Archery Training
After the twin's promotion and the hiring of Li QI and Blacksmith Guo, nothing much happened for a week.
Of the few important events, Li Huo was given a Yggdrasil Fruit and was let in on the secret, Xue Bai visited Li Huo several times to keep the man company, and finally, the Wang twins moved into a courtyard a few down from Xue Bai.
However, now, after a week, Xue Bai's idle life was finally going to come to an end.
True to her words, Li Rou only needed a week to prepare both a field in the Core Region for Xue Bai to practice on and a training regimen for him to follow.
Originally, Xue Bai wanted to practice on the army grounds, but after talking to his mother, he realized that it would be better to be by himself rather than on the army grounds.
Since he would practice archery, Xue Bai would take up a lot of space while most soldiers would either spar or do body exercises. And because he was new, Xue Bai might accidentally hit another soldier.
Of course, his arrows would do little damage to them, but it still would be rude to hit another man with an arrow.
So after waking up early in the morning and changing into a tight training suit, Xue Bai went to the practice field Li Rou prepared for him.
Standing in the center of a several-mile-wide dirt field, Xue Bai looked at Li Rou, who was standing in front of him.
Since she wouldn't do any serious feats today, Li Rou still wore her usual blood-red robe. However, since she thought it was appropriate, she tied her hair into a high bun instead of letting it fall down her back.
Starting off the day, Li Rou first guided her son through some quick stretches.
This didn't take long, and after making sure Xue Bai was ready, Li Rou handed him a bow and an arrow.
Li Rou pointed to a target about a kilometer away and said, "Bai'er, before I teach or show you anything, just take a shot at that target."
Unlike Earth, the Baishen Plane was truly flat. Coupled with the fact that children on the Baishen Plane were stronger than most humans on Earth, Xue Bai was easily able to see a kilometer away and also the target point Li Rou was pointing at.
Xue Bai didn't waste any time and went to fulfill his mother's request, but he quickly embarrassed himself.
Once he tried to take a shot Xue Bai quickly realized that he couldn't even notch his arrow correctly.
Thankfully, he didn't embarrass himself much, as Li Rou finally stepped in after three failed attempts and stopped him. As a master archer, once Li Rou saw someone struggle with the most basic thing, she visibly cringed.
She had done this to see how much Xue Bai knew about archery, but after realizing that her son was a complete rookie at archery, she realized that she had to start with the basics.
"Bai'er in archery stance in everything if you don't have a stable stance your arrow will never go where you want it to. So I want you to train this first." Li Rou kindly said as she took the bow and arrow away from her son
She was slightly afraid that he'd hurt himself with the thing,
"Mother, how do I practice standing correctly?" Xue Bai asked confusedly.
How did one practice standing correctly? He didn't know where she was going with her words.
"Follow me, Bai'er. I prepared something for this situation." Li Rou said.
Then she turned around and led Xue Bai to a different section in the practice field.
The place was only a few miles away, but it was still in the open field.
However, this section was special.
In front of Xue Bai were dozens of thin wooden pillars that stood two meters tall. Each loosely stuck into the ground.
Once he saw the pillars, Xue Bai knew almost instantly what she was planning for him to do, but he still waited for her to explain it to him and not steal her thunder.
"Bai'er, you will practice keeping a stable stance here with these pillars. Each of these pillars can only hold one foot and are extremely unstable. One bad landing, and you'll fall instantly." Li Rou explained.
"Mother, that's like two meters high. Won't that hurt a lot?" Xue Bai asked.
Ll Rou was the one who doted on him most, so he couldn't imagine her putting him through the gauntlet.
But surprisingly, his mother didn't coddle him like usual and looked at him calmly and replied, "Everything in the cultivation world hurts. So I would rather you be in pain here with me than on the battlefield in front of someone trying to kill you."
Xue Bai didn't ask any further. His mother was right.
He would need to go through trials and tribulations if he wanted to ascend. And while this was an extremely mild first step compared to the Children of the Plane, it was still a good one.
Having a low pain tolerance in a cultivation world was dangerous. Xue Bai would die if he took the time to hold a wound and scream in pain in front of an enemy.
So without any cowardice and with his mother's help, Xue climbed onto a pillar and tried to stand. However, his first attempt didn't last long, and he fell after only five seconds.
But while he was on the dirt and wincing in pain, he didn't notice the look of pain in his mother's eyes, as a look of willpower quickly replaced them.
'Remember what Big Brother Huo said. Coddling him will only lead to an earlier death.' Li Rou constantly reminded herself.
"Mother, when do I finish this training?" Xue Bai asked after swiping off some dirt.
The fall didn't hurt much, but the cloud of dirt that went into his mouth after he fell was annoying.
'Note to self; Close your mouth when you fall.'
"We will move onto the next step when you jump and land on every pillar without falling in between." Li Rou answered with a sinister smile.
–
That day Xue Bai fell a lot and very often as well.
Li Rou had also tried to brainwash herself into forgetting about Xue Bai's plight, but every time she looked at his face of pain when he fell, she decided to end the first session early.
Also, while she wanted Xue Bai to face pain and hardships, she couldn't force the seven-year-old to damage himself beyond repair.
So she made a rule that Xue Bai was only allowed to train with the pillars for 3 hours a day, any more than that, and he was at risk of hurting himself more than he was helping himself.
Following every session, Li Rou would then give Xue Bai a small bottle of crushed herbs for him to use when he bathed.
This way, not only would he heal most of the day's damage, but he would also walk away from the pain and soreness stronger. The herbs she chose were specially picked to be gentle and soothing in nature so that Xue Bai's mortal physique could absorb the strengthening properties and help him temper his physique without much pain.
Xue Bai accepted the medicinal herb baths with pleasure, as not only would he leave the bathtub without any pain or soreness, but also, the bath was a somewhat euphoric feeling.
With such peaceful and nurturing surroundings, Xue Bai only took a few days to show more than visible results.
At first, Xue Bai thought the odd pillar would be impossible without any cultivation, but after his mother showed him that it was possible, Xue Bai started to take it seriously.
Off the back of his mother's support, Xue Bai managed to stand on a pillar freely on the second day of training.
And while this certainly raised his spirits, he soon realized the main challenge was for him to jump to the next one.
Going from pillar to pillar wasn't just as simple as jumping to another pillar and landing. There was much more to it.
It took a myriad of things to consider. First, Xue Bai needed to calculate the distance. Then he also needed to keep in mind to jump and land with as little force as possible.
The pillars were extremely unstable, so if Xue Bai landed too hard, he would take the thing down along with him. And if Xue Bai jumped with too little power, he wouldn't have the air time needed to land on the targeted pillar.
Finally, after he landed, Xue Bai would have to immediately adjust his balance, as standing on the pillars with poor stature was a gateway to the dirt below.
However, Xue Bai could only slowly go through this training with pain.
Xue Bai managed to jump onto and land cleanly on the next pillar after two more days of failing.
Following his first successful landing, Xue Bai became a fish in the water and was able to jump from pillar to pillar easily. After a week, he could go around the pillar training field like it was his own room, and he became confident in his skills.
However, since there were so many pillars in the field, and Li Rou wanted Xue Bai to land on all of them, he stayed there for three months.
After finishing the stability training, Li Rou took him back to the same spot from three months ago when he first shot the arrow.
Now a little taller and with proper form, Xue Bai stood in the same spot he was a little over three months ago and attempted to shoot the arrow again.
This time while he managed to notch it, he never managed to fire it because he still didn't know anything about archery.
"Mother, it seems we were too focused on the stability exercise. You forgot to teach me the basics of archery." Xue Bai and Li Rou looked embarrassed.
While they didn't waste the previous three months on the pillar exercise, they forgot what they were initially trying to do. It was like preheating your oven to bake a cake, only to realize you didn't have the cake ready yet.
"Bai'er, come with me to my courtyard; we'll start your lessons now." Li Rou calmly spoke.
However, she quickly turned her head so as not to let her son see her blushing face, and with quick and wide steps, she walked out of the practice field.
The following week of training was spent in Li Rou's courtyard as she tried to teach Xue Bai the basics of archery, from holding the bow correctly to notching the arrows perfectly.
Li Rou had thought it would take Xue Bai longer to learn all the theoretical knowledge. However, he learned it all in just an afternoon. No matter what she told Xue Bai, he would absorb it almost instantly and not forget, no matter how much time had passed.
This was slightly shocking to Li Rou, but after she gained her composure, her face lit up.
Any mother would be happy once she realized her son was a genius, and Li Rou was no different. So once she found out just how talented Xue Bai was, she decided to finish the lecture early and go right away to the actual archery training.
Xue Bai was indifferent about this. His character in the game had become a famous scholar in only a few years and became famous around the continent in his late teens.
His comprehension was naturally extraordinary. And learning simple theoretical knowledge about archery was nothing. Even learning martial techniques would be nothing for him.
So for the third time, the mother and son duo stood at the practice field in front of the same target, and after some reminders from his mother, Xue Bai prepared to shoot the bow.
'Notch the arrow cleanly.'
'Find your target.'
'Aim.'
'Pull back the bowstring.'
'Release!'
Fwang!
And with a clean air-cutting sound, Xue Bai's arrow flew out of his bowstring and toward his goal.
Thump!
His arrow had landed on the target, but it was only on the white outer circle and not a point section.
Xue Bai, seeing that he had missed the points, turned and looked at his mother, expecting to see her disappointed but saw her looking at him like she saw a ghost.
"Mother, was my shot that bad?" Xue Bai shyly asked.
Xue Bai was a complete archery rookie, so he had assumed he was horrible and untalented.
"Bai'er, have you truly never shot an arrow before?" Li Rou asked in a trembling voice
"Mother, if I had, I would've never gone through that wooden pillar exercise for three months." Xue Bai replied sarcastically.
Li Rou was floored. Her son just landed an arrow a kilometer away on his first shot.
She had placed it far to humble him and had planned to make the target closer after every failure. But instead, her son had exceeded her expectations and landed it first try.
Li Rou was caught in a conundrum.
However, she was a very noble woman, and she didn't let the difficulty she was facing show on her face. And instead, put a stern look on her face and started to speak in an equally stern voice to Xue Bai.
"You missed. The target wasn't even that far, I was expecting you to at least hit the third layer, but you didn't even hit one. Try again. We won't leave until you hit the third layer!" Li Rou harshly said, even though her inner self was blushing.
Xue Bai felt embarrassed and nodded seriously.
He was a rookie at archery and even worse at reading facial expressions, so he naturally didn't know that he had utterly destroyed his mother's pride in being an archery genius and instead genuinely thought he had ashamed her.
So after he inwardly swore to improve, Xue Bai notched another arrow and shot again.
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