing pain shot through him, causing his body to stagger and his movements to slow by a full half-beat.

Li Yun had been prepared; the arrows were aimed specifically at the gaps where he tried to dodge, giving him no chance at all.

Puchi~

The first arrow pierced his shoulder blade, preventing resistance.

The second arrow plunged into his other leg, preventing escape.

The third arrow grazed his throat, preventing him from begging for mercy.

Leng Yifeng had no room left to dodge and ultimately could not escape the fate of being shot to death.

Having suffered once before, Li Yun had no intention of stopping this time until Leng Yifeng was covered in arrows, looking like a pincushion.

Only then did he stop.

Li Yun's teeth were filled with the taste of blood, and he collapsed to the ground, completely drained, gasping for air.

He cursed fiercely in his heart:

"Try using the Bone Shifting Technique to protect your vitals again, I dare you."

He lay there for a full quarter of an hour.

The numbness in his limbs gradually faded, replaced by a piercing pain.

Having recovered slightly, Li Yun slowly walked over.

This time, Li Yun was not cautious.

Leng Yifeng's body had been shot into a sieve, and he had nearly bled dry; if he could still play dead and counterattack, then it was his own bad luck, and he would accept his fate.

Beside Leng Yifeng's corpse, a polished Deerskin Pouch lay on the ground, catching Li Yun's attention.

Earlier, Leng Yifeng had repeatedly pulled pills and poison powder from this pouch, clearly hiding many of his trump cards inside.

Using his hands, which had just regained some sensation, he held an arrow in each to carefully open the pouch.

The contents were clear at a glance:

Three yellowed, thin booklets, several palm-sized porcelain bottles, a token made of a material that looked like iron but wasn't, and a few silver banknotes along with some loose silver.

The bottles had no labels, but the booklets had names.

Blood Blade Technique.

Bone Shifting Technique.

Introduction to Poisons.

The silver banknotes totaled five hundred taels, and the loose silver amounted to twenty taels.

The token was dark red all over, with "Blood Blade Sect" written on the back and "Leng Yifeng" on the front.

Fearing that the items in the pouch might be coated in poison powder, Li Yun tore off a piece of cloth to cushion his palms.

He wrapped the items one by one and stowed them into his storage space.

Under a tree branch nearby, Leng Yifeng's long blade was thrust diagonally into the mud.

The sword was just over a meter long, with the blade accounting for seventy or eighty centimeters.

The blade had a slight arc, like the rising New Moon, no more than three fingers wide at its broadest point, and thin enough to let light pass through.

The forging patterns on the blade surged like rippling water, resembling rolling clouds.

Li Yun wrapped the hilt in linen as well and put it away.

After roughly cleaning up the scene, he turned toward the three people slumped on the ground not far away.

Yu Qingqing was still unconscious.

Beside her, Huang Shengnan and Lin Biling had dazed, unfocused eyes.

...flushed with an unnatural red.

...torn to shreds.

Li Yun raised an eyebrow; a scene like this...