“With such rapid efficacy, on the battlefield, this would be like a second life!”

“This single mouthful is worth a thousand pieces of gold!”

Seeing the miraculous effect of the substance, many martial artists instantly gazed with fiery eyes at the small bottle of milky white sacred water.

“Alright, I’ve recovered about seventy percent of my fighting strength.” Wei Zongshi stood up nimbly. The sacred water's potency spread throughout his body via the bloodstream, and under Su Zhou's watchful gaze, he could feel all the minor wounds all over his body beginning to heal slowly. Although he was a bit weak from several days of trekking and combat, with just half a day of rest and the ingestion of some medicinal pills and food, his Zongshi physique would be able to recover eighty to ninety percent of his strength from this fatigue!

And once the physical body was intact, it would be much easier to regulate the flow of internal qi!

“Such a divine medicine… I won’t express my gratitude with mere words.”

Turning his head, Wei Lie sincerely clasped his fist and bowed his head to thank Su Zhou. At this critical moment before the battle, being able to heal a Zongshi’s injuries could truly be said to have saved more than just one life.

“Saving others is like saving oneself, don’t be too polite.”

Su Zhou waved his hand, not taking it to heart, and said, “I specifically brought the sacred water here so that I could help others at times like this. It’s good to put this medicine to use by helping Wei Zongshi recover as soon as possible.”

After all, his own regeneration was strong enough that he didn't need it himself. But these words, when heard by others, caused everyone present to feel a sense of solemn respect! To take saving others as one's own responsibility, what a noble thought!

For a time, there was a chorus of praise, which Su Zhou accepted without humility. As for why he didn't bring the crucifix with him as well, the reason was simple: the aura of a demon was essentially a positioning coordinate for teleportation. If he were to bring an artifact of such miraculous magnitude as the crucifix, it would likely cause the two coordinates to become confused, leading to an error in the teleportation, and he wouldn't be able to go to either location, but would definitely end up in some other messed-up world.

As for the medicinal effect, it wasn't that the sacred water was too powerful, surpassing the local spiritual medicines.

Su Zhou was well aware that, although the sacred water healed quickly, it couldn't restore physical strength or internal energy, nor did it treat the root cause. It only healed some external and internal injuries, and was useless for spiritual injuries, at most removing demonic filth. The local spiritual medicines, on the other hand, had many effects, but their effects and recovery speed were not fast enough.

And the Divine Wood World wasn't yet advanced enough for battles to damage one's spiritual core, so the No. 3 sacred water, which had been settling in the Sacred Seat Temple for decades, had such miraculous effects.

After Wei Lie recovered, Han Zongshi took a mouthful of the sacred water to heal the other righteous warriors from the Hundred Families who had broken through the siege together to escort the star sand. With that, only one mouthful of the sacred water remained.

He had originally planned to practice and train a bit before the battle began. To be honest, he was very much looking forward to the upcoming battle against evil!

After all, the thought of being able to do whatever he wanted in this unfamiliar place with no constables, no Zheng Nation officials, and no relatives or friends… slaughtering wantonly… no, eliminating evil.

Just thinking about this made him feel his flesh and blood flowing faster and his breathing becoming a little rough.

“Su Zongshi!”

Just as Su Zhou's heart was surging and the corners of his mouth were raised in a 'cheerful' smile, he heard Wei Zongshi's voice from behind.

“This bow… I’ll lend it to you for now.”

His face regaining its calm, Su Zhou turned around and saw Wei Lie, who should have been replenishing his internal weakness, holding a battlefield longbow that was unstrung and looked like a curved wooden stick. The bow was glowing with spiritual light. He came close and directly handed the bow to Su Zhou.

The wrinkles on the face of this bald Zongshi were piled up, and it was impossible to discern his expression: “This bow is called 'Swift Strike'... I know that you have only learned archery for a few days, but even if you just play with it, familiarize yourself with it, it’s good. After all, I can’t use it, and you are young and strong, so even if you don’t shoot accurately, you have enough strength to be intimidating.”

These words had a bit of a hero's twilight feel, but unfortunately, Wei Lie was just like Li Daoran and Zhou Buyi, and didn't know how to speak well. After handing over the bow, he turned and left, leaving Su Zhou alone in place, blinking, looking at the bow, full of question marks.

“What’s this supposed to mean…”

“He probably saw that your bones are excellent, your eyesight is good, and you are naturally blessed with divine strength and abundant energy. You should have noticed when he taught you that 'Just Shot' method last time."

In the mind space, Yala said casually, "This old man probably doesn't have time to find a successor because he is constantly fighting. He gives out secret techniques whenever he meets a young person. This time he met you, and on top of that, he was injured himself, so he simply gave you his handy weapon as well, so that he would have no worries even if he died in the upcoming battle."

Yala's analysis was quite reasonable, and Su Zhou, who had been entrusted with the weapon, became a little irritated: "Could it be that he wants to seek death? I spent half a dose of sacred water to heal him, this right-leaning pessimistic thought needs to be criticized! Thinking about death before the battle has even begun, how can there be such a thing!"

That being said, Wei Lie's state indeed made it impossible for him to draw this semi-spiritual bow. Su Zhou could only return to the vicinity of his tent, string the bow, and try it a few times, but he didn't hit the target, and was mocked by Yala for a while.

"...This bow has a problem, it's not very easy to use—but at least it's stronger than the other ordinary bows in the camp."

'Swift Strike' was a finely crafted semi-spiritual weapon longbow. It used the local spiritual plants of the Divine Wood World as the bow body, and golden silkworm silk and various other spiritual material linen threads as the bowstring. The force could reach more than ten *shi*, which, when converted into modern units of measurement, would probably be a full half ton of force. It was a truly extraordinary strong bow. Even a Zongshi would have difficulty drawing this thing. If it wasn't for the fact that Su Zhou's strength was at least three tons and his spiritual power surged even more, ordinary acquired martial artists would really not be able to draw it.

In the early stages of the acquired realm, one's arms would have about five hundred pounds of strength. The three stages after that were strengthening internal energy, strengthening the soul, and strengthening the body. Only after becoming a Zongshi could one have 'a thousand pounds of force with a flick of the arms' and 'a palm thrust that can kill a fierce horse instantly'.

Of course, if one used internal energy, then, depending on the quality of the technique, it would not be surprising to instantly unleash two or even three or four times the strength. Just like Li Daoran, he could create a small bomb-like effect by purely using his internal qi vortex to collide with Su Zhou's spiritual power. Adding this power to his arms would definitely allow him to easily draw a bow with a force of more than ten *shi*.

But Su Zhou was able to accomplish many things that martial artists needed to use spiritual power for purely with his physical body. But having an overly strong physical body also had its difficulties, which was that his spiritual energy didn't greatly increase the power of his physical body. After all, he had transformed into an extraordinary body, with a spiritual energy structure in his muscles. Pouring in spiritual energy again was just a change in quantity rather than a qualitative one.

Although Swift Strike was fierce, it was not a spiritual weapon engraved with runes and cloud patterns after all. In terms of comfortable feel, it was a bit worse than modern compound pulley bows, but because of the extraordinary materials, modern equipment could not compare in terms of power. It was also especially suitable for the Just Shot method.

The main reason he couldn't shoot accurately was that Su Zhou had only been using a bow for a few days. Even if he was amazingly talented, it was impossible for him to know how to use it without learning. He had to shoot a few more arrows.

As for the Just Shot method, it was an internal energy martial skill, also known as a spiritual martial skill, which required the assistance of spiritual power.

Simply put, when drawing the bow, one could accumulate power in the arrow, concentrate one's mind, and shoot out the arrow, with several times the power of usual. It could break armor and destroy enemies, and even shoot enemies off their warhorses into the air, cutting enemies wearing armor in half at the waist. It was an archery technique whose power increased the more strength the user had and the higher their skill was.

It sounded very ordinary, but the Just Shot method was so powerful that it could be called a secret technique because, if the bow was good enough, the power accumulation effect of this Just Shot method could continue to stack. According to the records in the classics, in ancient times, there was a great Zongshi who used the spiritual bow 'Luo Nanxing' (Falling Southern Star) and steel arrows as weapons, accumulated internal energy for ten breaths, and shot a 'Thunder Arrow' that pierced through a city gate with one blow. According to the description, it should have been a supersonic explosive arrow. Shooting this arrow would be like firing a cannon.

Of course, it also depended on the person's constitution. Ordinary martial artists would be unable to hold the bow steady after accumulating power for a few seconds, let alone doing something as exaggerated as accumulating power for ten breaths with a spiritual bow and steel arrows.

However, Su Zhou was different—because, as Yala said, his bones were excellent, his eyesight was good, and he was naturally blessed with divine strength and abundant energy!

"Let me try..." Su Zhou raised the Swift Strike longbow, aimed at the target, and azure-purple spiritual power rose up, condensing on his waist, back, arms, and the bow and arrow. After a few seconds, he concentrated his mind and shouted sharply, shooting out an arrow!

Bang!

With a piercing whistling sound, the target and the brick wall behind it were directly blasted apart, genuinely shooting it into pieces. A layer of brick wall collapsed with a crash, and the arrow was directly blasted into pieces. Su Zhou couldn't help but click his tongue twice: "If this bow was a little better, shooting an arrow would probably be comparable to me stabbing with all my strength with a gun!"

Just now, he had used the Qi-Controlling Sky-Piercing Method to assist the Just Shot, accumulating power at close range and shooting at the target... Although he still didn't hit the target, the surging white aura shockwave alone had torn the target to shreds! And the speed of this arrow was probably several times faster than the fast arrows of the real world, and even had an almost explosive effect because it was infused with spiritual power!

An arrow with a speed of more than 200 meters per second? What kind of concept was that? The speed of an average rifle was about twice the speed of sound, but that was because the bullet was small and had a lot of kinetic energy. A bullet head weighed less than ten grams, while an arrow, depending on the type, could weigh forty or fifty grams or even more. Its ability to maintain speed was better than a bullet.

Shooting an arrow of this speed, supplemented by spiritual energy, with a lethal range of several hundred meters, was a piece of cake. If a person was hit, the miserable scene would probably be comparable to being hit by an anti-material rifle, and perhaps even more terrifying because the arrow's volume was larger than a bullet.

"After practicing a bit, it would be a bit useful to go back to Earth and deal with that Ghost Witch family, but for now..."

Just as Su Zhou was planning to continue sharpening his skills before the battle and practice the accuracy of his archery, the sharp whistle of a warning came.

He stopped moving, turned his head, and looked towards the fortress wall—there was no need to think.

The vanguard of the demonic army had arrived.