Others need two or three months to complete the bow drawing, yet she set a half month target for Lan Ling. This was already extremely astonishing.
However, Lan Ling had only used one day to complete this step.
This, this really was a monster.
“Suo Lun, do you know what I want to do right now?” Night Startled Feather said, “I want to cut open your body and see what is different about its structure compared to others.”
Lan Ling said, “Can I start practical shooting practice tomorrow?”
“Yes, genius.” Night Startled Feather turned and entered the tent as she said, “Go inside and sleep. You can still sleep for three hours.”
Lan Ling entered the tent, crawled into the sleeping bag. Night Startled Feather simply lay down on the tent cloth, still with her back facing Lan Ling.
“Do not look at me. If you look again I will beat you.” Night Startled Feather’s back still seemed to have eyes.
Lan Ling said, “No, I wanted to ask, do we not need to stand guard?”
“No need.” Night Startled Feather said, “Even if I fall asleep, as long as anything approaches within a hundred steps of us I will notice, unless the opponent is much higher in martial arts than me. And experts will not come to kill wild bulls.”
Immediately Lan Ling felt reassured. He directly turned over, faced away from Night Startled Feather and fell asleep.
…
Early the next morning, while Lan Ling was still sound asleep, Night Startled Feather woke him up.
Then Lan Ling noticed that her hair was actually wet. Clearly she had already been up for a while and had even taken a bath.
“From today onwards, we will carry out practical shooting practice.” Night Startled Feather said.
Lan Ling immediately became extremely excited. He had finally waited for actual combat. He walked out of the tent in high spirits to wash up, then after eating breakfast he wanted to pick up the bow and go shoot wild bulls.
“What are you doing?” Night Startled Feather asked.
“Going to shoot wild bulls.” Lan Ling said.
Night Startled Feather said, “Who said you were to shoot wild bulls?”
With that she pointed forward. Immediately Lan Ling saw that thirty metres ahead there was a target set up, covered in circles.
“First shoot fixed targets, then shoot moving objects.” Night Startled Feather said.
Lan Ling immediately wailed inside and said, “No way. The wild bull targets are much bigger than this target, and they stand there without moving.”
Night Startled Feather said, “Correct, the wild bull targets are very big, but do you know how thick and tough their hide is? You need at least a bow of over two or three hundred jin to pierce their outer skin. With your mere sixty jin bow, if you want to shoot a wild bull dead you would have to hit its eye. Do you think you can hit a wild bull’s eye from dozens of metres away?”
Lan Ling immediately behaved himself. Without doubt this was impossible.
Night Startled Feather continued, “From now on you will practise shooting fixed targets in actual combat. At thirty metres distance, ten trial shots with a score of eighty rings, then you can go shoot wild bulls.”
He had not expected that wanting to shoot and kill one wild bull to devour energy would be so difficult. Now the Demon Star’s energy was completely exhausted. Everything would have to rely on Lan Ling himself.
Moreover the Demon Star urgently needed to devour energy, and Lan Ling also urgently needed to shoot and kill wild bulls to devour energy.
Thirty metres distance, with an average of eight rings per arrow. This was truly a very difficult target, especially for a beginner like Lan Ling.
“Alright, you start.” Night Startled Feather said.
Lan Ling stood thirty metres from the target, took a deep breath, nocked the arrow and drew the bow.
Then he held his breath, remained motionless and began aiming at the bullseye.
Time passed second by second. After about ten seconds Lan Ling felt he had aimed properly and it was about time. He instantly released his finger.
Whoosh… The arrow shot straight out.
Lan Ling immediately filled with anticipation.
However the result disappointed him. Not only did it fail to hit eight rings or above, it completely missed the target.
Then Lan Ling shot a second arrow, and the result was still a miss.
It was truly strange. He had clearly followed the three point one line aiming method and had even slightly taken gravity and wind speed into consideration. Why could he still not aim properly?
At this time Night Startled Feather stepped forward, corrected Lan Ling’s posture, then stood right beside him. Her left hand supported his bow while her right hand supported his arrow as she said, “I will help you find the feeling.”
Her peaks in front of her chest were too high. At such close distance they directly pressed against Lan Ling’s back, and his breathing instantly became disordered.
He took a deep breath to calm himself down.
Whoosh… The third arrow was shot.
Sure enough it hit the target, but with no rings.
Night Startled Feather released Lan Ling and let him continue shooting by himself.
Lan Ling’s talent was indeed very high. Next almost every arrow hit the target, and the tenth arrow even scored one ring.
Shooting ten arrows in a row was almost Lan Ling’s current limit.
“Alright, rest for a while and lie down.” Night Startled Feather said.
Lan Ling put down the bow and directly lay prone on the grass. Night Startled Feather stepped forward to massage his hands, feet and limbs.
“How does it feel?” Night Startled Feather asked.
Lan Ling said, “It is not very easy. I feel that if I continue training like this I will need at least half a month to hit eighty rings.”
Night Startled Feather said, “How are you aiming?”
“Three points in one line.” Lan Ling said, “Target, arrow tip, arrow fletching.”
Night Startled Feather said, “Then what do you think is the most important thing in archery?”
“Finding the feeling. That way you can almost aim without using your eyes, or the aiming time is very short.” Lan Ling said.
Night Startled Feather said, “With this kind of shooting method, the greatest achievement in a lifetime is only to become an excellent archer soldier in the army. Do you know how far away an excellent dragon archer can shoot and kill a target?”
Lan Ling shook his head and said, “I do not know.”
“One thousand metres away.” Night Startled Feather said.
“Impossible.” Lan Ling immediately cried out in surprise.
One thousand metres away, first the bow could not shoot that far, and second even if it could shoot that far it would be completely impossible to hit.
At one thousand metres distance a person would only be a small black dot. One must know that on modern Earth, even with the most precise sniper rifle, a very excellent sniper might not necessarily be able to hit a target one thousand metres away.
For a bow and arrow to hit would be too fantastical.
Night Startled Feather said, “Because an excellent archer never uses the eyes to aim, but uses spiritual power.”
The Demon Star had actually said this sentence before.
Night Startled Feather said, “For an archer the most important thing is spiritual power. A dragon archer can directly lock onto a target one thousand metres away with spiritual power, then use spiritual power to directly connect the arrow in hand with the target, and then kill with one strike. There is no need at all to use the eyes to aim.”
Lan Ling was instantly stunned. This scene was too fantastical.
Although he had always known that spiritual power was very powerful and very mysterious, he had only ever heard others talk about it and had never experienced it himself.
Lan Ling said, “Then what exactly does it feel like?”
Night Startled Feather said, “What exactly it feels like, you will have to experience it yourself at the time. But I will tell you two points. A high level expert can spread their spiritual power outside the body for dozens of metres, hundreds of metres, or even over a thousand metres. Therefore a target one thousand metres away will instantly be pulled closer. Not only that, when spiritual power reaches a certain level it can make the time in your perceived world slow down. At that time the time you perceive with spiritual power will be two times, three times, or even higher slower than reality. You can imagine how terrifying that would be.”
Lan Ling was instantly completely stunned, especially the second point, which was too mysterious.
This was equivalent to an alternative time slowdown. In your eyes your enemies would all be moving in slow motion. In this way you could easily dodge enemy attacks, find the enemy’s flaws and kill with one strike.
Night Startled Feather said, “Therefore the top sword experts and the top dragon archers in the world are without doubt all spiritual power powerhouses. Spiritual power is the first core of martial arts.”
Lan Ling said, “Then how do you use spiritual power to lock onto a target?”
Night Startled Feather said, “It is very simple. Circulate your dragon power into your brain, then directly project it out through the light in your eyes.”
It was still dragon power.
Night Startled Feather continued, “Of course this tests a person’s spiritual talent. Those with high spiritual talent only need a small amount of dragon power and can project it a very long distance. Those with low spiritual talent, no matter how much dragon power they circulate it will be of no use. Therefore spiritual talent is the most important talent for a martial artist.”
Thinking of this point, Lan Ling immediately felt a chill in his heart, because the Demon Star inside his body no longer had any energy, so he could not convert energy into spiritual power.
At this moment he truly longed to devour energy more than ever before.
“The dragon power in my body is exhausted. I cannot use spiritual power locking.” Lan Ling said.
Night Startled Feather said, “After resting for half the night you should at least have recovered a little.”
Lan Ling said, “My physique is different from others.”
Night Startled Feather said, “That does not matter either. For spiritual locking at thirty metres distance dragon power is not needed. You can directly use your own spiritual power.”
“How do I do it?” Lan Ling asked.
“Use the Inverted Moon Art to make your body completely quiet and your heart lake completely quiet.” Night Startled Feather said.
Circulating the Inverted Moon Art, Lan Ling easily achieved quietness of mind and quietness of body.
At this moment he did not even need the Demon Star’s energy to make the water surface in the spiritual illusion realm calm down and restore the inverted moon inside to completeness.
“Then gather all your spirit and condense it into one point, projecting it onto that bullseye.” Night Startled Feather said, “Do not use your eyes to look, but use spirit to look.”
Lan Ling gradually immersed himself, immersed himself.
“What do you see?” Night Startled Feather asked.
Lan Ling said, “In the spiritual illusion realm of the Inverted Moon Art, the inverted moon in the water has turned into the appearance of the arrow target.”
Night Startled Feather said, “Then continue condensing spiritual power and gather all spiritual power onto one point at the bullseye.”
Lan Ling began to exert all his strength, completely condensing all spiritual power onto one point at the bullseye.
Then he clearly felt that everything in the spiritual illusion realm gradually disappeared.
The water surface disappeared, and the edges of the arrow target also gradually blurred and faded.
The target locked by spiritual power grew smaller and smaller.
Soon, it was almost complete. The spiritual power was about to be fully condensed onto one point at the bullseye.
But right at this moment Lan Ling’s brain suddenly boomed. A burst of intense pain struck as if his entire brain had exploded, and he directly collapsed to the ground.