Put to the Test

By the end of the day, Wang Qi had ranked first in archery and first overall. Just as he thought all that remained was to wait for the written examination... Commandant Lin unexpectedly sent someone to invite him over for a talk.

It was already dark... Wang Qi had no idea what could be so urgent.

Still, he had met Commandant Lin a few times and saw no reason for concern. He simply assumed his outstanding performance had earned him an audience.

The only problem was that the soldier leading him looked unfamiliar... Despite his distaste, he had memorized every officer and recruit in the camp on his very first day... Could this soldier guiding him be another of Commandant Lin's personal men brought in on the side?

That was Wang Qi's assessment, but as he entered the section of camp where Commandant Lin stayed, his keen senses immediately picked up something wrong... His increasingly frequent out-of-body practice lately seemed to have strengthened his sixth sense considerably.

Now his scalp prickled, as though countless venomous snakes were watching him...

That strange sensation sent his brain into overdrive. He immediately stopped in his tracks, his gaze darting across his surroundings...

"Why have you stopped?" The man leading him halted and asked.

Secretly on guard, Wang Qi asked, "At this hour, a night patrol should be passing through. Why are there no patrols in this part of camp?"

The man looked briefly surprised, clearly not expecting Wang Qi to be so perceptive.

But he quickly replied without betraying anything, "Commandant Lin has business today and doesn't wish to be disturbed, so he temporarily dismissed the patrols... Hurry along. He's been waiting for you for a long time."

Still hesitant, Wang Qi asked, "But, sir... I don't think I've seen you in camp before?"

"Because..."

The man was about to explain, only to discover that Wang Qi had already made a decisive, rapid retreat toward the edge of this section of camp...

All he could do was hastily shout, "Stop him!"

Wang Qi's sense of danger instantly soared to its peak. His ears suddenly caught the twang of bowstrings and the whistle of arrows cutting through the air around him...

He moved at once in response to the sounds, dodging six arrows fired from his left, right, and rear.

But in doing so, he also lost his chance to escape this section of camp... Someone had clearly cut off his retreat.

His thoughts raced like lightning. Seeing that the man who had brought him here not only failed to retreat but took two steps forward, apparently to watch him get shot dead... How could he let that stand?

Wang Qi adapted in mid-motion, suddenly taking two swift, long strides forward. Instead of retreating, he advanced, driving his palm viciously at the man in a broad, sweeping strike!

He had no room to hold anything back, because he had no idea what these people intended... Those arrows had clearly been aimed at his body!

He could not afford to show restraint, nor did he spare any thought for whether Commandant Lin had ordered this ambush. He could only give it everything he had.

The man was utterly surprised. He had never expected Wang Qi to be so fierce.

Caught off guard, he thrust out his left palm to meet Wang Qi's right...

In that instant, he felt that while Wang Qi's palm strike lacked ferocious power, it was solid and remarkably resilient. He must have trained both internally and externally, though his internal cultivation was decent while his external training fell short.

Wang Qi also knew that his strike could not deliver much force. After all, he intended to wait until he was at least eighteen before truly beginning to practice external arts.

So he swiftly changed tactics... Since none of his blows would carry much force anyway, he simply unleashed continuous attacks in broad, sweeping motions to keep the man suppressed... Whatever happened, he could not let the man before him recover.

Someone who could so casually block his sudden burst of strength had to possess formidable cultivation.

Wang Qi's attacks came like a gale-driven rainstorm, both hands seeming to dissolve into a blur as they relentlessly hammered the enemy before him... Yet the longer he fought, the more alarmed he became. The man blocked every single attack!

Little did he know that his opponent was already astonished... Where had this boy acquired such enduring reserves of qi?

External arts excelled at explosive bursts. What made combined internal and external training so powerful was its ability to greatly extend the duration of those bursts.

But Wang Qi's unbroken succession of Mighty Stele-Crushing Palm strikes was simply outrageous... Did he never need to catch his breath and replenish his qi?

The man who had brought Wang Qi here was not having an easy time of it either. Though each palm strike was somewhat lacking in force, the sheer number of continuous impacts had already left the hands he used to parry showing signs of swelling and numbness.

So the man stopped drawing things out. Surging his internal force, he abruptly unleashed a tremendous power that drove Wang Qi back some distance.

This is bad... Wang Qi had not expected his opponent to possess such abundant, powerful internal force. That last blow had shoved his entire body back, nearly making him lose control.

When he tried to charge forward again, more arrows shot out in succession from the surrounding darkness, cutting off his path and forcing him to dodge.

The hidden archers were all highly skilled, and their coordination was excellent.

Yet just as he was quietly considering his next move, he suddenly noticed that not one of the arrows that had landed before him stood embedded in the ground...

He abruptly stopped moving, naturally slipping into a lazy, weary air that said they could do whatever they liked with him.

The man who had brought him was surprised again. "Why have you stopped dodging?" he asked.

Wang Qi said, "You're all using arrows without arrowheads. They can't kill anyone, so why should I dodge?"

The man gave a startled laugh and shook his head. Waving toward a spot in the darkness behind him, he said, "Who said an arrow without a head can't kill?"

Suddenly, every hair on Wang Qi's body stood on end. He heard an immensely powerful bowstring twang from the darkness ahead, and an arrow hurtled toward him like racing thunder, faster than he could react...

Boom!

The arrow grazed past Wang Qi's cheek, then slammed into the pillar supporting a brazier behind him, blasting the solid wooden post apart halfway up!

Wang Qi's heart gave a violent leap before settling down again... He had recalled his adoptive father's archery. This seemed to be the same kind of technique.

At the same time, he understood that the man meant to put him in his place... But he was in a thoroughly foul mood now. Why should he let them succeed in establishing their authority over him?

So he merely glanced back before calmly remarking, "Not bad. Just a little short of mastery... If it had pierced straight through without making the brazier fall, that would have been a proper Force-Piercing Arrow."

The man stared speechlessly at Wang Qi, who refused to concede, then asked, "You know the Force-Piercing Arrow?"

With unapologetic candor, Wang Qi replied, "Of course not. I'm still young. My family won't let me practice such a dangerous archery technique yet."

Such a brazenly self-assured answer left the man looking embarrassed and helpless, as though he had been bullying a "little child" all along.

Just then, the flap of the tent directly ahead was suddenly lifted, and Commandant Lin, wearing his exquisite silver mask, walked out with Scribe Zhao.

With a smile in his voice, Commandant Lin asked, "Xu Ping, are you satisfied with this subordinate I found for you?"

The man named Xu Ping was the one who had brought Wang Qi here. Turning, he cupped his fist toward Commandant Lin and said, "Reporting to you, Commandant, I will certainly drill this child thoroughly and will not disappoint you."

Something about that sounded wrong to Wang Qi. He hurriedly waved his hands and said, "About this... Can I object?"

Xu Ping: "..."

He looked at Wang Qi in surprise, then turned to Commandant Lin, his eyes conveying a speechless question: He still doesn't know anything?