Po Zhongyou grabbed the sword piercing his neck, hoping to pull it out. However, it was futile. The damage was already done, and it had sapped him of whatever strength he had. His hands simply slumped feebly on the sword as he struggled to take in his final breath.

His mind had devolved into chaos. Why is this fellow here? Has he been waiting here all this while to ambush me?

He finally understood why the young master had instructed them to show utmost caution, lest they were done in by this fellow’s slyness.

But the young master didn’t tell me that this fellow would be so despicable! Even though he successfully landed a fatal blow, he still doesn’t want to let me rest in peace!

Seeing the look of ridicule on Zu An’s face, Po Zhongyou felt heat rushing into his head. Blood gushed out of his throat, spraying out everywhere.

You have successfully trolled Po Zhongyou for 1024 Rage points!

Po Zhongyou continued to glare at Zu An, his eyes wide with hate, but his body had begun to slump forward. He was already dead.

“It’s over already?”

Zu An was disappointed. He was still hoping to earn a few more Rage points from him.

He withdrew his sword before laying Po Zhongyou’s corpse down on the branch. He started off by searching the latter’s body, but he only turned up some dry rations and restorative medicine. The bow he wielded seemed to be quite decent, but it was a pity that Zu An didn’t know archery.

He took a look at the arrows Po Zhongyou had in his quiver, but they snapped fairly easily once he exerted some force on them. It was clear that these arrows were much poorer in quality as compared to those he had obtained from the zombie army. He couldn’t bother to keep inferior products with him, so he tossed them aside as well.

“Damn it, it’s yet another impoverished bloke!” Zu An cursed.

Why are these cultivators so poor? At least Shit Shangfei had some silver pieces on him, but this Poo Zhongyou has nothing of value at all!

He was just about to toss Po Zhongyou’s body down when he suddenly changed his mind. Trash can have value as well if put to good use.

So, he lifted Po Zhongyou’s body and set off in quick pursuit of the saber-wielding cultivator. The saber user was the weakest one of the other three, so he should be fairly easy to deal with.

… 

Meanwhile, in the northern area of the forest, Shi Zhenxiang was marching forward warily, his saber in hand, scanning the area thoroughly. However, he couldn’t find any traces of Zu An at all.

“Lil’ bro, I’ll definitely exact vengeance for you!” he murmured through gritted teeth.

He was none other than the older brother of Shi Shangfei.

The two of them were orphans, and were each other’s pillar of support. They had undergone all sorts of grueling training in their earlier years, and they had accomplished numerous difficult missions as well. They were promised that, if they could accomplish this mission from young master Shi, they would be granted the freedom to go wherever they wanted to.

Who could have thought that things would turn out like this?

It was just yesterday that they had been reminiscing about their childhood while sitting and watching the setting sun, dreaming about the fruitful life they would have ahead of them. His younger brother even said that it would be best if the two of them could marry two sisters, so they would be able to remain close to one another.

But all of it had come to nought!

“That bastard Zu An! I’ll slice you into pieces!” Shi Zhenxiang swore.

You have successfully trolled Shi Zhenxiang for 876 Rage points!

All of a sudden, he heard footsteps behind him. He immediately turned around to take a look, only to see Po Zhongyou waving to him. He heaved a sigh of relief and said, “Didn’t our leader ask you to camp over there? Why did you suddenly come over here?”

Shi Zhenxiang couldn’t help but notice that Po Zhongyou’s eyes were glaringly wide, and he wondered if the archer’s eyes had gone bad from practicing his craft too much.

“I caught a glimpse of a silhouette running in this direction, so I came over to take a look.” Zu An stood behind Po Zhongyou, holding up the latter’s body as he spoke in a deeper, muffled voice. It wasn’t exactly identical to Po Zhongyou’s voice, but it was good enough to dupe someone who wasn’t paying close attention.

“What? Zu An’s here?” Shi Zhenxiang gripped his saber tightly as he hurriedly scanned his surroundings. “Great! I’ll be able to exact vengeance for my little brother then!”

Zu An had already known this saber user’s name from the earlier influx of Rage points, so he was able to deduce right away that he was Shit Shangfei’s older brother. I must say, what’s wrong with their parent’s heads? Why the hell did they give them such names? One is called Shi Shangfei (Flying ‘Shit’) and the other one is called Shi Zhenxiang (‘Shit’ Smells Nice)?

Shi Zhenxiang noticed that Po Zhongyou was walking in his direction, and immediately grunted in displeasure. “Why are you following me? We should split up to widen our search!” 

Hm? Wait a moment, why is he walking in such a weird manner? Also, that voice earlier on… 

While Shi Zhenxiang was still trying to make sense of those incongruencies, a black shadow suddenly charged in his direction. He instinctively pulled his saber upward and sliced it into two. It was only after it fell to the ground did he belatedly realize that it was Po Zhongyou. His eyes immediately widened in disbelief, “A-ah? Why would you…”

Even more confusing to him was that he had apparently killed him with a single strike. Even though Po Zhongyou, an archer, was slightly weaker in close-quarters combat, he wasn’t so weak as to succumb to a single blow.

In this moment of confusion, a cold glint of metal streaked straight towards his neck.

This time around, Zu An was the one who was confused. He was confident that his sword would plunge into Shi Zhenxiang’s neck, but, to his astonishment, he found himself unable to push his sword forward. It was as if there was invisible armor around the latter’s neck.

He suddenly remembered that third rank cultivators were capable of projecting their ki outwards. They could manifest their ki around their body to form armor, so as to ward off attacks. The higher one’s cultivation rank was, the greater the defensive prowess and area of the ki armor.

This was also one of the decisive advantages that higher-ranked cultivators had over lower-ranked cultivators. Sometimes, a lower-ranked cultivator might not even be able to pierce through the ki armor of a higher-rank cultivator in a fight, making it a rather one-sided thrashing.

Of course, the manifestation of ki armor would drain one’s ki rather quickly, so no fighter would be able to keep it activated at all times. This gave lower-ranked cultivators a chance to defeat higher-ranked cultivators.

This was how Zu An had been able to defeat the fifth rank Yuan Wendong and kill the fourth rank Po Zhongyou. He had caught them off guard, preventing them from activating their ki armor in time.

After Shi Zhenxiang blocked Zu An’s assassination attempt, he immediately launched a counterattack of his own, bringing his upraised saber downward. 

Faced with this sudden attack, Zu An quickly raised his sword to fend off the oncoming saber, but the terrifying force of the blow knocked the sword out of his hands. He was forced to hurriedly retreat a few steps to recover his balance.

However, Shi Zhenxiang had no intention of letting Zu An catch a breather. He swept forward, continuing to pressure him. “You son of a bitch, I nearly fell for your trap! Hah, you’re a goner now!”

They were around ten meters apart, but Zu An felt as if the saber was right in front of him. He quickly rolled to the side in a rather ungainly manner to dodge the attack.

It was the correct decision, for the tree that had just been behind him earlier was split into two by Shi Zhenxiang’s invisible saber ki.

Zu An’s heart jolted in fright. Third rank cultivators could only manifest ki around themselves for protection, whereas fourth rank cultivators could exert their ki further outward to launch attacks. This meant that his enemy was, to some extent, capable of long-ranged attacks too, making him a far greater threat than he had initially expected.

Shi Zhenxiang quickly followed up with a series of attacks, pursuing Zu An relentlessly and laughing heartily all the way. “You don’t even have your weapon in your hand right now; how do you expect to compete with me? I’ll rend your flesh and exact vengeance for my little brother!”

“Why are you spouting so much nonsense?” sneered Zu An. 

With a furious outburst of speed, he flew forward, appearing right in front of Shi Zhenxiang in the blink of an eye. 

Zu An’s sudden approach scared Shi Zhenxiang out of his wits. While he had been slightly distracted by Zu An’s words, he had continued to swing his saber to pressure his opponent, and he had never taken his eyes off him at any point. Yet, the latter had managed to make it past his saber and appear right in front of him without him knowing how!

Just like that, the tables were turned. The two of them were so close that Shi Zhenxiang’s saber was behind Zu An. In this very instant, at least, his saber was completely useless.

On the other hand, Zu An grasped a black arrow in his hand, and was thrusting it toward Shi Zhenxiang’s wrist.

When Shi Zhenxiang finally caught a good glimpse at the weapon Zu An was holding, disdain filled his eyes. Arrows had to be shot from a distance in order to gain momentum for a powerful strike. Using it as a dagger at close range would cause its power to diminish greatly.

Not to mention, he also had his ki armor to protect him as well. While he had been caught off-guard by Zu An’s mysterious approach, the difference in their cultivation ranks meant that there was no way Zu An could breach his defense.

However, barely a moment after these thoughts surfaced in his mind, he felt an excruciating pain stab into his wrist. A wintry chill shot up his arm and diffused throughout his entire body, making him shudder uncontrollably. He felt as though his entire body had been encased in ice.

Immediately after that, he felt bright lines of pain paint themselves across his arms and legs, and before he knew it, he had crashed down onto the ground, and was unable to rise.

“You severed my tendons!” Shi Zhenxiang exclaimed in horror, immediately realizing what had happened.

You have successfully trolled Shi Zhenxiang for 999 Rage points!

Zu An looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, but you were simply too strong. For my own safety, I have to be more thorough.”

Shi Zhenxiang could not believe what he was hearing.

What the hell!? So, the reason why you’re callously crippling me is because I’m too powerful?

You have successfully trolled Shi Zhenxiang for 666 Rage points!

However, Shi Zhenxiang soon came to terms with it. He had been raised as a deathsworn soldier, whose only worth lay in his ability to accomplish dangerous missions, even at the expense of his life. He knew that he was already a goner at this point, but one last question continued to linger in his mind.

“Where did that arrow in your hand come from? Why is it able to breach my ki armor?”

“I picked it up off the floor,” replied Zu An with a smile.

He had surmised that these arrows harnessed an extraordinary power from the very start. After all, these arrows had killed the monstrously resilient zombies with ease. That was why he had thought of using it to breach Shi Zhenxiang’s ki armor, and to his relief, it worked out well.

However, he noticed that, now that it had been used, the arrow in his hand had lost some of its magnificent lustre. It seemed there was a limit to its use.

Shi Zhenxiang was unconvinced.

Do you take me for a three-year-old child? How can a weapon that you picked up off the street breach my ki armor?

You have successfully trolled Shi Zhenxiang for 250 Rage points!

“Now, how should I deal with you?” Zu An squatted down and asked.

“Kill me if you want, but don’t even dream about getting anything out of me!” Shi Zhenxiang snorted coldly. His only regret was his failure to exact vengeance for his younger brother.

“I’ll be merciful and give you a chance. You can do whatever you want, but as long as you can survive a strike from my dagger, I’ll let you off. How does that sound?” Zu An took out his Poisonous Prick as he spoke. 

“Are you serious?” Shi Zhenxiang knew that there was definitely a loophole here, but his innate survival instinct still compelled him to take up Zu An’s offer.

“Of course! I crippled your limbs earlier, but I didn’t cripple your cultivation. You should still be able to use your ki armor, right?” said Zu An with a benevolent smile.

He had intentionally spared Shi Zhenxiang earlier because he wanted to test out the prowess of his tools on him.

Shi Zhenxiang glanced at the quiver Zu An was carrying, and his face darkened. “You’re just toying with me. That arrow you used earlier was easily able to penetrate my ki armor. I don’t stand a chance at all.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be using those arrows,” said Zu An. “You should have noticed how my arrow lost its shine after being used. Each of them can only be used once before they become ineffective, and I only have so few of them left. Why would I waste them on you?”

Shi Zhenxiang froze. His words made a lot of sense. It was indeed not worthwhile to waste something as valuable as those arrows on a cripple like him. “Very well, I’ll agree to your challenge. I hope that you can hold up the end of your bargain.”

He channeled his ki and formed a shield of translucent armor around his body. Hmph, you were only to get the better of me because your arrow has the ability to pierce through my ki armor. Don’t even think of doing the same with that lousy dagger of yours!

On the other hand, Zu An was in no rush to make his move. He asked leisurely, “Are you on good terms with your younger brother?”

“Of course!” replied Shi Zhenxiang.

It looks like this fellow had some useless compassion within him. As long as I survive this ordeal, even if I can’t recover from my injuries and exact vengeance personally, I’ll use all of the wealth I’ve amassed to hire an assassin to kill him! 

Zu An nodded in realization. He raised the Poisonous Prick up high and plunged it downward. Shi Zhenxiang stared at it incredulously as the dagger pierced through his ki armor as if it was nothing more than a slab of tofu, before slightly piercing his skin.

Zu An was intending to see how effective the Poisonous Prick was on a cultivator’s ki armor, as well as the effectiveness of its sure-death effect on higher-ranked cultivators. It might have worked on his previous opponents, but there was no guarantee that it would continue working on stronger enemies too.

Shi Zhenxiang was shocked when his ki armor was breached, but he saw that the dagger had barely scraped his skin, and heaved a sigh of relief. He was just about to say something when his body suddenly shuddered. Before he knew it, he had already sunk into endless darkness.

Right before his death, he heard these last few words: “Since the two of you are so close, why don’t you join him in hell, then? A family should stay together through tough times, no?”

You have successfully trolled Shi Zhenxiang for 1024 Rage points!