6 Trials 1

Tang Yan was given a tour of the facilities after he signed in. Right at the end of the tour he ran into Wang Tao.

Tang Yan's impression of Wang Tao was pretty good. He was worthy of admiration for not accepting Qian Feng into the team.

Although Qian Feng wasn't amazing, he still possessed potential, so rejecting him must have been a tough decision.

"Tang Yan, train hard okay, so that when the provincial team trials come along, you can enter the list," said Wang Tao while pulling him over to the side.

Just from this it could be seen how much Wang Tao valued Tang Yan.

Tang Yan was moved. He had experienced many hardships in his previous life. So naturally, he understood that earning this level of trust wasn't easy.

Although he had obtained a part of Li Guang's abilities, he still required further training in order to perfect his technique and increase his strength. After all, he couldn't be limited to shooting at 30 meters forever.

Modern-day archery competitions were categorized by distance.

The distances for the men's competition were:30 meters, 50 meters, 70 meters, and 90 meters.

The distances for the women's competition were: 30 meters, 50 meters, 60 meters, and 70 meters.

In official competitions, these distances were further divided into individual competitions and team competitions.

The further the distance, the harder it was to shoot accurately.

Though the distance at the Lotus City trials was 30 meters, that was mainly due to the selection targets being high school students and the fact that the city's archery standards were low.

But in fact, in most official competitions, 30 meters wasn't even an event. With the shortest distance often being 50 meters.

In other words, although Tang Yan's performance had shocked many at the trials, nearly every member of the city team could do the same.

Therefore, although Wang Tao appreciated his potential. Upon entering the team, he was still the weakest member.

Entering the team, he was now challenged with competing in the 50m event.

This increase of 20 meters shouldn't be underestimated. An increase in distance meant a change in your archery angle. You could aim flat at 30 meters but at 50 meters you had to compensate for the distance by raising the angle at which you shot.

However, for Tang Yan, this was a natural process. He found himself naturally adjusting before he shot. It was like a muscle reflex ingrained in him.

After getting into the team, he had trained and experimented several times to test out the extent of his abilities and found that he could shoot 46-48 points steadily at 70 meters with six arrows. This level was actually very close to that of the provincial average.

However, the event given to him by the team was 50 meters. He accepted it, though slightly unwillingly.

Even so, Tang Yan's training had left a deep impression on the rest of his teammates.

After all Tang Yan was only 18 years old!

Wang Tao seeing their shock, laughed.

If only they knew the truth that Tang Yan wasn't only 18yrs old, but a complete amateur with only three months of practice under his belt.

What a prodigy.

In truth, Wang Tao had wanted Tang Yan to compete in the 70m event, but the head coach had turned him down. Saying that Tang Yan was too inexperienced.

.....

Two months later.

Today was the day that the provincial trials began. The archery team was preparing to head down to Yuhang City to compete.

Before the expedition, Tang Yan finally managed to catch a glimpse of their Head Coach Shao Ping, a bald-headed fat man, said to have been the main force behind the former provincial team.

"Everyone must work hard. This is a rare opportunity. If you don't grasp it, it will be your own fault. Work hard and bring glory to Lotus City and our archery team!" Before their departure, Shao Ping gave a speech 'full of encouragement'.

After getting on the bus, Tang Yan was able to hear his teammates cracking jokes and mocking Shao Ping. In fact, this was a common occurrence. Many were disgruntled with the old man who hardly ever showed his face at training, even though he was the head coach.

However, he didn't participate in their banter, he found their antics too childish.

After a three hour bumpy journey, they finally arrived in Yuhang City.

Yuhang City was the capital city of the Zhejiang Province. It had a developed economy and was filled with grand high-rise buildings. The prosperity of the city was obvious at the first glance. After entering the city, it took them another hour to reach the hotel.

Their accommodation was arranged by the Provincial Archery Association. Perhaps because of their poor performances before, the hotel they were put in was subpar at best. It was closer to a rundown motel rather than a hotel.

His teammates, upon seeing the hotel began to frown. When Wang Tao and Shao Ping left for a meeting which left them alone, Tang Yan's teammates began to curse and complain loudly.

Tang Yan stood silently, waiting to get his room card. After receiving it he went to his room to rest.

This trial was said to be for selecting the provincial team members who would compete in the national trials. But in all honesty, basically everyone knew that the main team had probably been selected already. Most of whom would probably be from Yuhang City's archery team. What the other teams were fighting for, was a place on the team as archers with potential.

Many cities were aware of this, so they sent up a young line-up. Lotus City had only sent along two veteran archers with the rest of the team being newcomers like Tang Yan.

Tang Yan knew this as well, but he wasn't resigned to his fate yet.He began to rest so that he could be in top form tomorrow and steal his way into the main team.

The next day, Shao Ping did not appear, leaving Wang Tao to take them to the venue.

The players yawned as they all got onto the coach again. It seemed that they hadn't slept very well last night.

Wang Tao couldn't help but frown when he saw this but, when he saw Tang Yan full of energy, his face burst into a smile. Signaling him to wait, he got the others onto the bus first, then looked at Tang Yan and said,

"Tang Yan, we will be relying on you today okay, so show them what Lotus City is made of!"

Tang Yan nodded then got on the bus with a smile.

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