6.1
Chang An immediately relaxed. He instantaneously knew this old man was on the same boat as him. He too purposely sneaked here to watch something he isn’t supposed to. The old man removed his basket of herbs and carefully surveyed Chang An and the blade he was holding. Curious, he asked: "How old are you? How come nobody else is here? Who taught how you to wield that?"
Chang An was a child used to running around the tribe uninhibited. Although the adults disliked Zhe Yan, they were above projecting their hatred onto a kid. They felt he was quite pitiful in fact and so treated him rather nicely. This desensitized Chang An to things that'll normally gripe a child, the authority of an adult, for example. He was the embodiment of the saying, 'newborn calves are not afraid of tigers.' Responding fearlessly, he said, "no one taught me. I learned by watching."
"Huh?" The middle aged man raised his brows in surprise. Pondering it over, he asked, "are you saying you memorized the movements just by observing? No guidance whatsoever?"
Chang An looked at him strangely. He didn't understand what the big deal was. Why wouldn't he remember a couple sword moves after seeing them repeated over and over again?
The man picked up the fallen sword and rapt it on his hand a couple times. He swept Chang An a glance and asked, "do you like this blade?"
Chang An nodded without hesitation.
He asked again, "what do you like about it?"
For a six-year-old, this question was too nebulous to form any kind of opinion on.
Confusion nestled his features and Chang An was silent for a long while before an epiphany struck ——only with a blade, can one survive. He couldn't remember who told him that, but before he could answer, the other seemed to have already lost interest in the topic and was attempting something else.
The middle-aged man saw his look of bewilderment and laughed. Next, without warning, he struck out with the blade in his hand. The blade, which looked quite ordinary and rusted, unexpectedly when angled in a certain way, managed to slice the wind around them in half and whip past Chang An, hitting his temples, and soaring into the distance with a woosh.
Chang An's eyes brightened at once, and he immediately looked to the man's shoulder, waist, and wrist.
During his observations, he learned that when attacking a person, one's important movements are concentrated within these three spots.
"This move is to be used when you encounter a beast bigger than you." The man hung his head low and cupped Chang An's head with a smile. "If you hesitate for even a second, all channels of attack will be shut down by your opponent. He can kill you easily with a slash of his claw. So you only have this one opportunity. And you have to be fast, so fast that before he can even lift his claw, you’ve already slitted his throat."
Chang An took hold of the blade and stood on his heels, attempting the same formation the man just performed; right foot behind and torso tilting ahead. He did not cut straight down with the sword, however, for he knew he did not have the strength for that. Adapting, he lightly pressed the ground with his sole and tensed his leg muscles like one would when running; relaxing his shoulders, he raised the blade. Using the strength of his waist, he tried to mimic what the man performed with the weapon.
Release!
it doesn't seem right?
The man shook his head and signalled a pause.
But Chang An didn't stop, he stepped back a few steps to adjust his posture again. This time around, his stance was way more accurate than before. And while directing his blade ahead, he inclined his body a bit to the side, a move that seemed to cover his lack of wrist strength.
Seeing this, the man quieted- his gaze narrowing.
The little fellow thought for a bit and then retreated to a distance. He wiped away the beads of sweat on his forehead and took a deep breath. Now, tensing his muscles again, he raise the blade and tried one more time to push out the force.
Then with a sharp swoosh sound, a subtle tremor vibrated in the air.
Chang An took a few steps forward and rooted put. With sparkling eyes, he gazed at his instructor, looking naively pleased.
The middle aged man saw very clearly what had happened.
While contacting his feet with the ground, the little fellow cleverly allowed energy to seep from his soles to lower back, and in that slight instance of inclination, transfuse throughout his whole body. Through that he was able to sent the internal force of the blade. Although in the eyes of an adult beast, the force he sent out was negligible, it couldn't be any more formidable coming from a small child.
Seeing is believing; so with this demonstration, he finally believed Chang An's words that he was capable of memorizing moves solely by observing.
It was like….he was born for the sole purpose of wielding the blade!
The man took a hasty step forward and grabbed Chang An by the arm to feel his flesh and bone.
He was stunned and carefully took another look at the boy's complexion, eventual disappointment settling between his brows.
He was actually a sub-beast. And not just any sub-beast, but an extremely unhealthy one too.
Despite his hand being nowhere near his heart, he could still feel the boy's violent and unpacified heartbeat rippling through his body. And indeed, before the smile could fade from his face, he already broke into unconsolable coughing.
Sighing, the man wiped away the hints of perspiration dabbling Chang An's face and whispered regretfully: "child, this is not the right path for you."
The child has a weak skeletal structure. If he persists on this path, his wrist and body muscles would likely atrophie. To be able to lift up a 30-jin blade is already commendable given his current circumstances, but any more than that, say a 100-jin sword in the worst case scenario, would be pure devastation for his bones.
Chang An didn't understand what he was getting at. He stared at the old man in confusion. The man wordlessly picked up his herbal basket and turned towards the Yufeng.
The children of the tribe have been warned not to enter the Yufeng mountain alone or with a group, as it is the homeland of poisonous insects and man-eating plants. There are regions covered with snow and regions habituated by eccentric monsters so strong even the bravest beast warriors kept out.
Chang An held the worn-out, tattered-looking blade, and stood wondering, does this man live inside the Yufeng Mountain?
Then he must be someone extremely powerful, right?
Suddenly, Chang An felt a burning in his nose, and two drops of blood dripped onto his upper robe.
He raised his head and wiped the bloodstains under his nose with the back of his hand emotionlessly. It was normal for his nose to bleed whenever he over-exhausts himself. It wasn't anything surprising;
He was long used to it.
tn: Hua Yi is the second part^-^