The Whistling Arrow

...

At this moment, deep in a tangled forest over a dozen miles away, Su Yueli was running for her life.

She had already left the Wantong Merchant House convoy. Now that a Cangyun Sect outer disciple was dead, their higher-ups would definitely react in no time.

If she ran into ordinary Cangyun Sect disciples, she could still rely on her double hidden forces to fight for her life.

But if she crossed paths with that Seventh Realm Elder Han, with her current strength, she probably wouldn't even be able to withstand a single blow.

Pushing off with her feet, Su Yueli left a trail of afterimages as she darted through the complex network of trees.

She didn't know if they were pursuing her, so she could only unleash the full blood qi of her Delusion Breaker Rank, fleeing as fast as possible in the opposite direction of Tianyuan City.

Suddenly, Su Yueli came to an abrupt halt.

She suddenly sensed two spiritual energy fluctuations of cultivators rapidly approaching from the sky behind her.

“They're chasing me this fast?”

Su Yueli gritted her teeth and cursed under her breath.

This area was a relatively open patch of shrubs, with no tall trees to offer cover.

Seeing that the outlines of the streaks of light in the sky were already visible, she did not hesitate. She immediately suppressed her blood qi, rolled into a hollow of dry grass, and held her breath.

Two blue escape lights crashed down not far from the hollow. They were the very two Cangyun Sect disciples who had been discussing her on the way.

The slightly chubby cultivator held a compass magic treasure, his brow furrowed as he scanned the surroundings in confusion. “Strange. I clearly sensed a faint trace of life here when we were up in the sky. How did it vanish the moment we landed?”

The other disciple looked around and saw nothing but dense, dry grass. He waved his hand and said,

“It was probably just some wild beast on the plains startled by our escape lights. Let's go, don't waste time. Let's check that barren mountain ahead. That female thief couldn't have run far.”

In the hollow, Su Yueli clenched her fists inside her sleeves. Hearing their conversation, she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

Thankfully, she had avoided detection.

However, before she could fully relax,

the slightly chubby cultivator who was about to leave suddenly pressed a hand on his companion's shoulder, a sinister gleam flashing in his eyes. “Wait. Just to be safe, let's completely destroy this patch of grass and see.”

“Better to kill by mistake than to let them escape.”

Before his voice could fade, he raised his right hand. Mana surged in his palm, instantly condensing a blazing fireball.

In the hollow, the corner of Su Yueli's mouth twitched violently.

Since she couldn't hide, she would have to strike first!

Boom!

Before the fireball could be thrown, the hollow where Su Yueli hid exploded.

A massive cloud of dry grass filled the air. Under its cover, Su Yueli instantly crossed the distance of over a dozen meters, closing in right in front of the slightly chubby cultivator.

The faces of the two cultivators fell.

Before the slightly chubby cultivator could release the fireball in his hand, Su Yueli's left fist had already slammed into his abdomen with a piercing screech of parted air.

Bang!

The terrifying force instantly tore through his protective mana.

The slightly chubby cultivator shrieked as he was sent flying over a dozen meters. He crashed through several small trees along the way, coughing up a large mouthful of blood and suffering severe internal injuries.

“There really is someone! Good thing we checked!”

The eyelids of the other cultivator, whose strength was at the peak of the Third Realm and close to the Fourth Realm, twitched wildly.

Shocked by this mortal woman's terrifying power, he drew the longsword from his waist in a backhanded motion and slashed a fierce arc of sword qi straight toward Su Yueli's face.

Although Su Yueli's first strike had connected, the pressure on her mind multiplied.

Of the two before her, one was at the Third Realm mid stage, while the other was at the Third Realm peak, ready to step into the Fourth Realm at any moment.

It was a one-versus-two, and the opponents were already on guard.

To end the fight quickly, a fierce look crossed Su Yueli's eyes. As she dodged the sword qi, she reached into her robes and pulled out the bronze mirror magic treasure she had looted from the outer disciple earlier.

“Go!”

Gritting her teeth, she tried to mimic a cultivator and hurled the bronze mirror magic treasure with all her might at the oncoming peak Third Realm cultivator.

The dull bronze mirror traced an arc in the air. Without a single spark of spiritual light, it fell flat into the pile of rocks between them, rolling a couple of times.

An abrupt, dead silence fell over the clearing.

The peak Cangyun Sect cultivator, who was in the middle of changing his stance, froze. He stared at the piece of junk metal on the ground, then back at Su Yueli.

Su Yueli was also dumbfounded.

She had forgotten that she didn't have any spiritual energy. Without mana to communicate with and activate the cultivator's magic treasure, throwing it was no different from throwing a piece of useless scrap metal!

“What kind of crappy magic treasure is this? Absolute garbage!”

Su Yueli's face flushed red with embarrassment as she cursed in annoyance.

Having thoroughly embarrassed herself, she simply abandoned these flashy immortal methods. Clenching her fist, the fist blades of Xiaohei on her right hand instantly extended with a cold, sharp gleam.

“Fists are still the most reliable. Let's do this!”

Before her voice could fade, she took a step forward. The blood qi of her Delusion Breaker Rank surged wildly inside her body. Instead of retreating, she advanced, closing the distance to engage the peak Third Realm sword cultivator in hand-to-hand combat.

Sharp sword qi crisscrossed through the forest. Su Yueli pushed her secular Ji Dao movement technique to its absolute limit.

Yet, under the combined assault of the two cultivators' spells and flying swords, she still found it somewhat difficult to hold her ground.

A strand of sword qi grazed her shoulder, instantly slicing open her blue-and-white dress as blood began to seep through.

Her eyes turning ruthless after being injured, Su Yueli completely ignored her wound. She forcefully endured the aftershock of a fireball and threw her entire body straight into the chest of the peak Third Realm sword cultivator.

“Mountain-Shaking Heaven-Shattering Force, shatter!”

Su Yueli roared in her heart. Within a ten-thousandth of a second, the two hidden forces deep within the marrow of her right arm vibrated violently.

Clenching her right fist with the fist blades, she landed a solid, heavy blow squarely on the opponent's chest.

Bang! Bang!

Two consecutive muffled, resonant explosions rang out.

The terrifying hidden force of the Heaven-grade high-rank technique bypassed the blocking longsword, directly transmitting into the opponent's body.

The peak Third Realm cultivator's eyes widened in sheer terror.

His mana barrier failed to hold for even half a second before collapsing on the spot, and his internal organs were violently pulverized into mush by the double hidden forces.

He coughed up a huge mouthful of blood, his body going limp as he died right then and there.

“Senior Brother Zhang!”

Seeing this, the mid stage Third Realm cultivator who had just scrambled up from the ground was scared out of his wits.

A mortal martial artist who could kill a peak Third Realm cultivator with a single punch was a complete and utter monster!

He did not have the courage to continue fighting Su Yueli.

A split second before Su Yueli could turn to kill him, the cultivator gritted his teeth and slapped his own chest.

A sect gathering token hidden in his robes instantly transformed into a blood-red arrow, tearing through the night sky and soaring into the clouds.

It was the Cangyun Sect's highest-level signal for an enemy attack!

“Damn it!”

Su Yueli's face fell. Her body blurred into an afterimage as her fist blades sliced through the cultivator's neck with a wet tear.

Blood spurted in torrents as the last cultivator breathed his last.

Staring at the persistent, piercing red whistling arrow in the sky, Su Yueli withdrew her fist and sighed in frustration.

“In the end, I still couldn't stop it.”

The signal had been sent, and her position was completely compromised.

Su Yueli violently ripped the two storage bags from the corpses and stuffed them into her robes.

Then, turning into a blurry afterimage, she fled at full speed toward the deep, ancient forest in the opposite direction.

...

Meanwhile, in the sky about a dozen miles away,

Elder Han, who was searching on his flying sword, raised his head to stare at the blood-red whistling arrow that had yet to dissipate in the distant sky.

At the same time, the four Cangyun Sect disciples in the other two directions also halted, their expressions shifting drastically.

“The Lantern Transmission Talisman! It's Junior Brother Zhang and the others to the west!”

Elder Han's face instantly twisted into a hideous scowl, the killing intent in his eyes almost enough to set the void ablaze.

To be able to kill several of his inner disciples in such a short amount of time, that damned Ji Dao martial artist had to be there!

“You little thief, I've finally found you! Today, this old man will extract your soul and refine it!”

Elder Han roared in fury, the terrifying mana of his Seventh Realm cultivation exploding from beneath his feet.

His flying sword drew a pale streak of light that tore through the air, hurtling toward the direction of the signal flare at breakneck speed.