Nature's Darling

How many times had this happened? Was being pretty a crime too?

Lan Mu had originally had a good impression of Du Yu, but that one word—"beauty"—made him not even want to acknowledge him.

Ignoring the six people gathered around him, he directly told the clerk to charge his card.

Because some arrows had been damaged, he had to pay quite a bit extra. The total came to 10,900 yuan.

Seeing this, Du Yu immediately said, "Charge my card!"

"We're friends, after all!"

Lan Mu looked at him speechlessly. Who the hell was friends with you?

Shaking his head, he insisted that the clerk charge his own card. Then he picked up his things, packed them up, and left.

Surrounded by the crowd, he gave a slight shake of his body and squeezed out from among them. One of them was even jolted back three steps.

It was as though he had crashed into an invisible wall of wind.

Lan Mu was startled inwardly. So Natural Power could be used like this too. It could not only be attached to external objects; releasing it into the air could produce power much like magic.

However, his expression remained calm as he rushed straight out of the specialty store.

"Don't go, beauty! How about I take you to the VIP shooting range?"

"Or we could go have fun at the Pinghu Town hunting grounds?"

Du Yu chased after him, shouting, but Lan Mu ignored him completely.

He even picked up his pace. Du Yu gave chase for a few steps before giving up, because Lan Mu was simply too fast, vanishing into the distance like the wind.

Du Yu stared at Lan Mu's retreating figure and said, "Why wouldn't he pay attention to me?"

At that moment, the clerk came over and said, "Brother Du, do you know why he ignored you?"

Du Yu grabbed the clerk and asked, "Why?"

"Because... he's a man! It was already pretty good that he didn't slap you after you called him a beauty."

Du Yu was shocked. "You're lying to me! She's obviously a woman disguised as a man. Can't you tell?"

"Hehe, I thought so too at first, but then he scolded me. That's when I noticed he had an Adam's apple. It's real—he's a man! So, Brother Du, are you disappointed?" The clerk seemed quite familiar with Du Yu and spoke with a grin.

"Damn, he's actually a man... No, wait! That's not the point! Why the hell would I be disappointed? Do you think I wanted his contact information just because he's pretty?" Du Yu suddenly came to his senses and said gloomily.

"Isn't that why? Who doesn't know that Boss Du is always surrounded by beautiful women?" the clerk said with a laugh.

"Well, that's true... but it has nothing to do with that! Do you know what he did back there?"

The other five people who had seen Lan Mu shoot arrows also spoke up.

"Exactly, you didn't see it!"

"Have you ever seen Explosive Consecutive Arrows?"

"Not a single shot missed. It really opened my eyes."

The clerk was utterly confused. Not a single shot missed? From his perspective, Lan Mu had clearly been a novice, an amateur outsider. How could that be possible?

Even after listening to the group describe what had happened in the back, the clerk still wore an expression of disbelief.

"Stop bragging, will you? How could anyone be that good? Forget club competitors—even Olympic athletes can't do that!"

Seeing that he did not believe them, one member said angrily, "Just because you don't know about it doesn't mean it doesn't exist! I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah! Maybe he's one of the club's top experts. You just sell equipment—what do you know about real masters?"

The clerk scoffed and refused to believe it no matter what they said. What a joke! Chain Shot? Did they think he was Huang Zhong?

Du Yu, however, said, "I know no one will believe it, but I saw it with my own eyes. I was lucky! If I hadn't experienced it personally, I wouldn't have believed there were experts at that level in the world. I've practiced archery for so long and thought someone at Fang Moqi's level was already a master. Only today did I witness truly Peerless Archery."

"Fang Moqi? The strongest practical archer in the club? The master hunter who led people from the club through forty-seven days of wilderness survival on the African savanna?"

"Brother Du, Fang Moqi isn't just an archer. He's also a wilderness survival expert and a doctor of zoology. He even took second place in an international amateur shooting competition. He's a real badass! I heard that he once parachuted alone into the Amazon rainforest with nothing but a knife and survived for eleven days. He even killed a giant python by himself, cut open its belly, and took out food."

"That guy just now was so pretty and looked like some effeminate pretty boy. How could he possibly be better than Fang Moqi?"

The clerk went on and on. Du Yu could not refute him. He knew Fang Moqi too. Fang Moqi was a genuine wilderness survival expert; archery was merely one of his many skills. Not only was he the strongest practical archer at Modu Forest Club, he was also a core member of a shooting club and an explorers' club.

But when it came to archery alone, he firmly believed Fang Moqi was far inferior to the person he had seen today.

Anyone who had not seen Lan Mu shoot would never believe that someone in this world could truly perform Explosive Consecutive Arrows!

"Oh, right! He paid by card just now, didn't he? That means you have a record of his bill here?"

Du Yu suddenly thought of something and said excitedly.

The clerk froze. "I do, but what are you planning to do, Brother Du? We can't see his personal information. Even if we could, I can't show you a customer's private information!"

Du Yu smiled. "I don't need you to."

"Hehe, I have my own ways of getting his contact information!"

Lan Mu ran several hundred meters away. Once he knew no one was chasing him anymore, he strolled into a park.

There were small hills and a grove inside the park. Knowing that people came and went through the park and that there were all sorts of people around, he found a secluded spot.

He then placed his hand on one large tree after another, using feedback to enhance their Life Force before communicating with them.

"Everyone, help me out. If anyone comes close, let me know, okay? Be good!"

The trees in the grove seemed to hear him, swaying their branches one after another. Having benefited from Lan Mu, they all became vibrant with life.

With the trees acting as sentries for him, he could safely test out his archery here!

"First up, Explosive Consecutive Arrows!"

Lan Mu fired rapidly, one arrow chasing after another. The Natural Power attached to the arrows transformed into the power of wind, causing the arrows ahead to explode. The shattered wood chips and splinters spread outward in front of them, creating a scattershot effect.

"Explosive Arrow!"

Lan Mu fired another arrow. Because it contained Natural Power, it moved under Lan Mu's control, curving around behind a rock before suddenly exploding and forming a scattershot.

"Good, good, good... Let me see how many arrows I can fire in a row at maximum speed!"

Lan Mu lined up the arrows, took a deep breath, and allotted an equal amount of Natural Power to each one. Natural Power then flowed through his arms, enhancing their speed, and he immediately began firing at superhuman speed.

Lan Mu's hands turned into afterimages as he continuously drew arrows, nocked them, pulled the bowstring, and released!

His speed reached the extreme. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—five arrows shot out in succession in just one second!

He did not stop until he had fired every arrow into the ground a hundred meters away.

As he walked over to retrieve the arrows, he recalled his firing speed from moments ago.

He had no precise measuring equipment, but his eyesight was unparalleled. He could see the arrows' movement with perfect clarity.

At any point along the hundred-meter trajectory, there had been three arrows in the air at once! By the time the fourth arrow was released, the first had already struck the target.

In other words, he could perform a three-arrow Chain Shot and fire five arrows per second!

Combined with the power, range, and accuracy of his arrows, Lan Mu's archery was already as threatening to ordinary people as firearms. It was not much worse than a gun.

And Lan Mu felt that he could go even faster. The problem was simply that the bow was not good enough to withstand greater speed.

After all, once the bowstring was drawn to full draw, it still needed time to snap back. Five arrows per second was this bow's limit!

With a better bow, or a special nocking technique, he could definitely fire six arrows per second, perhaps even seven.

After calculating and practicing his archery, Lan Mu felt confident and headed back.

As he walked back, he checked his phone and immediately noticed a WeChat message Cheng Ming had left for him.

"Brother Mu, have you bought the equipment? If you don't have enough money, forget about buying it. I'll borrow one from my dad's wedding company."

Lan Mu smiled slightly when he saw the message. Cheng Ming's family ran a wedding company and already had professional photography equipment.

A full set of equipment was insanely expensive. Even the cheapest sets cost tens of thousands of yuan. If Lan Mu bought it, his studio would be under a lot of pressure. If he also rented a large place, and they failed to make money in a short period of time, their cash flow would fall into trouble.

But even so, Lan Mu did not want to borrow from Cheng Ming's father.

"I've already bought it. When will you finish your resignation procedures and come help me?"

After replying with that message, Lan Mu decided not to go home yet. He needed to hurry and buy the photography equipment.

He had more than enough confidence that he would not starve for lack of material.

If he truly could not find good exclusive news, then he would create major news himself!

Besides, he did not necessarily have to make a living from news. Ever since transforming into an elf, he had suddenly thought of using his abilities to do more things.

Because he had always been a reporter, even after becoming independent, the only thing he had thought about was his old profession.

But there was no need for him to limit himself to reporting. He could also be a director! An independent producer!

There was another kind of reporter, one like an undercover police officer, who infiltrated a dangerous den, fought wits and courage against criminals, cracked a major case or participated in one from beginning to end, and eventually rose to fame.

With his transformation ability, what could he not do? Where could he not go?

He had transformed twice: once into the ruler of the jungle, and once into nature's darling. What place on land could still threaten him?

I must have rocks for brains.

"I've decided! My first work will be a documentary!"