This Felt Like Trouble

Linked Arrows!

What Wang Qi had unleashed was Linked Arrows.

He had already worked out his own unorthodox approach, but its upper limit was only three consecutive arrows. Now that he had received the official skill instructions, of course he had learned it at a glance.

His archery was hardly outstanding, though. After all, of the five arrows he had fired in succession, only two had hit, bringing down a single animal... It was like unleashing an ultimate move only to hit a lowly foot soldier.

But the officers were stunned, especially the three Military Marquises from the Archer Company.

Xu Sanlang went over to examine the Mountain Goat he had shot dead, estimated the distance, and said, "That must have been sixty-five paces. You could actually hear it here... Can you shoot by sound?"

Sixty-five paces was no short distance, especially in a mountain forest filled with all kinds of noise. Unless someone knew the forest well and had trained specifically for it, pinpointing prey by sound was exceedingly difficult.

Wang Qi shook his head. "I can't shoot by sound yet. I can only get a rough idea of its position from what I hear."

His adoptive father, Wang Dashan, was a true sound-guided archer. With that bow of his, which seemed to have a draw weight of five stone, he could practically slay any god who stood in his path when hunting in the mountains.

By comparison, Wang Qi felt that every one of his current superior officers was pathetically weak.

Xu Sanlang could plainly sense Wang Qi's disdain... He knew that this young man was looking down on them.

He rubbed his nose and could only swallow it. After all, the boy was not only a good shot but an excellent hunter... Though the Mountain Goat looked small, it was enough to make another meal of minced-meat soup for the whole camp.

And the officers who had taken part in the hunt could get some goat offal to eat with their wine.

"A fine haul! We can head back!" Xu Sanlang simply pretended not to notice the disdain in Wang Qi's eyes, then called over the two Military Marquises from the Sword and Shield Company serving as their laborers to carry the carcass.

"That's it?" Wang Qi asked, speechless.

Xu Sanlang replied, "It's enough. Commandant Lin taught us to respect living creatures. We should only hunt what we need each day, not slaughter indiscriminately, lest we offend the harmony of heaven."

Wang Qi felt a deep respect upon hearing that. This was a simple form of ecological conservation, and he thought that Commandant Lin must indeed possess great wisdom.

And so they returned less than an hour after setting out, with the total travel time coming to under two hours.

Afterward, Xu Sanlang and the others eagerly took Wang Qi to the army cooks to watch them butcher the goat.

The cooks deftly broke down the adult ram, picking out a few choice cuts to stir-fry into a dish for the camp's officers as an extra treat that evening. The remaining meat and fat, along with some of the bones, were chopped up together and set aside for the next day.

They then cleaned the offal separately and stir-fried a large basin of mixed goat innards for Xu Sanlang and the others as a reward for going out to hunt.

The five officers warmly invited Wang Qi to join them... But once again, Wang Qi felt disdain. He thought the innards had not been cleaned properly, and their smell was rather overpowering.

It was not that he refused to eat such things. He simply refused to eat them when they had not been cleaned thoroughly. Otherwise, how was it any different from eating shit?

So he preferred to excuse himself politely, saying he would not join them... In any case, he had noticed that his need for food seemed to be gradually diminishing lately.

Returning to the kitchen, he watched the cooks bustle about, then furtively "stole" a bowl of Sheep Blood.

It was not that he wanted to make Sheep Blood soup for himself. Rather, a sudden whim had struck him: what would happen if he used the Water-Cleansing Spell on Sheep Blood?

He acted on the thought at once, squatting in a corner of the kitchen and beginning to recite the incantation...

Blood was ninety percent water, so in theory, the Water-Cleansing Spell should be able to purify and separate out that water.

His thinking took such unconventional twists. Using the Water-Cleansing Spell to purify blood-only he could have dreamed that up...

Once he finished the incantation, the spiritual power flowed into the blood under his guidance... But the result was not satisfying.

He found that the blood could indeed be separated, but not completely... Or rather, not in the way he had imagined.

Under this casting of the Water-Cleansing Spell, the bowl of Sheep Blood quickly separated into two layers of liquid.

The lower layer was dark red and consisted of blood cells, while most of the upper layer was pale yellow plasma...

Wang Qi thought this was simply what happened when blood was centrifuged. Blood tests at hospitals looked just like this.

He felt he could do more, so he began reciting the incantation again, trying to separate the blood further.

This time, he returned to his earlier high-intensity chanting, repeating the incantation without pause and continuously generating the Water-Cleansing Spell's Spiritual Force to act upon the bowl of Sheep Blood.

As the Spiritual Force continued to pour in... He finally saw the sight he had been hoping for...

The pale yellow portion of the plasma slowly began to compress downward and settle, and a thin layer of clear water appeared on the surface.

Wang Qi was delighted... Although this seemed to serve no purpose, he was simply happy about his new discovery.

What surprised him even more was that, just as he felt that delight, the pale yellow plasma began compressing downward much faster. Even the blood-cell solution at the bottom was shrinking in volume... That meant the fluid inside the blood cells was being squeezed out as well!

The phenomenon left him bewildered, but he soon realized that it might be connected to fluctuations in his mental power.

He had just felt happy, so his mental power had clearly risen toward a peak...

Suddenly, inspiration struck.

With another experiment in mind, he focused all his attention, putting himself into a state of complete tension... A little like the instant before he loosed an arrow while hunting.

Sure enough, he saw a result... The surface of the bowl of Sheep Blood quickly turned to clear water, while both the plasma and the blood cells were rapidly compressed downward and gathered together, eventually forming a dark red, almost black clump beneath the water.

"Hiss..."

Wang Qi sucked in a sharp breath. He found it rather repulsive.

Those reddish-black lumps at the bottom... weren't they blood clots?

So he'd turned the Water-Cleansing Spell into a Blood Clot Spell?

That didn't seem particularly useful!

Feeling disheartened, he decided that he had probably pursued a useless line of research and paid it little more attention. He was just about to leave the pungent kitchen and find something else to do...

He stopped short in astonishment as he suddenly spotted Commandant Lin striding like a dragon and pacing like a tiger toward the tent where Xu Sanlang and the others were...

Then he heard a chaotic clattering and clanging, and Xu Sanlang and his four fellow Military Marquises came tumbling and scrambling out of the tent.

"I sent you out to hunt for the entire army, and you dare laze around here!"

Commandant Lin berated them in an unprecedentedly stern tone, then delivered his ultimatum:

"From now on, none of you are to return to camp before seven in the evening!"

Xu Sanlang and the others stared blankly after that tongue-lashing, utterly bewildered. They had no idea what had happened to Commandant Lin, who had always presented a gentle face, or why he had suddenly become so irritable and agitated.

The five scrambled toward the camp exit, feeling that life had never looked so bleak.

But just then, Commandant Lin suddenly called them back. "Wait!"

The five hurriedly stopped and looked back in confusion.

"How many of you went out just now?!" Commandant Lin asked through gritted teeth... He thought these subordinates of his were complete idiots.

Understanding suddenly dawned on the five Military Marquises, and they all turned together to glare at Wang Qi, who stood there looking utterly innocent...

Wang Qi felt he might be in for it. Though he did not know why, he had the distinct feeling that trouble had already landed in his lap...