Chapter 65: Chapter 63: Battlefield Scavenging

First, let’s analyze the source text to build contextual understanding.

# Step 1: Contextual Analysis

## Literary Genre:

This appears to be a Chinese xianxia/wuxia web novel focused on martial arts cultivation and fantasy elements. It has combat scenes, references to cultivation techniques, and martial artists.

## Language Style:

The language is descriptive and action-oriented with a focus on combat and skill development. There are game-like elements (skill level notifications) indicating this might be a LitRPG/progression fantasy style web novel.

## Tone:

The tone is pragmatic and slightly dark, featuring battlefield looting, combat, and killing. The protagonist is portrayed as practical and ruthless when necessary.

## Plot Keywords:

Battlefield, looting, archery, martial artists, combat, skill acquisition, stealth

## Characters:

- Wu Liangchen (武良辰): Male protagonist, opportunistic, skilled in combat, interested in acquiring archery equipment and cultivation techniques

- He Yuan (贺元): Male, mentioned as someone encountered previously, an archer

- Wei family (韦家): A family or organization that employs archers

Now, let’s proceed with the integrated translation and polishing.

# Step 2: Integrated Translation and Polishing

I’ll translate the text line by line while ensuring all glossary terms are correctly used and the text reads naturally in English.

North City.

The sky hung dark and gloomy. The early winter wind was bone-chillingly cold, as if snow was about to fall.

The great fire had finally been extinguished, but the air still reeked heavily of burnt material.

The street was in complete disarray, with corpses lying in all directions. The vast majority of them were vagrants and ordinary civilians.

The fighting still continued, though with much less intensity.

After all, they had been fighting for an entire night, and everyone felt utterly exhausted.

At this moment, a dark figure appeared near the edge of the battlefield, moving at incredible speed.

Suddenly.

The shadow stopped, bent down, and began rummaging through something.

It was the corpse of a Martial Artist, dressed in fine clothes. His knuckles were unusually large, with thick calluses. In life, he had probably been a master of palm techniques.

None of that mattered now, as someone had crushed his chest with a single punch, leaving him in a miserable and horrifying state.

But Wu Liangchen didn’t care about any of that. He skillfully searched for anything useful.

The bag behind him was almost full, containing all the spoils from this trip.

The only pity was that he hadn’t found a bow and arrow, likely because the Wei family had already collected them all.

Still, his harvest was considerable. He had found seven or eight money pouches alone, conservatively worth dozens of silver coins.

Combined with what he had saved before, Wu Liangchen’s wealth now amounted to at least two to three thousand silver coins.

This was enough to buy a rather nice mansion in Dinghai City, with money left over to hire a large number of servants.

But Wu Liangchen hadn’t come out seeking wealth. His main purpose was to find a usable bow, and secondarily to look for Cultivation Technique manuals or similar items.

But that wasn’t so simple.

No normal person would carry around the Cultivation Technique manuals they practiced with while out in public.

That would be like openly offering experience points to others.

As for the archery insights he had acquired last night, that was a special case and couldn’t be generalized.

Wu Liangchen wasn’t discouraged. He had nothing better to do anyway, and there was always the chance of striking it lucky.

After searching this corpse, he continued deeper into the area.

But just as he turned a corner, he saw a group of people in the distance. Wu Liangchen immediately darted into the nearby ruins to hide.

The group slowly approached, carrying bags of various sizes. They poked at corpses along the way, clearly here to loot the battlefield just like Wu Liangchen.

Judging by their demeanor and behavior, they seemed to be a gang of ruffians.

Wu Liangchen frowned slightly.

It was one thing to search corpses, but these guys were hollering and causing a commotion, seemingly intent on stirring up trouble, which was truly detestable.

Wu Liangchen was about to reveal himself when suddenly, with two whooshing sounds, arrows pierced through the chests of the two ruffians at the front. Their bodies collapsed to the ground with a thud.

This sudden development terrified the ruffians behind them, who scattered in panic, trying to escape.

But it was too late. The whooshing sound of arrows continued without pause.

In the blink of an eye, the entire gang of troublemakers had been shot dead.

Wu Liangchen remained silent, still hiding in the shadows, quietly waiting.

Sure enough.

After all the ruffians had been killed, two figures appeared on the battlefield.

These two were dressed like He Yuan from the night before, each carrying a longbow on their back and maintaining vigilant expressions.

However, Wu Liangchen’s hiding spot was cleverly chosen, concealing him from outside view while allowing him to see the situation on the street.

One of the archers said, "I’ll keep watch. You retrieve the arrows and count what we’ve gathered."

"Alright!"

The other archer responded, then efficiently began cleaning up the battlefield.

He pulled out arrows embedded in the ground and in corpses one by one, wiped the blood from the arrowheads and shafts, adjusted the fletching, and returned them to his quiver.

Then he opened the bundles the ruffians had collected, picking out only the most valuable items and putting them into his own bag.

The two worked with clear division of labor and practiced movements, obviously not their first time doing this.

Wu Liangchen watched quietly until the pair had finished cleaning up the battlefield and were about to leave. Then he suddenly kicked a brick.

The one responsible for keeping watch immediately turned around, his hand already on his bowstring.

SNAP!

An arrow flew out, shattering the airborne brick to powder.

"Not good!"

Seeing the brick shatter, the man realized something was wrong. He tried to nock another arrow, but Wu Liangchen wouldn’t give him that chance. With a single bound, he leapt out from the corner and threw a punch.

Because the distance wasn’t far and Wu Liangchen’s Body Technique was extremely fast, the man had no time to react before the fist arrived.

BOOM.

His head was blown apart.

Amidst the bloody mist, the other archer turned and ran, trying to create distance.

But in the next instant, a fist smashing toward the back of his head ended all his plans.

From leaping out to killing both archers took no more than three seconds. After finishing this, Wu Liangchen didn’t linger at all. He quickly gathered up the two longbows, quivers, and bundles, then disappeared into the ruins.

Only after running through several streets did Wu Liangchen finally relax. He took shelter in a courtyard with collapsed walls and caught his breath.

He hadn’t expected to encounter more archers from the Wei family, but the outcome was good, and the harvest was pleasing.

The bundle contained high-value Eagle Yuan and gold and silver jewelry, conservatively worth over a hundred coins.

But what delighted Wu Liangchen most were the two longbows.

The bows were exquisitely crafted, obviously very valuable.

In addition, the quivers were stuffed full, containing at least a hundred fine arrows.

These were almost more valuable than the bows themselves.

Because a single high-quality arrow had to go through dozens of complex processes to produce. After being made, it still needed to dry in a cool, ventilated place for three months, making each arrow worth two or three silver coins.

Even with the ability to recover and reuse them, this price was extremely high.

In just this one trip, Wu Liangchen had earned hundreds of silver coins. This was clearly the way to make money!

Wu Liangchen gripped the bow handle and immediately felt a strange sense of familiarity.

He pulled an arrow from the quiver, nocked it on the bowstring, and drew the longbow quite naturally.

The entire motion was smooth and natural, as if he had practiced it countless times.

After aiming, Wu Liangchen suddenly released.

With a twang, the arrow whistled through the air, flying dozens of paces to pierce a withered leaf that had not yet fallen, before embedding itself in the tree trunk behind.

[Sun-Chasing Archery Skill proficiency +1]

Seeing this notification, Wu Liangchen’s heart leapt with joy. He bounded to the tree and saw that the arrow had sunk deep into the trunk.

After pulling it out with effort, he found the arrowhead still sharp, confirming the arrow’s excellent quality.

Wu Liangchen couldn’t put it down. He immediately returned home, first storing away the silver coins and valuables he had collected, then keeping one longbow at home while carrying the other with him.