Apotheosis Begins with Tai Chi

”Young Manor Master, are you all right?”

The Altar Master in the black-gray cloak darted forward in a single step. He kicked Zhu Biao’s corpse aside and caught the staggering Bai Fangshuo.

”Brother Yu, watch out—!”

Bai Fangshuo cried out in alarm.

That Altar Master was none other than Yu An.

Before the words even left Bai Fangshuo’s mouth, he pushed off with his feet.

He slammed hard into Yu An, knocking him half a step back and to the side.

That half-step was the distance between life and death.

”WHOOSH—!”

A sharp whistle tore through the air.

The sound came too fast. By the time Yu An’s ears caught it, it was already upon him. And when he heard that sound...

His right ear was already gone.

A terrifying force suddenly rushed his face, like an invisible giant’s hand slapping him hard.

In that instant, Yu An’s right ear was utterly ripped to shreds. Mangled flesh exploded in a spray of blood.

Blood streamed down his neck, soaking half his body red in the blink of an eye.

He let out a muffled grunt, his eyes wide with shock as he stared ahead.

A moment ago, if not for Bai Fangshuo’s shove, it wouldn’t have just been his ear that was torn apart, but his entire forehead.

”What... What’s going on!?”

Yu An paid no mind to his wounded ear. Blood was still pouring out, but he didn’t even try to cover it.

After breaking away from Bai Fangshuo, the two of them simultaneously pushed their Blood Qi to the absolute limit.

Pushing off with their feet, they retreated explosively, constantly changing positions at top speed to find cover.

Rotten leaves and dead branches exploded behind them, kicking up waves of dust.

”They have a Dark Force Archer on their side too...”

As Bai Fangshuo moved, the words were forced through his clenched teeth, each one laced with unconcealable horror:

”And what’s more, he uses Ejection—the harder skill to master!”

As he spoke, he opened his left palm.

In his palm.

Lay a single silver bullet.

”Ejection?”

Yu An had heard of it, but didn’t know much about it.

Bai Fangshuo, on the other hand, knew exactly how valuable the skill of Ejection was.

Back when he first started practicing the bow, he had also considered learning Ejection. Faster, more powerful, stealthier... it was truly an Upper Grade choice.

But only after trying to learn it did he realize just how arduous and difficult the path was.

The most crucial problem was that a bullet lacks fletching for stabilization. Accuracy was manageable for short-range shots, but over long distances, the projectile would easily veer off target.

After the bullet left the hand, its stability relied entirely on the power technique applied at the moment of release. The slightest deviation would result in a completely different point of impact.

Not only was the accuracy terrible, but beginners would also frequently injure themselves.

Of course, it wasn’t that the skill couldn’t be learned, nor was it that Bai Fangshuo couldn’t endure such hardship.

It was that he couldn’t afford the time.

He couldn’t neglect his Martial Arts just to practice Ejection.

In the end, he had no choice but to give up and settle for the next best thing, switching to Arrow Shooting.

’This person’s Ejection skill is in no way inferior to my Archery... Even with a perfectly suited Root Bone and natural talent, it would still take more than a decade of painstaking practice...’

Bai Fangshuo lowered his gaze to the silver bullet in his hand, his pupils shrinking uncontrollably.

’Wang Peng is truly an old fox! To think he could hire such a top-tier archer without a single whisper getting out beforehand... Even our inside informants were completely in the dark!’

”THWUMP! THWUMP!”

As he thought, two more muffled thuds echoed out.

Two elite archers, each hidden behind a large tree, had blood mist erupt from above their necks.

When the mist cleared, their heads were nowhere to be found.

”Fuck!”

Yu An’s brow furrowed tightly. The movement pulled at the wound on his ear, the pain contorting his entire face.

”More importantly, this person isn’t just skilled in Archery, his stealth technique is top-tier too! Even with the Young Manor Master’s hearing, you didn’t sense his approach at all...”

Yu An’s gaze swept over the two headless corpses as he spoke, his voice growing deeper and more solemn.

”And from the looks of it... he’s constantly changing position!”

Bai Fangshuo didn’t reply.

He simply raised his hand slowly and made a hushing gesture at Yu An.

The gesture was light and slow, as if afraid of startling something.

The meaning couldn’t be clearer: the top-tier archer in the shadows had hearing every bit as sharp as Bai Fangshuo’s.

Continuing to speak would only keep revealing their positions.

”THWUMP! THWUMP! THWUMP!”

In an instant, three more muffled thuds rang out.

With each sound, a spray of blood mist erupted from behind another large tree.

After the three sounds, three headless bodies collapsed to the ground.

The cover these three had found was excellent. Combined with their black-gray cloaks, they blended almost perfectly with the tree trunks. They should have been extremely difficult to spot.

But the result was no different from the previous two. By the time the sound arrived, their heads had already exploded.

One sound, one kill. Not a single shot missed.

Seeing this, Bai Fangshuo’s eyes flew wide open. His expression gradually twisted, and deep within his pupils, something began to crumble.

As a fellow Archer, he felt an unprecedented, formless pressure.

It was like a boundless mountain, ruthlessly pressing down on him from above.

Crushing him to the point of suffocation.

In his opinion, never missing wasn’t the hard part.

The hard part was firing three consecutive shots in the span of a single breath and hitting three targets that were not close to each other, each with excellent cover.

This required precise locking onto each target, absolute control over the projectile’s trajectory, an almost instinctual sense of rhythm, and even more, the immense strength and stamina to draw the bow repeatedly while ensuring stable performance every time.

But what was even harder than firing three consecutive arrows was firing three consecutive bullets.

Bai Fangshuo knew he could never do it.

And now, that formless pressure stemmed not only from the obvious gap in Archery skill but also from something emanating from his opponent that only an Archer could truly understand...

Dominion over the domain!