Chapter 27 Marksmanship

"Pardon me, Brother Chu. Among the six arts of a gentleman, I only happen to have a slight interest in archery and charioteering."

Guo Ming noticed the strange look in Chu Danqing's eyes and smiled as he offered an explanation.

Archery involved the bow and arrow, while charioteering meant driving a carriage.

Hearing this, Chu Danqing put away the expression of surprise on his face.

"The arrows are all used up. Where can I find more to replenish them?" Guo Ming stroked the Cold Spring's Shadow, looking thoroughly enamored with it.

"Don't worry about it. In about two-thirds of a quarter of an hour, it will generate one on its own," Chu Danqing explained. "Don't ask me why, because I don't know either."

He was still just a novice himself; how could he possibly understand the underlying principles?

"It's that convenient? Truly a wonderful weapon." The more Guo Ming stroked it, the more he liked it.

Seeing this, Chu Danqing couldn't help but twitch the corner of his eye and said, "If you like using it, you can borrow it for the time being."

With his own atrocious marksmanship, using the Cold Spring's Shadow was practically wasting ammunition.

It was far better to give it to Guo Ming; those nine shots earlier were enough to demonstrate his skill.

As for why there were no skills listed on his panel? Just as he had said, he only had an interest in it and hadn't studied it in depth.

If basic skills were that easy to form, they wouldn't be so exceedingly rare.

Chu Danqing owed it all to the fortune of the Dimensional Paradise; otherwise, he wouldn't even dream of acquiring a set.

"Then many thanks, Brother Chu." A look of joy appeared on Guo Ming's face. He had been waiting precisely for Chu Danqing to say those words.

Mainly, he had felt too embarrassed to ask.

In truth, Chu Danqing was also pondering the matter. Since Guo Ming liked it so much, he might as well let him use it until they left the trial world.

It wasn't that he was being casually generous and magnanimous.

Rather, Chu Danqing's marksmanship truly did injustice to such a fine firearm, compounded by the ammunition limit of the Cold Spring's Shadow.

After ten shots, once they were gone, he would have to wait around and rest while it regenerated.

Chu Danqing wasn't specialized in ranged combat anyway. Keeping it in his hands meant its full potential could never be unleashed; if he could manage to deal half the damage with those ten frost bullets, it would already be considered an extraordinary performance on his part.

Unlike Guo Ming, whose hit rate was so high—having an extra ranged combatant would make subsequent battles much easier.

"There are ten crossbow bolts in total. The recovery is going to take a while," Chu Danqing explained its mechanics to him.

This only deepened the joy on Guo Ming's face, clearly making him fall even more in love with the sniper rifle known as the Cold Spring's Shadow.

He was practically reluctant to put it down.

Seeing this, Chu Danqing didn't overthink it—it was completely normal for a man to love firearms. He then asked, "What's next, then? How shall we proceed?"

There was still the Mother of Grievances waiting to be dealt with at the bottom of the well, so he wanted to consult Guo Ming for the expert's opinion.

"As for that, it all depends on you, Brother Chu," Guo Ming replied. "If we strike now, we can easily slay the Mother of Grievances."

"However, if her lingering obsession remains unfulfilled, her final breath will never allow her to rest in peace."

"Throwing this skull into the well will let the Mother of Grievances die with her eyes closed, but once her obsession is fulfilled, she will become immensely powerful, even without the infant of grievances."

"It will be exceptionally difficult for Dabao to overcome her then."

Chu Danqing understood Guo Ming's meaning; it all boiled down to a matter of difficulty.

"Let's recover first, and I'll think about it." Chu Danqing couldn't make a choice right away.

While he did want to let these wretched souls find peace, he also had to take his own circumstances into consideration.

"If Brother Chu can manage to fulfill the Mother of Grievances' obsession, I happen to possess a Ghost-Crossing Incantation that can pacify her resentment," Guo Ming added.

Chu Danqing's face darkened. Oh great, you've just gone and put me straight on the roasting spit.

"Since you've put it that way, what else is there for me to say?" Chu Danqing said with a trace of exasperation. "Let's rest for a bit first. Once the bolts on your Cold Spring's Shadow have recovered, we'll make our move."

Guo Ming broke into a smile at this. "Don't worry, Brother Chu. I will definitely cooperate fully with Dabao."

Since he dared to suggest this to Chu Danqing, he certainly had no intention of keeping himself out of danger.

Chu Danqing took out some food and beverages. The battle wouldn't start immediately, so he decided to take advantage of the opportunity to rest and recover.

Time ticked away second by second, and soon an hour and forty minutes had passed. The Cold Spring's Shadow in Guo Ming's hands quickly refilled with ten bullets.

Dabao's condition had also fully recovered; the only pity was that the repeating crossbowmen had disappeared, and Chu Danqing would need to summon them again.

Without further ado, he tossed Zen Master Yinke's rotting skull down into the depths of the well.

Before long, a shrill, ghostly wailing of a female voice echoed from the bottom of the well.

Even though they were standing at a distance, the sound of bones being chewed could be heard clearly, sending a shiver down their spines.

When the chewing sound finally ceased, it was replaced by a heart-wrenching sob.

[You have been attacked by ???, taking 1 point of mental damage.]

Chu Danqing felt a brief mental fog, though his health points dropped by very little—it was just rather unpleasant.

When he looked up, the slender and graceful upper half of a body had emerged from the mouth of the well.

A closer look revealed that it wasn't that the entity didn't want to come out, but rather that her lower torso was too bloated, causing her to get stuck in the well opening and unable to break free.

Chu Danqing immediately cast an inspection spell.

[Mother of Grievances]

Aside from her name, everything else was displayed as question marks, completely impossible to probe.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Guo Ming made the first move, unleashing a volley of ten shots without a moment's hesitation.

The first frost bullet struck the Mother of Grievances right between the eyebrows, instantly blossoming into a flurry of frost flowers.

The second frost bullet, following closely behind, stacked another layer of slowdown onto the frost flowers.

All ten frost bullets struck the exact same spot on the Mother of Grievances, causing the frost to spread rapidly and turn into a deep freeze.

This instantly halted the Mother of Grievances' violent struggling.

Seizing the opportunity, Chu Danqing pushed his abilities to the limit. First came five energy links, followed immediately by five life links.

While summoning the repeating crossbowmen, he stabbed himself with his short blade to trigger the active skill 'Tiger Roar' from the Tiger Soul Ring, while his other hand readied a medicinal steamed soup bun.

The phantom of a fierce tiger emerged, leaping along a trajectory before landing at the edge of the well and roaring up at the sky.

[You have dealt 3 points of fatal damage to yourself, and inflicted 7 points of shared damage on the life-linked target.]

When Chu Danqing saw this combat log entry, he understood that the Mother of Grievances was no ordinary foe.

Normally, 3 points of fatal damage should have translated to 97 points of shared damage for the target, but due to the Mother of Grievances' immense strength, it was mitigated down to 7 points.

Shared damage was not true damage and would fluctuate depending on the enemy's strength.

This applied not only to life links but to energy links as well. For instance, Chu Danqing possessed only basic energy reserves, whereas Dabao utilized the much more advanced blood rage resource.

There was a disparity between the two; because the opponent possessed a greater pool of energy, it manifested as a larger quantity when quantified into data, and their recovery was also much stronger.

When facing more powerful enemies, these two skills began to feel inadequate.

Swallowing the medicinal steamed soup bun in a single bite, Chu Danqing actively severed the five life links and replaced them with five energy links instead.

The attack damage was left to the repeating crossbowmen and Dabao to handle, while Chu Danqing continuously cycled through casting and canceling the energy links to drain the Mother of Grievances' mana pool.