As he was inserting the sword he held in his right hand directly into the ground, exerting his back’s strength, the sword in his left hand thrust forward with full force. During that instant, Long Haochen felt that his spiritual energy broke into a new boundary. The sword ruthlessly hit the lower part of the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s jaw, and, although it was in its strengthened state, that attack made it fly backwards and caused its ferocious mouth to close.
At the same time, Long Haochen’s whole body jumped on a curved path with the support of the bamboo sword in his right hand that was pushed into the ground, and his left leg kicked the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s lower jaw upwards.
With two strikes in a row, both chained together extremely well, the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s body was unable to keep its balance and lifted up from the ground because of the kick.
Meanwhile, Long Haochen, who still had the support of the bamboo sword he had pushed into the ground, let go of the sword in his right hand, which enabled him to jump back to the ground. The bamboo sword in his left hand took the form of thin white lightning striking upwards.
With a Bang! sound, the upper part of his body rose towards the Scorpion-tailed Lizard and its belly was penetrated by the bamboo sword, simultaneously causing its body to fall down.
After a sad, shrill, miserable, yell, the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s tail swept around as a last intent of struggling before its death.
However, Long Haochen had already expected that possibility and, using his sword smoothly, he directly countered that last attack. He jumped aside before pulling the sword that was stuck in the ground out with his right hand, and entered into a defensive posture.
Ping!
The Scorpion-tailed Lizard fell on the ground, its body violently squirmed and repeatedly cried out miserably because of the pain from its belly.
Long Haochen looked calmly around him and didn’t discover any other magical beasts in the area. Then, he found a large tree to lean on. His breathing had become quite heavy.
In a split instant, his whole body became drenched with sweat. His physical power seemed to be completely depleted.
Since the instant he vanquished the Scorpion-tailed Lizard, only a few seconds had actually passed. During that moment, at the edge of death, it could be said that his latent potential had been completely stirred up. Before he broke through that new level, all of his abilities were used to their utmost limits. His final attack used the only skill that Xingyu had taught him: Pure-White Edge. By momentarily concentrating all of his spiritual energy at a single point of his sword, he was able to attack with 110% of his full-power.
Before Long Haochen linked these moves, a certain person, hidden in the dark, was watching him without making a single noise. Even if Long Haochen had lost consciousness at the end of the exchange of blows, that man could easily get rid of that kind of magical beast.
But, in the end, Long Haochen didn’t make a single mistake. With the two swords he carried, he got rid of the Scorpion-tailed Lizard. Meanwhile, his spiritual force also broke through the 30th level, entering into the 3rd rank of the 1st step of knighthood. That was the reason why Long Haochen had felt that sudden rise in strength at that moment.
In any vocation, as the rank grew, the feeling of a breakthrough would become more obvious.
After panting a few more times, Long Haochen noticed that the sky had already begun turning pitch-black, and felt that his energy had returned while the Scorpion-tailed Lizard was lying on the ground, motionless.
Looking at the dead Scorpion-tailed Lizard, the 9-year-old Long Haochen’s eyes revealed a glow. “Teacher, you were right. It is after enduring hardships that one can become a great man. I should not bear resentment towards you. If not for your teachings, I’m afraid I would have become unable to meet Mother again. Teacher, I won’t ever complain again, even secretly in my heart.”
As he said those words, Long Haochen turned towards the summit of the mountain, bowing with respect, and passed, with great care, the Scorpion-tailed Lizard’s body.
Generally speaking, the most elementary magical beast had a lot more value than any wild beast. Even that kind of low-level magical beast was worth at least one gold coin. Long Haochen was not willing to waste that opportunity.
He looked around carefully for a stone, and used it to deprive the Scorpion-tailed Lizard of its hooked tail and used two vines to tie it, with the intent to bring it home.
He didn’t meet any more danger on the road. He went straight to Odin Town, ran towards a shop, and explained that he wanted to sell the corpse of the magical beast that his teacher had slain. After he got a gold coin and two silver coins, he finally went home.
It looked as though Bai Yue knew beforehand that her son would come home that day. When Long Haochen passed the entrance, he saw the richest dinner he had ever seen at home.
His teacher had abided by his promise and brought tasty food to his mother. Looking at that, the young Haochen couldn’t help feeling even more grateful towards Xingyu.
“Mother, I give this to you.” Long Haochen handed Bai Yue all the money he had as a gift.
Bai Yue was flabbergasted, “Where did you get this money from?”
Because he didn’t want his mother to worry, Long Haochen told her a lie out of goodwill.
“Teacher gave me this money to give to you. He said that upon becoming a Knight Squire, I could also receive a salary. This is my first year’s remuneration, but if my improvements are fast, I will, perhaps, have some more rewards like this.”
Unexpectedly, Bai Yue didn’t persist in asking. She smiled, took the money, and said: “Haochen, you must listen to your teacher’s words, understood?”
“Yeah.” Long Haochen repeatedly nodded.
Bai Yue pursued, “Is practice hard?”
Before he killed the Scorpion-tailed Lizard, Long Haochen would surely have replied differently to that question. After all, the fear of the owl-ants nest was held strongly in his heart. But, at that moment, he shook his head and replied without the slightest hesitation, “Mother, it is not hard at all. Teacher teaches me well, gives me good food to eat every day, and lets me soak in a hot spring.”
Hearing these words, Bai Yue’s face looked relieved. She stroked her son’s head, “Hurry up. Go eat some food.”
After having eaten dinner, Long Haochen didn’t forget to use the Elementary Training Liquid to boil a wild herb soup for her before going back to his room to sleep. He was very pleased with himself.
On the morning of the next day, he returned to Odin Mountain’s road. He didn’t meet any magical beasts on the road, so he quickly headed back to the summit of the mountain.
“Teacher, I’m back.” Long Haochen excitedly entered the log cabin.
Xingyu looked like had been waiting at the same place for a long time and lightly said, “Before we continue with today’s course, I will give you an examination to see if you forgot what you have studied up to now. Tell me about Knight Squires, Standard Knights, as well as the requirements to grow in rank as a knight.”
Long Haochen answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Knight Squires are graded between the 1st and the 10th rank. After breaking through the 100th spiritual energy level, they can be promoted to Standard Knights. Standard Knights are graded the same way: they gain one rank every 10 spiritual energy levels and upon breaking through the 200th level, one can take the Genuine Knight examination. The knight examination does not only require spiritual energy, it also requires one to have the ten standards of a knight. After becoming a Genuine Knight, one can be promoted from the 1st rank after 10 spiritual energy levels as well; only upon surpassing the 210th spiritual energy level will someone be a 2nd rank Genuine Knight, and, after that, each of the eight other ranks are promoted every 30 spiritual energy levels. At the last rank, one can reach the 4th step of the vocation after accumulating 50 more spiritual energy levels and surpassing the 500th spiritual level.”
Xingyu carried on with his examination: “Why are the spiritual energy requirements to promote to each rank different after becoming a Genuine Knight?”
Long Haochen answered: “Because it is only after entering the 1st step of knighthood that one can be said to be a full-fledged knight, so each rank is merely an adaptation. You also taught me that regardless of the step, the 3rd step, the 4th step, the 5th step or afterwards, the ranks between the 1st and the 2nd are always the easiest to pass.”
Xingyu pursued with a bunch of other questions, which lasted for half an hour, before finishing that examination. Long Haochen answered all of these questions—correctly—without making the slightest little mistake, because of his astonishing memory.
“Good, you remembered everything quite clearly, we can now begin today’s course. But beforehand, I have to ask you, do you think that, for a knight, the most important thing is to attack? Or is it to defend?”
*[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