Assessment

Boom! Boom! Boom!

As the three drumbeats sounded, the hundreds of recruits throughout the camp gathered in the training grounds.

Today was the day the recruit assessment began.

Li Yi and Han Jia stood amid the crowd, watching the several officers at the front.

A company commander stepped before them and began announcing the rules of the recruit assessment.

"Furthermore, casualties are permitted during this assessment!"

Before the company commander had even finished speaking, the recruits instantly erupted into an uproar.

It was already outrageous enough that veterans were allowed to participate in this assessment. They had never expected casualties to be permitted as well.

For a time, everyone talked at once.

Some even took the lead in protesting, questioning the fairness of the assessment.

But before the man could finish speaking, several veterans dragged him away. Then squads of veterans in sturdy armor and carrying sharp weapons moved to stand near the recruits, eyeing them like tigers watching prey.

The company commander snorted coldly.

"The rules of these assessments have never been fixed. How they are conducted is decided by the generals according to the circumstances. Are you questioning the generals?"

At once, the crowd fell silent, able only to swallow their dissatisfaction.

Li Yi, standing among them, had a slight change in expression.

The Revenue Officer!

He had rejected the Revenue Officer several times, and the Revenue Officer had always believed that he had directly killed Wang Dagui.

It seemed that allowing deaths during the assessment was, in all likelihood, the Revenue Officer's doing.

At this thought, Li Yi's killing intent toward the Revenue Officer deepened by several degrees.

Let you keep jumping around for a few more days. Once we're in Hundred Trees Forest, I'll find a chance to kill you!

Li Yi touched the Army-Breaking Bow on his back and turned his attention to the recruit assessment.

Based on the recruits' various specialties and assignments, the assessment was divided into several categories.

The first was a skills assessment.

The recruits could choose one assessment according to their own strengths. Passing it was enough.

As for whether one could pass the recruit assessment, aside from standing out exceptionally in a particular category, one could also qualify through one's overall performance across several assessments.

Only useless mediocrities would fail the assessment.

Li Yi's choice was naturally the archery assessment!

Very soon, more than a hundred recruits and veterans who had chosen the archery assessment arrived at the testing grounds.

The archery assessment was split into two parts: shooting at a hundred paces and shooting at moving targets.

Wooden targets painted with concentric rings stood a hundred paces away.

The participating archers stood in groups of ten, each holding his own longbow behind a line.

The rules for this assessment were simple: stand behind the line and shoot the wooden target a hundred paces away.

Each person had ten arrows. The higher one's total ring score, the higher one's score!

These rules were practically no different from the rules of archery competitions in Li Yi's previous life.

"These recruits are pretty mediocre!"

Among the first four groups of recruits taking the assessment, some even had arrows miss the targets entirely.

And the best score among them was only ninety-one rings.

Suddenly, Li Yi's gaze sharpened. Among the fifth group stood a lean, wiry man with thick arms, staring at him.

After thinking for a moment, Li Yi remembered where he had seen this man before!

When he had gone to Cao Li's tent the day before yesterday, this lean man had been among those who surrounded him with sabers in hand.

So he was one of Cao Li's men!

Li Yi's heart tightened as he carefully watched the man.

The man strolled unhurriedly to the white line. Once the examiner announced the start, his hand flashed like lightning as he drew an arrow from his quiver. In the blink of an eye, the arrow shot straight toward the target.

Without even looking, the lean man immediately drew another arrow from his quiver, nocked it, drew his bow, and fired again.

In an instant, ten arrows streaked through the air like meteors, one after another, almost like a string of cannon blasts, striking the wooden target with several sharp thwacks.

In an instant, cries of amazement rose one after another across the testing grounds.

Li Yi focused his eyes and saw a finger-sized hole in the center of the wooden target!

Not only had the lean man hit the ten-ring mark with all ten arrows, they had all struck the exact same spot. The unbroken stream of arrows had even pierced through the wooden target.

Very soon, a veteran responsible for checking the results shouted to the official:

"Veteran Zhang Lin, ten arrows all on target, one hundred rings!"

One hundred rings!

Everyone had already been stunned by Zhang Lin's archery. Now that the results were announced, the crowd completely erupted.

Not far away, Wu Chuansheng paused slightly before turning his gaze to Li Yi, his eyes holding a trace of concern and questioning.

Li Yi gave a slight nod, casting Wu Chuansheng a reassuring look.

That look steadied Wu Chuansheng's heart. He immediately instructed an old soldier under his command to head deeper into the camp.

Zhang Lin's score was like a mountain weighing down on the hearts of the many recruits.

Among the following groups of recruits, even when someone achieved an excellent score of ninety-five rings, it failed to draw much attention.

"Group Nine! Step forward for your assessment!"

My turn!

Li Yi slowly exhaled, took the Army-Breaking Bow in hand, and walked toward the white line.

A hundred paces away, ten brand-new wooden targets stood quietly in place.

Li Yi turned his head slightly and saw Zhang Lin standing among the crowd, watching him as well.

So Zhang Lin really had come for me!

"I can recommend you for first place, and I can also make sure you never get it!"

Li Yi recalled what Cao Li had said two days ago.

This old soldier Zhang Lin had probably been specially sent by Cao Li to suppress him.

But so what?

He was nothing more than a green leaf meant to set Li Yi off!

Filled with confidence, Li Yi silently circulated the Gale Breathing Method, and his senses instantly became sharper.

The distant wooden targets also became clearer in Li Yi's eyes.

"Begin!"

At the command, Li Yi swept a hand over his quiver, nocked an arrow onto the Army-Breaking Bow, and fired fiercely.

The moment that arrow left the bow, his hand had already passed over the quiver again, nocking the second arrow.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In a string of sharp whistles, Li Yi fired every one of his arrows.

Huff~

Slipping the Army-Breaking Bow onto his back, Li Yi turned and walked off the field.

"Recruit Li Yi—ten arrows, ten hits, one hundred rings!"

The old soldier checking the results raised the wooden target pierced through by arrows and shouted in shock.

Zhang Lin was a famously seasoned archer in the camp, so scoring one hundred rings was not particularly surprising.

But he had never expected Li Yi, a mere recruit, to achieve the same score!

At once, even fiercer discussion erupted throughout the grounds.

"So this is Li Yi, the [Cloud-Piercing Arrow]!"

"I'd say he's got what it takes to place first in the recruit assessment!"

"Let me tell you, Li Yi and I are both from Blackstone Town. My relationship with him..."

The crowd's chatter did not stir any emotion in Li Yi.

It was only one hundred rings. If not for the limited conditions, Li Yi was confident he could have achieved an even better result!

"Kid, you've got some skill, but you can forget about taking first place."

Just as Li Yi reached the crowd, Zhang Lin spoke in a low voice.

Hearing Zhang Lin's words, Li Yi paused slightly and replied calmly, "Who takes first place depends on real skill, not on who can flap their gums better."

With that, Li Yi walked straight toward Wu Chuansheng.

After waiting for half an hour, the hundred-pace target shooting assessment finally came to an end.

This assessment had produced Zhang Lin and Li Yi, both with one hundred rings, as well as more than twenty promising archers who had scored above ninety rings.

"Next is moving-target archery!"

The rules of moving-target archery were no different from Li Yi's earlier training.

It tested an archer's reaction speed and firing speed.

Whoever hit the most targets in the shortest time would take first place!

Based on the earlier results, the groups this time were divided according to score.

Li Yi, Zhang Lin, and the other eight with the best scores were placed in the same group.

Before long, it was Li Yi's group's turn to begin the assessment.

Ten people stood at the white line. In the distance, another ten held sacks, ready to release the moving targets.

On either side stood another ten men, watching the testing ground with rapt attention.

They were responsible for verifying the results.

Whether by design or coincidence, Zhang Lin was standing right beside Li Yi.

After exchanging a glance, the two tacitly took down their longbows and fixed their eyes on the space ahead.

"Begin!"

With a thunderous shout, the ten people in the distance threw their sacks. Sparrows, pigeons, and other birds, along with some floating bits of debris, filled the air.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several arrows whistled past Li Yi's ear.

Li Yi instinctively glanced sideways and saw Zhang Lin nock two arrows at once before shooting them fiercely. In an instant, two sparrows fell from the sky.

Zhang Lin could fire two arrows in succession too!

Li Yi was startled. In that instant, he understood that he could no longer hide his abilities. He had to go all out.

Two-arrow volley combined with the Arrow-Fighting Art!

Li Yi likewise drew his bow and nocked two arrows, sending them flying. Two birds in midair fell to the ground in turn.

For a time, Li Yi and Zhang Lin continuously unleashed two-arrow volleys. Their powerful rain of arrows blanketed the sky, knocking countless birds to the ground.

Gradually, the other eight members of their group silently lowered their bows. They stared at the two as though looking at monsters, their faces filled with shock.

Although Zhang Lin's two-arrow volley was swift, it could only hit targets that were close together. If the two were too far apart, one arrow would be wasted.

Li Yi's Arrow-Fighting Art, however, avoided this flaw.

For that very reason, with the combination of the Arrow-Fighting Art and the two-arrow volley, the number of targets Li Yi shot down gradually surpassed Zhang Lin's, and the gap continued to widen.

Noticing this, Zhang Lin snorted coldly. "Kid, let me show you what a true divine archer is!"

Zhang Lin's entire aura changed. His blood and qi surged like a tide as his large hand moved again and again, arrows shooting out in an endless stream.

His firing speed was so fast that even the veteran soldiers responsible for tallying the scores could barely keep up.

Watching Zhang Lin's firing speed increase by at least half, Wu Chuansheng was furious.

"Zhang Lin, you're an old soldier competing against a newcomer, and you're even using a Breathing Method? Have you no shame?"

Zhang Lin was a veteran soldier at the fifth level of the Body Tempering Realm and had devoted himself to archery. Every martial technique he practiced was related to the bow.

With the boost of his Breathing Method, Zhang Lin's score kept climbing, even surpassing Li Yi's.

Watching Zhang Lin's arrows grow ever swifter, Li Yi felt the pressure mount sharply.

I can't lose!

The Household Affairs Clerk and Cao Li are both watching me like hawks from the shadows!

If I lose, I'm dead!

Li Yi could not help thinking of Li Xin and Li Yue, as well as the sisters Liu Ru and Liu Fang.

"This first place can only be mine!"

Li Yi let out a roar, grabbed three arrows straight from his quiver, drew his bow at the sky, and fired!

The two-arrow volley had advanced!

Three-arrow volley!

The three arrows streaked through the air like meteors, instantly killing three pigeons!