「The next morning.」
"Uncle, what are you doing?"
Xiao Qiaoniang watched Bai Yuan curiously.
Bai Yuan gently bent his right index and middle fingers, slowly drawing the hemp-rope bowstring. With just a little force, the bamboo stave began to groan pitifully.
'Light. It's far too light.'
'The hemp rope is too brittle, and the bamboo isn't flexible enough.'
He now possessed entry-level archery skills and could draw a one-stone bow. His homemade bamboo bow was nowhere near strong enough to handle his pull.
Hunting dangerous beasts like jackals and tigers with it was out of the question, but it was more than enough for small game.
Bai Yuan weighed the bamboo bow in his hand with satisfaction.
"What do you think of my bow?"
Xiao Qiaoniang hesitated for a long moment. "You're so skilled, Uncle. This bow… it's… nice."
A simple country woman like her couldn't bring herself to lie glibly, so she just offered a perfunctory compliment.
Having grown up at the foot of the mountain, she'd seen plenty of Hunters and their bows. Bai Yuan's creation was crude, barely holding its shape, and frankly, quite terrible. But she couldn't bear to wound his pride.
Bai Yuan was perfectly aware of his own bow-making abilities. He had upgraded his Archery skill, not Bow-Making. That he'd managed to craft this bow at all was entirely thanks to childhood memories from his past life.
With a bow, he could finally put his archery to use. He at last had a way to protect his own life.
This was a real transmigration, not a game. There would be no "Young Hero, please start again" interface. He had to clear it all in one life.
Xiao Qiaoniang saw Bai Yuan get up, looking like he was about to head out again.
"Going up the mountain again, Uncle?"
Bai Yuan lifted the door curtain and turned his head. "I'll be right back."
...
Baisha Town wasn't large, with just over two hundred households.
His predecessor had grown up in Baisha Town, so he was a familiar face to most. It was just that his predecessor's lazy, good-for-nothing nature hadn't exactly endeared him to the townsfolk.
"Brother Yuan, Er Gouzi's wife has a massive ass. Wanna come take a look with me?"
A round-faced, slightly chubby youth came walking toward Bai Yuan, grinning from ear to ear.
Zhuang Zhao, his predecessor's partner in crime and one of Baisha Town's resident delinquents.
'To be so pale and plump in this day and age, he had to be from a very wealthy family.'
When the parents of the Bai Family were still alive, the two families had been on good terms. After the Bai Family fell into decline, they had much less contact.
Zhuang Zhao and his predecessor had been friends since childhood and were thick as thieves, so they were always messing around together.
Zhuang Zhao's face showed his confusion when he saw the bamboo bow in Bai Yuan's hands.
"Brother Yuan, where are you off to with that?"
"Hunting."
Zhuang Zhao was even more astonished. Although he and Bai Yuan often went into the mountains to catch wild pheasants and rabbits, that was a summer activity. Only Hunters went hunting in the mountains in the snow.
He knew better than anyone what Bai Yuan was capable of. Outside of some talent for cricket fighting and raiding birds' nests, the guy was utterly useless.
"You can't be serious, Brother Yuan."
His face paled in alarm.
Hunting in the snowy woods was no child's play. Every year, Hunters from Baisha Town went missing in those woods. By the time they were found the following spring, their bodies had long been devoured by wolves, mangled beyond human recognition.
Zhuang Zhao's expression grew somber as he thought about the Bai Family's circumstances.
Even a wealthy family like his dreaded falling ill, let alone the Bai Family. He knew that to pay for Bai Yuan's treatment, Xiao Qiaoniang had sold almost everything of value. He had helped out more than a little himself during that time.
Bai Yuan waved a hand. "I've got things to do. I'm off."
Zhuang Zhao looked like he wanted to say more, but held his tongue. His family was well-off, but not so much that they could afford to support another person. Sneaking them some corn flour now and then was the most he could do, but for the two members of the Bai Family, it was but a drop in the ocean.
...
The early winter snow weighed down the branches, making them bend low. Flurries of snow drifted down from time to time.
Bai Yuan lay motionless in a snowdrift. Falling snow had dusted his hair and body white, allowing him to blend in perfectly with his surroundings.
A bamboo arrow was already nocked on the bowstring, poised to fly.
A wild rabbit with mottled fur was hopping and jumping about in the snow, completely oblivious to the danger.
Bai Yuan didn't rush to shoot. While his archery skill allowed him to hit targets within ten zhang, his homemade bow couldn't handle the force required for such a shot. He needed to wait until the rabbit was within three zhang, then go for a one-shot kill.
Eight zhang.
...
Five zhang.
...
Three zhang.
FWOOSH!
With a soft twang, the mottled-fur rabbit that had been hopping in the snow was pierced clean through by the bamboo arrow.
Strengthening Point +1.
[You have chosen to continue studying Archery. You practice drawing your bow three hundred times daily, and can now finally hit targets within fifteen zhang.]
As a speedrunner, Bai Yuan didn't have the bad habit of hoarding points to spend only when a crisis arose.
He decisively used his newly acquired strengthening point to upgrade his Archery skill.
An unfamiliar stream of memories once again flooded into his mind, and his comprehension of archery became even more profound. The calluses on the joints of his two fingers slowly turned translucent, yet grew even tougher.
Now, his draw strength had increased by another thirty percent, and his effective range extended to fifteen zhang.
Such a skill level would be unremarkable in the army, but among the Hunters of Baisha Town, it was already quite impressive.
Bai Yuan tied the rabbit to his waist with a hemp rope. He didn't venture deeper into the mountains, but continued searching for targets near the foot.
There were wolves in the mountains; taking on large beasts required a party of at least three Hunters.
He was alone, so it was best to be cautious.
Most animals hibernate on snowy days, and after a long search, Bai Yuan came up with nothing else.
Just as he was preparing to head down the mountain—
A burly man with a hardwood bow slung over his back came walking toward him.
In this era, a hardwood bow was a deadly weapon, and you could count the number of Hunters in Baisha Town who owned one on a single hand.
Bai Yuan recognized the burly man before him: Zhao Si Hu.
Hunters spent their years battling beasts in the deep mountains, giving them a ferocious air that made ordinary people afraid to provoke them. And among Hunters, Zhao Si Hu was especially fearsome.
It was said that he had been an apprentice at a Martial Arts Hall in the city for two years. Though he was later expelled, the skills he had learned remained. Relying on the Horizontal Training he picked up at the hall, he dared to venture into the deep mountains alone to fight tigers and leopards. His character, on the other hand, was another story...
"Well, if it isn't Ah Yuan."
Seeing Bai Yuan, Zhao Si Hu split his mouth into a wide grin, revealing a set of starkly white teeth.
It was too late for Bai Yuan to avoid him.
"Heading up the mountain, Brother Hu?"
Zhao Si Hu didn't answer, his eyes instead flicking to the bamboo bow on Bai Yuan's back and the rabbit at his waist.
"You hunt, too?"
In his eyes, Bai Yuan was nothing more than an ignorant good-for-nothing. He never expected him to actually catch game in the winter. 'His luck must be pretty good,' he thought.
"Ah Yuan, how about we team up and head into the mountains together? Tell you what, I'll be generous and we can split everything fifty-fifty. What do you say?"
Bai Yuan shook his head. "It's getting late, Brother Hu. I'm just going to head back down."
Zhao Si Hu's smile vanished. His voice took on a threatening tone. "You're sure you won't go?"
"I'm not."
Bai Yuan refused flatly.
Zhao Si Hu snorted, brushed past Bai Yuan, and headed into the depths of the forest.
Staring at Zhao Si Hu's departing figure, Bai Yuan's eyes turned ice-cold.
'Team up?'
'Zhao Si Hu isn't that kind. Once you're deep in the mountains, killing a man is no different than killing a chicken. At least half the Hunters who go missing in the mountains each year die at the hands of their own partners.'
'Zhao Si Hu just wanted to take advantage of his inexperience, lure him deep into the mountains, and set him up to die. Come next spring, there would just be one more unclaimed corpse.'
'Robbery is far more profitable than hunting. The padded jacket Bai Yuan was wearing alone was worth a good few copper plates.'
'The only reason he hadn't made a move right here was that he was worried other Hunters might see.'
A cold glint flashed in Bai Yuan's eyes.
'This man was courting death.'