With a little more than 5 minutes left, Meixiu left the field after hitting every single bell off the rabbits, earning her a total of 40 points, and she instantly shot up to first place in the competition.
The spectators exploded with cheering after they witnessed the spectacular display.
Meanwhile, the other participants were left speechless.
Half of them had given up after their first shot, and the other half that hasn't entered the field had planned on giving up, but after witnessing Meixiu's display, they began feeling ashamed of themselves for giving up so easily.
Therefore, the following participants to enter the field after Meixiu would go on to shoot all of the arrows in her quiver regardless if they'd hit a rabbit or not.
In the end, most of them would go on to hit at least 7 seven bells.
However, only two of them had managed to avoid injuring the rabbits.
Once all of the participants went into the field, the instructor blew the whistle, signaling the end of the competition.
At the end of the competition, the participants were gathered for the results.
"Congratulations to Disciple Xiao Mi for achieving first place! You may speak with Grand Elder Hong afterward to discuss your reward!" The instructor announced the winner of the competition.
Although Meixiu had taken first place with her performance, it was only temporary, and she ended up in the 2nd place with first place ahead by only 5 points.
If Meixiu hadn't struck a rabbit that cost her 10 points, she would've won the competition.
However, Meixiu was neither upset nor bitter since she never expected to win the competition, and she was satisfied with the experience she gained throughout the competition that she considered more of a training of sorts.
Furthermore, getting second place was already well above her expectations.
"Good job getting second place," Yuan said to Meixiu after she returned.
"Thank you."
"I was told that you only recently learned how to use the bow. Is that true?" Wang Ming asked her, as he still couldn't truly believe it.
"Yes," Meixiu confirmed, leaving him speechless.
"Regardless, that was an amazing performance. I would have never known that you were a beginner unless someone told me. Actually, you're already an expert." Senior Wang said.
"Hahaha! Miss Feng, even though you didn't win the competition, your boldness during the last event was very impressive. I even dare say that without your performance, the other participants wouldn't have dared to shoot more than one arrow," said Senior Hong.
And he continued, "Therefore, I am going to craft you a bow as well."
"Really?" Meixiu was pleasantly surprised by Senior Hong's words.
"Yes. Consider this a gift from me for entertaining us." Senior Hong laughed.
The other participants looked at Meixiu with envious gazes. If they didn't give up and had figured out the rabbits' movements earlier, they could've also gotten a bow from Senior Hong.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Jaded Garden, Lady Chu and one of the gate guards walked around asking the people if they knew where Yuan was located, and to their surprise, the first person they encountered knew his location.
"Player Yuan? He should be at the archery competition at the moment."
"Archery competition? Is he participating?" Lady Chu asked.
"I don't know."
"Where's the competition held?" The guard asked the man.
Once they got the directions, Lady Chu and her butler began following the guard to that location.
"If you don't mind me asking, how long have you known Player Yuan?" The guard asked Lady Chu as they walked.
"I have known him ever since we were young," she said with a gentle smile on her face that caused the guard to swallow nervously when he saw it.
"So you're childhood friends, huh? How envious."
"No, we're more than just childhood friends. You can even call us a family," she said.
"Eh?"
The guard raised his eyebrows, unable to comprehend the real meaning behind her words.
Sometime later, they arrived at the location of the archery competition, and when they arrived, the competition had just ended.
The moment they arrived, Lady Chu instantly noticed the tall figure wearing a black mask within the crowd, and she proceeded to stand there and silently stare at him with a dazed look on her face.
At this moment, it seemed to her as though the world had stopped moving— that everything else but the masked man had disappeared from her sight, almost there was only him and her in this world.
"Brother Yuan…" She muttered in a low voice.
However, despite her excitement and desire to jump into his embrace, Lady Chu didn't immediately run to him.
Instead, she stood there without moving, almost as though she didn't know what to do.
After waiting for over a decade for this moment, Lady Chu figured that she would be prepared to finally see him again, but to her surprise, when it was actually time to see him, her body froze with nervousness.
'What if he doesn't remember me?'
This thought that hasn't appeared in her mind for the last decade suddenly appeared for the first time.
Indeed, she feared that Yuan had forgotten about her. After all, 10 years was a long time, and people tend to forget about their childhood.
'Maybe I should just watch over him from a distance for now…' Lady Chu suddenly had this thought.
However, before she could even decide, she noticed the person that she had been staring at suddenly turn to look in her direction.
Lady Chu's heart immediately began throbbing like crazy, and her body became so stiff that she couldn't even move a finger.
Fortunately for her, Yuan had only glanced in her direction because he felt that someone was staring at him from her direction, but his divine sense wasn't strong enough to see Lady Chu, so he turned back around a moment later.
Lady Chu released a sigh of relief after seeing this, but then she became even more nervous a few seconds later.
'What should I do now?' she wondered inwardly.