Zhi Jue's body was pinned to the ground, his limbs splayed out from the immense impact, and his head rolled away, slamming into the iron gate leading to the rooftop. His mouth was still shouting with undiminished vigor, "Damn it, it's an ambush!"
Ji Jiu didn't need to be told; he understood they had been ambushed. He slapped his palm on the ground, using a skill to shatter a large section of the rooftop tiles and stones. The debris flew up, hovering around him to act as a Shield and obstruct the enemy's line of sight. Simultaneously, he stomped hard on the ground and dashed to Zhi Jue's side, holding a slender, Western Longsword-like steel spike, sweeping it towards the Wooden Arrow pinning Zhi Jue's chest.
BOOM—
Before Ji Jiu could even touch the Arrow's fletching, the wooden-shafted Arrow exploded violently. The massive explosive Energy forced Ji Jiu back several steps. His chest and face were blackened, and the back of his hand gripping the steel spike was rent by a wound so deep the bone was visible.
Fortunately, Ji Jiu was wearing a rare-quality Thin Membrane Armor, which prevented the exploding Arrow from causing more severe injuries.
However, Zhi Jue wasn't so lucky.
His skill, which could dismember his body and to some extent ignore physical damage, was useless now; his entire torso had been blown into countless pieces. Some organs had even fallen from the high-rise, unable to fly back up for the moment.
Zhi Jue's face instantly turned deathly pale, his eyes rolled back, and he was rendered speechless.
Meanwhile, his relatively unharmed limbs began to move on their own. They leaped agilely across the rooftop floor, picking up the scattered torso fragments—temporarily unable to fly and reform—and tossed them towards Zhi Jue's head.
Hmm... Zhi Jue's terrible mental state was likely related to his limbs. According to estimates from Datura's Internal Medical Department, each of his limbs had developed a slight autonomous consciousness, capable of acting spontaneously when detached from Zhi Jue's brain.
If every organ had its own thoughts, it would be enough to drive anyone mad, if they weren't already.
Ji Jiu had no time to assess the critically injured Zhi Jue; after all, this teammate's vitality was comparable to a Xiao Qiang's—he wouldn't die so easily or quickly.
Now, the enemy who had shot the Arrow had yet to reveal herself...
The owner of the Arrow was, naturally, Miss Liu Wu Dai.
She stood on the rooftop of a distant high-rise, an optical instrument composed of three cylindrical telescopes perched on her nose. The bowstring of the Wooden Short Bow in her hand still trembled faintly.
Seeing the circular barrier—formed by suspended rooftop tiles at the center of the Ball Technique—she couldn't help but purse her lips. Without hesitation, she steadied her trembling hand, drew another Wooden Arrow from the cloth quiver at her waist, pulled the bowstring taut, and angled it towards the sky.
She was about 1,100 meters from her target. Even with the world's most accurate sniper rifle, hitting an enemy directly in the night sky at this distance would be extremely difficult.
But the Excellent-quality wooden bow in her hands, paired with her unique skill, was more than capable of achieving such an incredible attack.
[Name: Good Horn Bow]
[Type: Weapon]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Attack Power: Medium]
[Special Effect: Falling Goose. An Arrow shot into the sky will inevitably hit the target. Attack strength depends on the distance between the parties, bow-drawing strength, and Arrow strength.]
[Consumption: 200 Energy Points]
[Cooldown Time: 10 seconds]
[Equipment Requirement: Agility Attribute greater than or equal to 8, Strength Attribute greater than or equal to 9]
[Note: Let gravity complete this strike.]
Liu Wu Dai had obtained this weapon from an extremely dangerous script task.
Its Falling Goose Special Effect didn't consume much Energy, and its cooldown time was absurdly short. Most importantly, its targeting parameters were incredibly potent: as long as she saw the target and envisioned it in her mind, an Arrow shot into the sky would inevitably hit, no matter what.
If the target was in the opposite direction of the Arrow's initial flight, the Arrow would spin in mid-air to strike it. If a barrier stood between the target and the Arrow, the Arrow would automatically calculate a trajectory to curve around and hit the target.
If the archer were in a sealed steel basement and the Arrow were made of the most fragile rotten wood, it could still hit the target. The rotten wood Arrow would do its best to find any crevice in the basement to escape. If it couldn't get out, it would explode directly at the crevice, using the scattered wood splinters to touch the target.
The creatively imaginative Liu Wu Dai had even tried to use miniature missiles as Arrows, wanting to moonlight as a humanoid rocket launcher.
Unfortunately, the Good Horn Bow's body was too narrow to accommodate a miniature rocket. Moreover, if the target was too far away and the bow-drawing strength insufficient, the Arrow would fly very slowly and could easily be intercepted.
Regardless, for Liu Wu Dai, as long as the Arrows came with a guaranteed-hit Special Effect, she could use her financial resources to purchase related skills from forums, the Special Affairs Bureau, or other channels. This would enhance the Arrow's power, allowing her to kill enemies effectively.
Tsk, it's good to have money.
Liu Wu Dai pulled the Wooden Short Bow's string taut as a full moon. Her right hand, clad in Silk Gloves and nocking a Wooden Arrow, suddenly released.
TWANG—
If an ordinary person had been standing on the rooftop at that moment, they wouldn't have been able to see how the Arrow disappeared; they would only have seen the dust across the entire rooftop slightly stirred by a turbulent gust of wind.
An ordinary person couldn't see it, but Liu Wu Dai, wearing her binoculars, saw everything clearly. The Wooden Arrow flew straight into the distance. It began to fall rapidly, but just as it was about to touch the stone barrier, it abruptly halted. With a slight flick of its tail, it astonishingly changed direction.
The arrowhead now pointed towards Liu Wu Dai herself...
!!!
Liu Wu Dai's heart leaped in alarm. Her body instinctively tensed, and she sprang backward in retreat.
The binocular-style glasses she wore were also a piece of Excellent-quality equipment.
[Name: Tri-tube Binoculars]
[Type: Armor]
[Quality: Excellent]
[Defensive Power: Extremely Low]
[Special Effect: Scout Lock-On. After spotting an enemy, their aura is marked within the binoculars' view.]
[Consumption: While equipped, consumes one point of Sanity Value every 10 seconds.]
[Cooldown Time: None]
[Equipment Requirement: Perception Attribute greater than or equal to 9.]
[Note: You carry the scent of his/her/its/Their perfume.]
These Tri-tube Binoculars, acquired at great expense, could ignore barriers once an enemy was sighted, precisely displaying the enemy's outline in her vision. Even if the opponent used stealth or invisibility skills, they couldn't hide as long as their skill level wasn't higher than Excellent. It was almost like having full-map vision, making them very suitable for player duels. Paired with the Good Horn Bow, she could accurately snipe enemies from over a kilometer away.
Liu Wu Dai hadn't used this equipment combination to snipe Gulu Lugu earlier because Gulu Lugu had already used the Lunar Phase Locator to detect hostile players and had preemptively set up dense silk nets in the corridor.
At this moment, the view through the Tri-tube Binoculars still showed the fragmented blue outline symbolizing Zhi Jue and the red humanoid outline representing Ji Jiu.
However, the aura of Ji Jiu's outline was quite faint. He was currently raising a handgun and firing a shot in Liu Wu Dai's direction.
The auto-tracking Arrow was now chasing that very handgun bullet speeding towards her—the bullet carried the vast majority of Ji Jiu's aura.