Chapter 37: Hunting a Rank One

Tang Mu re-entered the painting world two days later. The blinding sun was at its highest point when he flickered into existence in the same expansive savanna grassland, with the towering mountain in the distance.

Without a second to waste, he immediately extended his spiritual sense to its full extent. The ability worked like a charm, and all sorts of details concealed within the tall bushes of the seemingly tranquil savanna appeared in his mind's eye.

He sensed many red soldier ants of enormous size spread around an anthill about half a kilometer away. He also detected a few giant rats hidden in various spots within his sphere of perception. But what really attracted his attention was a massive serpentine creature concealed behind a few rocks about 700 meters away.

Tang Mu trembled despite himself when his spiritual sense caught the details of the colossal being.

It was a massive beast similar to an African rock python with a dark hide and scales full of glittering brown and golden patterns. However, its body was as huge as a bucket in width and probably thirty meters long. At the moment, it was slowly and stealthily creeping through the tall grasses towards a group of bat-eared foxes that were feeding on some stray ants from the anthill.

It doesn't seem as strong as the lion or the shadow serpent from before. Judging by the aura it's emitting, it should be at the primary stage of rank one. It's at the same level as me.

Maybe I can hunt it down.

Tang Mu's heart pounded with both anxiety and hope.

He dove into the bushes and summoned his Death's Whisper runic longbow from the star orb's storage space while maintaining his spiritual sense. He also retrieved one of the special arrows since he didn't wish to waste his psionic energy warping reality to manifest the item he already possessed.

He nocked the arrow onto his bowstring and noted that the colossal python had not sensed him yet. Its serpentine eyes were still on the bat-eared foxes feeding on the ants. It was like a mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Such was the magnificence of sensory psionic abilities like spiritual sense. Tang Mu could sense up to a one-kilometer radius around him, provided no monumental obstructions were in the way. He could detect enemies long before they could get a whiff of him and choose whether to battle or escape after understanding their strength.

Such a perception ability was the perfect divine tool to bring the celestial art of bullying the weak while fearing the strong to its peak. Tang Mu could become invincible by always relying on his spiritual sense to avoid those stronger than him.

I remember the principal saying something about the Death's Whisper runic longbow being able to accelerate an arrow to Mach 5 and above if I supply its electromagnetic runes with psionic energy.

I can finally utilize this functionality since I have already broken through to rank one.

When he was still a pseudo-rank-one psionic, Tang Mu could only tap traces of psionic energy from his esoteric body. He could use these scraps of power to refine his physique, but he couldn't transfer them out of his body.

But now, since he was already a rank one, his connection with his esoteric quintessence through his unlocked Galactic Chakra had grown firm and solid.

The misty psionic energy he could tap from the other plane of his existence was ample enough, and he could transfer it out of his body. He could even use it without much exertion to power runic weapons like his Death's Whisper runic longbow.

Tang Mu's eyes gleamed as he continued observing the massive python with his spiritual sense. It had already covered some distance and was about a dozen meters from the hapless skulk of bat-eared foxes. Such a distance was almost nothing to a rank one entity that could move at speeds above 30 m/s. It was probably waiting for the right moment before going in for the ultimate strike.

Tang Mu noted all this with his spiritual sense and remained patient.

In the meantime, he breathed in, and his entire being became calm in both body and soul. Within an instant, he focused all his senses and entered a state of absolute tranquility in preparation to attack. His demeanor grew solemn and motionless while remaining sharp and concealed like an assassin's blade.

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Just then, a mysterious change happened within Tang Mu's perception. The rest of the scenes within his spiritual sense radius dimmed, but the python's profile became clearer. Moreover, all useless thoughts seemed to disappear from his mind, and all he could perceive and think about was the enemy in front of him.

It was at that moment that the python in the distance took action. It shot out from the bushes like a bolt and instantly descended among the skulk of unlucky bat-eared foxes.

Its massive thirty-meter-long serpentine body moved with agility incomparable to its size as it wriggled and wrapped itself around three foxes in the group. Without even using its colossal maw to crash the creatures' necks, it started twisting and coiling tighter around them to constrict them.

By then, the surviving bat-eared foxes were already running off without looking back. They couldn't care about their unlucky counterparts.

Tang Mu watched it all and continued waiting. He remained patient and saw the python kill off all the foxes by constriction. His eyes focused solely on its head as he witnessed it swallow down the first two foxes. Then, the moment came when it began opening its maw to swallow down the last bat-eared fox.

Tang Mu went into action immediately. He allowed his misty psionic energy to flow from his unlocked Galactic Chakra through his arm and into the Death's Whisper runic longbow. He felt a slight change in the bow weapon. But he didn't give it much thought as all his attention was on the enemy.

Everything that followed happened almost within a two-second window. Tang Mu took a deep breath and visualized the most critical steps of shooting an arrow, from stance, finger placement, bow arm alignment, drawing, anchoring, release, and follow-through. Then, after compensating for the wind direction and adjusting his shooting posture accordingly, he raised his bow, pulled back the string, and swiftly let the arrow fly.

What followed was beyond Tang Mu's wildest expectations. His sharp ears didn't immediately pick up anything like a whooshing sound. His spiritual sense only caught a black bolt flashing through the air for an instant, and before he could blink, he finally heard the whooshing sound followed by a wailing hiss coming from the distance.

He triggered his spiritual sense and noticed that he had indeed punctured the enormous python through the head. It was already wriggling painfully and causing chaos to all its surroundings. All the smaller animals, like rats and even the soldier ants, were already scampering off to avoid being crushed to death by its massive serpentine body.

Is this the real power of a rank one runic weapon?

Tang Mu couldn't contain his surprise, and he subconsciously looked at the pitch-black Death's Whisper longbow in his hand. His eyes shone with delight as he noticed the golden runic patterns that created a magnetic field to accelerate arrows to speeds of more than Mach 5. That was a hypersonic speed more than five times the velocity of sound. Not many rank ones could escape an arrow moving that fast.

"HISS..."

A drawn-out hissing wail sounded, breaking Tang Mu out of his momentary stupor. He cursed himself for being careless in battle and pushed all useless thoughts to the back of his mind. At the same time, he triggered his spiritual sense again and observed the python in the distance.

The hypersonic arrow had punctured one of its serpentine eyes and damaged half its head. Bodily fluids continuously leaked out of the massive wound as the creature wriggled in pain and wrecked the surrounding vegetation. It was in bad shape, for sure. But it was not yet at death's door due to its tenacious vitality.

Tang Mu saw all this and decided to help the pathetic creature by quickly ending its misery. He fed a trace of his psionic energy into the runic bow and shot two more hypersonic arrows that finally sealed the fate of the python. He quickly scanned it with his spiritual sense, and after noticing it was really dead, he breathed a sigh of relief.

He had finally hunted a rank-one metaphysical being. He was almost in disbelief as the task had been somehow easy. All he did was shoot from a distance, and everything else was simple. He was in total control and never at risk during the battle, mainly because of his abnormal perception ability and the surprising power of the arrows shot by the rank-one runic bow.

I better store away the corpse before its bloody scent attracts other creatures here.

Tang Mu immediately followed through with his thoughts and quickly approached the corpse. He retrieved the two special arrows embedded in it and rejoiced when he noticed they were still sharp and as good as new. He then stowed the dead python into the star orb's storage space before following the direction in his memory and finding the last arrow.

The arrow was the first one he fired at the python. Due to its hypersonic speed, it had pierced through the eye of the snake and shaved off a section of the creature's head. But it had not just stopped at that. Instead, it had carried forth with its momentum before burying itself deep in the soil.

Such was the hypersonic arrow's penetrative power, and Tang Mu had to use a bit of force to pull it out of the ground. He gave it a thorough check and breathed another sigh of relief when he confirmed that it had not experienced any damage.

At that moment, Tang Mu felt a lot of gratitude for his old principal. The old gentleman had gifted him a powerful runic bow and a quiver of special arrows that could effortlessly puncture the hide of a rank one metaphysical being.

Even though he knew these were rewards for his breakthrough to pseudo-rank-one before the assessment, he still couldn't forget the gesture. He needed to find an opportunity to repay the old chap.

Time waits for no man! I should continue hunting.

Tang Mu picked a direction, intending to head there. But right then, he felt another strong beast trigger his spiritual sense. He focused his perception and noticed that it was a python similar to the one he had just slain. Its massive serpentine body was continuously parting the grass as it rushed towards where he was at a blistering pace of about 30 m/s.