Confession, Hidden Dart

"Alright then, I'll go put my things away."

Du Ruo nodded. He wasn't one to put on airs. Since his cooperation was needed, he would cooperate—it didn't really matter either way.

With that, Du Ruo carried the chestnuts into the wooden cabin, put them away properly, and changed into a fresh set of clothes.

When he came out, he was surprised to find that Xing Anming and the other police officer had already changed into their uniforms. Earlier, the two of them had been wearing plain clothes, so there hadn't been much formality. They had set up a table outside with a camera properly positioned—one officer would ask the questions, while the other took the notes.

The reason they could conduct the statement-taking outside was because the technical investigation team had already completed their analysis yesterday.

Some of the deceased's blood had been found embedded within the bowstring of Old Hu's bow, and the trace evidence matched completely. It was now basically certain that Old Hu was the murderer who had killed the mountain patrol officers.

Combined with the on-site forensic inspection, which confirmed that Du Ruo had only launched a single counter-attack, the evidence fully corroborated Du Ruo's account of having been actively ambushed upon their encounter.

Therefore, Du Ruo bore no criminal responsibility for the incident. Furthermore, given his significant contributions in the early stages of the case, this formal deposition was merely to supplement the evidence. Procedurally, such a statement from Du Ruo was required to officially close the case.

Only once the case was officially closed could they submit a report to recommend commendations for Du Ruo, their fellow bureau colleagues, and the armed police detachment.

Naturally, there were other considerations as well, which was why they had chosen to come to him in person to record the statement.

Thus, the questioning proceeded in a very harmonious atmosphere, covering the sequence of events from beginning to end. Whenever Du Ruo's answers became slightly vague, Xing Anming did not press him too hard.

He was well aware of Du Ruo's status as a martial arts master. In modern society, many people practiced martial arts across various schools and sects, and quite a few even built a following online, but as far as Xing Anming knew, Du Ruo was the only person currently classified as a specially skilled talent.

This showed that if Du Ruo didn't possess extraordinary abilities, he could never have reached his current level.

"Could you tell us what caused those arrow fragments?"

Xing Anming flipped through the documents in his hand and asked the question.

Strictly speaking, this had little to do with the case itself, but he had to ask because he needed to draft an additional report to update Du Ruo's profile for his superiors.

Du Ruo had initially been classified as a specially skilled talent after being filmed crushing an adult wild boar's skull with his bare fists, which brought him to the police's attention. That feat demonstrated that Du Ruo possessed formidable close-quarters combat skills capable of killing a target barehanded.

Later, when the police invited him to assist in the investigation, Du Ruo displayed profound martial arts mastery.

The first upgrade to Du Ruo's threat assessment came when he left three hand-gouged holes in the skull of a rabid water buffalo. That effectively proved Du Ruo possessed capabilities matching or exceeding conventional weaponry while fighting empty-handed.

Now, however, Du Ruo had gone up against firearms. This was an entirely different magnitude. Both the physical evidence and Du Ruo's own testimony confirmed that he had met the threat head-on rather than resorting to a sneak attack. Consequently, his superiors felt it necessary to understand Du Ruo more thoroughly and reformulate policies regarding him.

Being able to kill a person barehanded merely made someone a talented martial artist, which wasn't unheard of. Wielding empty hands with the lethality of a weapon was still within manageable parameters because the deeply ingrained belief that "beyond seven steps, a gun is fast and accurate" remained widespread.

Yet now, Du Ruo had shattered that conventional wisdom. Firearms were no longer invincible; Du Ruo could evade gunfire from twenty meters away and launch a counter-attack from that same distance, dealing damage comparable to or exceeding firearms. Therefore, they needed to compile a general evaluation of Du Ruo, and executing this task fell under Xing Anming's personal assignment.

"It was caused by a specialized unique weapon capable of inflicting a certain degree of damage within a specific range."

Du Ruo thought for a moment before giving a vague reply, omitting the exact range and the nature of the weapon itself.

He also needed to test the waters with the police. After all, anyone with half a brain could deduce that this so-called unique weapon was the Dragon-Coiling Silk on Du Ruo's wrist, and he wanted to see how the authorities would react.

The Dragon-Coiling Silk was not Du Ruo's entire arsenal; being forbidden from carrying it wouldn't be a dealbreaker. However, it would dictate whether he needed to continue concealing his true strength moving forward.

"Ah, very well. Next question."

Once the nearby police officer finished writing down the notes, Xing Anming stopped pursuing the topic, looked down at his notebook, and asked the next question.

This somewhat exceeded Du Ruo's expectations. He had been bracing himself to figure out how to respond, but it turned out they merely asked the question once, leaving the decision of whether and how to answer entirely up to him.

"As you mentioned earlier, the man called Monkey was holding two guns and fired ten shots at you from behind—eight from a pistol and two from a double-barreled shotgun. Our on-site forensic analysis matches your account. Would you mind explaining how you managed to dodge the bullets?"

After finishing, Xing Anming fixed a burning gaze on Du Ruo. Even the young police officer taking notes raised his head with a curious expression. This conclusion had been reached by the technical investigation team after reconstructing the crime scene, and at the time, everyone had found it utterly unbelievable. Now, perhaps they could finally get an explanation straight from Du Ruo himself.

"Ha-ha, it's actually quite simple. I certainly can't move faster than a bullet, but I can move faster than the person holding the gun."

Du Ruo chuckled, offering a non-answer that wasn't really an answer.

Xing Anming waited in anticipation for Du Ruo to elaborate, but seeing that Du Ruo had no intention of continuing, it seemed that single sentence was the entirety of his reply.

"Write that down."

Xing Anming nodded thoughtfully, then spoke to the young police officer who was still sitting there in a daze.

"Oh, oh-oh."

The young officer hurriedly nodded and looked down to take notes, though a giant question mark still hung in his mind.

"Last question. According to your description and the crime scene investigation, you threw two arrows and killed two men from a distance of twenty-three meters. Could you elaborate on how you managed that?"

Xing Anming asked the final question, no longer looking at his notebook because this puzzle had been constantly turning over in his mind.

In fact, before coming here, they had conducted an experiment. They recruited an armed police officer who was exceptionally skilled at throwing flying knives, handed him identical arrows, and had him throw them at a target from twenty meters away.

Yet the results were nowhere near Du Ruo's feat—let alone piercing clean through a skull and leaving only the fletching visible. At a distance of over twenty meters, the arrows couldn't even hit the target.

Even when using the armed police officer's specialty, the flying knife, accuracy at twenty meters was out of the question—it barely hit the board, and the impact force was virtually nonexistent (flying knives had a maximum lethality range of six meters).

One had to remember that Du Ruo's throw possessed the kinetic energy of a pistol bullet, whereas low-powered bullets often couldn't even punch all the way through a human skull.

"That's very simple. It's a form of hidden weapon technique—not very common, but it belongs to the 'yang-hand' school of hidden weapons. It's called a released arrow or a flicked arrow. Using this kind of long hidden weapon only requires sufficient strength, and accuracy is relatively easy to control."

Du Ruo spoke very casually, even gesturing with his empty hands to illustrate.

"Very simple???"

Xing Anming's mouth twitched uncontrollably. Had he not witnessed the experiment and explanation given by the knife-throwing armed police officer earlier, he might have actually believed it.

"It is very simple. The released arrow is actually quite a specialized hidden weapon because it can only be executed using a yang-hand technique, allowing you to channel your entire body's explosive power into it to inflict devastating damage."

Du Ruo offered a rare explanation this time. After all, such arts weren't common knowledge, and once explained, it wasn't a big deal.

"Could you demonstrate it?"

Xing Anming was barely able to contain his eagerness. Seeing that Du Ruo didn't seem to mind explaining, he seized the opportunity to make the request.

"I suppose I could, but this..."

Du Ruo nodded, glancing around the surroundings without spotting a suitable arrow.

A released arrow didn't strictly have to be an arrow, but the projectile itself couldn't be too brittle, which ruled out tree branches. Unless Du Ruo infused a branch with 'Qi' to protect it, throwing a regular branch with such immense force would cause it to shatter upon impact, failing to achieve any penetrating power.

At the moment, however, Du Ruo had no desire to display his 'Qi'. With his stance toward the authorities still ambiguous, revealing too much was clearly unwise.

"I have them! I'll go get them."

Xing Anming closed his notebook, turned, and walked toward his car. It was his personal vehicle, and the arrows were the ones they had prepared for their practical tests earlier that day. Figuring they might come in handy, Xing Anming had simply left them in the trunk.

"These are similar to the ones found at the scene. Do we need to set up a target?"

Xing Anming handed an arrow to Du Ruo while signaling the other officer with his eyes. Catching the cue, the young police officer quickly picked up the camera and aimed it at Du Ruo.

"No need. That tree over there is about twenty meters away; we can just use it as a target."

Du Ruo accepted the arrow and spoke casually.

*Whoosh—thud...*

No sooner had Du Ruo finished speaking than he gripped the arrow in his right hand, shifted his weight to the left, and then violently whipped his body around. His arm swept in a full circle, and the arrow left his hand, flying straight toward a bowl-thick tree twenty meters away. The arrow buried itself deep into the trunk, its tip—trailing wood splinters—protruding halfway out the other side before getting wedged firmly in the wood.

Only a tiny tail end of the entire arrow remained visible on their side of the tree.

"As expected, pure physical strength can only take you to this level."

Du Ruo hadn't infused his 'Qi' into that throw; it was purely raw physical power, amplified not just by his arm muscles, but by the centrifugal force of his twisting torso.

Back on the mountain, Du Ruo had indeed channeled his 'Qi'. However, because he had just finished evading gunfire, he hadn't put his full rotational momentum into the throw—otherwise, the arrow would have punched straight through and out the other side of the skull.

Even so, Du Ruo was satisfied. It was always wise to keep a few tricks up his sleeve.

"This!!"

Xing Anming's eyes widened in disbelief. Unable to restrain himself any longer, he jogged over to the tree, began inspecting the impact point meticulously, and even reached out to touch it.

Xing Anming knew the ballistics of firearms better than the average person; at twenty meters, an ordinary handgun might not even be able to punch through a tree trunk of that size.