Chapter 166: Black Bow
Needless to say, Liam dropped everything he was doing, his very brain taking the shape of the bow he hoped to obtain.
Luckily, Liam was basically done sorting out the clutter, so he sealed his cave and hurried after the stern, muscular figure who had already departed.
The second plateau was right ahead, so Liam soon spotted two wooden dummies and other familiar details, as well as many unfamiliar ones, even when it ca to the forr.
The Disciplinary Elder was at the plateau’s center, standing next to a wooden stand with a long, rectangular tal container resting on it.
So of the faces Liam had seen during the triumphant climb through the Sect were there. Joel and four other rooting experts stood by the plateau’s wall, their expectant gazes following Liam.
Lastly, lissa stood next to a dummy, her expression as detached as always, only sparing Liam a glance before resuming her dutiful stance toward the Disciplinary Elder.
Much about the scene was surprising, from the unlikely audience to what the rectangular promised to hold. Yet, Liam frowned when sothing even stranger stood out.
For so reason, lissa and her imdiate surroundings looked brighter, featuring more vivid colors that put the rest of the world to sha. Liam thought sothing was wrong with his eyes, but rubbing them didn’t change anything.
’This illness is so strange,’ Liam thought. He had never heard of anything so insidious yet powerful. It was as if he had been poisoned or cursed.
Yet, Liam’s quite dramatic gesture earned him an additional empty look from lissa, and the illness suddenly felt worth his emotional distress.
The scene triggered a chuckle from the rooting experts, obviously coming from Joel, but Liam soon found sothing else to focus on. His eyes even lit up in excitent, fueling an expression that couldn’t have been more evident.
"Disciple Liam," The Disciplinary Elder announced now that Liam was looking in the right direction, placing a hand on the tal container. "The Pale Moon Sect awarded you the honor of attempting to ta one of its most valuable treasures."
The peculiar wording didn’t escape Liam’s ears, but everything paled before the following scene. The Elder lifted the container’s lid, uncovering the most beautiful sight in the world, at least for Liam.
"This is the Black Bow," The Elder declared, "For its maker wanted nothing to do with the flatteries of the cultivation world."
Liam imdiately picked up the weapon resting on soft, dark fabric. It was unmistakably a bow, albeit an incredibly simple, almost barren, one.
The bow didn’t even attempt to feature the fanciness of Maxwell’s weapon. It was a slim, curved tal slab with a similarly black string and nothing else.
Even the usual inscriptions were absent. The bow’s surface couldn’t be smoother, but the unmistakable Qi of a rank 2 item reeked from it.
’A rank 2 weapon,’ Liam gasped internally, wielding the bow as if it were the most precious item in the world, even talking to it. ’You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life.’
The idea that the Sect had robbed Liam of his efforts vanished from his mind. He had finally reunited with a bow, so everything was right with the world.
’Can I bind it?’ Liam wondered, his bright gaze snapping at the Elder. "Please, Disciplinary Elder, tell
that I can bind it."
It was lissa’s ti to experience the drawbacks of the insidious illness now. The happiness Liam radiated couldn’t be more evident, even featuring a face she had never seen on him.
Of all the things lissa could be jealous of, she had never expected her first contender for Liam’s affection to be a bow, nor that she would feel so outclassed against it.
After all, despite all the touches, hugs, and kisses, lissa had never made Liam wear such a face. Part of her even believed other won would have been far easier to handle.
While lissa concocted ways to beco the target of that happy face, the Disciplinary Elder addressed the question, choosing to feel pleased rather than angry at the rude excitent Liam had shown.
"The Black Bow doesn’t care for Qi’s quality," The Elder explained. "Anyone can bind it as long as you surpass its test."
"Disciplinary Elder, what test?" Liam asked, seemingly on the verge of exploding due to the rising eagerness inside his brain.
"You’ll see as you attempt the binding," The Elder said, nodding at the ground. "Few in the Pale Moon Sect’s history have succeeded in owning the Black Bow. Disciple Liam, I hope your Brothers and Sisters’ curiosity won’t affect your performance."
Liam barely heard those last words. His brain had stopped recording the outside world at the nod, so he sat down and placed the bow on his crossed legs, already filling a drop of his blood with his awareness and letting it fall on the weapon.
Still, instead of facing the usual opposition, Liam felt his awareness sucked in, drawn inside the very bow until the world transford.
Liam suddenly found himself surrounded by dim darkness. The place was empty, even lacking ground or sky, reminding him of his dream-like experience when he awakened his core.
Yet, sothing other than the opposite shades was different now. Liam looked at himself, only to see that he had also turned black, his figure nothing more than a featureless shadow.
The shape of a simple bow rested in Liam’s left hand, an arrow already nocked in its string. He promptly put the weapon in his right, the gesture revealing the absence of sothing else.
After spending months on end with Qi accompanying Liam’s every breath, he now had none of it.
Sothing brightened, distracting Liam from that now-unnatural absence. A small white sphere appeared in the dim darkness at so distance ahead, slowly moving left and right.
"Hit targets until there are no more targets," An elderly voice resounded through the darkness, echoing for a few seconds.
’Is this what the test is about?’ Liam wondered, aiming the bow at the moving sphere, firing the nocked arrow before a full second could pass.
The dark arrow didn’t whistle but hit the white sphere dead center, making it disappear, only for two more to replace it. The new targets now moved in opposite directions, seemingly circling Liam.
Liam glanced at the bow, noticing that another arrow had magically materialized, and his left hand promptly pulled on its string to release it.
The arrow hit the sphere moving to Liam’s left, dispersing it. Nothing replaced it, but that changed when Liam fired at the second, piercing it, too, with the just-materialized bolt.
Instead of complete darkness, four spheres appeared now, each moving in different directions. They even looked smaller than the previous ones, but Liam wasted no ti inspecting them to pull the string again.
If the assignnt was so simple, Liam could avoid thinking complicated stuff and focus on what he did best.
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