Qi Yuansi had originally been sitting with his back to the field, resting his feet while preserving his dignity: “It’s fine, Ye Shiba can’t do archery. Even with friends helping, he’ll still be at the bottom…”

Before he finished speaking, he heard exclamations. Standing up to look, he froze by the railing.

He felt the toilet beckoning to him.

After his vision went black for a moment, he mumbled: “Maybe it’s just good horsemanship… Besides, what’s he doing entering the field alone?”

Everyone was stunned to see her enter the field alone, all quite puzzled.

Dan Ye jumped up: “What! What! Why aren’t you letting us on? Is she planning to play hero alone?”

He was about to spur his horse.

A hand grabbed his reins – seemingly light, but Dan Ye’s famous steed from beyond the borders had muscles rolling all over its body yet couldn’t advance a single step.

Dan Ye angrily turned back, meeting Rong Wei’s eternally smiling eyes. He wound the reins around his hand and smoothly patted Dan Ye’s dog head: “Have a bit more trust in your classmate, hmm?”

Rong Pu stood quietly to the side holding his umbrella, smiling at Dan Ye: “Wolf Lord, go ahead.”

Seeing his seemingly sincere but actually malicious smile, Dan Ye vaguely understood something but felt something was off, becoming even more stifled.

But at this moment, the field erupted in exclamations.

Tie Ci bent low in her gallop, the steed trailing a straight gray line behind her. Just as she was about to reach the targets, she suddenly crouched down and disappeared.

People from another angle cried out – they saw Tie Ci suddenly flip over, hanging herself on the side of her horse, facing the nearest batch of targets. In that half-hanging position, she lowered her body, raised her arm, took an arrow, drew the bow, and shot.

All in one fluid motion.

The arrow flew like lightning, carrying wind and thunder, but the crowd’s exclamations already contained regret.

Tie Ci’s position was too low – even if she hit, it wouldn’t count as hitting the target.

Why was she wasting arrows like this?

Someone sighed: “As expected, someone who can’t shoot arrows, yet still wants to show off.”

“Yes, yes, so flashy.”

Qi Yuansi sneered again, shook his head, and sat back down.

In the blink of an eye, there was a soft crack as the arrowhead pierced diagonally through the target’s edge, simultaneously passing through the vertical post behind the target.

The heavy and massive force directly sent the target flying toward the opposite wall!

The enclosed field was roped off on three sides, but one side was the wall of the Teaching Hall.

With a thud, the heavy arrow embedded in the wall, firmly fixing that target to the wall!

“…”

Qi Yuansi stood up abruptly again.

Exclamations rolled over like waves.

Ye Shiba’s archery wasn’t lacking in skill at all!

It was too skilled!

They’d seen all kinds of fancy archery, but never such arrogant, strange, yet domineering shooting!

Tie Ci’s hands never stopped. She galloped wildly, maintaining that somewhat strange bottom-up shooting angle as she rode along that row of targets.

The steed galloped madly, her body rising and falling constantly, yet her arms were like cast iron. She could even take advantage of her body’s motion to shoot arrows, her long hair undulating like black waves in the wind.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh.

Lightning crossed the long sky, wild rain arose from horizontal clouds.

Targets were uprooted one by one, flying through the air to embed in the wall.

Tie Ci circled the field once, and all the hardest-to-hit targets in the center section were “transplanted” by her to the wall in a neat row.

By the end, the exclamations had ceased, everyone staring in shock at that gradually forming wall of targets.

Most people now understood Tie Ci’s thinking and were even more amazed by such ingenious planning.

Dan Ye’s eyes blazed brightly, applauding vigorously for someone else for the first time: “Amazing! Almost as good as me!”

Huyin snorted: “Stop boasting.”

Dan Ye stroked his chin, grinning quietly: “Looking at it this way, my father really isn’t worthy of her.”

Huyin said: “You dare, randomly, give brother-in-law, concubines, I’ll castrate, you.”

Rong Pu watched quietly under his umbrella, the shade cool all around, only the flowing cloud jade hairpin in his black hair glimmering slightly.

The family guard beside him said in a low voice: “Though the arrows the young master provided were specially made – the arrowheads covered with skin so they wouldn’t shatter on first penetration, with the thin skin disappearing after penetration to restore sharpness for wall entry – one could say you assisted greatly. But these arrows, this scheming… still remarkable.”

“Rare to see master praise someone so much. Can’t master do it too?”

The guard shook his head frankly: “I cannot. For me to shoot heavy arrows through targets then through posts would be easy – many in this world could do that, but the posts would completely shatter. To shoot through and carry the post, successfully embedding in the wall, requires extremely precise angle calculation to ensure the target flies up diagonally after being hit, using that force to pull the target post out. Never mind how one thinks of such ingenuity – more importantly, as target positions change, she must recalculate each time to arrange them neatly in a row… and these calculations are done while galloping… I truly cannot imagine what kind of person in this world could do this.”

There were those who could calculate, those who could shoot arrows, but those proficient in both were rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

Moreover, such calculations – Great Qian didn’t even have such knowledge currently.

Rong Pu smiled: “Others cannot, but she can.”

The guard was silent for a while, then said: “Young master, the master asked this old servant to tell you: assisting His Highness is proper, but His Highness has lofty ambitions and a heart deep as an abyss. What he can endure and be ruthless about far exceeds the current emperor. Young master should only serve in a subject’s position, not think one bit more or act one step further.”

Rong Pu lowered his head slightly to listen, then after a moment of silence smiled: “Since father and grandfather know His Highness is difficult to control, why do they still fantasize about guiding His Highness forward?”

The guard didn’t answer – this wasn’t something he could answer. But Rong Pu answered himself: “Because they’re arrogant. Because they want too much. But I’m different. I, I like…”

He paused, looking toward Tie Ci with a gentle smile.

“I like convincing people with reason, winning people with virtue, moving people with sincerity, winning people’s hearts with… heart.”

Rong Wei sat on his horse, staring at Tie Ci’s back, suddenly saying to someone beside him: “What do you think – if seeing someone makes your gaze involuntarily revolve around them all day, you want to tell them any idle talk first, you want to share any good food with them, you constantly feel they’re extraordinarily outstanding, glowing all over… why is that?”

“Why?” The person beside him scratched his head, saying foolishly: “Because you like her!”

Rong Wei was silent for a while, then said: “What if that person is a man?”

Suddenly someone interrupted, shocked: “Ah, master, you like men? You’re cut-sleeve?!”

Rong Wei turned back to see the straightforward Tian Wu and Little Round Face winking as if he’d heard big news.

He chuckled and raised his riding whip.

Little Round Face whipped Tian Wu’s horse’s rump and escaped the demon’s claws together with him.

Leaving Rong Wei alone on his horse, suddenly becoming somewhat dazed.

Having lived eighteen years, he’d been both male and female, had both male and female pursuers, but deep in his heart, he’d never confused his own gender.

He was a man, a guy, morning wood pointing skyward, loving fertile soil and rich fields.

Yet unexpectedly, at eighteen’s tail end, he suddenly discovered he was actually cut-sleeve.

I. Am. Actually. Cut-sleeve.

Rong Wei took a breath, his worldview instantly collapsing.

Suddenly he didn’t recognize himself.

This chaotic mood should have been difficult to sort out, but when he saw Tie Ci spurring her horse toward him, he suddenly became calm.

Look, that person galloping over there, with high bow and feathered arrows, wearing the evening glow like a garment – all the world’s beauties and charms combined couldn’t match his heroic bearing.

Like jade on the roadside, a young master unparalleled in the world.

Did it matter whether male or female?

It mattered.

But still, he was somewhat… reluctant to let go!

…

No one knew of the corner conversation, and no one knew of someone’s inner shock and struggle. In the field, Tie Ci didn’t even glance at those two, turning back to call out loudly.

“You can come in now! Li Zhi! Tian Wu! Wei Xuan! Cui Shi! Little Round Face! You shoot that row of fixed targets!”

No choice – she still didn’t know Little Round Face’s name.

She wasn’t confident in these people’s archery, so the fixed targets were prepared for them. This way they didn’t need to ride around, reducing pressure on others too.

Even better, she’d chosen targets closest to the wall, so the range was very short – the kind you could hit with eyes closed.

So even if any of these people wanted to cause trouble, it would be hard to do.

This move was truly brilliant. Little Round Face raised his bow, rushing in excitedly, laughing loudly from afar: “Eighteen, how did you know my nickname was Little Round!”

Tie Ci: …Oh, what a coincidence.

Someone from Senior Student Mu’s group was shouting loudly: “This isn’t fair! This is cheating! Who allowed you to move targets!”

“I was just shooting arrows,” Tie Ci said. “Following rules is also academy regulation. Which rule did I violate in the earlier guidelines? Since I violated none, you can shut up.”

She returned Senior Student Mu’s earlier words exactly, making his face iron-blue. Senior Student Mu’s gaze swept over, fire dancing in his eyes, both violent and sinister.

Hoofbeats sounded in the martial field.

With Tie Ci paving the way, the rest was basically without suspense. Those five shot with eyes closed. Cui Shi’s first arrow missed the target. Wei Xuan glanced at him, moved beside him, closed her eyes and shot – bull’s eye.

Everyone cheered, purely out of praise for the beauty.

Wei Xuan raised her bow, looking at Cui Shi.

Cui Shi’s face alternated between red and white under her gaze. Reluctantly, he drew his bow and shot again – this time hitting the bull’s eye.

Only then did Wei Xuan shoot her second arrow.

Unlike the stable yet undercurrent-filled archery here, Tie Ci’s side was turbulent with wind and clouds, pursuit and chase – not like archery but like hunting.

Horses shuttled between targets like meteors, arrows crisscrossed like a giant net. Most chose different entry points, each occupying a corner, calculating angles, selecting suitable targets, naturally avoiding teammates.

Though there were many targets in the field, most were used to obstruct galloping as obstacles. Many angles weren’t suitable for archery – everyone’s targets generally concentrated in the four corners.

True horsemanship, archery, and even computational ability were displayed at this moment. Though Dan Ye knew nothing about arithmetic, he’d grown up on horseback, learning to draw a bow before learning chopsticks, having beast-like archery instincts.

Wei Xing also hadn’t studied arithmetic, but when the gods close one door, they surely open another window. His judgment of angles and positions was extremely accurate, his archery like tiger roars and dragon songs, swift as meteors. The outside scholars looked at each other in amazement, never expecting that famous fool to have such archery skills. Those who’d bullied him before couldn’t help shrinking back.

Rong Wei’s arrows only counted as half, but he shot extremely fast – so fast the bowstring resonated continuously like music. He didn’t stay close to Tie Ci, always occupying her diagonal position – a direction where one might accidentally shoot Tie Ci. With him occupying it alone, though his arrows were fast, not one fell near Tie Ci.

Dan Ye had another style, closely following Tie Ci wherever she went, shooting whichever target she shot. When Tie Ci found him annoying and shot a target full of arrows, he forcibly split Tie Ci’s arrow to claim a position.

Tie Ci felt this behavior was like a little dog lifting its leg to pee by a tree, marking territory.

Outside the field, Senior Student Mu’s gaze moved from Rong Wei, glanced at those targets, his expression dark, nodding to someone behind him.

That person quietly walked away.

Half an incense stick’s time remained before the end.

The field was already settled – Tie Ci would win steadily.

Everyone’s arrows were basically empty, only Tie Ci and Rong Wei each keeping one arrow.

Tie Ci’s habit was to always keep something in reserve. But she didn’t know why Rong Wei was doing the same.

Tie Ci galloped back, but at this moment sensed something wrong. Looking up, she saw someone on the Teaching Hall’s second floor at the railing facing the martial field, holding something huge.

She immediately spurred her horse toward them.

At this moment she was passing Li Zhi, whose horse suddenly neighed and jumped backward. It looked like it would crash into Tie Ci – if they collided, Li Zhi would certainly fall from his horse. Reluctantly, Tie Ci had to support him.

While Rong Wei and others were too far away to reach in time.

When Tie Ci rode around Li Zhi’s horse head, that person loosened his grip, dropping something with a thunderous crash.

It was a ceramic stool.

When Tie Ci arrived, she saw the shattered target revealed under the ceramic fragments.

She looked up – a figure flashed upstairs and disappeared.

She couldn’t see the face, everyone wore the same clothes, so there was no way to find them.

Tie Ci had already counted arrows earlier. Rong Wei’s arrows numbered only fifteen, total 285 arrows, 282 on target. Except for Cui Shi’s one missed arrow and the three arrows she and Rong Wei kept, everything else hit targets.

She didn’t know how many arrows were on the shattered target. As Tie Ci prepared to count again, Wei Xing said: “268 arrows.”

This referred to the remaining count.

Adding the two remaining arrows, it was still one arrow fewer than Senior Student Mu’s team.

People outside were already cursing indignantly.

Tie Ci’s heart sank.

She rushed to the ceramic stool, moving it aside, hoping for unbroken arrows. Who knew the ceramic stool actually contained pig iron, incredibly heavy, completely pulverizing those arrows.