Late at night, all was silent!
In Chen Shouyi's bedroom, the Shell Lady who had been lying motionless on the desk suddenly sat up slowly.
She looked down at her body in the princess dress, and the beautiful colors finally brought some emotion to her eyes. She stood up, took a few light steps, and then gracefully spun around, watching the dress float up like flower petals.
A hint of joy appeared on her small face.
But thinking of her current predicament, she immediately restrained her smile.
She quickly walked to the giant spoon, and smelled the somewhat pungent sweet scent with a slight look of disdain, but the hunger in her belly and the upcoming escape plan made her pinch her nose and drink several gulps, so sweet that she frowned deeply.
She burped, rested for a moment, and felt her strength gradually returning.
She immediately began to take action.
She looked down from the desk from time to time, finding huge gaps everywhere.
Fortunately, in this peculiar world, although her innate abilities had completely vanished, it also made her body lighter.
She secretly encouraged herself, gritted her teeth, aimed at the place where the giant had been sitting, and took a bold leap.
Her body traced an arc and landed on the chair, rolling a few times before standing up.
Easier than she had imagined, her courage grew.
At that moment, a loud creaking sound suddenly came to her ears. She quickly dodged behind the chair leg, holding her breath, her small face turning pale with fright.
Fortunately, the "giant" just turned over, and soon the heavy breathing resumed.
It wasn't until a long time had passed that she dared to continue her movements with cautious steps, quickly reaching the door.
The door had a gap of about four to five millimeters above the floor.
Her eyes lit up upon seeing this, and she quickly moved forward. Such a gap was more than enough for her petite body.
Her heart was filled with joy, almost feeling like jumping for joy. She immediately lay on the ground and started crawling forward.
Head went through!
Soon, her chest went through as well!
Her excitement grew, but just as she was about to push forward and escape this hellhole, she suddenly found herself unable to move, as if something was holding her back. She struggled hard but didn't budge at all.
...
Early the next morning, before the sky was light, Chen Shouyi woke up.
He immediately looked at the desk and noticed that the Shell Lady was missing.
Frightened, he hurriedly searched around and finally found her stuck in the door gap, her fluffy princess dress snagged by a wooden splinter in the gap. If not for this, she might have actually escaped.
He retied the Shell Lady, sealed her with tape, feeling scared in hindsight, and started considering buying a cage for her.
...
He woke up earlier than usual today, with his parents and sister still asleep. He quickly washed his face, brushed his teeth, and returned to his bedroom.
After packing his luggage, he jumped out of the window again at seven o'clock.
"Mom, I'm leaving, tell Dad for me."
"Got it, study well, don't worry about home," Mrs. Chen shouted from the busy restaurant.
"Where's Shouyi?" Chen Dawei came out, tying an apron upon hearing the sound.
"He left early."
"That kid, I wanted to talk to him! He's been coming and going mysteriously for these few days, never to be seen."
...
After leaving home, Chen Shouyi first went to the supermarket, purchasing a bunch of food and a large amount of drinking water. He then booked a single room for fifteen days at a small, secluded inn and stored his luggage.
He calculated the time and, until eleven o'clock, quietly entered the alternate world again.
Last night, while surfing the web on his phone, he had already roughly learned that a day in the alternate world lasts about 40 Earth hours.
Sure enough, when he entered, it was just dawn there.
The fog on the mountain and that eerie singing had all disappeared, as if they had never existed.
He untied the Shell Lady, leaving only nylon strings to bind her legs, continuing to coerce her into collecting golden sand for him.
Back in the familiar environment, the Shell Lady felt her innate abilities returning. She tested and flew around a bit, her small face filled with joy. She flew around happily, searching for golden sand, seemingly completely forgetting her captivity.
Perhaps she had resigned herself to her fate.
Chen Shouyi continued his practice.
Here he had a huge advantage—his innate ability of Natural Healing could quickly repair muscle strains and also quickly alleviate muscle fatigue, allowing him to withstand more intense and dense training.
He had discovered this phenomenon the previous day—each time he practiced until his muscles twitched, within seconds, the muscle fatigue would subside.
In the past, it would have taken at least four to five hours.
Every move in Swordsmanship involved a series of muscle groups in the body. While extremely powerful, practicing was also quite laborious, and muscles fatigued easily. Very few Martial Artist Apprentices could practice continuously for over five minutes.
Generally, practice would last for about three to four minutes, and before reaching muscle fatigue limits, a ten-minute rest was needed. An hour of practice was mostly spent resting.
But he had no such constraints, meaning compared to others, he had more practice time.
......
Time flew by, and two Earth days had passed in the blink of an eye.
At noon, he left the inn quickly while carrying a bag.
Immediately after, he went to a nearby gold shop to cash in the gold collected by the Shell Lady over these days.
The gold had already been secretly melted into gold bars by him to avoid unnecessary trouble since the golden sand was too dazzling and made people suspect he might have found a gold mine.
During this period, since he changed his exploitation method from sheer high-pressure intimidation to material incentives such as various styles of dresses, beautiful glass marbles, and some colorful trinkets, the Shell Lady's efficiency and enthusiasm in collecting golden sand increased significantly.
In just a few days, she collected more than a pound of golden sand.
Seeing the ATM screen showing a deposit of a staggering 110,000.
Chen Shouyi's heart pounded.
Although 110,000 might not be much, in Dongning, where even the housing prices in this fifth or sixth-tier city reach close to ten thousand, 110,000 could only buy a bathroom.
But for Chen Shouyi, whose small savings never exceeded more than 3,000 growing up, it was a fortune.
...
He hadn't just come out to sell gold this time.
Though he lied to Mrs. Chen, pretending he needed to undergo a closed pre-exam training, this lie had to be maintained as passing the Martial Artist Apprentice exam was a must.
Now his physical fitness was no longer an issue; his Swordsmanship improved greatly with the practice under triple gravity, and it should be enough to pass. Only Archery remained.
However, he wasn't inclined to enroll in a tutoring class again.
Firstly, there wasn't enough time.
Secondly, such an inefficient teaching method didn't suit him.
...
Half an hour later, in front of the door of Chuan Sheng Archery Dojo.
Chen Shouyi got out of the taxi. This was the largest archery dojo in Dongning City.
Many Martial Artist Apprentices practiced here, and sometimes even Martial Artists could be seen.
"How are the fees here?"
The girl at the front desk smiled and said, "We offer annual cards, semi-annual cards, quarterly cards, and monthly cards. The monthly fee for a monthly card is 4,500. If you get an annual card, there's a 50% discount; for a semi-annual card, it's 20% off..."
"Do you have any daily or time-based rates?" He quickly interrupted her sales pitch.
"Of course, we have session cards, 300 per session, valid from 9 AM to 9 PM. Additionally, personal coaching and massage services are charged separately."
"Please make me a session card."
"May I see your ID, please?"
Chen Shouyi took out his ID, paid, and quickly received a temporary membership card.
Before even reaching the entrance, he already heard the dense "thud thud" sounds of arrows hitting the target.
The entire archery dojo covered a vast area, and a glimpse down the side corridors revealed a breadth of nearly a hundred meters, spanning over ten thousand square feet.
Today was during the National Day holiday, the peak trading time, and the entire venue was full.
Not only were there men and women in sporty attire but also muscular hulking figures, elderly people, and even many children.
It was apparent that most of these people were quite amateur.
Compared to Swordsmanship, which is extremely difficult to start, Archery is easy to learn but difficult to master, so even many people uninterested in Martial Arts use archery as a regular leisure activity.
However, there are also quite a few experts here.
ps: The next chapter will be adjusted to 5 PM, and future updates will also be at this time. Also, requesting recommendations for the new week.