Eternal Life: I Have the Favor System-Chapter 66: Continuous Pearls
With Da Wang and Xiao Wang joining them, Chu Lingguang and Hei Hu were fired up every day. The two weren’t as skilled as Da Wang and Xiao Wang, but they made up for it with sheer hard work and endurance. As a result, their progress was much faster than before.
A month passed in the blink of an eye.
"Watch the staff."
Chu Lingguang unleashed his Staff Technique, clashing with Xiao Wang.
The spear and the staff are sister weapons.
As his Basic Thirteen Spear Techniques reached the Perfection realm, Chu Lingguang’s Staff Technique also improved more quickly. After a month of arduous training day and night with Da Wang and Xiao Wang, Chu Lingguang had taken his lumps. At first, his longstaff was knocked from his hands every day, but now he could hold it firmly and last until the very end when sparring against them.
Of course, he and Hei Hu were still no match for Da Wang and Xiao Wang.
The thought of facing them in the upcoming Martial Arts Examination put a great deal of pressure on both of them. Neither wanted to be utterly crushed by Da Wang and Xiao Wang again during the actual event.
"Yah!"
Guo Wei rode Red Boy, leading the four of them toward Cyan Cloud Mountain.
Whenever he instructed Da Wang and Xiao Wang in Mounted Archery and the Lance, he would bring Chu Lingguang and Hei Hu along to let them witness the brothers’ skill in these two disciplines.
A master had to look out for his own disciples, after all.
Guo Wei didn’t expect Chu Lingguang and Hei Hu to rank higher than Da Wang and Xiao Wang in the Daoist Examination, but he didn’t want his two disciples to suffer a humiliating defeat either.
So, he had been paying close attention to Da Wang and Xiao Wang’s development, analyzing their various Kung Fu. He would then share his insights with Chu Lingguang and Hei Hu, hoping they could learn to apply them flexibly and close the skill gap.
Hei Hu had a quick mind and exceptional talent, so Guo Wei’s methods suited him perfectly. After a month, he could already withstand over fifty exchanges against Xiao Wang’s Whirlwind Saber Technique.
He could also hold his own against Da Wang’s Five-Gun Sweep.
Chu Lingguang, on the other hand, could understand Guo Wei’s advice but simply couldn’t apply it as flexibly as Hei Hu. Every time Guo Wei finished explaining and asked if he understood, he would say yes. But when it came time to spar with Da Wang and Xiao Wang, he would inevitably make the same mistakes, provoking Guo Wei to curse him out on several occasions.
But it wasn’t as if Chu Lingguang had made no progress this past month.
Besides the rapid improvement of his Staff Technique, his application of the first level of Skillful Force was also starting to show results. Perhaps in another month or so, he would be able to completely master the first level of Skillful Force and learn to repel an opponent’s weapon.
"HRAAAH!"
Guo Wei’s furious roar, like a tiger’s cry echoing through a valley, startled the birds within the Cyan Cloud Sect’s grounds, sending them fleeing from the forest.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
From horseback, he continuously drew his bow and loosed his arrows. Not a single one missed its mark. The three arrows seemed to form a straight line in the air as they shot three sparrows out of the sky.
Chu Lingguang’s face was filled with awe.
Sparrows were small and fast; once they darted into the woods, they would vanish. Guo Wei had deliberately chosen the most difficult targets to demonstrate his Archery.
The sight of those three arrows flying in a perfect line shook him to his core.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
By reflex, Da Wang and Xiao Wang also loosed three arrows in succession. They too locked onto the sparrows zipping through the air, but all of their arrow shafts went wide.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
Hei Hu was right behind them.
Seeing Da Wang and Xiao Wang miss every shot, he, who had been aiming for the sparrows, quickly redirected his aim toward a flock of scrambling pheasants.
He fired three arrows in quick succession.
"THUNK! THUNK! THWIP!"
The first two arrows struck tree trunks, while the final one pierced through an old pheasant.
Guo Wei turned to look at Chu Lingguang.
Chu Lingguang had been busy pondering how Guo Wei’s arrows had formed a perfect line. By the time he drew his bow and nocked an arrow, the targets were long gone.
"HAAAAH!"
A moment later, Guo Wei let out another roar, startling the flock of birds that had just settled back into the canopy and sending them scattering into the air once more.
"Yah!"
Chu Lingguang spurred his Little Red Horse forward, taking the first shot this time.
The sparrows were too small and fast, so he ignored them. But unlike Hei Hu, he didn’t choose the clumsy old pheasants for target practice either.
Instead, he locked his sights on several large, white-headed birds.
His Basic Archery had already reached the Perfection realm.
Chu Lingguang was capable of the Hundred-step Piercing Willow.
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
He loosed three arrows in a smooth sequence, each one letting out a sharp whistle as it cut through the air.
"THWUMP! THWUMP! THWUMP!"
The three large, white-headed birds had barely left the canopy before they were struck by Chu Lingguang’s arrows, tumbling from the sky one after another.
Chu Lingguang rode over and retrieved the birds.
Da Wang and Xiao Wang were astounded to see Chu Lingguang’s skill in Archery. But then they remembered that his master was Guo Wei. They had also just witnessed Guo Wei’s Three-Star Linked Pearls technique.
Although Chu Lingguang hadn’t reached that level yet, his ability to perform the Hundred-step Piercing Willow, combined with his excellent Mounted Skills, meant his performance in Mounted Archery already far surpassed their own.
"Heh!"
"SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!"
Unconvinced, Hei Hu charged off in pursuit of more prey. A short while later, he returned carrying another pheasant.
Da Wang and Xiao Wang, however, once again came back empty-handed, their faces grim.
"Master Guo," Xiao Wang said with a sigh, "that Three-Star Linked Pearls technique of yours... I wonder how many years it will take before we can master it?"
"You’re still young," Guo Wei said with a smile. "You’ll master it eventually."
Three-Star Linked Pearls was a high-level realm within Archery.
It was a far more profound skill than Hundred-step Piercing Willow. This wasn’t the first time in the past year that Chu Lingguang had practiced Mounted Archery with Guo Wei, but Guo Wei had never demonstrated this technique before. It wasn’t that Guo Wei was holding back; rather, Chu Lingguang’s own skill level hadn’t been high enough. It would have been pointless to explain it to him.
Now that Chu Lingguang had mastered the Hundred-step Piercing Willow, Guo Wei could see his Archery had hit a plateau. That was why he had demonstrated the Three-Star Linked Pearls. He also wanted to awe Da Wang and Xiao Wang, motivating them to spar even harder with his disciples.
"The essence of Mounted Archery is for the body to move with your will, and the arrow to move with your heart..."
Guo Wei began explaining the finer points of Mounted Archery to the four youths.
Once the four seemed to have gained some insight, Guo Wei galloped past them, continuously shooting falling leaves out of the air. He demonstrated back and forth, not only displaying his Three-Star Linked Pearls Archery but also showing the four what it meant to be a "flying dragon on horseback."
Chu Lingguang had a gut feeling that Guo Wei’s skill with the Lance was even more formidable than his Spear Technique on the ground. This "flying dragon on horseback" Kung Fu made Guo Wei’s galloping figure seem to ascend to the clouds. His movements were phantom-like, his Archery divine, and he was impossible to guard against.
It was a true case of a tiger gaining wings.
It was impossibly difficult to get a lock on Guo Wei’s movements.
’I want to be just like Master Guo,’ Chu Lingguang thought, his face flushed with excitement. ’Roaming the world freely on horseback. A warrior so skilled that no obstacle could stop him from executing the Three-Star Linked Pearls.’
’With Riding Skill and Archery like Master Guo’s,’ Chu Lingguang mused, ’I bet even if Yang Shaorong led his iron cavalry after him, he wouldn’t be able to catch him.’
He had always known Guo Wei was strong.
But he had never imagined he was *this* ridiculously strong.
’No wonder Leader Ma sent Da Wang and Xiao Wang here. If Da Wu and Xiao Wu saw this display of skill, I wonder if they’d regret being sent to Tie Zhennan instead.’
Perhaps today’s display was also Guo Wei’s way of sending a message through Da Wang and Xiao Wang to Da Wu and Xiao Wu: it was their misfortune not to be here learning Mounted Archery and the Lance from him.
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