Chapter 43: Overlord of Azure Cloud, First Hearing of Yi's Arrow

"Master Bai!?"

Shi Lei's eyes widened in horror, his entire body stiffening as if all his strength had suddenly drained away. He collapsed heavily against the city wall.

This was a Qi-refining cultivator of the sixth layer!

Even across the entire Yunmeng Prefecture, such a figure commanded respect and renown!

Yet here, in this insignificant Qinghe City, he had been struck dead by a single arrow!

"The Yi Archery Technique!?"

"The Yi Archery Technique of the Divine Arrow Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect?"

Recalling Bai's final parting words, Shi Lei trembled like a leaf in the wind, pressing his entire body flat against the brickwork of the city wall.

If his earlier state had been one of numbed shock and limp helplessness, it was now replaced by paralyzing terror—a frantic dread that another arrow might materialize from the void and dispatch him straight to the netherworld.

Deep down, he knew that if the archer truly intended to kill him, evasion was utterly impossible.

And indeed.

Another arrow cleaved through the air, piercing clean through his throat in an instant.

"Ugh..."

Shi Lei's mouth moved silently, gouts of blood welling up uncontrollably. After a few violent spasms, his body went entirely limp, all breath deserting him.

"Did Bai Ruyun recognize the Yi Archery Technique?"

Paying no heed to the fallen Shi Lei, Zhou Chen watched Bai Ruyun's corpse plummet into the Qing River, a single eyebrow arching upward.

Having cultivated both the immortal and martial paths, and engaging in dual cultivation day and night with Ji Fengxia within the mirror of the Wind and Moon Brocade, his soul had grown at an astonishing pace, endowing him with formidable spiritual fortitude.

Naturally, he had heard Bai Ruyun's final, terrified words.

"I originally thought the Yi Archery Technique was just some obscure, powerful cultivation manual, but it seems to carry considerable renown..."

Considering Bai Ruyun's expression of utter dismay, Zhou Chen surmised that the reputation of the Yi Archery Technique was far from trivial.

Yet, this made complete sense.

As an peerless, supreme martial art, it was only natural that the Yi Archery Technique enjoyed widespread fame.

He wasn't the kind of protagonist who bumped into peerless prodigies at every turn, burdened with heaven-defying backgrounds—ancient female emperors or celestial fairies fallen into the mortal realm.

Nor was he the kind to casually pick up a cracked ceramic pot only for it to be a fragment of a celestial artifact, or stumble upon a random manual that turned out to be a long-lost ancient secret art known to no one else.

"Let's go find Zhang Long first!"

Spotting Zhang Long approaching swiftly at the head of a squad of bailiffs, Zhou Chen immediately shed his disguise, restored his original appearance, and ran out to meet him!

"Captain!" Zhou Chen called out.

When conducting official business in public, Zhou Chen naturally addressed him by his official title.

"Zhou Chen!"

Zhang Long arrived at the city gate accompanied by Zhao Hu and the others. Catching sight of Zhou Chen, he demanded, "What happened here?"

"Captain, I just saw Shi Lei and Bai Ruyun of the Salt Gang pursuing a woman. Right as Bai Ruyun captured her, an arrow came flying from out of nowhere and knocked him straight into the Qing River!"

"Before he died, Bai Ruyun even uttered three words—'The Yi Archery Technique'."

"Captain, have you ever heard of the Yi Archery Technique?"

"The Yi Archery Technique?"

Zhang Long cast a strange, searching look at Zhou Chen, as if silently expressing disbelief that anyone could be ignorant of such a renowned art.

Yet, remembering that Zhou Chen hailed from the countryside, possessed an unorthodox background, and had only recently joined the yamen, such ignorance was perhaps excusable.

"Is the Yi Archery Technique very famous?"

Seeing Zhang Long's expression, Zhou Chen finally realized how limited his own horizons truly had been.

"Didn't you know the prefect's daughter recently went to seek admission into the Azure Cloud Sect?" Zhang Long slowly began.

Realizing this matter involved the Salt Gang and the formidable Yi Archery Technique, he no longer felt any pressing urgency to inspect the bodies immediately.

Instead, he began to enlighten Zhou Chen about the Azure Cloud Sect.

Nestled at the intersection of the Yunmeng Marsh and the Azure Cloud Mountain Range, the Azure Cloud Sect stood as the supreme overlord suppressing both the Yunmeng and Azure Cloud prefectures.

Even viewed across the entire Great Qian Dynasty, it ranked among the very pinnacle of martial sects.

"The Azure Cloud Sect comprises nine peaks, and the sect-鎮宗 martial art of the Divine Arrow Peak is none other than the Yi Archery Technique!"

"However, the prerequisites to practice the Yi Archery Technique are exceptionally harsh. While its might is peerless, those capable of cultivating it are exceedingly few!"

"Consequently, the Divine Arrow Peak has the fewest disciples among all nine peaks of the Azure Cloud Sect. Legend has it that currently, the peak has only two members: the peak master and a single true successor!"

"Yet, despite its small numbers, the reputation of the Divine Arrow Peak does not lag behind the other eight peaks in the slightest."

"The peak master is notoriously protective of his own, and while the Salt Gang may be a major faction in Yunmeng Prefecture, they are entirely incomparable to the Azure Cloud Sect."

"It seems those fellows have finally kicked an iron plate this time!"

"So that's how it is!"

Light dawned upon Zhou Chen. He had not expected the archery technique he mastered to be the supreme martial art of the Divine Arrow Peak—the absolute hegemon of this entire region.

Anyone living in this territory with even a shred of worldly knowledge would be familiar with such an art.

For a powerhouse like Bai Ruyun, not recognizing the Yi Archery Technique would have been nothing short of a miracle.

Only...

"The arrow I used to strike down Bai Ruyun was a special move I comprehended during an epiphany, yet Bai Ruyun still identified it as the Yi Archery Technique. Could it be that the technique naturally possesses such a definitive move?"

"It must be!"

"My epiphany was built upon the foundations of the Yi Archery Technique I had accumulated; nine times out of ten, the technique indeed features such a fatal strike!"

"This means the Yi Archery Technique I've been cultivating is actually incomplete, lacking its most devastating killing blows. By relying on stat allocation and epiphanies, I managed to comprehend one of these lethal stances, thereby filling in some of the gaps..."

A tempest of thoughts churned through Zhou Chen's mind as numerous possibilities surfaced.

Noticing Zhou Chen's absent-minded expression, Zhang Long assumed that Zhou Chen, possessing decent archery skills himself, was yearning for the Yi Archery Technique and dreaming of entering the Divine Arrow Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect. He could not help offering a cautionary reminder:

"Zhou Chen, I know the Yi Archery Technique holds immense allure, but the requirements are simply too harsh!"

"Rumor has it that one must either possess a natural-born Archery Spirit Physique or have attained the realm of perfection in archery. The former is one in a million, while the latter is even more arduous."

"Reaching perfection in archery requires not only innate talent and unremitting effort, but also a profound stroke of fortune and destiny."

Because the Divine Arrow Peak notoriously struggled to recruit disciples, the admission criteria had long since become common knowledge throughout the region.

As long as one possessed either an Archery Spirit Physique or an archery skill that had reached the realm of perfection, one could travel directly to the Azure Cloud Sect and, upon passing a background verification, be admitted straight into the Divine Arrow Peak.

As for the vetting process, it merely served to confirm whether one's background was clean and untainted.

"Understood, Captain!"

Zhou Chen nodded. It seemed he would need to exercise restraint in using the Yi Archery Technique in the future while gathering intelligence on the Divine Arrow Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect to prepare for any eventualities.

As for the present, Zhou Chen had no intention of exposing himself or rushing to join the Azure Cloud Sect.

As they conversed, Zhou Chen and Zhang Long arrived atop the city wall, gazing upon the corpse of Shi Lei, who remained pinned to the brickwork by the arrow through his neck.

"The Yi Archery Technique is truly terrifying!"

Looking upon Shi Lei's dead body—his eyes still wide with unfulfilled resentment—Zhang Long felt a mixture of awe and shock.

This was a martial artist of the fifth layer of Qi Refinement!

One of the absolute powerhouses of Qinghe City.

Yet he had been slain as easily as crushing a chick.

Zhou Chen glanced at the arrow shaft. A thorough investigation would undoubtedly trace its purchase back to the Four Seas Chamber of Commerce.

At worst, the trail would lead straight to Han Feiyu.

What did that have to do with Zhou Chen?

Zhou Chen saw no need to engage in the superfluous act of destroying the arrow; doing so would only leave behind telltale tracks and expose his own involvement.

Before long, Bai Ruyun's corpse was fished out of the river, thoroughly lifeless.

Zhou Chen glanced at it, noting that the fellow's storage pouch was conspicuously missing.

"Liu Ruyun must have taken it."

Though Zhou Chen felt a twinge of regret, he had never realistically expected to acquire Bai Ruyun's storage pouch anyway. If Liu Ruyun had taken it, so be it.

He had already partaken of her three times, and moreover reaped over ten thousand wind-and-moon points from her; he could consider the pouch as fair payment for her services.

Other prominent figures of the Salt Gang's Qinghe branch arrived in succession, bearing the bodies of Shi Lei and Bai Ruyun back to their stronghold.

Zhang Long and his men wisely chose not to meddle in the affair.

After all, this was a hot potato.

While they officially answered to the imperial court, neither the Salt Gang nor the Divine Arrow Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect were entities they could afford to provoke.

Zhou Chen adopted a stance of coasting through the situation, even making a trip to the Snow and Moon Pavilion to harvest a substantial wave of wind-and-moon points.

A storm was brewing, and the wind was sweeping fiercely through the tower.

All Zhou Chen could do for now was accumulate more wind-and-moon points.

With sufficient points, he could transform into a superhuman in the blink of an eye and suppress any enemy in his path.

Meanwhile, the upper echelons of Qinghe City were thrown into utter turmoil.

The head of the Salt Gang branch had been slain, alongside a high-ranking patron from the main sect—this was practically tantamount to punching a hole through the sky.

Especially given the involvement of the Divine Arrow Peak of the Azure Cloud Sect.

The elite members of the Salt Gang's Qinghe branch lost no time in dispatching the news at breakneck speed back to the main headquarters of the Salt Gang.

Intelligence operatives of the Azure Cloud Sect likewise submitted reports of the incident upward.

Before long, the Azure Cloud Sect received word that a suspected disciple of the Divine Arrow Peak had used the Yi Archery Technique to execute a branch leader and a patron of the Salt Gang.

Divine Arrow Peak.

When the report finally reached Peak Master Li Changfeng, he wore a look of utter bewilderment as he stared at the cold, aloof beauty standing before him with a great bow slung across her back:

"You killed a branch leader and a patron of the Salt Gang?"

Li Changhen cast a frosty glance at Li Changfeng, uttered not a single word, and turned on her heel, leaving the peak master with nothing but a chilly, retreating silhouette.

Li Changfeng rubbed the bridge of his nose. He knew full well that Li Changhen had remained sequestered within the Divine Arrow Peak the entire time; she could not possibly have ventured out to slaughter the Salt Gang's officers.

Yet, pondering the fact that incomplete volumes of the Yi Archery Technique had indeed circulated into the outside world, a contemplative gleam flickered in Li Changfeng's eyes:

"Was there a mistake, or..."

He raised his gaze toward the direction of Qinghe City, his eyes deep and inscrutable:

"Could someone else have mastered the Yi Archery Technique?"