Chapter 20 The One Deciding Arrow (3)

Bai Jiu gave a cold hmph. “Bullshit, if it were Zhou Shui Niu, do you really think that you could have escaped with your life? Not just you, even I would have lost my life there. Furthermore, I had also obtained the news the day before yesterday that Zhou Shui Niu was still in Heavenly Bow City. How else would I have carried out this plan.”

The Mid Level Zun Physical Jewel Master [1. I seriously want to name this guy already. Geez] also realised his mistake then. “Right! Although the power of that arrow was strong, its actual destructive power has insufficient. If it had been fired by Zhou Shui Niu, it should have claimed my life there and then. Could it be...”

Bai Jiu nodded, “That’s right, besides Shangguan Bing’er, it seems that the Heavenly Bow Empire have another Heavenly Jewel Master in their army, but his cultivation level should not be high, at most being similar to Shangguan Bing'er with two pairs of Jewels. His pair of Heavenly Jewels should be of the Darkness and Strength attributes, just the same as Zhou Shui Niu. If not for him, my Silent Arrows could have killed Shangguan Bing'er at the beginning. Let’s retreat and return to our base to plan further. It seems like this time, I might need to beg my teacher to go into action. I definitely must not allow Heavenly Bow Empire to gain two more Heavenly Jewel Masters. Xiao Yeye, just a moment ago, you said that the fellow vanished when dodging my Silent Arrow?”

The subordinate following Bai Jiu around was the Fire Attribute Elemental Jewel Master Luo Xiaoye [2. 洛晓夜. He is called Xiao Yeye (小夜夜) by Bai Jiu in that previous paragraph as a kind of endearment, basically like how Xiao Ru Se calls Zhou Weiqing, Xiao Wei.] Xiaoye was his personal servant since childhood, and had grown up together with him, and also doubled as his personal bodyguard.

“Yes! Your Highness, I think I saw him vanish for a second. Otherwise, how could he possibly evade your Silent Arrow so suddenly!”

“Did you see it clearly?” Bai Jiu’s brow furrowed.

Luo Xiaoye muttered: “Probably not very clearly.”

Bai Jiu sweatdropped [3. Strange, I know. Basically he says 一头黑线, which you can imagine of in anime, when black lines appear around someone’s head when something stupid is said.] and said: “You fool, if you didn’t see clearly, then why did you report it!”

Luo Xiaoye blinked and said: “But… you didn’t see clearly either right?”

“Xiao Yeye——”

“Your highness, we should retreat quickly.” This Luo Xiaoye may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he was not silly at all.

“I’ll deal with you when we get back.”

…

About an hour later, Shangguan Bing'er had finally led the troop in reaching the military base on the front lines.

In the border of Heavenly Bow Empire and Kalise Empire, there was a large patch of mountain ranges, hills, bogs and other complicated terrain, fully cutting off both countries from one another. The military strength of the Heavenly Bow Empire only consisted of Five Regiments, of which one was stationed at the Heavenly Bow City as a guard, one stationed to guard the eastern border of the Empire, and three Regiments stationed here at the Kalise border, guarding the important pass between the two countries. Due to the complexity of the terrain, both sides rarely had any form of large-scale war, but there were always constant small skirmishes. The most commonly used forms of combat was to deploy a small troop to harass the opposing side. Having a war between two countries actually being primarily based on guerrilla warfare, it was truly a rather unique phenomenon.

The camp encompassed more than ten square miles where the three Regiments totally more than 30,000 were stationed. With their tents under the open skies, it felt as if there was a faint killing aura in the atmosphere, which could cause fear in a person unused to the place.

When Zhou Weiqing saw the huge military compound, his heart was set aflame as his blood boiled. This. This was the military compound on the front lines. This was where his father lived and fought most of his time. Father, do you know that your son has also arrived at the front lines?

The number of casualties from the earlier battle had been counted, and more than seventy troops had perished, 40 severely wounded, and more than a hundred with minor wounds after the ambush by the enemy Jewel Masters. That was an extremely terrifying number! After all, the enemy ambushing party only numbered 13 people, including the two hidden members, there were only a total of 15 people ambushing them. From the start of the fight to the end, it had barely been 15 minutes. Furthermore, their target had really only been Shangguan Bing'er, yet they had still suffered such a huge loss of so many trained soldiers. From this battle, you could truly see the tyrannical killing power of Jewel Masters on the battlefield.

As their troop entered the Fifth Regiment’s camp site, they split up and returned to their respective Battalions. Shangguan Bing'er went to report to their Regimental Commander, while the Third Battalion was temporarily commandeered by Xiao Ru Se to return to their camp.

In the Third Battalion, Xiao Ru Se’s actual authority actually exceeded Shangguan Bing'er’s. Besides Company Leader Mao Li who was was Shangguan Bing'er’s closest subordinate, most of the other Company Leaders in the Battalion would follow her lead.

Xiao Ru Se calmly and quickly finished arranging the three Companies of troops, and she had also arranged a personal tent for Zhou Weiqing, situated right beside Shangguan Bing'er’s tent.

“Little Wei, you should go and have a rest first. With your status as a Squad Leader and the Personal Aide of the Battalion Commander, you do not need to attend the drills and trainings. As long you practice your archery when you are free, with your other skills, you should be fine. Anyway, having left for so long, I better go back and examine the situation of entire Battalion.”

Zhou Weiqing nodded and said: “Elder sister, you go ahead, I’ll cultivate by myself.”

Xiao Ru Se left, and Zhou Weiqing also entered his own tent. It was an individual tent; after all Xiao Ru Se would naturally take good care of her own little brother. It was normally a tent that was only assigned to an officer of rank Company Leader and above. The entire tent was made out of tanned cowhide, not only did it block the effects of weather, it also had amazing thermal insulation. Being almost 20 square meters large, it was also fully stocked within with many daily necessities, and was much better when compared to the various small tents in the encampment.

In doing so, Xiao Ru Se was actually not being excessive. After all, not only was Zhou Weiqing Marshal Zhou Shuiniu’s only son, just his Heavenly Jewel Master status alone would mean that living in such a tent was already an injustice to him. Of course, that would normally only happen if he announced his status.

Zhou Weiqing put down the gear he had been carrying, and flopped down onto the bed. However, he did not have the mood to rest currently, and images of the previous fight flashed through his mind unceasingly as he tried to process it.

Without a doubt, his own actual combat experience was just too insufficient. Furthermore, his usage of Heavenly Energy had also been extremely inefficient. When he had shot that final arrow, he had totally exhausted all of his Heavenly Energy. He had so many strong Skills Stored in his Elemental Jewel, yet when he wanted to fight at his full strength, he wasn’t even able to use all of them once through.

The thing that left him the deepest impression was the final moment when the opposing six Physical Jewel Masters had surrounded Shangguan Bing'er, limiting her movement, and doing so right at the moment when their leader’s two warhammers were smashing down upon her. Such coordination in that single instance was so exquisite. It made Zhou Weiqing understand that even Jewel Masters needed to coordinate. If not for the fact that Shangguan Bing'er was a dual agility type Heavenly Jewel Master, she would likely not be able to last long enough for him to return and help. Even then, if not for the surprise factor of his strong control skill, plus the fact that there were so many soldiers assisting from the side, the final result might still have been her death.

Coordination, coordination. Their Jewel Masters are able to coordinate so well with each other. However, my Elemental Jewel has six attributes… I should be able to coordinate my skills right...

Zhou Weiqing faintly understood that today when Shangguan Bing'er was in danger, the reason why he could sense it so promptly was because Shangguan Bing'er was the Sacrifice that helped him to Awaken his Heavenly Jewels, and they shared a connection. Yet, what would happen if the person in danger was Xiao Ru Se? He wouldn’t have had the same sense of danger.

To protect his family, those he loved, to protect his own motherland, he needed much more strength. At this moment, in his heart surged a huge amount of heartfelt respect to his father. All these years, it was his father who had protected the Heavenly Bow Empire!

As he thought about that, Zhou Weiqing vaulted back into a standing position. Focusing his will, the four energy whirlpools at the Four Death Acupuncture Points he had broken through immediately accelerated their churning. Without a doubt, what he needed the most now was Heavenly Energy.