The leader of the city team narrowed his eyes and stared hard at Li Xiang. After a moment of silence, he spoke: "No trying to extort us if you get hurt or killed."
"I wonât. And you canât hurt me," Li Xiang said coolly.
The leader grew even more irritated. He yelled to the people behind him, "Did the drone get all that? He said he wonât try to extort us."
Soon, a team member replied, "Got it! Weâve been recording the whole time!"
Faced with the impending conflict, both sides had already started filming long before Li Xiang and his group arrived.
Everyone wanted to preserve evidence that the other side started it. Although it would be considered a mutual fight regardless of who struck first, striking second in self-defense always put you on slightly higher moral ground.
"We got it on camera, too!" Lei Jiamingâs side called out.
Jiang Jianguo wanted to say a few words to de-escalate, but after a glance at Li Xiang, he launched a drone and started recording as well.
Although Jiang Jianguo and Li Yucheng knew Li Xiang was skilled, going up against a bow and arrow with his bare hands seemed a bit dicey.
Luckily, they were all wearing protective gear with steel plates over vital areas. The other guyâs arrows might not be able to pierce it. But this gear was bought for a few dozen yuan; who knew if it would actually work?
It probably wouldnât be fatal unless he was shot in the eye, but whether heâd get injured was anyoneâs guess.
So, everyone backed away to the sides, and their dogs were leashed and restrained. A wide "avenue" was cleared in the middle.
Li Xiang retreated about thirty meters, then stopped. He tossed his High-Density Blade on the ground, leaving himself bare-handed.
At the same time, a full five drones hovered in the air, each claiming a good angle. The operators were tense. In addition, many people raised their phones and hit the record button.
The female fan was conflicted. One moment she hoped the man she admired would win, the next she couldnât help but look at Li Xiang, hoping he wouldnât get hurt.
Seeing this, the captain grew even angrier. When he saw Li Xiang was in position, he drew an arrow, nocked it, and aimed at Li Xiang. "Here I come!" he said.
Li Xiang waved his hand to signal him to begin, but then quickly called out, "Wait."
Someone from the city team laughed. "What, getting scared? Want to forfeit at the last minute?"
"If youâre gonna forfeit, do it now! No shame in it!"
Li Xiang couldnât be bothered with them. He just reached up and pressed a button on his tactical camera helmet, activating its recording mode.
You have to be kidding.
Those people were struck dumb.
Everyone else was speechless.
The captain was so angry he laughed. "Are you completely ignoring me?" âWhat is this, the time to be personally filming? What, you think the drones in the sky donât have good enough angles? That the footage will look bad?â
In reality, the five drones in the air had taken up positions from multiple angles, leaving no blind spots. Besides, drones could fly. They could move to the perfect position at any moment.
Drones are incredibly fast, after all.
"Letâs begin," Li Xiang said, gesturing that he was ready.
The captain sneered, drew his bow, and let loose. SWOOSH! The arrow shrieked through the air, its piercing whistle telling everyone how powerful the shot was. Recalling the captainâs earlier display of marksmanshipâshooting the stem off a persimmon and embedding an arrowhead deep in a tree trunkâeveryone broke into a cold sweat for Li Xiang.
But with a slight movement, Li Xiang dodged, and the arrow hit nothing but air.
Everyone was astonished.
"Oho, so you do have some skill."
"Again!" the captain thought. âYou said I could shoot all I want, didnât you? I underestimated you just now. This time, Iâll use a rapid-fire technique. Letâs see how you dodge this.â
He fired one arrow at Li Xiangâs chest, then immediately drew two more, shooting them toward the spots where Li Xiang was likely to dodge. âThis time, a guaranteed hit!â he thought.
But then, something completely unexpected happened.
Li Xiang moved!
He didnât stay in place. Instead, he lunged forward like a leopard, straight toward the arrows!
âWhat the hell? Who deliberately runs into an arrow?â
THWACK!
Li Xiang met the arrow head-on, but there was no spray of blood as everyone imagined. Instead, he flicked it aside with his hand, sending it flying off course. By then, the second and third arrows had arrived, but their aim was slightly off. Li Xiang canted his body slightly, simultaneously reaching out with his hand and kicking with his foot.
One arrow was caught in his hand, while the other was kicked away.
He was truly unharmed, not even a scratch. Not only was he uninjured, he caught an arrow with his bare hands! Fucking badass!
It sounds slow in the telling, but it all happened in the blink of an eye, in a single second at most. Afterward, Li Xiang didnât stop. He flipped through the air, accelerating, and lunged at the captain along a trajectory no one could follow!
Panic seized the captainâs heart. âIf an archer lets someone get close, whatâs the fucking point?!â He scrambled to draw another arrow, nocking it with the fastest motion of his life!
But it was too late!
In a daze, he felt a hurricane-force wind wash over him, making it hard to breathe. The arrow had just touched the bowstring when Li Xiang appeared in front of him, grabbing his nocking hand in an unbreakable grip.
At the same time, a sharp arrowhead appeared before his eyes.
Its cold light glinted, aimed right at his eye. With the slightest push, it would pierce his eyeball.
It was his own arrowâthe third one he had shot, the one Li Xiang had snatched from mid-air!
The people on the sidelines were deeply shaken, unable to recover for a long while. The drone operators were stunned stiff. They had originally planned to adjust the dronesâ positions during the fight, but now the drones just hovered there as if no one was controlling them.
Li Xiang was simply too fast, unbelievably so, beyond anything they could have imagined!
And just now, he had kicked up a powerful, sweeping gust of wind!
Stirred by this fierce wind, the nearby trees began to sway. Snow cascaded from their branches, caught in the gust and sent dancing forward. People standing close werenât just short of breathâthey couldnât breathe at all.
The drones in the sky were blown far away, their camera views widening.
The slender girl from the city couldnât even keep her footing. The wind made her stagger, and she nearly fell. Fortunately, she dropped to the ground in time, digging her hands into the snow to anchor herself!
She looked up at Li Xiang, her eyes filled with terror, which then hazed over with a thick fog of... something else. A feeling of Dizziness washed over her. âDamn, how powerful is he? If he were in bed... Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey, what am I thinking?â
Clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger.
No wonder they say a tiger descending a mountain is unstoppable!
âThis Li Xiang looks so gentle and refined, but when he lunges, itâs like heâs out for blood!â
âThere wasnât even any wind today!â
The scene was dead silent. Even the dogs were staring dumbfounded. One of the imported Hunting Dogs even wet itself on the spot.
For a full seven or eight seconds, the area was utterly silent. All the while, the arrow in Li Xiangâs hand remained pointed steadily at the captainâs eye, its tip not wavering in the slightest.
Tiny beads of sweat broke out on the captainâs forehead. It wasnât just his forehead; his chest and back were soaked through.
He swallowed hard, the shock in his heart beyond words.
Li Xiang lowered the arrow and, at the same time, released the manâs other hand. He took two steps back and said, "Well? Still want to fight over the boar?"
"Youâre incredible. I concede!" The captain took a deep breath. He truly meant it. He had never seen someone lunge with the force of a tiger. And not just any tigerâit would have to be an eight-hundred-pound Siberian Tiger king to have that kind of presence.
The entire sequence actually took several seconds, but if you counted from the moment Li Xiang lunged, it was really less than three seconds!
He had said heâd take him down in three seconds, and he had done it.
Even Lei Jiamingâs jaw was hanging open, his face a mask of disbelief. A thought suddenly popped into the towering, brawny manâs head: âIâm going to marry my sister off to him!â
âHoly crap, this future brother-in-law is too damn awesome! I have to latch onto this guy!â
In truth, Li Xiang was still holding back his speed. If he had used his Extreme Speed, covering over thirty meters in a second, it would have been even more terrifying. The drones probably wouldnât have even been able to capture a clear image of him.
"The boar is yours. Go get it." The city teamâs captain was quite dejected. He had always been proud of his archery, comparing himself to the likes of Hua Rong and Li Guang, but he never expected to be so utterly defeated by a true master.
And so, the people from Lei Family Gully excitedly went to catch the wild boar.
Lei Jiaming shouted loudly, "Li Xiang won the boar! Itâs his!"
The people from Lei Family Gully didnât stop. They all ran toward the mountain, shouting, "Weâll go help him catch it!"
The boar belonged to Li Xiang, but they figured with only three people, heâd be overwhelmed. Since Li Xiang had stepped up, intimidated these city folk, and won face for the mountain peopleâand since they were all kin going back a few generations, all in it togetherâit was only Nature that they should help him catch the pig.
Lei Jiaming excitedly waved Li Xiang and his friends over. "Letâs go, letâs go! Weâll catch it together, but we donât want the boar. Itâs all yours!"
Li Xiang: "..."
Jiang Jianguo: "..."
Li Yucheng: "..."
They hadnât expected the boar to end up in their laps. They were the ultimate winners. âHow could we accept this?â
"Letâs go, letâs go! What are you standing around for? Let me tell you, that super Wild Boar King is seriously huge. It looks like a small hill. Next to it, Iâm just a small fry."
Lei Jiaming only weighed two or three hundred pounds himself. Compared to the massive Wild Boar King, which was nearly ten feet long and weighed at least a thousand pounds, he really was a small fry. He couldnât wait any longer and came over to pull Li Xiang and the others along. And so, everyone excitedly headed over to the other side of the mountain.
"Boss, are we leaving, or are we staying to watch?" Li Xiangâs female fan was reluctant to leave. Her eyes sparkled as she asked.
"Weâll go take a look, too."
"Really?"
"Of course! Letâs go, letâs go! A boar that big, we have to see it up close!" The captain shook off his gloomy mood, his spirits lifting. He had already "self-healed." âSo what if Li Xiang is a freak, something inhuman? Why get worked up over a freak? A great man knows when to yield and when to stand firm. I can afford to lose. Losing to a peerless monster like Li Xiang is no disgrace!â
âDidnât you see that tower-like country bumpkin submit? Heâs following Li Xiang around like a puppy!â
And so, the city team also followed to watch, using their drones to film the grand occasion!
A super Wild Boar King wasnât something you could encounter just anywhere. In all of Sichuan Provinceâno, in all of Huaxiaâthis might be the only one! Perhaps there were more in the Primeval Forests, but they hadnât shown up, had they?