Chapter 499
Chapter 499
By dusk.
The failed candidates left the Tianyue Hunting Grounds with reddened eyes, waiting until they were somewhere secluded to break down in sobs. Some of the older candidates, in particular, cried so hard they collapsed to the ground, unable to rise. It was a scene reminiscent of those who failed the literary examination. However, there was a key difference between the failures of the literary and martial examinations. For the literary examination, there was no issue with taking it until the age of fifty, but if one failed to pass the martial examination by the age of thirty-eight, they lost their eligibility to compete. While a practitioner of personal martial arts might reach their peak in their forties or fifties, battlefield martial arts tested strength and endurance, both of which began a steady decline after one's early thirties.
Although the official rule was that those thirty-eight and older were not selected, in practice, anyone over thirty-five had essentially lost their chance, as the examiners would not pass them. To pursue the path of martial arts was to walk a road of no return. Failure to pass the examination meant losing the chance to ever become an official, to ever rise in the world. How could they not weep? How could they not despair?
* * *
The next day, the second event of the provincial martial examination began. Today’s test was foot archery, which was also divided into two stages. The first was shooting at a fixed target, and the second was shooting at a moving target. With a total of one thousand candidates participating today, they were divided into fifty groups of twenty. Nan San and Nan Wu were once again assigned to the first group.
Clang!
At the first sound of the gong, the twenty candidates of the first group nocked their arrows and drew their bows.
Clang!
The second gong sounded.
Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip.
Twenty men began to shoot. The gongs continued to ring incessantly.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang.
The gong rang sixty times in total, once per second. This meant the ringing continued for about a minute. Within that minute, all candidates had to finish shooting. Each fixed target was marked with a candidate's number, and after the test, the number of arrows on the target would be counted. Hitting the target was worth one point, hitting the large outer circle was another point, and hitting the small inner circle in the center was worth four points. This scoring method differed from the modern Olympics but was scientific enough. Any candidate who scored less than twenty points was eliminated.
The targets were numbered, but the arrows were not. If a candidate hit another person's target, that score would unfortunately be credited to the other person. —Matthew Emmons, this one’s for you.— Furthermore, when the final scores were tallied, it wasn't just accuracy that was considered, but also the power of the shot. If an arrow was powerful enough to pierce through the target, while it didn't grant extra points, the examiner would circle the candidate's number. However, if a shot was weak, merely sticking lightly to the target, the candidate was likely to fail or have points deducted, no matter how high their accuracy was. Thus, the truly skilled archers all chose more powerful bows. The ten geniuses of the Nan Clan, for instance, had all selected powerful bows with a one-and-a-half-stone draw weight.
After the gong sounded, Nan San and Nan Wu drew their bows and began shooting with furious speed.
Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip.
The arrows were loosed with unparalleled quickness. The strength of a gifted bloodline was truly something to behold. While an ordinary archer relied on muscle memory built through countless hours of practice, these geniuses shot with sheer mental focus. The allotted time was sixty seconds, yet after only thirty, Nan San and Nan Wu had fired all ten of their arrows. There was no need to even see the results. For the ten geniuses of the Nan Clan, hitting a target from a hundred paces was child's play. In their daily training, they practiced from at least one hundred and fifty paces.
Every arrow shot by Nan San and Nan Wu struck the small circle in the center of the target, and all ten pierced clean through. The thirteen examiners present were all masters of archery. Although they didn't tally Nan San and Nan Wu's specific scores, they had already circled the two candidates' numbers before even checking the targets. These two were simply too outstanding. From the start of the examination yesterday until now, they had passed every stage without breaking a sweat.
Four hours later, the first stage of the second day's foot archery test concluded. As with the previous tests, the results were announced immediately. Anyone with fewer than twenty points was eliminated, as was anyone with an X mark next to their name, even if they had a perfect score of twenty. Of the one thousand candidates, only five hundred and twenty remained; the rest were all eliminated.
* * *
In the afternoon.
The second stage of the foot archery test began: shooting at moving targets. These so-called moving targets were not live animals. Instead, soldiers would hide in trenches and, after moving within a certain range, would suddenly raise a target for three or four seconds before lowering it again. After a while, they would raise it once more. The archer never knew where the target would appear, leaving no time to aim. They had to react instinctively, judging the target's location in the shortest possible time, aiming, and firing.
This time, the candidates were divided into fifty-two groups of ten. Nan San and Nan Wu were still in the first group.
Clang!
At the first gong, the ten candidates drew their bows, their concentration absolute as they stared at the target area. The soldier in the trench could raise the target at any moment. Suddenly, the first target was raised.
Thwip, thwip.
In an instant, two arrows struck the center of the target. Nan San was momentarily stunned.
‘That’s my target. My kind brother next to me, what did you just shoot?’ (Since the arrow hit Nan San's target, the score would be his.)
The candidate next to him felt tears welling up in his eyes.
‘D-dammit!’
Each person was given ten arrows, so using one meant having one less. The soldier who had raised Nan San's target was baffled to see two arrows embedded in it. He never thought the legendary scenario would happen to him.
‘Did two people hit my target?’
He ducked back into the trench, determined to prevent Nan San from hitting his target again.
‘I’m absolutely not going to let you shoot. I’ll be a villain and make my target’s movements completely unpredictable. I’ll make sure your arrows miss.’
The soldier racked his brain, trying desperately, desperately, to figure out how to raise the target, where to change position, and how to time it. But the instant he raised the target, the crisp sound of an impact rang out. An arrow struck the center of the target and pierced right through it with such force that if it had hit the soldier, it would have gone through him as well.
The first, second, third, fourth... all the way to the tenth time he raised the target. For the final one, the soldier delayed as long as possible before raising the target in the farthest, most obscure corner.
Thwack, thwack.
Instantly, two more arrows struck the target.
‘Dammit, what is going on? Are you guys cheating? Each person only gets ten arrows, but my target has been hit twelve times! It’s not two people shooting at me, but three? There’s a limit to how much you can bully a person!’
And the kind brother to Nan San's right burst into tears.
‘Dammit!’
A moment later, the target he was supposed to shoot at appeared, but he was out of arrows and could only stare in dismay. Seeing this, all the examiners couldn't help but laugh. To think such an amusing scene would happen again. And this time, twice. The thirteen examiners promptly drew another circle next to Nan San's number.
* * *
Four hours later.
The second stage of the foot archery test was over. This time, anyone who scored less than ten points was eliminated. Of the five hundred and twenty candidates, three hundred and twenty were cut, leaving only two hundred. Some might wonder why the numbers always conveniently ended in a round ten. This was no coincidence. In truth, a total of 206 candidates had scored ten points in the moving target test. The examiners, feeling that the odd number was unsightly, simply failed six of them.
‘Your shooting angle is slightly off. Failed.’
‘Your draw strength is too weak. Failed.’
After two days of examinations, only two hundred of the original three thousand candidates remained. As was customary, tomorrow's mounted archery test would likely eliminate another half. This meant that at most, one hundred people would be left for the final day's test: mounted combat with sabers.
* * *
The third day of the martial examination began. Today's event was mounted archery. The candidates were divided into forty groups of five. For this test, there was a single racecourse. It was about three hundred meters long and ten meters wide. The course was not flat; it undulated with highs and lows and was full of twists and turns. The candidates in each group had to ride their horses to the end of the course within a set time. Along the way, fifty rabbits would appear on either side of the path, forcing the candidates to remain constantly alert. They had to shoot the rabbits with arrows, but each person was only given twenty. The rabbits would appear at random, and the candidates had to shoot them down. Although the rabbits were not numbered, each candidate's arrows were. After the test, the examiners would immediately collect the dead rabbits and check the numbers on the arrows embedded in them.
What if two people shot the same rabbit? The one who hit the rabbit's head would get the credit. What if both arrows hit the head? Then it would be determined by which arrow was closer to the eye. Of course, proctors would be watching the entire process. It was not against the rules for two people to aim and shoot at the same rabbit simultaneously. However, if someone shot a rabbit that was already dead and no longer moving, an X would immediately be marked next to their number, and they would be escorted from the examination grounds.
How long did the mounted archery test last? The gong would sound about ninety times during the test, which translated to roughly one minute and thirty seconds. Within that time, they had to complete the three-hundred-meter course on horseback and shoot the rabbits. If they failed to reach the destination by the time the gongs stopped, they would be considered to have failed, no matter how many rabbits they had shot. Nan San and Nan Wu were once again assigned to the first group.