The Hidden Myth of Ji Dara

Chapter 61 - Battle Preparations [1] Training

Meanwhile…

Back at the plateau…

Dara was already past opening his right great meridians and strengthening his physical body, and had just begun to unlock his principal meridians when he suddenly gave a heavy sneeze;

Achoo!

"Who could be thinking of me this much!?"

He mumbled before sniffing and wriggling his nose, then he continued cultivating, but just as he closed his eyes, it was as if a cord snapped in his mind as his body shrugged intensely;

"Unh, approaching danger!?"

Dara sensed a foreboding aura descend upon him and though he didn't know where the feeling came from but he knew it was a warning sign and instantly he sprang to his feet, bolted out of the hole and ascended the plateau;

"What happened, why are you breathless?" Uncle Min asked when he saw the frantic Dara;

"I think there is an approaching danger… I don't know how but I can sense it… it's like an uneasy feeling that keeps pestering me…"

"Go get your aunt… I have to put out the ring of fire…"

"Wait, what, why?" Dara fired several back to back questions;

"We need to make them think this place is deserted, that way we can hold the initial ground with the element of surprise…"

"But anyone coming all the way here to get us would definitely know someone is here, and since we didn't know when or how the person found us out, I think we should have the mindset that our surprises have been found out as well…"

"Well- alright, how do you want us to do this…"

Uncle Min realized that his idea was truly flawed and since he couldn't come up with any new ideas, he had to dump it all on Dara;

He didn't know why, but for some reason, he just felt that whatever idea this kid came up with, no matter how insane it might be, it would still yield better result than his, thus, he trusted whatever plan Dara came up with…

"Firstly, how adept are you at archery?"

"On a scale of one to ten, I would say a 6… But your aunt Lin would at least be a ten…"

Dara heard this but wasn't sure if this old man in front of him truly understood the level of archery he was inkling at, thus he decided to give them a test…

"Alright, go get Aunt Lin, I will start making bows and arrows; meet me at the base of the plateau as soon as possible…"

Dara instructed as he hurried down the plateau, as he went to take some of the wood they had managed to mill out of the numerous trees they had fallen earlier…

He had no tools, thus he could only make a simple bow, but since he only had vines around which weren't elastic enough, he opted to make thin flexible bows which could bend well enough to give each of their arrows the momentum they require to hit and at least immobilize their target…

He brought out the little dagger he had with him and began to carve out flexible bows from the wood, and just as he carved out the tenth bow, the Uncle Min and Aunt Lin duo arrived at his position…

"I need ten more of this exact type of bow…"

Dara spoke before they even reached his position before picking up a wooden square bucket beside him and heading for the ring of fire;

"Why do we need all these bows?" Uncle Min asked;

"We don't have an elastic string since we are only stuck with vines, thus I plan on using the bow itself as the flexible part…" Uncle Min nodded, but that still hasn't explained the need for 20 bows;

"Over time, the stress on the bow itself would be too much and snap, so we will need replacements, otherwise we will be sitting ducks against them…"

"Them? Who are the 'them'?"

Aunt Lon asked in a confused manner but Dara didn't even deign her with any response leaving Uncle Min to do that;

"Eight of those bows would be for our archery training, the remaining 12 would be split amongst us; 4 each…" He added;

"They are that many unh?"

Uncle Min muttered and though he was slightly skeptical about the danger Dara claimed to have sensed and was only believing the possibilities that it might be true, but he still decided to make the bows anyways…

If his ominous suspicions turned out to be a simple case of paranoia, then they can simply save the bows for future use; but if it turned out to be true, all the better for them…

Uncle Min had Aunt Lin begin to tie the vines to the bow to make taut bowstrings, whilst he continued with the process of carving out new bows…

Min Hong brought back the wooden square bucket he had taken earlier, and when the duo saw it, they were once again stunned, but Dara simply picked up another wooden square bucket and went straight into the ring of fire to fetch out another bucket full of beast blood…

Then he sat and left the duo to their tasks as he began to carve out thin strips of long sticks which had the girth of a baby's pinky finger, and when Uncle Min saw it, he was once again surprised, though he wanted to tell Dara that the arrows he was carving out were too thin, but was there anything Dara had done so far that didn't turn out good, accurate or to their advantage?

But out of sheer curiosity, he decided to ask;

"Why are you carving such thin arrows, wouldn't they break before they can penetrate to deep?"

"When we are done, you should understand why I made them this way, and if you still don't, then I would explain furtherly..."

"But for now, we still have a lot of work to do and a very little time to do them all…"

Dara added as the do got back to their immediate tasks, and after about four solid hours which brought the entire day to its close, they were finally done…

Though, there was no sunlight descending on the horizon, but since the little natural light they had seemed to be fading more and more plunging them into the darkness, it was a no-brainer to figure out that the dusk was approaching, and this was perfect for what Dara had in mind…

By now they already had twenty bows, about a hundred arrows and then Dara took 80 of these arrows and dipped their sharp edges into the beast blood as he took the remaining 20 clean arrows, buried ten poles on the ground where he had marked several spots on their body using the beast blood…

Dara took the Uncle Min duo to the base of the plateau which about twenty meters from the poles he had buried, but that was not al, then he had them ascend to the top of the plateau before having both of them hit the center of the targets he had marked earlier…

He had Uncle Min go first, and out of ten tries, only two hit the target at its exact spot whilst another two hit the target but not at the exact spot Dara had marked and the others completely missed the target altogether…

Dara had Aunt Lin repeat the entire process, and truly she was much better than her husband since she scored 3 on precise target, another 4 on the log of wood and another three hit the target in other areas, whilst four of them missed her targets altogether…

Then Dara used this little training exercise to rank their archery ability and he scored Uncle Min ten percent whilst Aunt Lin had a 20 percent success rate;

"Where the issues with your archery lies is that; previously you have been very reliant on the force behind the arrow rather than intricate accuracy…"

Dara added as he picked up a bow and arrow, looked towards his target and;

~Suo!~

He fired one arrow in a single fluid motion, and instantly the arrow bolted of his bow as the duo beside him lost sight of the arrows movement and trajectory, but then;

Tack!

The arrow landed on the target, hitting it squarely at bull's eye, then Dara looked up and lectured;

"You didn't account for the humidity and wind speed of the environment, and neither did you account for the weight difference and speed of these new arrows which were utterly different from the ones you were used to practicing or hunting with…"

Dara added before looking at the duo who seemed to be slowly comprehending the angle he was coming from…

Dara had always been fascinated about archery and though he couldn't fire one because he had no cultivation, that didn't stop him from focusing all time into the intricacies, secrets and quirkiness of archery...

Then when one coupled that with the fact that Sam was actually an expert sniper from the military [Though not world class, but wasn't too far off either] it would come as no surprise that Dara was able to hit his target with such great ease and little preparations and little to no visibility;

"I want you both to be able to double your current success rate by noon tomorrow…"

"I will be deep underground cultivating, I also aim to have opened all my meridians by the same time you guys complete your training…"

Dara gave them training routine and target to aim for whilst he returned to his cultivation…

"But we have no arrows left, how do you expect us to keep practicing?"

Aunt Lin asked surprisingly stunned, but Dara simply looked over to Uncle Lin who sighed and nodded;

"No honey, we would have to fetch those ones we have used or carve new ones…"

He said and before Aunt Lin could look back at Min Hong to confirm if that was truly his intention she was greeted by complete silence which stunned her greatly, because the Dara she had just spoken to in less than five seconds ago was nowhere to be found…

Dara left them to their training and went to continue his, and though he had made the little preparations he could make for the time being, the feeling of danger that woke him from cultivation only grew ever closer and stronger as the time passed, and Dara began to feel really unsettled because he wasn't sure if the preparation they've made would be enough and he was also thinking about the duo practicing archery should in case they had to flee for their lives…