A Few Weeks Later

The boy watched as Li Chyou practiced her halberd moves as he had done so many times. He had diligently done his duties these past few weeks. He could feel Li Chyou somewhat warm up to him. That was for the best. It would make his job much smoother.

The Inter-Clan Tournament was approaching steadily and Li Chyou was determined to make it to first place. Her frequency of training had increased. Apart from that, nothing had changed.

Except…the boy looked at his hands. There was a wooden longbow in his hands. A quiver filled with arrows was set by his feet. He looked at the bullseye which was set some 25 meters away. This was his new task or rather punishment from Li Fen.

After that day, Li Fen couldn’t make the boy show his cards. She would constantly peep at him in hopes of learning something. He was driven to the brink of exhaustion from antics. Once asked what she was doing, she gave the perfunctory reply of, “I’m keeping an eye on him for my daughter.”

Even Li Yan felt incredibly stifled when he heard this. Just who are you fooling!? Even a child would know if you have ulterior motives! The boy felt incredibly unnerved. He had fewer problems with being blatantly stared at but the feeling of being watched from the shadows was not a good one.

After a few weeks of spying on him, it seemed Li Fen became frustrated. And ‘for wasting her time’, she ordered him to learn archery. And what was her excuse you may ask?

“As her butler, you must learn to protect Chyou`er! Since she practices close combat, you’ll make up her deficiencies in long-range.”

And he was to practice archery alongside his duties as a butler. Being a butler, no, being Li Chyou’s butler was already exhausting enough and now he had to do archery as well? The boy really felt like crying. Protect her? If anything, she’ll protect me!

Juggling butler duties and archery took a toll on him. He had nearly any energy late into the night and would pass out as soon as his head hit the pillow. His current appearance looked haggard. Disheveled hair, baggy eyes, and dispirited look, but he still looked damn pleasing!

He drew the bow and put an arrow on the string. Closing one eye, he tilted his head and aimed towards the bullseye.

He agreed to do this for three reasons: one, this was part of the Six Arts, so learning archery would make him more respectable in society. Two, he needed some offensive capabilities. He didn’t have any hope of killing Cultivators. But he wanted to at least be able to kill ordinary people and distract low-level Cultivators to hide.

And three, he just didn’t have fucking choice.

It was an order, not a request. Even if he didn’t have those first two reasons, he still needed to learn archery. Actually, scratch everything, he only had one reason to learn archery and that was the third one!

Joking aside, his archery ‘lessons’ were going as one would expect. He wasn’t very talented nor was he exceptionally bad at it. And he didn’t need a teacher to tell him that. It would be better if he had a teacher at all!

He was going through the motions completely fucking blind! All he had were the rough idea of what archery was and the amateur tips of Li Chyou. Just what in the hell was he supposed to do? This just further reinforced the fact that this was a punishment for him.

And for the first time in the two months he woke up in this world, he raged. Flaring his nose, he let the arrow loose.

Swoosh!

The arrow whistled through the air and completely missed the target! It flew over the bullseye and headed straight towards Li Chyou who was practicing. The boy felt like clawing out his hair. Who practices behind an archery target?

“Careful, Young Miss!” he yelled.

Seemingly hearing his cries, Li Chyou turned around and sliced the arrow in half.

She looked at the boy who ran towards her. With an expression of worry, he checked her body, “Are you okay, Young Miss?”

She let out a smug smile and puffed out her chest, “Do you think this grand aunt would be hurt from just this? It takes a lot to take me down!”

The boy finished checking and heaved a sigh of relief. “I seek your forgiveness, Young Miss!” he apologized with folded hands.

“Next time-” she lightly knocked on his head, “-look before you let go!”

“I thank Young Miss for her forgiveness,” the boy bowed and turned around to leave.

“Where are you going?” Li Chyou raised an eyebrow.

“Back…to practice?” the boy blinked.

“No, no, you’ll help me practice!” she pulled his arm.

“Y-Young Miss, I’m not even an expert like you! How can I help?”

“You’re going to shoot at me and I’ll block them.”

“But my shots won’t even hurt you!”

“Your accuracy has a certain unpredictability to it,” Li Chyou stubbornly insisted. “It’ll help me fend off Murong Fang!”

The boy nearly coughed out blood. What accuracy? Which part of it was accurate!?

“Haah~” he sighed, “Whatever you say, Young Miss!”

“Go and aim at me!” Looking at the boy’s listless face, she added, “Don’t worry, it’ll also aid you in your practice. I’m a moving target so aim well!”

“Understood!” the boy took his longbow and went back to where his quiver was. Suddenly, he froze. Did she just say, Murong Fang? Isn’t he Murong Clan’s eldest young master? It’s nice to know that he uses a bow as well.

“Ready?” Li Chyou asked.

“Yes!” the boy knocked an arrow and aimed.

Swoosh!

The arrow penetrated the air and went straight for her. The boy wanted to aim for her arms but due to his lack of skill, the arrow deviated slightly and went for her chest.

“Young Miss, watch out!” the boy warned her but contrary to expectations, before the arrow could hit her she had already sidestepped and let the arrow hit her arm.

“Ah!” the boy let out a cry of alarm.

The arrow struck her upper arm and bounced back to the ground.

“Ah?” the boy was confused. What is she doing?

Li Chyou looked at her arm where the arrow landed. She was wearing training clothes so the sleeves were extremely short which revealed her fair and supple arms. Just where the arrow had struck, there was a speck of red that blew up to be a bean-sized drop of blood.

Even though he was still quite a bit away, it didn’t miss his eyes.

“Young Miss, why did you do that?” the boy dashed into the nearby shed and got a vial blood-clotting cream. He opened the bottle and took some on his finger before spreading it on her arm.

“What were you thinking?” the boy sent a chop to her head. “What if you got a scar? Don’t you still need to marry?” The boy reprimanded her.

“You!” she grabbed her head and exclaimed. His chop didn’t hurt her at all. But the suddenness of it threw her for a loop.

“I-” the boy stammered as his eyes widened. It seems his actions had just registered in his mind. He stopped speaking and fell deep in thought. Why did I do that? It felt so…natural?

“…what are you thinking about?” Li Chyou hesitated before asking. Normally, wouldn’t this guy be bowing for forgiveness? What was wrong with him?

“Huh?” the boy’s train of thought was broken and he came back to reality. “Nothing,” he shook his head. But obviously, it was something. The air around him had changed. It seemed he had something weighing on his mind. Li Chyou hadn’t lived long enough to understand subtle differences like these but nonetheless, she felt something was off with him and decided not to pursue.

“I’ll try again,” the boy spoke less and picked up the bow before aiming. Li Chyou also took up her stance. Neither of them said a word to one another. Their training went on in silence. Of course, both Butler Yu who was there Li Chyou’s protection, and Li Fen who was still trying to figure the boy out saw it but did nothing. Each of them had a different thought in their mind.

On the Clan Head’s personal courtyard, two figures could be seen. One of them shot arrow after arrow at the other, his proficiency rising with every five turns. The other defended as the ever-increasing accuracy of the former made it harder on her. Each of them continued without a word. Their training continued until the sun set, utterly quiet throughout.