“Ji Er, behave yourself!” Murong Jian reprimanded him.
Murong Ji was aggrieved, “I’m just thinking that the better person gets to enter the army camp, and this will increase the combat power of the team – am I wrong?”
Murong Xue sniggered. Murong Ji was only a fourteen year old kid. He definitely would not know how to talk in such a manner; Murong Jian was the one who taught him all these lines. The father and son could not persuade General Zhang, so now they were trying to trap Murong Ye. They were undeniably smart and cunning.
“Murong Ye, I’m challenging you now, can you not act like a mute? Just answer me, do you dare to compete with me?” Murong Ji looked straight Murong Ye proudly.
Murong Ye stared at Murong Ji, his eyes were filled with determination, “Alright, I’ll compete with you!”
Ge Hui said hurriedly, “Xiao Hou Ye…”
Murong Ye raised his hand and interrupted Ge Hui, “I agreed to compete with you neither to seek to prevail over others – nor show off myself, but to let you know I, Murong Ye, is a real man and I’m not afraid of any kind of challenges. You say, how do you want to compete?”
Murong Ji thought to himself : There was no need to say so nicely, as I will certainly let you lose the competition and feel shameful about yourself.
Murong Ji sniffed and said, “Archery!”
“Alright!” Murong Ye nodded, his eyes filled with perseverance and seriousness.
General Zhang stole a look at Ouyang ShaoChen. He was calm and had no objection to the competition, so General Zhang granted their wishes and let the competition go on.
The soldiers moved to aside and the training hall was instantly emptied. Around ten targets for archery were placed in front of the hall.
Murong Ji took his bow and arrow with him and walked in a leisurely pace. He glanced at the targets and frowned a little, “The targets are all stationary; it is meaningless. In the battlefield, your enemies will not just stand there and let you shoot them!”
“What do you want then?” Murong Ye, holding his bow asked softly.
Murong Ji lifted his head up and said haughtily, “Let the targets move. we’llWe’ll both stand at the side and aim for the bullseye. Within the time of a burning joss stick, whoever shoots the most number of bullseyeswill be the winner.”
“Alright!” Murong Ye nodded. The challenge was proposed by Murong Ji, so no matter what request he had, Murong Ye will always agree with him.
“Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!” Around ten targets were starting to move in the training hall, Murong Ji was standing at the left side of the hall. He held his long bow and arrow in place, with a loud sound of “shuuu”, the arrow was launched and hit the bullseye accurately and hardly.
“Well done!” A voice came from the crowd and the soldiers burst into an uproar, “He has great skill… that was not bad…”
Murong Xue raised her brow: shooting the moving target was much harder than shooting the stationary target. The targets in the hall were moving utterly without a style – if any slight mistake was made, he surely wouldn’t get the bullseye. Murong Ji shot the bullseye at the very first attempt, Undoubtedly he had great skill as Murong Jian had put a lot of effort into him How about Murong Ye’s shooting skill?
Murong Xue looked in the direction of Murong Ye, who was standing at the right side of the hall. He was aiming at the target with a dignified gaze. The arrows went “Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!” to the targets – ALL were shot on the bullseye.
The huge hall was quieted down!
“Great!” A voice came from the crowd again and a loud disturbance broke out, “Xiao Hou Ye from the house of Zhen Guo Hou is known to be a prodigal son… never thought that he would have such a great shooting skill…”
“He is the son of Yue Hou Ye. Yue Hou Ye was well known of his shooting skill back then, probably the best in the world. Now his son was only shooting some moving targets, nothing to be surprised about…”
“That’s right! There will be no laggard among the children of a talented man…”
Murong Ji knitted his brow as he heard the discussion of the soldiers: The reason he suggested having an archery competition was to perform himself, to display the wonderful shooting skill he has. Now that Murong Ye has become the center of the attention, he can never lose to him!
Murong Ji held his bow and arrow in place and launched three arrows at a time. In a blink of an eye, two of the arrows hit the bullseye and the other one was at the edge of the bullseye.
“Shooting three at a time. That was a great skill, not bad!” The soldiers complemented in admiration.
Murong Jian’s face was grew gloomy. This skill was supposed to used at the end of the competition, to make a remarkable ending and to impress the audience, to let them remember his extraordinary potential…
The time of a burning joss stick had just started and he had showed them everything he’s got, so what to do now?
Murong Jian saw Murong Ye took out three arrows. From the corner of his eye, he aimed and shot. “Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!” the three arrows hit the bullseye accurately, without a miss. The applause came from the soldiers, “Great! That’s impressive. He is indeed the son of Yue Hou Ye…”
Murong Jian narrowed his piercing eyes, his face darkened. The skill of Murong Ye was splendidly good. Was it the gene of Murong Yue, or the guidance from Ge Hui?
Ji Er had one arrow shot at the edge of the bullseye. He was the biggest joke compared to Murong Ye. Evil!
Murong Jian glared at Murong Ji furiously! He was looking pale, and his hand that held the bow was trembling. He gave a black look at Murong Ye, his gaze filled with hatred and anger: My shooting skill was taught by my father. In Jing Zhou, no one is above him. In the capital of Qing Yan, he is one of the best, too. How could Murong Ye win? How could it be?
Murong Ji narrowed his eyes and rearmed his bow. The black arrows were shot toward Murong Ye “Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!” Murong Ye totally did not see that coming., He wanted to escape from it but he was too late.
“Dang, Dang, Dang!” Three needles hit the arrows and they dropped to the floor.
The hall was in dead silence. The crowd looked in the direction where the needles had come from. In a blink of an eye, Murong Xue was standing at the center of the training hall. She looked at the black arrows on the ground and said coldly, “Murong Ji, are you shooting the target – or trying to kill?”
“Don’t be so mean, it’s just a slip of my hand.” Murong Ji lifted his chin high and said without any regard. He was cursing Murong Xue in his heart… such a busybody! If it was not her, the arrow would definitely have killed Murong Ye!
“Is that so?” Murong Xue lifted the corner of her mouth. All of sudden she grabbed the bow and arrow from Murong Ye and all the crowd could hear was the sound “Shuu! Shuu! Shuu!” The arrows hit on top of his head and both his shoulders – he was attached to the fencing.
“Ahhhh!” Murong Ji screeched in a frantic loud voice!
“Ji Er!” Murong Jian was frightened as he went to Murong Ji swiftly. His shoulder was bleeding. Murong Jian was indignant at the sight. His gaze was like a sharp arrow that was shooting right toward Murong Xue.