From a slave to the Great Qian Martial Saint

Time flies, and more than two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

Winter has passed and spring has arrived; it is now the end of January of the new year.

Chen Shi didn't feel anything about the New Year; he only knew that in another month, it would be the graduation time for this class of Zhechong Academy.

With the spring college entrance exams approaching, the atmosphere in the college is gradually becoming tense.

Since it is a graduation assessment, the spring exam is actually more important than the autumn exam.

Perhaps it's for the spring exam rewards, or perhaps it's simply to compete with the prospective students, but even the usually lax and lazy recruits have been working hard lately.

After having breakfast at the Yi-zi canteen in the early morning, Chen Shi went straight to the Jia-zi No. 7 drill ground.

Unlike the No. 3 training ground, this is for practicing archery.

After the autumn exams, fearing Chen Shi's background, no one dared to "spar" with him anymore. Fortunately, his Dragon Claw Hand technique was already somewhat mastered, so he decided to put it aside for the time being.

As the saying goes, one force can overcome ten techniques. In reality, with his Sky-Supporting Divine Body, Chen Shi's fist and foot techniques are at least sufficient.

As graduation approaches, I'm thinking of practicing archery on horseback.

After that, he would join the army, where archery and horsemanship were extremely important on the battlefield.

Duh~!

With a muffled thud, the arrow struck the bullseye thirty paces away, its powerful force causing the fletching to tremble violently.

Without pausing, Chen Shi drew a new arrow from his quiver, nocked it, and fired it in one swift motion.

For an ordinary archer, a slight pause is needed after shooting an arrow. But with Chen Shi's strength, these two stone bows were no different from a child's toy in his hands, requiring no pause at all.

Arrow after arrow, swift and fluid, emptied the quiver in one go. Looking up again, the target thirty paces away was now full of arrows, all hitting the bullseye.

"good."

The archery instructor stood on the sidelines, nodding repeatedly.

After practicing for only a few days, Chen Shi's archery skills had already reached a basic level.

After practicing methodically and calmly all morning, shooting over a thousand arrows, it was already noon.

After eating at the canteen, I went straight back to my accommodation.

"Young master is back. How did your training go today?"

As always, Lian'er greeted her with a smile and handed her a warm towel.

"It's not bad, it's improved compared to yesterday."

Chen Shi nodded and wiped his face and hands.

"That's good. You're getting stronger every day. I knew you were the best, young master!"

Lian'er was overjoyed, her face beaming with pride.

Chen Shi smiled, handed the used towel to Lian'er, and went straight back to his room.

Lian'er was already used to it. She rubbed the towel a couple of times and hung it up to dry before returning to her little hut to eat lunch.

Although they still lived separately, they spent a lot of time together, and before they knew it, half a year had passed, and their relationship had become much closer.

With the door tightly shut, Chen Shi took out the Eight Trigrams Formation and continued to study it.

After two months, he finally mastered the Snake Coil Formation, but only the basics. To use it skillfully and reach a level of perfection, he still needed to accumulate a lot of practical experience.

But as previously predicted, a second formation subsequently emerged.

Unlike the Snake Coil Formation, this second formation focuses on long-range attacks, emphasizing flanking maneuvers, like a bird spreading its wings and swooping down to strike.

It's called the Bird Flight Formation!

In fact, it was precisely because he had recently started learning this formation that Chen Shi thought about practicing archery.

Chen Shi spent the entire afternoon studying the Bird Formation.

"It's definitely much more difficult now."

As evening fell, Chen Shi let out a soft sigh and put away the Eight Trigrams Formation.

As expected, each of the eight formations was difficult to overcome, and the Bird Formation was much more complex and profound than the Snake Formation.

It took Chen Shi two months to master the Snake Coil Formation. If he wanted to master the Bird Soaring Formation, it would probably take a year and a half.

The second formation will take a year and a half. What about the third, fourth, and even the seventh and eighth? How long will that take? Decades, centuries?

How many years does a person live? If we calculate it this way, even if Chen Shi spent his whole life, he probably wouldn't be able to fully master the eight formations of the Eight Trigrams Formation.

If it were an ordinary person, they would surely feel a great sense of frustration and discouragement, but Chen Shi was born with a simple and honest nature, and although he knew this, his heart did not waver in the slightest.

He was not Zhuge Liang, and his talent and comprehension were far inferior to Zhuge Liang's. It was only natural that he could not master all eight formations in his lifetime. Even mastering just a few would be of great benefit to him.

So he simply stopped thinking about these things and focused on his studies.

However, he also knew that learning the Eight Trigrams Formation was not something that could be accomplished overnight, so he was no longer too fixated on it.

So now I only use my afternoons to study.

Knock knock!

A knock sounded on the door, and Lian'er's voice came through.

"Young master, dinner has been served."

"Enter."

Chen Shi closed the box and said something.

Lian'er came in carrying a lunchbox containing food she had gotten from the Yi-zi canteen.

For the past two months, Lian'er has been fetching dinner for us, which has saved Chen Shi the time of going back and forth to the canteen.

There was a table in the room, and the food was brought out. The two sat facing each other and ate together.

In a daze, it was as if he were at home with Cui Nong and at the medicine stove with Mu Yunsheng.

After finishing her meal, Lian'er skillfully tidied up, then turned and left, closing the door behind her.

Chen Shi sat cross-legged on the bed, circulating his blood and qi, refining his divine body into essence and blood.

Two or three hours passed in the blink of an eye.

The night was already deep. Chen Shi opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

After a slight adjustment of your breathing, close your eyes again and count your breaths to enter a state of tranquility.

Nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, the soul shows almost no improvement or enhancement, yet its energy surpasses that of natural sleep.

Another night passed without incident.

When Chen Shi woke up the next morning, he was just like he had been the day before.

"Chen Shi".

When they arrived at the training ground, Chen Shi was about to start practicing as before when the instructor came over.

"You've mastered the basics; now you can practice some techniques."

"Does the coach have any suggestions?"

"Ancient books mention five types of archery: White Arrow, Canlian Arrow, Yanzhu Arrow, Xiangchi Arrow, and Jingyi Arrow. But in my opinion, they are nothing more than four words: fast, accurate, ruthless, and unpredictable. If you want to practice archery further, you must start with these four words."

"so."

Chen Shi hesitated for a moment, then asked.

"If I want to practice speed first, are there any tips?"

"In the world of martial arts, speed is the only way to break through defenses; you are indeed clever."

The coach smiled and nodded, then proceeded to teach Chen Shi some rapid-fire techniques.

Chen Shi had a strong memory and good comprehension, so he quickly understood and memorized the information.

The next step is specific practice.

Once in position, following the instructor's instructions, arrows were fired one after another, the next arriving before the previous one even landed. For now, accuracy wasn't the priority; speed was the only goal.

The coach stood to the side watching, nodding repeatedly.

As the morning progressed, Chen Shi had shot three to four times more arrows than usual.

Look at the sun, it's already noon, time for school to end.

Chen Shi sighed softly, put down his bow and arrows, and left to have lunch.

Just like eating, you can't get fat in one bite. The same goes for martial arts; you have to progress step by step, and you can't rush it.

In the No. 2 canteen, Chen Shi had just sat down after getting his food when Feng Qi passed by and whispered something.

"We'll meet at the back of the mountain after midnight."