Chief, don't hit me in the face

Chapter 43: Knocked Out with a Single Sword Strike

“You’re asking for trouble!” Seeing that Xia Ye dared to attack, Cao Xiong let out a savage laugh and gripped his wheel-bladed battleaxe tightly—as soon as he got close, he’d chop his head to pieces. “I’ll handle this one—you go kill someone else!” Cao Xu drew his bow like a full moon and aimed at Xia Ye: “Don’t let a single one get away!” Those simple words were steeped in bloodlust and cruelty. “Got it!” Fearing that Xia Ye might intercept him, Cao Xiong deliberately took a detour. In his view, Xia Ye was as good as dead, but the others might escape while he was busy killing him. “What should we do?” Xia Li panicked. Cover Xia Ye? Don’t be ridiculous—she had no intention of helping that arrogant madman. But she certainly wouldn’t be able to escape while carrying the injured Xia Xiong. “Am I supposed to go it alone?” Once that thought took root in her mind, it became impossible to shake. It was only a few dozen meters away. Tall and lanky, Cao Xiong took long strides and closed the distance in just a few breaths. “Xia Li, don’t leave me behind!” Xia Xiong pleaded, his voice shrill. He scrambled to his feet and turned to run, showing not a shred of fighting spirit. He had no choice—he specialized in the longbow, and now that one of his hands was broken, he was as good as useless. “Remember this: don’t ever go by ‘Xiong’ in your next life!” Cao Xiong caught up, lowered his right hand, and swung his axe low along the ground. Crack! Just like felling a tree, Xia Xiong’s left thigh was severed. Blood instantly splattered across the ground as he screamed and collapsed, writhing in agony. Xia Li’s breathing grew heavy all at once, and she turned and ran. “Haha, you can’t get away!” Cao Xiong roared with laughter and gave chase—he intended to capture her alive. Xia Li was a shaman—and, on top of that, quite pretty. If he brought her back, she’d be worth far more than an ordinary slave. At the same time, Xia Ye, swift as a cheetah, used the cover of the trees to quickly close in on Cao Xu. “Ah-woo!” Instead of hiding, Song Guo charged from the other side, carrying a stone hammer on her back and holding a crossbow aloft, forming a combined attack and taking some of the pressure off Xia Ye in the process. Unfortunately, in Cao Xu’s eyes, a little girl posed no real threat. “So fast!” Cao Xu sneered, loosening his grip on the arrow’s tail with three fingers: “But it’s useless!” Whoosh! The arrow flew like a shooting star, piercing a leaf along its path before whizzing past Xia Ye, stopping just half a meter away from him. Thud! The arrow embedded itself in a large tree, its feathered tail quivering. Xia Ye remained unfazed and continued his frenzied charge, closing the distance to thirty meters. “Pretty impressive!” Cao Xu’s brow furrowed slightly. He was beginning to believe that this half-blind cripple might actually be able to kill Cao Bing. Not only had he been using the surrounding trees and bushes to conceal his movements during the charge—which inevitably left him vulnerable to arrows—but even when arrows whizzed past him at point-blank range, he didn’t even blink. He’s got some serious guts! After all, archers have a massive advantage over melee fighters when they can maintain distance; many people lose their nerve before they even get a chance to strike. Charging while under a hail of arrows brings a constant fear of being shot down at any moment—even experienced tribal warriors are not immune to it. Death is an emotion deeply rooted in the heart—it cannot be controlled by one’s will! Thirty meters! Cao Xu let go. Whoosh! Another feathered arrow flew out, and then Cao Xu shifted his position, a hint of a mocking smile playing at the corner of his mouth. Want to get close? Dream on! As he drew his bow and nocked another arrow, ready to fire again, the sound of a whistle cut through the air. Whoosh! Cao Xu, who had been standing on a tree branch, immediately leaped aside, causing the crossbow bolt fired by Song Guo to whiz past his head. “Hehe!” Cao Xu grew even more smug. In the forest, the higher you stand, the easier it is to be hit, so he had deliberately jumped up to give that little girl a chance to shoot. Reloading a crossbow takes time, and with that time difference, Cao Xu was confident he could fire five arrows and kill Xia Ye. “Ah-woo!” One arrow missed its mark. Song Guo pouted, clearly frustrated, and could only hurriedly reload. At this moment, the crossbow’s weakness became apparent: it was slow to reload. Moreover, the little girl had to slow her running speed—not only because she couldn’t reload without looking up, but also because she had to keep an eye on Cao Xu at all times to avoid being shot. “I really underestimated you!” Noticing this, Cao Xu silently praised her in his mind. This little girl could be taken alive, then turned into an obedient battle servant through beatings and starvation. Whoosh! Another feathered arrow whizzed past, causing the leaves on the tree branches to rustle. “Are you crazy, trying to outrun me?” Cao Xu sneered—not out of overconfidence, but to use verbal taunts to break Xia Ye’s resolve. “You really are tougher to deal with than that Cao Xiong!” Xia Ye curled his lip. How much better it would be if all his enemies were those two “bear-like” arrogant brutes? But he knew that wasn’t realistic. “Old Bear, he’s looking down on you!” Cao Xu teased. “Don’t just shoot him dead—let me chop off his limbs later and dry him out like salted fish!” Cao Xiong grinned savagely and lunged forward. Rip! Xia Li’s leather jacket was torn open, exposing large swaths of skin, including a glimpse of fair flesh on her chest. Whoa! Cao Xiong whistled, thoroughly enjoying the thrill of toying with his prey. Xia Ye had good burst speed; with a few more charges, he could certainly catch up to Cao Xu. But time was running out. Xia Li was too weak; her screams were growing more frantic by the second, and she could be overpowered by Cao Xiong at any moment. If that happened, he’d have to face a two-on-one attack head-on. “Summon the Headless Battle Spirit?” The thought had barely crossed his mind before Xia Ye dismissed it. Although it would only take a few seconds from unrolling the scroll to smearing it with blood and completing the summoning, he didn’t think Cao Xu would give him that much time. “He’s charging pretty fast!” Cao Xu’s eyes darted rapidly back and forth, surveying the battlefield. With every shift in position, he sought out areas that were easier to shoot from, all while switching to bronze arrowheads. “Ten meters? No, fifteen meters—that’s when I’ll take him down!” Cao Xu calculated that getting too close would put him at risk. “Song Guo, protect yourself—don’t shoot anymore!” Xia Ye shouted—not only out of concern for the little girl, but also because he didn’t want her attacks to force Cao Xu to dodge, creating too many unpredictable variables. “Okay!” Song Guo obeyed without question. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill him!” Fifteen meters! Just as Cao Xu was about to release his arrow, he saw Xia Ye kick off a tree root protruding from the mud and dash into a large patch of bushes to his right front, where he vanished from sight. “Tsk!” Cao Xu loosened his bowstring slightly—after all, holding it taut for so long was draining his strength. While Xia Ye was hiding in the thicket, he quickly scanned his surroundings, continuing to look for his next vantage point. But the dense forest was truly overgrown with vegetation. “My chance!” He shielded his face with his left hand to protect his eyes from being scratched, then hurled the bronze longsword with his right. Tai’a Fu Wei! Whoosh! The legendary sword Tai’a instantly transformed into a dark-gold sword energy, whistling through the air. “Huh? What’s that?” As an archer, Cao Xu naturally had keen eyesight. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a two-meter-long streak of light shooting out from the bushes. Startled instinctively, he began to dodge—but it was already too close. At a distance of fifteen meters, the sword energy reached him in the blink of an eye. Cao Xu was terrified out of his wits. While dodging, he raised his longbow, trying to block the attack. Crack! The longbow was as fragile as a sheet of white paper; it was pierced right through by the dark-gold sword energy, which continued unabated, plunging into Cao Xu’s chest with a thud. Thud! The sword energy pierced through his chest and struck the tree trunk behind him, leaving a gash as deep as a thumb. “Whoa!” Song Guo cheered and immediately rushed over to retrieve the Tai’a. Xia Ye knew he couldn’t stop now, but it felt as if his entire brain had been instantly sucked dry by a vacuum cleaner. His head was splitting with pain, and a wave of exhaustion washed over him—not physical fatigue, but the mental exhaustion of having played video games nonstop for three days straight. Activating Tai’a’s sword energy required a massive amount of spiritual awareness, and at Xia Ye’s current level, it was far from sufficient. That’s why a range of twenty meters was his absolute limit. Fortunately, he’d been cautious and had charged in a bit closer to ensure a one-hit kill; if he’d been any farther away, he’d have been in real trouble. “There!” Song Guo retrieved the Tai’a Sword. “Mm, be careful to protect yourself!” Holding the Tai’a, Xia Ye let out a long sigh. He’d have to use this sword technique sparingly from now on—it had too many drawbacks—unless his spiritual awareness reached a much higher level. Thud! Cao Xu, with a huge hole torn through his upper body, collapsed to the ground, his eyes wide open in death. “Let me go!” Xia Li was pinned to the ground by Cao Xiong, struggling frantically and lashing out with her arms and legs. “Don’t move, or I’ll kill you!” Cao Xiong swung his fist—as big as a clay pot—landing two punches squarely on Xia Li’s chest and nose. Thud! Xia Li instantly felt a tightness in her chest, as if she couldn’t catch her breath. Her nose throbbed excruciatingly, and her head felt like a chaotic mess, as if she’d been kicked hard by an elephant. “Hmph, that’ll teach you to disobey!” Smack! Cao Xiong cursed as he slapped Xia Li across the face. Then, seeing her chest heaving up and down with rapid breaths, he couldn’t resist reaching out and giving it a hard twist. What a great feel! “Have you had enough of groping?” The sudden voice startled Cao Xiong. He snatched up his battle axe, trying to dodge, but a crossbow bolt flew toward him. Thud! It struck him squarely in the lower back. “Ah!” Cao Xiong let out a agonized scream but forced himself to endure the pain as he rolled away. Glancing back, he saw the half-blind man standing not far off, watching him. That little girl was standing beside him like a sycophant, her arms crossed over her chest, her chin tilted up smugly! “Huh?” Cao Xiong was dumbfounded. He instinctively reached to rub his eyes and blurted out in shock, “What the hell? Where’s Cao Xu?” “Dead!” Xia Ye tossed the crossbow to the little girl and drew the bronze longsword she’d had sheathed at her side. She’d reacted quickly—otherwise, that shot would’ve killed him on the spot. Song Guo caught the crossbow and nocked an arrow with deft precision. “Waaah!” Xia Li wept, lying on the ground, her face streaked with tears, utterly despairing. “Qingyuan, come save me!” Xia Xiong, his face streaked with snot and tears, was struggling to climb up. Upon hearing this, he froze and instinctively turned to look back. Xia Ye stood there, her delicate features radiating calm and resolve, her single ponytail fluttering in the wind like a waving battle flag. “That’s impossible!” Cao Xiong instinctively shook his head and shouted, “Cao Xu, what are you doing? Come out right now!” “Everyone says he’s dead—can’t you understand what people are saying?” Song Guo pursed her lips. “That’s impossible. How could you have killed Cao Xu?” Cao Xiong refused to believe it, scrutinizing Xia Ye from head to toe. “Where are the signs of a struggle? You don’t have a single scratch. Could it be that Cao Xu committed suicide?” As far as Cao Xiong was concerned, even if Xia Ye had managed to kill Cao Xu, he would have been badly injured himself. Besides, he hadn’t heard a single scream, which was why he hadn’t been on guard at all. “You talk too much!” Xia Ye walked over, silently warning himself: Women lead to trouble. From now on, if he encountered a woman on the battlefield, he’d just slit her throat—he must never flirt with her or anything like that. “Haha, so this is how it ends for you? Xia Ye, hurry up and kill him!” Xia Xiong stared at Cao Xiong and laughed with glee, but then quickly came to his senses: “Wait, forget about him for now—come save me!” Xia Ye turned his head, feigned thought for a moment, then smiled: “Sorry, who are you?”