Yun Qiang carefully scanned his surroundings, his eyes darting from one position to another, searching for Lee Sheng's presence.
The bog where he was standing was extremely advantageous for Yun Qiang. The bog was large and flat, with no tree blocking his line of sight for at least twenty-five meters. The watery and muddy ground was slippery and splashed when stepped on, making it impossible to traverse without getting detected. This was an advantage to someone like Yun Qiang, who preferred to fight in the open instead of reacting to an ambush.
Slowly, Lee Sheng's silhouette approached the edge of the bog.
"I was going to ask you if you wanted to extend the protection period, but it looks like you already made your choice…."
Lee Sheng took a few steps into the bog, completely revealing his presence. He knew that the environment made it impossible to ambush his prey.
"As if I didn't know what you were doing. This month, I only received scouting missions. Obviously, you are trying to suppress my team."
Yun Qiang scoffed at Lee Sheng's provocation; obviously, the man never had good intentions when they met, this matter about protection fees was just an excuse to make things difficult for him.
They locked eyes, both of them full of killing intent towards one another.
Lee Sheng continued moving forward until he was twenty meters from Yun Qiang.
"Umph." His voice was filled with disdain. "You studied a lot for this."
Yun Qiang had spent more than a week gathering information about Lee Sheng. He even paid a lot of contribution points to some of Lee Sheng's old teammates to get critical details about him.
The most important information he had received was regarding Lee Sheng's weapon. His weapon was a long black needle that could be thrown against the opponents while guiding its trajectory mid-air. However, this needle had a strict limitation, that was its range. In fact, it couldn't go further than fifteen meters from the user.
For this reason, Yun Qiang had positioned himself twenty-five meters away from the nearest tree, making it impossible for Lee Sheng to attack him from a distance while hiding in the surrounding vegetation.
"Since you put it this way...."
"Let's see how long you can last!"
With a wave of his hands, Lee Sheng took out five corpses from his ring and started directing them to attack. Clearly, he didn't want to overextend himself in the bog. In his mind, Yun Qiang had spent a month preparing this area; it wouldn't be difficult to set up and hide a few complex traps in that time span.
So Lee Sheng had decided to let his undeads do the scouting work and trigger any traps.
When Yun Qiang saw the zombies coming for him, he didn't lose his cool and started fighting. His movements were simple, a dodge to the right, a small lunge to the head, then dodge again and reset. These zombies weren't strong, and it was clear that Lee Sheng wasn't focused on attacking him; instead, the zombies circled around him, testing the terrain while throwing small attacks, just to tire Yun Qiang a little while delaying their inevitable demise.
As the last zombie fell dead to the ground, Lee Sheng's mocking voice sounded on the bog.
"Just a bluff, uh?" His voice sounded annoyed. "You underestimate me!"
With another wave of his hand, Lee Sheng took out another five undeads from his space ring. However, the moment Yun Qiang laid his eyes on them, his face became serious. He recognized them. These five were the living corpses that Lee Sheng called masterpieces.
Lee Sheng had decided to stop playing around and fight seriously.
Yun Qiang barely had the time to reset his battle stance when three of the five undeads had already closed in on his position and were starting their offensive.
I can't let them encircle me!
As Yun Qiang stepped back, trying to buy some time, he stared at his enemies. Each one of the three corpses held a different weapon. The one who was tall and large held a shield, the thin corpse held a dagger, while the last one had a sword.
Suddenly, a whistling sound reached Yun Qiang's ear. His eyes shrank in surprise. He instantly reacted by throwing himself to the side, just in time to dodge two arrows that were coming for his head.
Damn it!
In the distance, the two remaining corpses were armed with short bows. Their movements were swift and precise; by the time their arrows had reached the ground, the duo had already drawn another arrow and were ready to shoot.
Lee Sheng stood calmly behind them, his hands clasped behind his back. A vicious smile had formed on his half-decomposed face, giving him an extremely cruel and disgusting look.
"Release."
As these words fell, the two undead released their arrows, sending another attack to Yun Qiang's way.
Yun Qiang rolled to the side, swiftly dodging the incoming arrows while blocking the sword-wielding corpse with his spear. As he stepped back, he took the occasion to rotate his weapon, sending the back of his spear towards the corpse wielding a dagger. However, just as his attack was about to connect, a shield was put in between them, blocking Yun Qiang's attack.
However, he didn't have time to counterattack again because a third barrage of arrows reached his position, preventing him from advancing again.
Lee Sheng watched from behind his two favorite undeads, his expression looked calm; however, his mind was racing with thoughts about the fight. At first, he thought he could end this fight easily. He only needed to put Yun Qiang in a difficult spot, then attack using his dark needle; the speed of the needle was faster than normal arrows, and Lee Sheng could even guide its trajectory, making it difficult to dodge. However, the more he watched Yun Qiang's fight, the more a strange feeling arose within him; it just didn't feel right. The movements he made, the way he dodged and attacked. It felt fake, as if Yun Qiang had no intention to destroy the undeads in front of him.
"Release."
Lee Sheng ordered his undeads to shoot another set of arrows.
This would be a good opportunity to launch the needle, however, Lee Sheng hesitated.
Maybe he is waiting for someone?
Slowly, some suspicion arose in Lee Sheng's mind. Maybe Yun Qiang was wasting time because he was waiting for reinforcements? To him, this made sense. Till now, Yun Qiang had tried his best to lure him outside the forest, and he even positioned himself in a way that forced Lee Sheng to expose himself to use the needle.
The bodies that were half-buried in the bog also reinforced this theory. If Yun Qiang was waiting for an evil cultivator to help him, it made sense to hide some undeads among the bodies, making it easier to launch a surprise attack.
"Release."
Lee Sheng absentmindedly gave the order to shoot another set of arrows. Right now, Yun Qiang had his back turned on them, putting him right between his melee undeads and the ranged corpses that Lee Sheng controlled.
Wait?!
Yun Qiang smirked when he heard the whistling sound of arrows behind him.
This is my chance!
With no hesitation, he dodged an incoming strike and turned around, directly charging Lee Sheng.
He had spent this entire fight dancing around the melee undeads while trying to give the impression of a serious fight; he wasn't putting his heart into it. His plan was to bait Lee Sheng into attacking with the needle before charging him, but since Lee Sheng hadn't used his needle, Yun Qiang had changed his tactic, trying to position himself between the ranged and melee undeads of his enemy.
The moment he turned around and charged, two arrows flew past him, hitting the undead behind him. He started moving like the wind, mercilessly closing in towards his enemy. His spear held forward, he was almost there.
Then, with a swift move, he launched his spear forward; however, just as he was about to hit him, one of the ranged undeads put itself right between them, tanking the spear and slowing Yun Qiang's attack just enough to let Lee Sheng dodge.
Yun Qiang reacted instantly and let go of his spear. The undead was holding on to it, and he knew that the others were chasing him down. He couldn't let himself get pinned down by them, or it would be the end for him.
Unhesitantly, he charged forward without a weapon. As he ran, he started circulating his Qi according to the Sacred blade technique, and by the time he was halfway towards Lee Sheng, he already held a simple dagger made with golden Qi.
At that moment, Lee Sheng extended his arms and threw his dark needle towards him. Once again, Yun Qiang reacted precisely and blocked the hit with his blade while still charging forward. Yun Qiang kept advancing, even if the Qi dagger in his hand was half broken; he didn't stop.
Lee Sheng smiled. He knew what technique Yun Qiang had used to form the dagger; Lee Sheng was extremely familiar with it and had even used it in the past. Using his experience in the matter, he knew the blade Yun Qiang held in his hand was completely unusable! His black needle had damaged it too deeply, and there was no way Yun Qiang could repair it before reaching his position.
His smile widened. He had won. Now he only needed to call Yun Qiang's bluff and engage him; by the time Yun Qiang's blade reformed, Lee Sheng's undead would also reach him, ending the chase together with the black needle and the undeads' support. Lee Sheng had nothing to fear, and they could easily overwhelm Yun Qiang with their combined might.
A vicious gaze flashed in Lee Sheng's eyes when Yun Qiang pounced on him.
Good, now I only need to—
"Ahhhh!"
An extreme amount of pain burst forth from his legs, sending him into shock. His eyes trembled with pain and shock as his gaze fell downwards. A spear made from dark blood had sprouted from a buried corpse Yun Qiang was stepping on. This spear had directly perforated both of his legs; even if he somehow managed to survive the fight, Lee Sheng would never be able to walk again.
For a brief second, terror overwhelmed the pain in his mind as he thought about what had just happened. Then he felt nothingness.
Yun Qiang's blade had already reformed; where Lee Sheng once had a heart, now there was only a small hole.
Lee Sheng had died.