For a whole month after he was promoted to the first level in archery, Yan Liqiang stayed in the craftsman camp. He never left the camp every day and did not care what was happening outside. He just practiced peacefully in the craftsman camp.
According to legend, when Confucius was practicing the zither, he said that he had not tasted meat for three months. Having tasted the sweetness of practice, Yan Liqiang also devoted himself to practice wholeheartedly, and even adjusted his daily routine and activity time in the craftsmen's camp.
Because going up and down the mountain every day for lunch and dinner was a waste of time, Yan Liqiang got up every day for the past month, had breakfast in the canteen, and then took some food from the canteen and went up the mountain. When he was thirsty, he drank the spring water on the mountain, and when he was hungry, he ate some of the food he brought with him. He stayed on the mountain until sunset every day before going down the mountain.
Because Yan Liqiang was familiar with everyone in the craftsman camp, no one was surprised by what Yan Liqiang was going to do. What's more, Yan Liqiang went to the mountains to practice archery and martial arts, and everyone was naturally happy to see the young man working hard.
Once, a team of soldiers in charge of patrolling the craftsman camp wanted to go up the mountain to see what Yan Liqiang was doing out of curiosity. However, before the soldiers from the craftsman camp could climb up the mountain to find Yan Liqiang, when they were still two or three hundred meters away from the top of the mountain, an arrow flew out from somewhere and hit a tree trunk a few meters to the left of the leader of the team of soldiers. The arrow head penetrated the tree trunk three or four inches, and the whole arrow shaft trembled.
Seeing the power of the arrow, the soldiers were so scared that they dared not move and hurried down the mountain. When they met Yan Liqiang again the next morning and talked about this, they saw Yan Liqiang with a look of surprise. He stared at the soldiers with eyes as pure and harmless as a little white rabbit, "Ah, you guys went up the mountain yesterday, I didn't know. I was practicing archery yesterday. Sometimes the arrows were shot high, trying to shoot birds, and I couldn't control where they would fall..."
After hearing what Yan Liqiang said, several soldiers broke out in cold sweats. Even the other people in the craftsman camp did not dare to walk around the top of the mountain out of curiosity. If one of them was really unlucky enough to be shot by Yan Liqiang's arrow and died, who could they blame? It was estimated that Camp Supervisor Qian would just report it as an accident and give out some compensation, and the matter would be over.
From that day on, no one came to disturb Yan Liqiang when he was on the mountain. Even when Qian Su asked about his cultivation, Yan Liqiang would only answer vaguely.
It’s not that Yan Liqiang doesn’t want to tell Qian Su the truth, but Yan Liqiang is afraid of scaring Qian Su if he tells him the truth.
On the first day of practicing archery, he advanced to the next level in archery skills and became a master archer. This speed of improvement was so fast that even Yan Liqiang found it hard to believe and didn't know why it was like this.
And just one week after advancing to the first level, Yan Liqiang's archery skills once again showed signs of advancement, and he successfully advanced to the second level of archery.
If the standard of the first level of Kyudo is to shoot an arrow through the air from a hundred paces away, then the standard of the second level of Kyudo is to shoot a bird down from a hundred paces away.
The target of the 100-step shooting is a still object, while the 100-step shooting is a flying bird, which is a moving living object. The difficulty of the latter is definitely much higher than the former. This is the difference between a fixed target and a moving target. Many people who have been immersed in the practice of Kyudo for a lifetime have no chance of reaching the realm of the second heaven, but Yan Liqiang reached it in just one week.
To reach the first level of Kyudo, perhaps sweat and hard work are enough, as God rewards hard work. But to reach the second level of Kyudo, being able to hit every flying bird within a hundred meters, that depends on luck and one's talent, and perhaps guidance from a famous teacher is needed.
In just seven or eight days, he went from being a person who had never touched a bow and arrow to possessing the second level of archery skills. How could Yan Liqiang explain such a thing to others
Was he a rare talent in the art of archery? Or was it the effect of Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing? Or was it a combination of both? Yan Liqiang didn't know, but he knew that if the news of his training speed got out, it would definitely cause an uproar, because in the entire Silver Continent, in its countless years of history, there had never been anyone like him who could make such rapid progress in archery training. This was no longer a genius, but a demon.
If he was really a genius in Kyudo practice, Yan Liqiang might not be afraid of being exposed, because talent is something that no one can take away. But with the background of possessing secret techniques like Yi Jin Jing, Yan Liqiang did not want to expose everything about himself to everyone before he became strong enough. This was too stupid.
During the twenty days of solitary practice after his archery skills advanced to the second level, Yan Liqiang felt that his strength was increasing almost every day.
The most obvious increase is in strength.
During these twenty days, Yan Liqiang did not relax his practice of Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing. He used it to cleanse and change his body, allowing his body to absorb a large amount of energy and spiritual energy from heaven and earth every day. At the same time, he practiced Kyudo and also did two sets of Tiger Roaring Chain Fists every day to stretch his muscles and bones. In his spare time, he would comprehend and ponder the secret book of "Nine Palaces Wind Shadow Step" that Qian Su gave him. His time was fully scheduled every day and he lived a very fulfilling life. In such a fulfilling life, his strength reached a new level again.
Before practicing Kyudo, that is, when he had just received the Horned Python Bow as a gift, Yan Liqiang tried it. After his strength was fully unleashed, he could pull the Horned Python Bow with a force of five stones to full draw 30 times in a row before he felt tired. At the same time, he would feel a little bit of difficulty when drawing the bow. After a month, Yan Liqiang could already pull the Horned Python Bow to full draw more than 40 times without realizing it, and the feeling of difficulty when drawing the bow was slowly disappearing.
If the Horned Python Bow has not changed, then it is yourself who has changed.
As his physical strength increased, the power of the Tiger Roaring Fist was also increasing step by step. At the same time, Yan Liqiang felt that under the power of each move of the Tiger Roaring Fist, his muscles and bones became more and more flexible, and his body's reactions became more and more sensitive. This was a sign of stretching the muscles and bones.
Stretching the muscles and bones is the second level of advanced warriors. As the name suggests, this level requires people to thoroughly stretch and open the muscles and bones of their whole body.
If the horse stance stage solves the problem of where the force comes from and whether there is force, then the stretching of the tendons and bones solves the problem of where the force goes and the efficiency of force transmission. To be precise, only after stretching the tendons and bones, a person's body has the basic foundation to exert the power of martial arts and practice higher martial arts. Without this foundation, the so-called practice is just a show, which looks good but is useless. Some of them don't even look good.
In addition to these, over the past twenty days, Yan Liqiang's archery skills have continued to improve by leaps and bounds every day...
…
At the end of May, Yan Liqiang felt that his archery skills seemed to be showing signs of a breakthrough.
This day, May 31st, happened to be the last day of May. On this day, like the previous days, Yan Liqiang got up in the morning, practiced the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing, did a set of boxing, and then went to have breakfast. After breakfast, he took the lunch box prepared for him in the canteen, went back to the yard, carried his bow bag and quiver, and went up the mountain.
When he arrived at the place where he practiced every day, Yan Liqiang did not rush to practice archery. Instead, he put the bow bag, quiver, lunch box and other things aside and began to practice the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing.
During this training, Yan Liqiang practiced the Yi Jin Xi Sui Jing four times in a row, for a total of six or seven hours, and only stopped in the afternoon.
Yan Liqiang stopped and felt that his spirit and strength were about to explode. He opened the bow bag, took out the horn python bow, and then inserted a handful of arrows on the grass in front of him. Then he covered the horn python bow with one hand, sat cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
The sun was blazing above his head, the temperature was over 30 degrees, cicadas and birds were chirping in the forest, Yan Liqiang just sat cross-legged on the grass, like a stone, or like a statue holding a horn python bow, for nearly two hours, motionless, but the sweat left a large wet mark on his back, but his hand holding the horn python bow was still as firm as iron...
The sun slowly began to move westward in the sky. A thick cloud floated over, blocking the sunlight and casting a large cloud shadow on the earth and mountains. The wind blew from the east, passing over the treetops and lawns on the top of the mountain, bringing a long-lost sense of coolness. After just a moment, the clouds in the sky gradually thickened, and there seemed to be signs of rain...
Yan Liqiang listened to the sound of leaves on the mountain. The sound of leaves gradually became louder and louder, and the lines at the corners of Yan Liqiang's mouth also gradually became firmer...
Suddenly, a strong wind came over the hillside...
Yan Liqiang suddenly opened his eyes, and his body, which was sitting on the ground, suddenly jumped up. With lightning speed, he picked up an arrow stuck in the ground and shot it out.
This arrow was as fast as lightning. Almost at the moment it left the bow, it hit a fragile flower stem as thick as a finger under a purple wild flower swaying in the wind on a hillside more than 170 meters away.
In the strong wind, the flowers of purple wildflowers flew up.
Another arrow shot out, hitting the center of the purple wildflower in the strong wind. The flower shattered, and the four purple petals rolled apart in the wind...
In less than three seconds, four arrows shot at the four purple petals, which were hit by four cold and hard metal arrows one after another. Finally, they were nailed to the trunks of four trees between 170 and 200 meters away from Yan Liqiang. They were shattered into pieces, leaving only a little residual fragrance.
The familiar light and shadow appeared on Yan Liqiang's body. In the light and shadow, a ferocious black bow appeared, and then the bow sank into Yan Liqiang's body.
The white bow represents the first level of archery practice, the gray bow represents the second level of archery practice, and the black bow represents the third level of archery practice.
"Is this the realm of the most respected Yingyang Captain in the Han Empire Army, who is famous for his archery? He is one level higher than Uncle Qian..." Yan Liqiang muttered to himself, and then a smile appeared on his face. The smile became bigger and bigger. Finally, Yan Liqiang couldn't help laughing at the top of the mountain...
There was a loud thunder in the sky, and a few raindrops fell on Yan Liqiang's face...
(End of this chapter)