A Huge and Unexpected Surprise

"Damn, that thing was hard to kill."

"If it weren't for the Swift Speed Potion, I would've died here!"

In the deserted town, rain struck Cao Fengqi's face as he looked at the Mystic Devouring Beast's corpse before him. Still shaken, he let out a long, heavy breath.

Once the Swift Speed Potion wore off, a powerful wave of weakness washed over him.

His legs felt as heavy as lead.

"I used every trump card I had."

This had arguably been Cao Fengqi's toughest battle since entering the Lost Land.

Fortunately, he had won.

He trudged over to the Mystic Devouring Beast's corpse, and a smile spread across his face when he saw its attributes.

[Mystic Devouring Beast corpse: level 4 quality]

[Effects: 1 soul can be gathered; its fangs can be crafted into level 4 quality weapons; its bones can be ground into powder for refining medicine; its flesh can be eaten to increase constitution by 4 points and improve physical defense; its hide can be crafted into wearable equipment; its entire body is a treasure.]

"The whole Mystic Devouring Beast weighs at least two hundred jin. Every part of its body is a treasure."

"Eating its flesh can also increase my constitution by four points. This wasn't a loss after all."

It made sense that every part of a Mystic Devouring Beast, which fed on all sorts of resources, was a treasure.

To avoid any mishaps, Cao Fengqi hoisted it up and took it straight to his room in the shelter.

Though his body was still extremely weak, he returned to the Lost Land.

There was only one reason: he had fired nine arrows in his fight with the Mystic Devouring Beast.

Four of them were lodged in its body, and he still needed to find and retrieve the other five.

He had just seen the power of the Evil-Breaking Bow combined with the Evil-Piercing Arrows. He couldn't afford to lose something so valuable.

Back in the Lost Land, the cheat's information immediately scanned the locations of the five arrows.

Cao Fengqi went to each one in turn.

"Huh? What's this?"

As he went to pick up the arrow that had collided with the Mystic Devouring Beast's bone spike, a look of surprise crossed his face.

The collision with the bone spike had driven the arrow straight into the ground. When he pulled it out, it brought a beast-hide book with it.

The book was thin, and the writing on it had not faded despite being washed by the rain.

[Martial warrior: Frenzied Sealing Saber Technique]

Cao Fengqi looked at the large, clear characters on the front of the book in surprise. "Martial warrior? A saber technique?"

"Oh, right."

He suddenly remembered that the map of Cangxuan Town showed a martial warrior's training hall in this very area.

Martial warriors could be understood as the equivalent of martial artists in a cultivation world or guardian knights in a world of magic.

They were not transcendents. They relied on their own efforts to temper their bodies and hone their martial skills.

The Lost Land was a transcendent world, with all kinds of natural treasures, so some martial warriors were extremely powerful.

"This seems to be the only martial warrior's training hall in the whole deserted town."

Cao Fengqi recalled the information on the map, his eyes flickering.

Previously, he had focused all his attention on transcendent sequence runes and somewhat overlooked this place.

Although he had won that last fight, he had relied entirely on his equipment, weapons, potions, and cheat.

There had been no skill involved at all.

His constitution was now 32, but in an actual fight, Cao Fengqi couldn't bring out even eighty percent of his own strength.

He had never received formal, in-depth training in techniques for exerting force, explosive power, movement, and so on.

Martial warriors' techniques were different.

They were techniques created by countless people so that mortals could use their flesh-and-blood bodies to fight transcendent power.

"Martial warriors' techniques seem pretty valuable."

Cao Fengqi didn't have much information about techniques in his head. He looked around. "Let's see if there are any more martial warrior techniques."

Because these things were written on ordinary beast hide, they had no quality level, so he could only search by digging through the ground bit by bit.

He didn't mind the dirty ground in the slightest, scraping through it with his hands.

Whenever he saw a stone, he turned it over and searched carefully.

"There really are more."

Before long, Cao Fengqi dug up a headless corpse beneath a stone and found another technique manual.

[Martial warrior: Wind-Breaking Movement Technique]

Cao Fengqi's eyes lit up, and he eagerly searched every corner.

He scoured the entire area within a five-hundred-meter radius. It took him more than an hour, and he found four more books.

Two of them were duplicates. The others were [Martial warrior: Heavy Sword] and [Martial warrior: Nine Shots Technique].

Cao Fengqi's eyes shone especially brightly when he saw the Nine Shots Technique.

His archery was a complete mess, with no technique to speak of. He relied entirely on the script.

The Nine Shots Technique, on the other hand, was an archery technique.

Cao Fengqi examined the Nine Shots Technique in detail.

First shot: locked shot (focus the mind and lock onto the target, pierce a willow leaf from a hundred paces).

Second shot: power shot (channel force through the waist and abdomen, launching the arrow with power).

Third shot: instant shot (hands and eyes move as one, firing instantly to subdue the enemy).

Fourth shot: predictive shot (locate by sound, anticipate and track).

Fifth shot: consecutive shots (bow and arrows follow in succession, arrows flying like meteors).

Sixth shot: paired-arrow shot (nock two arrows together, striking the same target along the same path).

Seventh shot: split-arrow shot (send two arrows flying apart, each striking its own target).

Eighth shot: concentrated-arrow shot (nock three arrows together, piercing a single target).

Ninth shot: star-scattering shot (fire three arrows separately, each covering its own area).

The first shot alone can pierce a willow leaf from a hundred paces. Without the script's help, I wouldn't even qualify as a beginner.

Cao Fengqi thought to himself.

[Skill Proficiency Cheat has detected that the host has learned the Nine Shots Technique. Maximize its level with one click?]

A notification suddenly appeared, and Cao Fengqi's eyes shone.

"A technique like this can also be maxed out with one click?"

He was thrilled and naturally didn't hesitate for a moment.

The next moment, he felt as though his brain had been shot with an arrow.

It had been shot full of knowledge about archery.

Cao Fengqi moved his hand, instantly drew an arrow from his back, nocked it, and fired in one fluid motion.

Whoosh!

The arrow struck a stone twenty meters away with pinpoint accuracy, without the slightest deviation!

"..."

"Is my archery really this ridiculous now?"

His face was full of surprise. He had fired almost instantly, without any help from the script.

The whole process had taken less than a second.

Moreover, the instant he had fired, he had entered a profoundly mysterious state in which his mind and the target became one, and he ignored minor disturbances.

Now he felt that if he faced that Mystic Devouring Beast again, he wouldn't need the Swift Speed Potion at all.

As long as he spotted it in advance, he could shoot it dead with the Art of Nine Shots before it reached him.

With a thought, he looked at his attributes.

[Cao Fengqi.]

[Transcendent sequence: none]

[Constitution: 32]

[Mental power: 14]

[Techniques: archery (rank 6)]

[Equipment: Arcane Musket, Evil Concealment Armor, blue-patterned robe, Three Spirits Saber, Evil-Attracting Music Box]

[Supplies: healing potion]

[Lost Land: 5/10]

[Blue Star's Blessing: Gathering Technique, Insight, Construction, Language and Writing Comprehension.]

[Open the cheat?]

"There's a techniques field now, and archery is rank 6? It doesn't say something like 'Art of Nine Shots: mastery,' or even 'arrow technique.'"

Cao Fengqi looked at it, slightly surprised, then turned his gaze to the other technique manuals he had found.

There's no such thing as having too many skills. My body happens to be weak right now, so I might as well master all these saber, sword, and movement techniques.

With that thought, he went straight back to his room.