Chapter 12: Archery (Houtian III)

Since his hunt lasted only a few hours, Luo Ling was back in the village before it was time for lunch.

He dropped by the village market and bought the necessary herbs and condiments to marinate the flesh. After purchasing a few stuffed meat buns from Madam Wei’s, he went to his secret training spot behind the village.

Since he had so much free time, Luo Ling planned to upgrade Archery again. After all, he only needed to shoot the arrow a thousand times.

He immediately put his plans into action.

Drawing his training bow, he squinted and carefully aimed at the distant wooden target. With a steady breath, he released the arrow, watching as it pierced the thick board, leaving a tiny pinhole in its wake.

Such an outcome didn’t make Luo Ling happy though. One arrow was enough to punch a hole in the target board… then, at this rate, perhaps a little less than twenty arrows would be enough to decimate it. He might run out of target boards before he could finish shooting off a thousand arrows. The outrageousness of the Penetration (Rank 1) could be seen from this.

A disadvantage of growing strong appeared under such strange circumstances, rendering Luo Ling speechless.

But, despite his annoyance, Luo Ling could not be happier. If a dull-tipped and weak bamboo arrow could already punch a hole through a thick wooden board, imagine the kind of destruction a sharpened metal-tipped arrow was capable of!

Amidst such ‘concerns,’ Luo Ling loaded another arrow into his training bow and shot. This time, he used much less strength than the previous attempt, and the arrow didn’t even hit the target board before losing momentum. Eyes closed, he took a quick peek at his inner world and was relieved to find proficiency going up by one.

It became clear that whether the arrow hits its mark or not doesn’t matter. What matters is if it was shot.

Luo Ling didn’t stop there. With a sudden burst of inspiration, he began conducting a few experiments. Half an hour later, exhausted, he flopped on a polished tree stump. But the shine in his eyes could not be concealed. The labor he did a while ago bore some unexpected results.

It went without saying that to gain proficiency in Archery, he had to shoot arrows continuously. This was not only time-consuming due to the limited arrow supply, which forced him to retrieve them repeatedly after use, but also physically demanding, as using the bow drained considerable stamina. However, from the earlier experiments, he had discovered a few new ways to accumulate those points more efficiently.

Luo Ling picked up an arrow from the quiver and held it between his index, middle, and thumb fingers before throwing it haphazardly. The bamboo piece made a weak arc in the air and plunged to the ground next to his feet. It didn’t even cover more than a few inches before losing all its momentum.

On the [Records of Toil] the proficiency counter for Archery went up by one.

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A smile formed on Luo Ling’s face. Thanks to his zealous efforts, he found a way to ‘cheat’ in the training process. By replacing the ‘bow’ with his hand, he shot the arrow. The [Records of Toil] accepted it as a successful attempt and awarded him one proficiency point.

With almost no energy consumption, he achieved the same result as fully pulling a bow and firing at a target with all his might. He could do this all day without breaking a sweat and might even attempt it inside his room in the orphanage.

But there was a price he had to pay to abuse this shortcut. The Iron Muscles Steel Veins Body Forging Technique could no longer obtain any benefits. After all, one has to lose some to gain some.

Luo Ling was unbothered, however. He was only nine years old and had a long time to train his body. Even if he rushes to the martial master stage, he would still fall short compared to martial masters who were in their twenties. The only reason he wanted to become a martial master so early was to accumulate mental force, the core energy of a Murim martial artist. The sooner he becomes a martial master, the sooner he can begin training with mental force.

In this unfamiliar world, he would not feel safe until he had some sort of self-preservation capabilities.

On the contrary, mastering the Archery would directly increase his combat output. At Houtian I, Archery gave him Penetration (Rank 1) which could ignore enemy defense. In the Murim world, his current battle prowess could probably stand toe to toe against a Stage-2 martial master.

What would happen when he upgrades Archery again? Houtian III… what kind of gift he’d receive? He couldn’t help but look forward to it.

~-X-~

Repetition was not something new to Luo Ling.

Martial artists trained mostly by repeating their techniques again and again until they received enlightenment and mastered them. The more you perform the technique, the more familiar you’ll become with it. The words, repetition make perfection, was not some empty talk, after all. He did it in the Murim world and also in this world.

Especially after obtaining [Records of Toil], repetition had become the sole training method.

Pick. Adjust. Throw!

Luo Ling followed this rhythm as he ‘shot’ the bamboo training arrows. Thanks to his ‘laborious’ efforts, the proficiency points for Archery accumulated at the speed of light. Only a few more shots left before he hit the target— 1000.

In the end, that moment didn’t take long to arrive.

Five minutes later, when he shot the final arrow, suddenly a familiar pain emerged from the depths of his body. His eyes felt like someone poured hot oil on them, and his body, especially his upper body, endured a throbbing pain as though something was ‘squeezing’ him.

Luo Ling nearly screamed as the pain became unbearable, especially in his eyes. He nearly gouged them out just to stop the inhuman pain. It was like someone trying to scoop his eyeballs out with a dulled rusty soon.

After persisting for what felt like an eternity, the hellish pain vanished as if they were never there.

Laying on the ground spread eagle, the former martial god heaved deep breaths as he recovered from the exhaustion. Drenched in sweat and tears, the former martial genius cut a sorry figure and if one were to squint their eyes, they would even notice a wet spot on his dark-shade pants.

With that kind of inhuman pain torturing his body and tasting his willpower, how could he still have body control?

Lucky for him, no one was around to notice this embarrassment.

Luo Ling couldn’t help but frown. The pain this time was many times more than last, especially around his eyes. Did his eyes evolve? But he couldn’t tell the difference since his visuals were still the same as they were before the upgrade.

But he didn’t dwell on it and sunk his consciousness into his inner world.

The golden-bathed world, his eyes were drawn to the towering tablet that nearly touched the skies.

[Iron Muscles Steel Veins Body Forging Exercise (Second Level)] – Proficiency: 201/500

[Archery (Houtian III); Penetration (Rank 1); Weakness (Rank 1)]— Proficiency: 0/5000