With your own power alone, can you achieve it? Night Startled Feather asked.
Lan Ling shook his head and said, I cannot do it.
With his current strength, he could pull open a sixty jin bow, but after pulling it open he could only hold it for a few seconds before starting to tremble. He could not aim at all.
As for pulling it open ten times in a row and holding steady for half a minute each time, that was even more impossible.
That is exactly it. Night Startled Feather said, For the next half month, your only task is to complete this first step goal. Only then can you proceed to the next stage of training.
Half a month? Lan Ling exclaimed in surprise.
Night Startled Feather said, Of course. This is already treating you as a genius. For someone with normal high talent, without two or three months it is impossible to complete this first step of drawing the bow. Your right arm currently has a maximum strength of sixty jin. To complete the bow drawing goal, your right arm strength needs to reach at least eighty jin.
In other words, Lan Ling’s next task was to increase his right arm strength by twenty jin, and the time Night Startled Feather gave him was half a month.
Then Night Startled Feather began setting up camp nearby and left Lan Ling alone to practise drawing the bow.
This practice was divided into two parts.
The first part was to draw the bow using only his own arm strength without dragon power and hold it for as long as possible. Under this persistent training, arm strength would also grow, though rather slowly. It was just like lifting dumbbells on Earth to increase arm strength.
The other part was to use dragon power to temper the sinews and bones. This was the most important part of the cultivation.
What was dragon power tempering? It was injecting dragon power into the arm to temper the arm’s meridians, bones and muscles, thereby enhancing the arm’s strength.
Of course, this kind of dragon power tempering was extremely precious for ordinary people, because a person could only activate their bloodline dragon power three to five times in a single day.
That meant a person only had three to five opportunities for dragon power tempering per day.
Lan Ling asked, Does that mean that for someone in my situation, to increase my arm strength by twenty jin, I would need to use dragon power to temper the arm’s sinews and bones three hundred times.
Night Startled Feather was bending over to set up the tent and nodded as she said, Correct. Also, please concentrate on your practice and stop looking at my backside.
Lan Ling immediately blushed, but he understood the principle Night Startled Feather had explained.
The principle of dragon power tempering was to convert bloodline dragon power into body power. This was the foundation of martial arts.
Then in battle, would bloodline dragon power be used? Of course it would. Once dragon power was used in battle it would create a critical strike, and such critical strike opportunities were very rare and precious. They would only be used at the most critical moments in battle.
Enhancing one’s own strength through dragon power tempering was a process that took years and months, but Lan Ling did not have half a month to waste. He only had three months in total to reach the level of a second rank warrior archer, which required drawing a strong bow of over two hundred jin and hitting the target eighty times out of a hundred shots.
If even the bow drawing step took half a month, then reaching second rank warrior archer would take at least two or three years.
Thus Lan Ling closed his eyes and asked, Demon Star, with your remaining energy, can you increase my right arm strength by twenty jin.
The Demon Star was silent for a moment and said, I can, but it will almost exhaust all my remaining energy. In the future, if you encounter any danger, I will not be able to save you.
Lan Ling said, After my right arm strength increases by twenty jin, I will immediately carry out practical shooting and killing, which will allow me to replenish energy for you.
After saying this, Lan Ling clearly felt the Demon Star flash with excitement.
Lan Ling asked, What I will be shooting and killing next are the wild bulls on the barbarian wilderness border. How much power can one wild bull let me devour?
The Demon Star said, I have observed them. These wild bulls have great strength. However the bloodline dragon power inside their bodies is very thin, less than one tenth of a human’s. But your current strength is still very weak, so the improvement will be quick. I estimate that hunting one hundred wild bulls will be enough to increase your right arm strength by ten jin.
Devouring one hundred wild bulls to increase arm strength by ten jin, while his goal was right arm strength of over three hundred jin.
Lan Ling said, Then if I want to raise my right arm strength to three hundred jin, would I not need to shoot and kill two or three thousand wild bulls?
The Demon Star said, Once your arm strength exceeds one hundred or so jin, the bloodline power of wild bulls will already seem too thin and will not be of much use to you. You will need to look for barbarian beasts with higher bloodlines. Of course there are also elite level wild bulls whose dragon vein power inside their bodies will be comparatively stronger. Killing one might be equivalent to dozens of ordinary ones, but such elite level wild beasts are rare and also very dangerous.
I understand. Immediately Lan Ling felt eager to try.
Master, actually killing humans and devouring their cultivation is the fastest way. The Demon Star suddenly said, And there are many humans. I have observed that there are very many martial artists in this region.
Enough, do not speak any more. Lan Ling said, That way I would truly become a great demon head.
Sooner or later you will become a great demon head. The Demon Star said, Although your heart is comparatively kind, your character is sinister and extreme, with love and hate too clearly divided. Your feelings towards your sister are too obsessive. She is your vital point. You fear losing her, and one day this fear will turn you into a demon head.
Lan Ling remained silent and did not refute. The Demon Star was right. Because of the environment he grew up in, his heart lacked enough sunshine. Although he did not actively commit evil, he had always used malicious psychology to speculate about others.
Enough, enhance my right arm strength for me. Lan Ling said.
Yes. The Demon Star said, Sit cross legged and do not move.
Lan Ling complied, sat cross legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
Immediately in his spiritual illusion realm, everything was quiet and dark.
Then the Demon Star slowly lit up and gently contracted. A burst of energy was released. Lan Ling suddenly realised that this energy was dragon power, left behind from when the Demon Star had previously devoured others.
Lan Ling used his consciousness to control this dragon power, moving it from his heart to his lower dantian, then to the meridians in his right arm.
At this moment, following this energy, Lan Ling could even introspect every meridian inside his body.
He clearly saw this energy light penetrating into his arm meridians bit by bit, millimetre by millimetre.
First the meridians, then the bones, and finally the muscles.
In other humans’ dragon power tempering, the energy utilisation rate was very low. Most people achieved less than ten percent, but Lan Ling’s energy utilisation rate could reach one hundred percent.
The entire transformation process was much slower than Lan Ling had imagined.
Just the meridians in the arm alone were countless, with meridians of varying thickness numbering in the thousands. Every single one needed to be tempered and transformed.
It was fortunate that the Demon Star’s energy utilisation rate was one hundred percent. Otherwise, even for a mere increase of twenty jin of strength, or even ten jin, it would probably require ten thousand times the energy to complete the transformation.
The Demon Star continuously released energy, transforming every right arm meridian bit by bit and advancing millimetre by millimetre.
During this process Lan Ling could almost clearly see the Demon Star’s light dimming little by little.
It took a full four hours before the Demon Star completed the tempering and transformation of the arm meridians.
Next it began tempering and transforming the bones.
Night Startled Feather had already finished setting up the tent by now. When she first saw Lan Ling sit cross legged she knew he was using dragon power to temper his arm sinews and bones. So she immediately gathered all her spirit to guard the law for Lan Ling and prevent any disturbance from interrupting him.
But what Night Startled Feather had not expected was that once Lan Ling sat down he remained like that for several full hours.
One must know that normal people only had three to five opportunities per day for dragon power to transform the body, at most lasting a quarter of an hour.
At this time Lan Ling had already been sitting quietly for several hours yet it was still not over.
…
Another three hours passed and the Demon Star finished transforming the bones of Lan Ling’s right arm.
Tempering the bones was somewhat faster than tempering the meridians. Next was the final step, tempering the muscles.
This scene was extremely fantastical and strange.
Lan Ling clearly saw that after the Demon Star released its energy, it was controlled by consciousness and condensed into a single point, then transported through the body’s meridians to the arm.
Then this condensed ball of energy suddenly scattered and erupted, turning back into countless energy lights that passed directly through countless meridians and entered every cell of the muscles.
This kind of transformation was truly at the cellular level, which explained why it was so thorough.
In this way it condensed again and again, transported to the arm again and again, and erupted again and again.
Lan Ling clearly felt his arm growing hot and swelling in waves.
Meanwhile the Demon Star’s light grew weaker and weaker, fainter and fainter, until it was almost completely dim and invisible.
Another three hours or so passed.
Boom… The Demon Star energy erupted for the final time at Lan Ling’s fingertip, transforming the last millimetre of his right arm.
Finally the entire tempering and transformation was complete.
At this time the Demon Star’s light was almost completely invisible.
Master, my energy is exhausted. The next time you encounter danger I will not be able to save you. You must devour energy as soon as possible… Even this consciousness signal was already very blurry. Although the Demon Star was very evil, it had exerted all its strength for Lan Ling.
The entire tempering and transformation process had taken a full ten hours.
After it was completed Lan Ling opened his eyes. At this moment he felt as if his arm had endless power. The feeling of this strength increase was extremely clear.
When he looked up, the sky was filled with stars. It was already the middle of the night.
Night Startled Feather was sitting cross legged nearby with all her spirit condensed. Several hundred metres in front of her was a pile of various kinds of corpses.
These wild beasts and birds had not come to attack but were simply passing by. However this dragon power tempering process required complete silence with no disturbance allowed, so all animals that came within a hundred metres of Lan Ling had been shot and killed by Night Startled Feather.
Night Startled Feather did not ask why Lan Ling had sat for so long. She only said calmly, Alright, rest for today. Continue with sinew and bone training tomorrow.
Sinew and bone training was the normal practice method, stimulating the meridians’ own energy without relying on dragon power.
Lan Ling said, Tomorrow we will proceed to the next step of archery cultivation.
Night Startled Feather said, Do not aim too high. I already said that you must first complete bow drawing, ten times in a row, holding steady for half a minute each time. This is the first step of shooting technique. Only after completing it can you move to the next step.
Lan Ling said, I have already completed bow drawing.
Night Startled Feather hissed, Impossible.
Lan Ling directly picked up the sixty jin bow, took a deep breath, gently stepped forward, then pulled the bow open directly. He held it steadily for half a minute without moving, then slowly relaxed.
Previously he could only hold it for a few seconds before his whole body trembled uncontrollably, but now after pulling it open his whole body remained steady and his breathing was calm.
The effect of the strength increase was truly obvious.
Then Lan Ling pulled a second time, a third time…
He continued until the tenth time!
And the tenth time was truly the limit of Lan Ling’s arm strength, because at that point trying to pull an eleventh time was already very strenuous.
Meanwhile Night Startled Feather beside him was completely and utterly stunned.