Late at night, all was silent.
In Chen Shouyi's bedroom, Shell Girl, who had been lying motionless on the desk, suddenly slowly sat up.
She lowered her head and glanced at the Princess Dress on her body. Its lovely colors finally stirred a flicker of emotion in her eyes. She stood and took a few light steps, then spun gracefully in a circle, watching the skirt float up like flower petals.
A hint of delight crept onto her little face.
But when she remembered her predicament, she immediately suppressed her smile.
She hurried over to the enormous Spoon. Catching the slightly pungent, sweet smell, she looked disgusted, but her stomach was empty, and she needed strength for the escape she was planning. Pinching her nose, she took several gulps. It was so sweet that she grimaced.
She burped, rested for a while, and felt her strength gradually return.
Then she immediately set to work.
She made her way along the desk, glancing down from time to time. Everywhere she looked, the drops were enormous.
Fortunately, this strange world had made her body even lighter, though her innate ability had vanished completely.
She silently worked up her courage, gritted her teeth, aimed for the spot where the giant had been sitting, and leaped.
Her body traced an arc through the air and landed on the chair. She rolled a few times, then got to her feet.
It had been easier than she'd imagined, and her courage swelled.
Just then, a loud creaking sound rang out beside her. She darted behind the chair leg, held her breath, and went pale with fright.
Luckily, the "giant" had only turned over. Soon, his heavy breathing began again.
Only after a long while did she dare continue. She crept along cautiously and soon reached the door.
There was a gap of about four or five millimeters between the door and the floor.
Her eyes lit up. She hurried over. For someone as tiny as she was, the gap was more than wide enough.
So excited she could hardly contain herself, she immediately lay down and crawled forward.
Her head made it through!
Soon, her chest was through too!
Her excitement mounted. Just as she was about to press on and escape this Demon Lair, she suddenly found herself unable to move forward. It seemed something was holding her back. She struggled with all her might, but couldn't budge an inch.
The next day, Chen Shouyi woke before dawn.
He immediately looked toward the desk and saw that Shell Girl was gone.
His heart jolted. He hurriedly searched everywhere, and finally found her in the gap beneath the door. The fluffy skirt of her Princess Dress had caught on a splinter in the wood. If not for that, she really would have escaped.
He tied Shell Girl up again and sealed her with Tape. A wave of lingering fear washed over him, and he couldn't help wondering whether he should buy her a cage.
He got up earlier than usual that day. His parents and younger sister were still asleep. He quickly washed his face and brushed his teeth, then returned to his bedroom.
After packing his things, he waited until seven o'clock, then leaped out the window once more.
"Mom, I'm off. Tell Dad for me."
"Got it. Study hard, and don't worry about home," Mother Chen called loudly from the busy restaurant.
"Where's Shouyi?" Chen Dawei heard the voice and hurried out, still wearing his apron.
"He left already."
"That kid. I wanted to talk to him! He's been so hard to find these past few days. I never see him."
After leaving home, Chen Shouyi first went to the supermarket and bought a pile of food and plenty of drinking water. Then he booked a single room for fifteen days at a secluded little hotel and stowed his luggage there.
He estimated the time and waited until eleven before quietly entering the Otherworld again.
The night before, while browsing the internet on his phone, he'd learned that one day in the Otherworld lasted roughly forty Earth hours.
Sure enough, when he entered, the sky was only just beginning to brighten.
The mist on the mountain and the eerie singing had both vanished, as if they had never appeared.
He untied Shell Girl again, binding only her legs with Nylon String, then continued threatening her into gathering Gold Sand for him.
Back in familiar surroundings, Shell Girl felt her innate ability return. She tentatively flew a few times, her little face lighting up with delight, then happily darted around in search of Gold Sand, as if she'd completely forgotten she was a prisoner.
Perhaps she had simply accepted her fate.
Chen Shouyi continued practicing.
Here, he had a tremendous advantage: his Natural Healing ability could quickly repair strained muscles and dispel muscle fatigue faster, allowing him to endure more intense and frequent training.
He'd noticed this the day before. Whenever his muscles cramped from practice, their fatigue faded after just ten-odd seconds.
Before, it had taken at least four or five hours.
Each sword technique involved a whole series of muscles. The movements were powerful, but also exhausting to practice, and the muscles tired easily. Few Martial Apprentices could keep practicing for more than five minutes straight.
Usually, they practiced for three or four minutes, then rested for ten before muscle fatigue reached its limit. In an hour of training, they spent most of the time resting.
But he didn't have to do that at all. That meant he had far more time to practice than anyone else.
Time flew. Two days passed on Earth in the blink of an eye.
At noon, he picked up a bag and hurried out of the hotel.
Then he went to a nearby gold shop to sell the gold Shell Girl had collected over the past few days.
He had secretly melted the gold into bars beforehand to avoid unnecessary trouble. Gold Sand was simply too conspicuous; people might easily suspect he'd discovered a gold mine.
During this period, he had changed the way he exploited her. Instead of relying on constant threats and pressure, he'd switched to material incentives: dresses in different styles, pretty glass marbles, and colorful little trinkets.
As a result, Shell Girl became more and more efficient at collecting Gold Sand, and her enthusiasm grew.
In just a few days, she had gathered more than a pound of Gold Sand.
Staring at the 110,000-yuan balance on the ATM screen, Chen Shouyi's heart pounded.
One hundred and ten thousand yuan might not be much in Dongning City, where even a fifth- or sixth-tier city had housing prices nearing ten thousand yuan per square meter. It could barely buy a bathroom.
But for Chen Shouyi, whose savings had never exceeded three thousand yuan in his entire life, it was a fortune.
Selling the gold wasn't the only reason he'd come out this time.
He had lied to Mother Chen, telling her he was going away for a closed-door exam-prep course. He had to make the lie come true, and pass the Martial Apprentice examination.
His physical fitness was no longer a problem. His swordsmanship had grown more fluid after practicing under three times the gravity, and he should be able to pass that part too. All he lacked was archery.
But he didn't want to sign up for another cram course.
First, there wasn't enough time.
Second, that kind of inefficient teaching method didn't suit him.
Half an hour later, he stood in front of the entrance to Chuansheng Archery Hall.
Chen Shouyi got out of a taxi. This was the largest Archery Hall in Dongning City.
Many Martial Apprentices came here to practice, and sometimes even martial artists could be spotted.
"Could you tell me how much it costs?"
The girl at the front desk smiled. "We offer annual, six-month, quarterly, and monthly memberships. A monthly membership costs 4,500 yuan. Annual memberships are half price, and six-month memberships are twenty percent off..."
"Do you have a daily rate, or one based on time?" he quickly interrupted her sales pitch.
"Of course. We have single-visit passes, which cost 300 yuan each and are valid from nine in the morning until nine at night. Private coaching and massage services cost extra."
"Then get me a single-visit pass."
"May I see your ID?"
Chen Shouyi showed her his ID and paid. Soon, he received a temporary membership card.
Before he even reached the entrance, he could hear the dense "thup, thup" of arrows hitting bull's-eyes.
The Archery Hall covered a vast area. Looking down the passageways on either side, it seemed to stretch for nearly a hundred meters, covering more than ten thousand square meters.
It was still the National Day holiday, the peak business period, and the entire venue was packed.
There were not only office workers in short sportswear and burly, muscular men, but plenty of elderly people and children as well.
Most of them were clearly amateurs.
Compared with swordsmanship, which was extremely difficult to master, archery was easy to learn but hard to perfect. Even many people with no ambitions in martial arts treated it as a casual pastime.
Still, there were quite a few experts here.
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