It was not until Mentor Xiu Yan had left that the many noble students turned to look at Suo Lun (Lan Ling) in stunned silence.
Everyone knew that the former Suo Lun had been a complete wastrel who never studied. Policy classes were far too boring for him, so he had always spent them sleeping with his head on the desk. No one had expected today’s class to turn entirely into a stage for Suo Lun’s performance.
How incompetent and ignorant had the old Suo Lun been? How had he suddenly become so brilliant? Had it all been an act before, or had the death of Earl Suo Lun brought about such a massive change in him?
At that moment, Zhi Min sneered coldly. “Suo Lun, your sister truly lives up to her reputation as a famous talented woman. You must have memorised it with great difficulty.”
As soon as these words were spoken, many people suddenly understood. So this was not the view of the wastrel Suo Lun at all — it was the opinion of the Tianshui Fairy, Suo Ningbing, merely spoken through Suo Lun’s mouth.
With that explanation, everything made perfect sense.
Lan Ling gave a faint smile and said nothing, though inwardly he thought, “If the royal family’s descendants are all wastes like you, Zhi Min, then I can rest easy.”
“What? Did I strike a nerve and make you feel guilty?” Zhi Min said triumphantly with a cold laugh. Then he stepped closer and whispered, “Suo Lun, no one can save your family now — not even Duke Zhi Ting. Just wait for your family’s destruction. At the very least, you will never pass the martial arts section of the graduation examination. You will not be able to inherit the title.”
The next class seemed to prove Zhi Min’s words exactly. The second period was martial arts.
…
For the martial arts subject, Suo Lun had chosen archery. The examination in more than a hundred days would also be archery.
Therefore, if Lan Ling wanted to pass the graduation examination smoothly, he had to at least achieve a passing grade in archery. To pass, what score was required?
A one-hundred-and-eighty-jin bow, fixed target at ninety metres, twenty arrows with at least twelve hits. Moving target at fifty metres, ten arrows with at least five hits.
On Earth, whether in ancient or modern times, this was already the standard of an elite archer.
Especially a one-hundred-and-eighty-jin bow — in ancient China, only very strong military generals could draw and use it.
Yet in the Royal City Academy’s graduation examination, this was merely the passing line. Of course, that was normal. After all, the Royal City Academy gathered almost all the elites of the entire kingdom. Moreover, people in this world had the enhancement of Dragon Force.
But for Lan Ling, this was an utterly impossible task.
First, the combined strength of both his arms had a limit of only about one hundred jin. That meant under normal conditions, he could at most draw a fifty-jin bow. A one-hundred-and-eighty-jin bow was something he could not even pull, let alone shoot with.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, it was completely impossible for Lan Ling to pass the archery examination this year — even more exaggerated than hell-level difficulty.
If that was the case, could he switch to another event, such as swordsmanship?
Of course he could, but every other martial arts event had greater difficulty than archery. Archery was already the simplest and least competitive option.
Those with high Dragon Bloodline talent were unwilling to become mere archers. Compared to swordsmen, knights, and others, archers had almost the worst prospects.
When attending the archery class, Lan Ling noticed that the number of students had decreased significantly. The previous policy class had been a large group of over a hundred people. Now, the archery class had only sixteen students, nine of whom were women.
Lan Ling was now almost certain that the reason Suo Lun had chosen archery was to chase girls.
Soon, the archery instructor appeared. It was indeed an instructor, not a mentor.
This archery instructor was a woman named Li Nianzhen. She was not particularly beautiful, but she had a very distinctive look. She kept her hair unusually short for a woman, had a fit and explosive figure, stood nearly one metre eighty tall, and wore a full archer’s outfit that made her appear valiant and heroic.
The archery class took place on a wide lawn, where various bows were laid out and targets were set up everywhere.
The moment Li Nianzhen saw Suo Lun (Lan Ling), she froze for an instant, then frowned deeply. She truly detested Suo Lun. In her eyes, he had only come to chase girls and had completely tarnished the archery class.
What she could least tolerate was that, out of sheer novelty-seeking, Suo Lun had even tried to pursue her. Yes, not only had he chased peerless beauties like Niya — he had not even spared someone as androgynous as Li Nianzhen. He really had a thing for seducing teachers.
Even worse, of the nine noble girls who had chosen the archery course, three had been pursued and apparently slept with by Suo Lun.
This bastard, relying on his handsome looks, sweet tongue, and thick skin, had turned her class into utter chaos. For a time, there had been a girl heartbroken in her class almost every day, and the culprit was always this pretty boy Suo Lun.
What she could least bear was that, because of Suo Lun’s relentless pursuit, she had almost wavered and nearly surrendered. But in the end, Suo Lun had only been seeking novelty. Once his patience ran out, he ignored her completely. Therefore, Li Nianzhen truly wanted to tear this beautiful pretty boy apart with her bare hands.
Now, years later, the girls in this archery class had completely seen through Suo Lun.
So now, every single girl kept far away from him, as if being glanced at by him would make them pregnant. Among them, three girls deeply regretted their blindness and allowing this bastard to deceive them into bed.
Li Nianzhen’s gaze automatically filtered out Suo Lun as she said, “There are more than a hundred days left until the examination. Everything that needed to be taught has been taught, and everything that needed to be learned has been learned. From now on, we focus entirely on preparing for the final examination. Every class will consist of actual combat training. Everyone, go and collect your own bows and begin training.”
The students went one by one to fetch their bows.
Lan Ling searched for a long time but could not find his.
“Suo Lun, you do not need to train. You cannot even draw a fifty-jin bow. You are destined to fail the examination,” Li Nianzhen said.
At these words, the other students immediately burst into mocking laughter.
Lan Ling ignored them. After searching for a while longer, he finally found the lightest bow, marked as sixty jin. Within the Royal City Academy, there was no lighter bow available — this was only one-third the strength of the examination bow.
He put on the finger guards and tried to draw the bow.
He found it extremely difficult. Although both arms together could barely lift one hundred jin, drawing a bow was an entirely different matter.
He could not draw it at all. With a sudden forceful effort, his arm immediately throbbed with pain — he had pulled a muscle.
Even a fool knew that before drawing a bow, one had to thoroughly warm up and massage the muscles.
Immediately, the sixteen students began pairing up in twos, mutually massaging and relaxing each other’s muscles and meridians.
Soon, an awkward scene emerged. There were seven male students and nine female students in total.
Excluding Lan Ling, the other six males quickly paired into three pairs. Eight of the nine females paired into four pairs.
Lan Ling was left over, and one girl was also left unpaired. She retreated continuously with her arms crossed, looking at Lan Ling as if he were a venomous snake or scorpion, as though he might at any moment turn into a perverted madman and pounce on her.
“Mentor…” she pleaded pitifully, looking towards Li Nianzhen.
Thus, Instructor Li Nianzhen personally warmed up and relaxed the muscles of that girl, while Lan Ling was left alone to do his preparatory exercises by himself.
After finishing the warm-up, more than a dozen students began actual shooting practice.
Lan Ling was astonished to discover that, at the ninety-metre fixed target, these people achieved hit rates of seventy to eighty percent or more with ease. The only difference was that some could fire ten or more arrows in a row, while others could only manage three or five.
After sufficient warm-up, Lan Ling nocked an arrow and once again attempted to draw the sixty-jin bow.
He took a deep breath, exerted force, drew the bow, and began aiming at the fixed target fifty metres away.
For him, the sixty-jin bow was already his limit. Maintaining the draw after pulling it was far too difficult. His arm quickly reached its limit and began trembling uncontrollably — he could not hold it steady.
At that moment, the demon star within his body released a strand of energy, relieving the pain in Lan Ling’s arm.
Lan Ling completed his aim and released the string.
“Whoosh…” The arrow flew.
Immediately afterwards, everyone burst into roaring laughter. Not only had his arrow missed the target completely — it had veered three metres off course. Moreover, it had barely reached fifty metres before dropping, clearly due to insufficient power.
How strange. He had clearly aimed properly — why had he missed so badly?
Unconvinced, Lan Ling nocked another arrow, drew, aimed, and shot!
“Whoosh…”
Laughter rang out again. This time, Lan Ling had improved slightly — he only missed by a little over one metre.
Next, he shot a third arrow, but it missed by five metres — worse than the first.
Just as Lan Ling wanted to shoot a fourth arrow, he realised his arm no longer had any strength left. He could not even draw the bow anymore.
And this was only a sixty-jin bow! The graduation examination bow was one hundred and eighty jin.
To pass the examination, Lan Ling’s first priority was to increase his physical strength — at least enough to draw a one-hundred-and-eighty-jin bow.
Secondly, he needed to strengthen his mental power so he could lock onto targets over a hundred metres away. Beyond that distance, it was impossible to aim with the eyes alone — it required mental power.
“That is enough, Suo Lun. You do not need to practise anymore. Go back and rest,” Li Nianzhen said. “You cannot possibly pass the graduation examination. Give up.”
Lan Ling took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and asked inwardly with his consciousness, “Demon star, can I, within more than a hundred days, raise my arm strength to two hundred jin and raise my mental power enough to lock onto targets one hundred metres away?”
The demon star replied, “It is possible, but the time is extremely tight. For others, even with sufficiently high Dragon Vein talent, it would take at least two or three years.”
Lan Ling continued, “Then, within more than a hundred days, can you raise my archery to the level of a first-grade warrior archer?”
The demon star answered, “It is possible. As long as you hunt enough prey and devour enough energy. What takes others years will take you only a little over a hundred days.”
“I understand,” Lan Ling said.
Next, he needed to go into actual combat training as soon as possible to elevate his strength and mental power.
As for Duke Zhi Ting’s side, he could hold hope, but he absolutely could not treat it as a lifeline.
The best solution was still to pass the graduation examination himself and smoothly inherit the title.