Chapter 44: The Lei Sheng of One Man

Although Seeing Chu Tianshu let out a laugh, he was not the first to make a move.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!!!

In the span of a single finger-snap, the sound of gunfire rang out six times in succession.

Xiao Huo already had his twin pistols in hand. When he fired, he did not use the standard shooting stance of extending his arms and aiming.

Instead, he kept his arms bent, his hands pressed against the sides of his stomach. When he fired, a very slight movement of his hands was enough to change the direction of his shots.

Generally speaking, this shooting technique, where the eyes do not track the gun, is not conducive to aiming and is at best suited for close-quarters, face-to-face combat.

But for a master marksman like Xiao Huo, they never needed to rely on their eyes to aim; they relied more on a kind of instinct.

If he had extended his arms to fire, the recoil during rapid fire would have been more pronounced, the range of motion would have been larger, and the changes in his shooting angle would have been easily predicted, making it impossible to hit elite ninjas.

Yet, using his current method, six flowers of blood exploded amidst the trees.

Six ninjas appeared from the forest.

Three fell to the ground, while the other three, though wounded, vanished again in a flash, as if merging into the nearby trees.

Their camouflage relied on telekinesis. The moment they felt intense pain, their focus wavered, their telekinesis became unstable, and they were briefly exposed.

But they were long accustomed to enduring pain, and in an instant, they hid themselves once more, using the trees as cover.

It was at this moment that Seeing Chu Tianshu made his move.

His silhouette, like a twisting gale, swept past, using the positions of those three trees as nodes.

Boom, boom, boom!!

On the rough bark of each of the three trees, a deep palm print appeared.

Combining the force of Dragon Entwining Body and Food for the Immortal, he struck with both hardness and softness, his palm force penetrating through the trees.

The three ninjas hiding on the other side of the trees had their chest clothing shredded and sprayed blood outward; their figures emerged as they collapsed to the ground.

In mid-air, the sound of wind being torn suddenly erupted, and from unseen locations, a continuous shrill whistling emerged.

Shuriken, iron gears, flying needles, nails, and kunai rained down like a storm.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's palms were like the claws of a violent ape; his five fingers exerted force, and with a *crack*, he pierced the surface of two nearby trees.

Two thick, rough slabs of bark, each half a person's size, were ripped off by him and, with a twist of his waist, hurled into the air.

The two large pieces of bark spun in mid-air like two door-sized fan blades.

*Thud, thud, thud, thud! * A massive amount of hidden weapons were blocked by the bark.

Immediately following were two more gunshots; the bullets punched through the bark.

Two ninjas who had been clinging to the trees with one hand fell from the branches.

Zhong Jinqiu and Old Yu also leaped high into the air at the same time, each sweeping a trail of blood through the sky.

By the time they landed, two more ninjas had crashed down from the trees.

A sharp whistling of wind flashed through the forest once more.

This time, the hidden weapons were not aimed at living people, but at sparrows.

Five or six sparrows were blasted apart by the weapons, exploding into paper scraps in mid-air, while several wisps of smoke shot back like fine arrows to the side of Shopkeeper Ma.

It turned out that Shopkeeper Ma had long since released the sparrow spirit essences he had been raising.

While the ninjas' concealment methods were formidable—so much so that even high-level martial artists could only detect them at close range, and gunmen were unable to fire from a distance—

these sparrow spirit essences, being of a yin-spirit nature, pure and peaceful, were the most sensitive.

Using the technique of "Borrowing Eyes via Spirit Command," Shopkeeper Ma was able to use these sparrows to sense the positions of the ninjas.

The group had discussed this beforehand: once the ninjas entered the forest, Shopkeeper Ma would have these sparrows follow ten feet above the heads of the ninja vanguard.

It was through this that Xiao Huo had judged the positions of the ninjas and fired early.

Unfortunately, the ninjas' reactions were swift enough that they had realized the source of the problem so quickly.

"Fire Bird Breaks Filth, Spirit Official Protects the Dharma!"

Shopkeeper Ma suddenly opened his eyes wide and pointed his fingers toward the sky.

The talisman papers hidden in the gaps of the furs on the donkey cart suddenly flew out.

These dozen or so talismans were not only made of high-grade paper and fine cinnabar, but each sheet also bore not just one, but three talismans drawn in succession.

As the dozen talisman papers collided in mid-air like long, colorful ribbons, they erupted with a blinding, intense light.

For a short time, this patch of forest was illuminated by such fierce light that only black and white remained.

Shopkeeper Ma himself was blinded on the spot, his eyes aching and sore, unable to see anything.

Elsewhere in the forest, at least four or five muffled groans were heard.

The figures of several black-clad ninjas flickered in and out of view, all of them instinctively lowering their heads.

Old Yu's body tilted, as if he had shoulder-checked the falling leaves in the wind; the silver light in his hand had already elongated, slashing toward a ninja's neck.

They had already lowered their heads and squinted before Shopkeeper Ma activated the talismans.

They judged the positions solely by the shadows flickering on the ground at that moment.

Although the ninja's vision was impaired, he suddenly raised his left arm, using the short-handled samurai sword he had been holding in a reverse grip to block Old Yu's blade.

But when Old Yu's blade was blocked, he suddenly vibrated his left arm, and the hilt of the sword smashed into the ninja's chest.

The blade failed to kill, but the hilt did.

Zhong Jinqiu's movements were even faster; he stepped in the Taiji stance, his body moving like a flickering, darting spirit snake.

He had truly found a narrow-bladed long sword in the Wu Family Stronghold, its back as straight as a sword.

It was even better than he had imagined; the sword was not only narrow and sharp but also possessed extreme flexibility.

Used by a Taiji master like him, the narrow-bladed long sword suddenly became as straight as a line, piercing through a tree trunk in one go to assassinate the ninja behind it.

When blocked by a samurai sword, the long sword suddenly bent into a full arc, its tip piercing the neck of a second ninja from the side.

However, when Zhong Jinqiu struck at a third ninja, that ninja actually raised his left hand and offered his palm under the blade.

Zhong Jinqiu felt a surge of alarm, and he forced the sword body to twist into an arc.

The ninja's left hand only struck the spine of the blade with a *ding*.

The tip of the sword still pierced into his chest.

Zhong Jinqiu heard that the left hand was a prosthetic, and vaguely guessing something, his pupils trembled.

Just then, an explosion rang out from Old Yu's side.

When he swung his blade, he had also encountered a ninja using his right arm to block. Although a warning sign suddenly arose in his heart, he was one-armed and lacked sufficient balance; under the momentum of his fierce charge and fast blade, he could not react in time.

The blade still cut in.

That seemingly perfectly fine right forearm exploded on the spot.

The ninja was killed instantly by the blast, and Old Yu was sent flying, crashing into a tree.

He had used his prosthetic limb to block the fatal blow, but he still sustained five or six shrapnel wounds on his body.

"It's poisoned!"

Zhong Jinqiu rushed over and struck his body with a palm, forcing out several pieces of shrapnel along with the poisoned blood.

But this loss of blood caused Old Yu's face to turn pale instantly.

He had fought ninjas many times, but he truly hadn't expected them to have such methods.

In truth, the ninjas sent from the capital did not possess this trick.

But after these ninjas were sent to Bashu years ago, they inevitably suffered some injuries while carrying out missions.

Liu Zhixiang had recently acquired the secret Bashu techniques of gunpowder and mechanisms, and he had a sudden inspiration to create prosthetic limbs for those ninjas whose limb disabilities were not too severe.

When enemies killed these ninjas, what appeared to be ordinary hands or feet would suddenly turn into bombs, catching people off guard.

Zhong Jinqiu only had time to strike Old Yu with one palm before a chill attacked him from behind.

The two of them suddenly separated to dodge, rushing to meet the enemy.

The effect of the intense light had passed, and what they had to face now were ninjas who had not been affected.

In fact, long before they rushed toward those dazzled ninjas,

Seeing Chu Tianshu had remained in the open space, facing the remaining ninjas who had snuck in.

Tiny glimmers expanded and contracted in Seeing Chu Tianshu's pupils as he deployed his internal and external insight technique.

The ninjas ran with very subtle sounds, leaving only the lightest traces amidst the damp soil and fallen leaves.

With multiple people moving simultaneously, it was impossible to distinguish their positions based on such things.

Ordinary martial artists could only rely on their own sense of crisis to distinguish their approach.

But in the eyes of Seeing Chu Tianshu at this moment, not only were their footsteps traceable,

but even their bodies, as their camouflage colors moved through the air, were distinct from the truly transparent air.

It was like pieces of frosted glass moving through clear water.

Seeing Chu Tianshu suddenly lunged a step sideways, sending fallen leaves flying.

With a *bang* of wind in his sleeves, he and his fist had already arrived ten meters away.

A ninja here was greatly alarmed and drew his sword.

His surprise and the action of drawing his sword were synchronized.

The ninjas' methods were originally to drive the body's potential using telekinesis and drugs; they had researched the use of emotions to exert force very deeply.

Using the emotion of sudden surprise to wield a blade made the strike three times faster than using anger or killing intent.

His sword path was very precise; the narrow, long blade, the smooth sword body, and the unique technique of exerting force meant there was almost no sound of wind from the first half of the blade.

If an enemy couldn't see his weapon and tried to judge by the sound of the wind, they would make a significant error.

But Seeing Chu Tianshu's fist suddenly flickered; his five fingers did not seem to open, but rather seemed to be whipped out by his palm.

The surface area of his palm suddenly expanded, then closed inward, his five fingers positioned like a duck's beak, yet the force was more terrifying than iron pincers.

The invisible samurai sword was directly clamped by his five fingers, even emitting a *clang*.

In the martial arts world, catching a blade with bare hands is generally considered seeking death.

A master teacher would not easily use this move against a young apprentice, always preferring to avoid the solid and strike the void.

Not to mention that the opponent was an invisible ninja with an invisible sword.

This ninja had never dreamed that someone would use this move against him.

For a moment, he didn't even know if he was feeling surprise or some other emotion.

The samurai sword had already been snapped by that hand and thrust into the ninja's ear, piercing through his brain!

Once a person died, the black clothing was exposed.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's left hand grabbed the ninja's belt, and with a bend and straighten of his waist and back, he flung the entire person out, smashing him into another piece of "frosted glass."

That ninja shrank his body, dodging his companion's corpse.

But with that shrink of his body, he could never straighten up again.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's palm struck the top of his head, slapping him like a bloated, limp sack, smashing him onto the ground and revealing his true form.

"Kill!!"

Seeing Chu Tianshu shouted, lunging forward with a wide stride and pushing out with a palm.

A ninja was also rushing forward, holding his sword with both hands, thrusting forward.

Seeing Chu Tianshu turned his body sideways, the blade grazing his chest, while his right hand had already pushed and smashed into the ninja's face.

The ninja seemed to hear a thunderclap explode on his own face.

Others probably couldn't hear such a sound.

It was a thunderclap that only he could hear.

*Crack! *

The black head, struck by this immense force, had its neck snapped and flew backward.

When that head crossed the highest point of its arc and tumbled downward, its eyes were still wide open.

It seemed as if with every roll, he could see one more ninja being beaten to death, their black figures exposed.

Seeing Chu Tianshu's figure flashed through the forest, attacking with diagonal lunges.

His hands and feet landed high and low; sometimes striking the head, sometimes the chest, sometimes tearing off an arm.

But every strike of his carried the maximum inertia of his entire body, and with force both hard and soft, a single touch meant certain death.

It was not like a simple gale, but more like a storm wrapped in stones and mud.

The ninjas heard the closest thunderclap of their lives.

It resounded in their own chests, in their own brains.

One thunderclap, one encounter.

That was one life!

The ninjas' methods had their own levels of skill, but before Seeing Chu Tianshu, there were no exceptions.

With his insight, one look at these ninjas' movements told him the force of their strikes and the speed of their dodges.

If he had chosen other moves, the agile and cunning ninjas might have had room to maneuver, delay, and surround him.

Therefore, Seeing Chu Tianshu used this current method of fighting.

It was like snatching golden beans out of molten iron.

"Hey! He's..."

Xiao Huo's face also showed a hint of surprise; he held his guns with both hands, already prepared to provide support.

But Old Yu and Zhong Jinqiu were only encountering trouble at the moment they killed their opponents.

Seeing Chu Tianshu, on the other hand, would take a life every time his body flashed forward.

Xiao Huo couldn't even find an opportunity to fire.

Shopkeeper Ma suddenly shouted: "Left!"

Xiao Huo's eyelids twitched, his peripheral vision swept over, and before his face could even turn, the muzzles of his guns were already flashing with fire.

But he couldn't see anyone at all, only a round shield like an iron pot.

The bullets struck the shield and were all deflected away.

The round shield, impacted by the bullets, slowed its momentum, but still slammed into Xiao Huo's waist and abdomen.

*Thud!! *

Xiao Huo was sent flying backward, his twin pistols slipping from his hands in mid-air.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 45 =====