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Chapter 49: "An Arrow is Traveling North at Six li per Hour."
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The campground they stopped in looked like it could have been the market square of a small town or village. Cold buildings, empty foundations, and collapsed stone walls encircling it spoke to the anchor of civilization that it once was.
The several wagons loaded with supplies that had joined them at the last town quickly got to unpacking. The cultivator guards spread out in teams to sweep buildings for danger before allowing anyone to set up in them.
"Bring your own amenities!" Scribe Bai explained as Shae stared.
Bai had crossed paths with her just as Shae returned from scouting, and he had not-so-subtly hinted that he wanted to try her bow. Shae had smirked at the suggestion, quickly seeing the brushstrokes of his plans and motivation. They were now carrying makeshift targets around, trying to find a spot to set up a shooting range.
"Cooking or sleeping quarters?" She asked.
"Both. And baths sometimes. Though, not for the whole 'van."
Shae shifted uncomfortably, remembering Apollo's technique.
"You probably need one, yes?" He quickly coughed to the side. "Not that you do. You don't smell or anything, just-" he stammered.
She raised a hand to stop him. "It's fine. I have been running all day, as a scout. Well, all morning, didn't do as much this afternoon."
"Ah, yes. That's what I meant... Although, you really don't smell much at all? Did you find a creek to wash in or something?"
She turned away and coughed into her own sleeve. "Or something. A woman must have her secrets."
"Right! Of course." He nodded and looked around at the crowd. "Speaking of secretive women: have you seen Apollo?"
"Never."
"What? But you meet her- oh. Because of the disguises. Har-har." He shook his head.
"She was scouting the outskirts of the camp, last I heard. Might see her for qigong again." She shrugged.
She saw a smile play across Bai's face as he gazed off into the trees and nodded.
"I was shooting from five sets of paces at lunch. Wanna start there, or go for an even six?" She pointed up range from their makeshift targets.
"Yeah. Sounds fine. You go ahead and start." He kept his eyes on the trees and waved her onward.
She frowned at the back of his head. He was standing in front of the targets.
"Go ahead, really. I'll learn more from watching, probably." He hadn't even turned away to look at her.
She sighed and started counting off the seventy two paces. As she reached the end, she added another half dozen because of how far off she was last time. Looking back she saw that Scribe Bai was still standing downrange, still right in front of the targets. He was pivoting around to look out in other directions: continuously scanning the forest edge all around camp.
Shae stretched and strung her bow. Then took a few test draws downrange. She didn't nock an arrow, that wouldn't be safe, but she did make a show of doing it. If Bai had been paying any attention, he would have noticed. She next removed an arrow from her quiver and slapped it against her bow, getting a nice knocking noise or if it, then just yelled downrange. "Bai! Move!"
He turned slightly, his gaze sweeping over her head, then raised a hand in a thumbs-up gesture.
She sighed, looked at her bow and shrugged. Without raising it to aim, she plucked the string enough to get a loud hum out of it, then flung her intent at the scribe. Inspired by the arrowhead, she sculpted her intent to feel like an arrow was striking him, directly in his left glute.
"Yow!" Bai yelled and grabbed his butt. He glanced up range, and Shea gestured back at him, pointing between the bow and the targets behind the other cultivator. He figured it out after a few breaths, coughing a few times as he walked to the side and checked his rear for damage.
Shae waited patiently for him to properly clear the range. Not just stepping to the side, but for him to walk towards her far enough to be fully out of the danger zone. She loosened her muscles up again and drew back the arrow she was still holding onto.
It took a few breaths for her to recall all the specific details Apollo had instructed her on earlier that day. Finally, with a calm exhale, she released the arrow. It flew downrange and nearly missed her target, just clipping the side and defecting into the grass.
"Huh. So that's why you waited," Bai said.
She flashed a frown, but then sighed and nodded. "That was without qi reinforcing my left side and core. Makes me a bit shaky."
"Ugh, why wouldn't you practice with qi, Wise Shae?"
"Because, Senior Bai, reinforcement doesn't train muscles as well as going without."
He nodded. "Correct. Though, if you just want muscle training..." He rolled a hand over, leading her to finish.
"Sure, weights and basic exercise are great, but I want to get better at this, and so I need the muscle memory too." She spoke as she drew back the next arrow.
He nodded but remained silent, keeping his eyes downrange to watch the shot.
She missed again, the other side of the same target this time.
"I was pretty sure you were hitting the target at lunch." He looked down at the ground. "And this is about the same distance."
"About? How far would you say?"
"Hmm, six and three?"
"I was going for an even six." She sighed and moved forwards three paces. "I'd blame the wind but it's about as calm as lunch was."
She took another shot, clipping the top of the target. The arrow caught in the wood this time, though it was outside the largest marked circle. Shae found the thwack noise rather satisfying, though.
"Well, that one would at least make someone duck." Bai remarked flatly.
"Are you going to quip after every shot?"
"Only the bad ones." He said with a smile as the young woman drew back the next shot.
She shook slightly as the humor hit her, and she had to relax to recenter herself. "Well I hope you brought a long list." She chuckled and drew the shot back again.
Bai waited for her to miss the shot again. He nodded when she did. "What do you think I was writing at lunch-time?"
Shae let out a few louder laughs. Then shook her head and took another shot. This time she jumped in before Bai could speak, "I thought it was maybe secret love letters to Apollo, based around awful math-themed poetry perhaps?"
"Oh." He grabbed his chest dramatically. "Such a deadly wound, you've struck both my heart and my path." He wavered slightly on his feet.
Shae chuckled, shook her head and missed another shot.
"Ah, no, nevermind." Bai said and straightened up. "It seems you missed as badly as that shot."
"You do realize this is practice, yes? I wouldn't be doing it if I was already good at it. Do you copy out your times tables still? Just to make sure you can?"
"Maybe I'm biased." He raised his palms. "Usually, when someone brings a weapon with them to the sect, they know how to use it."
She shook her head and took another shot. It stuck in the dirt a pace short of the target. "Did I have this bow on the first day you met me?"
"Uh, no, you did not."
"Correct. I only got it the day before the caravan left. Never practiced with one before."
"Never?"
"Nope, never. Hunting was for the more mature young adults, and it was basically only boys that the village hunter would accept to train."
"Hmm. A really exclusive club then? Seems like a useful skill for most villagers."
"Yeah, it would have been." She paused to aim another shot. It stuck in the lower left side, right at the edge of the target circle. "Uhhh." She leaned sideways to see if it was inside or out.
"Out." Bai said.
"Bah!" She cried out and shook off the miss. "The hunting wasn't great where we were anyway. Trapping was decent, so more of us did that. Also, I think the village head and local Lord were concerned about arming too many villagers."
Bai hummed in concern.
"Villagers were treated fine, not much to worry about while I was there." She took another shot. "But men instinctively fear any loss of power."
"Men?" Bai questioned with a high pitched squeak of his voice. He coughed it away. "Aren't village leaders usually women around here? Local Lords too?"
Shae froze slightly, trying to cover it by drawing another arrow back. She used a trickle of qi and focus to steady the shot, and planted the arrow within half a hand of the center.
"Ah! You got one!"
"That was with qi."
"Oh? Why the switch?"
"Uh, my arm was getting tired. Well, all of me is tired, but I wasn't really improving either. I'm still a bit too weak to use the bow properly." She took another shot, landing it just beside her last.
"Nice! Though are you really using qi? I didn't sense anything?"
She shrugged. "Just a tiny bit."
"Huh, it's a great improvement from your usage at Jian Quan. Granted that was an entirely different use case."
"Mhm. Watch closely." She lined up another shot while Bai focused on her. She felt his qi faintly, like a feather's touch.
His eyes went wide after she released the arrow. "Wow, I really didn't sense anything."
She smirked, unable to hide it.
He looked at the targets and didn't see a third arrow in the bullseye. "Ah. Well played, Miss Shae."
"Ugh. Was that a pun?"
"Wouldn't have been if you'd hit the target." He shrugged. "Show me one for real this time?"
She looked at her empty stack of arrows. "Nope, it's your turn now." She pointed at the second dozen arrows placed off to the side.
"Ah. Well." Bai stalled. He looked around quickly, but did move to scoop up the quiver and bring it to her. "I can wait a bit longer. You should make sure you get in your own practice, first."
"Oh, come on, Senior Bai. Don't you want to make sure you don't embarrass yourself in front of Senior Apollo?"
He looked slightly shocked, but quickly turned to the side and coughed. "I'm not sure what you mean, Miss Shae."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
"You're not exactly subtle, Senior Bai. You were completely disinterested until I mentioned Apollo was helping me."
"Ah. Hmm, well I just hadn't considered the long term applications of the bow. Surely if Senior Apollo is encouraging it: it must be useful." He nodded to himself.
"Riiiight. So you've seen higher stage cultivators using bows?"
"Uhhh, well, not so much." He scratched his cheek.
"Just take a couple shots, please." She forced him to take the bow. "It's sized for me, so don't do a full draw, gauge it based on the arrow length."
She watched him get into position, uncomfortably mimicking her previous stance. He plucked the string a couple times then began testing the strength of the draw.
"Don't release the string without an arrow. Without a load, the snapback can damage the bow." She jumped in before he made that error.
"I see..." He nodded. "That does make sense."
He stiffly took a shot at the targets. Shae almost stopped to correct his form, but noticed too slowly. She didn't hear the telltale thwunk of the arrow hitting wood. "Did the string hit your wrist?"
"Hmm? Uh, yeah, it did." He looked at his arm like he hadn't noticed the pain he should have felt.
"That'll sting a bit sometimes. Roll your wrist in a bit, and don't over-extend your elbow." She used her own arm to demonstrate.
"Like... This?" He matched her. "Will this improve my aim?"
She was nodding at his arm correction, but froze at the question. "Err, not necessarily. Try again, Senior?" She offered an arrow.
He took it and calmly attempted another shot. It clipped the rightmost target that held a few of Shae's arrows. "Hmgh," he hummed with a frown.
"Well, you caught some of it. That's very good for your second shot."
"I was aiming for the left one." He picked up another arrow and inspected it.
"Ah," she said and awkwardly looked down at the ground.
"How was my form?"
"Err. I didn't see anything wrong that time, but I don't really have the eye for it."
He nodded and drew back the bow again, but didn't release it. Instead he shuffled his feet a bit, adjusting his form. Then as Shae held her breath, he suddenly stopped and relaxed. "No, I think that was a good-enough first taste. No sense learning bad habits. Thank you, Miss Shae." He offered her the bow back.
"Ah. Um, so... Just the two?" She looked down at the remaining pile of arrows. "I figured we would alternate sets."
He walked to the side and turned with a raised hand matching his words, "No, no. It's fine. No offense intended, but I'd rather learn properly the first time." He dropped the hand and tucked both into his sleeves. "And like I said, you should get all your sets in first. Then I won't feel bad about monopolizing the range when Apollo arrives."
"Aaahhh! So that's your angle. Alright, alright." She shook her head with a grin.
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She missed two shots before speaking up again. "Hey, tell me about your math project."
"My math project?" Bai said skeptically.
"Uh, if you don't mind, Senior." She dipped her head in a sign of respect.
"Tsk." He shook his head. "What's two sets and seven squared?"
She let the question distract her and missed the next shot. By a noticeably wider margin than she would have anyway. "That'd be... thirty-one squared... Uhh, Earth or Imperial?" She stalled.
"Imperial if you would, Wise Shae."
She inhaled deeply, as she grabbed another arrow. Then again as she drew it back. She cycled a bit of qi and focused enough to land a strike near the center of the left target.
"Ah! I felt it that time," Bai jumped slightly.
She raised a hand and scrunched her face up in concentration and she mumbled and switched between mental and out loud math. Twenty dozen times twenty seven is... "Five, two, and zero plus... seven by two seven... Uhh... One, four-one?" She looked up.
Bai held firm, turning a hand over to encourage her to keep going.
"Six, six, and one? Though I'd rather do it on paper. And do it in base ten to confirm."
"And what is it in base ten?" He asked.
"Two and seven is thirty one, so... Nine hundred sixty one."
Bai's eyebrows shot up. "You're much faster in base ten."
She shrugged. "Learned it first. And that was much easier math anyway."
"So, how do you confirm between the two?"
"Ugh. I shouldn't have said that."
"Probably not." He agreed.
She exhaled loudly and took another shot. Without qi, it glanced off the left target and stuck into the dirt. "From Imperial is easier. So, 6 by 144 plus 73... Ugh, I can tell from the ones digit that I made a mistake. This is why I use paper or a slate."
"Who said you couldn't?" He smirked.
She gaped at him. "Has that been what you've been trying to do? Get me to write something down?"
He chuckled. "Or see when you'd make a mistake. Mission accomplished on both fronts. Though you did catch the mistake, so half a point back to you."
She stomped over to her bag and rooted through it for her scouting slate, it was wrapped up safely in the middle somewhere. Before she found it she stopped. "Seven by two-seven is one-six-one, so it should be six square, eight sets, and one. Final answer."
"Heh, good catch. Correct in both bases, now." He paused just before the last word.
She gave him a flat glare. Then shook it away. "Why'd you want me to write it down anyway?"
He shrugged. "To see which notation you learned and preferred, Imperial or Earth. And to see when you would. Many new hotshots think there's something special to not writing it down or skipping past showing their work. It's a bad habit."
"Hah, and what makes you think I'm a hotshot?" She returned to her unused arrows with the slate. Then quickly fired another shot, and missed.
Bai offered open palms. "Anyone who learns two systems and does math for both in their head counts. Even if they claim they didn't get along with math." He pitched his voice up mockingly.
"Hey, I didn't say I was bad at it. It just didn't grab me as particularly fun. I didn't want to wrap my life around it."
"And you think I do?" Bai shook his head.
She stopped partway through drawing back the next arrow. "Sorry. Didn't mean it like that." She relaxed to give him her full attention, and bowed.
He waved her off. "No, it's fine. I would count it as a passion. My path isn't wholly wrapped around it, however."
"Mmm. So, it's not soaked in your cultivation secrets and you could share with a curious third party?"
He worked his jaw with a finger raised, clearly reconsidering his planned comeback. "Well, I suppose. Why are you so curious about it?"
She shrugged and took another shot at the targets, catching the top of the left one. "I like listening to people who are passionately explaining something. Even if I can't follow it completely, it's really interesting to listen to."
"Huh." He paused in thought. "Interesting. You're going to really like the guest lectures then. I'd suggest saving up a lot of sect points, as much as you can. You'll need them come summertime."
She raised an eyebrow. "They do a lot of guest lectures over the summer?"
He nodded. "Travel is easier, so they don't run classes in favor of letting people go out for missions. Then supplement it with guest lectures. The guests like getting paid, so they are a bit pricey. Most people only go to a handful each summer."
"Huh. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Senior." She flipped around her last arrow checking the fletching. She started cycling qi to her muscles before looking at the target or getting into the correct stance. "Whenever you're ready?" She looked at Bai.
"Ready for what?"
Shae snapped into a firing stance, quickly nocking the arrow and drawing back, burning her mental focus to keep the movement smooth and accurate. Qi reinforced the muscles in her left arm, both shoulders, back and core. She didn't give herself time to aim or breath, just snapping off the shot as soon as the bow was near enough to be lined up with the target.
She thought it was an impressive quickfire. The arrow disagreed with a thwunk as it stuck just outside the target circle. "Tsk." She clicked her tongue.
"Not bad." Bai shrugged and nodded. "Would draw some blood, at least. Though, I'm more impressed by your precise qi usage. Most new recruits really overdo it with the reinforcement."
She shrugged and started walking down range, Bai followed. "I had half a day of good practice recently."
"Ah yes. With the th'ck'knarr?"
"I think it's ch'th'knarr, but knarr is fine, or Marta. That's what her owner calls her."
Bai chuckled. "I heard you put on a bit of a show? Sorry I missed it."
"I would have rather not. I wasn't exactly presentable, and it wasn't my idea." She waved the topic away. "Anyway, yeah. I'm re-using some ideas from that. Mostly the focused control of which muscles get reinforced. While chopping the trees I challenge myself to use less qi reinforcement. Both for focus practice, and to reduce muscle strain. Worked well, so I'm repeating that here."
"Focus? You said that a couple times? Do you mean to say you're already training your mental focus?" He asked skeptically.
She tilted her head sideways, but kept walking downrange, her gaze fixed on the targets. Right, Van suggested I play this a bit slow. "I think I've heard that term before. What's your take on it?"
"My take? You mean my explanation?" He paused to let her nod. "Mental focus is a challenging skill to improve. The specific methods depend more on your long term goals as a cultivator. From what I've seen it's not directly explained. Your teachers will just give you some specific and possibly vague practice. Maybe one that seems completely unrelated, then months later they will explain how it's been training your mental focus without you realizing it."
Shae half-frowned and looked over at him. "You sound a little bitter."
He inhaled deeply. "Not entirely on my own behalf. Every year at least one student gets needlessly punished because they didn't know what they were working towards. When their master, or teacher, or just another student explains what their tedious practice is actually for: the student realizes they had been doing it wrong and cheating themselves out of progress."
"Hmm. Can't say I'm particularly surprised the texting staff has issues with communication."
Bai coughed into his sleeves. "Don't let them hear you say that. Most of the time it doubles as a lesson for one student or another."
"A lesson to do what they're told, even if they don't understand it?" Shae guessed.
He nodded. "The teachers in question will phrase it as being about trust, yet the end result is the same. They want students who follow directions to the letter. I bet you understand why that could be a problem." He watched her nod, then he shrugged. "Don't misunderstand, their lessons can work spectacularly well. Yet, not for everyone."
Shae sighed. "Yeah. They can't all be Mister Miyagi, and few students would match up to the karate kid."
"Eh, sorry? I don't recognize that idiom. Fighting child?"
She shook her head. "Sorry, not an idiom. It's from an old martial arts story. Basically the same lesson you described is in the story. Though I always took it to be more specific to martial arts training. Not every lesson a teacher might give."
He nodded sagely. "Hmm, yes. The ancient legends often hold much wisdom."
Shae burst into giggles. "Ha-ha, okay, heh, maybe not that old. Heh heh."
They arrived at the targets and both began to pick up the scattered arrows.
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"Back to the original question, are you working on your mental focus?" Bai asked when he couldn't find an arrow to readily grab.
"I was given some suggestions on how to train. Those seem to overlap with mental focus training, yes. Should I not?"
"Ah, do as you like. I'm not your teacher." He raised both hands, nearly hitting himself in the face with the handful of arrows he held. After recovering, he continued, "I suppose that would explain the clarity of your intent earlier. Possibly the accuracy of your knarr strikes that I heard rumor of." He yanked an arrow from near the center of the target. "Though, your bow skills... "
"Yes, yes. I'm a bad shot. Rub it in some more.
"Well... I can't say I have others to fairly compare you to."
"Right." She pointed with an arrow. "Does anyone at the sect even use a bow?"
He flashed a grimace. "I can't say that I've seen or heard of any grand demonstrations, that's for certain. Though, I don't spend time near the martial yard to watch training either."
"You don't practice a martial art?" She stuffed the last handful into the quiver and began counting.
"I didn't say that. Qigong is technically a martial art, and I have my own set on top of that. I just don't go to the training grounds. Don't need to."
"Huh. Don't spar with anyone then?"
He shook his head and pulled another arrow out of the long grass. "Not regularly, no need. Everyone gets a little experience at the quarterly assessment tourneys."
"Tournament arc?" Shae chirped. "Err, what are those like, Senior?"
Bai had raised an eyebrow, and kept it raised. "The specifics are better explained in the student handbook, available for perusal in the library or the admin building."
She frowned with exaggerated disappointment.
He sighed loudly. "Everyone treats it like a fighting tournament. It's not as simple as just that."
"But there is a decent amount of fighting?"
"Yes, everyone is expected to have some ability to defend themselves and offensive ability to defeat sprite beasts. It would embarrass the sect to have a cultivator taken out by a lower stage opponent. That is the main purpose of the event."
"To make sure our martial prowess doesn't lag behind our stage?"
He nodded. "Exactly. There's no strict penalty for failure, but there are rewards for success."
"So kind of an implied penalty." She tapped the quiver. "Still one missing."
"Hmm, try a little further back and left. I didn't find my first shot."
"Ah, and I didn't see where it flew." She nodded and quickly moved into the longer grass and brush behind the target.
"If you don't want to fight your fellow students, there are ways to bypass the tournament. Mostly through spirit beast hunting missions. Essentially others need to serve as a witness to you defeating an equivalent stage beast, and that lets you collect some of the tournament reward."
"Hmm, I think I'd rather spar than hunt beasts," she said into the grass.
"Really? Even with that bound sword?"
"That thing doesn't mean I'm a pacifist. Just that I can be when needed."
"I'm pretty sure it means a lot more than just that."
"Hmm, well if you figure it out, let me know- Ah ha!" She shouted and raised the missing arrow above her head.
He smirked as they turned to walk back up range.
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