With a sharp screech, General Feihu smmed on the brakes and brought the car to a stop. He turned to look at Rulu, and Rulu noticed that the way General Feihu was looking at him had changed markedly — first a face full of confusion, then shock, and finally a surge of fierce, burning rage.

  "This is bad — he's broken free of my mental control!" Rulu's heart seized with arm. He frantically grabbed the pistol and squeezed the trigger, aiming at General Feihu's head.

  At the same instant, General Feihu raised both arms, using his thick, powerful forearms as a shield in front of his head. A series of muffled shots rang out. The bullets struck General Feihu's forearms and punched through them, but after passing through, they had lost too much speed and force to do further damage. Rulu fired again and again, and managed only to wound General Feihu's arms.

  "You cursed assassin — I'll kill you!" General Feihu roared in fury and swung his right fist at Rulu's head with full force. Rulu ducked just in time. With a heavy thud, the fist smashed into the car door instead, caving the metal inward with tremendous force and bsting the door clean open.

  "Close-quarters fighting puts me at a disadvantage — I have to get out of here." Rulu scrambled out through the forced-open door and put distance between himself and the car. General Feihu came after him, face twisted with wild rage. Rulu noticed that the bullet wounds on General Feihu's forearms had already stopped bleeding and were closing at a visible pace before his very eyes.

  "You've got some nerve, boy — daring to come and assassinate again. You got away st time, but there's no escaping this time." General Feihu let out a low growl like a wild beast, pnted both feet against the ground, and with a rush of air his massive, powerful frame shot off the ground like a projectile, hurtling straight at Rulu.

  Rulu quickly raised the pistol and fired. Two muffled shots — one hit General Feihu's leg, one his waist. General Feihu ignored his wounds entirely and drove his fist into Rulu with full force, nding a heavy blow on Rulu's left shoulder and sending him flying four or five meters. With two thuds, both men hit the ground.

  Rulu let out a groan of pain, clutched his left shoulder, and hauled himself up from the ground with great difficulty. It felt as though his bones had been shattered by the blow; his left shoulder bzed with agony and his entire arm had gone numb.

  General Feihu struggled to his feet as well. He pressed hard on his left thigh first, forcing the bullet out of the wound, then pressed on his waist and pushed that bullet out too. The wounds on his leg and waist rapidly stopped bleeding, and within a little over ten seconds they had almost completely healed.

  "This won't work. He can heal his body at speed — even if I hit him with bullets, he bounces back almost immediately. But if his attacks connect even once, I'm finished." Having witnessed what General Feihu was capable of, the urge to retreat rose up in Rulu. He pnted his feet and summoned a gale, riding the wind up into the trunk of a rge tree nearby, five or six meters off the ground, then took flight again to another tree ten meters away and began weaving swiftly through the wooded grounds of the Governor's compound.

  "Think you can run? Not that easy." General Feihu snorted coldly. He too pnted his feet and unched himself off the ground like a spring, nding on the same tree trunk Rulu had just left, then leaped again in a single burst to the next.

  Despite his massive build, General Feihu's speed was not the slightest bit inferior to Rulu riding the wind. Each leap from tree to tree carried him ten to twenty meters through the air. He stayed right on Rulu's heels as Rulu fled through the woods, and no matter how hard Rulu pushed himself, he could not shake his pursuer.

  "Damn it — this man is truly relentless." Rulu gnced back at General Feihu closing in from behind and felt a knot of anxiety tighten in his chest. He knew the longer this dragged on, the worse it would be for him. If the other soldiers from the compound arrived, he would have no way out. He had to end this quickly — finish General Feihu off — but with his Spiritual-power exhausted, killing a level-four Refining body Ultra-capable who could heal in moments was easier said than done.

  "No choice — the odds aren't great, but I have to gamble." Rulu made up his mind. He spotted a small pond at the edge of the woods and immediately rode the wind toward it, nding at its bank and coming to a stop.

  "What's this — giving up on running, assassin?" General Feihu followed Rulu to the pond's edge and stopped, eyeing him from ten to twenty meters away. Despite having chased Rulu for several minutes, he wasn't even breathing hard.

  "General Feihu, I'm warning you — this is a personal matter between me and Suwen. It has nothing to do with you. If you keep pushing this, there's only one end waiting for you." Rulu's voice came low and cold, the words saturated with a lethal intent.

  "Heh — afraid I can't do that." General Feihu gave a dry ugh. "The Governor is my future and my hope. How could I let you go and kill him? I'd advise you to be sensible and surrender — come quietly. Otherwise, I'll just have to cut you down here and bring your body to the Governor instead."

  "So there's nothing to negotiate. One of us has to die here today."

  "That's right. Surrender now and I might consider letting you live."

  "Keep dreaming. If you want me, come and take me yourself — and we'll see whether a Refining body Ultra-capable is stronger, or whether a Magic Ultra-capable like me has the edge."

  "Brave kid, I'll give you that. Since that's how you want it —" General Feihu bared his teeth in a savage grin, drove his feet into the ground, and unched himself at Rulu with the ferocity of a charging tiger.