He took a bow and arrows out of the room.
The bow was made of wood!
The arrows were too, except their tips were metal.
In Zhao Family Village, only the wealthy families in the Zhao clan possessed such arrows.
The other parts of the bow and arrows were common enough, but the bowstring and the metal arrowheads were hard to come by.
That was why archery was considered such a rare skill.
Zhang Cun first demonstrated the technique to Lu Changsheng, then briefly corrected his posture, and finally sat down to rest nearby.
"When learning a craft, the thing to fear most is the master holding something back!"
Lu Changsheng slightly frowned.
Yet, a moment later, he felt a sense of relief.
"There have been some changes! The surprises my golden finger brings me are becoming more and more frequent!"
Right before his eyes—
A new message appeared on the panel.
"Archery: (Formula)"
"Time required for initiation: 2 years"
"Time required for minor accomplishment: 10 years"
"Time required for major accomplishment: 50 years"
"No wonder the panel looked so empty before! It turns out there were things locked away that hadn't been unlocked yet!"
Only—
"Archery is different from the others; my innate bone talent is only at the mediocre level!"
You had to know that his innate bone talent had already received a +1 bonus.
In other words, this body's natural aptitude for archery was actually very poor, perhaps even "inferior," and only became mediocre after the +1 bonus!
"Still, this is a bit absurd!"
"Archery relies more on practice making perfect; two years to get the hang of it is understandable, but ten years for minor accomplishment and fifty years for major accomplishment is going too far!"
Not long after, Lu Changsheng figured out the truth.
"So the time limits determined by these golden fingers aren't fixed right now!"
"Whenever I master some new postures and techniques, the duration changes."
"That means this result has many variables! For example, talent, technique, training time, and so on—as long as these variables change, this time assessment will change too!"
To take an obvious hypothetical example: if Lu Changsheng suddenly broke both his hands, the time required for initiation would reach the limit of his lifespan.
"Alright! That's it for today, remember to bring the dried fish tomorrow!"
Zhang Cun still had his mind set on his dried fish.
Lu Changsheng nodded in agreement and left the courtyard.
A man standing directly across from the door looked at his retreating figure, turned his head, and said to his family, "Look at that? Another poor fool tricked by Cripple Zhang!"
He who has the closest water sees the moon first.
Back then, he hadn't believed it, and had taken his child to knock on Zhang Cun's door, only to end up having Zhang Cun freeload meals at his house for over a month.
And after practicing for more than a month, his child's archery posture looked decent enough, but past five meters the chance of missing the target entirely was extremely high.
Beyond ten meters—well, that was entirely up to the will of heaven!
He had truly been taken for a sucker!
"It's not that bad; who in the village doesn't know about this? In a couple of days, that Lu Erdan will probably lose interest!"
His wife replied.
To her surprise, over the next few days, Lu Changsheng showed up almost every day.
Every two or three days, he would also bring a dried fish with him, causing the nearby villagers to start gossiping.
Sometimes, as Lu Changsheng passed by, he could even hear mocking remarks.
Lu Changsheng paid them no mind and focused entirely on practicing archery.
Ten days later—
"Finally, the timeframe has settled!"
"Archery: (Formula)"
"Time required for initiation: 0.4 years"
"Time required for minor accomplishment: 3 years"
"Time required for major accomplishment: 15 years"
...
"As I suspected, my current training routine can no longer produce variables, which is why the time hasn't changed anymore!"
"Next, I just need to repeatedly practice shooting at the target!"
Over the past half-month, he had constantly explored and experimented, and long since grown confident.
As long as his practice met certain conditions, the required time naturally wouldn't increase!
This also became a driving force for him to push himself.
"As for Zhang Cun, I don't need to go over there anymore either!"
Thinking of Zhang Cun's conflicted expression, Lu Changsheng couldn't help but chuckle.
The old man had wanted to break the pie of "archery" into tiny pieces and feed it to him bit by bit, favoring a slow and steady approach. But Lu Changsheng had his own ways of dealing with it, often asking roundabout questions, which, combined with the implicit threat of cutting off his food supply, frequently gave Zhang Cun an almighty headache.
On the one hand, he didn't want to lose Lu Changsheng as his long-term meal ticket; on the other hand, he worried that teaching him too quickly would make Lu Changsheng less dependent on him.
He was practically driving himself crazy with worry!
Lu Changsheng severing ties with Zhang Cun caused quite a stir, mostly of the "what a pity" variety.
The group of old gossips in the evenings lost a bit of conversation material for after their meals.
However, nobody cared about that for long.
The drought had arrived!
"Dear, how are the fields looking today?"
At the dinner table, Mother Lu asked.
Father Lu shook his head.
"The water in the irrigation ditches has dried up, and so has the riverbed!"
The fields in Zhao Family Village all relied on the nearby river for water.
In previous years, even when the water level was at its lowest, there was always some section of the river where they could draw water, even if it was a bit more troublesome.
Yet this year, it had all dried up at once!
"Sigh~ I wonder what's gotten into this river; the water just stops running whenever it pleases!"
"I heard it has something to do with the war..."
"People from the Zhao family say there are already some refugees appearing in Tonghe Prefecture!"
"Sigh~ If this goes on, life is going to get tough! We don't have much grain left at home, and if we don't get a harvest this time—"
Mother Lu sighed, leaving the rest unsaid.
Lu Changsheng kept his head down and ate.
They didn't have much in the way of side dishes tonight because their dried fish was running low, and the old couple intended to save it for their eldest son Lu Haozi's wedding day.
"We really have Erdan to thank this time!"
Father Lu looked at Lu Changsheng with clear satisfaction in his eyes.
The Lu family were outsiders in Zhao Family Village, and the land they cleared was relatively remote, which not only meant harder labor but also smaller yields.
In this era, it wasn't a lack of land that hurt, but a lack of labor.
Three laborers in the household trying to feed five mouths was already a stretch.
Fortunately, Lu Changsheng had stepped up, instantly making things much easier for the family.
If the river hadn't dried up this year, they definitely could have enjoyed a bountiful year!
Lu Changsheng smiled, feeling a bit helpless.
He had tried several times to correct the old couple's habit of calling him by his childhood nickname, but unfortunately, it hadn't done any good at all.
"Tomorrow, the eldest son will come with me to the middle of the village to get the marriage settled!"
Lu Haozi nodded, his face beaming with joy.
In this day and age, a hot-blooded, impoverished man could only be excited by a woman.
Lu Changsheng stroked the well-behaved Heitu's head and smiled, saying, "When the river water returns next year, I'll catch a few creels of fish for you, Big Brother! And you can give us a few more chubby little nephews!"
"Second Brother, should they be as cute as me?" Heitu tugged at her own cheeks, pulling a cute face.
"Haha!"
The family couldn't help laughing out loud.
Mother Lu put on a stern face and said, "A young lady shouldn't be so mischievous!"
Lu Heitu hurriedly lowered her head.
Father Lu, however, chimed in, "It's fine! She's fine just like this!"
...
Early the next morning, Father Lu and Lu Haozi headed out.
As a woman, Mother Lu wasn't suited to intervene in matters of this kind.
Lu Changsheng practiced archery in an open space outside the courtyard.
Without needing to worry too much about force and precision, clumsily crafted bows and arrows could barely serve some training purpose.
Even so, Lu Changsheng knew that having a proper bow and arrows might have shortened the time required for initiation even further.
The premise of needing 0.4 years for initiation was that a massive amount of time had to be devoted to practice every day.
If this time wasn't met, or if his movements and strength fell short, negative variables would be generated.
Naturally, the time required for initiation would be pushed back accordingly.
In the blink of an eye, evening arrived.
Just as he put away his wooden bow and arrows and headed home, he caught sight of Father Lu and his eldest brother, Lu Haozi.
"That expression—did something go wrong?"
Lu Changsheng's heart sank slightly.
...
Well ~ after much thought, I still feel this rhythm suits the author best. I wonder what you all think? I personally like the pacing where the veil of cultivation is slowly lifted, and the protagonist climbs upward step by step! I wonder how you all like it? Finally, please vote for follow-up readings! If you feel there aren't enough chapters, you can save them up and read them on Monday. My editor says that follow-up reading numbers are counted on Mondays and Sundays, and this will directly impact the author's recommendations! Lastly, thank you all!