“Hold out as long as you can. I won’t force you. But if in the future you are weaker than your peers you’ll have no one to blame but yourselves,” Hillman said coldly.
“Hmm?” Lorry suddenly stared, astonished, at the northern group. At this point in time many of the kids in the middle group had fallen down, but in the northern group, a six-year-old child had held strong.
“This must be Linley’s first day at training. Who would’ve thought he’d be so formidable?” Lorry said, amazed. Next to him, Roger and Hillman also noticed. Looking in that direction they saw that to the north a single brown-haired boy was still holding firm. His lips tightened, the boy stared determinedly in front, both fists tightly clenched so hard that his knuckles were white.
A look of pleasant surprise appeared in Hillman’s eyes. “Good kid!” Hillman secretly praised. Despite being just six years old, the kid could maintain the ‘Qi Building Stance’ for as long as the ten-year-old kids.
Linley, full name Linley Baruch, was the eldest son and heir to the Baruch clan which ruled over the town of Wushan. The Baruch clan was an ancient clan. It had once been extremely prosperous, but after the passage of thousands of years it had only three members remaining: the clan leader, Hogg Baruch, and his two sons. The eldest son was Linley Baruch, six years old. The younger son, Wharton Baruch, was just two years old. As for his wife, she died giving birth to Wharton. Linley’s grandfather was also dead, having lost his life in battle.
Linley’s legs were trembling. Although his willpower was strong, his leg muscles were strained to their utmost and were beginning to tremble uncontrollably. He finally collapsed and sat down.
“Linley, how do you feel?” Hillman walked towards him, a smile on his face. Linley smiled back in turn. “I’m fine, Uncle Hillman.” As captain of the Baruch clan’s guardsmen, Hillman had watched Linley grow up. Naturally, the two of them were very close.
“Well done. You acted like a man.” Hillman patted Linley’s head. Immediately, his hair became tousled like windblown grass. Linley grinned widely. He was very happy to receive Hillman’s praise.
After resting for a while they continued their exercises. The training regime for the six- and seven-year-olds was a lot more relaxed, but for the teenagers it was terrifyingly strict. The large group of children, including the six- and seven-year-olds, now had to lie down with their heads and their feet each on top of a flat rock, relying solely on the strength in their waists to keep them straight.
“The waist and the thighs form a triangular region.” Hillman gestured with his hands to show the area he was describing. “This area is a person’s core. Speed and power all come from this triangular core, making this region extremely important.” As Hillman spoke, he continued to walk about, carefully inspecting the youths to see if their movements were correct.
“Tighten that up! Your waists need to be straight!” Hillman thundered.Immediately, the waists of many youths straightened. This was Linley’s first day of training. His tiny head and his feet were both flat on the rocks, but by this point in time Linley could already feel his waist growing tight and hot.
“Hold! Gotta hold. I’m the best!” Linley kept encouraging himself. Linley’s body had always been very strong, even as a baby. He had virtually never gotten sick. Given that he also worked very hard, for him to excel was nothing special.
Thud! The first child fell down. However, the stones they were using as a pillow and footrest were only twenty centimeters high, so although the child fell down, it didn’t hurt much. (In the Yulan continent, the goldsmiths used standardized lengths of 1 meter = 10 decimeters = 100 centimeters = 1000 millimeters.)
Thud! Thud! As time went on, more and more children could no longer hold out. Linley gritted his teeth. He could clearly feel the tightness in his waist already reaching the limits of his endurance, to the point where it was almost going numb. “My body feels so heavy. I’m almost unable to control it. Hold… Gotta hold for just a bit more.” By this point in time, of the six- to eight-year-olds, only Linley remained.
Staring at Linley, Hillman couldn’t help but be filled with surprise and joy. “Lorry!” Hillman suddenly shouted.
“Captain.” Lorry immediately straightened, awaiting his orders.
Hillman commanded, “Tomorrow, prepare some special dyes. When they are training their waist strength, put a branch under all their waists and dye the branches. If any of them slack off and let their waists touch the branch, their body will be dyed as well. Their training regime will double in difficulty.”
“Yes, Captain.” Lorry couldn’t help but let his lips tug up in a smile. He secretly laughed to himself, “The Captain is always filled with so many devilish ideas. Those punks are really gonna get it now.”
Wasn’t that just so? Looks of pain appeared on the faces of the ten-year-olds. Normally, they could still make slight adjustments and slack off. But Hillman’s new idea ensured that they would have no chance to do so.
Hillman continued coldly, “Let me tell you all, when a warrior trains his battle-qi, the battle-qi is stored in a fist-sized location directly beneath the navel. You should understand that this is part of the triangle I was talking about. I expect you all should now understand the importance of strengthening the triangle region! This is your core. If it fails, then your body fails, no matter how strong the other parts of it might be.”
A good instructor was of paramount importance to the children, and Hillman really was a formidable warrior. He knew the important parts of training and he knew how to increase the difficulty one step at a time. He knew what sort of tools to use with what ages. If it was too hard, it could make a child’s body collapse.
“Battle-qi?” Upon hearing these words, all the youths, including the youngest children resting off to the side, stared at Hillman with wide eyes. All the commoners were extremely eager to learn battle-qi. Even Linley, the scion of a noble house, was extremely eager.
Thud! Linley could finally hold out no longer, but he still used his arms to prop himself on the ground as he slowly rolled off.
“That feels good!” Linley could feel that his waist felt a numbness which pierced through to the bone, so comfortable that his eyes crinkled slightly.
“How long was I able to hold out?” Linley opened his eyes wide, looking around. All the six-year-olds had collapsed. Even half the ten-year-olds had collapsed as well. All the fourteen-year-olds, however, held on. Hillman’s face remained as cold as ever.
“All of you must remember: your body is like a vessel, like a wineglass. Battle-qi is like the wine! The amount of wine a vessel can hold is dependent on the size of the vessel. Same goes for the body; a person’s ability to practice battle-qi is based on the extent of his physical conditioning. If his body is too weak, even if he gains access to powerful battle-qi manuals his body won’t be able to hold much battle-qi and he still won’t become a powerful warrior.” Hillman continued to impart many important bits of advice to the children.
Many warriors, due to not having received proper guidance in their youth, only understood the connection between battle-qi and body strength much later in life. By that age they wouldn’t make much progress when they trained.
Many forefathers had gone down many wrong paths and gained much experience as a result, and Hillman now imparted impart those important experiences like how the spring wind imparted life-giving rain, deeply etching them in the minds of these children. Hillman didn’t want these children to go down wrong paths as well.
After practicing the ‘Qi Building Stance’, the waist, back, thighs, shoulders, and other parts of the body would be harmonized. Now, almost all the children were sitting, relaxed on the ground. Hillman’s training program was nearly perfect in the difficulty levels he assessed on each age group.
“Today’s training ends now,” Hillman announced. The town of Wushan’s training regimes were regulated. Every day, it happened twice, once at dawn, and once at dusk.
“Uncle Hillman, tell us some
stories!” As training ended, the children immediately began to call out. Every day, after the dawn lessons, Hillman would tell them stories of his army days, or some events which had happened on the continent. The children, all of whom had lived in the town their entire lives, thirsted for stories about the military.
Hillman smiled. He enjoyed telling stories to the children. This was a great way to make the kids eager to train. Hillman had always felt that only by making the children want to train would the children have great results.
“Today, I will tell you about the legendary Four Supreme Warrior bloodlines which everyone in the continent knows about.” A look of awe appeared on Hillman’s face.
The children’s ears immediately perked up, and their eyes brightened. Linley, sitting on the ground, felt his heart thump furiously. “The legendary Four Supreme Warriors?” Linley’s ears couldn’t help but perk up as well, as he stared unblinkingly at Hillman.
In Hillman’s eyes appeared a hint of excitement. His voice, however, remained calm. “On our continent, thousands of years ago, there appeared four powerful Supreme Warriors. All four of these Supreme Warriors possessed power comparable to that of the mightiest of dragons. They could wander amidst an army of millions at leisure and easily take the head of any general! These Supreme Warriors were known as the Dragonblood Warrior, the Violetflame Warrior, the Tigerstriped Warrior, and the Undying Warrior!”
“Warriors are divided into nine ranks. I, a mere warrior of the sixth rank, can easily shatter boulders and kick down a large tree! But a ninth rank warrior, even within our country of Fenlai, would be considered a top-level expert. Finally, above the ninth rank warriors are the Four Supreme Warriors. They have surpassed the ninth rank warriors and can be considered the pinnacle of warriors. They belong to the level of legendary Saint-level warriors!” Hillman’s eyes were filled with excitement. “The legendary Saint-level warriors can melt giant icebergs, make the boundless sea roar with angry waves, make tall mountains crumble, make cities with millions of people collapse, and make meteors fall from the sky! They are absolutely undefeatable, the highest possible power.”
Silence. All the children were stunned as they continued to listen. Hillman pointed at a mountain to the northeast. “Look at Wushan. Isn’t it huge?” Hillman smiled.
After hearing Hillman’s words, many of the kids had been scared silly. They immediately nodded. Wushan was over a thousand meters high, and thousands of meters in circumference. In the eyes of men, it would definitely be considered a huge mountain.
“But Saint-level combatants can destroy Wushan in the blink of an eye,” Hillman said firmly. “A sixth-ranked warrior can only smash a boulder, but a Saint-level warrior can smash an entire mountain!” All the children’s mouths dropped and their eyes widened. All of them were shocked, and their hearts were suddenly filled with an unspeakable dread towards these Saint. But, their hearts were also filled with longing.
“Destroy a mountain?” Hillman’s words had a huge impact on Linley. After a short time, the stunned children returned to their homes. Hillman, Roger, and Lorry were the last to leave. Watching the children depart in clusters of three or five, a smile appeared on Hillman’s face.
“These children are the hope and future of the town of Wushan,” Hillman said with a smile. Roger and Lorry also gazed at the group of children. On the continent, virtually all the children of commoners had to train hard from an early age. Seeing the kids, Roger and Lorry reminisced about their own youth.
“Captain Hillman, you are definitely much more formidable than ol’ Potter of bygone years. Under your guidance, I believe that the town of Wushan will become the strongest town in our region, surpassing the other ten or so towns,” Lorry said with a smile. The strength of a teacher determined a place’s future.
“Oh, Captain, how do you know about the power of Saint-level warriors and the Four Supreme Warriors?” Lorry suddenly remembered to ask.
Slightly embarrassed, Hillman grinned, “Well, um, actually, I’m not too clear about exactly how powerful the Four Supreme Warriors are. After all, they are the stuff of legends. It’s been years since any were seen.”
Lorry and Roger were astonished. “You don’t have any idea, and yet you lied to the kids?”
Hillman smiled slightly. “Although I’m not clear about the exact strength of the Four Supreme Warriors, I know this—Grand Magus, or in other words a mage which has attained the Saint level, can execute forbidden magical spell and eradicate an entire army of tens of thousands or even an entire city. Since Grand Magus Saints are so powerful, I expect that Saint-level warriors can’t be that much weaker.”
“More importantly, the reason I told the children these stories was to make them work harder. Couldn’t you tell how amazed those children were after hearing the stories?” Hillman smiled delightedly.
Lorry and Roger were both speechless.
“See ya later, ‘Ley!”
“See ya, Hadley!”
Bidding farewell to his good friend Hadley, Linley went back by himself to his home. After walking for a while, he saw the Baruch estate.
The amount of land the Baruch manor was built upon was actually quite large. Moss was growing on the walls and all sorts of ivy creepers twined up the walls as well. The scars of time were very apparent on the walls. The Baruch manor located in the town of Wushan was the ancestral home of the Baruch clan. An ancestral home which had existed for over five thousand years and endured countless renovations continued to stand here.
But, with the decline in the clan’s fortunes, the Baruch clan’s finances had taken a turn for the worse as well. Towards the end it could only consume its previous gains. Over a hundred years ago the then-leader of the Baruch clan determined that all the members of the clan would live in the front courtyard, which took up a third of the space of the manor. The rest of the manor would no longer be maintained. That way, a great deal of money could be saved.
Despite these measures, by the time Linley’s father Hogg Baruch took over they still needed to sell off family possessions in order to keep the family afloat.
The towering doors to the manor were open. “Saint-level warriors?” While walking, Linley was still thinking about that. “In the future, will I be able to become a Saint-level warrior?”
“Linley.” Hillman’s voice sounded from behind him. Hillman, Roger, and Lorry had finally caught up to him.
Linley turned around and immediately said happily, “Uncle Hillman!” Following this, Linley sucked in a deep breath. Raising his head to look at Hillman, he asked eagerly, “Uncle Hillman, are Saint-level warriors really that powerful? Then what about me? Is it possible that I could become a Saint-level warrior?” In Linley’s heart there was a desire which all children possess.
Hillman was stunned. Beside him, Roger and Lorry were also speechless. A Saint-level warrior? “This kid really dares to dream big. The country of Fenlai has millions of citizens, but even so, after countless centuries it hasn’t produced a single Saint-level warrior. To want to become a Saint-level warrior…” Hillman fully understood how difficult it was to become a Saint-level warrior.
It required someone to work extremely hard from a young age, the support of a noble clan, and at the same time a high amount of natural talent. It also required luck. How could it be easy to become a Saint-level warrior?
Hillman knew quite well how much he himself had to suffer in order to become a sixth-ranked warrior, and how many life-and-death battles he had to experience. It was very difficult to become a warrior of even the sixth rank. A seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-ranked warrior was of course only harder. As for a Saint-level warrior? Even in his dreams, Hillman didn’t dare imagine himself as one.
But faced with Linley’s earnest gaze, all he could do was nod. “Linley, Uncle Hillman has faith in you. I’m sure you’ll become a Saint-level warrior,” Hillman said firmly, staring straight at Linley. These words of encouragement caused Linley’s eyes to shine. In Linley’s heart, as well, a desi
re arose which was more ardent than any he had ever felt!
“Uncle Hillman, from tomorrow on, can I participate in the training sessions with the ten-year-olds?” Linley suddenly asked. Hillman, Roger, and Lorry all stared at Linley in surprise. “My lord father always told me: if you want to become a man without peer then you must work harder than other men.” Linley unconsciously mimicked his father’s manner of speech.
Hillman suddenly smiled. He had seen the results of Linley’s training today. Although Linley was only six, his physical conditioning could compare with nine-year-olds. He immediately nodded, smiling. “Fine. However, you’d best not slack off. You need to realize that this isn’t a one-day or two-day commitment. This will be a long-term regime.”
Linley raised his small head proudly and smiled with confidence. “Uncle Hillman, you just wait and see.”
This had been a very normal morning for the town of Wushan. Afterwards, every morning was the same as this one. The group of Wushan youths would follow Hillman, warrior of the sixth rank, and train hard under his guidance. The only difference was that going forward the six-year-old Linley was placed in the central squad of ten-year-olds.
2
The Dragonblood Warrior Clan
In the blink of an eye, another half year had passed. Training hard and strengthening his body, Linley passed through the gentle spring, the blazing summer, and the chilly autumn. The white poplar tree next to the empty training field of the town of Wushan would always scatter some dried leaves onto the ground whenever the wind blew. The leaves slowly whirled down, covering the entire training ground.
The sky had slowly grown dark. Today, an exceptionally large number of people were on the training grounds, nearly three hundred in total. “Today’s evening training session ends now.” Hillman smiled. “Before leaving, however, everyone needs to first congratulate this next crop of children who are about to leave the town of Wushan and join the army.”
Coiling Dragon_Book 1 of the Coiling Dragon Saga Page 2
