Volume 11 Chapter 45: This is Precisely a Miracle
The terror of a cultivator's arrow was that in some situations, their speed would even far exceed Sacred Experts' flying swords.
That was why everyone in Meteor City had previously considered that in this type of clash between powerful archers, sometimes, in just an instant, less than a breath of time, life or death could be decided. However, none of them expected that the very first arrow Xu Qiubai fired actually didn't shoot towards Lin XI, but rather towards Mu Shanzi!
No one had any way of knowing what exactly Xu Qiubai was thinking right now.
Perhaps because this 'Star General's Advance' was too loud, moreover making him recall some things, that was why he produced a bit of ripple in his mentality?
Perhaps it was because he only wanted to make another one of Lin Xi's fellow students die right before his eyes, in this way make Lin Xi's emotions produce fluctuations?
However, regardless of what reason it was that he made this kind of choice, releasing this type of arrow, he had to have enough confidence, able to either evade or face Lin Xi's arrow.
...
There were seven hundred steps between Lin Xi and himself, while behind Lin Xi, there was another close to three hundred steps of distance. The distance between him and Mu Shanzi was already over a thousand steps, but his dark red arrow still tore through the wind with incomparable accuracy, locking onto Mu Shanzi's figure!
Mu Shanzi was striking the drum with all of his strength, his mind as if completely focused on playing this 'Star General's Advance', so he didn't have the ability to evade or even face this arrow that was aimed at him, only sensing a fatal threat.
Gao Yanan's eyes immediately became extremely bright, becoming like stars.
Her jade-like spotlessly white hands immediately rose up, layers after layers of ice walls quickly forming in front of Mu Shanzi.
The cold and vicious dark red arrow pierced through the defenses she produced in an extremely short amount of time, its trajectory not even changed in the slightest.
Right now, apart from Gao Yanan, there were no other powerful cultivators around Mu Shanzi. That was why no one could stop this arrow from hitting Mu Shanzi.
However, in that instant, when this dark red arrow seemed to already be less than a foot from Mu Shanzi's chest, a streak of white arrived through the air.
This was an arrow.
The arrow carried a swirling air stream.
An arrow whose tail was like a comet smashed fiercely into the dark red arrow from the side, releasing an exceptionally shrill smashing noise, directly changing this dark red arrow's direction. These two arrows both passed over Mu Shanzi's forehead, flying over.
Mu Shanzi's body was blown backwards.
When faced with the threat of death, even though there was no way he could keep up with the arrow's speed, he still reacted through conditioned reflex. The soul force in his body poured out, making his back slam heavily into a drum, releasing a loud dong noise.
'Star General's Advance' stopped.
...
"Why didn't you take advantage of this chance to shoot me?" Xu Qiubai didn't immediately release another arrow, instead stopping for a moment. He looked at Lin Xi, saying with a sneer. "Do you see? This is precisely your weakness. It is just like how you were forced into this current situation by me, all of these things are your weaknesses. I do not believe that an archer who is easily distracted by other things will be stronger than me."
When facing Xu Qiubai's ice-cold words, Lin Xi wasn't in a hurry to take action either. The expression on his face didn't change in the slightest either, instead calmly looking Xu Qiubai in the eyes, saying, "You are scared... or else you wouldn't have stopped to say these things to me. You are scared because you don't know why I could hit your arrow, which is why you stopped, trying to use these words to disrupt my mental state. However, all of this is useless. Today, you will inevitably die here."
Xu Qiubai's brows furrowed slightly, his face sinking completely. "Alright, then let's just see what else you can still do!"
When he said the word 'alright', his second arrow was already released.
The air in front of his body exploded. The second arrow turned into a streak of dark red flowing light, directly shooting towards Lin Xi.
His second arrow finally aimed at Lin Xi.
Lin Xi stood in place, not moving at all. The second white arrow also left his bowstring at almost the same time, flying out like a comet's tail, hitting that dark red streak of flowing light with incredible accuracy. Then, they both separated, brushing past each other.
The dark red arrow and the white arrow fell to the ground, respectively behind Xu Qiubai and Lin Xi.
Sss!
Sounds of cold air being sucked between teeth continuously sounded on Meteor City's gate tower.
At this time, Gu Yunjing still hadn't made an appearance on the city gate tower, still not showing himself. This could only mean that he was already no longer in Meteor City. However, that dark red metal masked, exceptionally grave and stern Dragon Snake officer was instead standing at a corner of the tower, watching this battle. The corners of his eyes were also always locked onto some areas on the city gate tower.
Meanwhile, at this time, this Dragon Snake officer whose will was incredibly powerful, able to remain absolutely calm even when the enemy's sword stabbed right up to his eyes, felt his mind tremble intensely.
Earlier, when he and Gu Yunjing learned that Xu Qiubai was going to fight Lin Xi, Gu Yunjing said that in terms of this world's reasoning, if Lin Xi wishes to win over Xu Qiubai, then the only way would be if a miracle happened.
Now, he truly saw the first miracle!
It was because according to normal reasoning, using an arrow to stop an enemy arrow, especially one fired by an archery master like Xu Qiubai, was something completely impossible.
Even if one knew who the arrow was aimed at, there was no way of knowing what kind of trajectory the arrow would take through the air, which part of the body it would shoot at.
Everyone knew that in the hands of an archery master, if the bow and arrow trembled even a little bit, even if it was a slight distance, impossible to make out through the naked eye, when it traveled hundreds of steps of distance, there would be a huge difference. The amount of soul force imbued into the bow and arrow, the way the arrow is released, wind direction, and various other factors made it so that even if one aimed at the very same objective, the arrow's path through the air would experience countless changes.
For an archery master like Xu Qiubai, there was even less of a chance that he would let his opponent find out the exact point he fired at through his eyes and hand movements.
Moreover, with someone of Xu Qiubai's cultivation level, his speed of firing, it was all just too fast. An ordinary cultivator couldn't clearly make out his movements at all. A cultivator like Lin Xi had no way of keeping up with his reaction and movement speed.
It was because everything really happened just too quickly, in too much of a rush, that was why there was no way Lin Xi could determine Xu Qiubai's arrow path.
Previously, no matter which cultivator it was, even if it was a cultivator like Gu Yunjing, even after thinking through endless possibilities, they still never expected that Lin Xi could use his own arrow to intercept the enemy's arrow.
It was because this didn't make any sense.
It was precisely because this was unreasonable that this was a miracle!
...
Mu Shanzi also saw this miracle.
He was in complete disbelief, his eyes completely widened... In this type of impossible scene, he truly saw a type of possibility.
The power of Lin Xi's arrows naturally couldn't compare to Xu Qiubai's, even if he wore a set of armor, he would still be blasted to death. However, as long as his arrow could hit the enemy's arrow, he could affect the opponent's arrow trajectory. After all, the other party's arrows weren't flying swords, unable to make any adjustments, so they wouldn't be able to reach Lin Xi.
If they couldn't reach Lin Xi, then no matter how powerful the arrows were, they naturally couldn't kill Lin Xi.
"I really am an idiot!"
While in shock and completely speechless, when he saw this miracle, he instead couldn't help but curse out. The one who he cursed was himself, a wisp of blood pouring out of his mouth.
Even though just now, that arrow from Xu Qiubai couldn't injure him, he used soul force exceeding his body's limit out of conditioned reflex, this already making him suffer some internal injuries. The consequence of this was that even if he tried to continue, he still couldn't complete this 'Star General's Advance'.
"Gao Yanan! Here!"
Mu Shanzi felt pain. He looked at Gao Yanan in front of him, his eyes suddenly lighting up. He released an unquestionable low roar, sending the two golden drum mallets towards Gao Yanan.
"Listen to my commands, exert force according to my talking speed, rhythm, and volume!"
While looking at the frowning Gao Yanan who received the drum mallets, Mu Shanzi shouted through clenched teeth.
Gao Yanan nodded. She arrived at his side with a single step, standing between the five drums.
"Left! Right! Center! ..."
Dong! Dong! Dong!... Under Mu Shanzi's rapidly sounding voice, a grand and intense war drum tune sounded once more!
...
After intercepting Xu Qiubai's arrow, Lin Xi moved, advancing towards Xu Qiubai.
Xu Qiubai's pupils rapidly contracted and then expanded, a chill spreading through his heart. It was because he was one of this world's most powerful archers, so he knew more clearly than anyone else just how unreasonable it was to use an arrow to intercept another arrow, how impossible it was. It was because even if it was himself, there was no way he could stop his opponent's arrows.
Two arrows in succession made him understand that this wasn't a coincidence, not something done by chance. This was especially the case when he saw how the other party used Lin Jade Cloud Penetration Arrows and Comet Tail Arrows, even more so making him feel that this was something that was planned. However, despite this being the case, he still didn't believe that the other party could win against him. That was why in that instant, he completely suppressed this wave of coldness and everything else unfavorable for him.
He only coldly drew his bow, firing with his fastest speed possible!
He didn't try to make every arrow the most powerful, only pursuing speed! During this rapid firing, he even altered the timing of his shots!
Streaks of dark red flowing light that were impossible to clearly make out with the naked eye shot out from his bow, shooting towards Lin Xi.
However, every single arrow was hit by Lin Xi's Comet Tail Arrows, all of them deviating from their intended path.
Everyone's attention was completely drawn by the scene of inconceivable streaks of flowing dark red lights clashing with comet tails. Only when the intense war drums sounded again did some people discover that right now, the one who was playing the drums now was instead Gao Yanan.
Gao Yanan's court lady dress fluttered about, the golden drum mallets' golden threads dancing in the wind.
Her strength seemed to be much stronger than Mu Shanzi's. The drum strikes she produced were even more shocking, as if they shook the stars in the sky.
This beautiful Yunqin young lady was currently playing this world's most powerful and shocking iron-blooded drum song.