Shen Yin Wang Zuo
chapter-9

Xing Yu’s voice was conveyed once more, but he just explained some simple sword techniques before he disappeared.

The merely nine years old Long Hao Chen has to stay alone in this pitch black cave with these frenzied owl-ants and an intense pain that incessantly spreads through his body.

Because of the severe pain, his speed shot down multiple times, but as he thought about his mother, courage surged out from his heart.

The owl-ants only brought him severe pain; he clenched his teeth to suppress the pain, waving his bamboo swords over and over.

Xing Yu stood outside of the hole. Feeling each minute that passed, his facial expression constantly changed. Not only once, did he raise his hand with the intent to push the huge rock before him, but he resisted.

If it was another kid from Odin Hall, he would have fainted soon after getting into this hole. However, Long Hao Chen was still conscious, constantly exerting himself to fight those owl-ants. They are not poisonous, but can easily bring violent pain to people. Their 1/3 of a decimetre (1 Cun) long body is not only extremely hard, but they also have an incredible attack power.

The expression in Xing Yu’s eyes was constantly changing, he really trained Long Hao Chen with extreme methods. So long as Long Hao Chen could bear this, his mental strength that was so different from ordinary people would be able to develop at the fastest speed possible. This training had also numerous other benefits. It would forge him an iron will.

After half an hour, a whole half hour, Long Hao Chen felt like he passed a century here, his whole body was already numb because of the pain; he couldn’t wave the swords in his hands anymore and his weak body sank into a coma.

At this moment, the stone covering the entrance of the cave was pushed aside and a great force was exerted on Long Hao Chen’s body, pulling it, as the uncountable owl-ants were repelled out by a strange power, without any way to fly out to avoid it.

This was probably all done by Xing Yu, but as he looked at Long Hao Chen, taking a deep breath, it could be seen in his gaze that he couldn’t control his feelings anymore.

At this moment, Long Hao Chen had his whole body already completely worn out. His whole body was swelling from stings, his beautiful little face couldn’t be recognized at all, and traces of the impacts with the owl-ants’ bodies could be seen on the set of bamboo swords.

Xing Yu hurriedly made Long Hao Chen inhale a kind of red medicine and, after a flash, he had carried Long Hao Chen back to the log cabin at an immeasurable speed.

There was a total of three log cabins: apart from the master and his apprentice’s log cabins, there was also another one Long Hao Chen never went in. At this moment, it was into this log cabin that Xing Yu brought him.

Upon entering the log cabin, a dense hot steam could be seen coming out.

In this wooden cabin’s interior could be seen a rock with a pool dug out around. To say it accurately, it should be the pool that was here first, and then this log cabin was built around.

The water of the pool was overflowing. The water inside the pool was brown colored, numerous medicines floating inside.

Xing Yu quickly stripped off Long Hao Chen’s ripped clothes, carefully putting his body inside of the pool. Only the part above his nose was outside of the pool.

The hot spring here was, in fact, dug by Xing Yu, but Long Hao Chen, still in a coma, didn’t know this. In the pool’s water, he was soaked into these medical materials that had a value that even 10,000 bottles of Elemental Training Liquid could not compare with.

After half an hour, Xing Yu saw that the swollen parts on Long Hao Chen’s body were gradually disappearing and left the log cabin.

The sunlight was gradually disappearing, leaving room for the dim light of the night and, unknowingly, it was already dusk.

“It hurts. Waaaa– –” Long Hao Chen’s shouted, waking up from his coma while being soaked in the hot spring.

His body moved, but naturally it could not keep its balance. The water in the pool wasn’t deep, but he drank some and just spat it out. From the pool, a loud *cough* sound could be heard.

Where am I? Long Hao Chen ignorantly looked at the surrounding steam and the water around him. The intense pain he originally had was already all gone and, except from the fact that his whole body was completely cleaned and naked, he felt completely natural.

Opening the door and holding clothes, Xing Yu entered from outside.

“Wear these clothes and come out.” after letting out a simple sentence, he left again.

Long Hao Chen came out from the water, a bit confused, grabbing a towel on his side before putting clean clothes on. Then, he thought back about the events that happened in the owl-ants’ cave.

Remembering the severe pain he had at that moment, he couldn’t help but shiver intensely. At that time, he relied entirely on his courage to bear it, but thinking back about this, he felt once more the severe pain of that moment.

As he pushes the door, he discovers that he was in the third log cabin and entering into the middle cabin, he discovered a rich meal arranged on the table.

“Come and eat.” Xing Yu acted as if nothing had happened, pointing to the meal on the table and starting to eat.

Looking at his teacher, Long Hao Chen haltingly spoke: “Teacher, I… …”

“Come and eat first.” Xing Yu looked at him with a stern gaze.

Long Hao Chen didn’t dare say anything else and hurried to sit down and to start eating as if he hadn’t eaten anything for a long time. He was especially hungry tonight; his appetite was three times more than usual. Except from the little portion Xing Yu ate, in a little while, Long Hao Chen had eaten everything edible on the table.

“Tell me how you felt today.” Xing Yu didn’t let him tidy up the table yet, calmly inquiring.

“It was very painful.” Long Hao Chen sincerely answers.

“Can you only do this much?” Xing Yu coldly spoke: “This was only the beginning. Come out with me and take your bamboo swords along.”

“Okay.”

The master and its apprentice left the wooden cabin, arriving at the summit of the mountain.

Two similar bamboo swords appeared in Xing Yu’s hand, “The sword is known as the king of weapons. It can attack as well as defend. If you want to defend others, you have to be able to defend yourself first. Now, I am going to teach you closure tactics[1] now. Look carefully.”

The bamboo blades moved. Letting out some afterimages, these sword rays that looked so unreal shone on the summit of the mountain. Sentences accompanied these sword rays, unceasingly entering into Long Hao Chen’s ear. Today, his hellish practice had just began.

A whole seven days passed. At this time, Xing Yu instructed every day to Long Hao Chen, various subjects; astronomy, geography, and history were included. On the next day, there would be an examination about the course of the day before, but to Long Hao Chen, it was the happiest moment of the day.

In the afternoon, hell began. The owl-ants’ lair was a required course everyday, but the final result was the same every time. This inhumane pain made Long Hao Chen almost want to die, but every time his heart thought of giving up, Xing Yu would remind him that he would be able to go home after only a few days.

Every time he was in the owl-ant’s cave, he trained until the moment he would faint, and once he woke up, he would find himself in the middle of the hot springs, with the pain already gone.

After dinner, practice started over: Xing Yu passed some skills to Long Hao Chen and let him do mechanical memorizing to learn a few things. Only when the night was very late would the day of training end.

The most painful thing for Long Hao Chen was the fact that Xing Yu didn’t permit him to sleep. When it was late at night, as he was completely exhausted, Xing Yu would teach him a seated meditation method that Long Hao Chen called “sleeping while sitting”. And in the morning, Xing Yu’s sword would hit him, without a doubt, to wake him up.

1. 封字诀 closure tactics (letter + thing, the word formed meaning tactics) Something like tactics to block your enemies, or to finish them off, I guess.