Chapter 43: Cannon Blast

Deep in the night, the yamen runners guarding the Beicheng District huddled their bodies, leaning against the crenellations to doze off.

After Wang Lei escaped from the Meng family, he quickly rushed to the city wall, leaped three meters high in a single bound, and then tapped his toes on the wall a few times; his body rose again, and he climbed over the three-zhang-high city wall with great ease.

To ordinary people, this city wall was insurmountable, but it posed no obstacle at all to a Martial Artist of the Second Grade or above.

Wang Lei glanced back with his peripheral vision and was surprised to find that Meng Yifan was carrying a three-meter-long elm trunk, yet his speed was not a bit slower than his own; he had also reached the foot of the wall and was using the Lingbo Microsteps Lightness Skill to charge toward the top of the wall.

"Go to hell!" Wang Lei grabbed a piece of Blue Stone city brick the size of a human head and smashed it toward Meng Yifan.

Meng Yifan stepped on the city wall as if walking on flat ground, his body swayed once, and he dodged the large stone.

Wang Lei grabbed another large stone, preparing to smash it downward, when the yamen runner guarding this section of the wall finally woke up and shouted loudly, "Who is it, daring to climb over the city wall!"

"Noisy!" Wang Lei kicked out, and this yamen runner, who only had the cultivation of a First Grade Lower Tier, had his chest collapse directly from the kick and died on the spot.

The yamen runner's exclamation just now alerted the guards in other areas; all along the city wall, gongs and drums sounded in unison, and swarms of guards surged toward this side.

Wang Lei was currently poisoned, and although he had used True Qi to suppress the spread of the toxin, his strength was inevitably greatly reduced; he dared not linger in the fight, and after throwing the large stone in his hand, he ran toward the outside of the city.

Meng Yifan once again used Lingbo Microsteps to dodge the large stone, then carried the Elm Cannon and leaped onto the top of the wall; seeing the yamen runners running over from other parts of the wall, he frowned. He still needed to hide from the pursuit of Demon Beasts within Luolong County, and unless absolutely necessary, he did not want to have a direct conflict with the government.

"Fortunately, it is night and the visibility is poor; these yamen runners are still far away and shouldn't be able to see my appearance clearly." Meng Yifan did not stop; his body flickered, and he also climbed over the city wall, chasing toward the outside of the city.

More than twenty yamen runners rushed over; a tall yamen runner checked the corpse of the yamen runner lying on the ground and said angrily, "Captain, Wang San is dead. The person who attacked is at least a Second Grade Martial Artist. Should we go out of the city to pursue?"

The captain of the yamen runners guarding the north city wall was a Second Grade Lower Stage Martial Artist; he looked at Wang San's corpse, shook his head, and said, "Those two are both Second-grade Experts. Even if we all rush out, we might not be their match. Juanmao, you go and report to Zhang Butou, and the others, stay alert."

Wang Lei and Meng Yifan were both very fast, and before long, they had left Luolong County.

Once they were one kilometer away from the city wall, Meng Yifan could finally let go and go all out. His most powerful attack method now was to fire with the Elm Cannon, but firing a cannon inside the city would inevitably alert the government.

What Meng Yifan had seen and heard along the way made him very disappointed in the government of Luolong County; although he needed to rely on the government to resist Demon Beasts, he himself did not want to have too much contact with the government.

Meng Yifan pulled out the wooden plug at the front of the Elm Cannon, then held the Elm Cannon in his arms, aimed the muzzle at the distant Wang Lei, and lit the fuse with an incense stick.

Wang Lei was running in front when he suddenly felt a chill down his spine, as if he were being stared at by a Wild Beast. He turned his head and saw Meng Yifan holding a pitch-black elm trunk, aiming it at him.

The front of that elm trunk was a hollow cavity, and there was a fuse emitting sparks at the back. Good heavens, could that elm trunk really be used as a Cannon?

Wang Lei was terrified and could no longer care about the spread of the toxin; he exerted his True Qi to the fullest, rapidly changing directions in the forest to deny Meng Yifan a chance to lock onto him.

"As long as it's a Cannon, the loading is very cumbersome. He only has one chance to fire. If I dodge this shot, I'll be safe."

Wang Lei's body constantly moved in an S-shape; within one second, his body swayed three times, always using the trees around him to block Meng Yifan's line of sight.

Meng Yifan held the Elm Cannon, aiming while using the Lingbo Microsteps Lightness Skill. With a body speed seven times that of an ordinary person, plus the speed bonus of the Lingbo Microsteps Lightness Skill, even while holding the Elm Cannon, his speed was still at least ten times faster than an ordinary person.

The characteristic of the Lingbo Microsteps Lightness Skill was that it was not only fast in a straight line but also very flexible, allowing for rapid changes in direction to dodge enemy attacks. Wang Lei's rapid swaying in the forest to try to dodge the bombardment of the Elm Cannon was a joke in Meng Yifan's eyes.

Wang Lei ran in front, and Meng Yifan chased from behind; both of their figures were like ghosts, turning rapidly.

Wang Lei was currently using the Yellow Grade Middle Tier Lightness Skill "Qingfeng Steps". He was a Second Grade Middle Stage Martial Artist with thick True Qi; if he ran in a straight line, his speed would be as fast as a wisp of breeze, and Meng Yifan would not be able to catch up to him for a while.

However, in order to dodge the Elm Cannon, Wang Lei chose to keep changing directions while running in the forest. Soon, he discovered something was wrong; the distance between the two was closing at an astonishing speed, and soon the distance between them was less than one hundred meters.

"This is the moment." Meng Yifan's gaze was as sharp as a hunting hawk. During the pursuit just now, he had already figured out Wang Lei's dodging habits. He quickly predicted in his mind that Wang Lei would definitely dodge to the left, hide behind a tree, and then dodge to the right. During this interval, his body would appear in Meng Yifan's line of sight for 0.3 seconds. These 0.3 seconds were the time when the cannonball could directly hit him.

Meng Yifan trusted his judgment; this was his absolute shooting instinct from his previous life, honed by firing tens of thousands of bullets. It would absolutely not be wrong.

To have the cannonball hit his body exactly within the 0.3 seconds that Wang Lei's body appeared was extremely difficult to shoot, especially with this very primitive front-loading Elm Cannon, but Meng Yifan had Level 2 Shooting Technique, and he was confident he could hit the target with one shot.

"It's this moment, fire!" The Elm Cannon emitted a boom, and an Iron Ball sprayed out, quickly crossing the distance of one hundred meters and smashing toward Wang Lei.

Wang Lei's movement trajectory was indeed as Meng Yifan had predicted: he first dodged to the left and then dodged to the right. Just as his body was revealed from behind a large tree, the Iron Ball happened to fly to the side of the tree, just as if Wang Lei were crashing into the Iron Ball himself.

"Oh no!" Wang Lei was shocked. In high-speed movement, it was already too late to change direction again. He could only urge his Iron Cloth Shirt again and use his body to hard-resist the Iron Ball.

Wang Lei's skin was bronze-colored. After urging the Iron Cloth Shirt, his body was suffused with a layer of iron-gray, and his defensive power was comparable to steel, but even steel could not withstand the bombardment of a Cannon.

"Bang!" The Iron Ball smashed fiercely into Wang Lei's body. The Iron Cloth Shirt True Qi blocked it slightly before being broken through. The Iron Ball smashed toward Wang Lei's chest, and Wang Lei crossed his hands to block in front of the Iron Ball.

"Crack! Crack!" Wang Lei's pair of arms emitted crisp sounds and were directly broken. The Iron Ball continued to rush forward, subsequently smashing into Wang Lei's sternum.

After the obstruction of the Iron Cloth Shirt True Qi and Wang Lei's arms, the power of the Iron Ball had been greatly reduced and did not pierce through Wang Lei's body.

However, the huge impact force contained in the Iron Ball still broke three of Wang Lei's ribs, and his internal organs were also displaced. His Qi and blood surged, and Wang Lei could not help but open his mouth and spit out a mouthful of blood mixed with fragments of internal organs.