The Joy of Obtaining the Overlord Bow

Two Jinwu Guards in armor sat in the hall, drinking tea with their legs spread wide and their bearing bold.

The taller Jinwu Guard was named Gao He. He suddenly slapped the teacup in his hand, looking somewhat impatient.

"Quite the Acting Centurion, making us wait this long?"

"Who knows what dogshit luck he stumbled into, for us to be the ones delivering this Overlord Bow to him."

The other Jinwu Guard was named Ma Xiong. True to his name, he had the broad back and thick waist of a tiger and bear.

"What was his name again? Shen Qing, right?"

"I heard he has quite a title too."

Gao He smiled. "What title? How impressive could it be?"

"World-Crossing Yama. Big enough for you?"

Gao He snorted. "That title certainly sounds grand, but can some insignificant Acting Centurion really bear it?"

"One day, you'd better watch out for... hahaha."

Their voices were not quiet, and the several Imperial Guards standing outside kept frowning.

Weren't these two being far too cheap?

Though they had not finished what they were saying, everyone knew it could not have been anything good.

Talking down about someone in their own home was a clear slap in the face.

But because of the gap in cultivation and rank, they could not offer any worthwhile retort.

Suddenly, a faint commotion sounded outside. Shen Qing entered the courtyard, and the Imperial Guards hurriedly saluted.

"Greetings, Lord Shen!"

Before they could finish speaking, Shen Qing flew over their heads like a gust of wind, moving with astonishing speed.

The next instant, he became like a ferocious beast and pounced straight into the hall. With one kick, he struck the chest of the Jinwu Guard named Gao He. He moved so quickly that Ma Xiong beside him was still drinking tea, not yet realizing that his companion had already been kicked flying.

Bang!

A huge hole was smashed through the hall wall. Gao He lay amid the rubble, clutching his chest and rolling about. Shen Qing had held back with that kick, but it was still enough to make him suffer.

Shen Qing's cold voice rang out.

"Your mouth is filthy enough. Cursing me in my own home? Didn't your mother teach you how to speak?"

Only then did Ma Xiong react. He slammed the table and stood up.

Shen Qing turned his head and looked at him. "What do you want?"

Ma Xiong's body immediately stiffened. Beads of sweat kept seeping from his forehead. Shen Qing's stare sent chills down their backs.

It felt as though he had placed his head inside a tiger's jaws. At the slightest misstep, the tiger would close its mouth.

Ma Xiong's throat bobbed as he swallowed, lowered his head, and slowly extended a hand.

"I just... I just saw... there was dust on the table, so I'll wipe it..."

Ma Xiong slowly bent over and kept wiping the spotless tabletop with his sleeve.

Gao He, lying on the ground, finally caught his breath and struggled into a sitting position.

"Shen Qing! Aren't you being too disrespectful? Didn't I only say a few things about you?"

Shen Qing kicked him in the face.

"Respect? Now you want to talk about respect? Why didn't you think of that when your mouth was running filthy? If your mother never taught you what manners are, then I'll teach you."

Gao He did not dare continue speaking, nor could he speak. Shen Qing's kick to his face had been no different from a hammer smashing down. Right now, he only felt as though something were rattling around inside his skull.

Ma Xiong swallowed and did not dare say a word. He had seen Gao He's miserable state, and he knew Gao He's background well. Gao He cultivated a formidable body-tempering technique, one that ordinary blunt weapons could hardly injure.

Yet Shen Qing had casually kicked him twice and reduced him to this state.

Shen Qing snorted, strode to the seat of honor, and sat down boldly, quietly watching Ma Xiong.

Ma Xiong no longer had his previous commanding posture. He now stood ramrod straight with his legs pressed together, looking exactly like a newlywed little wife being bullied by her husband's family.

Shen Qing snorted and gave neither of them a pleasant look.

"Jinwu Guards, what have you come to see me for?"

Ma Xiong swallowed and hurriedly took a letter from his robes before walking up to Shen Qing.

"We... we only came to deliver a letter."

Shen Qing sneered and did not take the letter.

"Deliver a letter? Acting so high and mighty, I thought the King of Guanzhong himself had arrived."

Ma Xiong's face turned several shades paler. "Lord Shen..."

"It was this lowly one's filthy mouth."

Shen Qing snorted, opened the letter, and casually scanned it a few times, roughly grasping its meaning.

The higher-ups wanted to make a move against the martial world of Yongning Commandery. They intended to establish an organization called the Martial Alliance and invite every sect to join. Under the grand name of unified coordination and deployment, they wanted Shen Qing to serve as the overall commander of this operation.

Shen Qing chuckled. So they were treating Yongning Commandery as a trial province, testing the waters for a new policy here first.

The specific details were still being drafted, and the official appointment document would be delivered later. The Jinwu Guards had merely been sent ahead to deliver the message and have Shen Qing make preparations.

Shen Qing casually tossed the letter aside. "Overall commander, unifying the martial world—nothing concrete in sight. All I'm getting is empty pie after empty pie."

In his previous life, he had been fed this sort of pie every three days in small helpings and every five days in a grand feast. He had long since grown sick of it.

"Whose order is this? Zhu Lingyue's, or Shi Guyan's?"

Ma Xiong's legs went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground. He had heard Shi Guyan's name more than once—the Shi Guyan who had served as chancellor for four hundred years. Though he had never heard Zhu Lingyue's name, he knew the imperial family's surname was Zhu.

Ma Xiong's face grew even whiter as he looked at Shen Qing in terror. Was this man's courage really this great?

They said Zhao Zilong was courage from head to toe. Were you made entirely of Zhao Zilong or something?

Afraid that Shen Qing would say something else terrifying, Ma Xiong hurriedly said,

"Lord Shen, Lord Shen, there is something, there is something! The higher-ups had us bring something for you."

Shen Qing looked dissatisfied. "If there was something, why didn't you take it out earlier?"

Ma Xiong gave an embarrassed smile and opened the redwood box, revealing the black-handled, gold-patterned Overlord Bow inside. Shen Qing's eyes lit up.

The Overlord Bow was black as ink from end to end, its golden patterns like flowing lava—wild and flamboyant. The entire bow radiated a savage yet powerful beauty.

Shen Qing grabbed the bow grip in one hand.

"It has some weight to it. What is this bow called?"

Ma Xiong hurriedly explained, "My lord, this bow was used by the current Bow Saint, Grandmaster Realm Zhuge Qunying. It is called the Overlord Bow. Back when the Bow Saint served in the Jinwu Guard, Emperor Jing bestowed it upon him."

"The bow body is made from the heartwood of a thousand-year-old golden pine, and the bowstring from the sinew of a fierce Golden Sea Python. Its power is enough to kill a Grandmaster. But to draw it fully, one must be in the Grandmaster Realm—and an ordinary Grandmaster certainly will not do. At the very least, they must possess considerable strength. Even someone in the Xiantian Realm who can draw this bow would be considered..."

Ma Xiong's mouth opened wider and wider, but his voice abruptly cut off.

A faint dragon-and-elephant roar sounded from Shen Qing's body. The bowstring made from Golden Sea Python sinew was slowly drawn open by Shen Qing. As true qi flowed into it, the golden patterns on the bow seemed to begin moving, humming continuously as though answering his call.

As the string was drawn to its full extent, a roar rang out, like the furious howl of the Golden Sea Python.

Ma Xiong's mouth had opened as wide as it could. The shock in his heart could no longer be described in words.

Gao He, who had been lying unconscious on the ground, woke up as well. He looked at the fully drawn Overlord Bow and muttered to himself.

"Am I still dreaming?"

After saying that, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted again.

Shen Qing released the bowstring. The fondness in his eyes for the Overlord Bow was impossible to conceal as he looked at Ma Xiong.

"Not bad. It truly is a fine bow, but the spectacle is too great. Can it be concealed a little?"

The bow was a good bow, and its power was immense.

But every time he drew it, there was golden light and the hiss of a snake. Wasn't that practically telling the enemy—

Hey, your daddy's about to shoot you. Hurry up and dodge.

Whether they could dodge or not was another matter, but Shen Qing thought it was stupid.

Ma Xiong held up his jaw and closed his mouth. Perhaps he had been frightened witless, for his voice stuttered. "Y-yes, there is. Inside the box... there's a matching bow... technique."

Shen Qing glanced inside the redwood box and saw that there really was a small hidden compartment. "Can't you say everything at once? Tell me directly—do you have anything else? If you bring something up later, I'll slap you."

Ma Xiong immediately shook his head like a rattle drum.

Shen Qing opened the compartment and took out a small booklet. Written on it were the words Overlord Bow Technique.

After a brief moment of thought, Shen Qing chose to go all in first.

He consumed four opportunities to upgrade his traits.

Basic Archery (Green) upgraded to... Archery Master (Gold) upgraded to: Reincarnated God of Archery (Red)

Ma Xiong stood where he was for a long time. Seeing that Shen Qing was reading the manual and ignoring him, he softly said,

"Then, Lord Shen, if there is nothing else, this lowly one will take his leave?"

Shen Qing shot him a glance. "Leave? You still want to leave?"

"Can't you see the wall has collapsed? You think you can leave without fixing it?"