Desolate Era (Book 11 - Book 15)

“[Houyi’s Archery]?” The black-robed youth called out in amazement, “Master, you have a chance to learn [Houyi’s Archery]?”


Ning nodded. “But, I have to pass this trial first.”

“This trial is pretty hard. Shoot a hundred arrows and let me take a look first,” the black-robed youth said.

“Alright.”

Ning immediately shot out another hundred arrows. Although he knew where the problems lay…there was nothing he could do about it. He failed every time by an enormous margin.

The black-robed youth watched from afar. Through using his invisible senses, he could naturally see the target that was more than ten thousand kilometers away.

“How was it?” Ning looked towards the black-robed youth.

“It seems you have a bit of a foundation. I thought you’d be off by at least a hundred kilometers.” The black-robed youth nodded. “The art of archery…the most important part of it lies in ‘accuracy’. The more formidable an archery technique, the more powerful the arrows it unleashes, but as for accuracy? For powerful archery arts, it is very difficult to use divine power to improve the accuracy of a shot, and so accuracy is extremely important.”

Ning nodded.

“Start from the basics. First shoot from a hundred kilometers,” the black-robed youth said.

……

Under the guidance of the Rahu Bow, Ning once more began to train in archery. Although the Rahu Bow had never trained personally, he had seen many of his successive masters train in archery. Those were the divine archers of the Primordial Era!

First, a hundred kilometers.

Then two hundred. Then three…

Ning spent nearly three years training in accordance with the guidance from the Rahu Bow, but was still only able to hit the center of targets from 1200 kilometers away when using just raw force. 1200 was a limit for him; no matter how hard Ning tried, he was still unable to improve at all.

“What’s going on? Generally speaking, this is how one trains in archery; one needs to master one’s wind-sense and one’s sense of Qiankun. You’ve accomplished both, and the speed of your arrow isn’t bad. But why is it that I keep on feeling as though you are missing something?” The black-robed youth was extremely puzzled.

He had only watched others shoot arrows, after all; he himself wasn’t a divine archer.

Over the past three years, Ning had even gone to the Divinities Palace to pick out some archery techniques from the eighth floor. He had ruminated over them alongside the Rahu Bow, which was why he had improved this much over the past three years.

“What’s going on?” Ning sat down on the ground, feeling perplexed.

“Junior apprentice-brother, still training archery?” A laugh rang out as the woodcutter came walking over, hatchet over one shoulder and firewood over the other.

“Eldest apprentice-brother.” Ning hurriedly rose to his feet, then said with embarrassment, “I’ve trained bitterly for three years, but I’m still unable to pass the trial for [Houyi’s Archery].”

“[Houyi’s Archery] is indeed extremely difficult, and the trial is quite difficult as well. Shoot a few arrows for me to see,” the woodcutter said with a smile.

“Alright.” Ning was instantly overjoyed.

The eldest apprentice-brother was the absolute number one expert amongst the Old Patriarch’s disciples. Even the second apprentice-brother, Crazy Ji, admitted his inferiority, as did all of the other disciples. In fact, when Ning was chatting with Silvermoon, Silvermoon had secretly told him that their eldest apprentice-brother was definitely at the Daofather level of power. Given his incredible power and given how long he had lived here in seclusion, he had almost assuredly analyzed a technique like [Houyi’s Archery], one of the top ten divine abilities of the Three Realms.

Although there were quite a few disciples of the Old Patriarch who trained in [Houyi’s Archery], none of them were that formidable in it. Given their eldest apprentice-brother’s power, however…he surely was.

Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang! Twang!

One arrow after another shot out. Ning used all of his power while attuning to both the wind and to the Qiankun. In this instant, the world and the wind were all one with his heart. It was as though he himself was the master of the entire world, as though he was the master of countless winds. In fact, even some of the distant transformations of the wind were held within his heart, as though his subconscious was whispering to him of what would happen. This state was the state known as the Dao Domain of the Dao of Archery. Given what a high level of comprehension Ning was at, and given that the Dao of Archery was heavily related to both ‘wind’ and ‘Qiankun’, Ning had advanced fairly quickly along this Dao.

One arrow after another flew out, striking towards the distant target, more than ten thousand kilometers away.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Each of the arrows howled past the target by more than ten meters. In fact, purely thanks to luck, one of the arrows actually struck the target. However…it only hit the target, not the center of the target.

“Alright. You can stop now,” the woodcutter said.

“Please guide me, senior apprentice-brother.” After halting, Ning respectfully asked for advice.

The woodcutter laughed. “Your fundamentals are quite solid. However…you are lacking in the most important aspect.”

“The most important aspect?” Ning was puzzled.

“Right.” The woodcutter nodded. “Remember this: When the arrow flies, the heart flies with it. Once you reach this level, you’ll be able to hit the center of the target from ten thousand kilometers away.” After speaking, the woodcutter turned and leisurely departed, still carrying his hatchet and his firewood.

Ning stood there unmoving. He murmured to himself, “When the arrow flies, the heart flies with it?”





* * *





Book 13, Chapter 35 - The Heart Flies With It


As he watched the woodcutter depart, Ji Ning grew increasingly puzzled. “When the arrow flies…this part I understand. But ‘the heart flies with it’…what does that mean?”

Twang! Twang! Twang!

Ning pulled his bow, testing out a few more arrows, growing increasingly puzzled as he did.

“Little master.” The black-robed man appeared once more, face full of excitement. “Your eldest apprentice-brother said, ‘When the arrow flies, the heart flies with it.’ I think I somewhat understand.”

“Oh?” Ning revealed an expectant look on his face.

The black-robed youth immediately explained, “I’ve gone through many masters and watched many of them train in archery, as well as watched them train their successors and descendants in archery. I remember often hearing them say something; ‘You need to put your heart into it. Put your heart into the arrow.’ When I was guiding you, I didn’t think of these words, because I thought they were just casual words of encouragement, but now…it seems those words must have some special meaning.”

Ning was an extremely intelligent person. This guidance from the black-robed youth didn’t clearly point at what was necessary, but Ning now already had his own ideas.

To use the heart?

To put the heart into the arrow?

When the arrow flies? The heart flies with it?

“My guess is that ‘the heart flies with it’ means exactly that; having your heart and mind fly along with the arrow,” the black-robed youth said. “This ‘heart’ is most likely a reference to a sort of invisible force.”

Ning listened to the black-robed youth, thinking to himself at the same time. He had shot out tens of thousands of arrows every day for nearly a year; thus, he was familiar with all the technical tricks to it. Actually, Ning had already vaguely touched upon the level of having the heart fly with the arrow, but no one had been able to guide him to actually breaking through to it.

Ning once more nocked an arrow to his bow.

“The air…”

“The wind…”