Took out the bow and arrows from inside the house.
The bow was wooden!
The arrows too, but the arrowheads were made of metal.
In Zhao Family Village, only the wealthier families in the Zhao Family owned this kind of arrow.
The rest of the bow and arrow parts were fine, but the bowstring and arrowheads, those were hard to get hold of.
That's why archery was so rare.
Limp Zhang first demonstrated for Lu Chang'sheng, then gave his posture a quick adjustment before sitting off to the side for a rest.
"When you're learning a skill, worst thing is when the master holds back on ya!"
Lu Chang'sheng frowned slightly.
But then, he let it go.
"Some more changes! This Golden Finger just keeps surprising me!"
And there it was—
A new message popped up on his panel.
"Archery: (Form)"
"Entry required: 2 years"
"Minor Achievement required: 10 years"
"Great Success required: 50 years"
"No wonder the panel looked so empty before! Turns out there were a bunch of things not unlocked yet!"
But—
"Archery's different from the others, the root bone talent here's only just plain ordinary!"
Keep in mind, his root bone talent already had a +1 bonus.
So, basically, this body's archery talent was actually pretty bad, maybe even 'poor'—only after that +1 did it become plain old average!
"Still, kinda ridiculous!"
"Archery's mostly about practice—two years to get started, sure, but ten years for minor achievement and fifty for great success? That's outta line!"
Didn't take long for Lu Chang'sheng to figure out the truth.
"Turns out, the years required on this Golden Finger thing—they're not set in stone!"
"Whenever I master some new postures or skills, the years will change."
"In other words, there's a bunch of variables here! Like talent, skills, training time… change one, the timeline changes too!"
Just to spell it out—if Lu Chang'sheng broke both hands, his entry-level time would basically stretch out to the end of his life.
"Alright! That's it for today. Remember, bring me dried fish tomorrow!"
Limp Zhang still couldn't let go of his dried fish.
Lu Chang'sheng nodded in agreement and left the yard.
The man across the way watched him leave, then turned to his family and said, "See? Another poor soul getting strung along by Limp Zhang!"
You gotta be in the right spot to get your pick.
He'd tried his luck before, brought his child to Limp Zhang's door, and ended up giving away a month's worth of meals.
His kid spent a month learning, got the archery pose down, but couldn't hit a target more than five meters away most of the time.
Go past ten meters? Might as well ask the gods!
Boy, did they get played for suckers!
"Not a big deal, whole village knows how this goes! Give it a couple days—Lu Erdan will lose interest."
His wife replied.
But surprise! Over the next few days, Lu Chang'sheng was there nearly every day.
Every couple days, he'd bring over some dried fish. The neighbors couldn't help but start talking.
Sometimes, when Lu Chang'sheng passed by, he'd overhear some mocking.
Lu Chang'sheng didn't mind, just kept on practicing archery.
Ten days later—
"Finally, the time's stabilized!"
"Archery: (Form)"
"Entry required: 0.4 years"
"Minor Achievement: 3 years"
"Great Success: 15 years"
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"Guess is: now my training routine can't change the variables anymore, so the timeline isn't moving!"
"So next step—I just gotta practice target shooting over and over!"
Half a month of trial and error, and he already had a good idea of how things worked.
Long as the practice met a certain threshold, that time limit wasn't going to drop!
And that became a real motivator for him.
"As for Limp Zhang, don't need to go back there anymore!"
Thinking of Limp Zhang's twisted-up face, Lu Chang'sheng couldn't help but grin.
The guy wanted to portion out his "archery" knowledge in tiny bites, slow and steady, but Lu Chang'sheng had his own tricks—always asking roundabout questions, plus the unspoken threat of no more dried fish, gave Limp Zhang quite a headache.
He didn't want to lose Lu Chang'sheng as a free meal ticket, but at the same time, taught too fast, Lu Chang'sheng might not need him anymore.
Man was worried sick!
After Lu Chang'sheng cut off contact with Limp Zhang, it caused quite a stir, though most people just sighed and shook their heads.
The old ladies had one less story to gossip about at night over their rice.
But before long, nobody cared about that stuff anymore.
Drought had come!
"How's the fields today?"
At the dinner table, Mrs. Lu asked.
Mr. Lu shook his head.
"The canal's dried up, even the river's gone!"
The fields in Zhao Family Village all depended on the river nearby.
Even in the driest past years, there was always a segment of river with water—it was just more work to fetch it.
This year, though, it was just—gone!
"Sigh~ Who knows what's up with this river? One day water, next day nothing!"
"Heard it's got something to do with the war…"
"Zhao Family folks said there's already refugees popping up in Tonghe Prefecture!"
"If this keeps up, things'll get rough. We're already short on food—if the harvest fails this time—"
Mrs. Lu sighed, but didn't finish her thought.
Lu Chang'sheng kept his head down, eating.
Not many dishes tonight, since they were running out of dried fish. The old folks planned to save the rest for Lu Haozi's wedding.
"Still, have to give Erdan credit for this year!"
Mr. Lu looked at Lu Chang'sheng, his eyes full of pride.
The Lu Family was outsiders in Zhao Family Village—their reclaimed land was out on the edge, more work for worse crops.
These days, land wasn't the problem—labor was.
Three working adults to feed five mouths—barely scraping by.
Lucky for them, Lu Chang'sheng stepped up, making things easier at home.
If the river hadn't dried up this year, they'd have had a fat year for sure!
Lu Chang'sheng gave a wry smile.
He'd tried more than once to get them to stop calling him "Erdan," but it was no use.
"Tomorrow, eldest son's coming with me to Zhong Village to settle the marriage!"
Lu Haozi nodded, his face beaming.
These days, for a poor but able-bodied young man, only a woman could get him this excited.
Lu Chang'sheng reached out and patted little Heitu's head. "Next year when the river returns, I'll catch you buckets of fish, big bro! And you better give us a pack of fat babies!"
"Second brother, are they gonna be as cute as me?" Heitu tugged her own cheeks, making a goofy face.
"Haha!"
The whole family burst out laughing.
Mrs. Lu tried to look stern: "Girls shouldn't be so naughty!"
Lu Heitu ducked her head, a little flustered.
Mr. Lu just said, "It's fine! She's just right this way!"
······
Next morning, first light, Mr. Lu and Lu Haozi headed out.
Mrs. Lu, as a woman, wouldn't get involved in those affairs.
Lu Chang'sheng practiced archery on a patch of open ground outside the house.
So long as you didn't need real strength or accuracy, even a rough homemade bow and arrows could do the job for practice.
Still, Lu Chang'sheng knew if he had proper gear, maybe he could get entry-level even faster.
The 0.4 years for entry was based on him putting in a solid chunk of practice time every day.
If he slacked off, or if his form and power wasn't right, the variable would drop.
The time for entry would just get pushed further out.
Before he knew it, evening had come.
He was just packing up his wooden bow and arrows to head home when he spotted Mr. Lu and big brother Lu Haozi.
"That look—something went wrong?"
Lu Chang'sheng felt a little chill in his heart.
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