"Son, wake up." A pleasant young man's voice echoed in the dim morning light.
"Mm, Uncle Chi, just a little more sleep, I'm so tired..." At five in the morning, the little ones were still in a foggy slumber, and eight-year-old Amy was no exception. A few more minutes of sleep wasn't too much to ask for, right?
"Ah, it's freezing to death..." A wretched cry came from the dark night, though it seemed the neighbors around the Huber family's hut had already grown accustomed to this peculiar morning alarm.
Little Amy quickly jumped out of her icy bed, while the prankster, having placed a large wooden basin filled with snow on the ground, wore a mischievous grin and said leisurely, "I always regret not having gone through rigorous training when I was young. It's all my dad's fault for not managing me well, which is why I haven't achieved much. So... I absolutely can't let you grow up feeling the same way. I'm going to train you to be an even better warrior than your father. I want a hundredfold return, so... you, son, must give a thousandfold effort."
Before dawn had even broken, the two figures, one big and one small, set off from Heike Village, running along the Warm Water River toward Snow Moon Lake. The poor little Amy had to sing some rather embarrassing songs while being coerced by this mischievous uncle.
"One, two, three, four, I love my dad, Chi Hanfeng! Chi Hanfeng leads us onward, onward..."
"Over the mountains, beyond the rivers, there's a Chi Hanfeng, clever and witty, he..."
*Cough...* It's truly remarkable how this self-satisfied person could be so resilient!
Chi Hanfeng was a peculiar fellow; anyone meeting him for the first time would think he was a noble. In the various empires, all noble families share certain traits: a noble demeanor, elegant speech, and politeness. Chi Hanfeng gave just such an impression initially, but over time, people began to notice his other side: mischievous and fond of pranks. After living in Heike Village for two months, all the residents familiar with him had been pranked at least once. They came to believe his own description of himself—a soldier, a fallen noble only holding the title of the Empire's knight, with no hopes of inheritance or land.
The one most affected by his antics was the poor little Amy.
This unruly uncle liked to call little Amy "son." From the day this peculiar uncle arrived, Amy had never once slept in. Chi Hanfeng didn't allow him any free time; while he never beat or scolded Amy, his methods were often more terrifying than punishment. Putting ice and snow in the bedding was merely the tip of the iceberg. When Chi Hanfeng set his mind to it, he could truly make one wish for death rather than endure his antics.
Sigh... I wonder what Lake Huber would feel like if he knew he had entrusted his son to such a companion while in the Ice Wish Tower.
At first, Grandpa Huber was not accustomed to this young man's treatment of his grandson, especially being called "son." However, after spending some time together, he soon accepted Chi Hanfeng as a family member. What truly moved the old man were some of Chi Hanfeng's actions after little Amy fell asleep. For example, he would get up at night to tuck in Amy's blanket, prepare lessons under the oil lamp for the next day, and chop wood until his palms were covered in blood. Of course, he also worked hard to dig snow early in the morning...
Amy's daily routine roughly included:
**Physical Training:** Rising before dawn to run along the Warm Water River all the way to Snow Moon Lake, a distance of about 20 kilometers. With ice and snow covering the banks, Chi Hanfeng's requirement was to dress lightly—just a thin leather outfit.
**Will Training:** After reaching Snow Moon Lake, stripping down and jumping into the lake for a swim. The lake's water, heated from underground, was extremely warm, enough to boil snow chicken eggs near the edge, though they didn't go into the lake's center.
Suddenly plunging from icy cold into scalding water was indeed a way to toughen one's will.
Like most hot springs, the water in Snow Moon Lake also possessed excellent healing and recovery properties. Thus, regardless of the torment endured the previous day, Amy always recovered well thanks to the lake.
After an hour of will training in Snow Moon Lake, it was back to physical training, swimming back to Heike Village along the Warm Water River. This particular routine lasted only a year; eventually, Amy became so tired one day during swimming that he fell asleep. The mineral-rich Warm Water River had such buoyancy that even without swimming, one could easily float. The current flowed toward the sea, directly leading back to Heike Village. Upon discovering this secret, Amy often took the opportunity to catch up on sleep during this swim.
Until one day, he overslept and drifted all the way out to sea. Chi Hanfeng waited half an hour in the village without seeing Amy return and grew anxious, so he took a wooden boat and found Amy, still asleep, five kilometers off the coast. After that, Amy never enjoyed the luxury of drifting off to sleep while floating during training again.
Back at the village, Amy began his combat skill training, which essentially amounted to chopping firewood. Confused about how this related to combat techniques, Amy asked his beloved Uncle Chi.
"Well," Chi scratched his nose, "to be honest, I don't know either. All my other training is organized by me, but this one was suggested by your dad." It seemed this truly was the idea of Lake Huber. When Amy, following Chi Hanfeng's instructions, visited each household in Heike Village, offering to chop wood for free, most of the older residents displayed expressions that said, "Ah, indeed, he's a Huber child."
Clearly, the Huber family had been training their children in woodcutting for quite some time. If any Huber were ever to become successful, their family crest would surely feature an ax.
Every noon, the residents of Heike Village would deliver coniferous hardwoods felled from the forest to the little hut belonging to the Hubers via sled.
Anyone who has chopped wood knows that the most crucial tool is the ax. The thicker the wood, the larger the ax needed. Especially important is the structure of the ax head; a wider back is better, and while the blade doesn't necessarily have to be razor-sharp, it must connect smoothly to the back. This way, when the ax bites into the wood, the V-shaped design can effectively split it apart.
Although Chi Hanfeng insisted that woodcutting be a mandatory course for Amy, it quickly became apparent that this fallen noble from the empire knew very little about the craft. Even wielding the largest two-handed ax, he struggled to cleave even non-coniferous timber.
On the other hand, Grandpa Huber understood his son's intentions well. During Amy's training, he carefully taught him how to use his strength, the proper stance to maximize his power, how to read the wood's grain, which way to chop for the easiest cut, how to deal with burls, and what to do when encountering forked branches.
Interestingly, it wasn't little Amy who was captivated by Grandpa Huber's lessons; it was Uncle Chi Hanfeng. "Oh, so that's how it is! No wonder that guy could strike my weapon in the least resistant spot on the first hit and still stand so firm in the snow to withstand my charge," he muttered thoughtfully.
From that day onward, two figures—one large and one small—could be seen chopping wood in the Huber family's rundown yard. At first, Amy's chopping speed was incredibly slow, mainly due to a lack of strength and technique. Even when he targeted the grain correctly, the ax would veer off course. Without Uncle Chi's assistance, it seemed the 200 households in Heike Village might have to observe a "Cold Food Festival" due to a shortage of firewood.
During the first year of skill training, Amy used the largest ax for the first half, switching to a medium-sized ax in the latter half, while the trees he was chopping grew thicker.
After dinner, despite a long day's work, Amy found it difficult to sleep. Under the flickering light of a snow whale oil lamp, Chi Hanfeng began to teach him academic subjects. In Amy's eyes, this was undoubtedly Uncle Chi's forte. As an imperial noble, regardless of rank, he possessed an absolute knowledge of the empire's history. Moreover, as a former captain of the Snow Moon Legion, Chi Hanfeng's understanding of military coordination was far beyond that of any ordinary villager in Heike.
Thus, on alternating evenings, they would study military strategy one night and imperial history the next. Amy was not particularly interested in history, but according to Chi Hanfeng, it was a necessary subject if he wanted to impress the ladies. Ladies? What did that mean? Until he turned 15, little Amy could not grasp this simple term. Could it be… something delicious?
What intrigued Amy most were the casual conversations after the knowledge lessons. Chi Hanfeng liked to share tales of life in the imperial capital and some folk stories about mercenaries and wars, often poking fun at the ruling King Redstone or some prominent noble.
Seeing how engrossed Amy was in the stories of mercenaries, Chi Hanfeng curiously asked him why he was so interested.
Amy replied honestly—because mercenaries could kill snow wolves, and becoming one was his greatest ambition in life.
Upon hearing this, Chi Hanfeng nearly toppled off his four-legged stool. He simply could not fathom that the son of an imperial infantry captain, a disciple of the empire's cavalry commander, would aspire to be a mercenary—something the regular army looked down upon. How could two such figures exist under one roof?
Two days later, however, Chi Hanfeng came to terms with it: in terms of income, mercenaries earned far more than soldiers at the same rank, despite the higher risks involved. Moreover, mercenaries had far superior combat capabilities in one-on-one scenarios compared to regular soldiers, which would greatly benefit Amy's future development. Perhaps he could attain the strength to enter the Wish Tower sooner. Being a mercenary was certainly preferable to serving the country and the wretched exploiter King Redstone.
Before the rise of the Mercenary King, swordsmen were regarded as a lowly class within the army and rarely deployed as combat forces.
Under the brilliant light of young Master Amy, more and more battlefield commanders and professional mercenaries began to use long swords. The two-handed swordsman class began to develop systematically within the regular army, leading to the emergence of four new soldier types:
1. **Great Swordsmen:** Comparable to axe-wielding warriors in their ability to break through on the plains.
2. **Two-Handed Swordsmen:** The best class for ambushes and surprise attacks in any combat environment.
3. **The most feared and concerning type for enemy commanders—** the two-handed swordsmen's advanced class, known as the "Battlefield Ghost," the Ravenous Great Swordsman.
4. **The swordsmen class passed down from the Mercenary King became the core of the attacking and defending ranged units for armies across various nations.**
—Chi Yizi, *Introduction to Swordsmen*