Why were challenges across cultivation levels the exclusive domain of geniuses?
Because they were too rare. Perhaps only when heaven's timing, earth's advantage, and human harmony all aligned could one occur.
So every time it happened, it heralded the birth of a legend!
Was Ning Rong a genius?
Absolutely not. She was merely a new student at the Second Level of Body Tempering, and she had not displayed any remarkable traits.
Wen Buqing was certainly not a genius either, but he was definitely no mediocrity. At the peak of the Fourth Level of Body Refinement, his defense was already incredibly formidable. Ordinary arrows could not pierce it at all!
Yet today, Ning Rong, at the second level of the Body Refinement Realm, had defeated Wen Buqing, who was at the peak of the fourth level, with the advantage of her bow and arrows!
This had not been some secret duel. The battle had taken place in the school cafeteria, with over a thousand students watching!
Thus, the news instantly set the entire school ablaze!
Anyone could see that Ning Rong herself had little real strength. What she relied on was the bow in her hands. Its construction happened to be simple as well, so in less than half an hour, blueprints for this bow had spread throughout the school.
By three or four in the afternoon, someone had already made a physical version!
"Thud!" Watching the arrow sink half a foot into the target, Zhang Feiran was somewhat astonished. "It's about twice as strong as an ordinary bow!"
"More than that!" Zhang Feiran's bookboy, Wang Xiangnan, said. "There wasn't enough time to make an identical bow, so I modified one on the spot. I didn't use the most suitable materials, and the parts weren't positioned properly either. Even so, it still doubled the power of the bow and arrow!"
"Is that really possible?" Zhang Feiran looked at the longbow in his hand. "The design doesn't seem complicated, yet it has such power. Why had no one thought of this before?"
"I heard its inventor is called Yang Ning. He invented many things even when he was still a mortal! He also has the title Yue Kingdom Prodigy." Wang Xiangnan said, "After Yang Ning entered Ascension Academy, he spent his first month reading books. In the second month, no one saw him except during meals. So he had been working on this!"
"You mentioned the Yue Kingdom Prodigy, so now I know who he is!" Zhang Feiran's eyes lit up. "I only knew he was good at poetry. I never expected him to be so skilled at artifact forging too!"
"Yes. You had been busy cultivating, so naturally you didn't know. A month ago, he made a famous statement, saying cultivation itself existed for craftsmanship. If one could not study craftsmanship, what meaning was there in cultivation?" Wang Xiangnan said seriously. "It seems he truly likes artifact forging!"
Zhang Feiran patted Wang Xiangnan on the shoulder. He knew that his bookboy came from an artifact-forging lineage and had practiced artifact forging since childhood. He had thought Wang Xiangnan was already quite gifted.
Who would have thought that only two months after school began, someone would produce such a stunning creation? He had been dealt quite a blow!
"Still." Zhang Feiran looked at the longbow in his hand. "If it can double a person's strength, then wouldn't everyone be able to challenge opponents above their level as long as they had a bow? Say, won't everyone start practicing archery from now on?"
"Perhaps there will also be more people practicing shields!" Wang Xiangnan said.
He truly was not skilled at making bows, but who could not make a shield?
An hour later, Zhang Feiran arrived at the classroom and discovered that the originally scheduled teacher had not come. They had been replaced by someone he did not recognize.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Luo Yunyue!" The teacher was tall and slender, with a ponytail and an exceptionally neat, capable appearance.
As if he had encountered some wonderful news, he wore a smile the entire time. "I have just received word that archery will be promoted from a secondary course to a core course from now on. As for the reason, some of you may already know it, but I will explain it anyway. First-year student Yang Ning invented a new type of bow that can multiply a person's strength fourfold!"
"Fourfold!" The classroom instantly erupted in cries.
What did fourfold even mean? From the Body Tempering Triple Layer to the Fourth Level of Body Refinement, a person's strength increased enormously, but it only grew tenfold.
Strength would continue to rise afterward, but it would no longer be so exaggerated.
Wouldn't that mean that with one bow in hand, one's cultivation level effectively rose by a whole level?
Moreover, a person's defense did not explosively increase like their strength, because mortal flesh had its limits.
After the Fifth Level of Body Refinement, defensive power depended entirely on the Qi and Blood Field. After the Qi Refining Realm, it depended entirely on spiritual power.
Yet whether it was the Qi and Blood Field or spiritual power, neither was particularly effective at defending against arrows, attacks that broke through a surface with a single point.
Otherwise, why were Sword Cultivators dominant in every era?
Zhang Feiran understood why this teacher was so happy. The surname Luo meant he came from the Southern Forest Luo Family, a lineage that specialized in archery!
Meanwhile, Wang Xiangnan looked at the newly added Bow Design and Manufacturing on the schedule and similarly fell into a daze.
Besides that, there was also Arrow Evasion and Countermeasures on the servants' schedule.
Among the maidservants, after Xu Shi saw Ning Rong's archery, she simply opened an archery course. Its textbook even had an imposing name: Path of the Arrow God.
Yang Ning had already been somewhat famous among the students. Now that he had made the trending lists again, countless people immediately recalled him.
When all the students discovered that their schedules had changed because of a single bow, it instantly caused an even greater sensation!
From then on, the image of Yang Ning as someone who loved artifact forging and possessed extraordinary talent for it began to be firmly engraved in everyone's minds.
Fang Zhuo, the Dean of Ascension Academy, also learned of Yang Ning. He was the one who had ordered the schedule changed.
"Yang Ning!"
He also held a Pulley Bow in his hands, and it was a more faithful reproduction than Wang Xiangnan's hastily modified version.
It even used Spirit Materials. If not for the rushed forging process and the lack of consideration for material compatibility, it might not have been impossible to forge it into a Spirit Artifact.
"To think he could invent a bow like this, along with the Curved Shaft Plow, waterwheel, trebuchet, horseshoe, saddle, and Wrought Iron Method!" Fang Zhuo naturally possessed Yang Ning's records, since Yang Ning had entered Ascension Academy as a bookboy.
He simply had not looked at them seriously before. Only after the Pulley Bow burst onto the scene did Fang Zhuo realize that he seemed to have recruited a talent!
A talent of the artifact-forging path!
He had not only become outstanding today. He had always been outstanding!
"But..." Fang Zhuo frowned. "He is someone on Wei Daocheng's ship!"
Wang Yi had already given the order. Everyone on Wei Daocheng's ship had to die, and that naturally included Yang Ning.
But it would be far too regrettable for a talent like Yang Ning to die!
While still in the Body Refinement Realm, he could invent something so revolutionary. Once he reached the Qi Refining Stage, who knew what he might accomplish?
Fang Zhuo thought of the other side of the scales: Lin Tianheng!
The order of a Golden Core Realm cultivator, or a gifted Artifact Forging Master—which was more important?
"Perhaps he is skilled at invention and creation, but so what? Spirit Artifacts differ from mortal tools, let alone Dao Artifacts. A single new Dao Artifact might require decades, even a century, of effort from an entire sect." Fang Zhuo pondered. No matter how many Pulley Bows there were, they could not compare to the slightest fraction of a Golden Core cultivator!
But what if?
What if?
After pondering for a long time, Fang Zhuo simply put away the Pulley Bow, then summoned a black zither and stepped onto it. Accompanied by the tinkling sound of music, he flew south.
Qi Refining cultivators were extremely fast, yet even so, Fang Zhuo flew for more than two hours before reaching his destination.
This was a land where mountains vied for supremacy. The terrain was majestic and perilous, filled with lofty peaks upon peaks, layer upon layer, stretching for hundreds of kilometers. Seas of clouds mingled with the mountains, forests grew lush, streams babbled, ancient trees towered into the sky, waterfalls plunged down cliffs, and mountain flowers bloomed in riotous splendor. The scenery was truly magnificent.
Yet even more breathtaking were the brilliant, kaleidoscopic rainbow lights atop the peaks, reflecting waves of Dao music as they shot directly into the heavens. Flying cranes, treasured gourds, flying swords, and all manner of Magic Treasures also crisscrossed the mountains, bearing cultivators of every kind.
This was the mountain gate of Taiheng Sect—once the foremost sect of Taiheng, now the second greatest sect under heaven, one of the ten great immortal Dao sects.
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