Chapter 87: An Undeserved Misfortune
Translator: AstralGhost Editor: Kurisu
The sharp and powerful arrow did not stop after piercing through Mahmud's arm, continuing on with great momentum until it finally embedded itself in the trunk of a huge tree far away. More than half of the arrow was buried in the tree trunk, which was large enough for a man to hug by linking his arms together, showing only the tail of the arrow which was still quivering slightly.
"AH! My arm!"
Mahmud fell heavily onto his back from the impact as he grabbed his arm and screamed in pain.
A large and ugly hole had appeared from his left shoulder all the way through to his arm. His entire left side was slumped to the side, and his left arm dangled uselessly by his side. All the flesh and muscles on that arm had been completely torn in two!
Copious amounts of blood gushed out of the wound, bringing a deep chill into Mahmud's heart as he regained his senses. If he hadn't reacted fast enough, that arrow would have directly pierced through his heart from the back!
"God d*mmit! I'm not going die here! How can I possibly just die like this?! I must return to my country! Yes! I need to return!"
Mahmud had already completely regretted his actions. He should never have sneaked into China in the first place! His life in Southeast Asia was comfortable and easy. Even if he killed a few people every now and then, nobody would do anything to him!
Dragging his body despite the pain and forcing himself to his feet, Mahmud ruthlessly jabbed at a spot on his mangled arm a couple of times.
Immediately, the rate at which the blood escaped his body lessened significantly. However, Mahmud had still lost a great amount of blood while performing that action.
Due to the massive loss of blood, his body was rather stiff as he ran into the jungle.
"Che, what a pity. Just a bit more and I'd have got him."
500 meters away, Liu Jie put down his two meter tall bow with a sigh.
It was unclear what material this longbow was made of. At a glance, it appeared to be fashioned from the antlers of some animal, but it was extremely durable. Even with Liu Jie's immense strength, he was only able to pull the bowstring to a third of its maximum draw!
"As expected of an expert at the Peak of Dark Jing, his intuition towards danger is truly sensitive! He seemed to be distracted for just a split second just now, but he still managed to avoid a fatal injury."
Liu Jie slung the longbow over his shoulders and chased in the direction of his prey.
As time passed, the distance between the two began to lessen rapidly. In addition to being heavily injured, Mahmud still needed to keep his guard up against the terrifying arrows. Under such circumstances, he was unable to increase his speed at all.
'Haha! The Heavens will always leave a path for the desperate!'
Even an expert like Mahmud was beginning to lose hope as he watched Liu Jie's group which was only 100 meters away closing in on him. But as luck would have it, there were actually other people in front of him!
In that moment, Mahmud remembered a famous saying in China. Ignoring his injuries, he forcefully increased his speed by an entire realm!
"Xiao Wu, how far away are we from that place?"
Liu Jie turned to a youngster of around 20 years old beside him.
"We've almost reached it. It's no more than 400 meters away!"
Xiao Wu lifted his arm and looked at the device on his wrist as he replied excitedly.
In order to not let Mahmud have a chance to escape, Liu Jie and the rest had already laid out a detailed plan to chase him towards a certain spot and force him into a deadly corner!
"Not good! Captain, there are some civilians ahead!"
After rounding a treacherous precipice, Liu Qing who was at the front saw the situation ahead.
"What? Godd*mit! Why are there random people in such a remote place?! Hurry up and stop him!" Nantian hollered in panic.
"We must stop him! Otherwise, we'll be returning from this wild goose hunt empty-handed!"
Liu Jie did not pay attention to Nantian's tone. Instead, he immediately pulled the longbow on his back to his front and readied himself.
Then, he grabbed an over 1-meter-long titanium allow arrow from his quiver and inserted it onto the bowstring.
Placing his left leg flat against the ground and his right leg on the bow, Liu Jie grabbed the bowstring with both his hands and pulled!
His entire body's muscles bulged fiercely and numerous blue veins appeared on his neck and arms!
The combination of all four limbs brought about unparalleled strength!
"Ka, ka!"
Together with the strange creaking sounds, the longbow slowly opened!
At this moment, Mahmud had already arrived within 20 meters of Bei Feng's group. With only a breath or two of time, he would be amongst the group!
"Go!"
The longbow had been drawn to a fifth of its length and together with all the strength in Liu Jie's body and the hope in his heart, a powerful arrow was sent flying through the air towards Mahmud!
There was not much to say to describe this arrow. If one were to describe it with one word, it would be... swift!
It shot through the air so rapidly that one could only see the afterimages which trailed behind it!
Such a sight really caused one to gasp and wonder if an arrow like this was faster or slower than a bullet!
"It must hit!"
"Everything depends on this arrow!"
Everyone was practically holding their breaths as they watched the arrow fly through the air even as they prayed fervently in their hearts that the arrow would be enough to slay Mahmud!
"Not good!"
Mahmud had been keeping his guard up against this arrow the whole time, but when it really came, he found his scalp aching and his face was drained of color.
Using all his might, he barely managed to crane his neck a little, bringing his head slightly to the side. Immediately after, the powerful arrow whistled past the spot where his head had been previously, scraping past his cheek!
It was only a slight graze, but a long bloody line immediately appeared across the side of his face!
"Ah! F*ck! I won't let any of you off!"
Mahmud shrieked in rage, but did not stop his steps at all. In fact, his speed even increased!
'There are four people here. I'll catch one at random. Like that, they will spare the rat to save the vase!' [1]
Mahmud looked at the four people on the rocky platform. Three adults and a little girl. With his sick nature, he would usually go for the little girl 100% of the time.
But with the pack of hounds hot on his tail, Mahmud was not willing to risk anything and simply grabbed the person nearest to him.
"Don't move a finger or you'll die!"
Mahmud hollered a line of broken Mandarin with a strange accent at Bei Feng as he wrapped his palms around his neck, two sharp nails resting against his jugular.
"Mahmud! Stop resisting! You won't be able to escape!"
Liu Jie and the rest had also arrived.
"HAHA! Stop resisting? Should I also lay down on the ground and wait for you to kill me too? You'd best not do anything rash, or this person is dead!"
"Boss!"
Mystic One and the rest finally reacted to the situation.
A head of messy hair was splayed over Mahmud's bloody face. Together with his maniacal laughter and strange way of speech, he seemed like an evil spirit which had just climbed out of hell!
"D*mmit! We were so close to succeeding! Where the hell did this group of idiots pop up from?!"
Liu Jie and the others had an extremely ugly expression on their faces. This feeling must be what it's like to be sh*gged by a vulgar dog!
"Quick! Arrange a helicopter for me right away and take me to the airport! I only want to get back to Southeast Asia. Once I'm there, we'll have nothing more to do with each other!"
Mahmud had a crazed expression on his face. He was like a cornered tiger, his entire body dripping with the smell of danger.
He was truly scared this time. After escaping this ordeal, he would never come back to China again in his entire lifetime!
"Captain, what should we do?"
Nantian turned around and looked at Liu Jie who had a similarly conflicted expression on his face.
'Could it be that we are supposed to let him go just like that? How would the people he killed be able to rest in peace?! But if we were to strike, this person would definitely be dead without a doubt! With such a close proximity and against a Peak Dark Jing expert, I don't have any confidence in rescuing the kid...'
Liu Jie fell into a deep silence. On one hand, he had the families of the dead officers and murdered civilians to account to for. But on the other hand, there's a living person in front of him.
"Captain, we're not the police. Our target is Mahmud! What does the lives of others have to do with us?" Jing Rong suggested in a frosty voice.
"No way!"
"No way!"
While the rest wavered internally, Liu Jie and Liu Qing rejected the idea outright.