Chapter 118: Just One Blade
"Ahhh—!!"
The shrill scream echoed in the night sky, causing both the Three-Sword Man and the emaciated man to turn toward the direction of the archer. A look of horror appeared in their eyes!
There… was another enemy?!
On the Rooftop
The woman archer's eyes had completely turned black. She knelt in pain, her hands uncontrollably tearing at her scalp, as if trying to force something out of her mind.
Fresh blood flowed down her forehead. She opened her mouth wide, vomiting large amounts of black blood, and her body darkened visibly.
"Ahhh… What... what have you done?!!"
She clutched her head, suddenly looking up at Lin QiYe and letting out a furious roar!
Lin QiYe watched the woman's torment, a slight frown appearing on his face as he rubbed his chin.
"The effect of the Abyssal Corruption is weak against intelligent beings... The higher their intelligence, the harder it is to corrupt them. At my current level, I could probably only control animals like cats and dogs... Its effect on humans is mediocre."
At that moment, a flash of brilliance suddenly erupted in the woman archer's eyes. Her spiritual power surged explosively, and the night-like darkness in her pupils receded like a tide!
She stood up in a flash, stumbling backward.
Lin QiYe grunted in response, also retreating several steps, pressing a hand to his forehead as his brow furrowed tightly.
"Spiritual power can break free from the Abyssal Corruption. The higher their cultivation, the greater the backlash against me. She's probably also in the Pool stage of spiritual power. If she weren't, that burst just now would have knocked me out... Looks like I can't carelessly use the Abyssal Corruption on people to control their minds yet."
The woman archer fell straight from the rooftop, but as a former night watchman, even severely injured, her agility was still remarkable!
She swiftly drew an arrow from her quiver and thrust it into the hard building wall, slowing her fall significantly.
Then, using the inertia from her body's natural movement, she rolled twice on the lawn below the building, barely managing to stand upright, quickly drawing her bow and nocking an arrow.
Whoosh—!
An arrow shot out with terrifying force, accurately speeding toward Lin QiYe's position!
Lin QiYe's brow arched slightly, as if he had already predicted the arrow's trajectory. He casually tilted his head, and the arrow brushed past his hair, missing him by mere inches.
The woman archer was stunned.
Lin QiYe held the black box in one hand and gently adjusted his gentleman's hat with the other. The wind rustled his coat, and he smiled faintly.
He took a step forward and lightly leapt off the rooftop.
Unlike the woman archer, who had slowed her fall with the arrow, Lin QiYe fell freely, tapping his toes against the building's wall a few times. Like a ghost in the midnight air, he floated down six stories and landed smoothly on the ground.
His movement was fluid, like a black cat leaping off a shelf, elegant and effortless.
This was the Starry Night Dancer at the Pool stage.
"Finally... I can jump off buildings now," Lin QiYe thought, recalling how he had struggled down the stairs while chasing the Nantuo snake demon at school, a self-deprecating smile crossing his face.
"Are you... human or a ghost?!" The woman archer, horrified by what she had just seen, instinctively felt a chill run down her spine. Without a second thought, she turned and sprinted toward the complex streets behind her.
As she ran, she drew arrows from her quiver, nocking them and shooting back at Lin QiYe with fluid motions.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!!
Several arrows flew at him. Lin QiYe calmly dodged them, as if taking a leisurely stroll, easily evading all the arrows. The enhanced perception and dynamic vision granted by his Godly Domain and the Starry Night Dancer made evasion a breeze.
The woman archer gritted her teeth in frustration. She decided to draw three arrows at once, nocking them in the bow and aiming carefully before firing!
The three arrows formed a "品" (pin) character in the air, completely sealing off all of Lin QiYe's escape routes. The tips of the arrows created a deadly net, heading straight for him.
Lin QiYe pressed his hat down slightly, and a wave of pitch-black darkness expanded from him in all directions.
In the next instant, the three arrows were embedded in the blackness, unable to advance a single inch!
Lin QiYe, capable of intercepting hundreds of missile fragments in half a second, found these three arrows no challenge at all.
With a casual flick of his hand, the arrows turned around, flying straight back toward the woman archer!
However, since the arrows were not originally hers, they lacked the same powerful momentum. Coupled with Lin QiYe's poor marksmanship, the three arrows quickly veered off course, completely missing her.
The woman archer: ...
Lin QiYe sighed, deciding to end the fight to avoid exposing his astonishing archery skills.
He gently pressed the handle of the black box, and with a soft click, a sheathed straight sword sprang out from the side.
Lin QiYe reached for the sword.
Clang—!
A crisp, vibrating sound rang out as the sword left its sheath.
Lin QiYe's eyes narrowed slightly, and he gripped the sword with one hand, moving toward the woman archer with a ghost-like speed—far faster than before.
The woman archer bit her lip and fired several more arrows, but Lin QiYe easily dodged them.
Under the flickering streetlights, Lin QiYe's figure was like a phantom, his pale blue blade cutting through the darkened street with a straight line. In the blink of an eye, he was standing before the woman archer.
Her pupils contracted in shock!
A flash of the blade, and blood splattered.
Lin QiYe walked past her without a change in expression, sheathing his sword.
Thud!
The woman archer collapsed to the ground, her throat slit.
Blood spread out around her.
Although she was also in the Pool stage, Lin QiYe only needed one blade, one strike, to kill her.
This wasn't just a difference in cultivation—it was a difference in class.
If the madman Cao Yuan and the Three-Sword Man's fight was a berserker overwhelming an assassin, then this encounter between the woman archer and Lin QiYe was more like a fragile marksman facing an assassin. With such high agility, she stood no chance at all.
As for Bai Li Tuming and the emaciated man... well, perhaps their battle was akin to a fight between Doraemon and Fat Tiger.
Lin QiYe picked up the black box from the ground, lightly raising his black gentleman's hat as he looked toward the distant explosions. He sighed helplessly.
"Guess I'll have to deal with that crazy black guy later... What a hassle."
Shaking his head, he carried the two black boxes and walked down the dark street.
Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, atop another high-rise building.
Leng Xuan slowly moved away from the sniper scope, his gaze following Lin QiYe's departing figure. A faint smile appeared on his lips.
"Not bad."