BUTTERFLIES (Arc 2&3; The Undefeatable Class 192)

Chapter 64: Learning Archery; and a Thousand Contemplations

  “Wrong! Again!”
  “Not even close! Again!”
  “Even though you feel discouraged, it should be no reason you stand like a disabled woman! Take your stance!”
  “Chin high, yeah, that's it. No matter what distraction you face, it shouldn't take your eyes off the bullseye. I want to see that arrow striking it, not even the adjacent diameter. I'm not looking for a ‘pass’, I'm looking for perfection!”
  “Loose!”
  “Again! Use your true essence to supply your energy, then rein in that stupid cultivation level once more!”
  “Take the arrow as an extension of your body. Have absolute control like the way your wrist has control over the fingers! Be one with your weapon, feel the air as the arrow swooshes towards its target! Use the shooting technique I taught you some hours ago!”
  “You've got good eyes, can't you shoot a common 200-metre effortlessly?!”
  I sighed when the field finally turned dark as a result of the fast approaching night, and my arrow managed to perfectly hit the bullseye. Yet, I didn't dare to slump on the ground out of exhaustion, or lease my cultivation without being told. I maintained my arrow stance: left leg in front of right, left hand in front of right (holding firmly an arrow and an outstretched bow), left eye closed, right one open, muscles tensed, mind nimble and broad.
  Although I felt terrible at the moment, something surprising was actually happening to me. Ever since I started this archery training, my cultivation energy that I was still struggling to control was gradually blending with my arms and mind. It was as though my bones and viscera were toughening by the moment!
  “Maintain your vision on the bullseye,” came her voice once more. “Maintain your stance. In thirty minutes time, we'd be calling it a day.”
  I nodded slightly, too tired to talk. Though the weather had darkened, I could still clearly see the bullseye, some 200 metres from me without using the Eye of Insight. My vision had somewhat strengthened, admittedly. The bow strings were still drawn, so one could imagine the situation I was in.
  To normal people who are into geographies, they'd understand that only top-notch archers could shoot at the distance of 200 metres. For me who just started today, to have shot over a thousand arrows just because she was searching for perfection, I was definitely under extreme stress. She was scary and terrorising! In the future, I'd definitely not want anything to do with her! Ugh!
  Thirty minutes passed on slowly, until the limit finally reached. As a Meditation realm cultivator, I definitely did not need a clock to measure time. So immediately the last second making the final minute struck, my mind was completely prepared for the command I heard next.
  “Loose!”
  ‘Fuuuun!’ The piercing sound of the arrow rang across the sky as it made its way to the bullseye.
  ‘Trrrruuung!’ It struck the bullseye with a vibrating arrow-against-tree aftereffect.
  “Good.”
  That was all the compliment I was getting. Just a single word. As if she was reading through my mind, she added, “It reached perfection by a hairbreadth.”
  I rolled my eyes angrily, while she turned around and walked behind me.
  “At ease.”
  I could finally stretch my limbs and neck. I felt totally like a soldier, at this moment.
  She placed her right hand against my back and observed my cultivation flow.
  “Your cultivation level is this low and yet you have true essence that could roughly be compared to mine?! Hahaha! You're fortunate you picked my door. In this world, nobody would be able to rival you! Hahaha! Those damned demons have you to reckon with!”
  Before I left, Old Sage Muyu told me, “Do not sleep tonight. Enter the state of meditation. Go through everything you've learnt today, you'll reap more than you'll ever sow through meditation, in contrast to sleeping.”
  I muttered a low “thank you” and gave a student-to-teacher bow. She patted my right arm and pointed over my shoulder. I hadn't realised it, but there was a door standing tall, not too far behind me. It wasn't connected to a house or a wall. It was just there, radiating with spiritual energy.
  Taking weak but long strides, I reached for the knob and was out in no time.
  Watching the space about me warping, I was stunned for a moment and wondered if Old Sage Muyu was a real person. After all, Teacher Haggz had personally mentioned that behind those door were 6-star formations. It was hard to tell if everything I'd just gone through was merely some other illusion from an illusory formation.
  The moment I stepped on the other side of the door completely, I simply slumped on the ground in exhaustion, just in time to see all the other doors opening simultaneously, and a bunch of fellas falling alongside me. I couldn't help but smile... before losing consciousness.

AFTER a considerable amount of minutes later, I awoke to find myself being swiftly dumped on my bed in my dorm room. I stealthily let out my cultivation to sense the aura of the person who dropped me on bed, and surprisingly, it was the aura of Receptionist A.
  “Thank you,” I muttered. However, she had long left the room. It was as though immediately my body touched the bed, she'd teleported off the room.
  Not bothering with anything else, I struggled to sit up cross-legged, despite my fatigue. I gave a quick glance and saw my roommates fast asleep. Not even Xueyi could escape the fatigue. I couldn't help but wonder if their body had undergone the same amount of stress as myself. Shaking my head, I balanced my hands weakly and gently pushed away all other distracting sounds, slowly entering the state of meditation. I meticulously replayed everything I'd encountered today, and how I could better refine it. At a point, streaks of insight involuntarily slipped off my eyes, while my true essence followed Old Ancestor's United Heavens cultivation method. Waves and waves of translucent white resonated around my physical body. I could feel that the day's training had aided in an additional ton of energy and finesse in my eye-to-hand coordination.
  After going through the things I'd learnt today, I couldn't help but shake my head in awe of this Arerat Planet. There were still lots of things I couldn't figure about about this place.
  As my mind wandered, I couldn't but remember the day we encountered those armed robbers.
  ‘How is it that the top students from every of the nine professions are filtered into my class? Could that really be merely coincidental? Not to mention the fact that our teacher, Teacher Haggz, was also from the Intermediate Academy of the Gifted!
  ‘As though that wasn't enough, we had the “privilege” of getting to be trained by old sages for a particular period of time. Why this was so, I couldn't tell.
  ‘Just what was with the unfolding scenes? Where's Dorothy? Wasn't she supposed to take the academy's exam for Thaumaturgy too? Just what's happening? Plus, I hadn't even been given the opportunity to make contact with my family.’
  Looking back to when I left with Uncle Ramsey and Cousin Dorothy, I couldn't help but furrow my brows as I thought about how Mum cried as though that would be the last time she'd be seeing me. Dad, who was always firm and resolute, still had his emotions somewhat shaken. Was all of this actually planned carefully to get me into the academy, indirectly?
  Thinking about the good relationship between the Acorn Master and my uncle, it didn't seem unreasonable that the latter could have arranged for the former to actually talk me into taking the JAG's Beast Taming Examination.
  Now that I thought about it, wasn't it weird that my uncle didn't object at all the day I'd told him about my decision on going into the JAG. The Junior Academy of the Gifted was the most popular and sought-after school in the Acorn Valley, so shouldn't he have been slightly surprised and taken aback?
  The advantage of the Meditation realm was that it helped a cultivator see the bigger picture of everything. When pondering over a matter, a normal person would have lots of distracting thoughts, as it's a normal thing of the human mind. However, the cultivation realm made it possible for one to keep tranquil and ponder properly — although, at the moment, this information was unknown to me.
  Suddenly, as I was still swallowed in in meditation, I heard a slight cough in my head coming from the Mystical Beast of Illusion.
  “Sorry to disrupt you, Young Mistress, but it seems I've regained another fragment of my memory.”