Flame Bow

Wang Sheng clutched his chest and shuffled two steps aside, making way for the new girl.

Xiao Wu tossed her bundle onto an empty bed beside her and planted her hands on her hips.

"Who was it that said there were rules here?" She lifted her chin. "Who's the boss of Dorm Seven? Step out and let me see."

No one in the room made a sound.

Having suffered at Tang San's hands, Wang Sheng had gotten smarter this time. He nudged Tang San with his elbow.

Tang San sighed and got up from his bed.

"I only arrived today. They insisted on making me the boss." Tang San looked at Xiao Wu, his tone polite. "Work-study students are already easy targets. We should look out for one another. Why not skip the sparring?"

Xiao Wu burst out laughing.

"Skip it? No way. I'm a person who respects rules the most."

The moment she finished speaking, she shot forward.

She was incredibly fast.

Tang San reacted quickly as well. He shifted his right foot half a step back, lowered his shoulder, and raised his hands in the stance of Crane Control, Dragon Capture, intending to use her force against her and push her away.

But he had underestimated Xiao Wu.

Xiao Wu had no intention of clashing with him head-on. Her body twisted sharply in midair, soft and flexible as though she had no bones. The instant she slipped past Tang San's hands, she braced one hand against his shoulder, then wrapped her legs around his neck in a vicious lock.

Tang San's expression changed.

The skills he had learned in his previous life were supreme techniques of the Tang Sect, focused on defeating enemies in a single move and using hidden weapons for defense. He had never seen this kind of close-quarters fighting—this kind of flexible technique that used the body like a rope.

With his neck constricted, his balance immediately collapsed.

Xiao Wu exerted force through her waist and fell backward.

"Bang!"

Tang San was slammed heavily onto the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.

The room fell silent.

Wang Sheng's mouth hung open, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets. The fierce guy who had shoved him aside with one palm had just been taken down by such a delicate little girl?

Xiao Wu released her legs, flipped lightly to her feet, and brushed the dust from her hands.

"Thanks for letting me win." Smiling, she looked around the room. "Now I'm the boss of Dorm Seven. Does anyone have any objections?"

Tang San climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. He had lost somewhat unwillingly, because he could not use many of his trump cards. He could not use hidden weapons, nor could he fully circulate the Mysterious Heaven Technique. But he was not someone who could not accept defeat.

"No objections. You won, so you're the boss." Tang San returned to his bed.

Xiao Wu nodded in satisfaction. Her gaze swept around the room before finally landing on the lower bunk in the farthest corner.

Chen Xuan sat there cross-legged.

While everyone else had been watching the show, he had not even looked up. He held a rusty iron spoon in his hand, carefully using the corner of his clothes to wipe the caked mud from its handle.

He was wiping it very seriously.

Xiao Wu walked over and nudged the edge of Chen Xuan's bed with the tip of her foot.

"Hey, newbie, what's your name? Want to fight me too?"

Chen Xuan stopped what he was doing and looked up.

He looked at Xiao Wu, then at Tang San standing nearby, and slipped the iron spoon into his pocket.

"Hello, Boss. My name is Chen Xuan." Chen Xuan scooted back and pointed outside. "My martial soul is just a few broken stones. I'm no good at fighting. From now on, I'll handle the food runs and errands for Dorm Seven."

His attitude was extremely sincere.

Xiao Wu paused, suddenly finding it boring.

"How dull." She curled her lip and turned to arrange her bed.

Wang Sheng rolled his eyes nearby. Tang San also glanced in this direction, a faint frown appearing between his brows.

Chen Xuan acted as if he had not noticed.

Leaning against the wall, he focused his gaze on the empty space ahead and to his right.

The translucent countdown was still ticking.

[Time until next draw: 03 hours 42 minutes.]

No rush.

Night deepened.

Snoring rose and fell throughout Dorm Seven. Wang Sheng snored like thunder, making the window paper tremble.

Chen Xuan opened his eyes.

It was about time.

He quietly rolled out of bed and put on his shoes.

The moment he straightened up, he sensed someone's gaze resting on him.

Tang San was not asleep. He sat cross-legged on his bed, cultivating with his eyes closed. Now, he opened one eye and stared at Chen Xuan.

Without changing expression, Chen Xuan pointed outside, rubbed his stomach, and mimed going to the latrine.

Tang San closed his eyes again and ignored him.

Chen Xuan pushed open the door and slipped outside.

Nuoding Academy was quiet at night. Chen Xuan did not head for the latrine. Instead, he followed the shadows behind the dormitory building toward the back mountain.

He had observed the terrain during the day. There was a small grove in the back mountain that no one usually visited, and at night, there was not even a ghost in sight.

After entering the depths of the woods and confirming there was no movement around him, Chen Xuan stopped.

The countdown in the upper-right corner of his vision finally reached zero.

[Daily draw has been refreshed. Draw now?]

Chen Xuan took a deep breath.

"Draw."

The translucent screen before him changed instantly. A circular roulette wheel appeared and began spinning wildly.

During the first two draws, the roulette wheel had only emitted a faint white glow.

But this time, something was wrong.

The wheel slowed more and more. Suddenly, a streak of crimson shone through the white light.

Then, red light erupted!

A blinding crimson pillar shot into the sky, and the surrounding temperature instantly rose by a huge margin.

Chen Xuan reacted swiftly, tearing off his outer robe and tightly covering the ball of light, terrified that the commotion would attract the academy's patrolling teachers.

The light quickly faded.

The system notification exploded in his mind.

[Congratulations, Host. You have obtained: Flame Bow (Epic) ×1]

[Description: A longbow that gathers the power of extreme flames. No physical arrows are required; drawing the string gathers fire elements into arrows. Its power increases with the Host's soul power.]

Chen Xuan felt his hand sink.

Beneath his robe was a huge bow nearly a meter long.

He lifted the robe.

The bow was entirely crimson, its surface flowing with dark-red patterns like molten lava. It was warm to the touch, almost scorching. The bowstring was made from some unknown material, translucent and fiery red.

An epic-grade weapon.

Chen Xuan gripped the bow handle, and his breathing involuntarily grew heavier.

The instant he tightened his grip on the Flame Bow, an unexpected change occurred.

His right palm suddenly became searing hot.

Before he could even summon them, five dull gray stones emerged directly from his palm and floated in midair.

One of the stones had changed.

Its originally lusterless gray surface now emitted a dark-red glow, reflecting the lava-like patterns on the Flame Bow. Some mysterious connection seemed to have formed between them, and even the surrounding air faintly warped under their resonance.

Chen Xuan stared at the reddening stone, a thought flashing through his mind.

"Fire..."

Fire of the Five Elements.

He finally understood the secret of these five stones.

The system panel's [Light-Shadow Stones Lit: 0/5] had now clearly changed to [Light-Shadow Stones Lit: 1/5].

Drawing a weapon with the corresponding attribute could light up one stone.

This was no worthless martial soul at all.

Chen Xuan drew the stones back into his body. The burning sensation in his palm vanished, replaced by an unprecedented feeling of fullness.

He looked again at the Flame Bow in his hand.

He needed to test its power.

Chen Xuan raised his left hand and gripped the bow, then placed his right hand on the translucent bowstring.

He pulled it back hard.

"Buzz—"

The instant the bowstring tightened, the surrounding temperature plummeted. It was as if all heat had been drained away, rushing madly toward the string.

An arrow formed entirely from crimson flames appeared out of thin air on the bowstring.

Firelight reflected off Chen Xuan's face.

He aimed at a massive tree a hundred meters away, thick enough that two people could barely wrap their arms around it.

He released the string.

"Whoosh!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion, only an extremely faint whistle through the air.

The flaming arrow became a streak of red light, crossing a hundred meters in an instant and plunging directly into the tree trunk.

Chen Xuan hurried over to inspect it.

A fist-sized hole had appeared in the trunk, completely piercing through it.

The edges of the hole were charred black. The wood had been directly carbonized by the terrifying heat, without even a single spark left behind.

Chen Xuan sucked in a breath.

With that power, let alone a six-year-old child, even soul masters at level ten or twenty would be finished on the spot if they took an arrow like that.

And the most terrifying part was that the arrow had no physical form. Once fired, it left behind no evidence at all.

"Good stuff."

Chen Xuan quickly stored the Flame Bow in the system inventory.

He crouched down, grabbed mud from the ground, and thoroughly plastered over the scorched hole in the trunk. Then he kicked away the fallen leaves that had been dried out by the heat, covering every trace.

After finishing, he brushed the mud from his hands and headed back toward the dormitory.

When he returned to the entrance of Dorm Seven, Chen Xuan softened his footsteps.

He pushed open the door and entered.

The room was still the same, with thunderous snoring everywhere.

Chen Xuan walked to his bed, took off his shoes, and prepared to lie down.

"Where did you go just now?"

A voice suddenly sounded in the darkness.

Chen Xuan paused.

On the neighboring bed, Tang San had opened his eyes at some point and was staring steadily at him.

"My stomach was upset. I went to the latrine." Chen Xuan's tone was casual. He lay down on his pillow and pulled the blanket over himself.

"The latrine?" Tang San sat upright. "You were gone for nearly half an hour."

"I had diarrhea. Is it wrong to squat there for a while?"

Tang San did not respond.

He sniffed, and his brows gradually furrowed.

"Did you light a fire in the latrine?" Tang San lowered his voice, his tone carrying a hint of scrutiny. "You smell strongly of something burnt."

Chen Xuan's heart skipped a beat.

Is this kid's nose that of a dog? He had clearly been careful to avoid the smoke in the back mountain, yet some of the smell had still clung to him.

Chen Xuan turned over to face the wall and yawned.

"Someone was dumping furnace ash by the kitchen. The wind was strong, so it blew onto me." Chen Xuan's voice was muffled and heavy with sleepiness. "What, Tang San? Are you going to concern yourself with every smell someone picks up while using the latrine? Will you wash my clothes tomorrow?"

Tang San choked on his words.

He stared at Chen Xuan's back for quite some time.

Dumping furnace ash by the kitchen?

The explanation sounded reasonable, but Tang San still felt that something was off. Mixed into that burnt smell was an extremely violent aura, something ordinary firewood could never leave behind.

But Chen Xuan was merely an ordinary person whose martial soul was a few stones.

Was I really overthinking it?

Tang San did not question him further. He closed his eyes again and resumed circulating the Mysterious Heaven Technique.

With his eyes closed, Chen Xuan listened to the breathing behind him gradually settle into a steady rhythm, the corner of his lips curling into the faintest smile.