Rapid fire and power shots

Wang Dashan was unsettled by Wang Qi's question. Were there wolf packs here?

He did not dismiss the question, either. After considering it carefully, he said, "It's only approaching late autumn. Even if there are wolf packs, they shouldn't be roaming these outskirts... only in the depths of winter, when they can't find anything alive in the mountains, do they come out."

He meant that there would be no wolf packs here at this time of year.

But Wang Qi still stood up, wiped his face, and took his hunting bow and woodcutting saber to the door...

"Why aren't you sleeping?" Wang Dashan sounded rather disgruntled... old people hated being disturbed in their sleep most of all.

Wang Qi answered offhandedly, "I'm still a little worried. I'll go out and have a look."

Seeing this, Wang Dashan ignored him and rolled over to continue sleeping... he thought Wang Qi would be back soon.

Wang Qi gently pushed the door open and went outside...

Outside, the clouds had dispersed and the rain had stopped, leaving a bright moon and scattered stars. Cool, fresh air rushed into Wang Qi's lungs, clearing his mind and lifting his spirits.

Everything outside seemed peaceful.

Wang Qi relaxed a little, then prepared to return to the cabin.

Yet the instant he turned around, he suddenly heard a rustling sound, like wind stirring the grass.

He froze.

Turning to look again, he discovered that the pitch-black woodland before him was practically identical to the "illusion" he had seen while outside his body.

The swaying branches and leaves at the woodland's edge, and the sounds reaching his ears...

In the next instant, his expression tightened. He immediately unslung the short bow from his back and swiftly nocked an arrow, drawing the string...

Just then, a gray wolf burst from the woods. It crossed the ten meters in the blink of an eye and was about to leap at him...

Twang!

The bowstring vibrated.

A short arrow drove straight into its throat.

The gray wolf immediately collapsed without a sound.

But two more wild wolves charged out of the woods...

This time, Wang Qi was much calmer.

Holding the bow in one hand, he drew arrows from his quiver and nocked them with the other. His movements flowed like drifting clouds and running water, as though he had merely raised his hand twice.

Twang! Twang!

The bowstring had already vibrated twice in succession.

Two short arrows shot out, each striking a vital spot on one wolf's head.

One pierced a wolf's neck, while the other went straight through an eye socket.

Thud! Thud!

With two thumps, these wolves hit the ground, every bit as dead as the first.

But since this was not an attack by a lone wolf, it had to be a pack.

Wild wolves emerged from the woods one after another, crouching low and baring their teeth as they stared at Wang Qi... the clean, swift deaths of the first three had actually made them hesitate.

Wang Qi did not concern himself with why Wang Dashan had yet to come out despite all this commotion. He took a deep breath and steadied his mind completely.

Facing the pack, he gradually began to feel as he did when leaving his body in his sleep. His heart was still water, without a single ripple, yet his mind knew with perfect clarity what he needed to do.

His right hand lowered slightly, his fingertips brushing lightly over the quiver at his waist, feeling the familiar touch of the arrows inside...

Suddenly, rather than waiting for the wolves to move, he drew an arrow and nocked it first!

Why wait for them? Did I really expect to scare them off?

What archer didn't dream of standing his ground and firing away? And I could shoot so fast, too...

His right hand rose again and again. The brief pauses between several rapidly executed movements actually left a continuous blur of hand-shaped afterimages at his side.

His short bow's string vibrated repeatedly, sending arrows out like beads on a string, picking off the wolves around him with precision.

Thunk! Thunk!

Arrow after arrow struck the wolves. Even though firing so rapidly reduced the arrows' power, they still inflicted severe wounds at the very least.

Feeling the hot current surging through his body, Wang Qi found himself settling into his stride, the rush going a little to his head.

He had originally been unable to sustain such a high-speed burst for long, but now he discovered that, after a brief spell of aching soreness, his arms quickly adapted to drawing the string so frequently.

He had heard that some people in this world could draw a bow a thousand times in succession after training, or even ten thousand... suddenly, he felt he could become someone like that, too.

If that really happened, and he continued firing at this speed, he felt he could take on an entire army alone, provided he had enough supplies and suitable terrain.

That was pure daydreaming.

But the situation before him was certainly enough to inflate his confidence.

One wolf after another fell, his arrow shafts protruding from their vital spots.

Then he gave free rein to his impulses and actually began "kiting," taking a step and firing an arrow, pressing all the way to the edge of the dense woods... behind him, wolf corpses littered the ground.

Yet just as he held the last arrow in his quiver, looking into the pitch-black woods and wondering where to shoot...

TWANG!

A bowstring's vibration suddenly thundered behind him like towering, crashing waves. A long iron-shafted arrow hurtled past and slammed into the large tree beside Wang Qi.

BOOM!

The tree shook violently, a palm-sized hole punched through its trunk.

The iron-shafted arrow then emerged from the other side of the tree, pinning another wolf dead to the ground behind it.

That wolf had clearly been hiding behind the tree, planning to ambush Wang Qi...

Wang Qi turned and saw that Wang Dashan had come to the doorway, holding his large bow wrapped in animal hide.

Although the large bow was tightly wrapped, Wang Qi still knew it was definitely an iron-framed bow, probably with a draw weight of at least four stone... it would take at least 120 kilograms of force to draw it.

But judging by Wang Dashan's relaxed expression, this bow was hardly a challenge for him.

"I told you long ago to keep calm when something happens. Never let success go to your head." Wang Dashan began lecturing him with a stern face... he was very pleased with Wang Qi's calm rapid fire in the first half, but deeply disapproved of his later overconfidence.

Wang Qi flushed a little, too... as an archer, he had always had a heart set on "kiting."

Still, he took this lesson to heart. Although getting reckless when things were going well was perfectly normal for an archer, if that recklessness got him killed, he would be gone for good.

To keep Wang Dashan from saying anything more, Wang Qi looked at the wolf corpses scattered across the ground and said, "All right, we won't need to go farther into the mountains to hunt. Let's put in some extra work and stay up tonight to skin all these first."

"Wolf meat tastes sour, so the rich don't like eating it. We can take some back to share with the villagers. These wolf pelts, though, should fetch a good price in town."

Looking at the dozen or so wolf corpses on the ground, Wang Dashan immediately felt as though all the strength had been drained from his body... but he obediently went along with it. After all, Wang Qi had always managed the household, and listening to him was how Wang Dashan had grown so plump.

And so the two of them worked through the night. While dealing with the corpses, they could tell from the wounds on the wolves that this pack had probably lost a territorial battle... no wonder they had come to the outer mountain woods before winter arrived.

For hunters, this was undoubtedly a tremendous haul, yet neither Wang Qi nor Wang Dashan looked particularly happy... they both understood the times they lived in and knew that this might be their last hunt together.