Half an hour later, Lin Xuan walked across the Drill Ground carrying a Twelve-Strength Heavy Bow, thirty-three arrows, and a brand-new Fine Waist Saber.
Thirty of the arrows were Armor-Piercing Arrows, and their shafts were much longer than the ones he had before.
The other three were Whistling Arrows, also known as Sounding Arrows. When fired, the holes in the arrows made them vibrate and produce a piercing whistle that carried for hundreds of meters. They were basically the ancient version of signal flares.
The value of these items far exceeded the six and a half taels of silver he had originally estimated. Qin Lie hadn't made a single bit of profit from the ten taels Lin Xuan had given him.
He drew the bow, nocked an arrow, and fired at a target on the Drill Ground. In an instant, he hit the bull's-eye, and the arrow sank deep into it.
The bow felt excellent, but Lin Xuan figured he wouldn't be able to use it for long before he needed an even heavier one.
After all, he was improving far too quickly. It would take him, at most, half a year to reach the Breath-Connecting Realm.
He now had two sets of weapons.
He should have sold the original set, but then he remembered that Lin An needed weapons too, and abandoned the idea.
It was still midday, so it was time to head back. Lin Xuan wanted to make time to hunt as well, since the meat at home was gone, and ordinary beast meat did little to improve his martial arts.
As he walked, Lin Xuan scanned his surroundings and spotted someone following him in the distance. It seemed to be the same person who had tailed him that morning.
He still didn't make a move. Pretending not to have noticed, he hurried home.
Lin An was practicing martial arts moves: the Grand Ancestor Long Fist from the Grand Ancestor Internal Strength. Her punches were powerful, and each one cut through the air with a tiger's force.
Lin Xuan thought she could probably beat up the version of him from his first few days after transmigrating.
"You're back already? Are you hungry? I'll go cook some meat for you."
Lin Xuan shook his head. "No need. I'm going hunting. Let's see if I can catch anything today."
"You can use this bow and short saber."
Lin An took the bow and short saber and tried to draw the bow. "All right. When will you teach me how to shoot?"
Seeing this, Lin Xuan hurriedly called out, "Stop, stop, stop! Don't dry-fire it!"
At his words, Lin An immediately stopped drawing the bow and slowly relaxed the string.
"Don't shoot it without an arrow. It'll damage the bow."
Lin An nodded. "I understand. I'll be careful next time. So when will you teach me to shoot?"
Lin Xuan shook his head. "You don't need to learn just yet. I have a task for you."
"What is it?" Lin An asked curiously.
Lin Xuan explained his plan. "Someone's following me. Most likely, it's one of the bandits from Wolf Cave Mountain. I'm going hunting this time anyway, so I'll flush him out and see if I can get more information. They're still alive, and I can't get a moment's peace."
Lin An replied, "Then let's go together. I'm much stronger than an ordinary man now. I can help."
Lin Xuan nodded. "Mm, but you'll need to stay hidden. I'll be in the open, you'll be in the shadows, and we'll work together. In a little while, I'll fire a Whistling Arrow. Listen carefully to its sound. Until you hear it, stay back at a distance.
"When you hear the Whistling Arrow, come support me right away.
"To be safe, carry the other Sleeve Arrow too. It'll help protect you."
"All right, I'll do as you say. How many people are following you? Can you handle them?" Lin An asked, puzzled.
"It's nothing. Don't worry." Lin Xuan shook his head, picked up a Sounding Arrow, and fired it at the haystack in his yard.
The sound of the arrow was like a firework rocketing into the sky, distinctive enough that Lin An remembered it after hearing it just once.
Lin Xuan still wasn't quite at ease about Lin An, so he decided to give her Silent Step.
After all, talents from the Book of Fate could be granted and withdrawn at will.
Lin Xuan tried granting the talent to Lin An.
Should the talent [Silent Step] be granted?
[Yes]
Soon, four golden characters appeared above Lin An's head: [Endurance] [Silent Step].
Should the talent [Silent Step] be withdrawn?
[Yes]
In an instant, [Silent Step] disappeared from above Lin An's head.
Lin Xuan tried the grant function once more.
Should the talent [Silent Step] be granted?
[Yes]
The two characters appeared above Lin An's head again.
"So it really can be granted and withdrawn repeatedly!" Lin Xuan was delighted to have confirmed how the function worked.
That meant that later, if he broke through to the Breath-Connecting Realm and there were no formidable enemies nearby, he could grant this talent to Lin An, allowing her strength to surge and keep pace with his own progress.
Lin Xuan took a nap at home. It wasn't until the Hour of the Rooster, when the sun was nearly setting, that he left with the heavy bow and Goose-Quill Saber.
"It's so late. Why are you going hunting now?" Chen Fang worried when she heard where Lin Xuan was going. It was far too late to head out hunting. Who went at this hour?
Lin Xuan reassured her. "Mother, don't worry. Your son can lift a four-hundred-jin boulder now. What could possibly hurt me? Even if I can't beat it, I can outrun it, can't I?
"Besides, the Black Bear Spirit is dead. No other monsters are likely to appear anytime soon."
Chen Fang shook her head. "I can't talk you out of it. Go, but make sure you're back before the Hour of the Dog! Otherwise, you might run into a Grandma Cat that eats people."
A Grandma Cat was a strange beast. Despite its name, it was as huge as a tiger, and its cries sounded like a baby wailing, luring kind-hearted people into helping it.
Someone ignorant of the world might think a baby had been left in the wilderness. Unable to bear it, they would go looking for the child, intending to bring it back to a village or county town.
The moment someone drew close, the Grandma Cat, which had been lying in wait, could bite their neck clean through.
A Grandma Cat had a mouthful of sharp teeth and a powerful bite. Legend had it that it could chew human bones like peanuts.
But they said the creature wasn't invincible. If you had something like glue or paste on you, and managed to smear it over its head, you might survive.
The story went that once something was stuck to its head, it would first reach up with a paw to scrape it off. But as it did, it would inexplicably lick its paw, forgetting all about its prey. It wouldn't resume hunting until it had licked every last bit of grime from itself.
Lin Xuan had been a mischievous child. He used to want to sneak out and play in the middle of the night, and Chen Fang couldn't keep him in, so she frightened him with this story. It scared him so badly that he wouldn't go out at night for years.
"Mother, I'm not a little kid anymore. You're still trying to scare me with that? If I run into one now, I can just snap its neck." Lin Xuan half-joked in response to his mother's concern.
In truth, locals had hardly ever encountered such a strange beast. No one knew whether it was just a legend or something real.
There were plenty of strange and unusual local legends, and Lin Xuan thought most of them probably had some basis in fact.
Lin Xuan stepped outside and set off along the road to Rou Mountain.
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