Chapter 32: The Wolf Pack (Part 3)

Li You’s arrow pierced straight through a gray wolf’s head. The immense force carried it all the way to the fletching, dragging the wolf’s body—which had already been mid-leap—backward through the air.

It was sent flying a great height before crashing heavily to the ground. Blood flowed from its head, and without even a twitch, it went rigid.

"Twang... Swish... Swish..."

Li You did not even look. After releasing the string, he immediately grabbed another arrow, nocked it, anchored the string, pushed the bow, drew, and loosed—all in one fluid motion. At the same time, another shrill howl rang out!

Like an ape, Li You kept his center of gravity upright, yet his limbs moved with agile grace. As he moved rapidly, he used the recoil from his right hand’s release to let it naturally fall to the quiver on his back to retrieve another arrow.

He pushed the bow and drew the string again, releasing once more; the recoil from the release brought his right hand back to the arrow shafts protruding from the quiver behind him...

It was as fluid as flowing water, as if he were a god of archery.

In this span, he had loosed three arrows, killing two wolves and wounding two.

Liu Longjin had long since ceased to be nervous. Staring dumbfounded at Li You, who was nocking another arrow, a surge of hot blood rushed to his head. He clearly saw that Li You’s right hand was not using the common fist-grip, but the "phoenix-eye" grip. This style required greater finger, arm, and back strength, but it made the arm much steadier.

"Full draw, another full draw! Mr. Li, such immense strength?"

Liu Longjin had watched with his own eyes as Li You pulled the bowstring to behind his ear in an instant. After the release, the arrow shot out like a madman, striking the ones near Wa Qingyun!

To fire with such rapid, unsparing force—if it were anyone else, their arms would have gone limp as cloth, and their footing would have become unstable, for power starts from the feet.

"Pfft..."

The blunt-tipped arrow struck a gray wolf in the abdomen with lightning speed. The shaft sank deep, the massive force flipping the beast over. The protruding length of the arrow, like a blood-red viper, pierced into another gray wolf running up behind it, skewering them together...

"Good heavens, two of them!"

Liu Longjin and Wa Qingyun exchanged a glance. Both of their mouths were wide open, their eyes rounded: Damn it, even the novels and plays didn't dare write it like this!

Most importantly, the movements of Li You’s body while shooting were perfectly coherent; it didn't look like archery, it looked like a dance. It made one’s blood boil and filled one with awe.

"Twang..."

In the moment they looked at each other, Li You loosed his final arrow. This shot was aimed at the other wolf king lurking behind the pack. Seeing Li You aim at it, the wolf king ran sideways, hiding behind two gray wolves on the right.

The pack was now less than ten paces away. Li You could no longer afford to care, and since it was his last arrow, he exerted force suddenly. Power rose from his feet, conducted upward through his spinal erector muscles, and the bow was pulled to a full draw once more. He loosed the string immediately...

"Swish!"

This iron-boned, armor-piercing arrow sank straight into the lower back of a gray wolf. It must have grazed the bone; though it pierced through, it only embedded itself shallowly into the front abdomen of the wolf king behind it.

The wolf king let out a startled cry, jumping about in pain. The heavy, blood-soaked arrow hung crookedly; because the arrow had a barb, it caught on the flesh and did not fall out completely, and blood gushed out along the arrow groove...

"You two stay right where you are and guard the children... If any harm comes to them, don't blame me for being heartless. Consider this a military order!"

After releasing the string, Li You threw down the Dragon-Spine Bow. With a "clang," his Miao saber left its scabbard, and his figure darted out, leaving only that sentence drifting in the wind...

He had to charge out; otherwise, the three of them could never protect so many children. The wolf pack’s offensive was not yet sufficiently dispersed, and by going up there, he could intercept the majority of the gray wolves.

Furthermore, his boiling blood urgently demanded that he vent it through desperate, close-quarters combat.

He charged straight toward the wolf king still trailing the arrow. Though the pack still wanted to press the attack, the successive screams of their companions had left them skittish. Only eight gray wolves remained.

The moment Li You charged out, they actually slowed by half a beat. The arrow-trailing wolf king let out a howl, and the pack hesitated no longer, accelerating as they closed in.

Two black shadows flashed as the first to arrive; two vicious wolves leaped one after another, pouncing toward Li You’s neck like lightning.

"Come!"

A low roar escaped his throat. Li You gripped the twelve-inch hilt with both hands. The thirty-nine-inch blade (1.63 meters) shimmered with cold light, and the ghostly white steel edge looked like a massive, bloodthirsty maw...

Li You brought the hilt to his lips, his eyes fixed on the tip of the blade. It was as if the blade had become immense, and his entire body was hidden behind the hilt. Wherever the tip pointed, his body followed. Slashing, scraping, intercepting, lifting, flicking, pushing, stabbing, piercing—the blade and his body moved as one. This was what they called the unity of man and blade.

After a step of iaijutsu, he swept his right foot out a half-step. The blade, which had been pressed against the outside of his thigh, suddenly slashed diagonally upward from left to right, cutting the gray wolf that had first attacked his left flank into two pieces in mid-air!

Then, his left foot, which had not yet moved, stepped out in a swift shearing motion. Simultaneously, his hands shifted rapidly on the hilt, changing to right-hand-up, left-hand-down. The blade, poised in the upper right, used his right hand on the hilt as a fulcrum,

and he slashed downward fiercely at the wolf pouncing from behind. The thirty-nine-inch blade was about the same length as the gray wolf. This downward strike was heavy and powerful, splitting the wolf’s head in two and lodging in its chest bone.

Li You had long been prepared for the blade to get stuck. He lifted his left foot to kick the wolf’s abdomen and quickly withdrew the blade. As his left foot landed forward and to the left, his right foot stood ready. Responding to the next assault, he prepared an upward flick, ensuring he could follow with another downward slash, forming a simple and clean cycle of blade techniques.

But the problem was that his fierce, lightning-fast methods were simply too quick—so quick that he seemed to leave behind afterimages.

Not only were Wa and Liu behind him stunned once more, but the rain of blood spraying through the air had also terrified the wolf pack.

Although the pack had surrounded him, most stayed five or six paces away. Whoever his blade tip pointed at, that wolf would quickly scramble away.

"The pack has lost its momentum!"

Wa Qingyun also noticed the wolves' hesitation and immediately grew excited.

"Tsk tsk... Mr. Li is simply Xiang Yu reborn. That one was cut in two from the waist, the other from the neck... And this blade technique, I’m certain it’s the 'Xinyou Blade Technique' of the Ape-Fly and Ape-Leap styles from the border armies."

Liu Longjin said with conviction. He had seen Niu Jinku practice with the blade, and it was not much different from Li You’s—simple, brutal, fierce, and savage. There were none of the flashy tricks of street performers; every move was meant to kill. It was pure, lethal technique.

The group of children behind them finally regained some spirit. The little girls were still so scared they covered their eyes from time to time—especially Little Tangerine, who did so every time she saw a wolf pounce at Li You—while the boys watched with boiling blood, their faces flushed red, their little mouths hanging open in small "O" shapes.

Especially Heiliuzi and Yu Zhengchun; both were clenching their small fists, their eyes shining as they watched Li You’s upright figure.

"Not charging anymore? Then I'll charge!"