Divergent King: Master of Myriad Anomaly

Ash still used the old bow he had picked up here and slowly aimed his arrow, but before he shot, he closed his eyes to remember the Nine Hear Arrow technique and its following steps. He wanted to feel the mysteries and shoot arrows that contained them.

The arrow began to glow faintly as Ash channelled his internal energy into it. Without hesitation, he fired at the nearest target, positioned thirty meters away.

Zzzz!

The arrow tore through the wind with ferocious intensity, its speed creating a sharp whistle. This time when it struck the target, it didn't just pierce it—it obliterated it entirely with a powerful explosion.

Boom! 

Seeing this smile appear on his face, although it was just a single arrow and felt it had some accuracy and control problems, still it was a powerful trump card.

But he quickly noticed a significant drop in his internal energy. It seemed that firing the arrow had consumed nearly a third of it. Realizing this, he calculated that even if he pushed himself to his absolute limit, he would only be able to fire three such arrows before running out of energy.

"Not bad," Edward said, nodding in approval. "You controlled your energy well, ensuring it didn't explode before hitting the target. But you must have felt it—you can't maintain control over it for much longer distances. At your current level, fifty meters is likely the farthest you can manage."

It was clear Edward had seen through everything with just a single demonstration, his keen eyes assessing every detail of Ash's performance.

Ash nodded and was a bit surprised as he could understand all of this from his single arrow.

With that, Edward began giving Ash detailed instructions, sharing his own experiences on how to imbue and control internal energy in the arrow with greater precision, as mentioned in the technique.

He advised Ash for some time before leaving him to practice on his own. However, due to his limited internal energy, Ash couldn't repeatedly attempt internal energy-imbued shots. Instead, he focused on basic shooting practice to refine his aim and technique.

From that day forward, Ash added archery to his daily training routine, determined to master the 'Nine Heart Arrow Technique.'.

Five days passed quickly, and he improved by leaps and bounds in these five days. His physical stats also improved very quickly and crossed the double digits, making him quite strong even among the second-rate martial artists with just his raw power. 

In the morning, Ash with his pet Grim was waiting just outside the village and finally saw the two guys he was waiting for.

The first guy was none other than Adam, while the other was named Jin, a trainee scout in the army. Adam was the first person Ash had met in the village and was the closest friend he had so far. As for Jin, Ash had met him two days ago when he needed someone familiar with the nearby mountain forests.

He first wanted to go alone to hunt, but he didn't know much, and going deeper into the forest, he might get lost or wouldn't find anything, not to mention there are some dangerous places within it. So, for the first few times, he decided to go along with a person who knows more about the forests here. 

The person he found was Jin, a young trainee scout. Jin had been venturing deep into the forest since he was very young, as his family were hunters. On top of that, he had undergone basic scouting training with the army.

Jin was also a friend of Adam's and wasn't a bad guy, but the only problem was that he was too annoying and talked a lot.

"You both are late," Ash commented, looking at them, especially at Jin.

"Hehe, sorry about that. We had to perform the soldier drills, you know, and sometimes it takes longer because of different instructors," Jin quickly said with a mischievous smile.

Adam, on the other hand, wore a completely different expression. His discomfort was obvious—he wasn't good at lying, and it was clear they had been wasting time looking at village women bathing or doing something more meaningless.

But he didn't bother and looked at Jin and said, "Now that you all have arrived, then let's go."

Jin wanted to say more, but seeing Ash's cold glare, he stopped and nodded, leading the group towards the forest behind the village.

Three of them and a wolf made their way to the wild forest, which had become less dangerous due to the soldier stationed here who killed wild animals and beasts from time to time.

They pushed their way through dense bushes, vibrant plants, and towering trees, all radiating a refreshing, clear energy. Adam and Jin didn't seem to notice much, but Ash was thoroughly enjoying the freshness of the forest.

Even though he had spent a few days in this world, the experience was still incomparable to his previous, devastated world. That desolate wasteland had been suffused with radioactive energy and other strange, mutant forces that had drained the land of its colour and life.

They travelled for an hour and finally saw the first prey, and luckily it was a big boar, which wasn't difficult to handle.

The boar was quite big and might be difficult for ordinary people to hunt, but they weren't ordinary.

Grim, spotting the boar, seemed excited. With a low growl, he leapt toward the animal. The boar, sensing danger, froze for a moment in fear before attempting to flee. But how could it escape Grim's incredible speed? In just a few seconds, Grim caught up to it.

What awaited the wild boar was a powerful bite—so strong that even metal armour would be torn apart, let alone its skin and flesh. With a single bite, Grim gravely injured the boar, and within a few short breaths, the animal collapsed and died.

"Not bad, Grim, not bad," Ash commented on seeing the clean hunt done by Grim.