Archery Hall

Late at night, all was silent!

In Chen Shouyi's bedroom, the Shell Girl, who had been lying motionless on the desk, suddenly sat up slowly.

She looked down at the Princess Dress on her body, its beautiful colors finally stirring something in her eyes. She stood up and took a few light steps, then spun around gracefully, watching the dress float up like petals as she turned.

A hint of delight couldn't help but flicker across her small face.

But thinking of her current predicament, she quickly suppressed her smile.

She hurried over to the huge Spoon, sniffed the cloying sweet smell, and wrinkled her nose in distaste. Yet hunger gnawed at her belly, and with her escape plan in mind, she pinched her nose and gulped down several mouthfuls, the sweetness making her frown.

She let out a small burp, rested for a while, and felt her strength gradually returning.

She immediately set to work.

She crept along the desk, peering down from time to time, and found that every drop was a sheer cliff.

Fortunately, this strange world, though it had completely stripped her of her innate abilities, had also made her body lighter.

She silently steeled herself, gritted her teeth, and aimed for the spot where the giant had been sitting earlier, then leaped.

Her body arced through the air, landed on the chair, rolled a few times, and stood up.

Easier than she'd imagined—her courage swelled.

Just then, a loud creak sounded in her ears. She quickly darted behind the chair leg, held her breath, and her small face went pale with fright.

Luckily, the "giant" only turned over, and soon the heavy breathing resumed.

Only after a long while did she dare move again. She stepped softly, cautious as could be, and soon reached the front door.

There was a gap of about four or five millimeters between the door and the floor.

Her eyes lit up at the sight, and she hurried over. For a body as tiny as hers, such a gap was more than enough.

Her heart nearly leaped with excitement. She dropped to the ground and crawled forward on her belly.

Her head passed through!

Soon her chest followed!

Her excitement grew. Just as she was about to press on and escape this Demon Lair, she suddenly found she couldn't move forward. Something seemed to be holding her back. She struggled desperately, but she was stuck fast.

The next day, before dawn, Chen Shouyi woke up.

He looked at the desk first and immediately saw that the Shell Girl was gone.

His heart jumped. He searched frantically and finally found her in the crack of the door. Her fluffy Princess Dress had been snagged on a splinter of wood in the gap—if not for that, she would have gotten away.

He tied the Shell Girl up again and sealed it with tape, a lingering fear in his heart. He couldn't help wondering if he should buy her a cage.

He got up earlier than usual. His parents and sister were still asleep. He quickly washed his face, brushed his teeth, and returned to his bedroom.

He packed his luggage, and when the clock struck seven, he leaped out the window again.

"Mom, I'm leaving. Tell Dad for me."

"Got it. Study hard, don't worry about home." Mother Chen, busy in the restaurant, called out loudly.

"What about Shouyi?" Chen Dawei, hearing the voice, rushed out with an apron tied on.

"He left early."

"That kid, I wanted to talk to him! He's been coming and going like a ghost these past few days—can't even catch sight of him."

After leaving home, Chen Shouyi first went to the supermarket, stocked up on a pile of food and a large amount of drinking water, then booked a single room for fifteen days at a secluded little inn, and stowed his luggage.

He estimated the time and, at eleven o'clock, quietly slipped back into the Otherworld.

From browsing his phone last night, he'd roughly learned that a day in the Otherworld lasted about forty Earth hours.

Sure enough, when he entered, the sky was just barely light.

Both the mist on the mountain and the eerie singing had vanished, as if they'd never existed.

He untied the Shell Girl again, only binding her leg with Nylon String, and continued threatening her into gathering Gold Sand for him.

Back in her familiar environment, the Shell Girl felt her innate abilities return. She tested a few flights, a look of surprise on her small face, then flitted about joyfully, searching for Gold Sand, as if she'd completely forgotten about being imprisoned.

Maybe she'd already resigned herself.

Chen Shouyi continued his practice.

Here, he had a huge advantage: the Natural Healing ability could quickly repair muscle strains and also eliminate muscle fatigue much faster, allowing him to endure higher intensity and density training.

He'd noticed this phenomenon yesterday. Whenever he trained until his muscles cramped, it took only a dozen seconds for the fatigue to subside.

In the past, it would have taken at least four or five hours.

Each sword technique involved a series of muscles across the body. While the moves were immensely powerful, they were also exhausting to practice, and the muscles tired easily. Few Martial Apprentices could train continuously for more than five minutes.

Usually, they'd practice for three or four minutes, then rest for ten minutes before fatigue peaked. An hour of practice was mostly spent resting.

But he didn't have to do that at all. This meant he had far more practice time than others.

Time flew by. Two Earth days had passed in the blink of an eye.

At noon, he grabbed a bag and quickly left the hotel.

Soon after, he arrived at a nearby gold shop to offload the gold that Shell Girl had collected over the past few days. The gold had already been secretly smelted into bars to avoid unnecessary trouble—after all, Gold Sand was too eye-catching and could easily make people suspect he'd found a gold mine.

Lately, he'd changed his exploitation methods, swapping the original relentless intimidation for material incentives: various styles of skirts, shiny glass marbles, and some colorful trinkets. As a result, Shell Girl's efficiency in collecting Gold Sand kept rising, and her enthusiasm grew stronger.

In just a few days, the Gold Sand she'd gathered weighed over a catty.

Staring at the ATM screen showing a deposit of 110,000 yuan, Chen Shouyi's heart pounded.

110,000 might not be much—in Dongning, a fifth- or sixth-tier city where housing prices were nearly 10,000 per square meter, that sum could only buy a bathroom. But for Chen Shouyi, whose personal stash had never exceeded 3,000 yuan since childhood, it was a fortune.

He hadn't come out just to sell gold. Though he'd lied to Mother Chen, claiming he needed closed-door pre-exam training, he had to make that lie real—he had to pass the Martial Apprentice assessment.

His physical fitness was no longer an issue. His swordsmanship, honed through practice under triple gravity, had grown more fluid and should pass. Only archery remained.

But he didn't want to sign up for another cram course. First, there wasn't enough time. Second, those inefficient teaching methods didn't suit him.

Half an hour later, at the entrance of Chuansheng Archery Hall. Chen Shouyi stepped out of the taxi. This was Dongning City's largest archery hall. Many Martial Apprentices came here to practice, and sometimes even Martial Artists could be spotted.

"How much does it cost here?" he asked.

The girl at the front desk smiled. "We offer annual, half-year, quarterly, and monthly memberships. A monthly card costs 4,500 yuan; annual cards get a 50% discount, half-year cards 20% off..."

"Do you have daily or hourly rates?" He cut off her sales pitch.

"Of course. We have a per-visit card—300 yuan per session, valid from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Private coaching and massage services are extra."

"Just give me a per-visit card."

"Please show your ID."

Chen Shouyi handed over his documents, paid, and quickly received a temporary membership card.

Before he even reached the doorway, he could hear the dense thud-thud of arrows striking bullseyes. The archery hall was enormous, stretching nearly a hundred meters along both side corridors, covering over ten thousand square meters.

It was the National Day holiday, peak business hours, and the entire venue was packed. There were men and women in sporty shorts, muscular brutes, and even quite a few elderly people and children. Most of them were clearly amateurs.

Compared to swordsmanship, which was extremely hard to start, archery was easy to learn but difficult to master. Even people not pursuing martial arts often took up shooting as a casual pastime. Still, there were plenty of skilled archers among the crowd.