Zhang Shiyao nodded rapidly like a pecking chick, her eyes fixed intently on Bai Qiu's movements.
Bai Qiu took a deep breath and straightened his posture.
His left foot stepped forward, both feet slightly apart, shoulder-width.
His left hand gripped the bow handle, while his right hand reached into the quiver and drew an arrow, hooking its nock onto the center of the bowstring.
He then pinched the arrow and fletching between his thumb, index, and middle fingers.
His left thumb and index finger lightly steadied the arrow shaft, fixing it in place.
Then, he raised both arms until they aligned perfectly with his line of sight, turning his body slightly sideways.
Curling his left index finger around his thumb to stabilize the arrow, he closed one eye, aimed carefully, pushed his bow hand forward, and drew the string back—until the arrowhead nearly touched the fingers gripping the bow.
The bow creaked under the strain, but Bai Qiu's hands were steady as a mountain.
Under Zhang Shiyao's watchful gaze, he loosed the arrow toward the far end of the canyon.
"Whoosh!" The arrow shot forth like thunder cracking the sky—far louder and sharper than the previous two shots.
The power of a fully drawn bow was incomparable, its released force whipping up a gust that flattened the grass along its trajectory.
A simple basic attack erupted with the might of a skill.
In the very next instant, both Bai Qiu and Zhang Shiyao heard the notification of earned experience echo in their minds.
After that single, slow and precise shot, Bai Qiu quickly drew more arrows from his quiver, firing them one after another—nearly one arrow per second—until the quiver was empty!
Then, he stowed the Darksteel Longbow and drew his Darksteel Heavy Spear.
"Keep up!" he called out.
His strides were lightning-fast, and even though Zhang Shiyao put away her weapon and ran with all her strength, Bai Qiu still left her far behind.
Despite carrying a spear weighing over 135 kilograms, he ran faster than a professional sprinter!
Each heavy step left deep two-centimeter boot prints in the earth, and the gusts stirred by his movements made the nearby vegetation sway violently.
After running for a while, Zhang Shiyao could no longer see his figure ahead.
She stopped to catch her breath, then pulled out four fruits and an item card from her storage card.
"I… I have to catch up to him!" she said with determination.
Only now did Zhang Shiyao truly understand the sheer gap between herself and Bai Qiu.
Even if Bai Qiu were busy fighting monsters ahead, no matter how hard she ran behind him… she still couldn't catch up.
All of this… it was her fault for being too weak!
If only she could keep up with Bai Qiu, she wouldn't have been kicked out!
Zhang Shiyao thought to herself bitterly.
Half an hour later, Bai Qiu stood in an open clearing.
From time to time, he bent down, plucked a blade of grass from the ground, and stored it into his storage card.
"Obtained: Redstem Grass ×1."
Redstem Grass (E-Rank)
Description: Can be used to craft Fire Resistance Potions. Long-term consumption grants heat resistance and a small boost to fire resistance.
He had deliberately shown the difference in strength between them so that Zhang Shiyao would give up on following him in the future.
But he didn't want to go too far ahead either—if she chased for too long, she might break down and cry.
After all, she was still just a kid.
Though he had taken care of all the Crimson Feather Chickens along the way, wandering alone through a valley for too long could easily terrify her…
So he decided to stop and wait for her.
Unexpectedly, he discovered that some of the strange grasses here actually had special effects—so Bai Qiu simply harvested them all.
He had seen Redstem Grass a few times on the way here, but it was quite rare.
Yet in this area, it seemed to grow more and more abundant.
Eventually, he gave up on waiting for Zhang Shiyao entirely and began walking forward while plundering every Redstem Grass growing along the ground.
"Redstem Grass +1."
"Ding! You have successfully collected 100 herbs. Skill learned: Gathering (E-Rank)."
Bai Qiu blinked at the system prompt, momentarily stunned.
Gathering (E-Rank) Lv. 0
Allows the user to actively harvest plants. May fail depending on plant grade—the lower the grade, the higher the success rate.
Regarding Skill Cards, players could learn up to eight active or passive skills.
However, self-comprehended (or "enlightened") skills did not count toward that limit—meaning that, with good enough aptitude, a player could theoretically learn hundreds of skills in addition to the eight granted by equipped cards.
At present, Bai Qiu's actively learned skills were:
Berserk
Mana Manipulation
Loot Recovery
His self-comprehended skills were:
Battle Continuation
Gathering
Bai Qiu tried using the Gathering skill on a Redstem Grass.
A faint white glow enveloped his hand, wrapping around the entire plant, and then—
"Gathering failed! Proficiency +1."
He stared at the system prompt and the now-vanished Redstem Grass, needing a few seconds to process what had just happened.
He dug up another one manually and watched the system closely.
"Obtained Redstem Grass ×1, Gathering Proficiency +10."
Then he tried using the Gathering skill again—
"Gathering failed! Proficiency +1."
"Gathering failed!"
"Gathering…"
After five consecutive failures, he finally succeeded once.
Bai Qiu sighed helplessly.
So this skill relied entirely on luck, huh…
The Gathering skill was convenient—he could collect one plant roughly every five seconds.
Manual digging was much slower, taking about twenty seconds per plant—but at least the success rate was 100%, whereas the skill's success rate was only one in six.
After thinking it over, Bai Qiu decided to dig by hand.
It was slower, sure—but at least it guaranteed no waste!
At that moment, Zhang Shiyao finally caught up from behind.
She saw Bai Qiu crouched on the ground, fumbling around for something—he looked just like someone with severe nearsightedness who had dropped their glasses and was trying to find them.
When Bai Qiu noticed her approach, he had just finished digging up another Redstem Grass.
After shaking the dirt off its roots, he stored it into his storage card.
Standing up, he said,
"I was planning to let you take the lead in the second half, but that plan's canceled. For now, come with me and help dig up these herbs."
Zhang Shiyao nodded blankly without asking any questions.
She followed Bai Qiu, and only after they had dug up more than a hundred herbs did she finally understand why he had asked her to collect them.
During that time, any Crimson Feather Chickens they encountered were easily dispatched by Bai Qiu.
"I learned the Gathering skill?! So you can actually gain a skill just by digging these plants?"
Zhang Shiyao exclaimed in surprise.
"And it doesn't even take up a skill card slot!"
Eagerly, she activated her newly acquired Gathering skill on a Redstem Grass.
"Gathering successful! Proficiency +10!"
Her first attempt was a perfect success—the white glow enveloped the herb, and a complete Redstem Grass appeared neatly in her hand, even the dirt around its roots cleaned away.
Then she looked at Bai Qiu curiously.
"Eh? Brother Bai Qiu, why aren't you using the Gathering skill? It's obviously much faster this way!"
Zhang Shiyao's failure rate was quite low—roughly only one failed attempt out of ten.
From her perspective, Bai Qiu was being overly frugal.
Not only was he wasting time, but his proficiency gain was much slower.
After all, whether it was through manual collection or successful skill use, each success gave +10 proficiency.
She gained around 111 proficiency per minute even with a few failures, while Bai Qiu only got about 30 per minute by digging three plants manually.
Sure, his method had zero losses—but it was way too slow, especially when there was so much Redstem Grass growing everywhere that it practically outnumbered the weeds!