Li Yu's voice choked as he reached the last part of the dialogue. He had never spoken these words to anyone, silently bearing everything with a shameless smile on his face, keeping these emotions of humiliation in the deepest corner of his mind. It had gotten to the point that he could only smile properly in his sleep. Humiliation and infamy was the cost he had to pay for the satisfactory life of himself and his brother.
Who wanted to be mocked, disdained, and pointed fingers at, if they could have the life they wanted? Who wanted to act miserly if they had money to spend lavishly? Who didn't want to be admired? To be the hero of their close ones? Li Yu's choice to hide from his brother all his actions also included these shameful feelings. He didn't want his little brother to be disappointed in him. But the situation had come to the point at which he could do nothing other than opening the emotional scars, because he knew that climbing to be a top scholar didn't only include about knowledge of academics, it also included being cunning, wily and selfish, with a burning desire to climb to the top and a ruthless will to remove anyone hindering your way.
Li Ming had tears streaming down his face by the end of the conversation. He knew his brother took care of him diligently with all his might. But never did he know about the burdens his brother had to face. He realized that he had been too foolish to have taken everything that Li Yu did for granted, and blamed himself for not trying to realise the problems of his big brother. He didn't blame Li Yu in the slightest for displaying such cowardly display. If anything, he was more and more grateful to have Li Yu as his brother. He said " Brother, don't say such things, you will always be my heroic big brother. The villagers didn't raise me, you did. I am proud to have a big brother like you, who bears every burden silently for the sake of his little brother. But brother, aren't you being paranoid? How can so many bad guys be present at the capital? Even if there are some, it's rare for me to cross paths with them" He still couldn't understand why people were warning him so severely. It couldn't be blamed on him though, as he had been leading a sheltered life till now. But Li Yu knew the exact reason.
Li Ming's talent at academy was jealousy inducing. He would definitely be schemed against. It was because top scholars were required to join the councillor's hall which was directly under the king, a position most people would kill for. Li Yu had sent Li Ming to study because he wanted Li Ming to become a normal scholar who would be posted in the nearby cities around the village. However, Li Ming shone like the brightest star in the sky, breaking records after records in the academics. And there were many 'clouds' in the world whose ultimate wish was for 'stars' to never shine. In fact, if Li Yu knew of his brother's ability, he would have forced Li Ming to hide it. As far as Li Yu was concerned, living a normal scholar's life was the best, with rather large income and a far distance from the eyes of malicious people. But all this was a wishful thinking after Li Ming's first year result. Li Yu's first reaction on hearing the result was not happiness, it was fear. Fear for his brother's safety.
Calming his emotions, Li Yu continued " Ming, I am not being paranoid here. When I was 13, remember the time I came 3 days late one time, where you went hungry for 2 continuous days? I said that I couldn't find the beasts to hunt, so I came late. In reality, I was almost ambushed by a group of hunters. Luckily for me, the hunters were a dumb bunch who couldn't keep following me without being noticed by me. I led them around the valley till I ran into a bunch of wolves. Taking advantage of the situation, I made both groups fight. Do you know, when I asked the last remaining person their reason to try to harm me, what did he say? He said they were jealous! Funny, isn't it? Just because of jealousy, they tried to harm a 13 year old teen who was the sole pillar of a 9 year old boy. I have been attacked many times since. Wake up, little brother. The world has many such people who would do anything due to jealousy and envy. Now tell me, if even my infamy can lead to many ambushes and sneak attacks, what about you, who has the potential to be the top scholar of the country?"
Just the infamy of a small village led to Li Yu being ambushed many times in the valley by many small minded hunters, how could the fame of the whole country be so easily obtained? Li Ming would have to face people that are hundreds of times more cunning and resourceful than those hunters, like many established scholar families, political figures, various princes who recruit many talented people to work for them, and lastly, the ruthless king who wishes to keep everything under his control. It would be more dangerous than walking on thin ice. Thinking till here, Li Ming broke out in cold sweat after realising the harsh reality of his situation.
Li Ming hurriedly asked " Then what should be done, big brother? Should I reject the proposal of going to the capital? Or should we leave the country?"
Li Yu replied " No, I have thought these few months about our situation, the best option will be to pretend to be an idiot at the practical aspect of the duty as a scholar. If you join administration department, pretend to be a bad administrator. If you join account department, pretend to be a bad accountant. People will gradually come to know you as academical genius but idiot at practical aspect. You will still be respected as a genius, but you won't gain any respectable post which holds power, resulting in the less attention amongst the people in power. You can gradually perform better when the attention is at lowest, and you have sufficient grasp of situation in the capital. You can also speed up your climb to the top by finding a proper backing, like marrying a princess and becoming son in-law of the king."
Li Ming rolled his eyes " Brother, I am 16 and have enough time to marry. While you are already 20. I have heard that many are already married by 20. You should worry about yourself."
Li Yu said " Okay, enough of your nonsense, I am planning to take you to hunt to the valley today. We'll be hunting continuously till the day before our departure to the capital. Using ambush and schemes on the less intelligent beasts would be your training for using the cunning of your mind. You go to our house and bring your horse along with all the hunting equipments. We'll keep the horse at the inn. I'll have manager Ma take care of the horse." ' Manager Ma ' was the manager from whom Li Yu got rudimentary knowledge about the cultivation world. No one knew his name, he just let everyone call him ' manager Ma'.
After the lunch, Li Ming went to their home, and Li Yu went to me manager Ma. Chatting for a while, Li Yu explained his situation to manager Ma. Agreeing to care for the horse, manager Ma started accounting the amount that is to be given to Li Yu. Li Yu exchanged everything he owned, along with the money he had saved up until now and his house deed into 10 low grade spirit stones. Li Yu had a detailed plan for going to the capital. He had exchanged the coins with the stones for two reasons.
The first being that the country did not have a bank for the commoners. It was rumoured that only large and true kingdoms with cultivators stabilizing their destiny had the capacity to open banks. Hence, carrying a large bag which made lots of jingling noise would arouse unnecessary attention. It was one thing to do so in the village, but trying show off your wealth in the capital? Clearly, Li Yu was not that tired of living.
The second, and more important reason being, that while the low grade spirit stones could be bought with gold coins in the respective ratio of 1:100, in a small country like Blue Sparrow country, the prices could reach as high as 1:200 or 1:300 due to lack of spirit stones. Hence, Li Yu planned to sell half to buy a building and start up a shop or an inn. The rest could be used to increase physical fitness of both him and Li Ming.
Li Ming didn't take long to arrive. They gave the horse to manager Ma and went towards the valley. On the way, Li Yu taught the basics of hunting to Li Ming. Luckily, Li Yu had already taught about the bow and arrows to Li Ming who was already sufficiently proficient in using them. They spent the afternoon following a goat shaped beast silently, finally getting their chance near the evening.
" Observe the expression of the beast while it is facing the sun. It is a bit tired and will stretch the body, before running at full speed to its hideout near the base of the mountains. The goat type beasts within the valley have this routine, to prevent hunters from following them to their hideout due to their quick speed. It will stretch front hooves first, then the back ones. Just as it stretches the front hooves, the butt hole will clearly be seen. It will be easier to shoot and kill in one arrow that way. This is the first lesson for you - we can understand someone's intention by observing their expression and movements." Li Yu quickly whispered the instructions.
Li Ming said in a slightly embarrassed voice " Brother, is it necessary to kill it that way? We can always aim for the eyes, right?"
Li Yu fiercely said " You know nothing. We must treasure every opportunity that passes by. How can you be sure that we will be able to aim for the eyes next time? Shoot whatever that is in front of you. This is the second lesson- removing anyone in your way by any means, be it fair or foul."
Li Ming helplessly took aim, but the more he looked towards the target, the more repulsed he felt and hence he made a mistake, shooting the butt instead of the butt hole. The beast, clearly angry at the slight injury on the butt, turned around and started running towards them.
Li Yu quickly said " Run! It found us!" and started running away with all his might, not forgetting to pull Li Ming along with him. Li Ming asked while running, bewildered " Didn't we manage to injure it? Why should we run away?"
Li Yu said " We have a high chance of getting injured if we fight with it. Remember, the first strike should be the last. Or else we should run away as far as possible."
Li Ming asked, annoyed " Brother, why do I feel that you are teaching me rules of assassination instead of the way of living?"
Li Yu angrily said " Nonsense! Assassination is an occupation which requires you to go deep in the enemy's territory. Though they follow the motto of 'safety first', I don't see how it is safe to go deep into the enemy's territory. Remember, my motto is 'go for the kill when the enemy is weak, run away when the enemy is strong'."
Li Ming asked while frowning " But the beast is weaker than us"
Li Yu explained " 'Weak' here means having maximum of one fifth our strength, and 'strong' here means having minimum of half our strength. Clearly, the beast has about three fourth of our strength. Hence it is 'strong'. This is other lesson of life, compete only if you are sure of a landslide victory."
Li Ming was silenced at the absurd reasoning of his brother. He realised that it was better to stop asking questions and just concentrate on whatever his brother asks him to do, that way he could lessen the amount of headache that he was about to have during the journey.
They ran till the beast stopped following them, switching the target to a wolf who was separated from its pack. Not wishing to hear his brother's nagging again, Li Ming pushed down the repulsive feeling and successfully managed to shoot right on the spot, managing to earn lots of praise from Li Yu. As their main aim was training, they disposed most of the wolf, taking only the expensive parts like fur and fangs which were easier to carry.
They went deeper and deeper as Li Ming got better and better at hunt under 'expert guidance' of Li Yu. Five days passed quickly and Li Ming slowly adapted in doing what he thought previously as repulsive. With only two days to go before their departure, they slowed down when they were halfway through the valley. This was the deepest Li Yu had ever come before due to his fear of the legend of the Dark Forest. Planning to start going back the first thing in the morning, they decided to stop there for the rest of the night. Making a makeshift bed on the thick branches of the Yellow Leaf trees using leaves, grass, fur and rope, they quickly went to sleep after applying some local herbs to keep away the insects and night prowling beasts.
The night sky had a half moon and was filled with stars, with clouds sometimes covering up the moon. Just before dawn, a burly old man appeared out of thin air right above the sleeping place of brothers. Looking down at their peaceful sleeping face, the old man continued looking with his dark brown wolfish eyes for about 15 minutes, and exclaimed in surprise " Excellent! Older brother of young master Ming in this life is quite an intelligent fellow in the ways of the world. Unfortunately, changing destiny is hard even for the second step cultivators, let alone a mortal like him. Considering young master Ming's identity, even second step cultivators can't change his destiny."
Looking at the direction of the Dark Forest, he continued murmuring " Trying to prevent something sometimes accelerates the process. Well, I'll have to assume my duty day after tomorrow, instead of next month." Giving the pair a last look, he vanished into thin air just before the sunrise lit up the brother's place.