Chapter 25: The Archery Hall

Chapter 25: The Archery Hall

In the dead of night, all was silent.

Inside Chen Shouyi’s bedroom, the Shell Woman, who had been lying motionless on the desk, suddenly sat up slowly. She glanced down at the princess dress adorning her body, its beautiful colors finally stirring a flicker of emotion in her eyes. She stood up and took a few light steps, then twirled gracefully, watching as the dress floated around her like petals.

A faint trace of delight appeared on her small face.

But the moment she remembered her current predicament, she immediately suppressed her smile.

She hurried over to the enormous spoon, wrinkling her nose at the pungent sweetness wafting from it. Though disgusted, the gnawing hunger in her stomach and the escape plan she had in mind forced her to pinch her nose and take several gulps. The overwhelming sweetness made her frown.

After letting out a small burp, she rested for a while, feeling her strength gradually return.

Then, she sprang into action.

Moving along the desk, she peered down from time to time, realizing the drop was immense no matter where she looked.

Fortunately, though this strange world had stripped her of her innate abilities, it had also made her body far lighter.

Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself, aimed for the spot where the giant had been sitting earlier, and leaped with all her might.

Her body traced an arc through the air before landing on the chair. She tumbled a few times but quickly stood up.

It had been easier than she expected, and her confidence surged.

Just then, a loud creak echoed in her ears. She immediately ducked behind the leg of the chair, holding her breath, her small face pale with fright.

Luckily, the "giant" merely turned over in his sleep, and soon, the heavy sound of his breathing resumed.

Only after a long while did she dare to move again. Treading softly and cautiously, she soon reached the door.

There was a gap of about 4 to 5 millimeters between the door and the floor.

Her eyes lit up at the sight, and she hurried over. For her tiny body, such a gap was more than enough.

Her heart pounded with excitement, nearly leaping out of her chest. She immediately dropped to the ground and began crawling forward.

Her head slipped through!

Soon, her chest followed!

Her excitement grew. Just as she was about to push forward and escape this nightmarish place, she suddenly found herself stuck. Something seemed to be holding her back. She struggled desperately, but it was no use.

...

The next day, before dawn had even broken, Chen Shouyi woke up.

His first instinct was to glance at the desk—only to find the Shell Woman missing.

Alarmed, he quickly searched around and finally found her stuck in the door gap. The fluffy princess dress had snagged on a wooden splinter, preventing her escape.

He tied her up again, sealing her with tape, his heart still racing with lingering fear. He couldn’t help but consider whether he should buy a cage for her.

...

He had risen earlier than usual. His parents and younger sister were still asleep. After swiftly washing his face and brushing his teeth, he returned to his room.

Once he had packed his belongings, he waited until the clock struck seven before leaping out the window again.

"Mom, I’m leaving. Tell Dad for me."

"Got it. Study hard, and don’t worry about home," Chen Mu called back loudly from the busy restaurant.

"Where’s Shouyi?" Chen Dawei, hearing the commotion, rushed out with an apron tied around his waist.

"He left ages ago."

"That child, I still wanted to talk to him! These past few days, he's been so elusive—I can never catch him."

...

After leaving home, Chen Shouyi first went to the supermarket to stock up on a pile of food and a large amount of drinking water. Then, he booked a single room for fifteen days at a secluded small hotel and settled his luggage there.

He estimated the time and waited until 11 p.m. before quietly slipping into the Otherworld.

Last night, while browsing on his phone, he had roughly learned that a single day in the Otherworld lasted about 40 Earth hours.

Sure enough, when he entered, the sky had just begun to brighten.

Both the mountain mist and that eerie singing had vanished, as if they had never existed.

He untied Shell Woman again, only binding her leg with a thin nylon rope, then continued coercing her to collect gold grains for him.

Back in familiar surroundings, Shell Woman felt her innate abilities return. She tentatively fluttered her wings a few times, her small face lighting up with delight. She flitted about joyfully, searching for gold grains, as if she had completely forgotten the fact that she was imprisoned.

Perhaps she had already resigned herself to her fate.

Chen Shouyi resumed his training.

Here, he had a tremendous advantage—his Natural Healing ability could swiftly repair muscle strains and alleviate fatigue, allowing him to endure higher-intensity and more frequent training sessions.

This was something he had discovered yesterday. Every time he trained until his muscles twitched, it took only a dozen seconds for the fatigue to subside.

In the past, it would have taken at least four or five hours.

Each movement of his Swordsmanship involved a series of muscles throughout his body. While the techniques were immensely powerful, they were also extremely taxing to practice, quickly exhausting the muscles. Few Martial Artist Apprentices could train continuously for more than five minutes.

Typically, they would practice for three or four minutes, then rest for ten minutes before the muscle fatigue reached its limit. In an hour of training, most of the time was spent resting.

But he didn’t need to do this at all. Compared to others, this meant he had far more time to practice.

...

Time flew by, and two Earth days passed in the blink of an eye.

At noon, he left the hotel in a hurry, carrying a bag.

Soon after, he arrived at a nearby gold shop to sell the gold Shell Woman had collected over the past few days.

He had secretly smelted the gold grains into bars beforehand to avoid unnecessary trouble—after all, raw gold grains were too conspicuous and could easily raise suspicions about whether he had discovered a gold mine.

During this time, he had changed his method of exploitation, shifting from pure intimidation to material incentives—such as dresses in various styles, pretty glass marbles, and colorful little trinkets.

As a result, Shell Woman’s efficiency in collecting gold grains had steadily increased, and her enthusiasm had grown stronger.

In just a few short days, she had gathered over half a kilogram of gold grains.

Looking at the ATM screen, which displayed a balance of over 110,000 yuan, Chen Shouyi’s heart pounded wildly.

110,000 yuan might not seem like much—in Dongning, a fifth- or sixth-tier city where housing prices were already close to 10,000 yuan per square meter, it was barely enough to buy a bathroom.

But for Chen Shouyi, whose personal savings had never exceeded 3,000 yuan in his entire life, this was a fortune.

...

This time, he hadn’t come out just to sell gold.

Although he had lied to Chen Mu, claiming he was attending an intensive training program, this lie had to be backed up—he absolutely had to pass the Martial Apprentice Examination. His physical fitness was no longer an issue, and his swordsmanship, refined through practice under threefold gravity, had become smooth and precise enough to meet the requirements. The only thing left was archery.

However, he had no intention of signing up for tutoring classes again.

For one, there wasn’t enough time.

For another, those inefficient teaching methods simply didn’t suit him.

...

Half an hour later, Chen Shouyi stood in front of the entrance to the Chuan Sheng Archery Hall.

He stepped out of the taxi and looked up at the building—this was the largest archery hall in Dongning City. Many martial apprentices came here to train, and occasionally, even full-fledged martial artists could be spotted.

"How much does it cost here?" he asked.

The girl at the front desk smiled. "We offer annual, half-year, quarterly, and monthly memberships. A monthly pass costs 4,500, with a 50% discount for annual memberships and 20% off for half-year memberships—"

"Do you have day passes or hourly rates?" he quickly interrupted her sales pitch.

"Of course. We have single-entry passes for 300, valid from 9 AM to 9 PM. Private coaching and massage services are available at additional fees."

"Just a single-entry pass for me, then."

"May I see your ID?"

Chen Shouyi handed over his identification, paid, and soon received a temporary membership card.

Before he even reached the entrance, he could already hear the rhythmic thuds of arrows striking bullseyes.

The archery hall was enormous, with corridors stretching nearly 100 meters on either side, covering an area of over 10,000 square meters.

Today was still during the National Day holiday, the peak business period, and the entire venue was packed.

There were white-collar workers in sporty shorts, burly men with well-defined muscles, and even quite a few elderly and children.

It was clear that most of them were complete amateurs.

Unlike swordsmanship, which was notoriously difficult to master from the start, archery was easy to pick up but hard to perfect. Even those who had no aspirations in martial arts often practiced it as a casual hobby.

Still, there were plenty of skilled practitioners here as well.