Lin Tianhao didn't respond. He disliked talking during combat. His arrows pierced the air once more, landing squarely on the village head. The increase in attack speed and movement speed allowed Lin Tianhao's kiting to be incredibly smooth. The village head's reaction was equally swift! After Lin Tianhao created some distance, the village head unleashed his fourth step of the Ninefold Shadow Step.
Lin Tianhao felt a chill run down his spine. Ninefold Shadow Step! If the village head could truly execute nine displacements, that would be utterly terrifying. Especially with such a skill in the hands of a martial artist. Every close-range encounter posed a fatal threat to squishy ranged classes like priests, mages, archers, and summoners.
"Explosive Fist!" The village head threw a powerful punch at Lin Tianhao's chin, sending him flying. But just as the village head prepared to follow up with a combo after the knockback, Lin Tianhao had already landed.
"So fast, he can even reduce the effect of knockback?" The village head's pupils contracted sharply. He had an ominous feeling. With no advantage in movement speed and having used both Dominant Body and Rage, if the Ninefold Shadow Step couldn't kill Lin Tianhao, then the rest of the battle would be a foregone conclusion.
"Blood Emperor," the village head called out. "We can still negotiate. Name your price."
The village head was genuinely anxious. After all, he truly had no confidence in killing Lin Tianhao with the Ninefold Shadow Step. Lin Tianhao's healing was too outrageous. A single normal attack could restore around three thousand health points, which was even more monstrous than the village head, who relied on his silver set to recover a thousand health points per second as the big boss of the Novice Village.
"Sure," Lin Tianhao replied, his hands never stopping as he continued to fire arrows. His attack speed was maxed out!
"How about this, ten divine talent awakening stones," Lin Tianhao suggested.
Upon hearing this, the village head realised he had been toyed with.
"Blood Emperor, this is what you force me to do. Even if it means wasting this talisman, I will kill you," the village head declared.
With that, a light blue talisman appeared in the village head's hand. Lin Tianhao's face turned pale, and he turned to run. Talismans were inherently terrifying. He might have been able to handle a yellow-quality talisman, but the village head had pulled out a blue-quality one. Even if he wanted to fight back, he didn't have the strength.
"It's too late to run now!" The village head activated the blue-quality talisman. Intense coldness surged out of the talisman, freezing everything in its path into ice sculptures.
Lin Tianhao sprinted at full speed, but it was still not enough! In the blink of an eye, he felt his legs stiffen as they began to freeze from the bottom up. In just a moment, Lin Tianhao was completely encased in ice.
-9999!!
-9999!!
...
After being frozen, Lin Tianhao's health bar started to plummet. But the village head had no intention of letting Lin Tianhao off so easily.
"Flame Piercing Cloud Palm!" A palm filled with intense flame struck the frozen Lin Tianhao. The forces of ice and fire exploded at that moment.
-98510!!
Lin Tianhao's health bar was instantly cleared, and he died on the spot!
Novice Village, Resurrection Altar!
After Lin Tianhao resurrected, all his equipment, except for a few that didn't require a level to wear, dropped. Since he had been wearing the level ten Clear Wind Set, his level now dropped to nine, and the equipment naturally couldn't be worn anymore.
As soon as Lin Tianhao resurrected, more than fifteen NPCs gathered outside the resurrection altar. There was the tavern waiter, the potion shop owner, the tailor shop owner, and other NPCs wandering around the Novice Village. They didn't hesitate and launched their attacks as soon as they saw Lin Tianhao.
The tailor shop owner threw a silver needle at Lin Tianhao. Lin Tianhao stepped back, leapt into the air, and fired five arrows simultaneously. The Nine-Compound Longbow had no wearing requirements, so Lin Tianhao was still using this gold-level longbow. The five arrows hit five different NPCs, dealing nearly eight thousand damage to each one. At the same time, Lightning Leap was triggered. Three of the five arrows caused a chain reaction, with a series of damage numbers jumping from the NPCs' heads.
"Flame Scorch!" The tavern waiter threw a wine jar at Lin Tianhao's feet, causing burning damage.
"Ding, you have been affected by burning and will continue to lose health."
-100.
-100.
...
Damage numbers kept popping up. Fortunately, with the Purification Amulet, Lin Tianhao was immune to eighty per cent of these negative buffs. Otherwise, it would have been -500 per second.
Before Lin Tianhao could make a second move, the potion shop owner acted. A bottle of pitch-black potion was splashed around him.
"Ding, you have been affected by the heavy injury potion, reducing your healing and life-steal by 8%."
It wasn't just these two; the other NPCs all used their means, dealing various types of damage to Lin Tianhao. In less than a second, Lin Tianhao's health dropped by twenty thousand points.
Damn it!
Lin Tianhao cursed inwardly. He was a reborn hero, and yet he was being humiliated in the Novice Village. It was an utter disgrace!
"If you want to humiliate me in the resurrection spring, then let's play for real!!" Lin Tianhao's eyes turned cold. After enduring a round of damage, he immediately unleashed his five-arrow combo to the limit.
Among archer equipment, there was something like a Split Bow. The accuracy requirement for such a bow was relatively low. But for Lin Tianhao's five-arrow combo, hitting all targets was unimaginably difficult.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."
Lin Tianhao's arrows flew towards the five NPCs. He had discovered something interesting this time: the five-arrow combo could trigger the passive effect of his Punishment Hand five times. With his current three-star Punishment Hand, each five-arrow combo could permanently increase his health by fifteen points.
Moreover, there was another issue with the five-arrow combo: insufficient damage. Especially since these NPCs were bosses with high defence, the damage dealt by the five-arrow combo generally wasn't high. But the absurdity of Lin Tianhao's Punishment Hand, a super god-level talent, was evident at this moment. The passive effect, causing three per cent of his maximum health as true damage, was not affected by the five-arrow combo. Therefore, just this passive damage alone could deal significant harm.
The village head hadn't returned yet, but he was definitely on his way. Lin Tianhao had to eliminate at least five NPCs before the village head came back; otherwise, it would be very difficult for him to break out of here.
The five-arrow combo was extremely draining on energy. Lin Tianhao's current attributes could support his five-arrow combo for no more than fifteen minutes. Any longer, and the accuracy of the five-arrow combo would be affected.
"Fifteen minutes, that's enough."