Chapter 191: Treasure

“Ah…” Suzanna suddenly screamed and struggled to get away from Anfey’s grasp. She backed off to the end of the cave. She stared at Anfey as she signaled to him that Riska was in sight. Obviously, she was telling Anfey that he should not behave this way when Riska was still there.

This illusion seemed even more real than the real world. Anfey smiled bitterly at Riska. The tree cave was dark, but Anfey still could clearly see Riska’s eyelashes fluttering, which meant Riska had been awakened by Suzanna’s scream. Riska murmured something. He seemed to tell Anfey and Suzanna that he was still dreaming and hinted to them that he would not bother them and they should continue what they were doing.

Anfey used to have strong willpower, but now he started to panic. He was not afraid of strong enemies, danger or death, but he did not want to sink even more into this illusion. Pain, sadness, bitterness, reluctance to give up, helplessness and other negative feelings accumulated in him and exploded into a long scream. Anfey’s scream echoed in the dark.

Riska could not pretend anymore. He suddenly sat up. Suzanna saw Anfey constantly screaming as he looked out of the cave. His screaming sounded sad. Suzanna ran to Anfey and hugged him without concern for the presence of Riska. She asked in a worried tone: “Anfey, what happened? Anfey, what is wrong?”

Anfey suddenly turned around, staring at Suzanna. He held Suzanna towards him tight and kissed her little lips. Anfey was mature and had good self-control. When he knew he could escape from the illusion, he was at the edge of losing his self-control. He had to do something to vent it out. Knowing Suzanna was just an illusion, he still wanted to do it.

Riska was startled. He hurried out of the cave and released levitation to fly onto the tree.

Suzanna struggled hard at the beginning. As Anfey kissed her more, she struggled less and less. Her body was getting weaker and weaker, and fell into Anfey’s arm at the end.

Without knowing how much time had passed, Anfey held Suzanna less tight. Suzanna was aroused in Anfey’s arm. It took her a while to realize what happened. She caressed Anfey’s chest and asked in a low voice, “Anfey, did you recall some unhappy moments? I actually had a lot of those unhappy moments. Don’t think about it. We both do not think about them. I will be here for you, and you will be here for me in the future. We are going to live a happy life together.”

“Hahaha, my girl.” Anfey was flirty and lifted Suzanna’s chin, and then his smile froze on his face.

Anfey suddenly pushed Suzanna away. He looked around and then closed his eyes and opened them wide open again. It was gone. The illusion had gone. He now could only see things with the vision of a normal person’s eyes. For those insects, birds, magic beasts, or even trees outside in the forest, they were all gone. Of course, Suzanna was still the same Suzanna.

Illusion finally disappeared! Anfey almost wanted to cheer out loud. He returned to his normal status after the illusion was gone. Anfey took a deep breath and tried to control his emotions. He looked at Suzanna for a long time and smiled. “You are my lucky star.”

“What lucky star?” Suzanna got even more confused.

Riska faked a few coughs and walked in. “I just went to use the restroom. How come you guys all woke up?” It looked like Riska tried hard to prove he had not seen anything, but his excuses sounded too obvious.

“Riska, why did you run before?” Anfey smiled. He clearly had seen Riska running away. As he finished his comment, he shocked himself. No! He saw Riska running away in his illusion. Now the illusion had gone. Riska and Suzanna came back. When the illusion disappeared, he was still holding Suzanna. What on earth just happened? Was the illusion continuing? Had the illusion never happened?

Anfey was experienced, but very inexperienced in terms of practice. Anfey could borrow the experiences from his ancestors on Stamina Refining stage and Qi Refining stage. He had to stumble through on Spirit Refining stage and Inner Alchemy stage. This illusion had totally confused Anfey.

“Anfey” Suzanna called to Anfey when she saw Anfey lost in thought.

“What did I do?” Anfey asked in a worried tone.

“I did not see anything. I saw nothing.” Riska waved his hands hard.

Suzanna ran to the back of the cave with a low pitched scream. She was a girl. She was too shy to describe what had happened, especially when Riska was there. She was not even brave enough to listen to anyone describing what happened. Suzanna was brave on the battlefield, but she was like a coward this time, and a coward in blush.

“Tell me, what did I do?” Anfey asked with a serious tone.

“Ah…” Riska waved his fingers. “I don’t know.” He dared not say it. Neither could he. He worried that he would be bullied for that reason later on.

“I am not joking. Tell me. It is very important.” Anfey heaved a sigh of relief.

“You do not know what you did?” Riska asked.

“I know, but I need someone to prove what I thought.” Anfey glanced at Suzanna as he talked.

“You were talking with Suzanna,” Riska said.

“What did I say?” Anfey asked.

“You did not say much. You just screamed. It sounded horrible,” Riska said.

“What happened afterwards?” Anfey asked.

“Then Suzanna rushed over to ask you what happened,” Riska said.

“And what happened?” Anfey asked.

Suzanna cuddled into a ball. She even closed her eyes. She really did not understand why Anfey had to ask about these things. She felt so embarrassed and was very angry with Anfey.

“And then you held Suzanna, then…” Riska blushed. He had his lips cursed. He would rather use actions to hint to Anfey than telling him in words.

“Was I strange in any way?” Anfey asked.

“Strange?” Riska looked at Anfey and sighed, “Anfey, be honest, you were strange in many ways.”

“I did not mean being strange emotionally, but in other ways. What do you think?” Anfey asked.

Riska looked at Anfey for a while and said, “Anfey, the leaf on your chest was giving out light, but there is no light now. Is it strange?”

“Leaf?” Anfey looked down at his own chest. The leaf had turned back to normal. Anfey had a good memory. He did remember the leaf gave out light, just as Riska said. In other words, maybe, the secrets of the illusion were in that leaf.

Anfey calmed himself and slowly closed his eyes. To a Qi practitioner, he might not be able to be in Samadhi as he wanted. Anfey was an ancient martial arts practitioner. Boxing was dangerous. He could die at any time, which did not give practitioners any time to get into the stage of Samadhi. Anfey was good at this. He could immediately get into that stage even when he was under attack.

Suddenly everything became quiet in Anfey’s mind. The illusion came back again. At the beginning, everything seemed blurry and started to become clear. Insects, magic beasts, and forests which had disappeared previously came back to Anfey.

“Ah? It got bright. It got bright again,” Riska yelled.

With Riska’s screaming, Anfey lost his calm. He was scared before, but happy this time.

“Riska, you go outside,” Anfey yelled.

“To do what?” Riska asked.

“Whatever you want to do outside,” Anfey said.

“Anfey, what happened?” Riska felt Anfey was really strange tonight.

“Listen to me. Go outside. You will know immediately,” Anfey said.

Riska heaved a slight sigh. He helplessly walked out of the tree cave. He hesitated for a second and started to shake his butt.

“Are you shaking your butt?” Anfey asked.

“Ah?” Riska was surprised. He looked into the cave, seeing Anfey still standing there with eyes closed. Anfey did not seem to peek. He thought a little bit and walked behind the tree and shook his butt harder.

“You are still shaking your butt,” Anfey said.

“Did you see?” Riska was even more surprised. He quietly turned around to lightly slap his butt with his hands.

“You are slapping your own butt. Riska, can you do anything more appropriate?” Anfey sounded happy.

“No way.” Riska decided to be serious this time. “Anfey, let’s guess fingers. Can you see how many fingers I am holding up?”

“One.”

“Five.”

“Three.”

“None.”

“Still none.”

They did not have to continue this game anymore. Riska had run back to the tree cave. “Anfey, how did you do it? Tell me. Do you have control over the Eyes of Sky? No, that could not be it. I did not sense any magic surge.”

“It helped me,” Anfey caressed the leaf with the lights and smiled.

“This leaf?” Riska asked.

“Yes. I just did an experiment. I could see anywhere as long as there is vegetation, but I could not see very far, only dozens of yards.”

“Dozens of yards is not far? Anfey, what kind of vegetation?” Riska asked.

“Like trees and grass.” Anfey heaved a long sigh. “Can anyone tell me what this leaf’s name is? It must be a treasure. It must have a name.”

Chapter 192: Mischievous

“I don’t know,” Riska said, frowning. After a few moments deep in thought, he shook his head. “Druids and elves are both getting weaker. Their secrets will likely die with them as well. Not a lot people remember their stories anymore. I only know about the two races because of the few books that recorded their history. I know their artifacts. This isn’t one of them.”

“How could you know?”

“There would be a sign,” Riska said, pointing to the sky.

“Interesting,” Anfey said, frowning. “Is Bruzuryano that powerful?”

“He’s an Arch-Druid and is hundreds of years old,” Riska said. “What do you think?”

“Alright,” Anfey said, nodding. He didn’t know anything about artifacts, and he did not have the time to read about them. However, he knew how to use the leaf. As long as he had the leaf, no one could find them, but he could find anyone. Bruzuryano must have found them using the leaf as well.

If there were two ships engaged in a naval battle, and one had the most powerful cannon and the best defense, while the other had powerful radar, the ship with the radar would have the advantage.

At first, Anfey wanted to keep the leaf for himself. After Riska’s explanation, however, he had to abandon the idea.

Humans were greedy, and Anfey was no exception. What made him different from others was that he knew what he should do, and what he should not. Greed was natural, but a man who covets everything he could not have would be in terrible trouble. Controlling one’s greed could be very hard. A man might consider his requests normal and justified, but others might think he was too greedy.

“Alright,” Anfey said. “You two should get some more rest.”

Riska and Suzanna rolled their eyes. They were already resting, and Anfey was the one who woke them up. Suzanna especially had conflicting feelings. Not only had she been woken up suddenly, she had been kissed suddenly as well. It wasn’t just a small kiss, either. It was a deep kiss that almost took her breath away. Anfey could pretend nothing had happened, but she could not. Even now, her heart was still fluttering.

However, Anfey’s attention was completely taken by the leaf. He was sitting there with his legs under him, ready to begin meditating again.

Suzanna opened her mouth to say something, but wasn’t sure what to say. She glared at Anfey, and returned to her corner again.

After Riska informed him about the artifacts, Anfey felt more relaxed and completely immersed himself in his meditation. He realized this leaf was not only a treasure for the Arch-Druid, it would also be a treasure for someone on the Path of Wu.

The Path was essentially the path of nature, and breaths were intended to take in the power of nature. With the druid’s treasure, the rate of taking in nature’s power increased significantly. Anfey realized his mind expanded and what he could see was much more vast than before. It was as if he could see every corner of the world if he wanted to.

Anfey was still worried about losing himself, however, and decided that he would allow everything to happen on its own accord. He didn’t try to probe or purposely see and listen. He did not allow himself to grow excited or happy. The only thing he did was keeping his breath even.

In the end, Anfey began to forget what he was doing, and it grew natural.

At first, his mind was like a leaf, quivering in the wind. It did not have any emotions and did not fight against the wind. This was natural.

Then, it morphed into the earth, vast and silent. It did not know what emotions were and it did not know what was fighting again. This was freedom.

For people on the Path, being natural when meditating was very difficult. It was the watershed between controlling one’s own mind and returning one’s spirit to nothingness.

Perhaps because he had practiced this before, Anfey quickly mastered controlling his breathing and his mind. Now, he was returning his spirit to nothingness. The stages before required hard work and dedication, but this stage relied purely on chance and insightfulness. Anfey was very insightful, but he could not completely relax because of his paranoia. His progress had been stalled because of his inability to relax, but using the leaf, he was able to learn how to let himself go.

Anfey slowly opened his eyes and saw the dawn breaking. His eyes were clearer than before. Even though he was very good at controlling his emotions, when he did not need to lie, his eyes would betray his thoughts. Now, the only thing in his eyes were calm.

As if she had felt something, Suzanna opened her eyes and stared at Anfey. For a young woman, her first love would be very passionate. She would learn what it was like to give instead of take. For Suzanna, Anfey was not only her lover, but also her commander and her leader. The love in her eyes was enough to move even the cruelest man.

Even though he had his back to Suzanna, Anfey could still see her face clearly. The serenity in his eyes disappeared, and he turned to her with a smile. “What are you thinking about?”

“You’re still awake?” Suzanna asked, averting his gaze. She felt embarrassed, her fingers picking at the walls of the cave. Perhaps she would get used to kissing after a few dozen times, but now, her mind was a jumble of emotions and thoughts.

“You felt different just then,” Suzanna said hesitantly. She pushed herself up and sat down next to Anfey.

“Different? Maybe it’s because it was our first time.”

“What first time?” Suzanna asked. Then she blushed and elbowed Anfey in the side.

“You can go out now,” Anfey said.

Suzanna frowned. Behind them, Riska climbed up. He clearly had been awake for a while now. Not looking at Suzanna or Anfey, he straightened his clothes and walked out.

As soon as he was out of the hole, his figure disappeared. He landed on the ground with a loud thud. “What the hell?” Riska complained loudly. “How did this tree grow this much?”

“Really?” Suzanna frowned and asked. She stood up and wanted to see it for herself.

Anfey grabbed her hand and pulled her back. Suzanna stumbled and almost fell over.

“Are you running away?”

“Of course not!” Suzanna said. She sat back down with her back straight.

Both worlds had bold extroverts and shy introverts. Suzanna was obviously the latter. Her normal personality was very different from her personality when she was fighting.

Anfey grinned. He looked very at ease and relaxed, but was in fact very confused. He had just returned from meditating, and the way he looked at people and things had changed. If it wasn’t for Suzanna, maybe he would not return to his normal state for quite a while. Anfey didn’t know what to make of this new change. Only time could tell whether it was a good thing or not.

“Quit smiling like that,” Suzanna complained. Perhaps it was because she was too sensitive, but she thought Anfey wasn’t thinking about her.

“I can do more than just smile,” Anfey said. Suzanna was a fearsome fighter, but here she looked more like a young girl. Anfey knew that he was the only one who could cause this change in Suzanna.

Suzanna was hardly twenty years old, but she was already a senior swordsmaster, and was already exhibiting signs of a breakthrough. She would be lauded wherever she went. Not only was she skilled and powerful, she was very beautiful. She may be cold sometimes, but to her friends, she was always kind and loving. It was very hard, but satisfying, to win the love of a girl like Suzanna.

“Riska is still outside,” Suzanna said. She was still scared that Anfey would do something like last night.

“He can’t hear us,” Anfey said. “Come here.”

“No!” Suzanna said, blushing furiously. She pushed Anfey away and stood up, but Anfey was persistent and followed her.

Suzanna didn’t know what to do except when she tried to push him away, but she didn’t want to hurt his feelings, either. Anfey latched onto her, keeping her from getting away. When she realized she couldn’t get away, she moved her head as far away from Anfey as possible.

Anfey suddenly released her. Just as Suzanna thought he had given up, she felt Anfey lifting her into the air. Suzanna glanced at Anfey, and saw the mischief in his eyes. She sighed and closed her eyes.

After a few moments, Suzanna felt something warm on her lips, and it ended as soon as it had happened. “Alright,” Anfey said. “Don’t worry. I won’t do anything else.”

Suzanna blushed and punched Anfey on the arm. She wriggled out of his arm and moved over to prepare breakfast. Her attention was obviously not on the food, however, because she was still taking food out even though she had found more than enough already.

Chapter 193: Giving and Receiving

That day they travelled less intensely than the previous day. The day before, they had to stop to hide whenever they suspected something might happen. They had to make sure everything was alright before they could continue their travelling. They all could sense magic surges around them. There were not as many magic beasts in Hengduan Valley as in Forest of Death, but there were still some magic beasts in the valley. They could not tell whether it was a person or magic beast just judging from magic surges, which cost them a decent amount of time as they tried to figure it out.

With Bruzuryano’s gift, Anfey could observe his surroundings for a couple of miles, even up to a range of a dozen miles. Samadhi was a basic skill for a qualified martial arts practitioner. Samadhi in simple words meant the practitioner could be in a fighting state in a very short time. If a martial arts practitioner could not calm down, concentrate, or had to ask to restart everything for some reason, he would get killed. A martial arts practitioner without good foundational skills might escape from being killed one day, but would be killed eventually.

Anfey caressed the leaf on his chest for a while. This was the first time Anfey had felt possessive about something. This leaf made Anfey’s life so convenient. Sometimes even having many mages there with Anfey, they still could not observe everything in the Eyes of Sky at any one time. However, he could do it by himself. All the enemies seemed to show up in front of Anfey. With this leaf, he would rather hide in the dark.

Of course, there was the question of why Bruzuryano wanted to give that leaf to Anfey for no apparent reason?

Anfey did not believe Bruzuryano had taken a liking to Anfey when they only met once. Back when Saul and Ernest wanted to help Anfey, he was a harmless and useless person. He had to have both qualities to feel that the person who helped him would have no intention of taking advantage of him.

People would become cautious or even hate a person if that person was harmful. If this continued, it could cause conflict and end in a bloody fight. Being useful was not a good thing either. People would try to get useful people on their side, socialize with them, help them, and then take advantage of them. Take the handsome Jinke for example. Others tossed the gold nuggets into the water only because he liked to hear that sound. A guy cut off his beloved wife’s hands only because he said her hands were pretty. When people did so much for him, they only wanted him to make a strike at Qin palace to kill the king. If Jinke were not useful, who would care who he was.

Anfey respected Saul and Ernest from the bottom of his heart because they wanted to help a harmless and useless young man. That help without any intentions had won Anfey’s trust. Anfey was cautious. It was not easy for Anfey to trust anyone.

The cause-effect relationships could also be seen as giving-receiving relationships. Bruzuryano gave Anfey the leaf: What did he want for return?

After avoiding groups of mercenaries of different sizes, Anfey decided to take a break next to a river around noon. The rivers in the mountains were usually very clear. This one was only about two yards wide. Anfey could clearly see the stones and swimming fish in the water. Anfey sat on the big stone at the edge, looking around. He asked with a smile, “Suzanna, how about eating better today?”

“What do you mean?” Suzanna asked.

“Should we grill some fish?” Anfey said.

“You…” Suzanna shook her head with a smile.

There were many kinds of magic beasts, but most of them were not edible due to the nature of magic beasts. They could not eat any magic beast with a magic crystal. It could interfere with the magic and combat power if people ate it even for a short time. Magic and combat power could disappear and turn people into magic crystals if they ate magic beasts for a long time. Regular people would get skinnier and skinnier and produce a blood crystal in their body. Blood tribes used to domesticize people and forced them to eat magic beasts to make them into blood crystals. Blood tribes disappeared a long time ago, back before the Sacred Battle.

Suzanna had not done well with food before. Anfey won Shally over with few sausages. Mercenaries in the forest usually carried some food supplies with them. For the people in Anfey’s previous world, Anfey only needed to carry fire starter and weapons, since there would be food everywhere.

It was okay to eat fish as long as the water was fine. Anfey suddenly stood up and picked up a branch. He walked up to the river. Fish saw the shadow of a person and started to dart away. Anfey thrust the branch into the water and stabbed a fish in its side.

Fish were tossed on shore one after another. Suzanna’s eyes were brightened. Being able to eat better today did not surprise her, but the wounds on the fish did. All the fish in the blink of an eye. Without mentioning the skills of using branches as swords, his accuracy had surprised her. Anfey did not have fast speed, sometimes he even looked slow, but he never missed a fish.

Suzanna knew Anfey had unusual and crude sword skills, but in this world, people were evaluated in a more comprehensive way. They did not just look at sword skills, but also paid attention to their combat powers. Suzanna had taken it for granted, so she did not pay too much attention to Anfey’s sword skills. Right now she felt something she could not describe in words. If she tried to catch fish, she did not think she could do as well as Anfey.

“Are we grilling them? I will find some branches.” Riska smiled.

“No, I got them.” Anfey walked back. “Anyone got salt?”

Riska and Suzanna looked at each other, confused. They carried just regular breads with them; no salt.

“Never mind. Let’s boil them.” Anfey took out a crystal box from his Dimensional ring. “Riska, can you find something to set up a stone and put this box on it.”

People could continue to be shaped no matter how experienced they were. Grilling fish was so meaningless and ridiculous for old Anfey. He would be fine as long as he had food. Without knowing how, maybe it was because of the unicorn, Saul, Ernest, or Suzanna, Anfey’s personality had gradually changed. He changed from being dark to more positive, from pretentious to sincere. Anfey rarely pretended to be someone else, at least not in front of the people he trusted.

“Ok.” Riska took the box. “Can I put it on stones?”

“Sure,” Anfey said, smiling. He took out a knife and cut the fish open on its belly. He licked a little bit of blood and tasted it. Raw fish had a strong fishy smell, but he had to taste the blood to make sure it was safe to eat. If described in medical terms, he was trying to feel the microvascular and peripheral nerve to see if they were contaminated. If animals were contaminated, the toxin could be categorized into three types: neurotoxin, blood toxin or cardiotoxin. Although modern medicine had categorized it in a simple way, Anfey’s purpose was not to save a poisoned person. He only needed to make a judgement whether the fish had toxins in it. This kind of categorization was good enough.

Anfey quickly cleaned the fish released a few fireballs to boil the water. He was doing two things at the same time. Suzanna and Riska did not know whether they should laugh or cry, since what Anfey did was against the magic rules and violated the holy and serious nature of magic.

Anfey cut a few sausages and tossed them into the crystal box. He tossed the fish into the box as well. He had no idea how the flavor would turn out, since he was not a chef. Not long after the steam rose up, a strong fragrance came out of the box. Suzanna and Riska had not had any real people food for the past few days. They were excited about the food and walked over to Anfey.

“Someone came. There are seven mercenaries. They will be here soon,” Anfey suddenly said in a low voice. He still stirred the soup with a branch and heated the crystal box with his fireballs. Anfey saw the mercenaries in the distance with the leaf on his chest. He did not do just do two things at a time. He was doing three.

“Should we leave now?” Riska was shocked.

“No, they came from over there.” Anfey shook his head. If they were from Shansa Empire, they should come from behind or from the sides. Anfey did not feel it was going to be any trouble.

Soon a group of seven mercenaries came to the other side of the river. Mercenaries met all the time. To protect themselves and prevent any misunderstanding, they usually tried not to communicate with each other. They usually continued what they were doing without bothering each other.

Anfey and the mercenaries on the other side of the river chose to have the same kind of attitude. Anfey and his team continued their cooking as the other group of mercenaries sat and talked in low voices on the other side of the river. They did not seem to see each other. Since it was not ordinary to cook with magic, Anfey drew the attention of the other group. Those seven mercenaries checked out Anfey.

“Su…” Anfey was trying to call Suzanna.

“My name is Niya.” Suzanna suddenly interrupted Anfey.

Anfey’s hand froze in the air. When he looked over to check Suzanna, Suzanna had turned her body to the side. Suzanna looked at the forest, her head tilted back. Without close observation, Anfey could sense the anger and hatred in Suzanna’s eyes.

“Do you know them?” Anfey asked calmly.

“We’ll talk about it later. Anfey, let’s go. We’d better not get into trouble here,” Suzanna answered quietly.

Suzanna answered Anfey in simple sentences, but Anfey got enough information. She was definitely feeling hatred, otherwise Suzanna would not have asked to leave. She was afraid she could not control herself. When Suzanna said she did not want to get into trouble, it meant that this group of mercenaries was not easy to handle. Some of them would be really good.

“Hi!” a mercenary on the other side of the river yelled. “What are you cooking? It smells great.”

“We have been here for a couple of months. We had enough breads we brought with us. We are making some fish soup today,” Anfey answered with a smile.

Chapter 194: Trackers

“You’re a cook?” the mercenary asked with a grin.

“No,” Anfey said. “I’m a mage. This is just a hobby.” His hands danced and his movements were very smooth. The smell of the soup suddenly grew very strong and pleasant.

One of the seven mercenaries stood up and leapt over the creek. He glanced around, then his eyes fell on the crystal box. “Are you really using a top tier crystal to cook?” he asked.

“It’s the only thing I have,” Anfey said and shrugged.

“Can I try some?” the mercenary took a deep breath and asked.

“Wait a moment,” Anfey said. He looked around, then frowned. “It seems like I have forgotten about spoons,” he said, troubled.

“We have one,” the mercenary said. He fumbled through his pack and found a spoon.

Anfey accepted the spoon. It was a silver spoon that was common in this world. Here, many families used silver spoons. Even the kings preferred silverware. Silverware was especially common during feasts. Silver could react with poison, and using silverware tended to reassure the guests that the food was not poisoned.

Anfey dipped the spoon into the soup and raised it to his lips. The soup did not taste as good as he had wanted, but it wasn’t bad, either. He was missing too many ingredients.

“Alright,” Anfey said, handing the spoon back to the mercenary. “You can try some now.”

The mercenary took the spoon and stared at the soup. The spoon did not change color, and the mercenary dipped it into the soup.

A sound of metal clashing was heard from the other mercenaries. The mercenary hesitated, and took a sip of the soup. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and grinned. “It’s very good,” he told Anfey.

His movements were natural, but the faint vapor rising from his sleeve still caught Anfey’s eyes. Anfey knew that the mercenary must have spat the soup out instead of swallowing it.

“You want some more?” Anfey asked.

“No, no. This is your lunch. You should be the ones enjoying it,” the mercenary said. He turned and jumped over the creek. “Thanks a lot.” The man turned and waved at Anfey.

“You’re welcome,” Anfey said. He dropped the stick he was stirring the soup with on the ground. Next to him, Suzanna’s eyes flickered. Riska stood up and began making his way upstream.

A real organization usually had its own way of operating. Using expressions was too straightforward and risky, because the enemies could read expressions as well. In most situations, there would be certain casual gestures that only people within the organization understood.

“There’s a lot of fish here too,” Riska called out.

“I’m already done.”

“There’s nothing in that soup,” Riska said. He shook his head and waved his hand. A ball of water leapt into the air. Some fish were caught up in the ball of water and were wriggling away.

Riska’s control of the water was clearly not as good. The fish fell onto the bank, but he was soaked with the water as well.

Across the creek, the mercenaries snickered. Riska frowned and stamped on the ground angrily, his eyes still following the fish. He began whispering a spell, and a powerful magical surge rippled from him.

Anyone could tell Riska was angry. The mercenaries looked at Riska, waiting for him to make a fool of himself again. Two mercenaries naturally reached for their swords and were resting their hands on their swords’ hilts. They were staring at Riska.

Anfey frowned and marveled at their cautiousness. “Give it up,” he called to Riska. “It’s just some fish.”

Suzanna stood up slowly and joined Riska. She still hadn’t shown her face to the mercenaries.

Anfey took a deep breath and said, “Stop playing around. Let’s leave here.”

“What?” Riska frowned and asked. He didn’t use magic to catch the fish. He was hoping to take care of the mercenaries. He was ready to use the magic, and was confused as to why Anfey had ordered them to retreat.

Suzanna felt relieved and disappointed at the same time. She felt relieved because she didn’t want the others to get hurt. If she was alone, she might have already attacked. She knew that her opponents were difficult and had the advantage in numbers, and the fight could end very badly for both sides. On the other hand, she was disappointed because she thought Anfey was her lover and someone she could rely on. Subconsciously, he was her leader, and she had expected him to take charge.

“Come on,” Anfey said. He straightened his clothes and poured the soup onto the ground. He put the box into his bag and began making his way upstream. Suzanna and Riska followed him quietly.

“Hey!” one of the mercenaries called. “Why did you just dump the soup?”

“Something just came up,” Anfey replied with a grin.

The mercenaries frowned and glanced at each other. What Anfey did could be very suspicious to some people. There was no evidence, however, that showed the soup was poisoned. No one wanted to engage in pointless fights. The mercenaries looked on coldly as the trio disappeared into the forest. The mercenary who had took a sip of the soup took out the spoon and observed it, frowning.

Suzanna didn’t want to ask. She was afraid doing that would cause estrangement. Riska, however, wasn’t concerned about that. “What happened?” he asked quietly.

“People from Shansa Empire are catching up,” Anfey said. He had just spotted a dozen people who looked like mercenaries. The clothes they wore were the same, and except for the two leaders, the rest of the men all had the same sword.

Country of Mercenaries had no official army, not because it did not have enough men. Individually, the mercenaries were much better than soldiers. It had no official army because the mercenaries did not like having the same weapons and clothing. Even the four major mercenary groups did not have uniforms. Each mercenary had weapons and armor he liked.

The soldiers could change their clothes, but not their weapons. Officers and soldiers had already gotten used to the standard weapons issued by the military. They would not change their weapons.

Suzanna and Riska glanced at each other and quickened their pace.

Anfey was still observing the creek. The Shansa soldiers had just met the mercenaries. After a short conversation, a man from the Shansa army walked over and handed a pouch to the mercenaries. The leader of the mercenaries took the pouch and cleared its content into his hands. He smiled at the coins, clearly satisfied. Then he pointed towards the direction Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna had gone.

Another soldier walked over and handed another pouch to the mercenary. The leader hesitated, then he waved his hand. The rest of the mercenaries quickly stood up and began organizing their equipment. Clearly, a deal that had broken the fundamental rules of the Country of Mercenaries had just taken place.

Anfey was shocked. The seven mercenaries were exceptionally good at tracking, and the route they followed was the exact one he had just taken. Anfey had tried to confuse the mercenaries by zigzagging, but it clearly did not work. They had found all the places he had changed path.

The mercenary that was interested in his soup seemed like the best of the seven. The six other mercenaries walked in a V-shaped formation around the man.

Dardanibry clearly intended to capture him. Anfey did not know what kind of signal the soldiers were using, but more and more soldiers appeared. Anfey thanked Bruzuryano silently. Without that leaf, he would be surrounded.

“Suzanna, go with Riska,” Anfey stopped and instructed.

“What? What did you see?” Suzanna asked.

“Some unpleasant men,” Anfey said. “Riska, remember. Leave some markings along the way. I will meet up with you two later.”

“Riska can go by himself. I’m staying with you.”

“I’m just going to annoy them a bit. Don’t worry,” Anfey smiled. He trusted Suzanna, but she was good at direct fights. This time, he wasn’t planning on directly engaging the soldiers.

“No,” Suzanna said, shaking her head. “I am staying here.”

“Listen to me, love,” Anfey said. Suzanna blushed and took a step back. “Trust me. I can take care of this.”

Chapter 195: Hunting

People usually would develop a habit of giving orders when they were in high positions long enough. Even if it was not very obvious. There were always traces to show. Without close observation, Anfey could tell who was in lead.

Sometimes experience could help him make the right judgements, but those judgements could not be explained in words. If Anfey were asked to talk about the reasons why he believed that a particular person was in charge, he probably could not explain. He just knew it.

A legion like this one would pay attention to their surroundings to look for traces and be ready for their leader’s orders when they were on assignment. Maybe when they waited for their next order, it would sent out a message that Anfey could catch with his instinct.

A wind blade arrow formed in Anfey’s hand. Anfey slowly pulled his bowstring. This wind blade arrow looked terrifying. It was three yards long, and the end of arrow was about 12 inches wide. The whole arrow had a great flow and looked very powerful. It was not hard for Anfey to make an arrow like this since he gotten the ability to turn elements into real objects.

Anfey was far less powerful than top level leaders in terms of comprehensive power. However, he could be a genius in some ways.

Anfey was very wise. He never thought he was a genius. Maybe things could be just handed to other people without any cost, but not to Anfey. If Anfey had tried to follow the traditional way to practice magic and combat power, it would have taken him a long time to catch up with those top level leaders. Anfey could not wait so long and did not have time to wait. He knew he had to figure out a different way.

The difference between him and the most powerful leaders could not be made up by practicing hard. Time was the key. Saul was a highly powerful leader, but he still spent a long time practicing magic every day. So did Ernest. How long had it been since they started to learn magic and combat power? They had probably started before Anfey was born.

It seemed like it would take a very long time to catch up with most powerful leaders on the same path. Therefore, from the very beginning, Anfey did not want to follow the traditional way to learn magic and combat power. He was not sure whether he had chosen the correct route. Fortunately, he acquired something else—martial arts.

As the gigantic arrow shot out, it flew over two hundred yards with great momentum in the blink of an eye and hit a soldier in the chest. With a huge sound, that soldier’s upper body was shattered into pieces. The body pieces were flying everywhere. There was a soldier five or six yards behind him who got hurt as well. His lower body below his waist had gone. He screamed in pain, with only half a bloody body left.

The rest of the soldiers were shocked but did not panic. They quickly hid themselves and quietly waited as they held their breath.

Anfey jumped off the tree. Their hiding places were like a joke for Anfey since he could clearly see everything within a radius of ten miles. With this ability, hunting and counterattack was a game for Anfey.

Another arrow formed in Anfey’s hand. This time the arrow was quite small, even smaller and narrower than a regular arrow. Anfey let his fingers go and the arrow quietly shot out. A soldier leaning against an ancient tree heard some sound behind him. The arrow went in from the back of his head and came out from his forehead before he even knew what happened.

This shot was even more terrifying than before. The rest of the soldiers lowered their bodies even more. They almost curled themselves into balls. Unfortunately, they made a big mistake. If they kept moving at high speed, it would have been hard for Anfey to shoot them. Anfey did not find his targets with vision. Instead, he did it with his instincts. It took some time to aim at a target. Those soldiers who stayed right where they were turned themselves into targets.

A soldier took out a magic scroll and released a magic signal. At the same time, the other mercenary group with seven mercenaries and over a dozen of people from Shansa Empire had walked to where Anfey and Suzanna departed. They stayed there and talked about something. Obviously, the traces on the ground leading to two different directions had confused them. They did not know which direction they should follow.

Within Anfey’s observation range, Anfey saw the soldiers from Shansa Empire had sent out signals to ask others to surround the area. The soldiers and mercenary group with the seven mercenaries stood together and turned around to point at where Anfey was. The mercenary who showed interest in the fish soup squad down and did some studying. He firmly shook his head and pointed in the direction Suzanna and Riska had taken.

Anfey had changed his position and jumped into the tree. A soldier from Shansa Empire laid in a pit. No one could see him from the ground level, but Anfey could tell his location since he had half his head out from Anfey’s angle. It was enough for Anfey to get him with half of his head sticking out.

Anfey started to gather elements and aimed at that soldier. As the element arrow hit him, his whole forehead was cut off by his element arrow. Yellow, white and red fluid came out of his head.

Others in the same unit start to panic. Almost at the same time, they all released their magic signals. One magic signal meant they found the trace of their enemy. Several magic signals released together meant they needed help.

Anfey slowly pulled his bowstring again. He saw two black dots out of the corner of his eye. He was shocked and hid himself in the leaves.

A male and female mage flew in the air towards him. Maybe because they were high up, Anfey did not see them. They could have changed this whole hunting game. They flew straight towards Anfey. Their location in the sky was obvious. Anfey found them first, but they had not seen Anfey yet. Anfey quietly waited there. As the two mages observed their surroundings, he immediately shot his arrow. Because he was not sure about their combat power, Anfey aimed at that female mage first. Anfey reasoned that women’s powers usually were not as good as men’s. Female mages were not as passionate about their power as men either. They rarely devoted themselves to practice. It was easy to make this kind of judgement since most of the more powerful people on Pan Continent were male.

That female mage released a magic dome shining with yellow lights. The magic dome was shattered. The moment she felt she was attacked, she switched her position. Anfey’s shot did not kill her. It only got her leg. That female mage fell from the sky with a scream.

Anfey ran out as fast as a flying arrow. He ran towards the falling female mage.

“Be careful!” the male mage screamed. A lightning bolt shot at Anfey.

As the male mage released the lightning magic, a wind blade showed up underneath Anfey’s feet. With the wind blades, Anfey was able change the position of his body and flew toward the female mage.

The female mage was covered in blood. Her body was like a rotten piece of wood falling. She rolled down and was submerged into the forest without a sound.

“Ah…” The male mage stared, his eyes wide. He released two big fire balls that chased after Anfey.

A flaming shield appeared on Anfey’s back and countered the attacks of the two fire balls. He jumped up, and his body created a parabola in the air. He threw himself into the forest.

Big fire balls, heat waves, and freezing stars hit where Anfey had fallen. However, Anfey managed to hide in another place. He was watching the magic show as he took off his mercenary uniform. He turned it over and put it back on. His clothes had been light grey before. After he turned the inside out, they became strange clothes in yellow, black and green. In his previous world, most people knew it as camouflage coat.

The magic show continued. Anfey quietly followed behind the male mage. Anfey loaded a wind blade arrow. Unexpectedly, that male mage suddenly turned around. That electric arc just swept through Anfey.

Anfey felt numb and felt there was no strength left in him. He did not practice ancient martial arts for nothing. Anfey screamed in a low pitch. The moment the big fire ball swallowed him, he regained his body control.

With a huge sound, the big fire ball exploded on the ground. Anfey had run over a dozen of yards away and hid behind an ancient tree.

What had just happened? Anfey could not help frowning. He was in thought for a while, and it suddenly struck him. He had shot the wind blade arrow. When wind blades turned into real objects, they did not have magic surges. That was why the opponents did not notice him. When he shot the wind blade arrow again, the male mage noticed magic surges and attacked Anfey beforehand.

Anfey felt better after he noticed what had just happened. Anfey took out two arrows from his Dimensional ring and loaded one on the bow and had the other one between the little finger and ring finger. He watched the Shansa Empire soldiers trying to surround him. He slowly walked below the male mage. He looked up but he could not see that male mage’s face, only two big feet.

Slowly and quietly he pulled the bowstring. As the arrow shot out, the male mage’s magic shield suddenly shattered. When Anfey just had a smile on his face, the male mage had bright red light on him and countered Anfey’s shooting. The opponent released two magic shields at the same time.

Anfey rushed forward as the big fire ball exploded two yards behind him. He could even feel the heat waves. Anfey yelled in a low pitch. He slightly bent his legs and kneeled on the ground. He slid forward with the momentum. His upper body leaned back, almost touching the ground. He had already pulled the bowstring and taken another shot.

The second attack was too fast: the male mage did not have time to release a new magic shield. The arrow went in through his groin and came out from his chest. He could even feel the arrow tearing his body apart. Later his sensation had gone. Everything turned into endless darkness.

Chapter 196: Rival

Before the Shansa soldiers could surround him, Anfey jumped out of the circle and chased the group of seven mercenaries. The soldiers were never his targets. His target was the seven mercenaries.

Anfey did not try to focus on details and forget his goal. His enemy was an entire empire, and if he killed ten soldiers today, there would be a hundred soldiers sent after them tomorrow. It was impossible to frighten a country, at least not yet. Even if he fought the soldiers now and left all of them in the forest forever, nothing would change.

Anfey did not know why the seven mercenaries would choose to work with the Shansa soldiers, considering the anti-Shansa sentiment common among mercenaries at that time. Maybe it was because they were not from the area, or maybe it was because they needed the money. Anfey didn’t want to know why, he just needed a result. He saw how Suzanna was effected by his decision to leave, and he wanted to do something to lift her spirits.

A lot of people imagined themselves to be the undetected hunter that followed their prey’s every move. They would calculate and plan, but never expect there would be someone else observing them as well.

Anfey followed the seven mercenaries, waiting for his opportunity. Unlike the soldiers, the mercenaries made Suzanna feel uneasy. Clearly they were powerful enough to be a threat. One or two of them may even be senior swordsmasters. Anfey could not get the information from Suzanna, however, because Suzanna was very brilliant, despite being inexperienced. She would figure out exactly what he wanted to do as soon as he asked the question.

Anfey’s personality might change, but the way he worked and acted would not change. Those were the things he figured out after countless encounters with death, and he was still used to facing his enemies by himself, no matter how powerful his enemies were.

There was a small hill up ahead. The seven mercenaries did not notice Anfey. They were too focused on the two sides and in front of them. Seeing the mercenaries disappearing behind the hill, Anfey retrieved an arrow from his Dimensional ring.

Anfey was very good at learning from his mistakes. The male mage immediately noticed something was wrong when he was trying to make an element arrow. This time, he would not make the same mistake. Even though he was far enough from the mercenaries, he still wanted to be careful.

As the last man made his way up the hill, Anfey’s arrow was already aimed at his back. Suddenly, the man turned around and scanned the forest behind him. Two other figures joined him, and all three men looked very nervous.

Anfey knew he had made a mistake. He closed his eyes and tried to make his mind peaceful and happy. In the past, his instinct had saved him multiple times. Sometimes he could not see or hear the danger, but he would realize something was wrong. Since Anfey could detect danger, other people must be able to detect it as well. Even if he could not explain it, Anfey knew that enmity could sometimes be felt.

The three figures on the hill did not see anything. After a few moments, the three of them turned to walk down the hill.

As soon as the figures turned away, Anfey released the arrow.

The arrow flew towards the figure. Before the arrow could hit, the man sensed the danger and turned around. However, it was too late. The arrow pierced through his body and exited beneath his right rib. The man’s body stumbled and fell to the ground.

The forest suddenly grew very quiet, as if the murder did not happen. However, Anfey knew the six remaining mercenaries had spread out around the hill.

They looked angry and sad, which was logical. Their friend had just been murdered, and anyone would be upset. However, they did not do anything meaningless. They did not even turn to look at the man’s corpse. It was as if looking at their dead friend would be a distraction.

Anfey frowned. It was as if he wasn’t fighting mercenaries in a world of magic, but instead fighting ruthless modern mercenaries. The mercenaries’ reactions took him by surprise.

The rest of the mercenaries made a mistake. After they entered the forest, they split up and searched through the forest silently. This was perhaps because they trusted their companions too much, perhaps because there were only six of them.

For Anfey, this forest was his domain as long as he had the leaf. He could see everyone’s movements clearly. Anfey slid down the tree and disappeared into the forest.

One of the mercenaries stalked through the forest. This mercenary was very cautious, and would stop every three or four steps. A pair of pointed ears indicated her identity as an elf.

She held a dull longsword in her hand. The sword looked unsharpened, but it was sharp enough to shear a leaf in half.

She had advanced a few hundred feet, but already took a good amount of time. She did not appear irritated by how slow she was going.

Anfey reached down from a tree’s crown and flicked a small rock on a tree about a hundred feet away. The rock hit the tree trunk with a faint thud and landed on the ground.

This was a forest, and it was filled with the sound of insects and birds and the howling of wind. The sound of the rock hitting the tree was very faint. However, the elf’s ears flicked and she clearly heard the sound.

Anfey slipped out of the tree and dove towards the ground. He tried to control his speed, because if he was going faster, his body could cause wind. It could alert the elf to his presence.

When he was about ten feet away from the elf, she suddenly sensed something. She whipped around and swung her sword upwards. The sword bursted into light and met Anfey’s dagger.

Metal clanged against metal. Even though Anfey was very practiced at close combat, he was in the air and his movements were limited. His hand was numbed from the clash, and his body stopped moving forward.

Anfey lunged forward at the elf’s face.

His attack changed too quickly and the elf had no time to block it. She took a step back, but Anfey’s knee caught her in the chin. The elf grunted in pain and jumped back. Anfey landed on the ground and launched himself forward. His right hand raised into the air and aimed his dagger at the elf’s throat.

Anfey’s movement was very fast, but the elf wasn’t slow, either. Even though she was injured, she could still fight. She lashed out with her sword, and caught Anfey’s dagger, which was only half a foot away from her throat.

Anfey’s right arm flew back and he lashed out with his left, his fist aiming at the elf’s face. Even though the elf was not trained for close combat, she was still very fast. Her left arm reached out to block Anfey’s attack. Pain tore through her left arm and she groaned in pain.

Anfey jumped towards her. Even though both of his attacks were blocked, he was still very fast. He threw his head back and hit her with his head. The elf did not expect such a bizarre attack. Usually, the head would be protected and not used as a weapon. She was dazed by the attack and stumbled in pain. However, she did not forget she was in combat. She raised her leg and kicked towards Anfey.

Anfey did not expect that she could still attack after her injures. He was also exhausted by the fight. He quickly summoned fire elements and hoped to shield himself. However, the elf’s attack was much faster than the shield’s formation. The elements were dispersed by the elf’s kick before it could form. Anfey felt a sharp pain on his chest, and his body flew upwards.

Chapter 197: Hero

Both assassins and martial arts masters made their careers in fighting, but there was a big difference between them. One went to extremes, the other one was neutral. Assassins were more like the character Yaojin Cheng in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. He ran away after trying to fight, but realized he was no a match for his opponent. If martial arts masters at the same level fought in a match, they might have to fight for a long time to see who would win. However, no assassin would fight for that long.

Martial arts masters cared about how long they could hold on in a fight, while assassins had to perform to their fullest potential whenever they were on an assignment. Assassins would do everything he could when he got on an assignment. It was not that assassins did not want to hold on long in a fight, they simply could not.

Both parties seemed to get hurt in this fight. That elf was hurt. So was Anfey. However, they looked totally different.

That elf rubbed her eyes as she backed off. She looked hurt and scared. At least at this moment, she only wanted to protect herself. She could not restore her fighting momentum. Anfey fell to the ground and looked up with a strong desire to kill his opponent. At the same time, Anfey had forgotten his wounds and pain. There was nothing but his goal left in the world. There were two other mercenaries with combat power rushing towards them. He jumped up and rushed forward as fast as lightning.

With a yell from behind, a white sword radiant came out from the forest and chased after Anfey.

The elf saw that her people had come. She plucked her courage to swing her sword, thrusting at Anfey in the air.

Even when Anfey was attacked from the front and the back, he still looked cool. His knife simply blocked her sword, and he turned the knife around to press on the top part of the sword. He jumped up, did a backflip, and elegantly landed behind the elf.

Now it was the elf’s turn to be attacked from both sides. Seeing the sword radiant coming at her, she used all her combat power to counter the sword radiant. Suddenly, she felt her neck was hurt. At the same time, Anfey jabbed at her back. The white sword radiant hit her as she stumbled. As blood gushed from her, Anfey jumped into the forest. He disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“Get him!” Those two mercenaries had hurt the elf by accident, but they did not stop to check their companion’s body. They did not have time to blame themselves or regret their mistakes. They ran towards the direction where Anfey had run.

After chasing him for a few hundred yards, a dangerous knife reflection flashed from the grass. When the mercenary in the back noticed something, the knife had already cut his ankle. He fell forward as he screamed in pain.

Anfey jumped out of the grass and stomped on the other ankle of that mercenary. This was a standard Feijiao kick. Anfey’s leg skills were good. When the mercenary got hurt, he started to panic. His combat power got less intense. When Anfey kicked his ankle in the vicious attack, Anfey only felt some pain, but the mercenary’s ankle had broken.

Anfey flung himself up off his back. He flipped backward using the mercenary as a vault. He dodged the sword light, moved a few times, and came to a tree dozens of yards away. He slowly pulled his bowstring back, looking at those two mercenaries coldly.

Actually a fight was not only about how powerful they were. It was also about how smart they could be. Seeing his opponents not coming after him, Anfey knew his judgement was right. He had killed their companions twice, but they had not panicked. It was not that they did not care. Instead, they were very wise and practical. Without checking on their companions’ wounds, they knew their companions could not survive the attacks.

Therefore, they chose to protect themselves and tried to figure out a way to kill their enemy. This mercenary group with seven mercenaries worked very well together. They were already good on their own. If they could work so well together, they must have experienced thick and thin together. They may not have to commit to live or die together, but they must trust each other. Trust was the prerequisite to sustain the combat power of a mercenary group. Anfey did not choose to kill his opponent this time, but only to hurt him for a reason. If they could not leave their companion behind, or were not willing to leave that wounded mercenary behind, then they all would die.

Anfey thought about many plans as he tried to hurt that mercenary, but the combat power of the mercenary was not even as good as the elf. Anfey easily beat him.

The wounded mercenary sat up with an unbearable pain. His one angle was broken, while the other one was almost cut off by Anfey. Even if he could survive today, he would be disabled from then on. He not only looked like he was in terrible pain, but also desperate and confused.

The other mercenary also looked confused. He did not go after Anfey, but he could not leave on his own either, and he did not want to stay where he was. The combat power was strong sometimes but weak at other times. It showed he was not calm.

A two-yard-long gigantic element arrow formed in Anfey’s hand. Anfey aimed it at the wounded mercenary. The other mercenary’s face changed, and he stepped in front of the wounded mercenary. Everyone had his own moral standards. So did that mercenary. He could never watch his companion just waiting to die.

The arrow carried strong wind with it and made the branches and leaves dance crazily as it flew through the air. The mercenary screamed and gathered all the combat power he could in order to counter the arrow. Under similar conditions, this kind of attack would not pose any threat to a senior swordsman. He definitely could keep his combat power and choose to simply dodge it. Unfortunately, he had to counter it immediately.

With a huge sound, the element arrow had turned into countless elements and disappeared in mid-air. That mercenary was forced to back off a few steps. He stepped right on the other mercenary’s wounded ankle. It was unbearable for normal people to take any more pressure on the wound, but the mercenary grinded his teeth hard without any moaning. He only held his body with his hands on the ground and moved back a little to give the other mercenary some more room.

The second element arrow was loaded quickly again. It did not take much effort for Anfey to gather elements or pull the bowstring apart. Looking at the mercenary standing there, he was already out of breath.

Anfey had mastered all kinds of series elements. He did not use fire or water elements, because those elements did not go well with archery. The combination of arrow and wind blade would add more effects to it. To be more specific, Anfey’s wind blade arrow had more power than flame meteors. Even Suzanna had to dodge if she were hit by flame meteors. A fool would continue to fight without dodging Anfey’s attack. At that moment, Anfey was ready to turn that intermediate-level swordsman into a fool with his evil plan. Actually, the mercenary was turning himself into a fool.

When the arrow shoot out, the mercenary still lunged to counter it. He broke the element arrow again. This time he steadied his body without moving at all. Obviously, he knew he had stepped on his companion the previous time. Unfortunately, only moving back could reduce the power of the blow. What he did was not wise. That mercenary’s face turned pale. He looked helpless and hopeless.

“What a man!” Anfey gave him compliments as he gathered a bigger and wider wind blade arrow.

‘

“Why are you attacking us?” That mercenary yelled in anger.

Three people in the distance ran fast towards them from three different directions. They were still far away, so it would take them some time to reach Anfey and the others. Obviously, that mercenary was trying to buy some time.

“When you took those gold coins, you should know you would die for it,” Anfey said calmly. He shoot out an arrow right away.

That mercenary went up and broke it.

This was not a battle anymore. Instead, it was more like a skill test. The mercenary held his body stable again with his back straight.

“Hero.” Anfey gave him a genuine compliment, but he did not stop what he was doing. A wind blade arrow five yards long formed in his hand. He loaded the bow with that long arrow. That long arrow looked ridiculous with such a small bow.

The mercenary’s face had changed. He surely knew the bigger the element arrow was, the more powerful it became. However, he did not have any other choice.

“Don’t worry about me. Kill him,” the wounded mercenary yelled.

The other mercenary did not seem to hear it. He held the sword in front of his forehead, and the combat power on his body radiated white lights. After a huge noise, elements clashed everywhere. The mercenary was thrown over a dozen of yards away. He rolled on the ground but quickly stood up. He slowly walked up to where Anfey was. He still looked tough, but the combat power looked less white.

Anfey looked at his hand. Wind blades formed on his palm. This time it took longer to gather. Without knowing how many wind blades he had collected, the shape of the arrow did not change. At the end, there was a 30-inch-long arrow in Anfey’s hand. It had turned from light white into something greenish. It gave out a metal smell. It looked cold and threatening.

The mercenary on the other side looked at Anfey with an easier look. He thought he had gone through the tough time. As long as he could hold for a while, his companions would come. He would kill Anfey in the most crude way in the world. Thinking of this made him grin.

This arrow did not look as scary as before. The mercenary swung his sword radiant hard. Unexpectedly, Anfey did not strike with element sword, but sword radiant. The greenish arrow flashed and thrust into that mercenary’s body. The sword radiant turned into small strings and rose. That mercenary’s body was torn into pieces in the blink of an eye.

The wounded mercenary was hurt by the leftover sword radiant and crashed hard onto an ancient tree. He opened his eyes to see what had happened, but he saw his chest splash a cloud of blood mist.

Chapter 198: Death Blow

A colorful, nameless snake slithered down from the tree. Its hissed and flicked its tongue. After a few moments, it found its target. It slithered up Anfey’s leg.

Anfey knocked the arrow and stared at the forest below him, still as a statue. He was trying to size up his enemies and take them out one by one.

This time he had picked the mercenary who had been interested in the soup earlier. Anfey could see the man dashing towards him, and realized he would arrive after approximately twenty seconds.

The snake kept slithering up his leg. The coldness felt strange, but Anfey looked like he could not feel anything at all. His body maintained the same posture.

He knew that snakes were cold-blooded and liked resting next to something warm. The warmth generated by a human body was very attractive to snakes, and it was not shocking a snake would try to coil itself around him. Judging from the color and the shape of its head, the snake was venomous. Attracting a venomous snake right before a fight was unlucky, but as an assassin, Anfey was accustomed to accidents. Nothing could distract him.

A figure coated in combat power passed by under him. Anfey released an element arrow that was aimed at the man’s back.

The element arrow dispersed with a loud crack, but the man was not injured. The magic armor flashed, and Anfey could see a magic crystal on the armor reduced to dust.

The bow in Anfey’s hand disappeared. Anfey reached down and slapped his knee, where the snake was resting. He grabbed the snake’s tail, yanking it off him, and tossed it aside.

Accidents could not distract Anfey, but it could affect his movements. Even though he was very fast, he was still delayed for a few seconds. His opponent was an experienced mercenary, and the few seconds was all he needed to regain his composure.

Anfey leapt down from the tree, his dagger shining, pointing at the mercenary’s neck. The magic armor the man wore was another surprise. What he hoped would be a fatal blow was nothing but an inconvenience to the man. Usually, Anfey would try to preserve his strength. This time, he did not want to do that.

Just as Anfey had expected, the man was ready to engage him. He turned around and drove his sword towards Anfey’s chest.

Every person had a certain way of fighting. If someone had fought Anfey before, he would know that Anfey would not expose his fighting plan when his target was still feet away from him. The longer he could hide his plan, the better.

The sword was much longer than the dagger, and normally it would be able to pierce its target. However, Anfey stopped in midair, and the wind blades under his feet disappeared. The sword was close to him, but he was able to avoid it.

Anfey’s dagger clanged against the sword, and he kicked the mercenary in the chest. The man grunted and drew his sword back for a second blow, sending his sword radiance after Anfey.

Anfey jumped out of the way and avoided the attack. The mercenary was not as good as Anfey at calculating and staying close to his target. Anfey kicked him and jumped upwards, but the mercenary was kicked, and his body was tilted.

Anfey landed and jumped up. He stared at the mercenary.

“It’s you!” the mercenary said. He recognized Anfey.

“No, it’s not,” Anfey said. He leapt forward and dashed towards the mercenary.

The mercenary frowned, but Anfey was already on the move. “Come on,” he bellowed angrily.

Anfey’s body was almost parallel to the ground, as if he was an arrow himself. He held out his right arm in front of him and pointed the dagger straight at the mercenary. What Anfey was doing was called a “death blow.” It was a move used by people who were determined to see their opponents dead. With his right arm held out in front of him, he traded mobility so he could kill the mercenary with one blow. In close combat, the loss of mobility usually meant death.

Perhaps it was because of Anfey, or perhaps it was because the mercenary was a daring and ruthless man himself, he used a “death blow” as well. His body was parallel to the ground, and the only difference between him and Anfey was the combat power on his sword.

As they were about to clash, the mercenary smirked. A man without combat power was no match for a man who had it.

The sword and the dagger clashed. Anfey’s dagger flew out of his hand, and his body kept going forward due to the momentum. Anfey curled his body up and turned from dashing forward to flying forward. As the two dashed past each other, Anfey kicked the man in his groin.

The mercenary grunted in pain and stumbled to the ground. Anfey leapt up and the two stared at each other. Anfey’s stance was natural, but the mercenary looked as if he was in great pain. Even though his combat power had prevented Anfey from completely disabling him, the mercenary was still in great pain.

Anfey raised his hand, and a lance made of wind blades gathered in his hand.

“You’re a two-discipliner?” the mercenary asked. He began to see Anfey in a different light. However, he could not understand why Anfey had chosen a lance. A knight with his horse was no match for a swordsman.

Anfey did not say anything. He had stopped a mercenary, and the other two had already arrived at where he was before. They crouched down to study their companion’s corpse. One of them held the elf’s body in his arms and was sobbing, while the other was trying to console him. The sobbing man’s hood fell off, revealing two pointed ears.

Anfey bellowed and thrusted his lance towards the mercenary’s foot. He knew that the people in this world had a common mistake, and that was their lower body was often defenseless.

Anfey’s attack was very fast. Silvery wind blades shifted like an angry sea. Some blades dispersed like stars. The mercenary could only defend himself, and could not attack. Even Ernest was no match for Anfey when he was using a lance, let alone a mercenary. All he could do was blocking the lance.

Anfey leapt forward and thrust the lance at the man’s foot. The mercenary took a step back and tried to block with his sword. Anfey suddenly changed his direction of attack and slashed the lance at the man’s face. He had been aiming at the man’s lower body, and had angered the mercenary. However, this move was unexpected, and the mercenary was not fast enough to block the attack. The only thing he could do was try to move out of the lance’s way. The lance caught him on his left shoulder. It did not leave a deep wound, however, because of the mercenary’s combat power.

The mercenary roared and took a step back, his combat power becoming more blinding. Then his sword thrust forward and hit the lance. The blow scattered the wind blades that formed the sword, and sent Anfey flying backwards.

No one wanted to give up an opportunity for attack, especially when facing someone like Anfey. The mercenary leapt forward and dashed towards Anfey.

Before, the mercenary had been too slow. This time, he acted too fast.

Anfey sat in the grass, and he had drawn his bow. He aimed at the mercenary, and let loose his arrow.

Blocking an arrow from a hundred feet away was not difficult, but there were only a few feet between Anfey and the mercenary. The mercenary was running too fast for him to react and avoid the arrow.

The mercenary swung his sword. He did not know where Anfey was aiming, and was trying to protect himself instinctively. However, he missed the arrow. He felt a sharp pain in his abdomen, and his vision was filled with blinding light.

Anfey rolled aside as the mercenary fell to the ground, his clothes burning. Anfey could draw the bow in a short time, but he could not form an element arrow. This time, he had used a blasting arrow made from bones of the manticore.

Chapter 199: Hatred

Anfey had killed five opponents since the fighting began. Although every fight did not last long, Anfey had used all his strength and telepathy without holding anything back. He already felt a little tired.

Anfey hid in the forest, watching the last two mercenaries as he caught his breath. He knew he had to keep his combat power at its peak.

The elf was still screaming in anger. He looked like he was in so much pain that anyone who saw him would sincerely feel bad for him. Anfey looked calm. He neither felt bad for the elf’s pain, nor proud of what he had achieved. No emotion showed on his face.

Anfey never thought killing was enjoyable. He did not feel there was a reason to be proud that he killed anyone. He had killed many people, but he had done that either out of self-defense or as part of his job. The targets in his work had to have some reason to be killed. This was Anfey’s policy. Anfey was doing a job with high risk and high pay, but his annual income was not that great.

Feeling bad for others was pointless. If it Suzanna, Riska and Anfey had been surrounded by those mercenaries and the soldiers from Shansa Empire, what would have happened to them? Anfey was an arch-criminal and would be taken away by Shansa Empire or tortured to death. He also could be sentenced to death on the plaza through a public hearing, which would help the upper classes in Shansa Empire to save their pride. Suzanna was young and beautiful. It was very possible she could have become a sex slave for guys in royal families, or even raped by a few mercenaries or soldiers from Shansa Empire. Losers did not have the right to talk. What point would there have been in screaming in pain or struggling if Anfey had to see Suzanna being raped by others? Would winning others’ sympathy work?

This world seemed so complicated, but was actually pretty simple. Since they were already on the battlefield, there would only be two possibilities. Either they would die, or Anfey would die. There was no third option.

Those two mercenaries slowly calmed themselves down and checked their companions’ wounds. They turned in Anfey’s direction and walked towards him. The mercenary in the front took a gigantic shield from his Dimensional ring.

They must have guessed what weapon Anfey used. Anfey thought for a while and had a bitter smile on his face, because he saw Suzanna running in the distance, but it was still in the range he could see. Suzanna kept making some hand gestures about the sky. He could not see the sky, but probably Riska was back as well.

If this had happened when they had just left Sacred City, with someone not following Anfey’s orders and doing anything on their own, Anfey would have been exceedingly angry. However, it was different situation now. Maybe he stayed here too long, and Suzanna and Riska were worried. It also could be that the explosion of the combat power and surges of chaotic elements had travelled far, allowing Suzana to realize what Anfey was up to. They disobeyed Anfey’s order and came back for him. Anfey had a warm feeling when he saw Suzanna biting her lip and looking worried.

Anfey’s target had walked close, so he let his hand go. An element arrow shot out like a meteor. The targeted mercenary immediately raised the shield and blocked the element arrow.

This shot was just a test. Anfey put away the bow. He was about to jump to the side, suddenly seeing the elf holding a green short bow in his hand. The elf aimed at Anfey. Anfey felt all his hair stand up. He immediately gathered his telepathy to a state of Samadhi. His body was fully against the trunk, and he dove straight down.

Woosh, woosh, woosh . . . The arrows made sounds as they flew. The elf’s hands were so fast that people would get confused how he did it. In a very short time, he shot out five arrows. He did not only do it fast but also very elegantly.

As Anfey dove to the ground, he had used a martial art called Extremely Heavy Fall. Even though he fell very quickly, the last arrow almost hit him in the heart. Luckily, there was some distance between Anfey and the elf. In addition, Anfey responded very quickly. He blocked the arrow with the knife at the last moment. If the distance had been less than twenty yards between them, Anfey did not know what would have happened.

Anfey dared not to stay any longer. He rolled into the grass after he landed on the ground. He had performed everything he could. He crawled rapidly. It was not really crawling. Regular people crawled with their whole body. Anfey had his hands open like eagle claws, legs held tight together with an angle away from the ground, his chest hung in the air. He looked like a scorpion. With unbelievably strong arms and fingers, Anfey crawled as fast as regular people could run.

After crawling over a little dirt bump, Anfey finally could take a breath. He carefully stood up and ran even farther. At that moment, keeping a distance from the elf was his priority. The two mercenaries had come under the tree. They looked at each other confused when they saw the prints left on the ground. People’s footprints would not look like this. It looked more like a weird magic beast’s claws.

From a hundred yards away, Anfey carefully took out a blasting arrow from his Dimensional ring. He laid half of his body on the floor and pulled the bowstring. Calculating all the information about the locations, Anfey shot it at a very precise angle. As Anfey let the bowstring go, the blasting arrow shot into the grass as fast as a poison snake. It flew out about a hundred yards and then came out of grass and flew at that elf’s lower leg.

A gigantic shield fell hard on the ground. The blasting arrow clanged into the gigantic shield and created a shining light. The elf flew out from the light and shot a few arrows at Anfey.

Anfey held himself on the ground and slid into the grass. Suzanna and others had told Anfey before that elves were natural archers. Now he could tell they had been right. For two skilled archers, there would not be that much difference in accuracy. However, their shooting speeds were quite different. Anfey calculated that the elf could shoot six or seven arrows for every two arrows he shot.

Anfey was in thought for a while and turned around to run towards the direction of Suzanna. Anfey had developed a habit of relying on Suzanna to be his “fighter”. Since Suzanna had come back for him, he would definitely look for help from her. Dealing with those two on his own was too dangerous.

The mercenary with the gigantic shield yelled in anger. He gathered his combat power and rushed in the direction the elf pointed for him. His momentum was unbelievable. With the gigantic shield in front of him, he felt he could run like a tank.

Anfey ran in the forest as swiftly as a swallow. Once in awhile he would turn around and shoot an arrow to try to slow his opponent down. As the elf was ready to pull the green short bow, Anfey either dodged behind ancient trees or dove into the grass. He never let the elf locate him.

With the help of the leaf, Anfey knew Suzanna had sensed the combat power surges and had turned her direction and run towards him. Anfey led those two mercenaries around. He needed to provide Suzanna an opportunity to strike.

As Suzanna got closer to Anfey, Anfey could see with the leaf that Suzanna yelled and covered her body with white shiny combat powers in the blink of an eye. She ran straight towards Anfey. The bushes and branches had turned into powder under the surges of combat powers. Anfey was shocked for a second and could not help sighing. “My silly girl, why could she not just quietly thrust her sword from behind and surprise him? Wouldn’t that be much easier than making such a scene?”

Unfortunately, personality often decides how people act. Suzanna was a tough swordswoman. She was not afraid of challenges. She only got braver with more challenges. She liked to face top level powers face to face. Anfey was not feisty. He liked to find an unusual route to win. He would fight if he could. He would run away if he did not think he was a match for the opponent. He believed he would have a chance to win as long as he was patient enough.

Those two mercenaries sensed a very intense combat power approaching them. They were not sure whether it was their friend or enemy. They immediately stopped and waited to see.

Anfey stopped as well. The next moment, Suzanna rushed out of the forest. She looked surprised and happy when she saw Anfey. She looked quickly at Anfey to make sure he was not hurt, and then she heaved a sigh of relief. She slowly walked out of the forest and walked towards Anfey. She stood in front of Anfey.

When they were not in danger, she liked to stand behind Anfey. However, she would immediately stand in front of Anfey whenever there was danger. Suzanna developed this habit just as Anfey developed a habit to rely on Suzanna. Suzanna knew Anfey had progressed with an unbelievable speed, but she still could not change her habit. She seemed to be showing some maternal instinct towards Anfey.

The two mercenaries walked up to them with caution. This was their only chance to retreat. However, they did not want to leave and could not leave. It did not matter to them whether they were doing a right or wrong thing. The key was they wanted to get revenge.

Suzanna recognized the two mercenaries. Her face changed and her eyes were full of hatred. She had not caused any trouble before. She did not want to put Anfey and Riska in a dangerous situation. Since the trouble had come itself, she had no concerns now. All she needed to do was to fight them.

“Anfey, be careful. They have seven people,” Suzanna said in a low voice.

“Only two left. The other five are gone,” Anfey answered with a smile.

“Gone?” Suzanna asked.

“I killed them,” Anfey said.

“You killed five of them?” Suzanna could not help looking back at Anfey even when they were facing tough enemies. She knew this mercenary group was very powerful. She never thought Anfey could kill five of them unless, Anfey was as good as a master swordsmen.

“You know I am telling you the truth. Look at their eyes.” Anfey smiled.

Those two mercenaries had slowly walked twenty yards. They laid their eyes on Anfey. Their hatred towards Anfey was even more than Suzanna.

“Come on!” the elf said calmly. Right now, cursing and shouting with words seemed not to be enough. He only wanted to see blood, no matter whether it was from himself or his enemy.

Chapter 200: Better Safe than Sorry

Suzanna raised her arm and hid half of her face from the elf. Her nose and mouth were obscured by her arm, but her eyes were still visible. This seemed like a strange move, but the mercenary gasped, and looked shocked and confused.

“You-You’re…” the elf said, stumbling over his words.

Suzanna did not wait for him to finish. She raised her sword and lunged at the mercenary, slashing at his head. The mercenary stumbled away and raised his shield. Suzanna’s sword radiance broke apart as it hit the shield, and the mercenary took a few steps back. The shield was clearly not just a common shield. After blocking attacks from both Anfey and Suzanna, it was still intact.

The elf arched his back and dashed towards Suzanna. He held out his bow and displayed his expert archer skills again. He released three arrows at Suzanna in quick succession. One of the arrows flew towards Suzanna’s throat, while the other two were aimed at her shoulders.

Suzanna ducked and avoided the arrows. Then she lashed out again, her combat power bright and powerful.

Anfey dashed forward and engaged the swordsman. He liked using bows and arrows, but fighting an archer who was superior to him required him to engage his opponent in close combat.

The elf kept backing away, leaving blurred images where he had stood only moments ago. He kept attacking Suzanna and found time to shoot arrows towards Anfey as well.

Anfey kept himself calm. He knew how fast the elf could be. He did not watch the elf’s hand, and instead focused on the short, green bow. As soon as the bow changed direction, he jumped to the side. The arrows flew past him.

Suzanna was forced to stop her attack and use defensive moves after a series of attacks. She observed her enemies carefully, trying to protect herself. Since Suzanna stopped attacking, the enemies turned their focus to Anfey. He stumbled through the grass and gave up trying to engage in close combat. He then jumped up and summoned his longbow. He shot at the elf, then disappeared into the bushes again.

The elf clearly was better at attacking than he was at defending himself. Anfey’s arrow almost hit his chest. The elf countered the attack and blocked the arrow with his bow. However, this knocked him off balance.

The mercenary stumbled awkwardly. It was clear that he was untrained in this form of combat.

Anfey quickly ducked behind another bush after he landed, but did not hear the sound of arrows. He looked up and searched for the elf. He aimed his longbow at the elf and fired again.

The bush in front of the elf suddenly changed shape and turned into a large shield. The shield distracted Anfey, and the elf ducked behind a tree.

Anfey waved his hand and summoned an element arrow. He nocked the arrow and shot at the tree.

The element arrow exploded on the tree and left a large hole. The elf jumped out of the way and avoided the fate of being killed by the arrow. He jumped quicly away from the tree.

Logically, Anfey should feel frustrated that all his shots missed the target. However, he felt more relieved than frustrated. He needed to force the elf away from the fight. Suzanna was more powerful than the mercenary with the shield, and as long as there was no distraction, she could easily defeat him. If the mercenary died, the elf would not last long. Anfey swept his gaze through the forest and saw Riska hiding among the trees. Most of the students that escaped the Sacred City had some change in heart. Mages value tradition and glory, but these students stopped caring about those things. What was important to them was victory.

The elf whispered something under his breath, and his body was enveloped by vines. As Anfey approached, the vines quickly shriveled up, and two men appeared. The two figures dashed in opposite directions.

Anfey was shocked by this sudden change. He drew his bow and fired an arrow at the figure dashing to the left. The figure was hit and dispersed into green lights. The figure to the right had already drawn his bow.

Anfey jumped aside to avoid the arrows. He could clearly hear the sound of arrows ripping through the air. Some arrows came dangerously close to him.

Anfey didn’t have the time or need to turn around. He move around in the forest quickly, with the elf close behind him. There was hatred and anxiety in the elf’s eyes. It appeared that he knew well how powerful Suzanna was, and wanted to return to help his companion.

Anfey was already several hundred feet away, but the elf was still close behind him. He turned to the left and kicked on a large stone. He jumped into a tree, and jumped down, disappearing from the elf’s vision.

The elf followed him and jumped into the tree, and suddenly felt magic surges from behind a small mound. He knew Anfey was about to summon an element arrow again. The elf was very worried about the length of the fight. He wasn’t sure if the other mercenary could hold Suzanna off for long. He wanted to end his fight and return to help his friend. Seeing no other options, the elf jumped off of the tree and began to shoot arrows more quickly. The arrows attacked the mound from all sides, blocking all possibilities of escape for whoever was behind it.

The elf landed, and realized the ground under his feet was not solid ground, but instead soft mud. His body began sinking.

If he was just normally walking or running, maybe he could have escaped the swamp. Instead, he had jumped down from a tree and had too much momentum. He was deep in the swamp before he even realized what had happened.

Lightning struck the elf, and Anfey jumped out from behind the mound. He held his fire sword and slashed at the elf’s neck.

“Saved your skin, didn’t I?” Riska said, appearing from among the trees. Growth was inevitable, and Riska, who would once feel nauseous at the sight of blood, no longer felt discomfort at the sight of it.

“Finally,” Anfey said, sighing in relief. He had learned a lot from this fight. Not only did it help him perfect his skills, it also helped him find himself again. Now, however, the only thing he needed was rest.

Suzanna had the advantage. Every time her sword thrust out, her opponent would stumble back. Seeing that Anfey and Riska had joined Suzanna, and the elf did not reappear, the mercenary knew that he had no hope of winning. He bellowed and raised his shield, fending off Suzanna’s attack. Then he glanced at the sky, and buried his own sword in his chest. He stumbled back, then fell to the ground.

Suzanna stood there, staring at her fallen opponent, her eyes staring at the mercenary but seeing something hidden deep in her memories.

Anfey walked over and took the shield from the mercenary’s hand. Then he brought the large shield down on the man’s head, crushing his skull.

Riska jumped back, staring it Anfey. Suzanna turned and frowned, perplexed by his actions.

“Come, we need to find a place to rest,” Anfey said.

Whenever Anfey saw someone who committed suicide, it always reminded him of a woman he had fought years ago. Someone had commissioned him to kill her. After an intense fight, the woman realized she was no match to him, and committed suicide by shoot herself in the chest. Anfey thought he had finished the job, but six months later she reappeared and held him at gunpoint.

Anfey could not believe what he was seeing, but the woman told him that there were places on a person’s chest that would allow a bullet to go through without killing the person. The woman, however, did not control her emotions too well. She wanted to tell Anfey about how she had lived, because she wanted to see his regret about not finishing her off. In the end, Anfey took her gun and killed her in a fight. In order not to make the same mistake again, Anfey made sure that he put enough bullets through her.

After that, whenever someone committed suicide in front of him, Anfey felt obligated to make sure his opponent was really dead. After all, life was not a play, and it was better to make sure one’s enemies did not come back from the dead.