Chapter 43

“Is it him?”

“…got it. After all, Su Xue’er is the only legitimate granddaughter of the Su family, and she will eventually know about that secret. We can’t let that young fellow interact with her anymore.”

“What should I do? Should I find a few brainless aristocratic bums and make it look like an unintentional fight of sorts?”

“That’s right. Once those bums act rashly, nobody can control them, and they would actually get things done easily.”

“The Federation belongs to us, the nine magistrates, after all. So what if he’s the president’s godson…”

The voices slowly faded out.

…

Gu Qingshan looked around him and took a look at the way the archery range was setup.

There were 20 lanes, side by side. Some people were standing in front of the lanes and practicing their aim.

Some of them had coaches standing next to them to correct their posture and guide them on the techniques.

The staff noticed what he was looking at and asked, “Do you need anybody to help with archery techniques? All our coaches are professionals.”

“Ah, no, I don’t need anybody.”

“Are you using your own bow or are you using the club’s?”

“I’m using my own.”

Gu Qingshan replied as he pulled Night Rain out from the bow case on his back.

“I’ll start practicing then.”

“Please, go ahead.”

He didn’t dare to use any Spirit Power at all. Gu Qingshan just casually took an arrow out and shot it.

BOOM!

The target board that was 50 meters away exploded into a few pieces, and there was even a small hole in the wall behind the target board.

The entire archery range fell silent.

“What happened?”

“A bomb?”

“No, I think there’s a problem with the target board.”

Many people looked over and wondered what was going on as they murmured among themselves.

All of them were aristocrats, so even if something happened, they wouldn’t become panicky.

The two staff members standing next to Gu Qingshan were completely bewildered.

“I’m so sorry, I think I’d better use the club’s bow,” Gu Qingshan quickly said.

One of the staff members barely managed to convince herself by saying that this man here was of high standing and it was only normal for him to be different from other people. She said, “No problem. Do you want to share the lane with other people or would you prefer to have your own private lane?”

“Private lane, please,” replied Gu Qingshan after considering it for a while.

She replied, “First-time rental of our bows will cost 800 credit points. A private lane will cost 1,000 credit points per hour.”

“Sure.”

Gu Qingshan finally quietly breathed a sigh of relief after he watched the two staff walk away with strange looks on their faces.

Night Rain was too powerful a bow. If he used Spirit Power, then it would become invisible and would also erase the user’s presence at the same time.

Gu Qingshan had taken all these things into consideration earlier already. So to avoid attracting unnecessary attention, Gu Qingshan didn’t use any Spirit Power at all and only used 3% of his usual strength.

In the end, the target board had exploded into pieces even though it was something that could take tremendous pressure.

After he put Night Rain away, Gu Qingshan picked the leftmost lane and waited for the staff to set up everything for him.

After a while, the staff members brought three bows over.

“Please try these out.”

Gu Qingshan picked up each bow and weighed it in his hands. He eventually decided on the heaviest one.

“I’ll use this one,” he told the staff.

“No problem. Have fun!” The staff members then politely left him.

Now he could finally start practicing.

He just had to be careful about how much strength he used.

Gu Qingshan pulled out one of the club’s arrows. He only used 10% of his strength and lightly released the arrow.

Everything went on normally.

Gu Qingshan took out another arrow, pulled the bow back, and released his hand.

The arrow shot out like a flash of light.

Gu Qingshan breathed a small sigh of relief and continued shooting arrows.

After half an hour, he had finished shooting two quivers worth of arrows.

But he felt uncomfortable somehow…

Gu Qingshan put down the club’s bow and hesitated for a short moment before taking Night Rain out again.

The club’s bow was too ordinary, and Gu Qingshan was very bored from training with it.

It was better to use Night Rain. That way, he could practice his technique as well as familiarize himself further with Night Rain.

He just needed to make sure he didn’t use any Spirit Power and he had to be careful about how much strength he used.

Spirit Power would cause a supernatural thing to happen, while too much strength would explode another target board. Either way would attract unnecessary attention.

Gu Qingshan carried Night Rain and walked to the lane. He used only 1% of his strength and shot an arrow out immediately.

This practice session lasted for a full hour.

Gu Qingshan had a good time practicing and was covered in perspiration. He was now even more familiar with Night Rain.

Even though he hadn’t used any special skills, it was still beneficial for him to accumulate some feeling and instincts for archery, and this was something he had wanted to do through today’s practice session.

He was so absorbed in practicing that he didn’t notice that someone had been staring at him all this while, and this person eventually started concentrating on Night Rain itself.

“Hello there.”

A voice came from the side.

Gu Qingshan looked over to see a young man standing next to his lane and was looking at him seriously.

“What is it?” asked Gu Qingshan as he put his bow down.

“I’d like to ask if you would like to sell your bow.”

“Sorry about that, I’m not selling it,” replied Gu Qingshan.

That man’s eyes fell on Night Rain and said loudly, “Name your price. Young Master Hui said that money is no problem.”

“I have no intention of selling it,” Gu Qingshan repeated himself.

The man shook his head and turned to walk toward another lane.

He walked to where a group of young men were standing and repeated Gu Qingshan’s words to the person who was the leader of the group.

After hearing these words, the leader smiled and said something in return.

Then, the entire group walked over to where Gu Qingshan was.

Gu Qingshan continued to pull his bow back and shoot arrow after arrow as if he didn’t sense them coming his way.

“Your bow is not bad.”

The leader of the group stared at Night Rain, and there was an appreciation of the bow in his eyes.

“It is not bad, indeed,” replied Gu Qingshan.

“I would like to buy your bow,” that man continued saying.

“I don’t intend to sell it,” replied Gu Qingshan.”

“Don’t be like this. Sell me the bow. We could be friends.”

“No, thanks.”

That man thought for a while, then said, “Or why don’t we have a gamble? I’ll bet 100,000 credit points.”

Archery was a type of sport that involved some amount of chance and guessing, so besides the aristocrats, some wealthy ordinary folks also liked to bet on this sport for fun.

Gu Qingshan looked around him.

More than half the entire place was filled with these people.

It didn’t seem possible to resolve this situation nicely.

So Gu Qingshan smiled and replied, “Sure, but I have one condition.”

“Tell me. I’m listening.”

Huang Hui cracked his neck.

Every time a fish was about to take the bait, Huang Hui would subconsciously crack his neck to hide the rising emotions in his heart.

His elder brother, the current head of the family, had instructed him to deal with this person. So he had to come.

He thought he would just challenge Gu Qingshan, but he ended up making a surprising discovery.

He had a hidden skill of a Chosen One and could see some strange things. But nobody knew about this at all.

He could see a woman in this particular bow. She was dressed like she came from ancient times and was shooting an arrow with this bow.

That woman was extremely beautiful.

That woman seemed to have an inseparable connection with this bow.

This was a bow with history!

Besides this, Huang Hui himself was passionate about archery. He had developed his skills in this area for more than ten years now, and he could see that this was a good bow.

If only this special and powerful bow was his.

As long as the other party agreed to the bet, Huang Hui was confident that he would win.

He just needed to use a few moves. But while some of these moves looked good, some of them were dirty moves.

If he could complete his mission and reap a priceless reward at the same time, then that would be a truly wonderful thing.