Chapter 43: The True Breakthrough (4)

Le Kai opted for ordinary shooting; with this method, as long as one's arm strength was sufficient, it would suffice.

"Whoosh!"

The alloy arrow let out a sharp whistle, piercing through the mist and closing in on the target nearly a hundred meters away in an instant.

"Roar... roar..."

With the speed of the alloy arrow, even a beast of immense strength, deep in slumber, would have no chance of dodging. This shot was the very essence of a sneak attack, and Le Kai's supernatural abilities played a crucial role: his eyes locked onto the target like radar, and he aimed for the weakest spot accessible from his angle. With such force, striking such a vulnerable area, Le Kai believed that even if the beast's strength surpassed his own by a margin, it would still suffer grievous injury.

However, in the next second, he was forced to overturn his assumptions.

After a low, muffled groan, the attacked beast erupted in furious roars, bursting forth from the mist as if a vortex had detonated. Powerful winds swept in all directions, a fierce and terrifying aura soared into the air, and with a sudden rush, it sped toward Le Kai, the aggressor.

Le Kai cried out in shock, "What the hell? Such strong defense? Even its... eggs are impervious to blades and arrows?"

Without hesitation, he rolled and bolted up the mountain.

The beast's speed rivaled its defensive prowess—covering a hundred meters in the blink of an eye, each leap spanning more than twenty meters. With several bounds, accompanied by a cloud of dust, it reached Le Kai's previous hiding place, howling in midair, and leapt again. The massive stone where Le Kai had hidden was shattered, fragments flying in every direction.

Such destructive power made Le Kai, already fleeing, shudder. He had once thought this creature was only slightly stronger than himself, but now it was clear—not just a little, but vastly so!

Still, Le Kai's attack was not without effect; otherwise, the beast wouldn't be so enraged. As a male, to have that particular part struck hard by an alloy arrow—no matter how robust—was intolerable. Now the beast was consumed with fury, vowing to tear Le Kai apart and devour him, destroying anything that dared to block its path to killing the human ahead.

"Damn it, since when did wild boars become so formidable?"

He quickly fired two more arrows, but they failed even to scratch the beast's hide. Its muscles seemed forged from rubber meters thick, bouncing the alloy arrows away. With a sidelong glance, Le Kai finally saw the beast's true form, and his worldview collapsed; he couldn't help but mock it inwardly.

The beast was, astonishingly, a mutated wild boar.

Its size was more than twice that of an ordinary boar. The tusks protruding from its mouth gleamed coldly like two alloy blades, each a meter long, and everything in their path was smashed to pieces. One could imagine that if these tusks struck a human, the result would be far more than just two holes.

Its speed had also increased dramatically due to mutation. As it charged, the wind howled, its power unmatched. Its signature charge attack had been further enhanced; even with Le Kai's confidence and daring, he would never face it head-on.

Le Kai swallowed nervously, quickly activating the "Return Step" technique. His figure became elusive, shifting left and right, unpredictable—he seemed to be dancing in place, yet in truth, he had already moved dozens of meters away. But compared to the boar's furious rampage, Le Kai gained no advantage.

The creature's physical attributes had mutated significantly, but its intelligence had not reached the level of a mutated leopard. It wasn't fooled by Le Kai's movements, relying instead on its bodily superiority to charge straight ahead.

Le Kai was stunned—the beast was not deceived by his footwork, charging directly at him. Did it possess the ability to lock onto his real body?

"At the dawn of all things, the Great Dao is one; myriad transformations return to unity!"

Sweat beaded on Le Kai's forehead as he desperately employed the Return Step. Over the past years, he had memorized its nine variations and practiced them daily; they were imprinted in his mind as if by instinct.

Yet this profound and mysterious footwork failed to impede the boar's advance. The distance between them grew smaller; Le Kai could almost smell the foul stench from the boar's gaping maw, and the breaking trees and shattered stones behind him made him feel an urgent need to escape.

He had faced close pursuit from monsters before, but this sense of helplessness and powerlessness was new.

Too powerful!

Boom!

Ten meters behind him, just as Le Kai left, a protruding rock was pulverized. Then, an even fiercer aura shot forth like an arrow, targeting Le Kai's back.

"Damn! Even the Return Step can't evade it!"

Le Kai was horrified. The footwork he had painstakingly practiced for years, a skill as potent as a cheat, had saved him countless times. Now, even at its peak, he could not escape his predicament!

Yet, amid extreme tension, the corner of Le Kai's mouth lifted in a faint smile.

Only under ultimate pressure does one's greatest potential emerge!

The true application of the Return Step was to channel true qi into the legs. It sounded simple, but only Le Kai—who had failed thousands of attempts—knew its difficulty. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sought to use powerful external forces to unlock his potential. When threatened with death, humans have two reactions: one is to accept fate and await judgment, typically resulting in death; the other is to believe in one's ability to create miracles and resist with all one's strength. Perhaps these, too, may ultimately fail, but there's always a chance for a miracle.

Le Kai had always belonged to the second kind.

Thus, in this dire moment, though fearful, a hint of delight and confidence shone in his eyes.

Thanks to the true qi gathered in his dantian from the "Three Suns Fruit," he instantly activated it, injecting it into his legs. At the same time, he concentrated his mind entirely, executing the Return Step to its fullest. His brain operated at unprecedented speed, his eyes locking onto the surrounding terrain, mentally constructing nine basic "points." His body then combined these points in the most optimal way.

Nine simple points, when combined, yielded endless possibilities. Within a hundred meters ahead, he determined nine points known only to himself and instantly devised a route connecting them.

Le Kai did not know which method was truly correct, but he understood which was best suited to his current self.

Boom!

Whether it was the auditory hallucination brought by true qi or the noise caused by the boar's impending attack, at that moment, Le Kai's body seemed to be guided by a mysterious force, turning him into a marionette pulled by strings, and he followed the route he had set, vanishing in an instant.

Did he succeed?

Le Kai looked back in disbelief, both terrified and elated.

With this one simple stride, he had crossed two points, appearing fifty meters away!

Such speed was beyond Le Kai's comprehension, and for a moment, the charging boar was dumbfounded. It simply couldn't understand how the prey right before its eyes had suddenly appeared fifty meters away.