Wen Hu stopped speaking, smiled slightly, then narrowed his eyes, flipped the coin between his fingers, and flicked it with his thumb, sending the coin shooting vertically into the air.

At the same time, Zhou Nuo's eyes lit up, and the arrow on the bowstring was shot out!

Those close to Zhou Nuo only heard a whooshing sound!

In almost the time it takes to breathe, the arrow pierced the copper core, and the entire arrow drove the copper plate into the ground.

Buzzing—

The arrow's fletching swayed.

The room fell silent.

"Holy crap..." Du Yuhe blurted out the national treasure subconsciously.

Snap!

Smack! Smack!

Wen Hu clapped first, then Yuan Xiu also started clapping, and in an instant, thunderous applause filled the room.

Yuan Xiu exclaimed, "Lady Zhou is truly the number one archer in our Great Jing!"

Zhou Nuo clasped his hands in a fist salute to Yuan Xiu, performing a traditional martial arts greeting: "You flatter me."

"Ah..." Yuan Xiu was a little uncomfortable, but laughed and said, "Haha, very good!"

Wen Hu returned to his seat, giving Wen Tai a meaningful look on the way.

This is indeed a true talent; he's not just someone worth recruiting, he's someone we absolutely must recruit!

After witnessing Zhou Nuo's abilities, Yuan Xiu no longer doubted Xiao Luofeng's achievements. With such a sharpshooter, training a hundred garrison soldiers into archers and launching a night raid on the Southern Zhou army was indeed a possibility!

If you can hit a moving copper plate and copper core from 200 paces away, wouldn't it be easy to blow someone's head off?

How long would it take the Southern Zhou army to reach Zhou Nuo, a distance of two hundred paces?

"Impressive, impressive..." Yuan Xiu looked at Zhou Nuo with admiration, already thinking about how to get her to serve the country.

“General Longxiang!!” Yuan Xiu suddenly shouted.

"Your subject is here!" Xiao Luofeng immediately replied.

"It is both the good fortune of our Great Jing and your blessing that you have met a heroine like Lady Zhou. I have decided to allocate two hundred taels of gold from the imperial treasury, awarding you one hundred taels and Lady Zhou one hundred taels!"

Xiao Luofeng immediately said, "Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Upon hearing this, the officials were all amazed. It was not uncommon for the emperor to use gold and silver from the imperial treasury to reward people, but it was very rare. This was enough to show how much the emperor valued Zhou Nuo.

Zhou Nuo, however, was completely unaware and even forgot to express his gratitude.

Yuan Xiu pursed his lips, reminding himself that this person was a江湖人士 (jianghu figure) who didn't know the rules, but still asked doubtfully, "Does Lady Zhou think it's too little? I am devoted to the country, and my imperial treasury is not very wealthy. Don't underestimate this hundred taels of gold; it already represents most of my assets!"

The elderly Mu Shanyue and the ministers around him exchanged glances, suppressing their laughter, thinking that His Majesty was actually explaining things to a young girl!

My personal savings are small.

Hahahaha!!

Zhou Nuo shook his head and said, "It's not that I think it's too little, it's just that I feel that I can get so much money just for performing archery. So I'll come here to perform more often in the future!"

"Haha, those are two different things!"

Yuan Xiu smiled and brushed it off, then immediately pressed his advantage, saying, "Later I will discuss other matters with Lady Zhou. If Lady Zhou is interested, a mere hundred taels of gold is nothing to me!"

Zhou Nuo said, "I will not enter the harem."

Yuan Xiu: "..."

The ministers: "..."

"Pfft!" Zhao Cheng couldn't hold back any longer and quickly covered his mouth and bent over, afraid that Yuan Xiu would see him laughing.

Zhou Nuo, your level of showing off far surpasses Zhao Wu's, and even crushes mine!

Your Majesty is completely at a loss!

Yuan Xiu composed himself, thinking to himself that it was good he had no interest in women, and patiently said, "I didn't mean for you to enter the harem... Alright, let's not talk about this for now!"

Seemingly afraid that Zhou Nuo would say something that would embarrass him again, Yuan Xiu immediately said, "The younger sister has already demonstrated her archery skills, now it's time for the older brother to show off his swordsmanship, right?"

"Master Zhou, may I have the pleasure of seeing this?"

Zhou Chuan walked out, and Zhou Nuo walked back. As they brushed past Zhao Cheng, Zhao Cheng said to Zhou Chuan, "Since you're already here, be more high-profile and be better at pretending than Xiao Nuo."

Zhou Chuan listened to Zhao Cheng's words, but he didn't understand them!

High-profile? Showing off?

Is he even better at pretending than Zhou Nuo?

What should we do then?

As Zhou Chuan pondered the matter without finding a solution, a voice came from the foreign mission area.

"Under General Xiao's command, the Zhou siblings won the great victory at Lingshan. Our Southern Zhou is completely convinced of our defeat. The Grand Commander was fined three years' salary, and the Junior Commander was imprisoned by the Grand Commander for three months."

It was Zhou Jinghuan who spoke. He stepped forward and said, "It's not that I, Nan Zhou, can't accept defeat; it's just that I'm also very interested in Master Zhou."

"Master Zhou uses a sword. In the battle of Lingshan, your sword was stained with the blood of many soldiers of Southern Zhou, wasn't it?"

Zhou Jinghuan turned to the side, pointed to Chen Chong behind him, and said, "It just so happens that my Southern Zhou is not lacking in sword masters. I propose that you two have a friendly spar."