novelraw Chapter 24
Chapter 24
“Do you know why your arrows cannot hit a living person?”
Zhao Heiniu’s voice came from behind Su Wangchuan.
He turned around to see Zhao Heiniu holding a wooden bow. An arrow shaft was casually nocked, its tip pointing toward the nearby crowd.
Suddenly—
Zhao Heiniu shouted loudly:
“Dashan!”
Among the crowd, a hunter looked over. His pupils shrank sharply, and he instinctively dodged to the side…
Almost at the same instant, Zhao Heiniu made a slight adjustment, released the string, and the arrow shaft shot out with a WHOOSH, striking later yet arriving first, hitting the hunter named Dashan squarely in the waist.
Fortunately, there was no arrowhead—only mild pain.
Dashan rubbed the spot where he had been hit, letting out a breath of relief.Zhao Heiniu turned back and said,
“Do you understand now?”
“To hit a living target, you must figure out its next move, then predict it, then shoot.”
With that, he walked away, leaving Su Wangchuan standing there, lost in thought.
The next afternoon.
Lin Dahai once again showed up to work wearing his strange getup.
“Boss Chuan!”
“The beast of burden reports for duty.”
Having an extra side job every day, earning more than Bai Yuhui and Hong Kaibao, Lin Dahai was in a great mood and fully prepared.
But today, Su Wangchuan felt like a completely different person…
Bow in hand, moving as he shot.
First suppress, then release.
While Lin Dahai was dodging and moving, an arrow suddenly flew out—and miraculously hit him.
After being hit several times in a row, it inevitably began to hurt.
At first, Lin Dahai did not take it seriously.
“Must be luck.”
Then he got hit again.
Lin Dahai began to reflect on whether he was being too careless.
“No, I need to find yesterday’s rhythm. I cannot slack off.”
WHOOSH!
WHOOSH!
Su Wangchuan calmed his mind, held his bow steady, and locked onto Lin Dahai’s direction.
Each time he confirmed Lin Dahai’s path, he immediately raised the bow and fired quickly.
The familiar feeling from shooting fixed targets returned.
One full quiver later, at least thirteen or fourteen arrows had hit Lin Dahai.
“Ah.”
“Wangchuan, do not get too cocky.”
“Ah!”
“This is weird—did you take medicine or something?”
“Your accuracy is way too good today.”
“My butt!”
“Can you stop aiming at my butt? I am nervous… ah… that is going too far…”
Lin Dahai ran, jumped, and doubled back around Su Wangchuan, using every trick he had.
Su Wangchuan remained unmoved, patiently waiting for openings.
Lin Dahai finally realized something was wrong.
Today, Su Wangchuan was like a different person—terrifyingly accurate. After two hours, he had been hit countless times, with hardly an untouched spot left on his body.
From a distance, a group of hunters and militia watched in stunned silence.
“Wangchuan is impressive.”
“He can hit a moving target this quickly.”
“He hits the target most of the time already. That accuracy is enough.”
“Mm.”
“He can handle some low-difficulty tasks.”
“Old Sun’s disciple really has something.”
“When winter comes, at least there will be one more archer.”
“But he is a blacksmith.”
“Oh, right.”
Farther away, Zhao Heiniu wore a look of quiet satisfaction.
By the end of the night, Lin Dahai had been chased into utter chaos, grimacing in pain.
“Boss Chuan, this money is not easy to earn.”
“You have to pay more.”
“How could that be? You have to honor the contract.”
Su Wangchuan burst out laughing.
Today, he had hit Lin Dahai at least three thousand times. The results were outstanding.
After Lin Dahai grumbled his way offline and logged out, Su Wangchuan specifically sought out Captain Zhao Heiniu to thank him for the guidance given the previous day.
Zhao Heiniu smiled faintly and said,
“Study hard. The weather is turning colder. Strive to master archery before the snow comes.”
“Yes.”
Su Wangchuan’s heart tightened.
He still had a fourth task remaining.
And that was the hardest stage.
Over the next two days, Su Wangchuan trained even harder. With relentless effort, he successfully hit Lin Dahai over seven thousand times. Shooting moving targets became increasingly natural.
Both his experience against moving targets and his firing speed improved.
Then he entered the fourth stage—moving pursuit against a moving target.
Lin Dahai was chased all over the village, in complete disarray.
Su Wangchuan followed behind…
The difficulty of this kind of training was even greater.
At the beginning, hitting the target was almost impossible.
But Su Wangchuan quickly adjusted. He consciously began looking for positional advantages, trying to force Lin Dahai into corners, briefly stopping at critical moments to shoot.
Although this approach felt a bit opportunistic, Captain Zhao Heiniu did not stop him.
That meant the method was permitted.
After several days of training,
Su Wangchuan discovered that his movements were becoming faster, his footwork lighter, and he had developed the habit of constantly observing his surroundings.
Images automatically formed in his mind—where prey would be difficult to kill, what routes to take when closing in, and how to create opportunities.
This kind of pursuit was highly addictive.
Not only did Su Wangchuan become completely immersed, but even Lin Dahai grew increasingly serious. Every day, he wracked his brain thinking about how to avoid arrows, how to use village obstacles to reduce the number of hits, so as not to end up covered in bruises.
In this chase-and-escape contest, the weather grew colder and colder.
On this day, after training ended,
Lin Dahai panted heavily and logged out of the game.
Zhao Heiniu came over.
“Wangchuan.”
“Captain.”
Su Wangchuan was startled.
Zhao Heiniu wore a warm, satisfied smile.
“Your four stages of training are complete. You can go back now… As for spear techniques, I do not have time to teach you for the moment. You can learn together with the others.”
“Huh?”
Su Wangchuan looked completely baffled.
“Captain, are you not going to teach me real archery?”
“You already know it.”
Zhao Heiniu’s smile did not fade as he spoke words that stunned him.
“Everything I needed to teach you, I have already taught. From now on, what you must do is fit arrowheads onto your arrows. And remember one last thing—bows are made for hunting, for survival. If anything threatens you, treat it like prey. Aim for the head, the heart, or the throat.”
This was the final lesson Zhao Heiniu gave Su Wangchuan.
Ding!
A system prompt sounded in his ears:
“Entry-level Archery mastered.”
“Please train diligently to advance to the next realm: Minor Mastery.”
Hearing this, Su Wangchuan’s heart surged with excitement. He immediately summoned his status panel:
Wangchuan: Male (Blacksmith) (Hunger 60/100)
Strength 8+3; Attack 3–4
Agility 8+1; Defense 1.8; Speed +9
Stamina 8+1; HP 90/90
Spirit 8 (Not Activated)
Life Skill ‘Hundredfold Steel Forging Technique’: Practice Makes Perfect, next realm Entry-Level Mastery 158/500
Combat Skill ‘Archery’: Entry Level, next realm 0/100
Current Location: Southern Sky Continent, Nanyu Kingdom, Sanhe Commandery, Huishui County, Blackstone Village
A smile spread across Su Wangchuan’s face.
As expected, he had mastered his second skill.
“I wonder if advancing the ‘Archery’ realm will also grant attribute points?”
Unable to wait any longer, Su Wangchuan hurried back to the blacksmith shop and fitted iron arrowheads onto his arrows.
Then he aimed at a self-made target.
THUD!
The arrow struck the target.
The Archery experience bar did not move at all.
After emptying an entire quiver of arrows, the Archery experience still showed no change.