Bab 33: The Mysterious Archer
The Liu clan's army has arrived!
Everyone was in the position to defend the little territory that they had. Of course, because for some of these people, the Li clan was the only home they had. If this home of theirs was destroyed, they wouldn't have anywhere to go to.
Li Bai was spectating at the back, being restrained by some of the cultivators in the order of his father. Li Bao was in a similar situation, stuck in her room. Jin He, however, was made use of, putting her into the very front of the formation.
The dust was getting closer and closer, the originally dark shadows becoming easier to discern. Liu Gong was at the front, with furrowed eyebrows which made it seemed like he had a thousand-year grudge against the Li clan! What did Li Fu do to incur this man's wrath? No one in the Li clan knew, not even Li Fu himself! In fact, even the Liu clan didn't know!
The Liu clan had lost all sense of control when Li Fu arrived at the meeting, cutting off all ties with everyone. Speculations that they were going into seclusion emerged, but in truth, all of their actions were on a whim, the root being their unexplainable anger towards Li Fu.
Liu Gong never held any prior resentment to him, so how in the world did this situation escalate to a clan war? This confused everyone.
Nonetheless, no matter the reason, the situation now was that the Liu clan was charging in with no signs of stopping, devastating every building they came by. It looked like they weren't doing this intentionally, but rather the buildings were just in the way, but of what exactly?
The Liu clan finally went into the first line of defense, the archers. They went into the range of the archers from the Li clan, making it rain arrows onto them! There were at least a thousand arrows aimed at the large army. But even by this ridiculously huge amount of arrows, they were unfazed! Each arrow just fell to the ground after hitting one of the people, not piercing at all into their skin.
This was expected, as the archers were only at most Fourth Level Mark cultivators, while their opponents were at Fifth Level Mark. The material also had something to do with it, the arrows being made cheap to reduce the cost. This occurrence was rare after all, no one anticipated that this would happen.
The arrows were made of Black Flint, which was the cheapest material an arrow could be made of. The most expensive would be White Flame Flint, but those are extremely rare and therefore expensive. The Black Flint arrow's strength was based on the archer's cultivation level. It could pierce the skin of a cultivator whose level was lower than that of the archer. The archers were Fourth Level Mark, there was just no way the arrows they shot could penetrate.
The army continued to charge through the rain of arrows and the buildings almost as if like they didn't exist. The cultivators of the Liu clan, although not as strong as the Li clan, were many in number, so even if some did get affected by the arrows, the percentage would be irrelevant compared to the whole number of people in the army.
The army reached the second line of defense, which were the traps. These traps were laid carelessly and so many of them were duds that didn't affect anyone. The few that did work only managed to hold the people back temporarily, not reducing the number by a bit!
Most of the traps were made from Frailwood which was cheap but, as the name suggested, was very weak compared to the more expensive types of wood. The Frailwood couldn't even hold a Fourth Level Mark cultivator back, let alone Fifth Level Mark cultivators, as it would only be completely decimated by them.
Just like that, the Liu clan's army advanced further in the Li clan's territory with relative ease. Some of them had been taken down, with the majority of the fallen being either Second or Third Level Mark.
Fortunately for the Li clan, the majority of the people in the Liu clan's army were all in the Third Level Mark, or even lower. Only the Li clan had a higher percentage of Fifth Level Mark cultivators than the Liu clan.
The archers continued to shoot arrows upon the army, but even the Third Level Mark cultivators were now resistant against the arrows. This puzzled the Li clan's archers, as their arrows were supposed to have an effect on the cultivators whose level was lower than theirs, how were these ones able to endure them?
While this massive fight was taking place, Li Bai sneaked away from the place he was being restrained in, the guards being too focused on the battle. Things were not going well for the Li clan.
Li Bai had the ability to jump up from the ground up to the towers the archers were shooting from since he was at the Fifth Level Mark already, and he did just that. From this high place, he could observe the battle clearly while not being noticed with all the panic surrounding the archers.
He could see that the battle was clearly one-sided, that the Li clan had no chance of winning. Unless he or Jin He helped, this Li clan would perish this very day. Luckily for the Li clan, he and Jin He will help beat the puzzling attack of the Liu clan!
The archers repeatedly drew the bow with numerous arrows shooting at the Liu clan. One could generally tell what Level Mark a cultivator was if one was a cultivator themselves, so the archers shot the ones that had a lower cultivation level than them. What puzzled them the most was the fact that even the ones that had a lower level than them could repel their attacks!
Several bows were stacked on the floor. These bows were to be used as replacements in case one that was being used broke. Li Bai saw it and planned to help the archers in their endeavor to reduce the numbers of the enemy army.
He grabbed one of the bows and took out some arrows from his storage ring. The arrows that he took out were made of rare materials, even in the whole country. These arrows were one of the remnants of his treasures in the ring protected by Jin He from who knows what.
The arrows were made of the rare Black Scaled Serpent Bone. The Black Scaled Serpent was rare in itself, and the chance of one having a bone was even lesser. Out of a thousand serpents, one was a Black Scaled Serpent, and out of a hundred of those, one had a bone. All in all, there was only a one out of a hundred thousand chance for a serpent to be black scaled and have a bone.
The Black Scaled Serpents were known for their hard scales, and even harder bones if they had them. Thus, these arrows were extremely valuable in the eyes of anyone in Backwater City. But in the eyes of Li Bai, it was nothing special, because, in his collection of arrows, the Black Scaled Serpent Bone Arrows were the weakest of the bunch.
Li Bai climbed up to a higher place. He, who has reached the peak of the Fifth Level Mark, had a higher level than anyone in the vicinity, except for Jin He, of course. The Black Scaled Serpent arrows pierced through the defenses of anyone with at most one level higher than the shooter. Adding to that Li Bai's expertise of archery from his previous lives, it was clear that this was going to be easy for him.
Li Bai planned to use some techniques that used some of his energy. He was going to use the [Dragon Arrow] Technique that he learned in one of his previous lives. This technique relied on brute force. He was also going to use the [Bullseye Arrow] Technique that relied on precision instead of strength unlike the previous one.
These two techniques were those in the higher ranks compared to others in the same branch. Li Bai didn't feel the need to use the highest ranked ones because after all, his opponents were just small fry that hasn't even reached the Heavenly Mark Realm.
Li Bai started drawing back the first arrow, stretching the bow to its very extent.
*SHA*
He let go, and a gust of wind blew from the pressure of the arrow passing through! The wind blew the archers close to Li Bai away, leaving them confused.
He used the [Dragon Arrow] Technique for testing out to see how strong this technique was. After all, he never really used it due to him having more powerful techniques. The gust of wind already exceeded Li Bai's expectations.
The arrow arrived at the rampaging army and struck one of the Liu clan's elders.
*BOOM*
This elder, once he got hit by the arrow, exploded! The pressure from the elder's explosion also knocked back many of the people around him.
All of the Li clansmen who witnessed this were shocked at this scene! At most, archery was regarded as one of the more useless arts, only serving to weaken the enemy. Now, this sight changed their perspective!
Li Fu was the most shocked. The elder that got exploded by the arrow was at least on par with him, a Fifth Level Mark 9-gems! To achieve that kind of result, one would have to be stronger than him, the clan head! Someone that strong was lurking about in his clan, he was quite afraid. At first, he suspected Jin He, but he saw her positioned at the front just like him, so it must not be her at all. Who was this mysterious archer?
Li Bai stayed calm throughout the situation. He expected the explosion of the elders to happen, but he didn't expect the ones around him to be affected as well. Maybe I've overestimated these Fifth Level Mark cultivators...
He shot the second of the arrows to another one of the Fifth Level Mark elders, but he used the [Bullseye Arrow] Technique instead. The arrow didn't blow a gust of wind like the previous one, but it was faster. It pierced through the target's heart, instantly killing him.
Comparing the two techniques, on this opponent, it was more beneficial to use the [Dragon Arrow] technique instead of the [Bullseye Arrow] technique because the enemy was high in numbers. The latter technique's specialty seems to be targeting the enemy's weak points with precision.
Unlike the first arrow, the second arrow didn't garner much attention, rather, it didn't get noticed at all! So this [Bullseye Arrow] technique was more suited to assassins whose targets were stronger than them. Li Bai decided to use the [Dragon Arrow] Technique for tackling this problematic army of elders.
The third arrow was shot.
*SHA*
The arrow landed on the ground, making the earth shake! This affected much more people than before. The horses panicked and ran away, leaving the elders on the ground.
Rejoicing, the Li clan looked for the unknown archer helping them. They looked at where the arrow came from. What they saw was a black figure, with the sun behind him.
Li Bai saw all of the people looking at him and got excited! His long-awaited fame was finally here! Once this war was finished, he would be rejoiced by the people, hailed as the hero who saved them! What he didn't know was that the people below couldn't see who he was at all. The sun was too bright for them to determine the identity of the figure.
Meanwhile, the army remained unfazed, even with all of their horses abandoning them, the exploding elders and the shaking earth. Li Bai was finding their composure peculiar.
"Even in this situation, they're still charging in as planned? No changes to their formation whatsoever?"
Li Bai took a wider look and realized that there was no formation at all, just a jumbled chaotic mess of people. He was finding the attack more bizarre by the second.
"...or I could just be overthinking it. They could just not think of us, the Li clan, that highly... If so, then I will force them to think that!"
Meanwhile, one of the servants that were entrusted with Li Bai's safety just noticed that the child they were protecting was gone. He asked his fellow servant.
"W-where is young master Li Bai?"
When the whereabouts of Li Bai was called to attention, all of the servants in the vicinity panicked, even the ones that looked down on Li Bai! Even though he's trash, he was still the clan head's son! To lose him when they were assigned the task of looking after him would be the same as losing their heads!
Bored in her room, Li Bao was looking for the opportunity to escape, but it was impossible, there were just too many servants surrounding her room. One of the servants looking for Li Bai asked a servant guarding Li Bao.
"Hey, have you seen the young master Li Bai? He's missing."
As soon as she heard that the young master was missing, the servant immediately informed the other servants surrounding Li Bao's room to help go look for him.
Li Bao overheard the conversation and took this opportunity to escape. She headed towards Li Bai's room, hoping to find him there, but realized that the servant said he was missing.
"Of course, he wouldn't be in his room."
The servants caught Li Bao, this time detaining her inside Li Bai's room.
.....
The army passed through all of the traps and arrived at the main defense, the cultivators. As soon as they did, the two sides engaged in a heated battle. Liu Gong and Li Fu were fighting each other.
Li Fu was still hesitant to hurt his friend Liu Gong, so he held back some of his power. After all, he knew that he had a higher cultivation level than Liu Gong.
Liu Gong, however, was not showing any signs of hesitation, instead seemingly giving it his all to fight Li Fu with the intent to kill.
Li Fu felt that there was something strange going on with his friend, but he didn't have the time to think about it and continued to defend himself against his friend.
Jin He was completely annihilating her opponents, not even breaking a sweat, not even standing! She was sitting leisurely on a chair she brought outside, fanning herself with her hand, all the while fanning the enemy too, knocking them back several meters.
Other than Jin He, everyone else was struggling with their opponents, fighting to the death. Both the Li clan's and the Liu clan's numbers were steadily decreasing.
Li Bai wasn't shooting with his [Dragon Arrow] Technique anymore, as it would cause casualties on both sides, the Li clan, and the Liu clan. Instead, he was using the [Bullseye Arrow] Technique to target the opponents precisely, even while far away like he was now, and the [Lightning Arrow] Technique to shoot arrows in succession as quickly as possible. This also added to the speed of the arrow.
Every time an arrow killed an enemy, the person that was battling said enemy would get surprised. Who was it that was targeting these enemies with extreme precision, not hitting him at all? What's more, there were multiple instances of this happening in one second, suggesting that there were multiple archers that could do this.
They wanted to glance at the elite archers but were too preoccupied fighting. What they didn't know was that there was only one person who was shooting all of those arrows, and it was the trash of the clan!
The rest of the archers couldn't shoot anymore as they didn't have high precision, unlike Li Bai. Instead, they went to help the army with martial arts. The traps have all been activated, with most ending up as duds. The whole of Liu clan's army has gotten through both the first and second lines of defenses.
After thinking, Li Bai also put his bow down and decided to help with melee attacks instead of ranged ones. He thought that he would do more damage if he attacked directly, not shooting arrows one by one.
The last of Li Bai's arrows hit their respective targets straight through the heart, surprising the ones who were fighting them.
Li Bai jumped down from the tall tower and ran towards the battle, passing by one of the panicking servants that are looking for him. The servant saw the young master rapidly walking towards the battle and immediately lifted him up and brought him back to his room, where Li Bao was.
"Oh, Bai didi, you were captured."
Li Bai saw his sister in his room and got confused. Why is she in my room?
Li Bao took the initiative to talk and spoke confidently, guessing her brother's thoughts.
"Didi, you may be wondering, why is your Bao jie-jie in your room?"
"Yes. I am wondering that."
Li Bai crossed his arms, raised one of his eyebrows, and stood in front of Li Bao while tapping his foot, implying his impatience. He exuded a superior smart aura as opposed to Li Bai's inferior stupid aura.
Li Bao got intimidated by his increasing presence. A sweat dripped through her back and she retreated a small bit.
Li Bai was getting more and more addle. What is she doing? He was not intimidating her on purpose, but rather, he was doing it out of habit. He always did this in his past lives.
Li Bao spoke timidly to not prolong this scary conversation any longer.
"Uh... well, you see... there's something I need help with..."
Li Bai was shocked. Was his sister still practicing the art of medicine making amidst all of the chaos outside? He underestimated his sister. What he didn't know was that he estimated her exactly before and now he's overestimating her. Li Bao actually just thought up an excuse for her to go to his room. She just wanted to talk to someone.
"Alright, jie-jie. What is the problem?"
"Ah, see, I'm getting perplexed. How do I control the fire?"
Wait, this topic? Didn't we already discuss this before? Li Bai was confused once again. Nonetheless, he still taught her again.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone