Luck, That's All

Over the next few days.

Sun Yu went into the mountains by day and added points at night.

As the words [Proficient], [Minor Accomplishment], and [Major Accomplishment] lit up one by one, his originally stick-thin body became like a dry sponge finally meeting sweet rain after a long drought, madly absorbing the replenished vitality and blood brought by the skill.

On the night of the sixth day.

With the final point added, the panel trembled violently.

[Eight Divisions Vajra Skill (Complete)].

With his eyes closed, Sun Yu could clearly hear his own powerful heartbeat.

"Thump, thump, thump."

Like a muffled war drum.

He let out a long breath and slowly opened his eyes.

The bulging muscles that had once shown through his skin instead drew inward, and his skin became even finer and tauter than before.

But only Sun Yu knew what terrifying explosive power lay hidden beneath this seemingly lean frame.

He tried rolling his shoulders.

There was no sound at all, not the slightest sluggish friction in his joints.

"Completing a martial art in six days..."

Sun Yu looked at his much fairer palms and gave them a light shake, actually drawing a blurred afterimage through the air.

When a health-preserving art was cultivated to its limit, it concealed killing intent so deeply.

Early the next morning.

Heavy snow sealed off the mountain, and the cold wind cut like knives.

Alone, Sun Yu stepped through knee-deep snow. Rather than taking the outer route he had traveled over the past few days, he pressed straight another half li into the depths.

Beneath the roots of a dead tree ahead, a white shape was lowering its head to gnaw on grass roots.

It was a plump Snow Rabbit weighing a full seven or eight jin.

Snow Rabbits were extremely alert. With more than ten paces still between them, its long ears suddenly shot upright. Its hind legs kicked off, and it darted toward the bushes like an arrow loosed from the string.

If this had been before, Sun Yu could only have watched helplessly.

But now, his gaze sharpened.

Without the slightest hesitation, the muscles in Sun Yu's thighs abruptly tightened, and he stomped hard into the snow.

Bang!

The accumulated snow exploded into a huge crater.

Borrowing the recoil, Sun Yu became like a cheetah pouncing on its prey, instantly crossing several meters.

He thrust out his right hand, his five fingers like forged iron as they tore through the cold wind and clamped tightly around the Snow Rabbit's neck!

"Crack."

A faint sound of bones breaking rang out, and the violently struggling Snow Rabbit instantly went limp.

Sun Yu lifted the rabbit and weighed it in his hand, the corner of his mouth curling up.

The explosive strength and vitality provided by the Eight Divisions Vajra Skill at completion had made him utterly different from before.

In less than half an hour, he slapped three more Snow Rabbits to death with his bare hands in succession, and even pulled a Red Fox with sleek, oily fur from a trap.

That evening, at the hunters' shack on the edge of Black Crow Mountain.

Several old hunters who had retired due to injuries and disabilities lived here. They usually scraped by repairing hunting gear and trading furs for coarse rice.

Sun Yu lifted the felt curtain riddled with holes, bringing in a gust of cold wind.

Old Cripple, the one-eyed man sitting beside the brazier, raised his gaze. His eyes were instantly nailed to the two fat rabbits in Sun Yu's hand and that Red Fox pelt.

Hiss!

Old Cripple sucked in a breath, his cloudy lone eye gleaming green. "Kid Yu, what kind of damn luck did you stumble into?"

"Just luck." Sun Yu's tone was calm as he casually tossed the goods at Old Cripple's feet.

Sun Yu's hauls had been quite good these past few days, and everyone had seen it. They simply assumed he was lucky.

Besides, with these thick cotton clothes on, no one could see the changes in Sun Yu's body now.

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It was nothing more than his breath being fuller than usual; even when he walked, he seemed to carry the wind with him.

Everyone was usually too busy with their own lives. Whether others lived or died was not something anyone liked to worry about.

Old Cripple swallowed, his withered fingers rubbing together. "What are you planning to trade for this time? This old man doesn't have any coarse rice left."

The more rabbit meat one ate, the hungrier one became, but the masters of the house loved it.

So whenever they caught more Snow Rabbits than they needed, they would come to Old Cripple to trade them for some coarse rice.

"I want to trade for that bow on the wall, and that archery manual you mentioned before." Sun Yu lifted his chin slightly and pointed toward the corner.

Old Cripple froze for a moment.

That wooden bow had been pressed from the cheapest Mulberry Wood, its back covered in tiny cracks. Its Bowstring was made from unworked Inferior Ox Tendon, hard as stone; ordinary people could not draw it at all.

As for that tattered book, he had found it years ago on a corpse at the outskirts of Black Crow Mountain. It was called Beginner Archery. It contained only a few crude diagrams of how to draw a bow, without even a method for guiding qi into the blood, so he had long since used it to prop up a table leg.

"Kid Yu, that bow is a piece of junk—"

"Are we trading or not?" Sun Yu could not be bothered to listen to his nonsense.

"Trade! Of course we'll trade!" Afraid that Sun Yu might change his mind, Old Cripple swept the game from the ground into his arms, then swiftly stuffed the broken bow and tattered book into Sun Yu's hands.

Half an hour later.

Sun Yu returned to the drafty woodshed next door.

He hung the inferior wooden bow at the head of his bed and, by the moonlight filtering through the cracks, opened the Beginner Archery manual that reeked of mildew.

The so-called archery was indeed exceedingly basic.

There were only three steps: stance, nock the arrow, aim.

Sun Yu did not mind. He stared hard at the diagrams in the book from beginning to end twice over.

A moment later.

Before his retina, the silver panel that had lain dormant all day rippled like water.

[Martial Skill: Beginner Archery (Not Initiated) +]

These past few days, he had had no other cultivation methods to work with, wasting quite a few opportunities.

Now that he had a new cultivation method, he could resume using the system's daily function.

Sun Yu clenched the edge of the tattered book, his breathing growing heavier despite himself.

As long as it was a Martial Skill, as long as it was recorded by the panel, there was no such thing as aptitude or bottlenecks.

With a thought, the "+" vanished.

[Martial Skill: Beginner Archery (Initiated)]

The next second, Sun Yu felt a slight swelling in his head as a flood of memories—drawing a bow, nocking an arrow, judging the wind—was forcibly etched into his mind.

Immediately afterward, his arm muscles tingled and ached. The muscle fibers in his upper arms, which had not been particularly thick to begin with, became immensely tough, like tightly twisted steel cables.

A thick layer of calluses also grew at a visible rate on the pads of the index finger and thumb of his bow-drawing right hand.

What delighted Sun Yu even more were his eyes.

First, a stabbing pain shot through them. Then they became clear and bright, as if washed with cool water.

Through the cracks in the broken window, he could even see a black beetle slowly crawling along the branch of a dead tree more than ten meters away!

Eyesight, arm strength, muscle memory—all of it came to him in an instant.

Sun Yu turned his head, his gaze falling on the inferior wooden bow at the head of the bed, covered in cracks.

He seized the bow, gripping its body with his left hand and hooking that stiff Inferior Ox Tendon with his right.

Without the slightest hesitation, as naturally as if he had practiced it ten million times.

"Creak!"

The hard bow that Old Cripple claimed ordinary people could never draw was effortlessly pulled into a full moon in Sun Yu's hands!

Before the arrow was even loosed, a sharp, killing aura had already filled the woodshed.

Sun Yu slowly released the Bowstring, ambition churning in his eyes.

At this rate, once he saved enough money, he could buy back his freedom.

Being bound to the status of a household slave left him far too much at others' mercy.

With the system in hand, growing stronger was only a matter of time.

If you think this book is good, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you do not lose it next time.