Chapter 40: The Duel Ends
Chapter 40: The Duel Ends
Lan Mu transformed into a Predator, his figure vanishing into the jungle.
His footsteps made no sound, his Hunting Rhythm searching for humanoid creatures.
Soon, he found someone crouching and moving stealthily. It was clearly Fang Moqi.
“How impressive! He figured out the direction of my escape so quickly.”
Lan Mu noticed that the direction Fang Moqi was sneaking in was exactly toward his own location.
He watched as Fang Moqi swept past branches like a swift wind, leaping between trees, and soon landed near where Fang Moqi was.
Standing high above, an invisible lion stared intently at Fang Moqi from its lofty position.
Fang Moqi had been moving low to the ground, shifting unpredictably, when he suddenly paused, hid behind a tree, and looked up with a startled, uncertain expression.
“Huh?”
Seeing Fang Moqi look his way, Lan Mu immediately scrambled to change his position, quickly climbing onto another tree.
When he looked again, Fang Moqi seemed to have sensed something too. His gaze shifted over, staring solemnly in Lan Mu’s direction.
Lan Mu was shocked. He changed locations several times in a row—whether in trees or on the ground—but every time he looked toward Fang Moqi, he was detected.
It seemed, however, that Fang Moqi could not see Lan Mu. He merely sensed that someone was watching him from Lan Mu’s direction, as if the gaze itself had a physical weight that put him on alert.
“This guy, he’s the first person able to detect an invisible Predator!”
Before this, whenever Lan Mu turned invisible in front of anyone, he was never noticed. So, he had never realized this weakness in the White-maned Lion’s hidden ability.
Against someone with extremely high alertness, the Predator’s almost unrestrained killing intent was impossible to conceal.
“Better retreat for now.”
Seeing Fang Moqi notch an arrow and test-shoot in his direction, Lan Mu immediately decided to put some distance between them.
The invisible Predator dodged the arrow, landed lightly on the ground, and retreated over a hundred meters, using only his Hunting Rhythm to observe from afar.
Sure enough, at this distance, as long as he did not look directly at Fang Moqi, he would not be detected.
In the Predator’s perception, Fang Moqi quickly changed his location after firing that arrow.
Unfortunately for Fang Moqi, as long as he stayed within one kilometer of Lan Mu, he could not escape Lan Mu’s senses.
Lan Mu maintained a distance of within a hundred meters, watching Fang Moqi through dozens of trees.
Seeing Fang Moqi stop at a spot, Lan Mu immediately changed back into an Elf, ran to the top of a large tree, and using the suction ability of his legs, stood firmly on the crown without falling. While moving quickly, he shot an arrow.
…
Fang Moqi had not engaged in this kind of duel with anyone for a long time, and he was extremely excited at first.
He carefully hid himself while easily finding the direction Lan Mu had fled. Moreover, he noticed that Lan Mu made no attempt at deceptive hiding, moving through the jungle almost like an ordinary person.
So much so that when Fang Moqi found him and closed within fifteen meters, Lan Mu was still spacing out in a tree.
“Such low alertness… so he really lacks experience?”
Disappointed, Fang Moqi shot an arrow, aiming straight for Lan Mu’s heart.
However, seeing Lan Mu react quickly and dodge it, Fang Moqi’s eyes lit up, and he immediately gave chase.
“His reaction is extraordinary. I couldn’t dodge that arrow myself unless I was prepared… So he was doing it on purpose?”
Thinking this, Fang Moqi slowed his pace a little, always hiding himself vigilantly.
After chasing for ten minutes, Fang Moqi shook his head. Judging from Lan Mu’s escape traces, his speed was high, and he kept leaping through the trees. This ability was indeed powerful, but with no skillful hiding, his escape direction was easily known to Fang Moqi.
“Hmm, I get it now. Strong physical fitness, fast speed, quick reactions, capable of high-speed movement in trees… but average awareness, not much experience, and very poor scouting and counter-scouting skills.”
“He’s not a hunter at all. More like a war archer. In a head-on fight, I’d definitely die.”
“But in the jungle, when it comes to hiding and ambushing, he’s no match for me… Constantly running away is useless; he’ll always be on the defensive. Next time I ambush him, I won’t give him a chance to dodge.”
Having mostly figured Lan Mu out, Fang Moqi was about to continue pursuing him.
Suddenly, a killing intent stabbed at his back like a thorn!
This wasn’t ordinary killing intent. It felt like a fierce beast staring at its prey, and a weak prey could only tremble.
“What is that?”
Fang Moqi was greatly alarmed. He hurriedly looked toward the source of this sense of crisis, but there was nothing there except leaves.
“Could it be a very small creature? No! It must be hiding very well. I can’t find it!”
Fang Moqi’s scalp tingled. His sixth sense constantly warned him that a dangerous creature had set its sights on him.
He did everything he could, constantly sneaking and changing his position, trying to shake off this persistent gaze.
Yet no matter how he hid, that sense of crisis clung to him like a stubborn parasite, making his hairs stand on end.
But no matter how he searched for the source of the danger, he could never see the enemy.
An invisible enemy was the most terrifying kind!
Years of extreme survival had honed his powerful crisis instinct, but never before had he felt so helpless.
“No, I can’t stay passive like this.”
Fang Moqi raised his hand and shot an arrow toward the source of the crisis. The arrow flew and missed, passing between two branches and embedding itself in a tree trunk far away.
“No enemy… Where is it? Huh? Seems like it’s gone…”
After Fang Moqi shot this arrow, the parasitic, clinging feeling disappeared. It seemed the hidden enemy had moved away from him.
After this exchange, Fang Moqi dared not stay long. He kept changing locations.
Just as he was cleaning up his footprints and traces, a faint sound of something cutting through the air approached.
“Swish!”
Fang Moqi dodged, only to find it wasn’t necessary. The arrow missed, merely hitting a tree trunk over a meter away from him.
But clearly, his position was exposed.
“This is Lan Mu’s arrow! How did he find me?”
Fang Moqi changed location again, while secretly searching the nearby area. He found no trace of Lan Mu.
“This guy… unless he also learned to hide his tracks, he must have shot from somewhere much farther away.”
“But from that far, how did he pinpoint me here?”
Fang Moqi looked up toward the high tree canopy. He didn’t believe Lan Mu could find him from over a hundred meters away. To test his theory, he deliberately stood still.
After ten seconds, an arrow shot down from above, piercing through layers of leaves, suddenly appearing right in front of Fang Moqi.
“Just as I thought!”
Fang Moqi was prepared. He quickly dropped to the ground, dodging the arrow.
“How can he know my location from so far away? How is he doing it?”
Fang Moqi kept moving, trying to escape Lan Mu’s lock-on. However, if he stayed in any one spot for just a few seconds, an arrow would inevitably come.
Although the shots seemed almost careless and unlikely to hit him, this feeling of being exposed while the enemy was hidden, constantly on the receiving end, was very unpleasant.
Not long ago, Fang Moqi was the one chasing Lan Mu. How did the situation suddenly reverse, with Lan Mu now chasing him?
“Twenty-seven arrows!”
“Twenty-eight arrows!”
“Twenty-nine arrows!”
Fang Moqi did not give up. While constantly fleeing, he also kept a silent count of the arrows Lan Mu shot.
Not only that, starting from Lan Mu’s fourth arrow, Fang Moqi had made up his mind to destroy Lan Mu’s arrows. Whenever Lan Mu shot at him, Fang Moqi would find a way to destroy the arrow before running away, to prevent it from being retrieved.
“He used one arrow to kill the crocodile earlier, plus the number of arrows he spent chasing me… He should be out of arrows!”
“But I can’t let my guard down. He might be wasting arrows on purpose to lull me into a false sense of security. Also, he could still retrieve the three arrows I didn’t have time to destroy.”
“Swish! Swish!”
Two more arrows shot toward Fang Moqi. This time, they were swift and fast, and he barely dodged them.
“The distance is closer! These must have been shot from about thirty meters away!”
Fang Moqi deliberately waited in place for a while, but no more arrows came.
“Tsk, is he out? No, he probably only has one arrow left…”
“Only now do you realize how precious arrows are? It’s a bit too late for that.”
As Fang Moqi destroyed the arrows, he stayed alert to his surroundings.
Suddenly, a voice came from the trees.
“Fang Moqi, do you surrender?”
Fang Moqi recognized Lan Mu’s voice and laughed loudly. “Every arrow is precious. Your probing is rather extravagant. So? How many arrows do you have left?”
Lan Mu, from the treetop, said, “In a real duel, one arrow is enough to decide the winner.”
“You’re right… So are you going to settle this with me now?”
As soon as Fang Moqi finished speaking, Lan Mu suddenly called out from the treetop, “Watch out!”
Right after the words, Fang Moqi heard a distinct twang of a bowstring.
“Shooting already?”
Fang Moqi instinctively shot an arrow back, but it flew into the leaves without encountering any other arrow.
“Swish!”
At the same time Fang Moqi shot his arrow, an arrow flew out from the base of the tree, heading straight for Fang Moqi’s heart.
Fang Moqi’s pupils instantly contracted. That arrow was incredibly fast and fierce, not something an ordinary bow could shoot.
The arrow cut through the air, and he could even see invisible energy swirling around it.
Fang Moqi realized Lan Mu’s trick: he had pretended to draw his bow in the treetop, then instantly moved to the base of the tree to shoot the real arrow.
A mix of real and fake, fooling him.
Normally, such a trick wouldn’t be enough to defeat him, but he had still been careless. He hadn’t realized Lan Mu could drop from a treetop dozens of meters high to the ground in just over a second.
Even more unexpected was how fast this arrow was! Unbelievably fast.
“Thud!”
Fang Moqi was hit under his left rib. The arrow lodged into his muscle, stuck there.
He had dodged it. At the last moment, Fang Moqi had pushed beyond his limits to avoid the arrow, but he only managed to dodge the heart shot. He was still hit.
Just like in his duel with Gates years ago, he had made an unbelievable dodge at such a critical moment.
“Cough… You really can control the arrow’s speed…”
Fang Moqi still stood firm. His injury wasn’t as severe as expected because, at the very last moment, the wind-speed arrow suddenly slowed down, as if being controlled, reducing its speed. From a fast arrow that should have pierced right through his body, it became a slow arrow merely stuck in his muscle.
Lan Mu walked out from behind the tree, holding only that cheap, standard recurve bow, with an empty quiver.
“Fang Moqi, you made the same choice as Gates.”
Fang Moqi smiled. “Yeah… He and I are the same type of person…”
“To win! Under no circumstances can I get shot in the heart!”
“Unless one of us dies or surrenders, the duel continues. Are you giving up by showing yourself now?”
“It’s over!”
Fang Moqi drew his bow and arrow, aiming at Lan Mu’s heart.
Lan Mu didn’t put up any defense at all. He stood there openly, wearing a hat and sunglasses, calmly stating.
“You lose.”
“Thump!”
An arrow flew from behind Fang Moqi, striking him squarely in the back, making a low, dull sound.
Hit hard in the back, Fang Moqi was stunned. Without thinking, he released his arrow.
The arrow flew straight toward Lan Mu, who made a graceful sidestep, easily dodging it.
Compared to Fang Moqi, Lan Mu’s dodge was flawless.
Lan Mu picked up the arrow and grinned. “Unless it’s a sneak attack, you’ll never hit me.”
Fang Moqi turned back in disbelief, looking behind him. An arrow lay quietly on the ground.
To be precise, it wasn’t a normal arrow but a straight tree branch. Its front end had been sharpened into a pointed tip with a sharp tool.
“A… tree branch?”