Daqin Zhentiansi

Chapter 1110 The Sandalwood Bone Bow is Forged, and Three Blood Essences Transform into War Beasts

Tuoba Gu remained silent for a moment, then slowly bent down with his hands on the table and bowed to Zhang Yuan.

He didn't ask any more questions.

People who have dedicated their lives to a craft share a common trait: when they see something genuine, they don't ask about its origin, but first and foremost respect the craftsmanship.

The old man straightened up, turned his head and shouted towards the door, "Amu! Bring me my sandalwood stick!"

A moment later, Amu ran into the house carrying a piece of sandalwood as thick as an arm.

Tuoba Gu took the wood and then a brand new black-maned beast spine, placing the wood and the beast bone together in front of Zhang Yuan.

"The bow is made of sandalwood, with animal bone attached to the outside, making it soft on the inside and strong on the outside. This is the sandalwood bow passed down from our Baishuang clan."

His voice trembled slightly, but his hands remained steady.

"Four battle patterns are engraved on the bow arm, the bowstring is made from the hind leg sinew of a black-maned beast, and the arrow shaft is made from the tail feathers of an iron-feathered eagle. Senior, I would like to ask you to engrave these patterns on this bow."

Zhang Yuan did not refuse, picked up the carving knife, and lowered his head again.

That night, the lights in Tuoba Gu's house remained on.

The hunters in the village lined up outside the gate, and whoever was in line would hand in their bone bow.

Zhang Yuan sat at the table, carving one piece at a time.

He didn't speak, but simply carved the same four lines on each bow arm.

The sound of the carving knife slicing across the bone was fine and even, echoing from nightfall until dawn.

The next morning, at the archery testing ground outside the stockade wall, Tuoba Tie held up the newly made sandalwood bow and drew the bowstring taut.

The four battle patterns on the bow arm lit up simultaneously, and the golden and red light flowed along the bone patterns, making the entire bow look like a branding iron.

A bone arrow was nocked on the bowstring, its arrowhead made from the claw tip of a demon-patterned leopard, also engraved with armor-piercing patterns.

Tuoba Tie aimed at the test stone a hundred paces away and released his grip.

"Om-"

The moment the bone arrow left the bowstring, the four battle runes on the bow arm suddenly contracted, absorbing all the surrounding spiritual energy into the bow arm and then pouring it all into the arrow.

"boom--"

The arrow pierced the air, producing a piercing sonic boom, and a faint golden halo appeared on its shaft.

A hundred steps is covered in the blink of an eye.

The bone arrow was driven into the center of the test stone, its tip piercing the stone surface and disappearing into the fletching.

After a brief pause, the remaining force on the arrow exploded within the stone core.

Spiderweb-like cracks spread outwards from the arrow hole, splitting the entire piece of bluestone into five pieces.

Tuoba Tie remained in the same posture as when he released the arrow, the bowstring still vibrating.

The hunters behind him were completely silent.

Some people had their mouths open but forgot to close them, and some didn't even notice that their bone knives had fallen to the ground.

The phrase "a hundred paces pierce a stone" doesn't mean piercing a wooden board or leather armor; it means piercing a test stone that is half a person's thickness.

Tuoba Gu stood on the sidelines, leaning on his cane. He looked at the shattered bluestone, then looked down at his calloused hands, and let out a long breath.

That tone carried the regret accumulated over decades, and the relief of finally letting go.

————————————————————

time flies.

In just three months, the village has undergone a complete transformation.

Zhang Yuan stood on the stockade wall, looking down at the drill ground where the troops were training.

The small village, originally built against the mountain, was expanded into a three-story camp.

The outer walls of the stockade were raised, and every ten steps on the walls were set up with arrow slings, behind which were newly made sandalwood bows.

Two arrow towers stood on either side of the gate, and guards were stationed in the towers day and night.

The mountain valley behind the village was converted into a training ground that can accommodate 3,000 people to practice at the same time.

A row of weapon workshops was built along the field, with furnaces burning day and night, and the clanging of forging echoing from dawn till dusk. Tuoba Tie spent half a month in the workshops, practicing on bones with a few young hunters.

Nowadays, the hunters in the village can split open the leg bones of the demon-patterned leopard, remove the hardest core bone, and polish it into the shape of a three-edged arrowhead.

The arrowheads are engraved with armor-piercing patterns, and when combined with the sandalwood bow, they can pierce three layers of rhinoceros hide within a hundred paces.

Tuoba Gu's eyesight was not as good as before, but he took in six apprentices, the oldest of whom was only in his early twenties.

Zhang Yuan helped him reorganize the tattered book passed down from his ancestors, completing the twelve lost battle pattern diagrams.

Tuoba Gu wrapped the picture book in animal hide and placed it in a wooden box by his bedside. Every night before going to sleep, he would touch it to make sure it was still there.

During the day, he would sit at the entrance of the workshop, and his apprentices would bring him the carved bow arms to touch.

The old man's fingertips were more accurate than his eyes; he would frown when he touched something wrong and nod when he touched something good.

The village's population has expanded from over three thousand to nearly ten thousand.

Several small tribes scattered by the monsters heard that the White Frost Remnant Clan had hunted twenty-three Black Mane Beasts and that the village could forge armor-piercing arrows and sandalwood bows, so they brought their families to seek refuge there.

Tuoba Yan accepted all who came and incorporated them into his village.

His only standard is that one must be able to endure hardship and obey orders.

Zhang Yuan selected three thousand people from those nearly ten thousand.

Among the three thousand people were hunters from the Bai Shuang clan and wanderers from the neighboring mountains.

There were stragglers who escaped after their tribe was wiped out by monsters.

Tuoba Shan was in charge of leading these new recruits. Every morning before dawn, he would stand on the training ground and call out names one by one. If anyone was missing, he would personally go to the barracks and lift the blankets off them.

He was not old, but he already had some prestige in the village.

Even the older hunters, who were a generation older than him, would unconsciously straighten their backs when he walked by.

Zhang Yuan taught them a wide variety of things.

The standard fist technique for infantry combat in the Qin army: the Cloak Fist.

Armored legs that specialize in attacking the lower body.

Combined with the rapid-fire technique of the Tan Gu Bow.

There are also the Seven-Person Pin Formation, the Twenty-One-Person Linked Formation, and the Hundred-Person Arrowhead Formation.

From collaboration at the smallest unit to a scale of hundreds of people, it goes up layer by layer.

The seven-person formation is the most basic.

Two men in the front row, armed with heavy weapons, faced the enemy head-on; three men in the middle row, armed with spears, attacked from the gaps; and two men in the back row, armed with crossbows, protected the flanks.

The seven hunters, through practice, were eventually able to change formations three times within ten breaths.

The front becomes the flank, the flank becomes the flanking maneuver, and the flanking maneuver becomes the encirclement.

Tuoba Tiedai's seven-man team was the most skilled.

Once, while hunting monsters in the mountains, they encountered an armored bear three times the size of an ordinary black-maned beast.

The seven men took a bear's paw head-on, but their formation didn't break. Instead, they lured the bear into their encirclement and stabbed it three times from the flank.

……

Zhang Yuan stood at the edge of the training ground, watching three thousand people practice simultaneously.

The sound of weapons clashing shook the ground.

Tuoba Tie's team was practicing formation changes, Tuoba Shan was leading the new recruits in practicing the Cloak Fist, and Ayan was leading the archers in practicing rapid shooting.

Everyone was moving, and everyone's position was perfectly aligned.

Then he saw the wisp of air.

At first, it was a faint wisp, like the heat wave above a campfire, slightly distorted above the queue.

As the pace of the drills quickened, the wisp of energy grew denser and denser, changing from light gray to dark gray, and from formless to tangible.

The life force of three thousand men began to resonate under the pull of the battle formation. (End of Chapter)