Chapter 970: No, This Is Impossible!

No, this is impossible!

Watching the two fighters—attacker and defender—rapidly fade from his view, Sun Miao was stunned.

What the hell? This isn’t how the plan was supposed to go!

Cheng Shi, what are you doing!?

We finally lured them in—why won’t you let me out!?

You think you can take down the Beast Tamer alone?

Foolish, arrogant, utterly delusional!

How could you be so foolish now, clinging to some meaningless notion of personal justice and a hollow one-on-one duel?

Do you know this folly will squander our only chance!?

Sun Miao was truly panicked. Though he wasn’t worried Cheng Shi—having once defeated Zainjir—would die, he couldn’t bear to waste this perfect opportunity, the one they’d waited a full day and night for.

If we fail this time, there won’t be another—no, there won’t be another. The wary Beast Tamer will never fall for the same trap again, and that means the Fear Tree Core—a relic of this caliber—will fall into his hands.

This is worse than failing the trial.

But Sun Miao was helpless—he couldn’t shout, “Cheng Shi, let me out to help you!” because that would expose their ruse, and the fish that had just bitten would flee faster than ever!

Yet if he didn’t shout, the foolish Weaver seemed to have no intention of releasing him at all.

So, suddenly stripped of his role, Sun Miao frowned, stood still, and began to ponder what this mysterious Weaver was truly planning.

He had no preparation beforehand—so what confidence did he have now to face a Beast Tamer at peak condition and be certain he’d trap him here forever?

And why would the Beast Tamer refuse to explain how he’d held his own against Yuge? Was that somehow tied to this planned hunt?

Too many questions. Even the wise couldn’t understand.

Xiao Qi couldn’t understand it either—how could his childhood friend have so many bizarre, impossible tricks to escape death?

He’d shot him three arrows already, yet none of them slowed his escape.

You’re a Priest—fine, you can heal yourself. But how the hell did you train to treat potions like water? Whose potions let you use them like this?

Did you hack your potion count?

Watching Xiao Shi still have energy to flee, Du Qiyu’s expression darkened.

If this continues, and Xiao Shi waits out Gorylis’s cooldown, it’ll be me who’s in danger!

This fleeting chance can’t be missed—or...

Thinking this, Du Qiyu decisively dismissed all other Beasts, keeping only the humanoid one as his shield, then channeled nearly his full peak power, leveraging his Hunter’s innate advantage to fire a single arrow—aimed at the only path Cheng Shi must take—to decide the outcome.

This arrow embodied his entire understanding of the Hunter class in this game—on some level, even echoing the Time Reversal Arrow of the Wind Tamer, except the Wind Tamer strikes the past, while Xiao Qi’s arrow struck... the future.

Though the [Corruption] vessel constantly drained Xiao Qi’s emotions, in this instant, the arrow’s flight was the crystallization of his lifelong obsession.

In sheer speed, this arrow shattered Cheng Shi’s understanding of the Hunter class’s limits—he had no way to dodge, no way to evade!

If he were the Needle Warrior, he’d have full confidence to time his dodge—but Cheng Shi was still a Priest, so...

“Swoosh! Thud! Hum—”

The fragile human body didn’t slow the arrow even a fraction—it pierced clean through, spraying a mist of blood from Cheng Shi’s back, then plunged straight into the tree trunk behind him, humming like a rattlesnake.

“Wah—”

Cheng Shi spat a gout of blood, staggered two steps, then collapsed backward—before he could even hit the ground, a waterfall of arrows, screaming with wind, slammed into him, pinning him to the earth like a straw dummy pierced by needles.

This time, cautious Xiao Qi chose not to become the talkative villain—he seized the moment and clutched victory firmly in his hands.

Did he win?

Is Xiao Shi dead?

As a sharp Hunter, he should’ve been certain the prey was dead the moment every shot landed—but this was Xiao Shi. The childhood friend he’d tricked. The lucky boy who’d supposedly received his father’s love. The so-called “new” prodigy the players whispered about, the one who’d defeated a false god...

His calm escape moments ago proved he wasn’t an easy opponent—but now, he was dead?

That’s it?

In that instant, the joy of victory nearly reignited his accumulated emotions—but the vessel in his hand swiftly drained Du Qiyu’s excitement, restoring his calm.

Champagne can be drunk anytime—but never halfway through the match.

So Xiao Qi moved cautiously. After confirming the trapped Sage couldn’t escape anytime soon, the Beast Tamer... did not appear.

He was too cautious—like the most seasoned Hunter.

Not only did he not appear—he shifted his position, firing arrows at irregular intervals from the dense forest, lashing the corpse now devoid of any unblemished skin.

This suspicious Hunter intended to complete the hunt with the utmost caution and certainty.

The entire arrow barrage lasted nearly half an hour.

No Hunter would waste so much time on a dead prey—until Xiao Qi himself felt he’d become overly cautious, and finally stopped, smiling.

No ecstatic joy, no sigh of relief—Du Qiyu smiled only with satisfaction, shaped by the vessel’s influence. In that moment, he felt as if he’d finally bid farewell to his past self.

As for whether Xiao Shi would respawn elsewhere...

No, impossible.

Because he still held a relic capable of sealing the prey’s death beyond doubt!

The Skinning Bone Knife!

An SSS-tier loot from a bone-removal artisan, this blade carried the purest [Death] curse—once any living corpse was slashed by it, the bones buried in [Death] would be its only fate.

Calmly, Du Qiyu drew the bone knife from his sleeve and walked step by step toward Xiao Shi’s corpse.

Interestingly, even now, the one approaching Cheng Shi’s body wasn’t his true form—but the last remaining humanoid Beast.

It was dressed exactly like the Beast Tamer—Du Qiyu’s most prized possession. Now, he would use another version of himself to send his childhood friend once more into hell.

“Rest in peace, Xiao Shi. I hope in your next life, you still fall for my tricks.”

Saying this, Xiao Qi plunged the bone knife downward.

But halfway through, his motion froze—he realized the corpse, riddled with arrows, had no space even one centimeter wide to place the blade’s tip.

Helpless, Xiao Qi had to first pull out the arrow from Cheng Shi’s chest. After such a barrage, a normal corpse wouldn’t retain a single intact heart—it would crumble into mush at the slightest pressure.

Yet Xiao Qi distinctly felt resistance from flesh and blood through the arrow’s shaft—and worse, the instant his fingers touched the arrow in Cheng Shi’s chest, the heart—supposedly reduced to pulp—suddenly thumped back to life!

The Beast’s pupils shrank. In a flash, before he could pull the arrow out, he drove the bone knife straight into the beating heart—but the strike didn’t stop it. Instead, the heart beat faster, pumping warm blood directly from the wound, splattering across the Beast’s face.

At the same moment, Cheng Shi—his face bristling with arrows—raised both hands, yanked out the arrows from his eye sockets and mouth, and turned his head toward the stunned friend before him, grinning with a horrifying, blood-dripping, mouth-ruined smile, his voice hoarse and wind-whistling:

“Heh, old friend, your healing technique...”

“Is pretty good.”

In that instant, even with the vessel in hand, both Du Qiyus were overcome with icy dread.

No, this is impossible!