Yi Qiang sat back on the floor, not entirely shocked, but he could feel the onset of growing aggression at what was guaranteed to be a significant impediment.

The marksman watched as his colossal prey arced through the air, toying with various ideas in his mind. His most creative one so far was to starve the beast by feeding it grass slowly.

Am I that desperate? Yi Qiang toyed with a golden Qi-conjured arrow in his hand, deftly twirling it around his fingers. As his imagination started coming up blank for more solutions, the marksman began to exert some willpower, bending and reshaping the arrow on a whim. He curved the shaft, watching his held projectile distort.

The archer scratched his head, curious about how these strange arrows would fly. He had, of course, experimented with specially-shaped projectiles. Still, Yi Qiang couldn't predict how these things, created at the whims of his imagination, would fly when propelled by a greater force than his previous world could muster, save for very specialized technology.

Casually, Yi Qiang loaded an arrow bent at nearly 90 degrees into a bow. Drawing it back fully, he launched the projectile faster than a normal eye could even register, directly into the air.

The marksman observed as the arrow, under the extreme forces exerted on it, started to spin and form a sort of glowing discus in the air, appearing entirely material from the rotation's sheer speed.

He raised an eyebrow as the arrow crashed with surprising force into the ground at the end of its flight, digging up a hefty amount of dirt. Hmmm.

The ground was not to be treated with mercy today, as countless more peculiar projectiles found themselves ruthlessly bombing it.

Yi Qiang's back straightened in surprise around an hour in, the previous idle posture disappearing completely. In front of him was a hole drilled into the soft dirt too deep to see entirely.

An idea, a hesitant hope, started to creep up on the marksman as he conjured that alarmingly effective arrow once again. Now that he looked at it, it was a wicked thing.

Even shining softly with a golden light, it could not be confused for anything but an evil instrument, at least from its appearance. The shaft was ordinary enough, a straight rod, but the arrowhead was far from usual.

It was a drill-like shape, but the drill's signature spiral shape was more pronounced on the arrowhead, with edges sharp enough to nick one's finger effortlessly. The tip culminated in a terrifying-looking needle, surprisingly sturdy despite its thinness. Said needle slowly widened into the rest of the arrowhead, forming those razorlike spirals.

The edges were both sharp and serrated. Each inch was adorned with cruel, jagged lines, so harsh in angle Yi Qiang could all but see crimson blood dripping from each small spike in the notch.

Despite the projectile's impressive appearance, Yi Qiang had to admit he did not predict this new design's striking effect. Firing once more into the ground to make sure, the marksman watched with wide eyes as the arrow burrowed into the ground, leaving a familiar, barbed trail behind it.

The arrow appeared in his hands once more. Yi Qiang scrutinized the object, trying to ascertain why it was so impossibly penetrating.

Well, it looks like the arrow has a few properties that give it such an effect. For one, the drill shape makes it rotate, fast - all the faster because of the force with which I can fire the projectile. It also looks like the needle, and the gradual increase in breadth makes it so that there's way less force required to penetrate through the ground.

Yi Qiang scratched his chin. Could it be...?

The marksman dared to hope this new arrow could penetrate the Eartheater's plated hide, as unlikely as it was.

Yi Qiang was quickly met with another surprise when he consciously acknowledged the projectile in his hand as useful.

You have created a new skill!

Plate-Drilling Arrow(Level 1 Novice, Active)

Thanks to its peculiar shape, this arrow has astonishing penetrative power when fired at high speed.

At Level 1,

+1% penetrative power to the Plate-Drilling Arrow

-1% cost of summoning the Plate-Drilling Arrow

+2% speed of the Plate-Drilling Arrow

Base Cost: 50 Qi

(This skill is linked to Empyrean Dragon's Armaments. Should you lose Empyrean Dragon's Armaments, this skill will be lost too.)

You have gained a permanent +10 to all stats for creating a skill!

Yi Qiang's jaw dropped.

With this... is it possible?

Unwilling to risk failure and the possibility of provoking the aggression of a Colossal Eartheater by attempting an attack at anything less than full potential, the marksman resolved to level up the skill to a respectable point before he tried it on the enormous worms.

The marksman spent the next 8 hours firing Plate-Drilling Arrow idly, gaining some experience with the skill. In fact, with the large pool of Qi he had at his disposal - not to mention how quickly he regenerated it - he managed to level Plate-Drilling Arrow to Apprentice 5. Past that, however, he seemed to encounter a plateau; no matter how much he fired, the skill would not level. He was still left with quite the improvement, however:

Plate-Drilling Arrow(Level 5 Apprentice, Active)

Thanks to its peculiar shape, this arrow has astonishing penetrative power when fired at high speed.

At Level 15,

+15% penetrative power to the Plate-Drilling Arrow

-15% cost of summoning the Plate-Drilling Arrow

+30% speed of the Plate-Drilling Arrow

Base Cost: 50 Qi

(This skill is linked to Empyrean Dragon's Armaments. Should you lose Empyrean Dragon's Armaments, this skill will be lost too.)

As he was scrolling through his skills list, Yi Qiang's eye was suddenly caught by a particularly neglected card up his sleeve.

Draconic Blood-Burning(Level NA)

You sacrifice the blood in your body for strength.

While active,

-10% HP per second.

-All stats are doubled.

-Health regeneration is disabled.

The marksman's eyes glinted in curiosity. He hadn't even tried out the skill, an error on his part. The absolute increase of 100% would prove more potent as his stats increased due to the scaling of each point's effect. When he first received the skill, it would provide an incredible leap in power.

Now, however, Yi Qiang had the suspicion it would make him earth-shattering.

I doubt the Plate-Drilling Arrow, on its own, would be enough. But backed by over 2000 Strength? He grinned. We will undoubtedly see.

Naturally, such an increase in capability would be quite unwieldy at first. A bit of a tricky situation, considering that Yi Qiang would be dead in 10 seconds if he used it nonstop. He'd have to take it slow.

Brimming with anticipation, Yi Qiang activated the skill with a mental command.

The first thing that struck him was a heart-wrenching pain as if it were fire coursing through his veins and not blood. Even with his mental fortitude, the marksman keeled over and fell to his knees as he slammed his fists against the ground, agony wracking his body.

That, however, proved unwise. Yi Qiang's pain-fueled strike whizzed through the air at shocking speed and crashed into the ground, a meteor of flesh and bone.

The world turned quiet for a moment before dirt and grass erupted around him, covering his vision. Instead of a fist, it seemed more like a plane had collided into the earth as the marksman was sent flying by his own strike, utterly unprepared for the force of it.

He landed several dozen meters back, completely unharmed. Somehow maintaining a clear enough mind to do so, Yi Qiang deactivated the skill and collapsed back on the ground, exhausted despite only having used it for little more than a second.

The marksman smiled bitterly. And here I thought the skill was game-breaking... this will be hell.

Yi Qiang patiently waited less than a minute to recover his HP entirely and activated the skill again, bracing himself.

The pain came again in full force as the marksman grunted in pain and tried to control his strength as much as possible as he slowly opened and closed his hands.

After getting slightly more used to the burning strength flowing through him, Yi Qiang was three seconds down of the, at most, nine he could have at any given time.

He started to make minute movements, a roll of the shoulders here, and a curl of the toes there. The remaining six seconds were quick to pass, though, and Yi Qiang collapsed onto the ground, head pounding and vision blurry with tears. A labored glance at his health bar revealed it to be at 10% of its total.

He managed to roll over to his back, lying in the soft grass as he recovered slowly.

What followed was an agonizingly slow process of getting accustomed(or at least as accustomed as possible) to Draconic Blood-Burning. The skill's difficulties were intense; it had the combination of pain that made even Yi Qiang doubt his will to train and the shocking increase in ability that came with doubled stats. Learning to move with such pure power was like learning to move anew, and by the time the marksman was satisfied, grass and dirt covered him like a blanket.

The pain of using the skill also affected him marginally less, a welcome change, and one forged through unimaginable torment.

The worst part of it was that Yi Qiang had not only to be able to move reliably, but he had to be capable of shooting an arrow at a moving object. Said moving object was massive, the saving grace of his task, but it still posed quite the problem.

Nevertheless, the marksman managed to conquer his strength, at least enough to shoot a weak arrow with a flimsy bow and have a good chance of hitting something.

Yi Qiang only had one thing left on his checklist before he could get to hunting.

The marksman hissed as he activated Draconic Blood-Burning once again, but his eyes narrowed in focus as he got to work. A dim golden bow appeared in his hand - the one Yi Qiang had been using to practice so far. It was created with a mere 200 Qi and was thus relatively weak. It was time to change that.

The difference was immediate and noticeable as Yi Qiang started to pump Qi into the object. The dull glow started to brighten; after the 1000-Qi mark, it shined with a familiar light(this was the amount Yi Qiang usually used).

When Yi Qiang forced in 2000 points of Qi, he did not only start to feel a noticeable resistance, but the bow itself began to glow with an intense radiance.

As he poured in more and more, it felt like filling up a leaking cup with water. The Qi he tried to push into the bow lost efficacy slowly, and by 4000 points, Yi Qiang was spending more than double the Qi for the same effect as before.

The moment he invested 6000 points, the bow underwent a shocking transformation. Small, shining particles of Qi started floating around it, likely a symptom of the pure density of the weapon's energy. He still had much more Qi to put in, and the marksman's eyebrow rose as he increased the amount of Qi he pumped into the bow.

At 6800 Qi, Yi Qiang's legs started to tremble. It was a strange feeling he experienced at this point. He felt as if his body could handle it, but there was some invisible strainer on his Qi, making him exert far more effort than was necessary. Even though numerically, Yi Qiang hadn't even reached halfway into his reserves, his mind was already exerting a strange amount of effort.

Yi Qiang kept forcing it, though, and he encountered a hard cap at 7400 Qi. His Stamina had started to drain, too, at an alarming pace. No matter how hard he tried, Yi Qiang could not summon up another point of Qi.

Even when not attempting to put the Qi into his bow, now shining with a blinding light, Yi Qiang couldn't tap into the vast reserve of Qi he still had left. It seemed as if the Qi he had wasn't available to him anymore.

The marksman, forced to concentrate on exerting the control required, took precisely 100 points out of the bow and watched his Qi quickly regenerate. As he had suspected, the 100 Qi points were now free for him to use - though it took considerable mental effort, he could easily use that specific amount.

Yi Qiang felt his control over his constructs slipping, though, and quickly dismissed both the creations and Draconic Blood-Burning's effect. The combination of the mental stamina expended in keeping the constructs up and the intense agony of the skill exhausted Yi Qiang, but he only closed his eyes and took a few breaths. When he opened them again, the marksman's eyes were back to their usual sharpness, though slightly duller than before.

The next hour consisted of Yi Qiang adapting to the new Qi capacity brought by Draconic Blood-Burning, figuring out which ratio of arrow cost and bow cost was best, and refining his aim once again.

Finally, finally, the marksman felt confident enough to try his new skill out on a Colossal Eartheater. Yi Qiang took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a second, emptying his mind and preparing himself. He was yet to attract the ire of a non-crippled Eartheater, and Yi Qiang would prefer to keep it that way. As such, it was best to avoid a failed shot.

Let's do it.

Yi Qiang stepped forward. His back straightened, and his eyes smoldered with intense focus. Some of his attention he directed underground, where he could feel the vibration of movement. He had a bit of wiggle room, but efficiency was more than preferable.

He felt one of the beasts approach. The ground shook ever-so-slightly, a trembling he had never noticed before, but now that his perception was pushed to its maximum, he would be hard-pressed to miss it.

Time seemed to slow under Yi Qiang's focus. He could feel the immense force and momentum and weight of the thing shooting up at the surface of the ground. It was oblivious, of course, of the attention of the small creature trained on it.

In a millisecond, the ground splintered, minute cracks spreading. In the next, there was a small eruption as Yi Qiang's prey burst out of the earth, beginning to draw its graceful arc through the air - an angle with which the marksman was very well-acquainted.

He waited. It was soon to approach the peak of its movement - that was when he would strike. His eyes roamed over the monstrous creature's body, capturing every aspect of its airborne voyage.

All of a sudden, the moment was perfect. Yi Qiang exploded into movement - his forehead creased from pain as Draconic Blood-Burning came into play, but the experienced marksman summoned a bow. It formed into his hands almost instantaneously as he pumped 6500 points of Qi into it. Already, the ground around him cracked from the sheer condensed power of the weapon he now held.

Five hundred points formed a brilliantly-shining arrow in that unique, twisted shape he had so profoundly imprinted into his will. His head began to swim from the mental exertion and the pressure his armaments exerted upon himself, but he unfailingly nocked the arrow and forced the bowstring back.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a strand of consciousness flitted over to a memory he had buried deep within. When he was young, still studying archery, he had heard a saying from his teacher. Only one line remained in his memory.

Quietly does the assassin's arrow bring deliverance.

Deliverance. The word resonated in Yi Qiang's mind as he released that arrow.

It sliced through the air, silently, as if the arrow moved too quickly for the air to realize it was there yet. In less than an instant, it arrived at the Colossal Eartheater's eye. Some primal instinct in some depth of the beast reared its head, and it managed to close its eyes right before the arrow hit.

It would not be enough.

Effortlessly, Yi Qiang's strike pierced through the creature's stony eyelid, burrowing deep into its head. Though the projectile's size paled compared to the Eartheater's, the pure force behind it wreaked havoc inside the creature.

Deliverance. The Colossal Eartheater writhed around in the air some, a loud, soul-wrenching howl sounding out in the air. Its robust vitality kept it alive up until it hit the ground in a sickening impact. Yi Qiang could hear a distinct crack from its body before he released Draconic Blood-Burning and collapsed on the floor, exhausted but victorious.