The four of them - Edith and the others - found it increasingly incredible as they listened. This was absurdly powerful, wasn't it?
It sounded no less impressive than heroes in biographical novels.
No wonder so many bandits still wanted to ambush him.
All three - Edith, Madeline, and Richard - couldn't help but feel a glimmer of hope rising in their hearts - hoping Henry could counter-kill these bandits and rescue them safely.
Although this hope was very slim, hope was still hope, and it lifted all three of their spirits.
——
Henry spent about an hour climbing to the top of the right mountain peak.
He hadn't spared his strength, just maintained normal speed.
Of course, for ordinary people, the time might well double or more - some sections were really difficult to traverse.
Ordinary people might not even make it up before being devoured by wolves, black bears, mountain lions and such.
He had encountered them along the way, but he simply ignored them from dozens of meters away and continued on his path.
Whether due to Henry's nonchalant attitude or because he was full of murderous aura from releasing so many souls recently, the wolves, black bears, and mountain lions didn't attack him.
Animals often had stronger intuition than humans, with better ability to seek fortune and avoid disaster.
There were also several wild deer, silver foxes, and badgers that fled when they saw Henry.
He took out a water pouch from his space, drank several mouthfuls, returned the pouch to his space, then walked about half a mile along the mountain ridge toward the other end.
The path ahead was broken. On this side of the mountain wall was a white fir nearly fifty meters tall with a trunk two meters thick.
About two meters above ground on this sturdy white fir's trunk was a branch over half a meter thick, extending at a ten-plus degree angle upward from the ground, about fifteen to sixteen meters long.
The branch's end was about twenty centimeters thick, with most of its leaves and twigs already cut away.
Just under three meters past the end was a square stone platform about three meters long and wide protruding from the opposite mountain wall.
The stone platform was about twenty centimeters lower than the white fir branch's end.
This natural passage was told to Henry by Charles, who had learned of it from an Indian friend.
First, one needed courage to make this jump, and footing on the branch certainly wouldn't be as good as on the ground.
Jumping from this side to the other was manageable, but jumping from the other side back would require grabbing the white fir branch's end with both hands.
If this were on level ground, one hundred percent of men would dare make this jump.
But making an aerial leap at several hundred meters altitude, probably only one percent would dare, since ordinary men's standing long jump was only about 2.5 meters - they'd fall into the abyss in a heartbeat.
If one had to charge along the branch, then unless it was life or death, no one would jump.
However, none of this was a problem for Henry.
He had previously tested his standing long jump at 4.22 meters, and that was before gaining the Divine Speed talent.
So even with poor leverage on the branch, he felt jumping the roughly 2.8 meters to the other side was completely feasible. With more boldness, he could even try taking a running start on the branch.
After all, his constitution far exceeded ordinary people's, with an additional 20% agility boost.
There was no reason Indians could do it but he couldn't.
Even if he accidentally fell, he had over ten lassos in his space. With his Lasso LV4 skill, he could easily rope the branch, plus he had the Super Reaction talent to activate - basically foolproof.
Besides, Henry had originally wanted to find a place to test his reaction speed, agility, and so on.
But before that, he had to deal with another problem.
Coiled beneath the white fir was a Western diamondback rattlesnake, its gray-brown body marked with over twenty dorsal spots in three-dimensional patterns.
It was currently coiled in a ball, head raised and curved, tail upright in the center vibrating, seemingly trying to drive Henry away.
This thing was highly venomous, with very fast hunting reflexes of about 0.05 seconds.
Ordinary people's reaction speed was 0.3 seconds, athletes could reach 0.2 seconds, and ping-pong players could sometimes instantly reach 0.1 seconds.
Henry didn't know his own speed, but was confident he was at least no worse than ping-pong players, plus with 20% agility enhancement, maybe 0.08 seconds.
And he had the Super Reaction talent that could increase reaction speed tenfold - wouldn't that theoretically reach 0.008 seconds?
Of course, reaction speed was one thing, attack speed was another.
Rarely encountering such good experimental material, Henry decided to rise to the challenge.
Henry took out a 1.2-meter swift sword from his storage space and approached the rattlesnake.
This Western diamondback was as thick as an adult man's wrist, its tail rattling even more vigorously now.
The snake was about 2.5 meters long. Its attack range was about two-thirds of its body length, roughly 1.7 meters.
"Rattle rattle..." The rattlesnake vibrated its tail, continuously issuing warnings.
When Henry unhesitatingly stepped into its attack range, the snake suddenly sprang up with lightning speed, lunging at Henry's extended right wrist. Its head split open a menacing 130 degrees, two long fangs glinting coldly.
At this moment Henry concentrated his mind, and instantly the rattlesnake's lightning movements became sluggish, like a trembling eighty-year-old grandmother.
Henry felt that if he were holding a dagger, he could even precisely insert it into the snake's mouth, pull it out, then dodge away.
Now he simply adjusted the swift sword's angle slightly, and the sharp sword tip met the snake's neck at its "seven-inch" vital point in a mutual charge.
He even perfectly borrowed the snake's lunging force, effortlessly skewering it twenty centimeters from the sword tip's end.
It looked as if the rattlesnake had grown tired of living and directly rammed its heart area onto Henry's sword tip to get skewered and onto the grill faster.
Henry slightly rotated his wrist to dissipate the snake's body momentum, feeling this snake weighed about 20 pounds - quite fat.
This type of rattlesnake's neural reflex system could bypass the brain, meaning even dead rattlesnakes could still spring up and bite people.
So Henry unhesitatingly swung and shook his right hand violently, flinging it into midair to fall into the valley hundreds of meters below.
After putting away the swift sword, Henry carefully inspected the white fir to prevent any other insects or venomous snakes above.
After inspection, Henry focused his mind on the panel.
[Health: 95%]
The feedback information was: Above 90% were minor abnormal conditions that the body could automatically recover from over time, but until recovering to 99%, Henry couldn't use overclocking talents. This time it would take 1 hour to recover to 99%, 24 hours to recover to 100%.
This felt to Henry like the group-buying apps from before his crossing - that final 1% could drive people crazy.
Henry focused his mind and used one gray pearl to eliminate his body's minor abnormal conditions.
One gray pearl instantly projected grayish light onto him.
Henry's whole body immediately became warm.
In less than half a second, the warm sensation disappeared.
[Health: 100%]
Henry had once again become a vigorous and lively hero.
(End of Chapter)
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