Chapter 174: Counterattack (Part 2)
Chapter 174: Counterattack (Part 2)
Among these three, Young Master Ma had the deepest hidden strength. Although he appeared to be only at the Early-stage Golden Core cultivation level on the surface, his true power was certainly extraordinary. Dealing with him would likely be impossible for me. Next came Wei Wuya; all of this trouble ultimately stemmed from him, so he would definitely be the first one I targeted. As for Jia Longwu, Humph! Since you showed no mercy first, don’t blame me for being ruthless later!
Tang Jinbiao watched the three figures vanish into the cave entrances. He did not immediately act. Instead, he continued to stare fixedly at the entrances.
He had endured for so long; he had no need to rush this moment. He firmly believed that opportunity always favors those who wait and endure!
Twenty breaths!
Exactly after twenty breaths passed, the formation at the very center wavered. The figure of Young Master Ma reappeared.
“Dammit!”
Emerging, Young Master Ma wore a dark, stormy expression. He cursed, then charged fiercely toward the centralmost entrance. In the blink of an eye, he plunged back inside.
“Twenty breaths!”
Tang Jinbiao noted Wei Wuya’s time in his mind.
Another twenty breaths later, from the entrance adjacent to the one with the formation, Wei Wuya’s figure crawled out.
“Hmph!”
Wei Wuya, also grim-faced, snorted coldly. He immediately turned and scurried into an entrance beside him.
“Forty breaths!”
Tang Jinbiao silently committed Wei Wuya’s time.
Whoosh!
However, the instant Wei Wuya disappeared inside, Young Master Ma’s figure materialized outside again. Immediately after, he darted towards yet another entrance nearby and burrowed in.
“As expected!”
Tang Jinbiao’s eyes widened with shock upon seeing Young Master Ma’s speed, which was nearly twice that of Wei Wuya.
Judging solely by this speed, Young Master Ma’s strength was definitely not a simple matter of one plus one equaling two. The strength of two Wei Wuya combined was no match for Young Master Ma.
“This man is not to be provoked! He’s utterly dangerous! At the very least, someone I cannot afford to antagonize right now.”
Tang Jinbiao decisively categorized Young Master Ma as a person to avoid at all costs and resumed his silent vigil.
Another twenty breaths passed. A full sixty breaths now!
Whoosh!
Only then, from the far-right entrance, did Jia Longwu finish probing his first cave and burst out. He immediately spun and charged into the entrance next to him.
“Sixty breaths!”
Tang Jinbiao chanted silently in his mind as Jia Longwu’s figure vanished.
Whoosh!
Sure enough, as Jia Longwu disappeared, Young Master Ma’s figure rematerialized. Similarly, he hadn’t found the exit and charged once more into the entrance beside him.
“Twenty! Forty! Sixty!”
Tang Jinbiao mentally recorded the three men’s entry and exit times and began calculating.
“If I move now, I have only twenty breaths to act. Even if I stay put now, I still only have twenty breaths. It’s about a hundred zhang from here to the first entrance. Getting there would take roughly ten breaths. Therefore, at best, I’d only have ten breaths of actual time inside. Moreover, to avoid detection by Young Master Ma, any conflict must occur within ten zhang of the entrance. That means… I must achieve a one-hit kill. The slightest delay could lead to disaster!”
The more critical the moment became, the more Tang Jinbiao forced himself to calm down and began analyzing the troubles he might encounter.
“Alright, since that’s the case, then I will wait again until the three enter simultaneously again to follow Wei Wuya!”
After making the decision, Tang Jinbiao made even more effort to keep himself calm, waiting second by second.
One breath!
Two breaths!
Three breaths!
……
Ten breaths!
……
Fifteen breaths!
……
Twenty breaths!
Although it was only twenty breaths, Tang Jinbiao felt as if he had passed through several long centuries.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Wei Wuya and Young Master Ma almost came out at the same time. The two glanced at each other, shook their heads, and rushed toward the next entrance again.
One breath!
Two breaths!
Three breaths!
“Alright, now!”
After three breaths had passed and Tang Jinbiao confirmed that Young Master Ma could no longer investigate the outside situation, his body made a slight movement as if he was about to rush out.
“No, there’s a risk of alerting them. Then I would have to face three people. Wait, I need to wait more. Hmm, just wait another forty breaths. Only then, even if I really alert them, I would only face Wei Wuya and Young Master Ma!”
As soon as he thought of this, Tang Jinbiao suppressed his inner impulse again and stopped.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
His heart beat slowly, time after time. Tang Jinbiao silently counted the passage of time in his heart.
Just when the one hundred and twentieth breath arrived!
The three finally appeared outside simultaneously again.
None of them had found the exit, nor discovered Tang Jinbiao. With helpless looks on their faces, they shook their heads and rushed toward the next entrance again.
Thump!
One breath!
Thump!
Two breaths!
Thump!
Three breaths!
“Now, right now!”
Seeing the three rush back inside, Tang Jinbiao sprang to his feet excitedly, not caring a whit if he exposed himself. Transforming into a streak of black light, he shot toward the cavern entrance where Wei Wuya had vanished.
“Aah! Run, run, run!”
The distance from the dense forest to the entrance was about a hundred zhang. Though not extremely far, to Tang Jinbiao at that moment, it felt like the distance between heaven and earth. The slightest delay would render all his desperate efforts futile. He sprinted wildly, pushing himself beyond his limits.
Thump thump thump!
His speed was so frantic that he kicked up clods of earth from the ground.
One breath!
Ten zhang!
Two breaths!
Twenty zhang!
…
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Though covering mere breaths worth of distance, Tang Jinbiao could distinctly hear his own heart pounding violently, hammering against his ribs.
As the entrance grew nearer, a torrent of sweat broke out over his body. It wasn’t sweat from exertion, but cold sweat born of sheer tension and terror.
Failure meant this place would become his grave!
But he did not know that even if he succeeded, this too would become his “grave”!
The Tang Jinbiao of the past would be forever buried here from this moment on!
Whoosh!
Finally, by the thirteenth breath, Tang Jinbiao lunged headlong through the entrance.
Whoosh!
Once inside, Tang Jinbiao didn’t stop. He kept sprinting wildly for another three breaths. Only after plunging nearly thirty zhang into the depths did he skid to a halt.
“Frost Silver Spear!”
Tang Jinbiao cried inwardly. The Frost Silver Spear instantly flew out.
It lengthened with the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into a spear over ten feet long.
“Aah!”
With the Frost Silver Spear in his grip, Tang Jinbiao felt an exhilarating surge of power. He fiercely craved charging in right then to battle Wei Wuya for three hundred rounds. Yet now wasn’t the time for reckless bravery. All he wanted was to kill. Only Wei Wuya’s death could appease the deep-seated bitterness in his heart.
Thwack thwack thwack!
One more breath passed after grasping the spear. Tang Jinbiao delayed no further. Bracing his hands against the walls on either side, he began climbing upwards. He only stopped when he reached roughly thirty feet high.
From the moment Tang Jinbiao stood up to the completion of his preparation, only seventeen brief breaths had elapsed.
“Good… if my guess holds, Wei Wuya should emerge in twenty-three breaths. Accounting for the thirty zhang distance from the entrance to this spot… his speed seems slightly slower than mine. Before, traversing this narrow passage took me thirty breaths. For the same distance, he likely needs forty breaths to my thirty. This means for every three-breath segment I cover, he’ll need four!”
Peering into the seemingly endless dark narrow passage below, Tang Jinbiao instantly calculated the exact timing of Wei Wuya’s approach.
“In other words, he’ll arrive right beneath me in nineteen breaths! Fine, I’ll be waiting!”
After calculating Wei Wuya’s timing, Tang Jinbiao held his breath once more. His legs braced fiercely against the walls on either side, his right hand gripping the Frost Silver Spear tightly. The instant Wei Wuya emerged, he’d impale him like Runtu spearing that weasel.
Twenty breaths!
At twenty breaths past, Young Master Ma emerged once again from the entrance of a narrow passage within the Stone Forest, having searched another dead end. Similarly, this wasn’t the exit, nor was Tang Jinbiao there.
Swish!
He whirled around and charged into an adjacent entrance.
But before even one breath could pass, Young Master Ma suddenly doubled back. A flicker of doubt crossed his eyes as he glanced at the ground.
Hmph! Probably just my imagination.
After surveying the area briefly and finding nothing amiss, he darted into the next unsearched entrance.
“Thirteen breaths!”
The hand Tang Jinbiao used to grip the Frost Silver Spear trembled slightly. Despite the spear’s icy chill, beads of sweat formed densely on his palm. He counted silently in his mind.
“Fourteen breaths!”
“Fifteen breaths!”
…
“Seventeen breaths!”
…
“Eighteen breaths! He’s coming!”
When Tang Jinbiao’s inner count reached eighteen, he could already sense someone bursting out inward, surging directly toward his position.
Time seemed frozen. Though only one breath, it stretched agonizingly long.
“Eighteen and a half! NOW!”
As Tang Jinbiao’s held breath tightened and before he could leap, precisely at eighteen and a half breaths, the Frost Silver Spear shot from his hand.
The space was cramped. The gap between the stone walls spanned barely a meter, wide enough for a person to run freely but narrow enough to confine. Overhead, glimpses of sky spilled pale light, banishing utter darkness and illuminating the path.
Swish!
The Frost Silver Spear streaked like a silver serpent. It slid from Tang Jinbiao’s palm, traversing the entire length of the shaft until finally freeing itself, becoming a silver thread cutting across the divide between shadow and dim light.
It flew from the light into the dark!
Whish!
As the spear left his grasp, the sweat droplets clinging to Tang Jinbiao’s palm sprayed outward, catching the faint gleam above like scattered, glittering diamonds.
“Go—!”
Tang Jinbiao’s face contorted into a snarl, the word tearing from his throat.
Thump!
Wei Wuya, sprinting desperately outward along the ground, wore a stormy expression. He’d found neither Tang Jinbiao nor the true exit. Abruptly, his heart lurched violently. He sensed it—a thick, cloying murderous intent.
Shink!
Wei Wuya instantly pinpointed the source of danger. His head snapped upward towards the air above. There, suspended above and before him, was a dark silhouette.
“It’s—!”
Recognizing the face, Wei Wuya’s pupils contracted wildly. His mouth fell open slightly, a scream rising in his throat.
Thud!
Right then, Tang Jinbiao’s pent-up breath exploded in his chest.
Precisely nineteen breaths!
“Die!”
The instant the nineteenth breath arrived, Tang Jinbiao’s roared curse ripped free.
“You!”
Simultaneously, Wei Wuya’s terrified shout erupted.
Thwack!
But the moment “You!” escaped his lips, the Frost Silver Spear—razor-sharp, unstoppable—pierced clean through Wei Wuya’s chest.
“Agh—!”
Witnessing the spearhead appear before him, Wei Wuya’s face twisted grotesquely. His mouth gaped wide.
Schlik!
The Frost Silver Spear refused to halt. It punched through his body, skewered him completely. Then, dragging his impaled corpse like a macabre banner, it transformed into a streak of mingled light and shadow—a black-and-white comet—propelling itself with savage speed into the depths of the narrow passage…