Chapter Fifty-Seven: Encounter

"Yoo-hoo~!"
Dim flames burned silently, and a pair of wings formed from fire, each spanning nearly ten feet, gently fluttered behind him. Ji Hao darted forward, leaving behind dozens of afterimages as he nimbly wove through the dense tangle of branches, swift as the wind, heading towards the distant green shadow several miles away.

The green shadow’s face was stiff, longbow in hand. The bowstring vibrated, emitting a continuous, mournful hum. A vast rain of arrows streaked in straight and curved lines from every direction, shooting towards Ji Hao.

Ji Hao burst out laughing. A fierce wind swept towards him, but it vanished without a trace, devoured by the hazy flames enveloping his body. He felt as if he had become a fish swimming effortlessly through water; no matter how fast he moved, the air no longer hindered him.

Arrows with their tips snapped off brushed dangerously close to his body, their fletching whispering against his skin. Ji Hao giggled, dodging two hundred arrows in just a few leaps, closing the distance by over a mile towards the green shadow.

Speed—Ji Hao had fully activated the power of his Golden Crow bloodline, dozens of golden veins blazing within him, granting him three innate divine abilities.

One was the "Firewing of Flowing Light" he was now using. Ji Hao had already possessed remarkable speed, but with these wings, his running velocity increased nearly tenfold, making him appear like a phantom. Even the arrows the green shadow loosed with all his might barely outpaced him.

Another was the "Divine Eyes of the Golden Crow." The ancient three-legged Golden Crow, a spirit condensed from the essence of the sun, hovered above the nine heavens. Like the sun shining high, wherever sunlight reached, nothing escaped their gaze—not even a mustard seed or a speck of dust could hide from the Golden Crow’s eyes.

These divine eyes could peer up into the heavens and down into the deepest abyss, piercing through deception and illusion, with immense power and infinite miraculous transformations. In the past thousand years, a few gifted warriors in the Fire Raven tribe had inherited the Firewing of Flowing Light, but the Divine Eyes had become a lost art. Ji Hao was the only one in a millennium to inherit this ability.

In Ji Hao’s golden-red eyes, flames flickered. He precisely grasped the trajectory of every breeze within a twenty-mile radius, clearly saw the path and urgency of each arrow shot by the green shadow.

His Firewing of Flowing Light gently trembled. With all the arrow trajectories familiar in his mind, Ji Hao easily dodged every incoming shot, advancing another mile.

The green shadow cried out in frustration, "Hao, don’t blame your uncle for being ruthless! I am the most handsome archer in the Green Yi tribe, the youngest Grand Shaman—how can I possibly lose to you, child?"

With a shout, the green shadow was enveloped by a raging gust. He grabbed three arrows, nocked them, glanced at Ji Hao, and all three vanished into the air.

This time, the green shadow used a secret shamanic art of the Green Yi tribe. The three arrows disappeared without a trace, leaving only the piercing roar of air, like a dragon howling against the wind.

Others could not see the arrows’ course, but flames flickered in Ji Hao’s eyes, and he clearly saw the three arrows wrapped in tornadoes as thick as his fist, dozens of yards long—like monstrous serpents twisting their way towards him.

The Firewing of Flowing Light vibrated at full strength, and Ji Hao’s body vanished, leaving only a faint afterimage atop the treetops. In the next instant, he crossed two miles, dodging the three arrows and breaking through to within a hundred yards of the green shadow.

"Uncle, take this!" Ji Hao opened his mouth, unleashing a gold-red flame he had been brewing in his chest. It burst forth as a fire dragon, as thick as his fist, instantly expanding into a blazing area dozens of yards wide, crashing down upon the green shadow.

The green shadow shrieked in terror, grabbed his longbow, and leapt away several times, nimble as a monkey, bounding seven or eight miles.

The flames Ji Hao spewed landed with a roaring sound on the small hill where the green shadow had stood. The hill, over a hundred yards tall, dissolved into drifting smoke, while the purest rocks and metals melted under the intense heat, flowing as crimson magma.

This was Ji Hao’s third innate ability from the Golden Crow bloodline—a ball of true fire, nurtured by his essence, transformed into a fire dragon in moments. Its destructive power nearly matched the flames unleashed by a Grand Shaman of the Fire Raven tribe at full strength.

With Ji Hao’s current strength, after this attack, he would have no energy left. This move, "Golden Crow’s Breath," was clearly unsuitable for routine combat, but as a last resort or surprise attack, it was his strongest trump card. Who could imagine a youth who had just broken into the Minor Shaman realm could unleash a strike comparable to a Grand Shaman?

The green shadow stood far off atop a giant tree, staring dumbfounded at the vanished hill.

"Monster…monster! Ji Xia is a big monster, and Hao, you—you’re even stranger than your father!"

Utterly shaken, the green shadow howled at the sky, "I am the Green Shadow, the most handsome archer of the Green Yi tribe, the youngest Grand Shaman in history! Ah, Hao, I won’t hunt with you anymore. If I can’t break through to the Grand Shaman realm within half a month, I’ll cut off my own head and swallow it!"

After a furious bout of jumping and cursing, the green shadow dragged his longbow and dashed quickly toward Cold Creek Valley.

Clearly, after being so thoroughly crushed by Ji Hao’s monstrous display, he would not appear before anyone unless he broke through to the Grand Shaman realm. In any case, he was only one step away from opening his first shaman’s cave; a few days of patient seclusion would bring about his breakthrough.

Ji Hao crossed his arms and laughed loudly. To strike such a blow to his vain, narcissistic uncle was truly a delightful thing.

After a few hearty laughs, Ji Hao greeted the circling Raven Elder overhead, withdrew his Firewing of Flowing Light, and stepped across the intertwined branches of the ancient forest, swiftly heading north.

The Heaven-Mending Formula required him to devour large amounts of prey. Having just broken through to the Minor Shaman realm, Ji Hao needed immense power to fill the emptiness in his body.

There were too many people in Cold Creek Valley, and Ji Xia was busy every day, hardly touching the ground. Ji Hao did not wish to trouble his tribesmen, so the prey he needed could only be hunted by himself.

His figure swept over the treetops like the wind, and in the blink of an eye, he had left Cold Creek Valley nearly a hundred miles behind.

Ji Hao gently twitched his nose, formed seals with his hands, and carefully distinguished the scents left in the air by powerful beasts. Prey of the Human Shaman realm was no longer of much use to him. Now, only beasts of the Minor Shaman realm could quickly boost Ji Hao’s strength.

A faint hissing sounded, and three pitch-black Sword-Spider beasts sprang from the dense forest.

A dozen strange men, each less than five feet tall, with bizarre spotted skin and grotesque, ugly features, rode atop the Sword-Spiders. Seeing Ji Hao perched on the treetop, they immediately drew weapons shaped like crossbows and aimed at him.

With several sharp cracks, dozens of fist-sized, multi-pronged metal projectiles shot towards Ji Hao’s vital points.

Ji Hao glanced in surprise at these odd-looking fellows, then suddenly leapt from the branch, landed swiftly on the ground, and drew his long sword to charge at them full speed.

The six-foot sword, won from the Grand Shaman of the Blackwater Serpent tribe, flashed coldly. The blade gleamed, and the Sword-Spiders’ long legs snapped simultaneously.

Blood splattered. Five of the strange men were sent rolling away, bodies spraying blood.

"Run, run for your lives!"

The remaining men shrieked, clutching their heads and scurrying into the dense woods.

Behind Ji Hao, dozens of metal projectiles struck the giant trees. Amid thunderous crashes, the trees, thick enough for several men to embrace, were pierced through. The projectiles exploded, their spikes shredding the trunks into countless palm-sized splinters that rained down like confetti.