Chapter 4202 — Does That Count as a Win?
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
A full hour passed. Wu Bufan had strained every nerve, yet he simply could not close in on Huang Xiaotao—he had not even managed to narrow the gap between them by so much as half a step. This bizarre scene of the two locked in inseparable pursuit left everyone below the arena thoroughly stunned.
This woman Huang Xiaotao, it seemed, was no trifling matter either. Were this some wild place like the jungle, Wu Bufan likely would not even know how he had died.
Yet although the crowd now regarded Huang Xiaotao with a degree of respect, they still believed Wu Bufan had the greater chance of victory. This was, after all, a one-on-one arena match; however superb Huang Xiaotao's archery, it could not make up for that enormous natural disadvantage.
A stalemate like this could not last forever. Once Wu Bufan closed the distance, it would all be over.
Among them all, however, only Wei Zhao showed not the slightest hint of worry. In his eyes, Huang Xiaotao was certain to win this fight!
Even if both were early Golden Core cultivators, even if Huang Xiaotao's martial skills and weapon were both ill-suited to single combat on the arena, she was a peerless expert who had achieved a perfect breakthrough to the Golden Core stage—in no way comparable to an ordinary early Golden Core cultivator like Wu Bufan.
As time wore on, the duel between Huang Xiaotao and Wu Bufan, which had at first drawn little attention, gradually captured the eyes of the entire hall, and the crowd began to whisper among themselves.
At last Wu Bufan could hold back no longer. Though the great majority favored him, Huang Xiaotao's arrows had no eyes—if by some slip one of them grazed him, or worse, struck him dead-center in a vital spot like the throat, the joke would be no laughing matter.
Gritting his teeth, Wu Bufan at last dared conceal nothing and hold nothing back. In an instant he pushed his speed to its utmost, and having closed the distance to Huang Xiaotao, he abruptly raised his hand and flung it toward her—a streak of dark green light shot out, flying at a speed the eye could scarcely follow, straight for a vital point on her body.
A sleeve sword—and a sleeve sword smeared with one of the world's rarest poisons. Unless one were given the unique antidote, whoever it touched was doomed to die. This was the hidden trump he, Wu Bufan, had painstakingly prepared, his final card. He had not wanted to bring it out in the very first match, but now he was forced to.
Wu Bufan had trained for this very purpose for several years on end; the sleeve sword's speed was indeed swift, and Huang Xiaotao had grown accustomed to the rhythm of the one-sided archery suppression that had come before. For a moment, she simply could not react.
By his calculations, the odds of this sleeve sword finding its mark were at least eighty percent.
Clang! A sharp ring of metal striking metal, accompanied by gasps of wonder from the crowd below, and Wu Bufan's fond hopes collapsed in an instant—Huang Xiaotao had used her bow and arrow to intercept that lethal sleeve sword head-on, plucking it out of thin air!
Such reflexes. Such precision. It was simply inconceivable—nothing short of a divine skill!
Take anyone in the crowd below—even those whose strength surpassed Huang Xiaotao's—and have them attempt this feat of using a bow and arrow to intercept a sleeve sword point for point, and they absolutely could not do it. If that was not a divine skill, what was?
In that instant, the way everyone looked at Huang Xiaotao changed once more. Setting all else aside, judged purely on this female cultivator's archery, she truly deserved the name of divine archer!
Yet it was at this very moment that Wu Bufan's seasoned cunning showed itself to the fullest. He was even more astonished than the crowd, but his feet never paused for an instant—seizing this very juncture, he flashed forward and in a heartbeat was within less than a zhang of Huang Xiaotao.