Chapter 230: Chapter 230: Capture and Kill
Breaking Arrows don’t produce any sound before approaching their targets; only when they’re close and reach top speed does the whistling begin, but by then, the reaction window is so short that it’s barely worth mentioning.
Qi Refining Realm cultivators stand no chance against Breaking Arrows. True Qi Shields are simply ignored; the spiraling arrowhead burrows into flesh, expanding the wound cavity and inflicting secondary trauma.
If one’s swordsmanship is good enough, maybe a blow or two can be deflected, but against a rain of arrows, holding out completely is nearly impossible.
The most reliable defense is a shield, especially a magical artifact shield—like those wielded by Ma San and the expert beside him. Once activated, they can cover a decent area; with the wielder frantically pouring in True Qi, they hold out for a long time, quite effective against a labored Breaking Arrow Rain—though the consumption is tremendous.
But not everyone has a shield artifact. Ma San and his shield-bearing comrade can only protect the three or so people nearby; the rest are on their own.
After just one round of arrow rain, five men were down. One was hit straight through the eye, the arrowhead bursting out the back of his skull. The other four weren’t dead but lost all ability to move.
The three Snake Race members had managed to stash the third crate into their storage bag, but making a dash for the bamboo grove like Zhang Lie was already too late. The dense arrow rain also pinned them in place, forcing them to use their own means to resist. Unlike others, their defense was not artifacts but their own scale armor—not impenetrable, but enough so they weren’t crippled after just two arrows.
"Thunder Charms, release!"
Right after the arrow rain stopped, twenty Thunder Charms were flung out. Each remaining target got precisely two charms apiece. Compared to the previous Breaking Arrow Rain, this was a targeted strike; the force was substantial, crashing down and forcing the three Snake Race cultivators, who had just weathered the arrow storm and prepared to sprint for the grove, to halt once again.
Then, zero breathing room was left; the second wave of Breaking Arrow Rain came on their heels.
To be honest, the use of Breaking Arrows is best mastered by the military. This time, it was the outermost Vanguard Battalion soldiers who fired; their timing and precision were impeccable, no less than the rain seen at Bai Dang Mountain when raiding the Wen Family.
The second round fell and skewered the four men knocked down in the first volley, leaving them dead on the spot, bodies bristling with arrows.
The three Snake Race cultivators who barely reached the bamboo grove’s edge couldn’t withstand this fresh barrage, collapsing with only a sliver of breath left in them.
Only Ma San and his six comrades, still shielded by two shield-shaped magical artifacts, clung stubbornly to their ground.
Shen Hao observed, smiled, and waved his hand. At once, Wang Yiming beside him shook the command flag, and the Black Banner Battalion soldiers, already primed, began to advance. At this stage, further arrow rain was pointless; some prisoners needed to be taken alive.
After two rounds of arrow rain and a volley of Thunder Charms, those still standing owed their survival to their artifacts—but their True Qi was drastically depleted. Take Ma San: now he had barely thirty percent of his peak True Qi left inside, utterly incapable of facing the two hundred soldiers converging with the Combined Attack Skill.
Let alone the eager Vanguard Battalion soldiers waiting outside the fray.
Ma San realized he was caught in a death trap.
Gritting his teeth, Ma San pulled a blood-red talisman from his chest. No longer shielding his comrades with his artifact, he spat blood onto the talisman. Instantly, the talisman turned to mist, enveloping Ma San, and, like a wisp of smoke, vanished along the wind.
"Shit! It’s the Blood Escape Talisman!"
Shen Hao hadn’t expected to encounter such legendary talisman techniques here. Unless you suppress it instantly, with this on hand, Shen Hao’s deployed forces couldn’t prevent an escape.
Fortunately, apart from Ma San, no one else remaining produced a Blood Escape Talisman.
After about a stick of incense, the battlefield entered cleanup. Other than Ma San, who fled with the Blood Escape Talisman, nine were captured alive. Of these, five were heavily wounded and four lightly injured.
Of course, Zhang Lie—who made a mad dash into the bamboo grove—was long gone. Shen Hao was very satisfied with Zhang Lie’s performance and with the coordination of the soldiers during the Breaking Arrow Rain; in that split-second life-and-death moment, there was no way Ma San’s group would notice Zhang Lie’s oddities. At most, they’d marvel at his luck.
In addition, that awkward yet strangely familiar feeling in Shen Hao’s heart returned.
A sudden and inexplicable hunger surged, focused directly on the five corpses. This time, however, the "appetite" didn’t rob Shen Hao of self-control—it was just the hunger gnawing at him, hard to bear.
He tried to endure, but couldn’t hold out; pretending to check the bodies, Shen Hao moved closer, then instinctively took a deep breath.
"Hss..."
No one noticed that as Shen Hao appeared to take an ordinary deep breath, a cloud of dark green mist drifted from the corpses’ mouths and noses, and Shen Hao inhaled it in a flash—so quickly it took less than a second.
Repeatedly, Shen Hao, under the guise of inspection, drew out every lingering soul from the five corpses. This was his first time "feeding" in front of others; compared to his last soul absorption, this was much faster, and he found he didn’t even need to get right up close—he could pull in souls from several feet away.
Afterward, Shen Hao felt a rush of satisfaction spreading from his chest, as after a grand meal.
The hunger faded, and Shen Hao’s back was drenched in cold sweat. Wang Yiming had finished tallying and came over to report.
"Sir, twenty-eight brothers are heavily wounded, fifty-one lightly injured, twelve killed."
Even with the enemy utterly spent, even with the Black Banner Battalion made up of Qi Refining Realm third layer or higher, even with talismans and combined attack skills, the casualties were so heavy that Shen Hao felt not a shred of victory.
Shen Hao hadn’t expected these cultivators, after two rounds of Breaking Arrows and a volley of Thunder Charms, to retain such terrifying fighting power—especially their chilling and bizarre techniques, utterly unlike ordinary cultivators. They were much stronger than typical cultivators, particularly that black mist from their palms: touch it, and you’re either dead or crippled.
That black mist was etched deep in Shen Hao’s memory.
He’d checked the Records Room and Library—this kind of black mist wielded by Evil Cultivators was, in essence, a "poison" that harmed the soul. This time, every one of Ma San’s group had used a similar "poison" in battle.
This forced Shen Hao to reconsider his earlier suspicions, secretly concluding: these people may not be Evil Cultivators yet, but they’re definitely linked to them!
