When the first crow cawed, Qingmu knew that the creature hiding on the hillside possessed powerful Mental Power. However, the information conveyed by the Crow was unclear, and Qingmu couldn't understand why a mentally skilled person would use a long-range sniper weapon, since sniper rifles require extremely high concentration, which would severely distract and limit a person's Mental Power.
People with strong Mental Power are highly sensitive to their surroundings, especially danger, possessing an almost unbelievable intuition. But Qingmu believed he couldn't sense the threat of a gun barrel at such a distance.
So when his body tensed, his hair stood on end, and goosebumps rose all over his body, he was certain that the gunman had deliberately let him discover him.
Because the real threat doesn't come from guns, but from people.
A gun is just a cold, lifeless object. If it's just sitting there unused, it won't pose any threat to you. The so-called instinct for danger is actually a kind of mental influence that erupts from a person's consciousness. For example, the murderous aura mentioned in many books and movies is a manifestation of a person's Mental Power.
When someone wants to harm you, you can sense their murderous intent within a suitable distance.
The intensity of a killer's murderous aura depends on the killer's level of anger and determination; the angrier they are and the stronger their resolve to kill, the more intense the murderous aura becomes. In addition, the killer's ruthlessness, level of concentration, and the surrounding environment also have a significant impact.
Wild animals are most sensitive to the presence of "killing intent." A deer grazing on the grass can often sense the approaching danger without even looking up, and thus avoid an attack by a tiger or wolf.
But for an assassin, learning how to conceal their murderous intent is another skill altogether, as it relates to one's control over their Mental Power.
The sniper's murderous aura on the hillside gave him away. But what puzzled Qingmu was, if his Mental Power was strong enough to exert influence at such a distance, how could such a person use a gun and create such a complex trap? If he wasn't that strong, how did Qingmu sense his presence?
Of course, there's another question that Qingmu himself has – how could he be so sure the other person was holding a sniper rifle?
The key here isn't sniping, it's the gun.
A headshot from 800 li away is a myth, but even at 800 meters, a headshot with a regular rifle is close to a myth.
The problem was that Qingmu's intuition told him very firmly that there was a gun there, its dark muzzle pointed directly at him. This feeling was like that of a seasoned warrior, the memory of guns and danger deeply ingrained in his mind. But he couldn't recall ever having fought a war before.
At such crucial moments, his head would ache, and it felt like a small universe inside his brain was about to explode.
Whether it was intuition or doubt, he could no longer delve into it at this moment.
Qingmu felt a sudden release, knowing that the Crow had successfully drawn the gunman's attention. Taking advantage of this opening, he dashed out at top speed.
A shot rang out.
The gunshot was very faint, almost inaudible. Qingmu squinted and saw a straight, undulating line in the air in the distance, grazing the Crow's body as it shot into the sky.
These lines should be the trajectory of a bullet, but theoretically, they shouldn't be visible like this. The trajectory of a bullet is invisible to the naked eye. What Qingmu "saw" was actually a remnant of Mental Power releasing its last, faint energy into the air. When its energy dissipated, the trajectory disappeared, so the bullet only showed traces of its ascent before vanishing without a trace, leaving no trace of its fall.
Qingmu was taken aback. This meant that the bullet fired at the Boss Coal possessed Mental Power. Could it be that the danger he sensed just now wasn't a person's "killing intent," but rather came from the bullet in the gun barrel? Was he locked onto by the " Mental Power " of a bullet?
No wonder there was no vegetation on the hillside, and even with the sunlight shining through, he didn't notice the glare from the scope. If bullets can lock onto targets, what's the point of having a scope!
But this seemed to be beyond Qingmu's comprehension. How could a lifeless bullet generate Mental Power? And how could it lock onto a target within its range?
The Crow Guagua and swooped down into the valley behind the mountain.
Qingmu immediately sensed danger approaching again.
He ran in an S-shaped curve, weaving left and right, trying to find cover as much as possible.
By this time, he had run out of the woods and up the hillside. Without the cover of trees, he could only find shelter from some low, jagged rocks.
The gunman on the mountain probably sensed that he was approaching too quickly, and hastily fired two shots. The bullets landed not far from Qingmu's feet, kicking up a lot of dust.
Qingmu could clearly feel the Mental Power emanating from the bullet's explosion. If the bullet hadn't been moving so fast, he would have even tried to "catch" it with his Mental Power.
Now he wasn't worried anymore.
Originally, Mental Power could only affect the world of consciousness and did not possess physical energy. You couldn't use mental power to bend a spoon; that's something that only happens in movies. If such a thing actually happened, it could only mean that this world was in a dream.
But the Mental Power inexplicably attached to this bullet has made it something between life and non-life, as if it possesses an incomplete, temporary consciousness.
This actually helped Qingmu, allowing her to use her Mental Power to resist as well.
The gunman missed him, not because of poor marksmanship, but Qingmu influenced the bullet's "consciousness," slightly altering its trajectory in a very short time.
Qingmu believed that the Crow must have used the same method just now; no wonder it wasn't hit even though it was flying so low.
Since these bullets couldn't hit him, he simply slowed down, making the fight more manageable. In fact, being on high-speed runs and jumps made him more vulnerable to being shot.
puff!
Another bullet struck the rock next to Qingmu.
Qingmu didn't seem to be dodging; he acted like a casual tourist.
The sniper on the mountain probably began to doubt his own marksmanship, and didn't fire for a long time, which allowed Qingmu to advance quite a distance with ease.
Judging from the distance, if he took two more steps forward, he could exert mental influence on his opponent. However, the fact that Crow failed to destroy the guy's mind in one fell swoop, allowing him to calmly fire his gun, indicated that the opponent was quite strong, so he didn't expect to hypnotize his opponent immediately.
In Qingmu's memory, he had never faced a true master of spiritual cultivation.
Whether it was the Medicine Granny, Du Juan, the shadow in Xia Wenyuan's dream, or Zhao Pengcheng when he was in prison, they were all too weak. Among the people he encountered, the only ones who could be considered experts were probably Duwa and Su Huilan. Duwa's power was vast and pure, while Su Huilan had a subtle and meticulous mental control, but these two were not enemies at least for now.
As for Kitano Masatake, judging from the decades-old Real-Scene Group Dream in the Zhulong Mountain Cave in Southern Yunnan, his strength is truly unfathomable. However, Kitano was a figure from more than half a century ago; he should be long gone, right?
Today is probably the first time Qingmu has faced a true master of spirit.
The Crow flew back and circled in the sky.
Qingmu stepped forward.
Then, he felt a surge of powerful spiritual energy, like an invisible wall blocking his way.