From breaking the limits of archery to achieving martial arts godhood

Chenjia Village is a large village with thousands of residents, 80% of whom are surnamed Chen.

The center of Chenjia Village is a small town covering nearly ten acres.

The city has a three-meter-high wall, and patrol teams patrol both on and below the wall.

The words "Chenjiabao" are engraved on the city gate.

The residents of the fort were all important figures from Chenjia Village.

For example, the direct descendants of the Chen family, the martial artists of the Chen family, and the elders of the Chen family.

Ordinary people in Chenjia Village who do not have the status of martial artists are not allowed to live there.

Houses can only be built around Chenjiabao, and the closer a house is to Chenjiabao, the higher its value.

Chen Xun's home is quite far from Chenjiabao, about five or six hundred meters away as the crow flies. But it's not the farthest home, since his father used to be a hunter and had a good income.

The furthest houses are more than a kilometer away as the crow flies, almost reaching the foot of Baihu Mountain.

This White Tiger Mountain is nearly 500 meters high. It was named after a white tiger that someone hunted in the mountain.

There used to be many wild animals in the mountains, but since the ancestors of Chenjia Village settled and developed here, the number of wild animals in the mountains has decreased significantly, as they have all been hunted to death.

To reap greater rewards, one must cross White Tiger Mountain and hunt in the deeper mountains.

During this process, Chen Xun's father was bitten by a venomous snake and eventually died.

Chen Xun left his home and, following his memory, headed towards the market.

Along the way, Chen Xun would greet familiar faces warmly.

Before long, he arrived at the bustling market.

The market was set up a hundred meters outside Chenjiabao. Most of the stall owners and vendors were from Chenjia Village, but there were also a few from other villages.

"Vegetables for sale! Fresh Chinese cabbage, only five coins a pound."

"Steamed buns, freshly baked big steamed buns, two coins each."

"Salted fish, salted fish that can be stored for three years, fifty coins a catty."

At the market, the sounds of various vendors hawking their wares filled the air.

Chen Xun mingled in the crowd, looking at each person one by one.

After walking around and gaining a basic understanding of the prices in the market, he first went to the meat stall.

The stall was owned by a group of hunters, and they had a black wild boar weighing over 200 pounds on display.

Clearly, this was the result of their cooperative hunting, and they didn't need to hand it over.

The hunters in Chenjia Village are in hunting teams. Every time a hunting team goes out hunting, they send a martial artist to accompany them, which greatly increases their safety. Therefore, half of the game they hunt must be handed over.

The remaining half is distributed according to the contribution made by each hunter during the hunt.

However, hunters who are confident in their abilities can hunt alone or with a few hunter friends. In this way, the prey they obtain does not need to be handed over; they can handle it themselves.

"Uncle Quan, give me three catties of wild boar meat."

Chen Xun spoke to a hunter at the stall.

When the man saw Chen Xun, he immediately smiled and said, "Oh, it's Xiao Xun. Good, Uncle will cut you a good piece of meat."

As he spoke, he skillfully picked up the butcher's knife and cut off a piece of pork belly with alternating layers of fat and lean meat.

When weighed on a steelyard, it weighed three jin and four liang.

"The extra four taels is a token of my appreciation, after all, your father and I had a good relationship when he was alive."

Chen Quan sighed with regret.

He then strung the wild boar meat together with a hemp rope and stuffed it into Chen Xun's hand.

Chen Xun couldn't refuse, so he thanked him gratefully and paid for the three catties of wild boar meat.

One catty costs thirty coins, three catties cost ninety coins.

Wild boar meat is gamey and dry, and its taste is much worse than that of domesticated livestock. It is also relatively cheaper.

Of course, it's still meat, so it won't be much cheaper.

Home-raised pork costs only thirty-five or thirty-six coins per pound.

Watching Chen Xun's departing figure, a hunter next to Chen Quan clicked his tongue.

"Chen Quan, do you think this kid can pass the test?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Quan paused in his actions, then sighed, "If it passes, it will be like carrying on the family business, making it easier for him to find a wife in the future."

"It's not necessarily a bad thing if we don't pass the test. Although we hunters earn more, it's also a dangerous job. We might die in an accident."

Upon hearing these words, the hunter who had spoken fell silent.

Chen Xun was unaware of the conversation between the two people behind him; he was standing at a stall at the moment.

This stall displays mostly iron products.

For example, hoes, harpoons, rakes, and the like.

The prices are not cheap; even a single item costs over a hundred coins.

Some farmers hesitated in front of the stalls, clutching their money bags, looking like they wanted to buy but thought it was too expensive.

There was nothing they could do; after a year of hard work, they could only save one or two taels of silver.

One tael of silver could be exchanged for 1000 coins.

Spending over a hundred coins at once requires careful consideration.

Chen Xun's gaze wasn't on the large iron objects, but on the arrows in the corner.

There were three different types of arrows in the pile. Chen Xun took out a well-worn arrow he had brought with him and handed it to the stall owner.

"Boss, take a look at this arrowhead, what model is it?"

The stall owner took a look and quickly gave the answer: "It's this model."

The stall owner picked up the medium-sized arrow from his stall.

How much is one arrow?

"Ten coins."

"So expensive?"

Chen Xun's eyes widened in surprise.

"Young man, don't be fooled by the small amount of material used to make this arrow; it took me a lot of effort."

"Could you make it less?"

Chen Xun bargained.

"No less, this is the price, not a penny less."

The stall owner waved his hand, showing no sign of backing down.

In the end, Chen Xun gritted his teeth and bought twelve arrows.

There's no way around it; this is the only stall selling arrows in the entire market, so you could say it's a monopoly.

Later, Chen Xun learned from others that the stall owner was a blacksmith who had married the daughter of an elder of the Chen family. With the elder's support, he was able to continue doing this business.

Afterwards, Chen Xun bought a bundle of wooden arrows, fifty in total, for two hundred coins.

And fifty catties of millet, and more than ten catties of various vegetables, these two items together cost three hundred coins.

The whole trip cost more than seven hundred coins, a little over one tael of silver.

"This money really goes by too quickly."

Chen Xun returned home and couldn't help but sigh.

This is just for daily expenses; if one practices martial arts in the future, the expenses will likely increase significantly.

Unfortunately, he is only fourteen years old and will not be able to start practicing martial arts until next year.

As a member of Chencunbao, every Chenjia Village resident has the opportunity to receive three months of martial arts training when they are fifteen years old.

If you can sense Qi and blood within three months, it means you have good aptitude and can pursue further studies.

However, this requires a fee, which is about one or two taels of silver per month.

If no blood energy is detected within three months, the person is sent back directly.

Of course, if you want to stay and continue learning martial arts, that's also possible, but you'll have to pay three taels of silver a month.

Ordinary people don't have such wealth.

Therefore, if one's aptitude is insufficient, one will never be a martial artist in this lifetime.

Chen Xun naturally wanted to learn martial arts, after all, he had the cheat code [Martial Arts Diligence Record], which meant that even if his aptitude was poor, as long as he got started, he could keep improving and eventually become a martial artist.

However, his age limit prevents him from learning martial arts at present.

After putting away all the things he had bought, Chen Xun picked up his hunting bow and wooden arrows and began practicing archery.

However, despite shooting several arrows, he failed to gain any experience points.

"Could it be because the arrows were changed to wooden ones?"

Chen Xun's face darkened at the thought, for these wooden arrows had cost him two hundred coins.

So he switched back to iron arrows.

However, there are still no experience points.

"Could it be a distance issue?"

Chen Xun opened the door, placed the target towards the entrance, and then went outside to a distance of thirty paces from the target before shooting an arrow.

The arrow hit the bullseye.

Archery experience +1

"It really is because of the distance."

Chen Xun's face showed a mixture of joy and worry.

The good news was that the cause had been discovered, but the bad news was that there wasn't enough space at home for him to practice archery.

"Looks like I'll have to go out and practice archery."

Chen Xun thought to himself.

Afterwards, Chen Xun, carrying his bow and arrows, went out again.

He planned to find a quiet place to practice archery, so he headed out of Chenjia Village.

Not long after, he found a bamboo forest on the outermost edge of Chenjia Village, at the foot of Baihu Mountain.

The bamboo forest showed signs of logging. When Chen Xun arrived, he could still see two people from Chenjia Village cutting bamboo.

They saw Chen Xun, and Chen Xun saw them too.

Chen Xun found the two unfamiliar faces; after all, Chenjia Village had several thousand people, and he naturally didn't know everyone.

"Young man, are you going into the mountains to hunt?"

One of the middle-aged men looked at Chen Xun's attire and couldn't help but ask.

"No, I went to the bamboo forest to practice archery."

Chen Xun replied.

After saying that, he nodded to the other young man, walked past them, and went into the depths of the bamboo forest.

"What a strange person, coming here to practice archery."

The young man muttered a couple of things to himself, then shook his head, not paying any attention.

The two continued cutting bamboo.

Chen Xun went into the bamboo forest, away from the two of them, and began to practice archery.

As messages of +1 experience points appeared, Chen Xun's proficient archery skills began to slowly improve.