On a hillside nearly a kilometer from Lin Yan, a woman in camouflage lay motionless in a tree canopy concealed by dense foliage.
Her name was Shibao, badge number 80. She was a professional assassin who specialized in long-range sniping.
Through her high-powered scope, she kept a firm lock on the figure moving slowly through the woods.
"Number 81... a kid who looks like a stiff breeze could knock him over."
Shibao's lips moved, a trace of contempt crossing her face.
Lin Yan was her target.
As soon as she drew her target number, she had memorized his appearance.
To her, this handsome young man was practically handing her points on a platter.
From the moment Lin Yan entered the jungle, she had kept him in her sights.
He actually dared to take off his shoes and walk through a primeval jungle. What a complete idiot, Shibao sneered inwardly.
She was patient, like a leopardess lying in ambush, waiting for the perfect moment to hunt.
She needed a clear line of sight, an instant when her target was fully exposed to her gun.
Watching Lin Yan walk at his leisurely pace, she even began to grow impatient.
Hurry up. Just a little farther. Walk into that clearing...
At last, Lin Yan emerged from the dense bushes into a small clearing formed by fallen trees. Sunlight streamed down from overhead, illuminating him clearly.
Now!
Shibao's gaze instantly sharpened. Her breathing stopped completely, and her finger rested steadily on the trigger.
She aimed not at his heart, but at the back of his head. For a professional assassin like her, a one-shot kill was the most basic requirement.
She had absolute confidence in her marksmanship.
Her specially modified sniper rifle was fitted with a suppressor, making almost no sound when a bullet left the barrel. Its precision components also gave it a firing speed and power far beyond those of ordinary firearms.
At this distance, she did not believe anyone could dodge her shot.
"Goodbye, rookie."
A cold glint of murderous intent flashed in Shibao's eyes, and she gently squeezed the trigger.
A tenth of a second before Shibao pulled the trigger.
The hairs on the back of Lin Yan's neck suddenly stood on end as he walked slowly through the clearing!
It was not danger detected through sight or hearing, but a tremor from the depths of his soul.
The gently warm dantian embryo in his lower dantian contracted violently. An icy warning shot straight into his mind like an electric current!
This was the dantian embryo's instinctive warning of a lethal threat!
It's here!
Alarm bells rang in Lin Yan's mind, yet his body made no dramatic attempt to dodge.
He did not dive, roll, or even turn his head.
At the very instant the silent bullet was about to blow open the back of his skull, his body defied ordinary physics, shifting his head a barely perceptible inch to the left.
Pfft!
The sharp bullet flew past, almost grazing the tips of his hair. The wind it stirred up even severed a few black strands.
The bullet finally buried itself deep in the trunk of a large tree a short distance ahead of him, vanishing entirely into the wood.
The shot had missed!
In the distance, Shibao's pupils abruptly contracted.
A coincidence?
That fleeting tilt of his head had been too natural, as natural as a rehearsed scene in a television drama.
As a professional assassin, Shibao gave herself no time to be shocked. Relying on muscle memory, she instantly worked the bolt, ejecting the casing and chambering another round.
But Lin Yan reacted faster. Following the gust stirred up by the bullet, he suddenly staggered forward and fell to the ground with a thud, landing facedown and going still.
"Hmm? Did I hit him?"
Shibao's finger paused before she could pull the trigger again. She pressed her eye to the scope and studied him closely.
Lin Yan lay motionless on the ground. There seemed to be a trace of blood on the back of his head (in fact, the bullet had grazed his scalp).
His chest did not rise or fall, as though he were already dead.
So my aim was off... it only grazed him, and he scared himself unconscious?
Shibao's brow furrowed slightly, then smoothed out.
What a useless wretch.
Her taut nerves relaxed a little. She even felt that giving him so much credit with that first shot had been an insult to her own marksmanship.
Still, professional caution kept her from going down right away.
She knew that on this island, any carelessness could turn the hunter into the prey.
She watched through her scope, tightening her finger on the trigger again.
"One more, just to be safe."
Shibao's eyes turned cold. She showed no mercy merely because her target appeared to be "unconscious."
She adjusted the muzzle slightly.
The crosshairs moved down from Lin Yan's head, finally settling on his right thigh.
This shot was not meant to kill, but to check the corpse.
If he was playing dead, there was no way he could conceal the human body's instinctive response to such excruciating pain.
Even the most accomplished actor's muscles would spasm violently the instant a bullet entered their flesh.
Pfft!
Another soft sound rang out.
The bullet sliced through the air and struck Lin Yan squarely in the thigh muscle.
As the shrill whistle of the bullet tearing through the air reached his eardrums.
Lin Yan's divine sense had already locked onto that cold trajectory.
A follow-up shot to test me? She's a real nuisance.
He did not dodge.
If he dodged now, all his earlier deception would be wasted, and he would be pinned down in this clearing as a living target.
In that instant, the dantian embryo in his lower dantian spun frantically.
A surge of pure true qi rushed toward the impact point on his right leg like water bursting through a dam.
He did not use his true qi to block the bullet head-on.
Instead, he controlled his muscles and meridians, making them soft and yielding like loose cotton wadding, allowing the bullet to enter his flesh.
The bullet penetrated three inches before his true qi enveloped and cushioned it, steering it clear of bone and major arteries.
Agony swept over him like a tide.
Lin Yan's eyelids trembled slightly, but he forcibly suppressed the movement with his powerful Dao resolve.
Like a real corpse, his body gave a natural shudder under the bullet's impact, then sank into an even deeper deathly stillness.
He even controlled the muscles around his blood vessels, constricting them to reduce the blood flowing from the wound to a minimum.
Only a frightening-looking but harmless pool of blood seeped out.
On the hillside.
Watching the "corpse" through her scope, Shibao saw only the natural movement caused by the physical impact. At last, she let out a long breath.
"Looks like he's truly dead. Not even a nerve reflex."
She glanced at the simple radar on her wrist, her brow furrowing slightly.
Although her sniper rifle had a suppressor, nothing could stop the smell of blood from spreading through this quiet jungle.
Besides, this spot was too close to the entrance, and there were plenty of examinees lurking nearby.
It could easily attract the predators still prowling in the vicinity.
"I need to hurry. It'll be trouble if another examinee spots me... especially that freak, number 44."
The thought of Hisoka made Shibao shudder.
Without further hesitation, she deftly put away her sniper rifle and slipped down from the canopy like a nimble cat.
Scanning her surroundings warily, she used the bushes for cover as she sped toward the clearing where Lin Yan lay.
She had to retrieve her prey as quickly as possible, then vanish into the mist.
What she did not know was this.
The young man lying on the ground with a bullet in his thigh was now like an ancient god lying dormant in the netherworld.
Though his eyes were closed, he could clearly "hear."
The sound of soles crushing dry leaves.
The rhythmic footsteps drawing closer and closer.
Ten steps... five steps... three steps.
Lin Yan counted silently. The true qi within him had already reached a boiling peak, waiting only for that final instant to erupt.
Shibao reached Lin Yan's side.
Looking down at this "frail" youth, she relaxed her tense shoulders and back.
She bent down and reached for the number badge on Lin Yan's chest.
Now!
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