One Man's Thunder

Although Chu Tianshu had laughed, he was not the first to act.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!

In the space of a finger snap, six gunshots rang out in succession.

Little Huo had drawn both guns. When he fired, he did not aim in the usual way, extending his arms and raising his hands.

His arms were bent, his gun hands pressed against either side of his belly. As he fired, the slightest movement of his hands was enough to change the direction of his shots.

Generally speaking, shooting this way without looking at the guns made aiming difficult. At most, it was suited to face-to-face shooting at close range.

But for a sharpshooter like Little Huo, there had never been any need to aim with his eyes. He relied more on a kind of instinct.

If he extended his arms to shoot, the guns' recoil would have a more pronounced effect during rapid fire. His movements would be larger, making changes in his direction of fire easy to anticipate. He would never hit elite ninjas that way.

But using his present method, he made six blossoms of blood burst open among the trees.

Six ninjas appeared in the woods.

Three fell to the ground. The other three were wounded, but with a flicker of movement, they seemed to merge into the trees beside them and vanished once more.

Their method of concealment was connected to Mind Power. The instant severe pain struck their bodies, their minds wavered and their Mind Power grew unstable, briefly exposing them.

But they had long since grown accustomed to enduring pain. In the blink of an eye, they hid themselves again, using the trees as cover.

That was when Chu Tianshu struck.

His figure swept past like a twisting gale, changing direction at each of the three trees.

Bang, bang, bang!!

A deep palm print appeared in the rough bark of each tree.

The force of Dragon Coils Around the Body and Eating Makes an Immortal combined, hardness and softness working together as the palm force passed through the trees.

The clothing over the chests of the three ninjas hiding on the other side burst apart. They sprayed blood, their figures appeared, and they fell toward the ground.

Suddenly, the sound of objects cutting through the air rang out overhead, followed by a continuous shriek from positions where no one could be seen.

Cross-shaped throwing stars, iron gears, flying needles, flying nails, and kunai fell like rain.

Chu Tianshu's palms were like the sharp claws of a raging ape. His five fingers tensed, and with a crack, he drove them into the surfaces of two nearby trees.

He tore two thick, rough slabs of bark free, each half the size of a person. Twisting at the waist, he flung them into the air.

The two large slabs of bark spun overhead like a pair of door-sized fan blades.

Thud, thud, thud, thud! The bark blocked a great number of hidden weapons.

Two more shots followed, bullets punching through the bark.

Two ninjas, each clinging to a tree with one arm, fell from the branches.

At the same time, Zhong Jinqiu and Old Yu leaped high into the air, each sweeping out a streak of blood.

By the time the two landed, two more ninjas had crashed down from the trees.

Another sharp rush of wind flashed through the woods.

This time, however, the hidden weapons were not aimed at the living, but at the sparrows.

Five or six sparrows were blown apart by the hidden weapons, bursting into scraps of paper in midair. Several wisps of smoke shot back to Shopkeeper Ma like slender arrows.

It turned out that Shopkeeper Ma had released the sparrow spirits he kept long ago.

The ninjas' method of concealment was formidable. Even skilled martial artists could detect them only at close range, while a gunman could not shoot at them from a distance at all.

But these sparrow spirits were yin spirits by nature, pure and peaceful, and exceptionally sensitive.

Using the technique Command Spirits and Borrow Their Eyes, Shopkeeper Ma was able to use the sparrows to sense the ninjas' positions.

The group had discussed it beforehand. Once the ninjas entered the woods, Shopkeeper Ma would have the sparrows follow ten feet above the heads of those in the vanguard.

That was how Little Huo had determined the positions of several ninjas and opened fire early.

Unfortunately, the ninjas had reacted quickly enough to spot the problem so soon.

"Firebird, purge the filth! Divine officer, guard the law!"

Shopkeeper Ma suddenly opened his eyes wide and stabbed a finger toward the sky.

Talisman papers hidden in the gaps between the pelts on the donkey cart abruptly flew out.

The dozen or so talismans were made with top-grade paper and fine cinnabar, and each sheet bore not one talisman inscription, but three.

The talisman papers, like long serpents or colorful streamers, collided in midair and erupted in a dazzling, nearly blinding light.

For a short time, the intense glare washed the woods in nothing but black and white.

Shopkeeper Ma's own vision went white on the spot. His eyes ached and stung, and he could see nothing clearly.

At least four or five muffled grunts came from elsewhere in the woods.

Several black-clad ninjas flickered in and out of sight, all hastily lowering their heads.

Old Yu tilted his body, seemingly brushing windblown leaves aside with his shoulder. The silver light in his hand had already stretched out toward a ninja's neck.

Before Shopkeeper Ma acted, the others had lowered their heads and narrowed their eyes.

They relied solely on the shadows flashing across the ground to judge their targets' positions.

Though the ninja's vision had been damaged, he suddenly raised his left arm. He had been holding a short-handled katana in a reverse grip, and he managed to block Old Yu's slash.

But when his blade was blocked, Old Yu suddenly jerked his left arm and drove the hilt forward into the ninja's chest.

The blade had failed to kill, but the hilt killed all the same.

Zhong Jinqiu moved even faster, stepping through Taiji footwork and darting about like a nimble serpent.

He really had found a long, narrow-bladed saber in Wu Clan Stronghold, its back straight as a sword's.

It was even better than he had imagined. Not only was the saber narrow and sharp, it was also extremely flexible.

In the hands of a Taiji master like him, the narrow blade suddenly shot straight as a line through a tree trunk, stabbing the ninja behind it to death.

When a katana blocked it, the long saber suddenly bent into a full arc, its tip piercing a second ninja's neck from the side.

But when Zhong Jinqiu attacked a third ninja, the man raised his left hand and put his palm beneath the blade.

Alarm rose in Zhong Jinqiu's heart, and he forced the blade to twist through an arc.

The ninja's left hand struck only the back of the blade with a metallic ding.

The saber's tip still pierced his chest.

Zhong Jinqiu heard that the left hand was a prosthetic. Vaguely guessing something, his pupils trembled.

Just then, an explosion came from Old Yu's direction.

As he swung his saber, a ninja had likewise raised his right arm to block it. Though a warning had suddenly stirred in Old Yu's heart, he had only one arm and his balance was lacking. In the midst of his swift charge and slash, he could not react in time.

The blade still cut into it.

The right forearm, which had looked perfectly intact, exploded on the spot.

The ninja was killed instantly, and Old Yu was flung backward into a tree.

He used his prosthetic arm to shield his vital parts, but still suffered five or six shrapnel wounds.

"Poison!"

Zhong Jinqiu hurried over and struck him with a palm. Several pieces of shrapnel shot out, along with the poisoned blood forced from the wounds.

But the loss of blood made Old Yu's face turn pale in an instant.

He had fought ninjas many times, but had never imagined they had acquired a trick like this.

In fact, the ninjas sent from the capital really did not know this trick.

But after these ninjas had been sent to Bashu years ago, they had inevitably suffered injuries while carrying out missions.

Liu Zhixiang had recently acquired a secret art of gunpowder mechanisms from Shu, and a whim had struck him. He made prosthetic limbs for the ninjas whose lost or damaged limbs were not too severe.

When enemies killed these ninjas, their seemingly intact arms and legs would suddenly turn into bombs, catching the attackers off guard.

Zhong Jinqiu had only enough time to give Old Yu one palm strike before a chill came at him from behind.

The two abruptly split apart and dodged, hurrying to meet the enemy.

The effects of the glare had passed. They now had to face ninjas who had not been affected.

In fact, back when they had charged toward the several dazzled ninjas.

Chu Tianshu had stayed in the clearing, facing the remaining ninjas who had crept toward them.

Tiny points of light expanded and retracted in Chu Tianshu's pupils as he activated the Art of Inner and Outer Insight.

The ninjas made very little sound as they ran, and the traces they left among the damp soil and fallen leaves were faint.

With several of them moving at once, it should have been impossible to distinguish their positions from those signs.

An ordinary martial artist could only rely on his own sense of danger to tell where they were coming from.

But in Chu Tianshu's eyes, it was not just their footsteps that could be followed.

Even their bodies, as their camouflage coloring moved through the air, differed from the truly transparent air around them.

They were like pieces of frosted glass moving through clear water.

Chu Tianshu suddenly lunged diagonally forward, blasting fallen leaves off the ground.

The wind burst with a bang between his sleeves, and he and his fist were already more than ten meters away.

A ninja there was shocked and drew his blade.

His surprise and the motion of drawing his blade came at the same time.

The ninjas' methods involved using Mind Power and drugs to drive the body's potential. Their study of exerting force through emotion ran very deep.

Using the emotion of sudden surprise to wield his blade, he struck thirty percent faster than he normally did with anger and killing intent.

The path of his strike was true. The long, narrow edge, the smooth blade, and his distinctive technique for applying force made the first part of the slash almost soundless.

His enemy could not see his weapon, and anyone trying to judge it by the sound of the wind would be considerably mistaken.

But Chu Tianshu's fist suddenly flickered, and his five fingers did not so much open as shoot out from his palm.

His palm abruptly spread wide, then closed inward. His five fingers formed a duck's bill, but their force was more fearsome than iron pincers.

He caught the invisible katana between his five fingers, producing a sharp crack.

In the jianghu, catching a bare blade with empty hands was generally a way to seek death.

Even an old master fighting a young apprentice would not readily use such a move, but would always avoid strength and strike at weakness.

That was all the more true when the opponent was an invisible ninja with an invisible blade.

The ninja had never dreamed that anyone would use such a move against him.

For an instant, he did not even know whether what he felt was surprise or some other emotion.

The katana had already been snapped by that hand and driven into the ninja's ear, through his head!

When he died, his black clothing appeared.

Chu Tianshu grabbed the ninja's belt with his left hand, bent and straightened his waist and back, and flung the whole man at another patch of "frosted glass."

That ninja drew his body in, dodging his comrade's corpse.

But once he had contracted his body, he never managed to straighten up again.

Chu Tianshu brought his palm down on the ninja's head, striking his whole body down like a bloated, crumpled sack. He crashed to the ground and revealed his true form.

"Kill!!"

With a loud shout, Chu Tianshu darted forward in a long bow stance and thrust out a palm.

A ninja was also charging straight at him, gripping his blade in both hands as he thrust forward.

Chu Tianshu turned sideways, the blade brushing past his chest, and slammed his right hand into the ninja's face.

The ninja seemed to hear a thunderclap explode against his face.

Others probably could not hear such a sound.

It was thunder that only he could hear.

Crack!

The black head, struck by that tremendous force, tore free of its neck and flew backward.

When the head passed the top of its arc and tumbled downward, its eyes were still wide open.

It was as though, with each turn, he could see another ninja beaten to death and another black figure exposed.

Chu Tianshu darted through the woods, charging forward and lunging diagonally.

His hands and feet struck high and low. Sometimes he hit a head, sometimes a chest, and sometimes he tore off an arm.

But every blow carried the full momentum of his entire body, back and forth, and his force combined hardness and softness. A single touch meant certain death.

He was not like a mere swift wind, but more like a gale laden with stones, mud, and sand.

Every ninja who met him thrust out a killing blow, and lost his life at the same time.

They all heard the closest thunderclap of their lives.

It resounded in their own chests, inside their own heads.

One peal of thunder, one encounter.

One life!

The ninjas varied in skill, but before Chu Tianshu, there were no exceptions.

With his insight, one look at a ninja's movements told him the force of the man's blade and the speed of his dodge.

Had he chosen other moves, the agile, cunning ninjas might have had room to contest him, delay him, and surround him.

So Chu Tianshu used this way of fighting.

It was like snatching grains of gold one by one from red-hot molten iron.

"Hey! He's..."

Little Huo held both guns at the ready, prepared to provide support.

But Old Yu and Zhong Jinqiu had only run into trouble as they killed their opponents.

As for Chu Tianshu, every time he darted forward, he took a life.

Little Huo could find no chance to fire.

Shopkeeper Ma suddenly shouted, "Left!"

Little Huo's eyelid twitched. He glanced over from the corner of his eye, and before his face had turned, flashes of fire had already burst from both muzzles.

But he could see no one at all, only a round shield like an iron wok.

The bullets struck the shield and all ricocheted away.

The impacts slowed the shield's advance, but it still slammed into Little Huo between the waist and belly.

Boom!!

Little Huo flew backward, both guns slipping from his hands in midair.