Ou Yangming smiled plainly. He had lived in the military camp for two years, after all, and had heard many off-color jokes, so he could understand.
However, Jiang Chengwei glared at the others and said, “Enough with the nonsense, she’s really my younger sister!”
Lin Chao and the others were startled and embarrassed.
“Squad Leader Jiang, since fate has brought us together, let’s travel together.” Ou Yangming could not help but laugh.
“Okay, it’s a blessing to be able to travel with you, Master Ou.” Jiang Chengwei laughed.
“Brother Jiang, it’s not easy to receive the favor of Master Ou.” Lin Chao sneered.
Jiang Chengwei expressed angrily, “What? Are you the only ones allowed to fawn over Master Ou? Am I not allowed to do so? Hmph? Believe it or not, I’ll go to the West Camp to ask Yan Haobo to come over.”
Lin Chao immediately shut up and dared not utter another word. Everyone knew that Master Ou was actually closest to Commanding General Chen Yifan from the West Camp, and Squad Leader Yan Haobo was the first squad leader whom Master Ou knew. If Yan Haobo came, Lin Chao’s position would definitely be replaced.
Ou Yangming cleared his throat and urged. “Everyone, we should move on.”
“Yes, we should carry on with our journey,” Lin Chao replied to him, then waved his arm to call out to the other soldiers, “Brothers, let’s hurry up.”
After responding to him, the other soldiers rode their horses to keep up with Lin Chao and Ou Yangming.
The military camp and the prefecture were at least 100 kilometers apart. They would naturally be faster if they spurred their horse to full speed, but there were more than ten of them, and they could not ravage the horses like that. Once they traveled quite a distance, Lin Chao and the others slowed down. They had noticed something; Ou Yangming’s ability to ride a horse was definitely inversely proportional to his smithing capability.
Nevertheless, Ou Yangming was extremely strong, thus he could ride a horse steadily without falling off. If a normal person had ridden the horse instead, that person would be wailing on the ground by now.
Ou Yangming suddenly looked to the side and asked, “Squad Leader Jiang, that’s the dense forest that we hunted in, right?”
Although the dense forest was visible from that distance, it was at least 5 kilometers away.
Before Jiang Chengwei could answer, Lin Chao said, “Master Ou, you’re right, that’s the holy ground that we hunt in. If we continue on the main path for another 15 kilometers, we’ll be completely separated from the forest, and it’ll be out of our sight.”
Jiang Chengwei glared at Lin Hao and thought, ‘Master Ou was clearly asking me, why are you interrupting!
On the other hand, Lin Chao glanced at Jiang Chengwei proudly. The general has ordered me to make Master Ou feel at home throughout the journey, so there’s no way you’re going to ruin this!’
Ou Yangming had a faint smile on his face when he looked at the dense forest. There was a tight bond between him and the forest. His current results were closely related to the flesh and blood that were acquired from there.
“Eh?” Jiang Chengwei suddenly exclaimed and pulled the rein. “What’s that?”
Everyone stopped to look in the direction he was pointing at. They vaguely noticed a tiny black spot, but did not find anything else.
Lin Chao focused on it for a while and asked, “What’s that? I can’t see it clearly.”
Jiang Chengwei hesitated before he said, “I can’t see it clearly too, but it somehow gives me the shudders.”
Lin Chao tensed up a little, and his face quickly took on a grave expression. He was ordered to escort Ou Yangming to the prefecture, which proved how much the general trusted him. It was a task desired by many, but was also a relatively heavy responsibility.
While they did not believe that anyone would risk condemnation to attack Ou Yangming during their journey, if they actually came across a madman like that or if an accident happened, Lin Chao would have to bear all responsibilities. He could not afford to do so.
Lin Chao turned to instruct, “Little Shan, go take a look.”
“Yes,” a soldier responded, then rode his horse to go take a look.
Jiang Chengwei was hesitant but decided to get closer to Ou Yangming to ask, “Master Ou, since you have such good vision, can you see what that is?”
‘I’m not wearing my helmet, and I don’t have the Vision attribute with me. How can my vision be better than a professional like you?’ Ou Yangming wondered, but asked half-heartedly, “Squad Leader Jiang, what do you think it is?”
Jiang Chengwei thought for some time and answered, “That’s probably a person, but I have no idea why he’s standing in the middle of the road.”
Ou Yangming said to himself, ‘There are plenty of weird people in the world, why should we be so concerned about every single one of them? The squad leaders are being too cautious.’
However, Jiang Chengwei suddenly shouted at the next moment, “Oh no!”
Everyone else was shocked. When they turned to look, they noticed the black shadow zooming in their direction as if it was flying, and the soldier whose name was Little Shan had collapsed with his horse, unable to get up anymore.
“Formation! Defend!”
With a fierce look in his eyes, Lin Chao roared.
Chapter 91 - Attack
Before Lin Chao’s voice trailed off, an arrow-light was seen shooting out.
Jiang Chengwei had the best eye among everyone and had an extremely rich experience in fights, so he promptly decided to shoot an arrow.
The arrow zoomed as fast as a shooting star, and the mysterious person was also charging fast, so they quickly crossed paths. However, everyone was frightened when the person simply dodged the arrow by swinging his hand.
“Oh no, he’s at the peak of Yin Grade!” Jiang Chengwei’s face instantly took on a ghastly expression as he added, “Or…”
Though he did not say it, the other soldiers knew what he meant.
The mysterious man, who was still a distance away, was at least a powerhouse at the peak of Yin Grade, and could also possibly be a Yang Grade powerhouse.
Yang Grade was the mightiest boundary when a person moved into Yang upon reaching the extremity of Yin. It was said that a Yang Grade powerhouse’s valiance was unparalleled, and a powerhouse like that was described as an arrow in war; an unstoppable leader who charged at the front.
In the military camp, the five commanding generals and Captain Wu Guotu from the Middle Camp’s Guards were the only ones who arrived at the state of moving into Yang upon reaching the extremity of Yin.
That said, Lin Chao and the others had now encountered a figure in that state.
“Get in formation, and fight to our death to obstruct him!” Lin Chao’s face changed so much that he had turned pale, but he did not shrink at all. Instead, he shouted out loud, then turned to order, “Jiang Chengwei, take Master Ou away.”
His voice was as sharp as the blade, and it gave off a feeling of despair.
Jiang Chengwei’s face twitched hard at that moment, and he fired another arrow at lightning speed.
Ou Yangming clearly saw Jiang Chengwei using an explosive arrow that he had remodeled.
He narrowed his eyes to look in the distance. He knew very well the might of the explosive arrow, so even a Yin Grade powerhouse who was caught off guard could not resist it without getting injured.
Despite that, just as everyone watched in anticipation, the shadow took a sudden turn to evade the arrow as if he was a ghost.
It seemed like he knew that the arrow could not be resisted, so he avoided it in the simplest way.
“Swoosh…”
The arrow shot deep into the ground, causing a patch of dirt to explode right away. Nonetheless, even though countless steel shards burst out from the mud, they could not hurt the mysterious man at all because the man had run away from the explosion area.
“He knows
that it’s an explosive arrow!” Jiang Chengwei roared angrily. He turned to pull Ou Yangming’s rein and squeezed his legs to make his horse run in the opposite direction.
On the other hand, Ou Yangming quietly watched everything happen. He did not resist and laid on the horse’s back as much as he could to reduce the horse’s burden by moving according to its bumpy movement.
Before he parted from everyone else, he glanced at them and noticed the look in their eyes.
Instead of looking fearless, the soldiers were actually afraid, hesitant, and hopeless. Nevertheless, no matter how they felt, none of them backed off, let alone fled.
The soldiers knew that they would likely be dead if they stayed, but a military order was like a mountain, and they could neither flinch nor forsake it.
Lin Chao smiled sadly when he looked at the figure that was faster than a horse. “Brothers, see you in the next life!”
Behind him, eight soldiers roared at the same time. Their voices were intense yet tragic to hear, which formed a sound wave that showed their determination to fight to their death.
The figure arrived in front of them in the blink of an eye. Lin Chao shouted out loud, then risked his life by pouncing on the person with his saber. Behind him, the warriors in the military dauntlessly charged forward one after another. They looked resolute and did not fear death as they attacked with their saber.
In spite of that, sometimes a huge disparity between powers could not merely be compensated with courage.
The mysterious man spread out his thin sleeves, which were actually much tougher than steel. By flapping his sleeves softly, the soldiers’ weapons were swept away one by one. Following that, he continued to flutter his sleeves, which cut the soldiers’ bodies as if they were sharp blades. Painful shrieks were heard, and as the man killed them mercilessly, none of the soldiers could resist him.
Only Lin Chao, who was in Yin Grade Class Three, was able to shift a distance away in a flash.
However, he soon noticed the brothers whom he had spent years together were either headless or had been chopped into many pieces. None of them survived the sleeves that were as sharp as blades.
“Ah —” Perhaps the scene was too tragic to watch, or perhaps because the death of Lin Chao’s brothers posed an unbearable threat to him, hence he shouted loudly and forgot how powerful his opponent was. He gathered all his energy to slash his saber at the mysterious figure.
“Ding!” Another loud sound was heard. Subsequently, Lin Chao felt pain in his chest, and his body was slashed into two. The instant before both parts of his body fell hard to the ground, only one word appeared in his mind.
“Escape, escape, escape…”
Jiang Chengwei pulled the rein to escape with Ou Yangming. He only had one thought at that moment, which was to bring Ou Yangming to safety no matter what.
Not long after they fled, a cold scoff was heard.
The voice sounded like it was right beside their ears, which was truly frightening.
Jiang Chengwei’s heart turned cold. He knew that Lin Chao and the others could not necessarily obstruct the man and that they were courting death if they chose to stay. That being said, the man was exceptionally fast…
‘If he has already caught up to us, what about Lin Chao and the others?’ Jiang Chengwei dared not think further.
He turned his head to look and instantly saw the figure swiftly flying in their direction.
The person was faster than a galloping horse, so Jiang Chengwei gritted his teeth and decided to pull the rein to stop. That being said, he quickly kicked Ou Yangming’s horse on its butt and said, “Leave now!”
Next, Jiang Chengwei shifted his body and retrieved his bow and arrow. As he fit the arrow and pulled the bow again, another explosive arrow was shot.
The mysterious person did not seem to be bothered about attacks from the others but was wary of the explosive arrows. Seeing as the arrow was shot, he swayed his body again to evade it. Moreover, the man’s speed was notably fast because he only took a split second to avoid it, and was able to borrow force by twisting his waist to spring up again. Consequently, he managed to close up the distance between him and Jiang Chengwei.
Jiang Chengwei shouted furiously and pulled his bow multiple times to shoot tens of arrows using a chain-shooting method.
He used explosive arrows in the beginning but soon ran out of them, so he used normal arrows instead. Even then, the shooting method did not slow down the man.
When Jiang Chengwei reached out for more arrows, he realized that he had finished all the arrows that he carried along.
Afterward, he heard the mysterious man laughing out loud. “Haha, that fella actually came back, I’m going to die from laughing too much!”
Jiang Chengwei ignored him because he subconsciously thought that the man was tricking him, but he soon heard galloping sounds and a flustered Ou Yangming. “Squad Leader Jiang, something’s wrong with this horse!”
Feeling disheartened, Jiang Chengwei turned to look, and his face instantly turned gloomy.
He suddenly recalled that Ou Yangming did not know how to ride a horse, and the horse seemed to have been stimulated by something. It was supposed to help Ou Yangming escape, but it somehow turned around and galloped back to where it was.
Jiang Chengwei cursed to himself, ‘Ou Yangming really doesn’t know any better. Even if he can’t ride a horse, under this circumstance, he should abandon it and escape.’
Nonetheless, he did not know that Ou Yangming actually had other plans. Since the attack came out of nowhere, how could he sleep soundly in the future without knowing who his enemy was?
Of course, Ou Yangming had a trump card with him, or he would not have the guts to come back.
Jiang Chengwei smiled bitterly and said, “Forget it, Master Ou, this must be your fate, but I won’t let you die in front of me!”
He squeezed his horse’s belly, then threw his bow away and pulled out his military saber instead.
Nevertheless, before he could charge at the man, the man had attacked with his palm and hit the saber.
Jiang Chengwei was struck with an indescribable power at that moment, which sent him flying away. The horse that he rode was so appalled that it instantly galloped away.
The mysterious man did not spare Jiang Chengwei a look at all. He simply kicked the head of the crazy horse that was being ridden by Ou Yangming.
As a result, the horse collapsed to the ground and died; its tough skull was crushed by the enormous force.
Ou Yangming fell off the horse but was able to move nimbly. That said, just as he shifted his body, a great force was coming for him. He reacted very quickly by protecting his chest with his arms to block the kick.
His arms instantly felt a piercing pain, and his chest suffered the impact as well. The pain was so unbearable that Ou Yangming almost fainted on the spot.
The first thought that crossed his mind was his arms were broken.
Having said that, a mysterious power was suddenly transferred from his waist at that instant, and circulated around his arms and chest for a while.
Ou Yangming later realized that his body had recovered.
The suffocating pain seemed to have gone away.
Perhaps the attacker was overly confident as he thought that he had control over the situation, so he put his hands behind his back and uttered proudly, “Ou Yangming.”
Ou Yangming trembled. He grimaced in pain as he asked, “Who… Are you? Why are you attacking me?”
The man sneered and lowered his head slowly. “Do you recognize me?”
“You, it’s you… The Zhang family’s servant!” Ou Yangming recalled.
“I’m Zhang Yinli, Zhang Yinfan’s brother.” The man smirked.
Ou Yangming smiled bitterly as he thought, ‘It turns out that Zhang Yinfan was only putting up an act to set my mind at rest when he visited me to apologize. This is the real killing move.
Zhang Yinli suppressed his hatred for Ou Yangming
and demanded, “Where’s the Fire-absorbing Badge? If you tell me the truth, I’ll spare you!”
Ou Yangming curled his lips into a big smile. “You’ll spare me?”
“You’re a smithing genius, after all. If you’re willing to serve me, why shouldn’t I let you live?” Zhang Yinli replied.
Ou Yangming took a deep breath. Just as he was about to respond, he caught a glimpse of a shadow through the corner of his eye.
Jiang Chengwei who was sent flying had pounced on Zhang Yinli at an incredible speed. Followed by that, a huge explosion was heard coming from his body.
Chapter 92 - Interrogate
‘An explosive arrow!’
Ou Yangming widened his eyes because he recognized the explosion.
‘An explosive arrow, it was definitely the sound of an explosive arrow.’ When he sensed the familiar impact coming from it, he quickly understood Jiang Chengwei’s actions.
After Zhang Yinli sent him flying, Jiang Chengwei pretended to be heavily injured instead of getting up right away. As such, Zhang Yinli dropped his guard.
Perhaps everything had been planned by Jiang Chengwei from the start.
In the beginning, it seemed like he had shot all his explosive arrows, but he had actually left one for himself.
If Jiang Chengwei was still holding his bow, Zhang Yinli might still keep an eye on him, but an archer without his bow was like an ant to Zhang Yinli, hence Jiang Chengwei was no longer a threat.
However, the insignificant ant was now using Heaven and Earth as its bow, and its body as the arrow. Jiang Chengwei shot the most dazzling arrow in his life.
The explosive arrow on his body soon exploded, causing numerous steel shards to burst in all directions. Additionally, there was a drizzle of blood in that area.
“Ah!” Zhang Yinli roared. A white light appeared on his body at that moment, which appeared to be a round shield that was floating in the void. Although it looked illusory, it blocked the shards completely.
Nonetheless, Zhang Yinli looked enraged and regretful.
Evidently, the price he had to pay to execute the move was so huge that he suffered physical pain.
Immortal Path to Heaven c1-725 Page 54
