Chapter 42: Master and Apprentice
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
Junior Leopard had managed to temper his excitement, as soon as he had got his kunai back he immediately began walking his way out of the jungle. He was overcome with joy when saw a herd of beasts drinking water along a stream. It was a golden opportunity for sure and he had no reason to let them off. Then, he threw his two kunai, injuring the legs of two buffalo that collapsed on the ground near the stream. They were alive but never to rise again.
The wildfowl and beasts were considered to be animals with the smartest spiritual mind. But while frightened by the murderous kunai, they had all fled in panic. Unfortunately, they were just common animals and were absolutely no match for Junior Leopard, even if some of them had rough skins or agile movements. In addition, Junior Leopard was filled with desire for the Three Realms Division and wanted to finish his task as early as possible so that h this special technique. He had no plans of wasting time here. As a result, he quickly launched the kunai once again and employed a flying body movement. After several rounds of this, a dozen beasts could be seen collapsed on the ground. These beasts were hamstrung like those two buffaloes, hurt but alive. Then Junior Leopard counted the number of the hurt animals after the others had all fled away. There were 16, among whom 15 were for Xue Wuya and one was for himself since he didn’t have anything because of that little monster.
Bundling them together, Junior Leopard dragged them into the steep valley.
Nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the valley. Xue Wuya was sitting cross-legged, inhaling and exhaling with his eyes closed while a bloody mist boiled around him. Junior Leopard guessed that this was the critical point of his practice.
He dared not disturb him, laying the living animals down about 100 feets (nearly 33 meters) away from Xue Wuya and waited quietly.
An hour later, the bloody mist surrounding Xue Wuya suddenly shook, before beginning to fade and finally be absorbed into his nose in the form of two bloody stripes. At this moment, Xue Wuya opened his eyes. Seeing Junior Leopard, he signaled for the living animals and drank up all the blood of them from their slit throats, just the same as yesterday.
Xue Wuya’s skin flashed a trace of red for a moment after he had absorbed the 15 living animals. In an instant, his skin became pale again.
“You’re back!?” Xue Wuya waved at Junior Leopard and said, “So early today… ”
“These beasts were gathered together drinking from a stream, they were easy targets. If I hadn’t slept for such a long time today, I would have been much earlier!”
“You are very thoughtful!” Xue Wuya nodded, and it seemed that he was quite satisfied with Junior Leopard, “Have you practiced the swordsmanship I taught you yesterday? And how do you feel?”
Junior Leopard was a little surprised to hear Xue Wuya ask this question, he had never believed that Xue Wuya was serious about teaching him martial arts, he had been busy struggling with the little monster since he woke up this morning. This resulted in very little time to think of the movement Xue Wuya had taught yesterday.
“I, I haven’t… yet.”
“Humph!” Xue Wuya made a sound coldly and his face turned gloomy as well, “The essence of martial arts skills is practice and even more practice. Even if I taught you only one sword method, that one was abstruse and mysterious enough for you to gain a secret technique from it. But you gave it up! So how can I assign important things to you with any confidence?”
Junior Leopard’s heart jumped; he felt Xue Wuya had something else to say. Well, now that Xue Wuya didn’t point out his meaning directly, Junior Leopard did not dare to ask. He simply bowed his head and reluctantly said, “Sorry.”
Xue Wuya didn’t want to make him feel too pressured, so he stopped admonishing Junior Leopard after his apologies and instead ordered him to stand aside. He began to explain that movement of the swordsmanship once again.
Yesterday, Xue Wuya was seriously injured and lost a lot of his pneuma due to the fight with the evil monster toad, so he just explained the movement hastily and simply. Junior Leopard didn’t catch it very clearly.
Today, Xue Wuya had just finished resting and had feasted on several living animals, and was not bothered by the Evil Monster Toad. Some of his energy had recovered. Because of this, he was calmer and much more patient when he showed the swordsmanship to Junior Leopard and even taught him some basic movements. This not only made Junior Leopard extremely excited but was a great benefit to him too.
Xue Wuya’s specialty was not the sword and his arteries and veins were damaged by the Sword Qi of the White Blade Master Lu Shaoyou. However, he was still a Level Eight master and his cultivation was extremely deep and rare in the world. While his swordsmanship might not rival Lu Shaoyou who was known as the Blade Master, it was far beyond the abilities of common swordsmen and knights. Junior Leopard was only a Level One greenhorn with no experience, but he had a general and basic understanding of how to use a sword through Xue Wuya’s explanation.
It took Xue Wuya almost six hours to finish this course. During the explanation, Junior Leopard raised some difficulties he had met in daily practice. To Junior Leopard, these difficulties seemed to be an impassable chasm; to Xue Wuya, they were just tiny puddles, without much to worry about. So Xue Wuya explained them one by one in detail, raising some other points that Junior Leopard ignored before. From this scene, Xue Wuya and Junior Leopard looked like a real master and apprentice pair. One taught carefully and the other learned earnestly.
Xue Wuya stopped teaching when the thin crescent moon ascended in the night sky and the valley had become totally dark. His face looked rather tired.
Junior Leopard was the kind of man who was good at knowing how to behave by studying other people’s words and expressions. So upon seeing Xue Wuya’s pale complexion, he decided to bid his master farewell and left the valley. What he had learned today was quite an amount for him to digest.
“Alas! I haven’t eaten all day again, but somehow I don’t feel as tired as yesterday.” Junior Leopard whispered to himself, and couldn’t help laughing bitterly when he saw the dark sky. “I was prepared to study the Three Realms Division, but it seems to be impossible today. I had better review what I learned today, in case of being scolded tomorrow when I fetch the living animals for him.”
Recalling how Xue Wuya had behaved today, Junior Leopard was a bit confused. “What did he mean? He must have some evil intent behind acting as my master, but why did he teach me martial arts with great kindness and patience? Did his conscience awaken? Oh, that’s impossible. This man is so bloody and evil, how could he become so kind? I’m sure that he is secretly plotting some sinister scheme.”
This was not just Junior Leopard’s paranoia. He had inferred this from some clues. Of these clues, the most important one was that Xue Wuya had given his manuscript for the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique to Junior Leopard on the first day that they had met. The manuscript was not a common book like The Heart of Girls , it contained Xue Wuya’s experience and understanding of martial arts skills. It also had records of the comparison of Bloodfire Gang of the Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique. It would be a real threat if the information was leaked, it would be easy for his foes to learn his weaknesses from the manuscript and kill him that way. It was a very secret and dangerous book that ought not to have fallen into the hands of anyone. Not even good people; let alone him, a man of the Dark Sect. In this way, Junior Leopard had inferred that Xue Wuya had decided to kill him when he gave him the manuscript Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique.
But his performance today was completely beyond Junior Leopard’s expectation. “It’s abnormal. When people taught someone about martial arts skills, the first step was to ask them what they wanted to learn. Well, Xue Wuya gave Nine Dragons Heavenly Fire Technique to me, which was somehow just my taste. But why did he teach me swordsmanship for no reason, and in such detail? I had never learned it before, and what he is skilled in is not swordsmanship, either. Could it be there is some problem with that strange movement he taught me today?”
Entertaining this thought, Junior Leopard thought of other speculations when he recalled Xue Wuya’s words at the beginning, “How can I assign important things to you with assurance?”