BANG!

A Post Arrow soared two hundred meters and slammed into the black curtain wall. White ripples bloomed half a meter from the edge of the white-dotted circle, not much different from his first shot.

’But he’s firing two shots in a row before he’s even reached the entry level?’

Liu Yong raised an eyebrow.

Reaching the entry level of a Bow Technique meant, first and foremost, mastering the Qi Blood Bow. Without that mastery, one couldn’t be said to have even begun. But if one hadn’t grasped the rhythm of channeling Qi Blood and rashly fired the bow in succession, a splintering, vibrating pain would shoot through the muscles and bones of their arm.

In a more serious case, the recoil from the Qi Blood Bow could actually shatter the arm...

TWANG, WHOOSH—

Suddenly, another whoosh cut through the air. As if by a stroke of luck, the arrow finally landed on the edge of the circle that served as the aiming point, sending ripples across the surface.

Liu Yong’s brow slowly furrowed. His gaze shifted to Jiang Qiu, sharp as a cat stalking a mouse. In an instant, his pupils widened. ’He’s going to shoot again?!’

He nocked the arrow in silence. With a hum, he drew the Black Glue Bow, its bloody light flowing. The taut string kissed his right fingertips, the arrowhead level with his shoulder, chest, and elbow. His half-lidded right eye locked onto the distant white dot, unmoving.

TWANG, WHOOSH—

As the veins on Jiang Qiu’s right arm bulged, the wooden arrowhead shot through the air like a blood-colored Azure Dragon, violently breaking through the sound barrier!

BANG!

CLATTER...

The clatter of the wooden arrow hitting the ground echoed from the distance. Before Liu Yong’s eyes, Jiang Qiu had already smoothly plucked another Post Arrow from his quiver. A bead of sweat fell from his chin. For a moment, he puffed out his chest like the ancient archer Yi, the white dot in his vision becoming one of the ten suns in the sky.

He nocked another arrow. His right arm trembled like a cicada’s wing. A faint thumping escaped his chest as bloody light swirled around the Qi Blood Bow, like a blood-sucking demon!

’Is he insane?!’

Liu Yong sucked in a sharp breath. The Great Bow in his hand fell to his side. Gritting his teeth, his eyes narrowed to icy points.

’If you haven’t reached the entry level, you haven’t reached it. Does he really have to risk his life to fire a few more shots in the short time before the challenge?’

’With such high-intensity shooting, he must have taken a vial of Blood Boiling Liquid too. With that kind of combined strain, if his body isn’t tough enough, his right arm will be completely useless in less than five shots!’

’What’s the point of all this?!’

"Brother Jiang..."

A pained, gritted sound escaped from the spectator seats. Zhang Shan’s fist unclenched, his fingers twitching uncontrollably.

Standing alone in a corner, Xie Kuang’s eyes were wide, his gaze dark as a sky-blotting cloud. His chest rose and fell like a great bronze bell.

Nearby, Liu Zili bit her lip and clenched her fist. Her almond-shaped eyes reflected the boy’s silhouette as he drew his bow, a starlight glimmer within them.

Li Si, Hu Ye’ye, and a bald-headed student all held their breath, their hearts pounding in their ears. Worry and shock weighed on them like a sledgehammer.

That was a Qi Blood Bow. Few of the families present could afford one, but everyone knew how ferocious it was.

’It’s impossible to use a Qi Blood Bow repeatedly before reaching the entry level!’

’What Brother Jiang is doing is no different from self-mutilation!’

TWANG, WHOOSH—

The sound of the arrow slicing through the air felt like a high-pressure current pressing down on the Archery Range.

"Director Zhao, I can understand wanting to test the bow before the official challenge, but this is just reckless," Liu Qi said, his brows furrowed deeply. The cross-shaped scar on his right cheek twitched as he spoke, his voice low and menacing, like a wolf’s growl. "If he doesn’t want to accept the challenge, he can just say so. I can take Liu Yong and leave right now..."

TWANG, WHOOSH—

Liu Qi’s mouth twitched, and his eyes narrowed. "But if he’s going to destroy his own arm right in front of me, there’s no way the challenge can happen. Why would I have bothered bringing Liu Yong here in the first place?"

"..."

Zhao Gongzheng’s profound gaze was fixed on Jiang Qiu’s form as he nocked another arrow. At the sound of the next TWANG, his own cheek twitched. "Jiang Qiu!"

"Yes... sir..."

Jiang Qiu exhaled a cloud of hot breath. He bent at the waist, turning halfway. His eyes reflected Director Zhao’s frowning, squinting face. A surge of scorching Qi Blood burst from his over-strained heart, and his voice boomed like muffled thunder, "Director Zhao, I’m close to figuring it out! I’m fine!"

’Eight more shots until I reach the entry level!’

The thought shot through his Bright Eyes like a bolt of Thunder. SWISH! He pulled another Post Arrow from the basket. His body, which had been bent like a shrimp, straightened and stood tall once more. Torrents of hot sweat gathered on his chin and dripped to the floor in a continuous stream. PAT. PAT. PAT.

TWANG, WHOOSH—

TWANG, WHOOSH—

TWANG, WHOOSH—

TWANG, WHOOSH—

CLINK...

The fletching of the arrow he tried to pinch with his forefinger slipped, and the arrow fell back into the basket. Jiang Qiu’s mouth was like a dam’s floodgate, hot air gushing in and out. His chest heaved like the tide, and the wide expanse of floor beneath him reflected the glow of the Luminous Lamps.

[Ancient Martial Arrow (Uninitiated)]

[96/100]

’Four more arrows.’

He muttered to himself, gritting his teeth. An almost imperceptible brass-colored light glowed on his right arm, like a steel shell binding the writhing, mangled flesh beneath. The bone in his arm, already spiderwebbed with fine cracks, held steady as a steel girder!

CLICK.

He bit open the vial of Blood Boiling Liquid he’d pulled from his pocket and gulped it down. GLUG, GLUG, GLUG.

CRASH! The empty vial fell to the floor. The blood vessels in Jiang Qiu’s eyes had become red bolts of lightning striking toward his pupils. His chest pounded like thunder high in the heavens.

GRRR—

His jaw trembled as he smoothly plucked a Post Arrow from the quiver.

DRAW—

GULP...

The sound of a nervous swallow escaped Liu Yong’s throat. His mouth twitched, and his heart began to race, a hot, frantic pounding.

’How can he be so insane?! Drinking Blood Boiling Liquid just to fire a few more shots?!’

’That extreme blood enhancement combined with the intense Qi Blood drain from the Qi Blood Bow... it’s a trial of ice and fire! What kind of body can possibly withstand that?!’

’Even if Jiang Qiu’s body is abnormally strong and he can hold out a bit longer, what’s the point of shooting so many arrows?!’

’Besides, his last few shots were all at about the same level—completely unremarkable...’

TWANG, WHOOSH—

A loud THUD, and then a sudden gasp from the group of students from Eighth Middle School. "Brother Jiang almost hit the white dot!"

His heart skipped a beat. Liu Yong whipped his head toward the target wall, his pupils instantly widening. ’The center of the ripples is only a decimeter from the aiming point?!’

’It must be a coincidence. After so many shots, one of them was bound to get close...’

TWANG, WHOOSH—

Another whoosh sliced past his eardrums. The black streak arced through the air and slammed down inside the spinning circle of the aiming point, sending out a flurry of ripples!

’Another shot off by only a decimeter?!’

Liu Yong took a deep breath, clenching his right fist. He heard two more whooshes, standing frozen like a wooden post. His dark pupils turned bloodshot. ’The misses are now less than a decimeter?!’

It seemed it was never about luck. The dozen or so shots before had seemed inconsistent, but they were actually part of a larger trend of improvement.

Even if a few shots showed no progress, he was still firing continuously without having reached the entry level. Who knew how utterly exhausted his body was?!

With his physical condition deteriorating, just keeping the shots from getting worse would have shown immense willpower and Talent. But now...

CLICK.

The soft click of an arrow being nocked seemed to echo in everyone’s mind. Jiang Qiu’s left arm was as rigid as an iron pillar, heavier than a blacksmith’s anvil. On his right arm, veins bulged like ferocious horned dragons, and the brass-colored light intensified to its peak, causing the limb to tremble violently.

He opened his mouth and inhaled like a great whale swallowing the sea, drawing in a torrent of air.

His chest puffed out again, stretching his lats. His bent back straightened as he drew the string. The blood-red patterns on the bow’s grip slowly began to glow, and the small beads at either end of the riser began to burn like miniature red suns.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

His heart was a forge hammer, beating against his body with all its might, pounding a sharp CRACK from the bone in his right arm. It drained his Qi Blood, injecting it into the palm of his right hand and fusing it with the thick bowstring.

He took Aim at the small white dot two hundred meters away, which spun like the second hand of a clock.

"The last arrow..."