Missile Special Training

The nation's top practical archer was actually challenging a reporter. To them, that was simply unbelievable.

They did not know the details of the bet and only assumed Fang Moqi had initiated the challenge.

"Bullshit, right? **** Is there really anyone whose archery can compare to Fang Moqi's?"

"Exactly! And he's a reporter. I don't believe it!"

"It'll probably be completely one-sided."

The crowd buzzed with discussion, but Du Yu happily jumped up and down, staring at Lan Mu with excitement.

Du Yu alone knew just how unbelievable Lan Mu's archery was. It felt as unreal as watching a movie.

Fang Moqi did not care what anyone else thought. He walked straight up to Lan Mu and smiled.

"Faster than me? Very well. There's a special training area in the back. How about we compete there?"

Lan Mu had no idea what a special training area was, but he did not care. He did not care what they competed in.

"Whatever. We can compete however you want... I only have one condition."

"Oh?" Fang Moqi asked. "What condition? Go ahead and say it."

Lan Mu pointed at the crowd. "I don't want anyone else watching our competition. Let Du Yu be the judge."

"Huh? What did you say?"

"You've got to be kidding! We finally have a chance to watch such an exciting match, and you won't let us see it?"

"That's right! I've admired Fang Moqi's archery for a long time."

Lan Mu's request stirred up the crowd. They had all come because of Fang Moqi's reputation and wanted to see his amazing archery.

Fang Moqi froze for a moment, then laughed. He remembered that Lan Mu might not know how to shoot at all. After all, there were no signs of long-term archery practice on his hands.

He probably doesn't want anyone watching because he's afraid of losing too badly, Fang Moqi thought.

"Fine! I agree!"

Fang Moqi was quite considerate of Lan Mu's pride and agreed right away.

"But Du Yu isn't a professional judge. How about we change judges? What about Wang Ling?"

Wang Ling froze, then was overjoyed. He often acted as a referee at the club. Although his archery was not much to speak of, he was quite capable as a judge.

"I have no problem with that! I just don't know..."

Wang Ling looked at Lan Mu, who pondered for a moment before saying, "That's fine, but you have to promise not to spread word of it."

At those words, Du Yu trembled with excitement from head to toe. He knew Lan Mu was serious. Lan Mu was a very low-key person, and since he said not to spread word of it, he was definitely going to use Peerless Archery!

"Agree to it! Hurry and agree! Wang Ling, hurry up and say you won't spread it around!" Du Yu did not care at all about losing his right to judge and shouted excitedly.

Wang Ling did not know why Du Yu was so worked up, but he wanted to see Fang Moqi's archery. He did not care whether the others got to watch, so he hurriedly agreed. "Fine! I promise you! I absolutely won't spread it to anyone else."

"Damn it! Why?"

"I want to watch too! I can be a judge too!"

The others complained bitterly, but Wang Ling did not care. As long as he got what he wanted, that was enough.

Fang Moqi nodded and said to Wang Ling, "Old Wang, go prepare the area in the back. We'll shoot moving targets. Let's start with missiles."

With that, Fang Moqi took off the backpack on his back. It was an intricately designed pack.

He opened it and spread it out on the ground, revealing the equipment inside.

"Whoa!"

When everyone saw the true face of Fang Moqi's backpack, they exclaimed in amazement.

Dozens of weapons appeared in the unfolded backpack, ranging from tiny pocket knives to powerful ox-tendon bows.

These weapons were clearly homemade. Some were made from bone, while others bore obvious signs of manual polishing. Only one item was industrially manufactured: a steel plate that had been shot through, quietly fixed at the center of the pack.

Skinning knife, bone cleaver, triangular spike, ******, short dagger, blow darts, longbow, flint...

Fang Moqi took nothing else, only two sets of bows and arrows, one large and one small. The large one was over a meter long, made from animal sinew and bone, a homemade powerful bow.

The small one was less than two feet long, and even its arrows were thin and short.

"Where's your equipment?"

Lan Mu touched his back and took out the recurve bow he had bought not long ago from his backpack.

The style made it obvious that it had been bought from a Forest Club brick-and-mortar store, drawing snickers from quite a few people.

Even Zheng Hui could not help shaking his head. "He really is an amateur! That bow is decent enough for amateurs, but even competitive archers don't use that kind of bow. What practical archer would use a standard-issue bow like that?"

Yu Xiao also said, "Heh, could it be that he plans to use that bow to perform that... rat-a-tat-tat?"

Lan Mu glanced at them and ignored them, speaking only to Fang Moqi. "This is my equipment. I'm ready."

Fang Moqi also looked at his bow in surprise. With his experience, he could tell at a glance that the bow was brand-new and had definitely been used for less than a week.

"You... Fine. Let's go."

The two left through the back of the lounge and soon reached the so-called special training area, which was actually just an enormous training room.

Everyone followed them over, but after the two entered the training room, Wang Ling stopped the others. "Don't make things difficult for me. Fang Moqi already agreed to his request."

With that, he moved to shut the door.

To his surprise, Du Yu suddenly charged forward, slammed the door open a crack, and squeezed inside.

Wang Ling grabbed him, only to hear him shout, "Brother Mu, I've seen your incredible archery before. It's fine if I watch, right?"

Lan Mu looked at him speechlessly and nodded. Du Yu had seen it before anyway. If he shut him outside, who knew what that guy might do?

Bang!

Seeing the others trying to squeeze their way in, Wang Ling hurriedly shut the door and locked it tight.

Ignoring the complaints outside, the four of them walked to the middle of the training area.

"Let's make this quick. I'll explain how the missile game works first."

Fang Moqi did not waste words and immediately began explaining.

"In a moment, you and I will each hold a bow and stand on this platform. Machines will launch missiles from the right at speeds up to seventy-five meters per second. They'll eventually fall into the collection port on the left. Look..."

Fang Moqi nodded at Wang Ling. Wang Ling operated a device in the corner of the training area, and countless small balls, roughly the size of ping-pong balls, immediately shot from a small opening in the right wall, streaking past a few meters in front of Lan Mu.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" White blurs flashed past, and the missiles fell into the huge collection port on the left.

"We stand on the platform and shoot the passing missiles. In the end, we don't count the ones that fall into the collection port. We tally the missiles that were hit and fell to the ground. We can determine the winner by the different colors of arrows embedded in them."

"My arrows are all black, while yours are gray, so they'll be easy to distinguish. If there are more gray arrows on the missiles counted at the end, you win."

"This is one of my usual training exercises. It tests an archer's eyesight, reflexes, and rapid-fire ability. I used to use it as a warm-up. Do you want to compete in this? If you don't like it, you can choose something else. There are more than thirty special training methods here."

Lan Mu smiled. "What's your best score?"

Fang Moqi thought for a moment. "I remember it was sixty-four arrows in one minute."

Upon hearing that score, Du Yu cut in from the side. "I know! Brother Mu, don't underestimate sixty-four arrows a minute just because you're faster. Brother Fang hit missiles with all sixty-four arrows!"

"At the time, the missiles were launched at a rate of one hundred per minute, with twenty launch tubes firing at the same time. After one minute, a total of two thousand missiles had been launched. Two hundred and ten missiles fell to the ground afterward. Brother Fang fired sixty-four arrows, and every one hit at least three missiles. Several even hit four or five missiles with a single arrow!"

After hearing Du Yu, Lan Mu did not find it particularly difficult. He imagined it for a moment and felt it was far too easy.

"Fine, let's compete in this. Let's finish quickly."

Lan Mu drew his bow and nocked an arrow, silently waiting.

Fang Moqi smiled and shouted to Wang Ling, "Old Wang! Start! One minute! Rate of one hundred, twenty tubes!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

As soon as the countdown ended, Du Yu and Wang Ling stared in shock. Even though Du Yu had seen this scene before, he was still tremendously excited.

Countless missiles shot from the wall, leaving trails of white in the air along with rushing sounds.

From the very start, neither Fang Moqi nor Lan Mu stopped moving. Both were faster than the other!

The way they drew and nocked their arrows was completely different. Lan Mu used the standard method, drawing arrows from his quiver one by one, swiftly nocking them, then drawing and releasing!

Fang Moqi, on the other hand, gripped three arrows at once, holding them between different fingers.

After firing one arrow, all he needed was a deft flick of his fingers. The second arrow would slide along a beautiful arc around his fingers and settle onto the bow.

The third arrow was the same. This special drawing technique allowed him to reach a maximum speed of three consecutive arrows per second.

However, he would slow down afterward because he had to draw another three arrows.

"H-How is this possible?" The more Wang Ling watched, the more something felt wrong. Fang Moqi, whom he considered the strongest, was actually slower than Lan Mu!

Lan Mu used only the most ordinary arrow-gripping technique, carrying out each motion one arrow at a time, yet his speed was not the slightest bit slower than Fang Moqi's three-arrow bursts.

From the beginning, Lan Mu's speed never dropped. Every arrow maintained the same terrifying speed, his hands dancing between his quiver and powerful bow like a startled swan, leaving only afterimages.

Du Yu's eyes shone. His efforts had not been in vain. At last, he was witnessing that ultimate-speed archery again.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Arrows flew out in an endless stream. Missiles kept falling, and the ground was soon covered with them, with several usually strung together on the same arrow.

One minute passed in the blink of an eye. When the time was up, the missiles automatically stopped.

Lan Mu and Fang Moqi both lowered their bows.

Having been intensely focused just now, Fang Moqi had not paid attention to Lan Mu. He had only felt that Lan Mu was incredibly fast, without knowing exactly how fast.

So the first thing Fang Moqi did was look at Lan Mu's quivers.

"F-Five quivers... all empty?"

Fang Moqi and Lan Mu each had five quivers hanging from their waists. To his surprise, Lan Mu had fired every single arrow in all of them within one minute!

"No, mine seems to... Hm?"

Fang Moqi suddenly noticed that his own arrow count was wrong. He had used one extra quiver of arrows!

"Could it be..."

"Did you use one of my quivers just now?" Fang Moqi asked incredulously.

Lan Mu nodded. "Ah... Yeah."