Chapter 611
Chapter 611
Another month passed. Grandmaster Nando could now stand on his own two feet and walk, albeit with great difficulty. He officially took charge of the Second Nirvana Army, becoming its chief instructor. But there was no need to lecture or incite them. Over the past two months, he seemed to have completely integrated with the Nirvana Army. He led the three thousand-some members of the Nirvana Army to the beach.
“An ordinary elite soldier aims with his sight, but a master archer shoots with his mind and senses. This isn't some profound or nonsensical statement. You are more than capable of this. Because whatever you do, you focus to the extreme, pushing yourselves to the limit. The reason a master archer doesn't emerge from one in a hundred, or even one in a thousand, ordinary soldiers is their lack of focus. You have sufficient focus, sensitivity, and agility! But that alone is not enough. Far from it.
A master archer must not only hit the enemy but also detect the enemy and sense danger! You can fight as a force of over three thousand, and you can fight as a force of three hundred. But you must also be able to fight when only three of you remain. For a long time to come, I will teach you an ancient mental cultivation technique. This secret art will drastically improve your mental strength and perception!
Once you master it, time will feel as if it's slowing down, and great distances will seem shorter, expanding the range of your perception. Before learning this technique, you must experience the sensation of nearly suffocating to death. This is because you must enter a special mental state! All of you, get in the water, and no one comes out without my command! Experience what it feels like to be on the verge of suffocating! Get in!”
As soon as Nando gave the order, all three thousand eight hundred men entered the sea and held their breath. Just before passing out from oxygen deprivation after holding one's breath to a certain point, a person enters a very special state. A state where you feel like you're the only one in the world, and everything around you is completely silent. As this state progresses, you can even hear your own heartbeat and the sound of your blood flowing. And so, Grandmaster Nando relentlessly pushed the Nirvana Army, making them hold their breath to the absolute limit. Each time, they stayed underwater longer, and a full fortnight after beginning the breath-holding training, they started learning the ancient mental cultivation technique. Shen Lang watched the entire process, trembling with worry that the Nirvana Army might actually drown in the sea.
* * *
Another fortnight passed. Grandmaster Nando could now walk without hindrance, and about seventy percent of the function in his hands had returned. The Second Nirvana Army finally began to learn archery. It had not been easy. Before their bloodlines were modified, they had studied archery theory for over two months, to the point where they could recite it flawlessly. After their bloodlines were transformed, they trained like madmen for over three months, drawing their bowstrings hundreds of thousands of times, yet they had never actually fired an arrow. It had reached a point where every member of the Second Nirvana Army dreamed of shooting countless arrows almost every night, and today, they could finally do it! They immediately took up their two-dan heavy bows and shot at a distance of two hundred and thirty meters.
‘Shoot, shoot, shoot!’
Their results were, of course, terrible. Even in the Olympics, they shoot from only seventy meters; two hundred and thirty meters was a despair-inducing distance. It was a distance beyond human control. The slightest gust of wind, the smallest error in the angle of release, or factors like gravity were enough to send an arrow astray. Two hundred and thirty meters was the effective killing range of a two-dan super-heavy bow. That was why Grandmaster Nando had set the shooting distance as such.
This was a training method of tackling the most difficult task first, then gradually reducing the difficulty. Moreover, there was no specific training goal other than to keep shooting; hitting the target from this distance was victory in itself. An ordinary person would go mad from such extremely dry and seemingly pointless training. But the Nirvana Army was different. They could tilt their heads back and watch the clouds for over ten hours without moving a muscle. Such extreme focus allowed them to undergo this training tirelessly and with enjoyment, and they did not consider shooting from such an astonishing distance to be a pointless endeavor.
After hundreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of shots, the knowledge they had acquired finally connected with practice. They came to understand wind force and gravity, and even how the fletching of an arrow affected its trajectory. They even began to grind their own arrowheads from stone and trim the fletchings to craft the most suitable arrows for themselves.
Li Qianqiu had witnessed the miracle of the First Nirvana Army firsthand, but he had not seen their training process. Thus, in his mind, the First Nirvana Army remained an inexplicable miracle. To go from rejects to a top elite force in just four months. But now, having witnessed the entire process with the Second Nirvana Army, Li Qianqiu felt that while it was a miracle, it was also not a miracle.
Their training period was short, only three or four months, but the intensity was pushed to the absolute limit. In terms of sheer volume, they did more training in four months than a regular army would in three years. Add to that their superior concentration, born from their innate bloodline—how could they not become strong? It was both a miracle and a result of blood and sweat. Their becoming strong was an entirely natural outcome.
After hundreds of thousands of shots, the Second Nirvana Army could finally hit targets from over two hundred meters away, but that was still not enough. Grandmaster Nando took them to the sea again, ordering them to stand firm amidst the furiously surging waves during high tide. The three thousand men aimed and shot as the tide rolled in. When a massive wave crashed down, it was impossible to even stand properly, let alone aim and shoot. Yet, they practiced archery every day as the tide came in.
Furthermore, when a storm showed signs of brewing, Nando cheered, “Marvelous, simply marvelous.” He had the Second Nirvana Army practice shooting in the howling wind. The point wasn't to hit the target, but for them to experience the difficulty of shooting in a downpour. They also practiced shooting from trees, while running like mad, and in all sorts of other harsh conditions, but they never practiced volley fire.
This area was too confined to line up warhorses, and besides, upon entering the battlefields of the Southern Vulture Kingdom, there would be many places where cavalry could not fight. This was precisely why the State of Jiang held a grudge against the Four Barbarian Tribes but could do nothing about them. Because about half of the southern lands where the Four Barbarian Tribes lived consisted of high mountains and dense jungles, where the State of Jiang's main cavalry force could not line up and charge.
* * *
The Second Nirvana Army's training progressed furiously, and the muscles and tendons in Grandmaster Nando's limbs were recovering more smoothly than expected. Although he couldn't recover his martial arts, he could climb mountains, dive into the sea, and even run. With this, he changed completely. The old child who used to throw tantrums and act stubborn was gone, replaced by a cold and stern figure. In any case, he displayed the peak level of pomposity a grandmaster could show. Even without his martial arts, his grandmasterly airs had exploded forth.
Conversely, the Sword King Li Qianqiu, a true grandmaster, had started to look more and more like an old farmer ever since his wife began to recover. The air of a peerless master he sometimes showed before was now nowhere to be found. The current Grandmaster Nando had become someone no one dared to cross. Like a tyrant, he never repeated himself, and no one could question his words. Lady Qiu whispered quietly.
“That old man is so happy he's putting on airs. It's true. Even when his martial arts were at their peak, he was just magnanimous, not pompous like this.”
Shen Lang understood his feelings well. Having become half-paralyzed, Grandmaster Nando had given up on himself and was just waiting to die. Now that his limbs had recovered enough to move but his martial arts had not, Nando felt inadequate and was trying to compensate for his lack of martial skill by putting on airs. He wanted to appear grand to make up for his previous tantrums, acting all the more severe to cover up how unsightly he had been. He would maintain this stern facade until everyone forgot the time he had acted so disgracefully.
It was normal behavior. When a rich man goes bankrupt, he becomes even more concerned with his image than before, decking himself out in luxury brands and cruising the streets in a Rolls-Royce. It's the mindset that he can't let his image crumble, no matter what.
Two days ago, Grandmaster Nando had secretly come to see Shen Lang. He had come to ask what foods he should eat to make his hair grow back, and if possible, to make it black again. Grandmaster Nando had decided that his sparse, balding head was the biggest obstacle to his posturing. Shen Lang gave him a prescription, but no one knew if it would be effective. Hair loss and baldness were already a global challenge, a problem that even the advanced science of modern Earth couldn't solve. How could Shen Lang possibly fix it? If Grandmaster Nando's condition was acute hair loss due to malnutrition, Shen Lang's prescription might help his hair grow back. But if it was common baldness, even with the prescription... hmm...
* * *
How quickly the days fly by when there's no time to be smug! Before he knew it, four months had passed. The Second Nirvana Army had become incredibly strong; in Shen Lang's eyes, they seemed to have risen completely. But Grandmaster Nando insisted at every turn that they were still not good enough, that they still had a long way to go. There was nothing to be done. The old man was in his peak state of pomposity, so he couldn't be crossed; everything had to be done his way.
However, Shen Lang had to leave the island before the army was complete. Mulan's due date was fast approaching. Shen Lang regretted not being by Bing'er's side when she gave birth last time. So this time, he was determined to be with Mulan when she had their baby. Shen Lang had to bid farewell to the Sword King's wife, Lady Qiu, and Grandmaster Nando. Because Grandmaster Nando's martial arts had not recovered, a peerless master needed to stay behind and guard the place. Lady Qiu and Li Qianqiu drew lots, and Lady Qiu was chosen to stay. Before Shen Lang left, Lady Qiu suddenly spoke.
“Shen Lang, wait a moment. Follow me.”
Shen Lang was a little surprised, but he followed Lady Qiu into her room. Lady Qiu hesitated for a long time before removing the veil that covered her face.
“Little Lang, do you think I can show this face of mine to others? Can I show it to Yiqiu?”