Chapter 197 - 172: The Master of Archery Behind_1

In the sky, a dark figure hurriedly swooped down, stirring up a wild wind.

This figure grabbed the battered body of Liu Zhenshuo and took off into the sky.

It was a gaunt middle-aged man with a hooked nose and a pale face. His pupils were several times larger than normal, and he had a pair of meaty wings growing from his back. The wings flapped wildly, causing gusts of wind and elevating him higher into the sky.

Martial Spirit.

Another Martial Spirit.

Fleshy wings are nearly impossible for normal people to grow.

This winged Martial Spirit was extremely fast. Even while grasping Liu Zhenshuo, he ascended to an altitude of over twenty meters in the blink of an eye.

"Don’t think about escaping."

The ancestor of the Wei Clan leapt dozens of meters into the air, wielding a two-meter-long war knife, and slashed at the winged Martial Spirit.

The winged Martial Spirit rapidly flapped his wings to retreat over ten meters, avoiding the attack of the Wei Clan Ancestor.

The Wei Clan ancestor, unable to borrow force in mid-air and missing his strike, quickly fell back to the ground.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

At this moment, the Chasing Star Arrow avatar hiding in the darkness seized the opportunity and shot two arrows.

One arrow was aimed at the head of the winged Martial Spirit, and the other at his fleshy wings.

The timing was perfectly calculated, just as the winged Martial Spirit paused in his retreat.

The winged Martial Spirit let out a low growl and rapidly fluttered his wings to encase himself within them.

Two thumping sounds echoed as both arrows were surprisingly deflected away.

At the same time, Li Xingyuan had also leapt high into the sky and thrust out his sword.

The winged Martial Spirit flipped his body in mid-air and kicked out, colliding with the sword light.

With a plop sound, the winged Martial Spirit’s foot was pierced through by the sword light. But this allowed him to use the force to retreat, and with a vigorous flap of his wings, he ascended another dozen meters before flying off into the distance.

Li Xingyuan and others could only watch helplessly.

They were powerless against this kind of Martial Spirit that could fly.

"What a pity."

Lu Yan sighed softly.

The strength of the avatar is still a bit weak. If he was in his main body, firing the Chasing Star Arrow, he should be able to injure the winged Martial Spirit. However, the recovery ability of the Martial Spirit is astonishing, and it would be unlikely to retain him.

"Another Master Level Martial Spirit. And it’s not the same one as the one outside Lingwang City. There are so many Master Level Martial Spirits hidden in the six counties of Lingdong."

Li Xingyuan looked up at the sky with an extremely solemn expression.

In the vast sky, an invisible cloud seems to hang over the six counties of Lingdong.

"Whenever there is great chaos in the world, demons will run rampant. Da Chu exists in name only, providing space for the development of Martial Spirits. This world is becoming increasingly turbulent. I have a premonition that the situation of this world might undergo drastic changes, and the world will become even more difficult."

The Wei Clan Ancestor said with a gloomy and serious expression.

"Our abilities are weak, and in the face of the major forces, we can only struggle to survive. It’s hard."

Li Xingyuan sighed.

He didn’t have much longer to live, so he wasn’t particularly worried about himself -- he was mainly worried about the Li Clan.

In the face of this massive world, the Li Clan was nothing more than a small boat in the vast ocean, capable of being capsized and torn apart by a giant wave at any moment.

"We must inform the other feudal lords as soon as possible, especially the Li Clan, so as to make preparations in advance. I suspect that many feudal families have been infiltrated by Martial Spirits, including your Li Clan. There may be Martial Spirits hidden within, so it’s better to be careful. Of course, this also includes my Wei Clan. I need to go back and investigate in secret. Goodbye."

The Wei Clan Ancestor said one last thing before turning to leave.

Li Xingyuan, looking thoughtful, leapt towards Lu Yan.

After a few leaps, he landed in front of Lu Yan.

"Lu Yan, how is the person who just blocked the arrow for you doing?"

Li Xingyuan scanned his surroundings and asked.

"He’s an old friend of mine. I unintentionally saved his life once, and never expected him to risk his own life to save me. I... I would rather have been the one shot."

Lu Yan said, his face full of heartbreak, grief, and sorrow.

The avatar, of course, had already been returned to his sea of consciousness.

He had performed experiments on this before.

When the avatar is injured, it can recover on its own as long as one eats Martial Food and the energy from the Martial Food is directed into the avatar, the avatar can be repaired.

However, if the avatar was shattered, Lu Yan had not conducted any experiments and dared not attempt it, for fear that it might not be repairable, which would be self-defeating.

"Showing deep loyalty and righteousness. Truly a person of honor."

Li Xingyuan praised, before asking, "Just now, a highly skilled person assisted us from the dark with his arrows. His strength, definitely on par with a Master Level, was not invited by me. Did you invite him?"

Lu Yan nodded and said, "Yes, he’s a senior I know. The senior decided to come to help only when my life was at risk."

"I have never heard of such a person being in Lingdong who is a Master of Archery. Archery is the most powerful offensive skill. A Master of Archery hidden in the dark and attacking can be terrifying. Even if it’s only a First-level Master, I find that quite daunting. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it," said Li Xingyuan.

At the same time, he became wary, thinking that Lu Yan was not simple since he knew people at the Master level.

Not only masters, but he also knew quite a few at the Martial Marquis level.

The Martial Marquis level five fighter who was willing to die for him and before, he invited the knife technique genius, Xie Yan.

To Li Xingyuan, Lu Yan was becoming somewhat mysterious.

"That senior doesn’t like socializing. I’m afraid he’s left by now, and there’s nothing I can do about it. Please forgive him, Senior," said Lu Yan with a bow.

"If that’s the case, then so be it. There’s no need to force it and upset him," said Li Xingyuan.

Li Xingyuan said with some regret.

"Senior, I have a favor to ask."

Lu Yan said.

"Oh? What is it? Feel free to speak."

Li Xingyuan said.

"After this battle, Liu Zhenshuo has been seriously injured. The Liu Family will certainly go into hiding. Changfeng City will become ownerless. I wish to borrow troops from the Li Family to attack Changfeng City and take the three Blood Land Veins of Changfeng City. Otherwise, the Wei Family will certainly not pass up this opportunity. If it’s a little later, Changfeng City might just fall into the hands of the Wei Family."

Lu Yan said.

Although the plan wasn’t perfectly successful and didn’t manage to kill Liu Zhenshuo, leaving a big hidden danger behind.

Lu Yan still decided to proceed with the original plan.

Having gone through this battle, he had roughly figured out the strength of Liu Zhenshuo.

Even if Liu Zhenshuo assassinated him secretly afterwards, he wouldn’t be afraid.

His own strength, coupled with his avatar, was on par with Liu Zhenshuo. It was still uncertain who would defeat whom.

"Alright."

Li Xingyuan nodded.

"Senior, Changfeng City is my hometown. I want to move the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall to Changfeng City and leave only a branch in Baicao City."

Lu Yan said, pausing for a moment, and explained: "Senior rest assured, I am of the Li Family, and Changfeng City also belongs to the Li Family."

The implication was that he did not intend to become independent. He was still part of the Li Family, and Changfeng City would pay tribute every year.

Li Xingyuan smiled and said, "You don’t need to be so polite. Once you take over Changfeng City, it will belong to you. From then on, Changfeng City will belong to the Lu Family."

"Thank you, Senior."

Lu Yan thanked him, showing joy.

Thinking about it, he understood Li Xingyuan’s intentions.

Although Changfeng City had three first-class Blood Land Veins, to operate them required manpower.

Military power and a Martial Marquis to defend it were needed, and beast-raising trainers needed to guard and raise Alien Beasts.

But it was over five hundred miles away from Baicao City, the journey was too far, and it was close to the Wei Family, making it difficult to manage. If the Wei Family made a sneak attack, they could easily capture Changfeng City before they could arrive to help.

The Li Family didn’t lack distant first-class Blood Land Veins. They lacked manpower to manage them.

Manchester, within Nanyi County alone, there was no lack of first-class Blood Land Veins. Which Martial Marquis-level Feudal Lords could stop them if they wanted to capture them?

But once captured, if no one managed them, it would be useless.

Moreover, occupying too many Blood Land Veins meant splitting forces to guard them, and this would weaken the army’s strength at Baicao City’s headquarters, making it easy for enemies to defeat them one by one.

It might be more profitable to let those Martial Marquis-level Feudal Lords manage them and pay annual tributes.

They would certainly hold onto cities like Dingxing City that were close and had top-tier primary Blood Land Veins.

Of course, there was another important reason. Behind Lu Yan stood a ’Master of Archery’. It was totally worth it for the Li Family to use the three Blood Land Veins, which were not very useful for the Li Family, to win over that Master of Archery.

"Lu Yan, I will arrange it back home. Tomorrow morning, we can set off."

Li Xingyuan said, then left.

Lu Yan returned to the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall. A black shadow flickered over, transformed into a rainbow and disappeared into Lu Yan’s body, leaving behind a set of black robes and a horn-bow.

It was the Chasing Star Arrow avatar.

The five Black Shine Iron arrows that had been fired before had been brought back by the avatar.

This thing couldn’t be lost. Each lost one was precious.

After putting away the bow and the clothes, Lu Yan began to chew on a piece of Dried Martial Food.

Soon, energy poured out from the Dao Book, fell on the Vajra Indestructible Skill avatar, and the severed avatar slowly reconnected under the energy.

Meanwhile, Lu Yan was contemplating the details of this siege on Liu Zhenshuo.

Unexpectedly, another Martial Spirit came to save Liu Zhenshuo. This was beyond his expectations.

If it hadn’t been for that Martial Spirit, they could have kept Liu Zhenshuo.

"From Kaoshan Village onward, how many Martial Spirits have appeared? The once rare Martial Spirits are now emerging in large numbers. Is there an organization involved here?"

Lu Yan’s thoughts returned to the day of the decisive battle between the Liu and Wu Families.

At that time, he encountered a strange old man who was a Martial Spirit and who later seemed to be killed by Liu Zhenshuo.

The strange old man had seen his talent, wanted to take him to... the Holy Sect.

Is the Holy Sect the organization of Martial Spirits?

Is the organization’s name actually Holy Sect, or is that just what the strange old man respectfully called it?

Perhaps there will be a chance to ask about it.

...

Li Family, inner mansion.

Li Xingyuan summoned Li Wenxin late at night, explained the incident of encircling Liu Zhenshuo, and also revealed Lu Yan’s true identity.

Upon hearing this, Li Wenxin was deeply moved and couldn’t calm down.

The seemingly ordinary leader of the Sanjue Martial Arts Hall turned out to have such a background.

"Wenxin, Lu Yan is not simple. Behind him stands a Master of Archery. Try to establish a good relationship with him and treat him sincerely. He may bring you great help in the future."

"Also, it seems that Lu Yan does not want to publicize it, so you should not tell others."

Li Xingyuan instructed.

"Ancestor, I understand."

Li Wenxin bowed.

"Go on, count the soldiers and horses. Tomorrow, go with Lu Yan to Changfeng City."

Li Xingyuan ordered.