Current Progress in Cultivation

As someone the instructor had praised aloud.

Ling Wuyuan, who was silently practicing the [Basic Archery Shooting Method], naturally heard the conversations about him from not far away, thanks to his outstanding Physical Fitness and perception far beyond that of ordinary people.

Whether they were remarks criticizing him behind his back or words of sincere envy, he could hear them all.

However, he felt that none of it mattered.

He only wanted to handle his own affairs now.

For example, quietly practicing archery.

Was a target ninety paces away considered far?

In archery, one pace referred to an ordinary adult taking one step forward with each foot—in other words, walking forward two normal steps. Depending on one's build, that was roughly one and a half to two meters.

Thus, ninety paces amounted to around one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and eighty meters.

Although in his previous life, even the Olympic Games' archery competitions only used targets seventy meters away.

In this life, however, a target ninety paces away was about the level of an ordinary hunter.

If one casually brought over a hunter skilled with the bow but untrained in cultivation, they could basically make arrows land on the target with ease.

Of course.

Whether they could hit the center of the target was another matter.

Thus, in the eyes of the various onlookers, Ling Wuyuan's archery was probably only barely at the beginner level.

It was somewhat useful.

But not particularly useful.

At most, it meant he could take a bow out hunting without coming back empty-handed.

After watching for a few moments, they quickly shifted their gazes away.

However, at this distance, was Ling Wuyuan truly incapable of hitting the bullseye with every arrow?

Obviously not.

To him, the bow was an exceptionally easy weapon to learn.

Especially after mastering [Flawless Circle], Ling Wuyuan could effortlessly observe the surrounding wind speed, wind direction, and so on in real time through its effects. This greatly improved his accuracy with the bow.

The reason his arrows did not hit the bullseye was simply because he had not aimed at it.

He was aiming at the edges of the rings on the target, the mosquitoes on its surface...

Today, up to this point, his hit rate had remained one hundred percent.

Even those mosquitoes roughly the size of grains of rice were struck with perfect accuracy.

"At around four hundred paces, I should be able to guarantee a successful hit on a target the size of a human head..."

"An effective sniping range of nearly half a li..."

"In my previous life, that would at least have made me a mid-range sniper."

After thinking for a moment, he glanced at the short bow in his hand.

"Uh... if I really wanted to do that, I'd definitely need to change bows. This one is too light."

"If I hadn't been holding back my strength, I would have snapped its bowstring long ago..."

With the strength of nearly three thousand jin—one and a half tons—in a single arm, while his arm strength was still far inferior to the large ferocious beasts of this world, whose casual swipes carried several thousand or even tens of thousands of jin of force, he could indeed strangle one or two medium-sized beasts such as wolves or cheetahs with his bare hands quite easily.

Thus, if he truly wanted to draw a bow with full force, he would have to switch to a powerful bow.

The trainee short bow used for training was far too fragile and nowhere near enough to meet his needs.

Besides that.

It was worth mentioning that some of what the instructor had said earlier was actually wrong.

Palm techniques and fist techniques.

He did know them.

And he did indeed treat swordsmanship as a primary martial skill to practice.

But swordsmanship was not his only primary martial skill.

They were swordsmanship, fist techniques, and movement techniques!

Ling Wuyuan's proficiency in those three martial skills was roughly on the same level.

His secondary studies were palm techniques, finger techniques, claw techniques, leg techniques, daggers, and archery.

As for the foundation of everything—the [Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique]—that was naturally of the utmost importance.

When concentrating, Ling Wuyuan could now complete one full circulation of it roughly every forty minutes. If he divided his attention, he could complete a full circulation in around three hours.

Therefore.

So long as Ling Wuyuan was awake, the [Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique] was basically active, continuously refining the Qi and Blood within his body and strengthening his Physical Fitness.

Within two years, he planned to make the [Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique] operate effectively around the clock, including while he slept.

At present.

He had yet to figure out how to keep controlling a certain instinct of his body while asleep—when his brain was completely relaxed.

Honestly.

That was somewhat asking too much.

It was like expecting someone's body to keep solving math problems while they slept.

Leaving aside his next plans for the future.

As things stood now, Ling Wuyuan felt that his cultivation progress was undoubtedly encouraging.

The only minor problem was that, during the cultivation of the [Tiger Bone Body Strengthening Technique], the so-called Qi and Blood was refined from the cultivator himself. Thus, refining Qi and Blood too quickly would undoubtedly leave a cultivator's body depleted. That was dictated by the law of conservation of energy.

For that reason.

To make up for the nutritional deficiencies in his body,

Ling Wuyuan needed to consume large quantities of highly nutritious food.

To ensure that the excessive food could be digested quickly, he had even used his innate ability to accelerate his digestion.

Only then had he been able to eat all sorts of foods in quantities ten times that of an ordinary person.

Of course.

Ordinary food alone was not actually enough to sustain the nutrients he required.

Ling Wuyuan would occasionally buy things like ginseng and stew soup for himself.

This ensured that his needs were finally met, but his wallet had been hemorrhaging money over the long term.

Originally, he had thought the money in his possession would be enough to last him two or three years. But looking at it now, being able to make it last a single year would already count as good luck.

Therefore, with the thought that problems should be dealt with early, he had recently been looking over the White Crow Gang's task board, wanting to see which tasks suited him.

Among the many tasks.

He first ruled out bounty missions involving killing enemies or making arrests.

He was only eleven years old, and his strength was merely at the Body Tempering Realm. He was at the stage of a true newcomer just setting out on the road. Taking on missions involving murder and arson was somewhat too hasty—like skipping goblin quests and directly fighting trolls.

Not suitable!

Besides.

The targets had two legs, making them troublesome to find.

As for how he would explain to the gang why he could kill or capture them, that was an even greater trouble among troubles.

In the end.

Ling Wuyuan decided to make the most of what the mountains and waters provided. After a while, he would begin entering the mountains to gather herbs and hunt along the way.

If he managed to dig up some ginseng or kill a wolf.

Setting everything else aside, at the very least, his food problem would be successfully resolved.