Even after Instructor Xiuyan left, the noble students were still gazing at Suo Lun (Lanling) in amazement.
Before, Suo Lun was completely a prodigal son who lacked any academic enthusiasm. Political theory classes were too boring, so Suo Lun had always been snoozing. Unexpectedly, today's class had entirely turned into a stage for Suo Lun's performance.
How utterly incompetent and ignorant was the former Suo Lun? How did he suddenly become so intelligent? Could all his previous behavior have been an act, or did the death of Count Suo Long bring about such a tremendous change in him?
Just then, Zhimin sneered, "Suo Lun, your sister truly deserves her reputation as a talented lady. You must have had a hard time memorizing all that.
Upon hearing this, some people suddenly understood. It turned out that these were not the opinions of the wastrel Suo Lun but those of the Tianshui Fairy, Suo Ningbing, simply voiced through Suo Lun.
With this realization, everything suddenly made sense.
Lanling smiled faintly, saying nothing, but he thought to himself, "If the royal offspring are all like you, Zhimin, such waste, I can rest easy."
"What, did I strike a nerve?" Zhimin asked with a smug sneer, then he came over and whispered, "Suo Lun, no one can save your family now, not even Duke Zhi Ting. Just wait for your family's destruction. At the very least, you won't pass the martial arts section of the final examination, and you won't inherit the title."
The next class seemed to exist just to validate Zhimin's words—it was a martial arts class.
...
For the martial arts subject, Suo Lun chose archery, which is what he would also be tested on over a hundred days later.
Hence, if Lanling wanted to pass the final examination smoothly, he had to succeed in archery, at least achieve a passing grade. So what would he need to score for a pass?
A bow of one hundred and eighty pounds, stationary targets, ninety meters, twenty arrows with at least twelve hits. Moving targets, fifty meters, ten arrows with at least five hits.
On Earth, whether in the past or the present, this was absolutely the standard of an elite archer.
Especially the one hundred and eighty-pound bow, in ancient China, only generals with immense strength could use such a bow.
And at the Royal City Academy's final examination in this world, this was just the passing grade. Of course, this was normal, considering the Royal City Academy gathered almost all of the kingdom's elite. Moreover, humans in this world were boosted by the power of the Dragon Vein.
But for Lanling, this was an utterly impossible task.
Firstly, his hands' combined strength at the limit was only about one hundred pounds, meaning that a regular bow-pulling and shooting would allow him to draw a bow of only about fifty pounds. He couldn't even pull the string of a one hundred and eighty-pound bow, let alone shoot arrows from it.
Therefore, normally speaking, it was completely impossible for Lanling to pass archery in this year's examination; it was even more challenging than the hardest level imaginable.
So, with that being the case, could he switch to another discipline, such as swordsmanship?
Of course, he could, but the difficulty of any other martial arts discipline far exceeded that of archery—it was already the simplest, with the least competition.
Because those with high Dragon Bloodline Talent would not be content with being just archers. Compared to swordsmen, knights, and others, the archers were almost deemed to have the least future prospects.
During the archery class, Lanling noticed that the number of students had decreased significantly. There had been a large class of over a hundred students during the policy discussion class, but now, there were only sixteen students in the archery class—nine of whom were girls.
Now Lanling was almost certain that Suo Lun chose the archery subject just to pick up girls.
Soon, the archery instructor appeared. That's right, an instructor, not a teacher.
The archery instructor was a woman named Li Nianzhen, not particularly beautiful but with distinctive features. She wore her hair short, which was rare for women, had a robust and shapely figure standing nearly one meter eighty tall, and donned archery attire, giving her a very spirited and heroic look.
The archery class took place in a wide, open grass field, dotted with a variety of bows and replete with targets.
When Li Nianzhen saw Suo Lun (Lanling), she was taken aback at first, then her brow furrowed deeply, as she had a strong dislike for Suo Lun. Because he was there just to flirt with the girls, she felt this wastrel completely sullied the archery class.
The most unbearable thing was that, in an act of novelty hunting, Suo Lun had even tried to pick her up. That's right, he not only pursued the stunning beauty Niya, but he also didn't spare Li Nianzhen, who was quite androgynous—he truly had a thing for teachers.
And what was most despicable was that out of the nine noble girls in the archery class, three had already been dallied with by Suo Lun.
This scoundrel, relying on his handsome looks and smooth talk, had turned her archery class upside down. There had been a time when every day in her class, a girl would suffer from heartbreak, and the instigator was Suo Lun, the pretty boy.
Most intolerable was that, because of Suo Lun's relentless advances, she nearly had her heart swayed to surrender. But it turned out that Suo Lun was just amusing himself temporarily; once his patience wore thin, he stopped paying any attention. So, Li Nianzhen truly wished she could tear apart this beautiful faced pretty boy.
Years had now passed, and the girls in the archery class had completely seen through Suo Lun.
So now, each girl kept her distance as if a mere glance would get them pregnant. Three of them regretted having been blinded and fooled by this scoundrel.
Li Nianzhen intentionally overlooked Suo Lun and announced, "There are over a hundred days left until the final examination. Everything that needed to be taught has been taught, and everything that needed to be learned has been learned. From now on, we will prepare earnestly for the final test, with every class being a practical training session. Everyone, start by picking up your bows and begin training."
The students, one by one, started to fetch their bows.
After searching for a while, Lanling could not find his bow.
"Suo Lun, there's no need for you to train. You cannot even draw a fifty-pound bow, so it's predetermined that you will fail the final examination," Li Nianzhen said.
Upon hearing this, the other students burst into laughter.
Lanling didn't pay attention and searched for quite a while, finally finding the lightest bow, which was marked as sixty jin. There were no lighter bows than this within the Royal City Academy, being only a third of the strength of the test bows used.
After putting on a finger tab, Lanling tried to draw the bow.
He discovered, to his dismay, that it was extremely difficult. Despite his ability to barely lift up to one hundred jin, drawing a bow was an entirely different concept.
He couldn't draw it at all, and with a forceful effort, he instantly felt a surge of pain in his arm—an apparent muscle strain.
Any fool knew that before drawing a bow, one must fully stretch and massage the muscles.
Suddenly, the sixteen students present began to work in pairs to massage and relax each other's muscles and sinews.
Soon, an awkward situation emerged. Among those present were seven male students and nine female students.
Aside from Lanling, the other six male students quickly paired up, forming three pairs. Among the nine female students, eight formed four pairs.
Lanling was left alone, and there was also a girl who was left alone. She retreated continuously, as if she were avoiding a venomous snake, her arms wrapped around herself, staring at Lanling. She seemed to think that at any moment, Lanling might transform into a madman and pounce on her.
"Instructor..." she said pitifully, looking toward Li Nianzhen.
So, Instructor Li Nianzhen personally stretched and loosened the girl's muscles, leaving Lanling all by himself, doing the related warm-up exercises alone.
After completing the warm-up exercises, the dozen or so students began their live-firing practice.
Lanling was amazed to find that these students could easily achieve a hit rate of over seventy to eighty percent on a fixed target ninety meters away. The only difference was that some people could shoot out a dozen arrows in one go, while others could only manage three to five arrows.
After enough exercise, Lanling notched an arrow and once again attempted to draw the sixty jin bow.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled with all his might, drew the bow, and then began to aim at a fixed target fifty meters away.
The sixty jin bow was already his limit, and after pulling it open, holding it steady was simply too difficult. His arms quickly reached their limit and began to tremble, utterly unable to provide support.
At that moment, the Yao Xing within his body released a burst of energy, relieving the pain in Lanling's arms.
Lanling finished aiming and let go of the bowstring.
"Swoosh..." The arrow shot out.
Then, laughter erupted from everyone. Lanling's arrow had not only missed the target, but it had also deviated by three meters. Moreover, barely reaching fifty meters, it had begun to drop, clearly lacking in power.
How strange, he had aimed so carefully, yet his shot had gone wildly off target.
Lanling didn't believe in evil omens, so he notched another arrow, drew the bow, aimed, and fired!
"Swoosh..."
Laughter sounded again—this time, Lanling had improved, missing the target by only a little over a meter.
Next, Lanling shot a third arrow, which missed the target by five meters, even worse than the first attempt.
Just as Lanling was about to shoot the fourth arrow, he found that no matter what, his arms lacked the strength, and he couldn't even draw the bow anymore.
And this was just a sixty jin bow! The bows used for the graduation exam weighed a hundred and eighty jin.
To pass the graduation exam, the first thing Lanling needed to do was to increase his strength, to at least be able to draw a bow of a hundred and eighty jin.
Secondly, he had to enhance his spiritual power, which would enable him to aim. Targets over a hundred meters away were beyond the help of the eyes; aiming would depend on spiritual power.
"Alright, Suo Lun, you don't need to practice anymore. Go back and rest," Li Nianzhen said. "You won't pass the graduation exam, so just give up."
Lanling took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and asked with his consciousness, "Yao Xing, can I increase the strength of my arms to two hundred jin and enhance my spiritual power to lock onto a target a hundred meters away within a hundred or so days?"
Yao Xing replied, "It's possible, but very pressing. For others, even with a high enough Dragon Vein Talent, it would take at least two to three years."
Lanling continued to ask, "Then, within a hundred or so days, can you improve my archery to the level of a first-class Samurai archer?"
Yao Xing replied, "It is possible, as long as you hunt enough prey and consume enough energy. What takes others several years, might take you just over a hundred days."
"I understand," Lanling said.
Next, he needed to engage in live combat practice as soon as possible to enhance his strength and spiritual power.
As for Duke Zhi Ting, one should remain hopeful, but definitely not rely on him as a lifeline.
The best course of action was still to pass the graduation exam on his own and smoothly inherit the title.