7 Trials (2)

The provincial team's selection process was much more extensive than Lotus City's. The trial would be held over two days. The first day was for the individual events and the second day was for the team event.

The distances were 50 meters, 70 meters, and 90 meters.

The first event was the preliminaries for 50 meters.

Tang Yan was in the second group to shoot. He looked over to the judges' booth as soon as he arrived.

Sure enough, Shao Ping was seated over there. It seemed that the head coach of each team was a judge.

In the centre most position was Li Lao, who looked as if he was dozing off.

His event began.

Unlike before, this event had a total of six rounds, with six arrows per round.

The difference between cities could be seen instantly just from looking at the scoreboard.

For example, in the first group, there was an archer called Zhang Han from Yuhang City's archery team. He scored a total of 349 points out of 360.

Whereas, Chen Yufeng, the archer Lotus City had sent out, had only scored 310 points. The gap in skill levels was quite obvious.

"Xiao Yan, you've cultivated a good one. If he maintains his current form, he's in with the chance of winning this event." said Li Lao over to the middle-aged man beside him.

"Haha... Li Lao, you truly have good eyes. This Zhang Han is a prodigy. He's only been practicing archery for 2 years, but his skills have already reached the provincial level. He has also reached the average level for the 70m event," boasted Xiao Yan full of pride after hearing Li Lao's praise.

Li Lao nodded but spoke no more. Just as he was preparing to close his eyes and rest, his eyes swept over a familiar figure. Suddenly, he stopped his actions and began concentrating.

Xiao Yan knew Li Lao's habits. He was a 60-year-old man after all so naturally, his energy was limited. As such he normally rested and only watched the major events. It was strange to see him suddenly come to life like this.

Following Li Lao's gaze, he saw an archer walking from Lotus City's camp towards the shooting gallery for his event. Seeing this, confusion filled his mind.

Who was he and why did he catch Li Lao's attention?

.....

Tang Yan took his recurve bow and took a deep breath before entering the shooting gallery.

Although the Zhejiang Province wasn't a huge archery province, due to the huge commotion caused by the trials, a huge crowd of spectators had come to watch.

Even though this was only the preliminaries for the individual events, nearly a thousand people had come to watch.

Facing such a huge crowd, Tang Yan felt his heart begin to beat faster. This was the biggest event he had experienced in both the past and the present.

"Calm down... This is nothing compared to what's to come. What's the point of getting nervous now..." muttered Tang Yan to himself trying to calm his nerves.

Looking at Tang Yan's anxious behavior, doubts began to appear in Xiao Yan's mind. What the hell did Li Lao see in this kid?

"Archers, get ready. The first round will begin soon. Remember, you only have four minutes to shoot six arrows."

The referee shouted from the side of the field.

Everyone took an arrow from the arrow pot and prepared themselves.

"Ready, Steady, Go!!!!"

At the order of the referee, all the archers nocked their arrows, drew their bowstrings back, aimed and shot.

Twang

Whizz...

Boom, Boom, Boom

As the archers shot their first arrows, the scene looked like something out of an ancient battlefield.

This drew a burst of cheers from the sidelines.

However, such a scene only lasted for one arrow. After the first arrow was shot, each person's scores were different. Those with unsatisfactory results inevitably shook their heads and began to adjust, causing them to fall behind. Whereas those who got good results could immediately move onto their second arrow with confidence.

Maybe due to the fact that it was the first round, everyone seemed to shoot at a faster rate. After two and a half minutes, everyone was done.

After the referee confirmed that everyone was done shooting, he announced the end of the first round and began the one-minute break.

There were twelve archers in each group, and this group had performed better than the first group, so far at least.

Among the twelve, four had shot perfect rounds of 60 points.

These four were:

Li Cunhou and Li Cunde from Yuhang City, Song Sizhe from Wenzhou City and Tang Yan from Lotus City!

After the first round of shooting, Li Lao showed a gratified smile.

Xiao Yan after seeing all of this was taken aback. Lotus City had always been a weak city in terms of archery, as such he didn't pay them much mind, but out of nowhere, someone like Tang Yan had appeared.

Seeing Li Lao watching with gusto, he couldn't help but attach more importance to Tang Yan.

After the first round, Tang Yan's nerves had completely faded away.

He was psychologically older than everyone competing, so naturally, he could quickly adjust his mental state.

The second round of shooting soon began. Tang Yan continued to perform exceptionally: shooting all six arrows in just two minutes. All six arrows were 10 pointers!

After this round of shooting, Li Lao nodded with a smile then closed his eyes and began to rest.

Xiao Yan was shocked. This Tang Yan's movements were as smooth as silk. He barely took time to adjust after each shot.

Damn it! When had Lotus City got such a talented archer? It seemed, at noon, he would have to get someone to investigate the background of this Tang Yan. If they lost this event, he would have nowhere to place his face.

However, the most shocked person at this time wasn't Xiao Yan, but Shao Ping.

"Old Shao, you really are a deep schemer. Sending out someone like him to participate in the 50m event," said Wenzhou City's head coach, Sun Ming.

Shao Ping recovered and said: "Old Sun, haha... You want me to send out my golden goose to be slaughtered. No way, the kid is still a greenhorn so naturally he has to start with the 50 meter event."

Though his mouth was saying such words, his mind was saying something completely different.

"Damn it... Why didn't anyone tell me that this kid was so talented? Hahaha... We finally have our own genius..."