'Player Yuan's friend?' The guards looked at each other with weird looks on their faces.
They figured Player Yuan was the type to not have any friends due to how he played Cultivation Online and how seclusive he appears, so it was quite a surprise to learn that he actually had friends.
"Umm… I'm sorry, but you're going to have to wait a while since we don't know Player Yuan's location at the moment." The guard said to them.
"We'll go ask around to see if anybody knows of his location. In the meantime, you can wait inside the guest room."
Lady Chu put on a pondering face for a moment before speaking, "I don't really like sitting around doing nothing, so can I ask to follow you to ask around? I'd like to see the renowned Jaded Garden while I am at it if you don't mind."
"O-Of course, you can follow us if you want!" The guard immediately agreed, as he couldn't resist the temptation of walking around with a beauty by his side.
"Great! Thank you in advance!"
However, there was a problem.
The guards exchanged glances once again.
The next second, they all turned to look at Lady Chu and shouted simultaneously, "Allow me to take you around!"
Indeed, the problem was who would be the one to take Lady Chu to find Player Yuan?
There were four of them, and it would make sense for only one of them to leave.
While they try to figure out that situation, at the competition, over ten participants have gone into the field and left in less than half an hour despite everyone getting 30 minutes.
The reason was simple— nobody there dared to shoot their second arrow after their first that alerted all of the rabbits.
In their mind, it was better to gain 5 points and call it a day than gain 5 points and potentially lose even more just like the first participant.
Furthermore, nobody there was really able to focus with all the noise, as it was even giving them a headache.
One might think that giving up after the first shot was unsportsmanlike, but nobody really blamed the participants for their actions— not even the grand elders.
In fact, the spectators even hoped that the participants would give up, as that meant they would have to listen to the ringing less.
"I don't understand why they would give up. Even though it's a little noisy, they should still try. After all, if they don't, they will never be able to reach first place. Even if they might lose some points, if they don't shoot, they have no chance." Yuan said out loud after seeing so many participants give up.
In his mind, weren't they all fighting for first place for the reward? What was the point of being any other place but first place since there was only one prize?
"I guess they're all just hoping for the others to shoot and lose points, allowing them to achieve first place without doing anything."
"So they're gambling that others would lose points?" Yuan was speechless, as this was his first time seeing such a thing in a competition.
As someone who has entered many competitions throughout his life, he has not once hoped that someone would mess up their performance so that he could win. It was simply an unthinkable strategy.
Meanwhile, Meixiu was called into the field.
After handing her a bow and a quiver of 11 arrows, the instructor sent Meixiu inside the still field.
And just like the other participants, Meixiu quickly took her first shot at a rabbit, shooting the bell off its tail successfully.
However, what ensued was chaos with the sound of bells resounding in every direction.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Although it wasn't bad at first, the sound gradually got worse and more annoying.
"Do you think she's going to quit after her first shot as well?" The spectators began guessing whether Meixiu would leave early like the others or not.
And to their surprise, after her first shot, Meixiu actually pulled a second arrow from her quiver, her intentions clear!
"Oh! She's going to shoot!"
"Let's see if she hits the bell or…"
The participants watched with anticipation.
Whoosh!
Meixiu released her second arrow.
"Oh no! She struck the rabbit in the leg just like the first participant! That's a 10-point deduction!"
The participants exclaimed, and they expected her to quit after the second shot.
However, to their surprise, almost as though she didn't care about losing points, Meixiu actually retrieved the third arrow from the quiver and aimed it at the rabbit that she'd just failed to hit.
"What?! She's still going to shoot after that?!"
Whoosh!
The arrow struck the bell this time since the rabbit was injured and couldn't move properly, and for the first time in this event, Meixiu became the first to shoot a second bell successfully.
After hitting the bell, Meixiu lowered her bell and turned to look at the instructor outside.
"Take the injured rabbit out. I have plenty of time," she said in a calm voice.
The instructor nodded and quickly retrieved the injured rabbit from the field.
Once that was done, Meixiu began looking for her next target.
However, she wouldn't shoot another arrow for the next 10 minutes, and she would just silently stand there and watch the rabbits.
"She's taking her time analyzing the rabbits' movements, huh? What a smart girl." Senior Wang chuckled when she realized what Meixiu was doing.
"These rabbits were trained to move in a specific manner so if you learn their movements, you will hit them with ease."
Twenty minutes later, when Meixiu only had 10 minutes left, she began moving for the first time, raising her bow and shooting it the next second with barely any pause.
Whoosh!
The arrow struck the rabbit closest to her, hitting the bell for her 3rd bell.
After that, Meixiu would go on to rapid-fire her bow, hitting bells upon bells with seemingly no effort, shocking the spectators and the other participants.