Chapter 4 – The secrets of Heavenly Jewel Masters (3)

With a swooshing sound, the arrow flew out and embedded itself firmly with a thud into the tree trunk, just a little left of the centre mark. The shot was already considered quite accurate, in the 3rd Battalion, it was mostly only the Company Leaders who could do so well. Although the passing mark of 200m accuracy on a human sized target was true, but the number of soldiers who could actually pull it off was not many.

“Haha! I hit!” Zhou Weiqing waved his bow at Shangguan Bing’er smugly. He actually did not have a 100% confidence in hitting the target, for his skill it was likely he would hit 7 out of 10 times, which was one of the reasons why he chose to join the archer unit in the first place.

“Is that even counted as a hit? I asked you to hit the centre of the trunk. I can shoot more accurately than you even using my feet.” Shangguan Bing’er said scornfully.

Zhou Weiqing immediately seized upon her words, “Using your feet? Prove it! If you can use your feet to shoot the centre of the trunk, I’ll listen to you and do the training.”

“I’m your Battalion Commander, you’re supposed to listen to my commands anyway! Give me your bow and arrow.” Shangguan Bing’er said with some anger.

Zhou Weiqing handed over his longbow and arrow, and Shangguan Bing’er said coldly, “Watch this.” As she said that, she kicked off her army boots, revealing a pair of white soft feet. Before Zhou Weiqing could react, she used her foot to grasp the bow’s handle, her right leg moving back to raise the whole bow up. Next, she supported herself upside down with both hands, and used the other foot to grasp an arrow from the quiver.

What made Zhou Weiqing gape in awe was that, Shangguan Bing’er’s (reversed-side) body was arched in a bow-shape, right foot in front, left foot nocking the arrow to the bowstring and pulling it in a crescent shape. Her shapely buttocks were almost pressed upon her own head, and her long legs were right in front of Zhou Weiqing.

Her right foot released the string, and with a swoosh, the arrow shot out like lightning. Zhou Weiqing followed it with his eyes, to see the arrow slam into the tree trunk – right smack in the middle.

That was possible? That skill of using her legs to shoot was unbelievably graceful. Zhou Weiqing praised in his heart. She is truly worthy of being the top youthful genius in the whole empire! What Shangguan Bing’er displayed earlier was totally her body’s flexibility and control, and she did not use a single bit of Heavenly Energy or her Heavenly Jewels, but followed Zhou Weiqing and only used ordinary physical abilities to shoot the arrow.

With a flip, Shangguan Bing’er righted herself to stand in front of Zhou Weiqing, before throwing him back the bow and quiver. She said quietly: “Now are you convinced?”

Zhou Weiqing looked at her earnestly and said: “Battalion Commander, I think that the next time if you are wearing a dress, you shouldn’t use such a skill, else you will reveal everything. But really, your legs are very beautiful.” He also had a sentence he kept to himself: Your buttocks are really shapely too!

Shangguan Bing’er had seen his dazed look earlier and thought he had been impressed by her, little did she expect that he would say something like that, making her eyes blaze in anger again, her face flushed in embarrassment. “What is your head is filled with, always thinking such dirty thoughts? Now, Immediately, without delay, carry this bag and run around the camp until I say stop or I’ll change the training to sparring with me!!!”

“I’ll run now..” Zhou Weiqing said with a wronged look, and he shouldered the bag and started running slowly. Unfortunately for him, no matter how pitiful he acted now, in Shangguan Bing’er’s eyes he had a provoking look that made her want to hit him.

“Faster!” Shangguan Bing’er gave him a kick to the behind, before wearing her boots and following him. She would personally oversee his running, and not give him a chance to slack off.

Zhou Weiqing turned his head to look at Shangguan Bing’er, and realised that she now had 2 bright red gems around her wrists.

Are those heavenly jewels? Zhou Weiqing looked on in wonder. Although running while carrying a weight of 20kg was not easy, but he could still handle it for now. Towards Heavenly Jewels, he had a lot of natural curiosity and yearning, and he couldn’t help asking: “Battalion Commander, are those your Heavenly Jewels? I’ve heard that Heavenly Jewel Masters have both Physical and Elemental Jewels, your Elemental Jewels are of the Fire alignment rubies?” The 2 red gems were indeed very similar in look to the fire elemental jewels of Difuya, the only difference he could see was the brightness of the glows. Compared to Difuya’s Jewels, the Jewels Shangguan Bing’er’s left wrist were much brighter, almost twice so. Also, as compared to the more costly feel of the rubies of Difuya, the 2 red Jewels on her wrist now had a more softer, agile look that gave a comfortable peaceful feeling.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “If you run faster, I’ll tell you.” Although she was angry with Little Fatty Zhou, she did not have any guarded feelings against him. As a Heavenly Jewel Master, she could tell that Zhou Weiqing did not have any Heavenly Energy within him.

At this point, Zhou Weiqing did not bother trying to slack off anymore, and hurriedly picked up the pace. Although it would be more difficult, but his curiosity about Heavenly Jewels overcame all of that.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “Heavenly Jewel Masters are different from individual Physical or Elemental Jewel Masters. It isn’t just as simple as having both types of jewels. You seem to know the basics of Physical and Elemental Jewel Masters, can you tell how mine differs?” As she said that, she showed the Jewels on her right hand as well.

Around her right wrist were two Jade Jewels, both light green and translucent emeralds.

“Dragonstone Jade…. Pure?” Zhou Weiqing said in surprise. Dragonstone Jade were considered high-grade for Jewel Masters, as they signified an improvement in agility. But this was not what gave Zhou Weiqing the surprise, instead it was the sheer purity of the gem. He could see that Shangguan Bing’er’s physical gem had no other jades mixed in, and was purely the agility type Dragonstone Jade.

Shangguan Bing’er said: “The Physical Jewels of Heavenly Jewel Masters differ from those of Physical Jewel Masters in terms of purity. That is to say, Heavenly Jewel Masters only have one type of physical enhancement, for example mine is agility. However, the amount of enhancement is equivalent to 1.5 times that of a normal Physical Jewel. All these knowledge are taught in Jewel Master schools.

Purity, so it was purity. Zhou Weiqing was suddenly enlightened to the difference between Physical and Heavenly Jewel Masters. Although there was only one attribute that was enhanced, but a difference of 150% for every level meant that for the same level, no matter what physical attribute Heavenly Jewel Masters were boosted by, a normal Physical Jewel Master could never be of a match.

Shangguan Bing’er continued: “As for my Elemental Jewel, it isn’t a ruby as you mentioned. My element is not fire, but wind.” Actually, she had no need to explain everything to Zhou Weiqing; she didn’t know why but she felt a sense of happiness looking at that fellow’s shocked face.

“Wind? But Wind Elemental Jewels should be green tourmaline!” Zhou Weiqing was once again surprised.

Shangguan Bing’er shook her head and said: “Similarly, Heavenly Jewel Master’s Elemental Jewels are also different from ordinary Elemental Jewel Masters’. This Elemental Jewel of mine is also a tourmaline, but it is the rarest of all tourmalines – a red tourmaline, also known as King Tourmaline. This is another difference between Heavenly Jewel Masters and Elemental Jewel Masters – although both are wind elementals, but my King Tourmaline’s wind attribute is about 1.5 times that of an ordinary tourmaline. It’s the same for other attributes, in simple terms, Heavenly Jewels are always the highest grade of Elemental Jewels.”