Chapter 67 – Training (1/2)

Translated by Sunyancai

On a small hill near the training grounds of the tribe, the trees there weren’t that thick, but were dense in quantities. Fresh green leaves covered all the branches, and the bushes and grass nearby were growing wildly. In this season, all plants were flourishing.

There was a little path of small stones, where people would constantly walk on. On the sides of that path, some year old plants were at the height of people’s waist. While further away, one could totally hide behind those branches and leaves without being spotted by others.

Shao Xuan held a half-arm-long stone sword in his hand, and walked on the stone path that seemed to be no different from others.

It rained the previous day, and all the dirt on the grass and leaves was washed away. A faint smell of unknown flowers filled drifted in the air.

Afar, booming sounds could be heard in the mountains. Those mountains didn’t have any green at all. Compared to that, those few short hills were much quieter, and there seemed to be no danger nearby.

However, Shao Xuan tightly grasped the stone sword, looking very serious. He did not dare to be careless at all.

Old Ke was teaching Shao Xuan about setting traps, but the teaching method changed after only two days.

In Old Ke’s theory, if you want to catch a bear, then you have to use the bear’s thinking pattern. If you want to hunt down a beast, you’ll have to put yourself into the beast’s shoes. In other words, if you want to make a perfect trap which could kill whatever comes inside, you’ll have to personally experience the profound secrets hidden behind every trap.

Facing all those traps, if you couldn’t see through them and take them out, you’d be in a dangerous situation in the real hunting grounds.

Although Shao Xuan felt that he was asking to get tortured himself, he agreed to follow Old Ke’s command, and experience the deadly killers hidden behind the branches, stones, and leaves, where they weren’t easy to be spotted.

To be brief, Shao Xuan was the prey himself.

Shao Xuan began to walk on that path of stone, with the stone sword tightly grasped in his hand. He glanced at the path ahead, and began to increase his pace as traces of hesitation appeared in his eyes.

Hum!

It was like the quiver sound from a thin tendon of some beast.

It came from the right side of the path, at least four of them!

By his gesture, no one could tell what he was planning to do next, but almost at the same time that he changed his posture, some other needles from the other side of the path missed Shao Xuan by inches. They were shot out together with the stone arrowheads simultaneously, but without much noise. Because of the humming sound earlier, most people would tend to guard against the right side immediately because of the conditioned reflexes, while ignoring the more stealthy assassination from the other side. If Shao Xuan wasn’t twisted in that posture, he would’ve been easily shot by the needles instead, even though he avoided the attack from the stone arrowheads.

Duh! Duh! Duh!

The hard needles pierced into the trunk of the tree opposite, and they pierced half way into the wood!

Shao Xuan didn’t land directly after he dodged the first round of attack, but grasped on the little branch spread from a tree. He was very agile on his moves, and made a flexible roll ahead. With the strength he borrowed from that small branch, he jumped over the relatively big branch which stretched above the path, without touching any leaves on that big branch.

After he landed, Shao Xuan instantly sprinted ahead, and almost right after he moved his feet, a finger-thick stone arrowhead pierced the ground where Shao Xuan was standing a second ago. For quite a few times, the stone arrowhead nailed on the ground due to Shao Xuan’s footsteps, but Shao Xuan kept running without being affected by those arrowheads.

When Shao Xuan was running, he didn’t run along a straight route, and there was no regular pattern in his running.

When he made yet another leap, he stepped on a branch nearby and pushed himself up again. During the two connected leaps, he dodged all the arrowheads flying in the air. Shao Xuan rolled his wrist and five small stones were grasped between his fingers. He fired the stones towards the bushes ahead. At the next moment, sound of wood cracking was heard coming from down there.

When dropping down, Shao Xuan reached out his hand and gripped on the tip of a branch, to alter his falling route. With one salto before landing, he made a roll on the ground, to remove most of the impact. Meanwhile, he saw an arm-thick stone spike rushing at him from the corner of his eyes.

A gray sword shadow flickered.