"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"
As the man galloped, arrows tore through the air from behind him. Some grazed his scalp, while others lodged in his armor.
Yet even with arrows coming at him incessantly from behind, he did not so much as furrow his brow, continuing to race forward on his fiery steed.
"Snap!"
But just as he was about to charge out of the valley, a blood spider the size of a calf suddenly spat a strand of blood-red silk from a crimson web overhead, sticking it fast to his back.
"Swish!"
The man reacted swiftly, drawing his saber at once and severing the silk with a single slash.
Xu Taiping was surprised to discover blade qi on the man's saber, which meant he was at least an Innate Realm martial artist.
An Innate Realm martial artist was a martial cultivator who could gather internal force but could not convert it into true qi.
Before Xu Taiping had broken through to the Gate Opening Realm, he had in fact counted as an Innate Realm martial artist.
And according to what he had learned before coming here, someone in the Innate Realm could already be considered a first-rate expert in the mortal world.
"Thud!"
But shortly after the man severed the silk, a burly man wielding a horse-chopping saber charged out of the woods and hacked through the legs of his chestnut horse with a single stroke.
"Crash."
With its legs severed, horse and rider instantly went tumbling.
But even then, the man still did not give up.
Abandoning his horse, he gripped his Goose-Feather Saber and ran desperately toward the valley entrance, wind springing beneath his feet.
"Y-young man, run!"
When he noticed Xu Taiping standing at the valley entrance, the man actually remembered to warn him.
The two were