The Speedrun Begins with Choosing Hunter

Chapter 267: Chapter 264: Killing from a Distance

Guiyuan County.

Chaos reigned beneath the city walls. A troop of Barbarian People had appeared outside the county town at some point and were now furiously assaulting the ramparts.

Guiyuan County’s walls were already old and dilapidated. Even with recent fortifications, they couldn’t withstand the Barbarians’ charge.

BOOM!

With a tremendous crash, a section of the wall collapsed.

"Kill!"

A roar echoed out.

The Firearms Team, already in formation behind the wall, pulled their triggers. The first volley wounded more than ten burly Barbarians. Immediately after, the Demon Cavalry charged toward the Barbarian People.

The two sides clashed in a chaotic melee.

Amidst the battlefield, a young man expressionlessly reaped the lives of the Barbarian People.

His blade was swift, and many Barbarians fell before it.

Enhancement Points +619

Enhancement Points +823

...

An hour later, not a single living Barbarian remained beneath the city wall.

Aside from a few who had fled into the mountain forests, all the rest had been slain.

Yang Fangyu sheathed his bloodstained longsword and walked to Bai Yuan’s side.

"This is the third wave."

His face was etched with worry. The Demon Sect’s offensive was far more ferocious than they had imagined.

After conquering Guiyuan County, they had sent out scouts to check on the other counties. To their surprise, the Profound People had moved quickly, occupying eighty percent of the county towns. By tacit agreement, no one had tried to attack a tough nut like the Prefecture City.

But not even two days had passed before the Demon Sect’s offensive began.

Countless monsters, Demons, and Barbarian People swarmed into Dingzhou, and many of the Profound People forces that had already seized cities were slaughtered to the last man.

Guiyuan County was, naturally, no exception.

Li Huan, his robes stained with blood, said, "These Barbarians are truly hard to kill."

Anyone who could survive in the Northern Plains was a tough character. The Profound People all said the Northern Plains was a place where humans and demons coexisted. Anyone who dared to live alongside those monsters, and even have children with them, had to be fierce.

The Northern Barbarian Race were naturally stronger than the Profound People. Due to their constant hunting, most of them favored cultivating their physical bodies, similar to the hard body conditioning of the Xuanyang Army.

As a result, their defense was off the charts. They could take a dozen slashes and act like it was nothing, making them practically invincible on the battlefield.

This was Li Huan’s first time fighting Barbarian People, and he had suffered quite a bit for it.

Yang Fangyu watched Li Huan with a hint of schadenfreude.

Among the sworn brothers, Li Huan undoubtedly had the noblest birth. As the ninth son of the King of Qingzhou, he received the treatment of a Crown Prince and had almost never needed to fight for his life.

Unlike the others—with the exception of Liang Ren, who came from a scholarly academy—the rest had all been tempered by the Jianghu or the battlefield.

Yang Fangyu, in particular, had spent many years in the Northern Garrison Army and had hovered between life and death more times than he could count. A scene like this was a minor affair for him.

However, he didn’t tease Li Huan. After all, among the Royal Race, Li Huan was already doing quite well.

He looked at Bai Yuan. "If this keeps up, we’ll be bled dry sooner or later."

Li Huan nodded in agreement.

Although they could get supplies from Ling Province and Qingzhou, their own resources were limited. These private soldiers were irreplaceable; every death was a permanent loss. The number of people in the city was pitifully small compared to the Demon Sect People at the Great Wall.

The only reason they had survived the third wave was because the Firearms Team could wear down the enemy without taking casualties.

Otherwise, they would have long since tucked tail and fled the city like the factions in the other counties.

Bai Yuan smiled faintly. "I have my own way."

...

Compared to the other county towns, the situation in Fenggu County was much better.

With Cangsong Taoist and Monk Fatong presiding, along with five hundred elite disciples of the Celestial Profound Sect, the monsters hadn’t managed to inflict much damage on Fenggu County.

"Amitabha Buddha."

Elder Monk Fatong chanted the Buddha’s name over the piles of corpses beneath the wall, his face full of compassion, even though he himself had killed at least fifty of the monsters.

Cangsong Taoist was long accustomed to the old monk’s habits.

The Little Daoist Child, Luo Dao Yi, stood obediently behind Cangsong Taoist, though his presence seemed much weaker than before.

Just thinking about what happened on his way to Huaiyuan City filled him with lingering fear.

He had taken nine disciples of the Celestial Profound Sect to scout out the situation in Huaiyuan City. But before they even reached the city, they ran into a squad of monsters. In the end, he was the only one who luckily escaped back.

Not long after he returned, Fenggu County was besieged by masters from the Demon Sect.

Cangsong Taoist glanced at the Little Daoist Child behind him. "Dao Yi, come with me."

He spoke quietly, then walked down from the city wall.

The moment Cangsong Taoist called his name, Luo Dao Yi shuddered in fear.

’This title of ’Cangsong Taoist’s only disciple’ really isn’t so easy to bear.’

Luo Dao Yi followed Cangsong Taoist down from the wall and all the way back to the County Magistrate’s Office. Just as they crossed the threshold, Cangsong Taoist spoke slowly, "Dao Yi, I want you to go to Guiyuan County and check on the situation with the Divine Mansion Sect."

Hearing the words "Divine Mansion Sect," Luo Dao Yi’s heart nearly skipped a beat.

He looked at Cangsong Taoist with a pained expression. Seeing his master’s stern face, he knew Cangsong Taoist wasn’t giving him any chance to refuse.

’No wonder I became his only disciple.’

The truth was, Cangsong Taoist had taken many disciples. It was just that this master of his loved to take his disciples out to wander the Jianghu, and as a result, all of his senior brothers and sisters had lost their lives in the process.

Even Chen Qing, who had survived the longest, had died on Shenfu Mountain.

Now, being sent to investigate that Sect Leader of the Divine Mansion Sect... how could he possibly dare to go?

After all, even Jiu Zhen True Man had gone, and they couldn’t even find his complete corpse.

"Yes, this disciple obeys!"

In the end, Luo Dao Yi gritted his teeth and accepted.

If he dared to refuse, his fate would only be worse.

He had witnessed Cangsong Taoist’s harshness toward his disciples many times before.

Luo Dao Yi gave Cangsong Taoist a respectful bow, then turned and left the city.

’I’ll just take a look from a distance. Nothing bad could possibly happen, right?’

He comforted himself with this thought.

...

Outside Guiyuan County Town, all was silent except for the occasional rustle of leaves in the breeze.

In the canopy of a great tree, one so large it would take three people to encircle its trunk, a Little Daoist Child was lying comfortably on a thick branch.

This was none other than Luo Dao Yi, who had been sent to investigate on Cangsong Taoist’s orders.

Luo Dao Yi had no intention of entering the city.

After all, the young Shenfu Sect Master lived in there.

The Sect Leader surnamed Bai wasn’t frightening on his own. But the fact that even Jiu Zhen True Man had very likely died at the hands of the Divine Mansion Sect was terrifying enough.

Although Cangsong Taoist had later searched all of Huanglong Prefecture and found no proof that Bai Yuan had killed Jiu Zhen True Man, that didn’t stop Luo Dao Yi from setting Bai Yuan’s threat level to maximum.

So, he wouldn’t enter the city to face Bai Yuan, not even if it killed him.

Luo Dao Yi planned to just sleep here for a few days, then go back and report that his mission was complete.

Guiyuan County had been peaceful for the past two days. The Demon Sect hadn’t sent any new monsters to attack the city, and the other Profound People factions hadn’t discovered this small town either.

Everything seemed so tranquil.

This made Luo Dao Yi feel very lucky.

As long as he stayed for three days, he would leave without a second thought. Now, only the last day remained.

Just as he had done on the other days, he pillowed his head with his arms and was about to drift off to sleep when a sudden rush of footsteps woke him.

’There’s movement!’

Luo Dao Yi’s eyes flew open, and he turned to look down.

He saw a troop of several dozen monsters moving stealthily through the mountain forest.

Their target was clearly Guiyuan County.

"What rotten luck."

Luo Dao Yi cursed under his breath.

’I can’t believe something like this would happen on the last day.’

These monsters had extremely sharp senses. They might discover him, and then it would be impossible to escape.

Just as Luo Dao Yi was stealthily preparing to leave this dangerous place, a blood-curdling scream echoed through the forest.

Luo Dao Yi instinctively looked toward the source of the sound.

A scene that would be seared into his memory for the rest of his life appeared—

A Bird Demon had tried to fly over the walls of Guiyuan County and into the city. But it was suddenly enveloped by an invisible mist. In a mere instant, the Bird Demon dissolved into a puddle of blood, which rained down upon the city walls as a bloody shower.

Seeing this, Luo Dao Yi sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.

Even in the Celestial Profound Sect, he had never seen such a terrifying technique.

The monsters that couldn’t stop in time were pushed by the ones behind them into the range of the city walls. Like the Bird Demon before them, they too dissolved into blood.

The other monsters that finally managed to halt stared at the city wall and hastily retreated several hundred meters.

The intelligence of monsters was no less than that of humans. They were savage, not stupid.

The monsters that had been preparing to attack the city looked at each other in dismay. One by one, they unconsciously backed away, none daring to step forward again.

Finally, they scattered in a chaotic rout, having lost all thought of attacking Guiyuan County Town.

Luo Dao Yi took one last, deep look at the city wall, then turned and left.

...

"Are you sure?"

Cangsong Taoist’s brow was tightly furrowed as he stared intently at Luo Dao Yi.

The Little Daoist Child Luo Dao Yi’s face was resolute. "I saw it all with my own eyes. There’s no mistake."

He had rushed back from Guiyuan County to Fenggu County overnight precisely to tell Cangsong Taoist what he had witnessed.

Originally, he had just planned to fudge the report. But now that he had seen such earth-shattering intelligence, he naturally had to seek credit from Cangsong Taoist.

Cangsong Taoist nodded. "Very good."

As he spoke, he took a bottle of medicinal pills from his robes and handed it to Luo Dao Yi.

Being his disciple came with a high mortality rate, but the reward for completing each task was also extremely generous. Otherwise, no one would have been willing to be his disciple for long.

Cangsong Taoist asked, "Could you tell what kind of technique was used?"

Luo Dao Yi carefully replayed the scene from that night in his mind, but finally shook his head. "Forgive this disciple for my ignorance, but I truly could not see how it was done."

"Never mind. You are dismissed."

Cangsong Taoist waved his hand.

Among all his disciples, Luo Dao Yi was the weakest and had always been neglected by him. If all the others hadn’t died, he never would have sent Luo Dao Yi on a mission.

According to his disciple’s account, a technique that could kill from a distance like that was indeed beyond Luo Dao Yi’s ability to comprehend.

Even Cangsong Taoist, who had wandered the Jianghu for decades, had never heard of such a method.

’Could it be that the young Sect Leader has been hiding his true strength?’

He had been secretly investigating the cause of Jiu Zhen True Man’s death.

Before, he had thought that there was some hidden master on Shenfu Mountain that the Celestial Profound Sect didn’t know about, or that Dong Wanjun had acted using some deceptive means.

But today’s event hadn’t taken place on Shenfu Mountain, and Dong Wanjun was now thousands of miles away in Xiangzhou.

For the first time, he felt that the true culprit who killed Jiu Zhen True Man might just be that young Shenfu Sect Master.