Hidden Shadow – CH 064

Chapter Sixty-Four: A Shocking Arrow (1)

How much suffering and hardship must one endure to reach the eighth rank? How much of one’s youth must be sacrificed?

An Jiu had only ever plundered one thing: life! Not to gain, but to destroy.

An Jiu did not understand martial arts, but she always felt that taking someone else’s internal energy was like taking someone else’s organ and implanting it into oneself—it might not be suitable, and if there was rejection, it could be fatal.

An Jiu had never believed in “luck,” because those two words had never applied to her.

“I’ve heard that the Konghe Army is the most elite army in the Song Dynasty,” An Jiu sneered. “They actually need to conscript someone without internal energy? Please forgive me for not wanting to be a human target.”

“The Heavenly Book Fragments,” the commander said. “I can decide to give you all the remaining fragments in the Konghe Army.”

“To negotiate with a tiger for its skin?” An Jiu remained unmoved.

“I like your way of putting it.” The commander lunged forward in the blink of an eye, grabbing An Jiu’s dagger as she attacked. His inner energy protected his hand, and the razor-sharp dagger had not harmed him in the slightest.

He pressed closer, saying, “But that’s not up to you!”

“Then let’s try!” An Jiu’s killing intent was intense. She realized that since entering the Buddhist temple, she had not encountered anyone with higher spiritual power than herself. In this standoff, this was probably her only option!

Sure enough, An Jiu noticed the commander’s movements falter slightly and kicked him hard in the groin.

The commander’s gaze suddenly sharpened. He did not dare underestimate An Jiu’s strength, so even with his entire body protected by inner energy, he still dodged to the side.

She felt his grip loosen, immediately drawing her dagger and pressing it against his throat.

The commander felt a chill on his neck. His prized inner energy protection had been sliced ​​open by the dagger. The sharp blade had cut a shallow gash in his neck, and blood seeped out, soaking the surrounding black cloth.

“Fourteenth Young Lady, I have no patience to waste with you,” the commander said sternly. “You’d better come with me yourself!”

His words were a combination of intimidation and threat, but seeing that An Jiu showed no sign of giving up, he truly lost his temper. “You will not listen to reason!” A palm strike infused with pure internal energy roared like a dragon’s cry or a tiger’s howl. Before his hand even touched her, the internal energy had already shattered the surrounding walls, sending debris raining down.

An Jiu dodged with lightning speed but was still struck. The internal organs injured by the crossbow bolt earlier now felt like they were being torn apart.

Amidst the billowing dust and debris, An Jiu rushed up to the fifth floor.

The walls of the fifth floor were painted with murals, and a few relics were placed in a central Buddhist niche. There was nowhere to hide.

An Jiu only had one arrow left in her crossbow. She hesitated whether to use it against the commander. Although he was pressing her hard, he showed no killing intent. If she used the crossbow against him, she could kill him, but if she could not, she would be opposing the Konghe Army.

Offending an assassin unit was tantamount to suicide.

A dark figure emerged from the dust. Before An Jiu could decide, her body moved first. Fortunately, she only fired the crossbow bolts she had obtained from Elder Zhi.

The three powerful arrows were shattered into dust by the commander’s flick of his wrist. The dust, still retaining the shape of the arrows, continued its rapid advance until it struck the commander’s protective inner energy, where it paused briefly before scattering.

The commander flicked out a rope, wrapping it around An Jiu’s waist. With a flick of his wrist, he dragged her towards him.

An Jiu was not one to be easily manipulated. She used the pulling force to her advantage. She simultaneously unleashed her powerful crossbow and dagger, aiming straight for his vitals.

The commander, holding the rope in one hand, could only use one hand to deal with the arrows and dagger, and could not afford to accidentally kill An Jiu. He could not use more than forty percent of his inner strength.

The commander was a man of steel; he deftly deflected the arrows with his bare hands, then shifted his body, taking the full force of An Jiu’s dagger.

Fortunately, his inner energy protected him, reducing the dagger’s force by half, with only half penetrating his shoulder.

An Jiu never held back; she immediately exerted her strength, plunging the entire dagger into the commander’s body!

An Jiu felt a numbness in the back of her neck, and her vision went black.

“Hiss—” The commander gasped, forcefully pulling out the dagger, taking out a bottle of wound medicine, and pouring it over him.

He threw An Jiu to the ground, examined the dagger for a moment, and muttered under his breath, “You brat!”

An Jiu’s mental strength was too strong; fearing she would wake up soon, he applied some sleeping potion to a handkerchief, intending to place it under her nose.

The commander knelt and removed An Jiu’s mask, revealing porcelain-white skin. He hesitated for a moment, then, as if possessed, removed the entire mask.

A delicate face was revealed. Her brows had furrowed slightly when she was unconscious, making her appear quite frail.

People said the face reflected the heart, and the Commander never imagined such a fierce girl would be born with such a delicate appearance.

“Fourteenth Young Lady,” he murmured, placing a handkerchief under her nose and lowering his mask again.

“Commander,” a dark figure landed on the entrance steps and bowed, “Only twenty-odd trial participants remain. The Li and Cui families have been completely wiped out. Furthermore, the Divine Martial Army and the enemy are locked in a standoff on the plank road. That master archer is using our men as live targets. Ten ninth-rank martial artists are guarding the opposite cliff; we cannot get close to the archer.”

The Commander had only broken through to the ninth rank last year and was currently only at the third rank of the Transcendent Realm. Even if he personally went into battle, he would find it difficult to reach the Transcendent Realm archer.

“I will go immediately,” the Commander said, taking An Jiu’s hand. “Let’s go.”

“Yes!” The two exited the tower one after the other.

The snow fell heavily in the wind. The commander, carrying An Jiu, headed straight for the plank road. With lightning speed, they passed through the pine forest and through the mountain gate in the blink of an eye.

The black-clad man following behind seemed to be struggling.

The Divine Martial branch of the Konghe Army was dwindling in talent, and its commander had mysteriously died last year. No suitable successor could be found within the entire Divine Martial Army. At that time, one of the four Divine Martial Commanders had broken through to the Transcendent Realm and was thus promoted exceptionally.

Each of the four armies within the Konghe Army had four “Commanders”: the Divine Martial Commander in the Divine Martial Army, the Divine Strategy Commander in the Divine Strategy Team, the Feather Forest Commander in the Feather Forest Army, and the Dangerous Moon Commander in the Dangerous Moon Army… The so-called Divine Martial Commanders were actually messengers delivering important messages. They belonged to the Divine Martial Army but were directly under the Emperor’s jurisdiction, responsible for delivering various “secret orders,” so they could not be considered entirely part of the Divine Martial Army.

This Divine Martial Commander was an orphan taken in and raised by the Konghe Academy. Various powerful families considered him a confidant of the Emperor and thus arbitrarily seized military power. Very few truly obeyed his orders to the point that even minor matters like trials required his personal supervision.

If this mission had been successful, that would have been fine, but if too many casualties had occurred here, his future management would have been far more difficult.

The intricacies of the situation were extremely complex, making the identity of the person who orchestrated this ambush shrouded in mystery.

Near the broken plank road, the wind and snow intensified, making it impossible to open one’s eyes. Through the dense snow curtain, one could vaguely see two groups of people fighting fiercely on the plank road. The snow on the ground was melted by blood, turning into a scarlet “mud,” with blood splattering everywhere. Spots of crimson stained the snowflakes blown by the wind, while arrows wrapped in blue light occasionally shot from the opposite side.

The commander set An Jiu down, removed the handkerchief from under her nose, and used it to dispel the sleeping potion.

In the biting cold wind, the drug took effect even faster.

An Jiu opened her eyes to find her wrists gripped by a strong hand.

“How are you?” the commander asked in a deep voice.

An Jiu twisted her wrists, a silver needle piercing his wrist from the tip of her fingers. The commander released his grip, then grabbed her again. In the blink of an eye, they had exchanged several blows.

Ultimately, An Jiu was at a disadvantage due to her lower internal strength and was subdued.

“You see, a life is lost in the blink of an eye,” the commander said.

An Jiu remained unmoved. What did it matter if the world were destroyed in the blink of an eye?

The commander said, “The situation is urgent. Bringing you here was a last resort. If you help me this once, I will promise you anything I can do.”

An Jiu was silent for a moment, glanced at him, and slowly spoke. “Why should I help? Anyone here is more skilled than I am.”

The commander paused, realizing An Jiu seemed to respond better to gentle persuasion than force; the more pressured she was, the more defiant she became. He softened his tone. “Archery is not the Divine Martial Army’s forte. The wind and snow are fierce; our arrows are practically unaiming. We’ve heard you can hit the target under these conditions.”

Even setting aside aiming ability, ordinary arrows were too weak. The mountain wind dissipated most of their force before they even reached the enemy, rendering them largely ineffective.

An Jiu’s bow was crafted by Elder Zhi, its power far surpassing that of ordinary bows. Combined with An Jiu’s precise calculations, her accuracy reached 90%. Yet, even so, she could not defeat that Transcendent Realm expert.

“Even if my arrows are accurate, I lack internal energy,” An Jiu said.

“You will use my inner strength for now,” the commander said. “I will infuse my inner strength into your body.”

An Jiu weighed the pros and cons. She had initially thought the situation would not be this dire, but now it was clear the Konghe Army was at a disadvantage, and the reason was that archer at the Transcendent Realm on the other side. Helping the commander might earn her favor, but if the Konghe Army was wiped out here, she would not be able to escape unscathed either. Furthermore, she was very interested in the Statling the String; being able to experience the feeling of inner strength flowing into an arrow beforehand was very appealing to her…

“I will do my best,” An Jiu agreed after a brief moment of thought.

The commander secretly breathed a sigh of relief. During their fight inside the tower, this girl’s strength was worlds apart from his, yet she dared to resist, refusing to help him even at the cost of her life. Now she had agreed so easily.

It turned out he had not used the right method.

The commander released her, still wary of her escaping.

An Jiu untied the bow and arrows from her back and said to him, “Let’s try it first.”

“Alright.” The commander placed his hand behind her right shoulder.

She felt a continuous flow of heat surging into her body, making her feel completely comfortable. However, as the heat increased, she gradually felt as if her blood vessels and meridians were about to burst.

The commander said, “Your spiritual power can at least accommodate the internal energy of a second-level Transcendent Realm expert, but your body’s meridians have not been trained, which might cause them to burst. Tell me if you feel any discomfort.”

An Jiu scoffed. This man had just tempted her, saying he’d let an eighth-level expert transfer all his internal energy to her. If she had actually taken advantage of his offer, would she not be dead by now, her meridians bursting?

The commander understood her meaning and calmly explained, “The transaction was a matter of mutual consent. If you had really agreed just now, I would have fulfilled my promise, but this was your choice, and if anything happened, it would have nothing to do with me.”

How shameless must one be to be so serious in trying to cover up the truth! An Jiu thought to herself.

Feeling his internal energy surging through her meridians, An Jiu knew that continuing would cause problems. She immediately focused her mind, nocked an arrow, and drew the bow, attempting to use her mental energy to force all the internal energy within her body to her fingers holding the arrow.

An Jiu adjusted her breathing, her entire being seemingly merging into the heavy snowfall of the dead of night.