At night, there was still meat to eat. As before, about one and a half jin of meat was cooked, and Henry Clark got at least one jin.

“Hmm, this time my archery progress only increased by 15% before stopping.”

Henry Clark frowned. Previously, one jin of meat could increase it by 30%.

But then he understood.

Now that archery had reached the level of ‘slight mastery’, the difficulty of improvement was naturally greater, and the energy consumed was also higher.

With about the same amount of martial food energy, it was normal for the rate of progress to drop sharply.

The Dao Book seemed to possess wisdom; it didn’t consume all the food, but left a little to maintain the body’s basic needs.

Days passed one after another, and in the blink of an eye, half a month had gone by.

William Clark went hunting in the mountains every day. Although he didn’t always return with a catch, he could basically ensure one meal of meat per day.

One jin of meat, plus other foods like wild yams, brown rice, wild vegetables, and so on.

So Henry Clark’s archery steadily improved every day. After more than half a month, he surpassed ‘proficient’ and reached the fourth level of archery: mastery.

Avatar, basic archery, mastery (5%).

In just about twenty days, he had reached mastery—a feat that would take an ordinary person ten years of hard training.

At this point, Henry Clark could hit the bullseye with almost every shot from thirty meters away, rarely missing.

He guessed that William Clark was probably at this level as well.

At this time, Henry Clark decided to go hunting in the mountains together with William Clark.

His current goal was to save up silver and go to the city to learn martial arts.

Moreover, as his archery continued to break through, the energy consumption grew greater and greater. Now, eating one jin of meat only increased his archery progress by 3.75%.

If he wanted his archery avatar to keep improving quickly, he had to get more food and meat, but relying on William Clark alone was too slow and far from enough.

But when Henry Clark brought it up, William Clark refused outright.

“Yan’er, you’ve only been practicing archery for a short time. Those wild beasts are very alert—if you miss with one arrow, they’ll immediately flee far away. Wait until you’ve practiced for a few more years, then I’ll take you into the mountains,” said William Clark.

“Dad, I feel like my archery has improved a lot lately. I can hit the bullseye every time. I should be good enough for hunting,” Henry Clark explained.

In order to join the hunt as soon as possible and save money to learn martial arts, Henry Clark didn’t plan to hide his archery progress.

After all, it was just basic archery. Even if his progress was astonishing, it shouldn’t be a big problem.

“You can hit the bullseye every time?”

William Clark clearly didn’t believe it.

He knew very well that being able to hit the bullseye every time meant reaching mastery in archery. He himself had hunted for over ten years to reach this level, and Henry Clark had only been practicing archery for how long?

At most, just over twenty days.

“Dad, let’s go try it.”

Henry Clark said.

The two of them went to the bamboo grove.

Henry Clark drew his bow and nocked his arrows, shooting five times in a row—all hitting the bullseye, leaving William Clark utterly stunned.

It took a while for William Clark to come back to his senses, his face full of joy. He said, “It really is mastery! In just over twenty days—Yan’er, could you be a martial arts prodigy?”

Henry Clark was thick-skinned and said, “Dad, I’m not sure either. Ever since I started learning archery, it’s felt very natural, and my progress has been incredibly fast.”

“That’s it, that’s it…”

William Clark muttered to himself. After hesitating for a while, he said, “Yan’er, since you have such talent, I can’t let it go to waste. From today on, I’ll teach you martial arts.”

This time, it was Henry Clark’s turn to be shocked: “Teach me martial arts? Dad, you know martial arts? Are you a martial artist?”

In an instant, Henry Clark imagined a conclusion.

Could it be that William Clark was originally a martial arts master, a peerless expert, who went into hiding in the mountains to escape his enemies, married and had children, and didn’t let him practice martial arts to avoid being discovered by his foes?

Obviously, Henry Clark was overthinking it.

“Sigh!”

William Clark sighed, as if reminiscing, and said, “I was once a disciple at the Iron Thread Martial Hall in Woye City, practicing Iron Thread Fist. But back then, I was young and hot-blooded, always eager to fight. Once, during a sparring match, someone broke my meridians, my qi and blood became blocked, and my martial arts were ruined. Disheartened, I settled in Lu Family Village as a hunter.”

“Because of this lesson, I didn’t let you practice martial arts. I wanted you to study and earn scholarly honors, so you wouldn’t repeat my mistakes. I never expected you to have such talent in archery. I’ve decided to teach you Iron Thread Fist.”

“So that’s how it is.”

Henry Clark nodded, finally understanding why William Clark had only let him study before—it was to keep him from becoming reckless and combative.

At the same time, Henry Clark felt excited. He had originally planned to hunt and save money to learn martial arts, but now William Clark could teach him directly, saving a lot of time and silver.

“Dad, how are martial artists ranked in terms of strength? Are there realms?”

Henry Clark asked.

As a web novel author who never made it big, he had naturally read a lot of novels. In those stories, martial arts always had realm divisions. Now that he had the chance to experience the extraordinary power of this world firsthand, he couldn’t help but be curious.

“Of course. Martial arts have realms, and martial skills have levels.”

“The Martial Dao Canon records that the human body has infinite potential, but it is sealed by ‘gates’. There are five gates in the human body. Practicing martial arts means using martial skills to move qi and blood, accumulating qi and blood, and then using it to break through the ‘gates’, surpassing limits, and unleashing one’s potential.”