Chapter 50

“Hong Kaibao. Bai Yuhui.”

“Morning, Senior Brother!”

“Morning, Senior Brother!”

At six o’clock in the morning, Su Wangchuan gathered with his two junior brothers at the village entrance.

Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui had already bought a full day’s worth of dried rations. Each of them carried several bundled quivers of arrows on their backs, greeting their senior brother with high spirits.

Su Wangchuan himself carried two quivers, a wooden bow, and a Hundredfold Steel dagger tucked at his waist—fully armed.

The three of them had agreed the day before.

Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui would accompany him to Tianshui Village to train.

Su Wangchuan paid each of them one tael of silver.

Heavy rewards produced brave men.

Naturally, Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui were more than willing.

After Captain Zhao Heiniu reminded them to be careful, the three left the village.

They trod through thick accumulated snow, heading east.

The road was desolate, with scarcely any human tracks.

Battling wind and snow, the three arrived at Tianshui Village, where Lin Xun was already waiting with another unfamiliar young man.

“Wangchuan.”

“Brother Lin!”

After exchanging greetings, Lin Xun introduced the young man beside him.

“This is Li Zekai, a new member of our pioneering team’s reserve squad. Like you, he’s also at Quasi-Martial Artist level.”

Li Zekai was tall and broad-shouldered, looking very young, with the air of a college athlete.

Su Wangchuan immediately extended his hand.

“Hello. My name is Wangchuan.”

“Hello.”

Hearing that Su Wangchuan was also a Quasi-Martial Artist, Li Zekai was clearly surprised. He nodded and shook hands, his gaze then falling on the two quivers on Su Wangchuan’s back.

“Wangchuan, the arrows in your other quiver look pretty impressive. Can I take a look?”

“Of course.”

Smiling, Su Wangchuan reached back and drew out a single arrow.

“These are Armor-Piercing Arrows that I forged myself. They have stronger penetration than ordinary arrows and can pierce leather armor and wooden shields. I brought them just in case we run into bandits or rogues on the road.”

“Impressive.”

After taking a look at the Armor-Piercing Arrow, Li Zekai could not hide the shock in his eyes.

“+1 Armor-Piercing! +5 Attack! That’s amazing!”

“Brother Lin, with something like this, can it threaten a martial artist?”

“Absolutely.”

Lin Xun nodded.

“Armor-Piercing Arrows are specifically made to deal with martial artists. Even an ordinary archer can threaten a martial artist when using them.”

“Then why don’t weapon shops in the county sell Armor-Piercing Arrows?” Li Zekai asked, puzzled.

Lin Xun gave a wry smile and explained.

“These things are far too dangerous. In the county seat, they’re classified as controlled weapons. Aside from officially designated personnel, even archers trained by major families aren’t allowed to openly equip them. If you’re caught, it’s a criminal offense.”

“Blackstone Village is far from the county, and these arrows are forged for internal use without being sold or circulated outside, so people turn a blind eye.”

“…So that’s how it is.”

Li Zekai nodded in realization, still reluctant to part with the Armor-Piercing Arrow.

Seeing this, Su Wangchuan smiled.

“If you like it, I can give you this one. Keeping one or two Armor-Piercing Arrows hidden in a quiver shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Lin Xun rubbed his nose but said nothing.

In the end, Li Zekai did not accept it. With lingering reluctance, he returned the Armor-Piercing Arrow to Su Wangchuan.

“Thank you, but I’ll pass. My current identity is as a courier guild errand runner. Carrying something like this wouldn’t be appropriate—it would bring trouble to the guild.”

“I see.”

Su Wangchuan was genuinely surprised. Li Zekai had actually joined a courier escort agency. That counted as a faction within Huishui County and meant opportunities to come into contact with ranked martial arts.

Envy.

“All right.”

“It’s getting late.”

Lin Xun spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention.

“I’ll scatter some grain around Tianshui Village to attract sparrows…”

“Before that, you all go shoot fish by the stream first. Once sparrows arrive, I’ll signal you with the call of a cuckoo.”

“Got it!”

They immediately moved out.

Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui followed behind Su Wangchuan.

The large number of arrows on their backs caught Li Zekai’s attention.

He laughed.

“I heard from Brother Lin that killing one wild creature gives 1 point of experience. Once you reach the Practice Makes Perfect realm, methods like that no longer work. That’s why I only bought a little over a hundred arrows.”

“My accuracy isn’t great, so I prepared more.”

Su Wangchuan understood the logic as well. The reason he carried so many arrows was mainly to guard against trouble.

In winter, aside from bandits, one might also encounter vagrants or wild beasts.

Better safe than sorry.

Soon, the two reached the stream at the edge of the village.

The water was shallow, flowing gently and steaming slightly. Inside, fish could be clearly seen swimming and feeding.

Su Wangchuan and Li Zekai exchanged a glance and almost simultaneously nocked arrows and drew their bows.

Both of their Archery skills had already reached Minor Mastery, and each was still over a hundred experience points away from Practice Makes Perfect.

“Who breaks through first?”

“Deal.”

As fellow Quasi-Martial Artists, a competitive spark naturally flared.

They released their bows at the same time.

WHOOSH!

The arrows plunged into the water.

Li Zekai’s arrow struck a fish.

Su Wangchuan’s arrow pierced the water and skimmed past a fish, startling the prey into darting away.

Li Zekai laughed.

“There’s light refraction in water. The fish’s actual position is different from what we see. You need to account for that.”

Su Wangchuan suddenly understood.

He had actually forgotten that.

“Thanks.”

He adjusted his aim and shot again.

WHOOSH!

Another miss.

Meanwhile, Li Zekai’s arrows hit their targets one after another, his experience steadily increasing.

Watching from the side, Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui grew anxious.

In their eyes, their senior brother was very strong. If he lost to an outsider here, wouldn’t that imply the gold-farming team was inferior to the pioneering team’s reserve?

“Senior Brother, you’ve got this!”

They cheered him on from afar.

Su Wangchuan did not panic.

After several missed shots, he had roughly grasped the refraction principle. He drew his bow again and aimed carefully.

WHOOSH!

The arrow cut through the air, entered the water, and pierced a fish. A trace of blood spread through the stream as the fish immediately flipped belly-up.

“It hit!”

“Senior Brother hit!”

Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui were ecstatic.

Li Zekai smiled and shook his head, continuing to shoot.

The two split up, one heading upstream, the other downstream.

After mastering the refraction adjustment, Su Wangchuan rarely missed, his shots becoming smoother and smoother.

However, the number of fish in the stream was limited. Before long, this stretch was completely cleared out by the two of them.

Hong Kaibao and Bai Yuhui retrieved all the fish struck by arrows and used riverside reeds to braid them into ropes, dragging them back to Tianshui Village.

Lin Xun grinned.

“Luck wasn’t great today. Not a single sparrow showed up. But it’s been a long time since we had roasted fish! Today, we’ll eat our fill.”

Lin Xun found some charcoal in Tianshui Village and started a fire.

Taking advantage of the moment, Su Wangchuan carefully examined every wooden house in Tianshui Village.

Bloodstains covered the interiors. Spear punctures, axe gouges, saber slashes, and arrow holes scarred the walls. Dark blood traces stained the ground like ink.

Even though a long time had passed, everything in the village seemed to silently recount the ominous events it had suffered that night.

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