Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 288: Chapter 288: Bottled Prisoner (Part 12)_1

Very skilled, indeed!

Suddenly attacked, Fu Qian remained composed and examined the arrow in his hand.

The material seemed very special, and the design was quite unique; it must have been professional assassination equipment.

It had been almost silent in flight, making it truly difficult to detect.

Nevertheless, Ailina being hit so easily was somewhat surprising.

It seemed that the move she had used earlier to block Butcher’s hook chain had taken a substantial toll on her body.

...Fu Qian casually tossed the arrow on the ground, stepped forward, and flicked his fingers.

Two more arrows flew through the air, and he deflected each one.

These arrows had a very clear target, having given up on attacking him and instead locked onto Ailina’s head.

They were focused on taking a life… Fu Qian could guess what this group was up to.

“Are you okay?”

Fu Qian glanced back at Ailina to find that the previous arrow had struck her arm.

At this moment, the arrow had nearly pierced right through the elbow, blood splattering her white gown and staining it red.

Although the visual effect was rather dramatic, such flesh wounds shouldn’t have been a big deal—

Looking at Ailina, who was silent and shivering, Fu Qian frowned.

She couldn’t possibly be fainting at the sight of blood, could she?

Ailina was clearly not herself at the moment, looking completely stunned as she stared at the bloody mess,

“Bastard!”

Cross, witnessing the scene, immediately let out a roar of grief and charged in the direction the arrows had come from.

This bodyguard was a bit simple-minded!

Fu Qian next to him sighed.

Clearly, Ailina was the brain of the pair, and now she was out of commission.

It seemed he, the temporary ally, had to step in.

Fu Qian moved aside and reached out again.

The next moment, a figure emerged from the mirror-like surface of the water, a long, sharp blade in hand, thrusting straight for Ailina’s neck.

Unfortunately, this sudden ambush was like delivering themselves into Fu Qian’s hands, caught in his grasp.

For a moment, the assailant was also taken aback.

After a brief pause, without hesitation, they let go of the weapon and turned to dive into the water.

However, to their surprise, Fu Qian released his grip at the same time, then reached down and firmly clasped the attacker’s slender neck.

The next instant, Fu Qian pulled the attacker out of the water like he was fishing.

Despair filled the attacker’s eyes.

“Very professional,”

Fu Qian, taking note of the sharkskin-like clothes and various tools on the attacker, sincerely complimented.

Without waiting for a reply, he dragged the assailant over to Ailina and threw them onto the ground.

“It seems we’ve stepped into a trap.”

…

It took a few seconds for Ailina to realize Fu Qian was speaking to her.

Finally, she moved her gaze away from the wound, staring blankly at the feet where the person who had just tried to kill her lay.

And the recent ordeal had completely drained the assassin of the courage to fight back.

Now, under the scrutiny of their target, they almost instinctively averted their gaze.

But the next moment, a piercing scream rang out by their ear, causing them to involuntarily turn their head.

What they saw was the ferocious face of a woman, nearly at point-blank range, and at the same time, they felt their shoulder being tightly grasped.

The next moment, a dense fog, as dark as darkness itself, slowly emanated from the woman’s head, forming the shape of a skull and eerily floated over.

They were too close, and by the time the assassin realized what was happening and thought to dodge, everything in front was already shrouded in darkness.

Ah!

A piercing scream rang out, as the assassin in the water violently broke free from Ailina’s grasp, rolled onto the ground, and frantically scratched at his face.

In just a few seconds, his entire face had corroded down to the bone, and showed no signs of stopping.

“What’s going on?”

By the time Cross, who was halfway through his charge and heard the commotion, rushed back, the assassin had already stopped struggling.

Click!

However, Ailina paid no attention to anyone; she pressed her hand on the arrow lodged in her arm, broke it off without hesitation, and then yanked it out to throw it aside.

The next moment, she looked in the direction Cross had been charging towards earlier.

Three people had already emerged there, one of them holding a bow, clearly the sneak attacker from before.

They did not hurry to leave, instead, they stood at a distance, watching from afar.

With just one glance, Ailina withdrew her gaze, slowly squatted down, and then spread her fingers and pressed them to the ground.

Almost instantaneously, Fu Qian felt something more within the soil.

Several snake-like dark trails spiraled out from Ailina’s hands, winding as they moved along the ground toward the distance.

Ah!

Despite being on high alert, the attack burrowing up from beneath was far too strange and hard to defend against, and the three people in the distance could not evade in time.

Amidst screams of agony, they fell to the ground one by one.

And after being hit, the three of them suffered the same fate as the previous one, with large chunks of their flesh rapidly corroding away, plunging them into painful struggles.

“Their target is the Sinflame.”

At this point, Ailina finally spoke, her voice still the same as before, but her tone had undergone a drastic change.

“Ailina, you… ”

Hearing her icy voice, Cross obviously felt great sorrow.

“I noticed.”

Fu Qian nodded, acknowledging Ailina’s analysis.

These people had undoubtedly come to kill, and their first target was very clear, choosing Ailina, who bore the heaviest weight of Sinflame.

“And they probably have the same idea as you, collecting Sinflame to strengthen the Sin Seekers.”

“Why do you say that?”

Ailina looked at Fu Qian, who had just killed four people, her burning with Sinflame now showing a dark red glow in her pupils.

“Because there are many of them.”

Fu Qian gestured towards the distance with his mouth.

“Just from what we have seen, there are already four people, and as everyone knows, there aren’t exactly any saints here.”

“Put yourself in their shoes for a moment, four people forming a Hunting Squad, one after another hunting down others, then sharing the Sinflame equally, and progressing together, what do you think the odds are?”

…

Ailina and Cross both fell silent.

“Not to mention whether it can be evenly distributed, even if it’s by taking turns claiming lives, surely no one would want to be the last one. Who can guarantee that those who first gain strength from the Sinflame won’t turn around and take out their own?”

“You must know, in this life-and-death competition, you can’t even rely on your own kin.”

“Therefore, the only way this kind of team could cooperate is if everyone worked together to kill, then the one who gets the Sinflame goes immediately to the statue to purify it, thus strengthening the Sin Seeker and using it to kill by proxy.”

“There’s also another point that proves this.”

Fu Qian pointed at Ailina.

“This squad is capable and works well together, yet none of the four carry any Sinflame. It’s impossible that they have nothing to show for it after all this time, right?”