Rivers of the Night

Chapter 790: Gentle (2)

Theron had met his fair share of arrogant people in his life, that was especially so after he entered the world of cultivation. Heck, he was probably the most arrogant person he knew. He just happened to like fooling people with a gentle smile or an indifferent expression. What could he say, he had had quite the edgy teen phase.

But this young man right here... he just might take the cake.

He was an archer, yet he took the time and energy to rush right before Theron, only to draw his bow and arrow.

The tip of the arrow was barely an inch from Theron’s nose as the bowstring was drawn back to full bore.

Theron was stunned for a moment and then he laughed. Genuinely belly laughed.

He honestly couldn’t believe it.

With his senses, he had seen the young man coming over. He had been wondering why an archer would choose to do something like this. But even with all his intelligence, he couldn’t guess this was the end result at all.

The young man fired and Theron didn’t even move. The arrow zipped forward, ripping through his head.

One would have expected that Theron’s laughter would have come to an end, especially as the arrow left such a wake of destruction that the mountains that formed the valley their city was buried within shook.

Given how sturdy this world was, this was quite the feat.

Yet, Theron was entirely untouched, still standing there, still laughing.

Alpha stood to the side, placing a palm over his nose as though he had just smelled something particularly disgusting. It seemed the big guy couldn’t stand how poor the young man’s Mana control was.

The difficulty of controlling four clones at once was probably the largest hurdle to leap for Alpha. But by now, his Mana Control sometimes even left Theron in his dust. Seeing someone so far inferior left disgust in the big red wolf’s heart.

As for the young man himself, he was in a bit of a daze. He looked down at his bow as though it was the weapon’s fault.

"Who is this guy?" Theron wiped his tears away and looked at the old man.

"L... Le... Le... Lenwu..." the old man finally eked out.

"That name is meaningless to me. I mean who is he? What is his rank? What does he do?"

"He... he... he is the younger brother of Chosen Inshwelu."

"I see, I see. How many Chosen are there?"

"How many...?" the old man hesitated. "...There are four of them."

"And this Inshwelu, what’s his rank amongst them?"

"Th... Third..."

"How’s he compared to this younger brother of his?"

"I... I don’t know... I really don’t know..." the old man felt like he was overheating. This pressure was too much. These casual questions to Theron were practically life and death for him. Answering even one of them shouldn’t be a big deal since it was public logic, but small people didn’t get such a benefit of the doubt from big shots.

"Give me your best guess." Theron urged.

"This... I..." the old man took a breath. "Lenwu’s cultivation is actually higher than Inshwelu’s despite being the younger brother. But his foundation is far weaker and he barely has a tenth of his elder brother’s strength. The Chosen emphasize slow and steady cultivation. Every step they take is firm, and they measure their strength more by their Profound Comprehension than their raw Mana, so... they’re not even in the same stratosphere."

"I see, I see. So very interesting. Not in the same stratosphere, you say?"

"Who are you?!" Lenwu suddenly screeched, snapping back to reality and using his shout to shake himself free of his fear.

Theron slowly looked back toward the young man. "You know, for a Higher King, your demeanor is unseemly. And, for someone so weak, you’re needlessly arrogant. Is it your elder brother that allows you to act like this?"

"What did you say to me?!"

Theron kicked out.

BANG.

The time lag between Theron’s kick and Lenwu slamming against the city wall was so short one would have thought Theron was a Space Mancer that teleported the latter into the shuddering impact.

The walls shook and Lenwu coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Theron casually caught a nice bow out of the air. Lenwu had completely lost control of it.

He looked at it calmly for a second, weighing it in his hands and rolling his wrists before shaking his head. The bow and arrow definitely weren’t for him.

"Terrible weapon. Hm?"

Theron looked up. For a moment, he could swear he had heard a laugh, but he didn’t know where it could have come from.

Shaking his head, Theron looked toward Alpha. "What do you think? This is probably worth quite a pretty penny, no? I’ve never held a Saint Weapon before."

Alpha growled and then barked.

"Mm. I agree. It would be a nice doorstop."

"BASTARD!"

Lenwu roared and a crown appeared above his head. His floating horns connected with his body and he grew an entire meter in size. He took out a new bow. This one was weaker than the first, but it was still a peak-level King Weapon. Clearly, this guy was very wealthy.

Realizing his mistake from earlier, Lenwu didn’t act as arrogantly. He was an archer; there was no need to get close to such an opponent.

His roar echoed as his arm blurred, shooting so many arrows at once the skies also seemed to blur with them all.

Theron pursed his lips and then shook his head.

Slowly, he raised a finger to the skies.

"I tried to be nice, but apparently you’re still not getting it." Theron shook his head again. "No, let me deal with it, Alpha. The stronger you get, the more eager you are to steal all my fun."

Theron’s finger raised higher into the skies.

In one moment, arrows that could blot out the sun were everywhere.

In the next, each and every single one was wrapped in a bubble of water.

A flashing instant and such a large-scale attack was completely neutralized...

Gently.