"Another tribe's Barbarian Warrior, and all alone! Judging by the spread of his blood qi, he's only at the second layer of the Blood Condensation Realm... Killing him will be easy! And we're close to our tribe, with two of us here, so there's no need to worry about traps. But since he dared challenge us, he must have some tricks up his sleeve. Still, with my third-layer strength, it'll be nothing to worry about.
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The slightly short, third-layer Blood Condensation Realm man from the Black Mountain Tribe grinned viciously. He didn't take Su Ming seriously at all. In his eyes, the gap between them was enormous. Besides, Su Ming was thin and frail-looking, hardly the sort who could pack much of a punch.
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More importantly, apart from Fengzhen, the Black Mountain Tribe slaughtered any lone warriors they found from other tribes without hesitation. There was no reasoning with them; it was simply the law of the jungle.
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Just as before, if Xiao Hong hadn't gone out to draw the danger away, then when the two of them entered the cave, they would have cruelly killed Su Ming and taken his head to the tribe for a reward.
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"Yu Chi, I'll go kill him. Wait here." The man surged forward like a roaring tiger, rapidly closing the distance to Su Ming.
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The Black Mountain Tribe man named Yu Chi, who was holding Little Monkey, didn't dare object. Though he knew that killing a Barbarian Warrior from another tribe and taking his head back to the tribe would earn them a reward, he didn't dare compete with the other man for the credit.
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Fine. He and I are both at the second layer. A fight would waste time. If the other guy goes, he'll finish the job quickly, and with that credit, maybe I'll get a little something too. Yu Chi's eyes shifted as he watched. To him, this was a fight with no chance of anything going wrong. Cruelty gleamed in his gaze; he could already picture the bloody spectacle to come, beautiful in its own way.
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The man now closing in on Su Ming shared the same confidence. He strode forward, quickly approaching until he was less than a hundred zhang away.
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Eighty zhang, seventy, sixty!
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As he drew closer, the man could clearly see Su Ming's face. With a savage grin, he let out a low roar. The snow all around them trembled, then the snowflakes burst into the air and exploded, filling the space with a blinding haze.
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In that instant, the man yanked a spear from his back with his right hand and hurled it with all his strength toward Su Ming, sixty zhang away.
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A sharp whistle split the air. Su Ming immediately felt a fierce force bearing down on him. Without hesitation, he stepped to the side. The spear whooshed past his ear, barely grazing his hair.
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After throwing the spear, the man didn't even look to see whether it had hit. Instead, black wisps curled around his feet, and with each step his speed instantly multiplied. The sixty-zhang gap between him and Su Ming quickly shrank to just thirty.
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"Die!" The man raised his right hand and took out a second spear. Just as he was about to throw it, the swirling snow haze began to clear—and an arrow suddenly pierced through it, darting straight toward him like lightning.
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The man laughed wildly and casually swung his spear at the incoming arrow. With a bang, it shattered. But at that moment, several sharp whooshes rang out as three more arrows came hurtling toward him.
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The arrows flew too fast, and their angles were treacherous. The man furrowed his brow, then snorted as black qi poured from his feet and wrapped around his entire body, forming a mistlike shroud. The three arrows struck it—and melted into black liquid before his eyes.
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Even so, the black qi dissipated considerably, revealing the man's body.
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"Second-layer Blood Condensation, and you dare attack me?" The man leapt forward. He was now only twenty zhang from Su Ming.
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Su Ming's face was pale, but his legs remained still. There was no alarm in his eyes, only the same unchanging, deathly stillness.
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He took another arrow and quickly shot at the man. One arrow, then another, then another—five arrows in rapid succession!
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The five arrows flew almost in a straight line, their whistles carrying immense force as they shot toward the man. He furrowed his brow at the sight. There weren't many people in his tribe who could manage that with a bow.
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"Five-Arrow String!" The man raised his spear in his right hand and struck the first arrow as it arrived. With a bang, the spear shattered, exploding along with the first arrow.
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The second arrow shot forward. The man gave a low growl, and black qi curled around his body. The moment the arrow touched it, it melted.
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The third arrow flashed toward him, but the man swayed aside and dodged it. The fourth arrow arrived in an instant. With a low growl and a savage expression, the man clenched his right fist and punched the arrow directly, shattering it—but leaving a cut on his right hand.
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Just then, the fifth arrow came straight at him, sinking in like it had struck bone. The man tried to dodge, but it still grazed his shoulder, leaving a small wound and drawing blood.
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"I'll tear your head off!" The man wasn't truly injured; to the Barbarian Tribe, a small wound like this was nothing. He didn't even glance at it. Grinning viciously, he strode forward and reached Su Ming within moments, closing to ten zhang.
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He already had victory in the palm of his hand. The fight posed no real danger; at most, those arrows had delayed him a little.
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In the distance, Yu Chi licked his lips. He loved watching bloody scenes like this. They made him feel excited from head to toe.
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As the man strode directly toward him, Su Ming's face remained pale, and his eyes retained their deathly stillness. Then he did something that left both the man and Yu Chi dumbfounded.
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He stopped shooting arrows and clenched his right fist, rushing toward the oncoming man.
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No one noticed that Su Ming had crushed the red Medicine Stone in his right hand, grinding it into powder!
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"Looking to die!" The man and Su Ming kept closing in. In the blink of an eye, only a few zhang separated them—three, then two, then one...
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The man clenched his right fist. His blood qi surged, gathering tremendous force in his punch as he aimed it at Su Ming's head. If it hit, Su Ming wouldn't withstand it. He would die without a doubt!
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At that instant, Su Ming suddenly looked up. The deathly stillness vanished from his eyes, replaced by a murderous intent that surged like a boundless tide. It was so intense that even the man was taken aback.
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But it was too late for him to be alarmed. As Su Ming lifted his head, he swung his clenched right hand at the man before him. A cloud of red powder scattered through the air. Some landed on the wound in the man's right hand, while more fell on the small cut at his shoulder.
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The man's body shuddered. He didn't scream or struggle. Before Su Ming, his body seemed to boil, as if heaven and earth had erased him from existence. He turned straight into a cloud of red mist that rose and dissipated, leaving only a skeleton stripped of flesh behind. The wind blew, and the bones crumbled into powder.
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Amid the bone dust lay a strange black-and-white herb, glowing faintly.
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The sudden sight left Yu Chi completely stunned. He couldn't accept it; he could hardly believe his eyes. His face blank, he stared at the thin outsider youth's cold expression and frigid gaze as Su Ming rushed toward him.
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"This Fire Ape corpse will make a powerful tonic once it's processed. I'll take it!" Su Ming's eyes flashed as he approached and suddenly spoke.
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Yu Chi shuddered violently. When he came to, cold sweat covered his body. Su Ming's words made him instinctively forget about using Little Monkey as a hostage. Instead, he thought Su Ming had come to steal the corpse.
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The thought had barely formed when Yu Chi fled in a panic. Even now, he couldn't understand why his companion had died. The horrific state of the body only made the sight more unbearable.
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"Evil Barbarian! You're an Evil Barbarian!" Yu Chi cried out, his face deathly pale. Terror took over completely. He couldn't accept the truth; he was scared out of his wits and didn't dare face Su Ming. He fled at full speed. Su Ming stood on the road to the Black Mountain Tribe, so Yu Chi couldn't return to his tribe. He could only flee toward Black Flame Peak.
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Su Ming was about to give chase, but his head spun, and exhaustion washed over him. He shook his head and forced himself to stay alert.
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He glanced at the remains on the ground. This was the first time he had killed someone, but now was no time to hesitate. He didn't immediately pursue Yu Chi. Instead, he quickly tidied the area, picked up the arrows that could still be used, and took the strange herb from the bones. Then he looked in the direction Yu Chi had fled, murder flashing in his eyes once more.
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"Little Hong's still in his hands. Since I've already killed one, I might as well kill the other too. That way, the place where I refine Powder Refining won't be exposed!" Su Ming gritted his teeth and, fighting off his exhaustion, chased after him.
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The two raced through the mountain forest, one ahead of the other. Yu Chi didn't dare look back at Su Ming and fled as fast as he could, trying to widen the gap. But when it came to knowing Wulong Mountain, Yu Chi, though familiar with the area, couldn't compare to Su Ming.
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On top of that, Yu Chi was slower than Su Ming. He had a head start, but little by little Su Ming followed his tracks and caught up.
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Su Ming endured his exhaustion, his eyes fixed on the Black Mountain Tribe man bounding ahead. He knew the other man was too frightened by what he'd done to risk fighting him. That was exactly what Su Ming had planned.
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With Blood Powder in hand, all he had to do was kill one person cleanly and swiftly. The other would be terrified. After all, most people would be frightened the first time they witnessed such a bizarre sight.
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Su Ming didn't press too hard, either. As he pursued Yu Chi, he would let obstacles subtly slow him down. Just when Yu Chi thought he was about to be caught and steeled himself to turn and fight to the death, he would find that the distance between them had widened again. He couldn't help hesitating.
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