4 - Respect

At this moment, an arrow suddenly flew out of the nearby forest, headed straight for Xu Xin's heart.

Just half a moment before, Xu Xin felt a shiver run down his spine as a sense of danger and death appeared deep within his heart, and he instantly reacted by jumping back before he could even process what was happening.

The next moment, he fell back onto the ground as he let out a yell of pain. There was an arrow sticking straight into his chest, and it had scraped his heart. It went so far into his body that it was sticking out of his back, and blood started to pour out of the wound.

But after the initial moment of shock, Xu Xin instantly figured out what was happening and rolled over to his side, just in time to avoid a second arrow headed towards him.

He then got up instantly, faster than a normal person would even be able to understand what was happening, and looked over to where the arrows had come from to see the source, but after not seeing anything, he started to back up slowly.

He completely ignored the pain in his chest and the blood dripping down his body as he focused on the area where the arrow had come from with all his mind.

Every single shift in the leaves, every gust of wind, every tiny little detail fell into his sight as he became hyperaware of what was happening in that area.

He wasn't the type of idiot that would pull out an arrow, because the tip of the arrow was through his body and out his back, and if it was poisoned, it would be in the tip. Meanwhile, if he pulled it out, it would only make the bleeding much worse.

He didn't know why someone was trying to kill him, but he didn't really care at all. All he cared about at this moment was surviving, and all other thoughts were pushed out of his mind.

At this moment, he stopped stepping backwards, and he allowed his instincts to take over his body, and he jumped to the side, exactly in time for an arrow that had just come out of the bushes, and it hit his abdomen this time.

But since he was prepared this time, he only took a step back, and he didn't fall at all. He didn't even grunt as the arrow hit him.

"It takes more than a couple arrows to kill me. Come out and face me instead of hiding like a coward!" He yelled out into the forest with a mocking voice.

Then, with an even more mocking tone, he yelled out again, "Otherwise, you can fuck off to hell for ambushing someone weaker than you, for no reason, without even giving them the chance to fight back."

He knew he was weak, but he knew that the person who fired the arrow was also at least somewhat weak, because if it had come from someone like the archer or the bandit, the arrow would come so fast that he wouldn't even have the chance to react before he died.

However, the hidden archer ignored him and just fired another arrow, and this time it stuck into Xu Xin's shoulder. Xu Xin was lucky that it wasn't a very experienced archer, otherwise he would've already died. It was clear that they had barely practiced on moving targets.

Then, another few arrows came out of the bushes, aimed for his legs, but not a single one of them hit due to Xu Xin's insane reaction speed. It was clear that they were trying to immobilize him, but he was far too experienced to let that happen.

He had now backed up out of the effective range of the hidden archer, and no matter how good their shots were, they wouldn't hit Xu Xin anymore, meaning that he was somewhat safe as long as he could react fast enough.

His reactions were fast enough that even someone in martial arts path realm wouldn't react as fast as him, meaning that this archer was likely someone at that realm, or possibly even a higher stage of that realm.

They obviously weren't nearly as strong as the archer from before, but they were much stronger than the current Xu Xin.

It was at this moment that Xu Xin heard something behind him, but he couldn't take his focus off of the hidden archer, otherwise they would shoot him and catch him off guard.

"Whoever's behind me, if you're a foe, just kill me now. Don't put in the effort to draw this out." He didn't have the slightest bit of care for his life when he said this. He knew when he was outmatched, and he didn't care if he died. He lived only to get revenge, so him dying had no meaning anymore.

But, as he slightly suspected, the one behind him was the archer from before, and she yelled out "What are you doing?" to the archer hidden in the woods.

As soon as she said this, the archer came out from the woods with a wronged expression on their face. It was a girl, about fifteen years old.

"He insulted you! How can I just let him go?" Her voice reflected her childish nature to get even, and she had a slight pout as she spoke despite her age.

However, before the old archer even had the chance to respond, Xu Xin rang out with a mocking laugher, and he spoke degradingly, "(To older archer) So this is how you raise your disciples? Too childish to even take a couple insults without trying to kill someone? You should know better."

"And you (younger archer), give me a fucking break. Even if I told others what happened, who the fuck do you think would believe me? And yet you stoop down to such a low level as to attack someone an entire realm below you just because of a minor insult? Be more like her (older archer); at least she could contain her anger enough to think through my words.

You should both be ashamed of yourselves. Now leave me the fuck alone so I can get on my way."

Then, without even looking at their responses, he simply continued on his journey, completely ignoring the arrows in his body. It even seemed as if they didn't even exist to him.

By now, they had even mostly stopped bleeding.

He left them both behind, baffled. They didn't even know how to react to what he had just said. No one had ever been this rude to them in their entire lives, and they had just been brutally mocked for something that they both knew was true.

Never before in their lives had they met someone even remotely close to as arrogant and disrespectful as Xu Xin.

But the first one to react was the older archer. "How dare you? Just an arrogant little brat who doesn't know how the world works! You need to respect your elders!"

With this, she shot out an arrow that glowed with a silver light, and it was too fast for Xu Xin to dodge, and it hit his leg, going straight through it, breaking his leg in the process. A giant hole had been torn in his thigh, and you could see the bone in it.

Luckily, his bone was only broken and wasn't missing a chunk out of it like his flesh was.

He instantly fell to the ground, but he didn't make a sound.

He then spoke slowly and quietly, with a hint of terrifying killing intent. "You don't deserve my respect."

The killing intent was almost imperceptible, but it shook the mind and souls of the master and disciple duo, and they felt a shiver of instinctual fear run down their spines as cold sweat appeared on their bodies.

Never before had they experienced such brutal killing intent, and they just now realized that who they were dealing with wasn't just a normal kid.

It was now abundantly clear to them that this kid had been previously been through several slaughters, and he was likely someone who had had their dantian broken but had recovered.

The dantian could be recovered as long as the damage wasn't too severe, hence why they thought this. The killing intent he had released was just too strong for them to think of any other possibility.

It would also answer why he was so disrespectful to them. The only question left was why he was so young.

He then stood back up on one leg, and as he turned around and looked at them, he seemed to become a devil in their eyes, as they felt like they were drowning in a pool of blood due to the killing intent.

"Apologize." His voice was quiet, but the killing intent had grown stronger, and they seemed to be swept away in a river of blood, dragged under the current and choked of air. All around them, they felt an air of death like no other as a chill ran down their spines.

Nothing had actually changed, but it was a kind of instinctual fear that made their senses seem to change, like an illusion.

The younger girl was the first to give in as her head fell after only a few seconds of silence. "I'm sorry. I was wrong."

She had a weak will, and that was why she had tried to kill Xu Xin based off of nothing but a mere insult.

But the older archer was much more experienced dealing with killing intent, and she was a hundred times calmer, able to keep herself calm aside from a little bit of anxiety.

As she thought about the situation and who Xu Xin likely was, she came to a decision after a while.

"We were wrong. I am sorry on behalf of my disciple and her actions."

She decided that, since he was likely a fallen genius, she should give him the benefit of the doubt, and it was better not to further aggravate him; she was trusting her instincts. She would no longer trouble him, and she now regretted getting on his bad side in the first place.

She would have liked to recruit a fallen genius, but that time had already passed, and there was no such thing as a cure for regret in this world. She could only try to not let this happen in the future.

The moment she said this, the killing intent completely vanished as if it had never existed in the first place, and Xu Xin sat down on the ground, now completely ignoring them.

He then took two metal rods and a bunch of bandaging out of his bag and started to wrap it around his leg, making a splint. Then, once it was done, he simply stood up and continued to walk on his way, ignoring the existence of the master and disciple archers.

After walking a few steps, he stopped, bent down, picked up the arrow that had shot through his leg, and continued on his way. He had a limp, but this was obviously impossible to avoid considering there was a chunk of muscle and missing from his thigh.

"Treat people better." Was the only thing that he said while walking away. He seemed to become mysterious as he walked away calmly from the face of death. The arrows sticking out of his body didn't seem to bother him, making him seem detached from reality, as if he was a zombie.

...

A few hours later, Xu Xin heard them come up behind him, and they quickly passed him, only giving him a weird glance while passing him. He still had the arrows in his body, but the bleeding had entirely stopped across his entire body, and even his leg was starting to repair itself.

He still held the arrow in his hand, and he seemed to be a machine as he walked forward endlessly, as if he wasn't critically injured right now. He didn't even stop to sleep after another few hours had passed.

He couldn't run, but he could walk, and he did so with such a monotonous pattern that he didn't even seem to stand out in the environment despite constantly moving. It was even smoother than a robot.

He hadn't even realized, but he had fallen into this pattern while walking, and he was completely inattentive to his surroundings, as if he was asleep. He only noticed when they passed him before falling back into that state a few moments later.

He could be considered to be in a half-asleep state, and he continued to trudge forward without any signs of stopping, while changes were happening within his body.

The aquamarine blood had gathered around all his wound in his leg, and it was slowly rebuilding his bone. By now, it had completely stopped bleeding, and he didn't even need to wear bandages if he chose to.

The healing this time was focused only on his bone though, which was weird.