Hidden Shadow – CH 071

Chapter Seventy-One: The Blue Arrow

“It’s not safe for my cousin to go out alone,” Mo Sigui said.

Elder Zhi seemed not to understand him. “I will assign you guards. Qianshan…”

He paused, staring at Mo Sigui with displeasure. “Where’s Qianshan?”

Mu Qianshan was a seventh-level martial artist, skilled in hidden weapons. It was impossible for an ordinary person to take him down silently unless drugged.

In the Mei Clan, only Elder Qi and Mo Sigui possessed this ability. Elder Qi obviously would not be so bored as to trouble a mere Shadow.

Mo Sigui shrank his neck, stammering, “I saw… I saw him squatting on the roof beam, looking exhausted…”

Elder Zhi was not particularly short-tempered, but in the entire Mei Clan, Mo Sigui feared him the most. He possessed a wise mind, a gaze that seemed to see through everything, and rarely considered emotions in his actions. Such a wise man was truly terrifying.

Elder Zhi did not press the matter further, gently letting the topic pass. He then said to An Jiu, “After Tingjun’s burial, come to me to retrieve your entry token.”

“Alright,” An Jiu replied.

Silence followed for a moment. Then An Jiu said, “Elder, please have Mo Sigui come out with me.”

“Do you two not have a grudge?” Elder Zhi’s calm face betrayed no emotion, as if he were asking casually.

Mo Sigui chuckled, “We are all family, there’s no grudge that lasts overnight. A small misunderstanding was cleared up long ago.”

“That’s good.” Elder Zhi got up to leave.

Mo Sigui said, “Elder…”

“Oh, right,” Elder Zhi interrupted him, instructing An Jiu, “Starting tomorrow, come here to practice. You do not need to go to the clan school.”

With that, he turned and left.

Mo Sigui kept giving An Jiu meaningful glances, his eyes almost twitching.

An Jiu calmly replied, “I can unleash the ‘Startling the String’ technique.”

Elder Zhi abruptly stopped, turned to look at An Jiu a few times, and suddenly grinned. “You may not understand, but I hate it most when people blatantly lie.”

“What force do you think I used to suppress a Transcendent Realm expert?” An Jiu stood up and said, “I have no internal energy, but others do.”

Elder Zhi’s eyes widened slightly. “Really?”

“Since I dared to say it, it is true,” An Jiu said.

Elder Zhi appeared calm, but his voice trembled uncontrollably. “Come here.”

“If you promise I can go out with Mo Sigui, I will tell you the secret.” An Jiu remained standing.

Elder Zhi’s expression darkened slightly. “You are blackmailing me.”

“It’s a deal,” An Jiu corrected him.

He revealed the secret of the ‘Startling the String’ technique for just this small request. Elder Zhi disapproved of An Jiu’s ruthless pursuit of her goal, but of course, he would not pass up an opportunity. “If you can successfully fire the arrow, I will agree.”

“Alright,” An Jiu replied.

“Then let’s go.” Elder Zhi turned and left.

Mo Sigui was stunned for a moment before realizing what An Jiu had just said and quickly got up. Elder Zhi and An Jiu were heading towards the large shooting range outside. His inner strength was slowly gathering, so he gathered his energy and flew after them.

Visibility was extremely high today. The wind was also light.

Elder Zhi ordered someone to fetch a bow and arrows. An Jiu casually shot a few arrows at the target to familiarize herself with the bow and arrow.

“Shoot a few more arrows and see,” Elder Zhi said, staring at the bullseye in the distance.

An Jiu did as instructed and drew her bow.

She was quiet and focused while preparing, almost every muscle in her body tense, yet at the moment of release, she seemed remarkably relaxed and casual.

Elder Zhi remained silent, lost in thought. After a moment, he raised his hand and pressed it against An Jiu’s back.

An Jiu felt a surge of icy internal energy enter her, her meridians instantly feeling as if icicles were being driven into them. The pain quickly subsided into numbness.

Elder Zhi’s internal energy clashed with that of the Divine Martial Commander, like fire and ice. An Jiu’s meridians had already been damaged when they were forcibly widened before, making this experience even more unbearable.

Mo Sigui saw her face turn pale instantly and reached out to grasp her pulse.

“Elder, stop!” Mo Sigui exclaimed. “If this continues, her meridians will be ruined.” Elder Zhi’s eyes dimmed, a moment of hesitation passing through him, but he did not stop.

Elder Zhi was a cold-blooded man. His special regard for An Jiu stemmed solely from his fanaticism for archery. He had pursued the pinnacle of archery for decades, and now, with the opportunity to witness the amazing feat of archery firsthand in his lifetime, how could he let it slip by? His disregard for An Jiu’s life was also due to his fervent passion for archery. An Jiu had already given up all hope; what did it matter if one of her meridians was destroyed?

“Hey!” Mo Sigui released her hand, trying to persuade her, “What will Fourteenth do if your meridians are destroyed?”

“Too late.” An Jiu’s meridians were already replenished with internal energy.

She raised her bow, spreading two fingers to draw the string.

Mo Sigui lowered his shoulders, looking at An Jiu’s exquisite profile. Her skin was fair and translucent in the snowy light, her eyes reflecting the snow like black glass. She was calm and cold.

A blue light slowly emerged between her slender white fingers, just like the master on the cliff.

A crane’s cry.

The blue arrow flew three zhang before disappearing abruptly, the target twenty zhang away, swaying slightly.

The world returned to calm.

Elder Zhi released his grip, darted to the target, and raised his trembling hand to touch the arrow holes. But the moment his fingertip touched it, the entire target instantly turned to dust. He immediately went to check the large tree behind the target.

“Ha!” Elder Zhi suddenly laughed. “Hahaha!”

It turned out the target was too small to withstand the powerful internal force, so the remaining force pierced the tree, pulverizing the entire trunk. Elder Zhi slapped it, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Blood slowly seeped from An Jiu’s mouth and nose.

Mo Sigui gripped her wrist again.

An Jiu broke free, using her bow as a cane for support, and hastily wiped away the blood.

“So this is not your body, and you do not care?” Mo Sigui checked her pulse again.

This time, An Jiu did not resist, letting him take her pulse.

“Do not move! I will go back to the medicine furnace to get the needles and be right back!” Mo Sigui lifted his robe and hurriedly ran off.

An Jiu felt as if her entire body was being torn apart and stitched back together bit by bit; every inch of her body was wracked with excruciating pain.

“How did you do that?” Elder Zhi had returned sometime earlier.

The true power of the “Startling the String” technique was like this: It did not have any earth-shattering momentum, but its destructive power was terrifying. Once the arrow of pure internal energy struck its target, its power would explode within the target’s body! That was a tree; if it had been a person, one could imagine how their internal organs would have been torn apart.

“Mental energy.” An Jiu opened her mouth, blood gushing out, which she wiped away with her sleeve. “I used my mental energy to distribute or condense my internal energy.”

Elder Zhi was somewhat disappointed. He had grasped this principle more than a decade ago but had never been able to put it into practice.

He was about to examine An Jiu’s injuries when he suddenly thought of something. “Perhaps it is similar to Elder Qi’s method of diagnosing pulses with true qi?”