Chapter 8
“The demon race has already murdered tens of thousands of our compatriots, causing these compatriots’ blood to stain the ground. Over the last three thousand years, we six temples have never shown remorse for them, and have done the most that was possible for the survival of mankind so that, one day, we would be able to recapture the lost territory and expel those cruel and vicious demons. We will work until our last breath.
“Long Haochen, you must keep firmly in mind that the demon race is the enemy we have the most intense and deep-seated hatred towards.”
Xingyu’s voice was full of power, and even the nine year-old Long Haochen was incredibly influenced by his words, his blood seething with excitement.
“The demon race is the enemy we have the most intense and deep-seated hatred towards.” Long Haochen’s firm tone copied the way Xingyu said this sentence.
Xingyu nodded, “We will concentrate all of our efforts to expel them from our homeland, to recapture our lost territory, and to protect our important ones. Ask yourself this: if, one day, we cannot block the demon race’s progress anymore, what will happen to Odin Town? Your friends, your mother, what sort of catastrophes will they face?”
As the clever Long Haochen did so, he shivered uncontrollably, and his look became ferocious.
Looking at him, Xingyu’s eyes revealed a satisfied expression. He could naturally see that the little child had already kept everything he told him firmly in his mind.
“Today, I will teach you only this much historical knowledge. From tomorrow on, I will tell you about the origin of the six temples. Then, I will teach you about writing, as well as some knowledge regarding the demon race.”
After a whole morning, Long Haochen was immersed in the various stories that Xingyu told him. Compared to his former Instructor, Balza, the things the new Instructor taught him were completely different. He taught every kind of lesson to him, sometimes in an allusive way, sometimes in a straightforward way. It was as if his knowledge was boundless. After only one morning, Long Haochen found out that he had already learnt a lot, which made him instantly like his teacher Xingyu.
“Tomorrow morning, I will give you an examination about everything I told you today. Now, let’s eat. You will have a half-hour rest afterwards.”
Saying that, Xingyu seemed more normal than usual, and he walked immediately to the wooden table.
A scorching hot energy surged out from Xingyu’s hand and, under Long Haochen’s dumbfounded gaze, the food immediately sent out some hot and dense steam.
A large bowl, completely filled with rice, seemed to look as if it was sparkling. There were also four very large portions of cooked dishes: two of meat and two of vegetables. Because his family had always been lacking in money, Long Haochen had never eaten such a good meal. After seeing that, Long Haochen’s eyes seemed dazzled.
Xingyu took out two pairs of chopsticks, “Eat. When you are finished, you can rest for a little while.”
Long Haochen suddenly hurried to stand in front of Xingyu and suddenly knelt before him, letting out a Puff! sound.
“What are you doing?! Don’t tell me that you don’t know men have gold under their knees, how can they easily kneel down before others?” Xingyu scolded him with fury.
Long Haochen lowered his head, speaking haltingly: “Teacher, I… I…”
“What ‘I’ ‘I’? After a little favor, you will kneel down before others like this? Don’t tell me I am teaching a submissive bug?” Xingyu’s voice became even stricter.
Long Haochen nodded. “Teacher, I want to make a request. Can I eat less every day, so that when I go home I can bring some food for Mother? Mother has also never eaten such good food before.”
Xingyu’s ferocity suddenly became dull. From his original anger, there was nothing left, and he now seemed somewhat sluggish. Because Long Haochen was still lowering his head, he didn’t notice that, at that moment, the mysterious new teacher’s lips unexpectedly trembled slightly, with both of his eyes sparkling even more.
Slowly standing up, Xingyu pushed the door and was about to leave, then sent his voice back, “Stand up and eat. I promise you that as long as you seriously follow my practice and meet my requirements, I will have someone deliver a meal for your mother every day.”
“Thank you, teacher!” Long Haochen was overjoyed, as his teacher rotated his knees towards the door, which made some Ping! Ping! Ping! sounds before closing. Then he got up, about to start eating that attractive meal.
Xingyu stood right behind the door, looking up to the sky. He was the only one who could hear these words he let out, “Modesty, honesty, compassion, courage, fairness, sacrifice, perseverance, humility, justice, just what does he lack? Is he such an inborn knight?”
When he returned to the cabin, Long Haochen had already finished eating lunch, but each of the meals had half of it left, and a bowl of rice was put in front of Xingyu’s seat. As he saw him come back, he hurried to stand up and respectfully greeted him.
“The room behind the next door is yours, go there and rest. I will call you when it’s time.”
“Yes.” Long Haochen truly thought that Teacher Xingyu was a gift brought by the heavens to him, and went to rest in great delight.
After a half hour, Xingyu called for Long Haochen.
“From the afternoon to the evening, you will practice. This is for you.” Xingyu gave Long Haochen a pair of dark green bamboo swords.
The bamboo swords were way lighter than any wooden swords Long Haochen had ever used before and the handles, although light, were quite tough.
Xingyu dragged him by the arm, jumped once more towards the mountain peak and, after a little while, he and Long Haochen were some place half-way up the mountain.
Pointing at a large rock in front of them, Xingyu said, “This is a natural owl-ant nest. Inside, there are thousands of owl-ants. Although these insects are not magical beasts, they are very aggressive, particularly to intruders. Don’t forget to use these bamboo swords to protect yourself.”
With such a simple explanation, and without even waiting for Long Haochen to understand the matter, Xingyu kicked him towards the huge rock and Long Haochen cried in alarm as he fell into a pitch-black cave.
Long Haochen’s body landed on something soft and, although he fell from a height of five meters, he was still conscious.
The large rock that was used to block the entrance, until Xingyu moved it to push Long Haochen inside of the cave, was put back, and now Long Haochen could only see barely ten meters around him.
Also, at that moment, with a buzzing sound, Long Haochen could tell that numerous creatures were flying towards him from every direction.
At that moment, he understood what Teacher Xingyu meant and brandished the pair of bamboo swords in front of him.
However, what he had learned at Odin Hall was only the most basic cuts, chops, and thrusting skills, and before him were uncountable owl-ants that were in a frenzy. In an instant, his body was bitten and stung by a lot of them.
A violent pain was transmitted to his whole body, making the young Haochen utter some pitiful cries and the bamboo swords in his hands immediately scattered.
“This is one of the practice methods I’ll instruct you in and also your first examination. If you are unable to withstand this, you can leave tomorrow.”
Xingyu’s voice spread to Long Haochen’s ears, making him panic and lose his firmness, but the severity of his body’s pain was even greater than the effect of these words. His clothes couldn’t restrain the bites of the owl-ants any longer and the bamboo swords in his hands, that were waved in disorder, were clearly hitting a large number of bodies.
“I can withstand this.” Long Haochen shouted. Thinking of his mother and of Xingyu’s words, his courage began to exceed his fear and he went all out and kept waving the bamboo swords in his hands, trying to drive away these owl-ants that were attacking him ceaselessly.
“The current you cannot see, but you have merely lost your sense of vision. You still have your sense of hearing, your sense of touch, and even your sense of taste. Use everything that can assist your abilities to feel your surroundings.”
*[advantage]: by having their erection in contact with her
*[ cent bills]: China has cents in bills called jiao
*[Guoshu]: Guo here means country and shu means technique
*[ 190 centimeters]: Over 6ft tall
*[Lake Cui]: Cui Hu, also means Green Lake
*[hundred dyuan bills]: 100yuan is their biggest bill
*[Daoist Fierce Tiger]: The author of this novel
*[Noodles]: made of wheat
*[Rice Noodles]: made of rice
*[Zhang Tian Tian]: Tian means sweet
*[Bajiquan]: Also known as Eight Extremities Fist, but Bajiquan sounds nicer to me
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don’t ask me about the tree sap