Chapter 210 – Aiming Beyond Two Hundred Steps? Not Just That! (Part 3)
As soon as those words left her mouth, Nong Qin was left dumbfounded, and all the men fell into a prolonged silence, while the live stream exploded.
【Xuanxiang Taishou】: “Host, don’t scare me like that! How could you hit something so far away?”
【Feng Zhi Liaoyuan】: “I believe the host, with her inhuman abilities, can do it, but Nong Qin, the soft girl, there’s no way she could!”
【Han Yu Tong】: “I can almost see another soft girl about to evolve into a fierce, tough guy!”
The audience in the live stream laid down the facts and reasoned it out, collectively deeming Nong Qin’s success to be zero.
It’s not that they didn’t believe—it was just too absurd!
Meng Hunyun felt the same way; by his estimation, Jiang Pengji was at least two hundred steps away from the target.
At that distance, even a strong bow wouldn’t reach it; it would require a bow with a draw weight of over two stones!
And two stones… that’s a whopping four hundred pounds, way heavier than an adult man!
How could a delicate girl like Nong Qin possibly draw such a heavy bow?
“Can you do it?” Jiang Pengji asked her.
Nong Qin hesitated for a moment, but hearing Jiang Pengji’s question, she quickly firmed up.
“Young Master only needs to teach me how to do it, and I will make it happen for you!”
Jiang Pengji smiled, “Smart young girl, come here, I’ll teach you.”
Unwrapping the white cloth covering the modified crossbow, it scattered across the ground, unveiling the weapon in all its glory.
Meng Hunyun’s eyes widened in shock.
But what stunned everyone even more was yet to come.
Jiang Pengji whispered a few words into Nong Qin’s ear, instructing her on how to operate the modified crossbow.
“…This crossbow has significant recoil. When using it, your stance must be stable, and you have to learn the correct way to distribute the force. If your stance is not stable, even a slight misalignment will lead to failure in hitting the target; if your enemy survives, it’s you who’s done for!”
Jiang Pengji’s voice was like a mountain spring, refreshing and calming, making one instinctively focus.
Although the modified crossbow featured a recoil dampening device to minimize the impact during shooting,
the force was still quite a strain for Nong Qin at the moment.
“You have enough time to aim with the sight, balance your body; unlike a bow and arrow, once drawn, you can’t maintain the tension for long…” Jiang Pengji helped Nong Qin adjust, her voice encouraging, “This is the angle!”
As soon as she finished speaking, an arrow shot forth from the crossbow, the powerful recoil causing Nong Qin, despite her mental preparation, to stumble back a few steps and then fall to the ground. Before she could get back up, she was met with a chorus of gasps.
Crack—
Nong Qin was incredibly lucky—the arrow, while not hitting the bullseye, still struck the target and exploded half of the surface!
The audience in the live stream bombarded the chat with exclamation marks, as if thoroughly shocked.
That distance was already over two hundred steps!
Not to mention whether ordinary people could aim at something that far, just the strength required to do so had already scared off a large number of them.
Yet, right before their eyes, a scrawny woman managed to pierce through it and blow up the target!
The arrow didn’t stop there; it continued flying a few dozen more steps before finally embedding itself in the ground.
Meng Hunyun rushed forward, treating the modified crossbow, which had been sent crashing down by Nong Qin, as if it were a precious treasure.
Nong Qin was still dazed, when a delicate, clean hand reached out, carrying a hint of fragrance.
“Get up.”
Nong Qin bit her lip and grasped Jiang Pengji’s hand, springing to her feet.
Without hesitation, she hurried over to assess the target’s condition, stunned by the violent scene before her.
Did she really do this?
Darkness overshadowed her vision as her heart raced like a drum; she couldn’t believe her own hands were lifted.
Was this really her doing?
People often used the phrase “hitting a bullseye from a hundred steps away” to describe a sharpshooter, but when she turned to look back…
Was the distance truly just a hundred steps?
As the chief instructor and former officer of the Meng Clan, Meng Hunyun recognized just how terrifying this modified crossbow was.
He had seen crossbows before, but compared to what he had seen in the past, this one seemed especially frightening.
It was quite portable; anyone with a little bit of strength could carry it, and it could be drawn using the waist strength, allowing even a delicate girl like Nong Qin to use her hands and feet, leaning back to gather all her strength, drawing the bowstring and setting the mechanism.
It was a design utilizing the strength of the arms, legs, and waist, similar to a foot-operated crossbow.
But unlike a foot-operated crossbow, this modified design was an arm-drawn crossbow, making it very convenient to carry around.
What particularly caught Meng Hunyun’s attention was that the recoil when the crossbow was fired was minimal, yet the shooting range was remarkably far!
However, as he was delighting in this, he suddenly heard Jiang Pengji coldly critique, “Still not good enough… a half-finished product is still just that…”
Meng Hunyun, holding the modified crossbow, was left baffled. Was that still not good enough?
Little did he know, Jiang Pengji’s words encompassed a great deal.
Her eyes were sharp; having observed Nong Qin’s practice shot, she had already identified several areas that needed improvement.
“Does the Young Master want to equip everyone with such a crossbow?”
Meng Hunyun bore down on his excitement, wishing he could honorably present the modified crossbow he held.
The others, especially the subordinates that Meng Hunyun brought with him, had eyes gleaming with anticipation.
But Jiang Pengji replied, “It’s still a half-finished product, requiring further modifications. Because the manufacturing is quite challenging and costly, it’s not feasible to make one for each person just yet. I will only provide it to the most outstanding performers; as for the others… hehe…”
She took the modified crossbow from Meng Hunyun’s hands and deftly drew the string with her arms, instead of straining like Nong Qin did.
Crack—
Another target exploded from the center, and Jiang Pengji stood steady like an evergreen tree, not even a trace of movement.
Continuing to draw the string and load another arrow, another explosion echoed as the target was utterly obliterated.
At that moment, Meng Hunyun realized, Jiang Pengji hadn’t even aimed!
Or rather, when her eyes locked onto the target, she was already so confident she didn’t need to deliberately aim to hit it!
What sort of terrifying eyesight and accuracy was this?
“In this world, there is nothing that cannot be done. The only reason it can’t be done is because you just don’t know how.”
She set down the crossbow and suddenly turned with a radiant smile, her beaming face seeming to dim the brilliance of the sun itself.
Nong Qin felt a surge of heat in her heart, her gaze ablaze, as if driven by an unfathomable motivation coursing through her limbs.
She wanted to become a person like the Young Master.
To draw the string effortlessly, her form unwavering as a pine, her back straight and unbending, as if even the heavens collapsing would not cause her to yield!
Yes, she was a woman, but so was the Young Master, and she was even younger than her.
If she could do it, why couldn’t she?
Even though life was tough now, and the endless training left her physically and mentally exhausted, it felt free and exhilarating!
She couldn’t imagine going back to her past life nor did she want to be dragged back by her parents to marry someone and spend her days in a monotonous existence, revolving around a mediocre man and noisy children and stoves…
Those days, dull and unremarkable, would wear a person down to the bone—was that truly living?
An intense thought consumed Nong Qin’s mind, mesmerizing her.
That wasn’t living at all!
