Chapter 18 Watch the Rain

The young general waved his knife several times in a short while, chopping the spring rain and the stairs and even hitting a big bowl. He stabbed with much strength each time, but he didn’t hit the two young men once.

The young man who had called his big brother earlier flew out of the eave and fought against the young general in the spring rain, while the big brother ignored the general and came to Li Fuyao, smiling at him, “Aren’t you afraid?”

Li Fuyao smiled, “In fact, I look forward to seeing you take actions later.”

The young man was surprised and looked curious, “Why?”

Li Fuyao replied calmly, “They are common warriors, but you are a cultivator.”

He got right down to the heart of the matter.

The young man asked seriously, “How did you know?”

Li Fuyao answered with a smile, “Because I am a cultivator, too.”

As a matter of fact, Li Fuyao was not confident when he was saying that. He was just a swordsman in the first stage, the Intent Stage, a cultivator at the bottom in the human world.

The young man introduced himself soon, “I am Yang Wei from Hengyang Academy, and the one in the fight is my younger brother Yang Lai. Sir, what’s your name?”

Li Fuyao was stunned and then responded after he reacted, “Li Fuyao, a swordsman.”

Hearing the word “swordsman”, Yang Wei was astonished for a minute obviously, but after his eyes fell on Li Fuyao’s waist and he found this teenager had no sword, he was confused.

Li Fuyao knew what Yang Wei was thinking about and explained in an instant, “I don’t have a sword for now. Only after I reach the Sword Mountain can I get a sword.”

The Sword Mountain had an awe-inspiring reputation in the human world, and Yang Wei certainly knew it. He nodded with a smile and then glanced at Qing Huai, “How about this girl?”

Li Fuyao shook his head and indicated that the man shouldn’t continue to ask.

Yang Wei was good-tempered and didn’t ask since Li Fuyao did that. He just stared at the two fighting in the courtyard and talked, without caring if anybody would listen to him, “A Confucian scholar once engraved an essay in the Yanshi prison, and I learnt it when I read the ancient books in the academy, so I wanted to have a look. I found a chance to be put in the prison and read that essay. Then I couldn’t stay in the prison anymore. After I came out, I planned to leave Yanshi City tomorrow, but I didn’t expect that Xie Ying would catch up with us today. I am sorry to get you involved, Mr. Li.”

Li Fuyao didn’t give a response but turned to look at the fight between the two in the courtyard.

Xie Ying in armor was skilled in martial arts. Since he could lead a troop at an early age, he couldn’t be bullied easily. In fact, this young general from the military government of Yanshi was from an ancient martial family in Dazhou, the Xie Family. He had learned martial arts since childhood and few people in the army of the country could defeat him. He deserved to be a young promising man in Dazhou. There was even news from Shaoliang City that if the emperor of Dazhou hadn’t been busy with battling, Xie Ying should have become a princess’ husband earlier.

Even so, Xie Ying won recognition from the emperor and was a Rank-4 powerful general even though he was so young. He controlled a troop of five thousand cavalries.

Xie Ying had got a transfer order from the Ministry of War in the capital and would lead his cavalry to leave for the frontier fortress. But he worked in the military government of Yanshi before he left office and was in charge of guarding the Yanshi prison. At this crucial time, two prisoners ran out of the prison, and Xie Ying was furious, so he delayed his departure for the frontier fortress. He had to catch Yang Wei and Yang Lai these days, thus everything mentioned above happened today.

However, in the spring rain, the two fought more than one hundred rounds, but the victory couldn’t be decided.

Xie Ying slightly shook his arm and made the rain drops on the knife fly away, saying peacefully, “Yang Lai, you are good at fighting. How about you join the army and follow me? You will probably become a noble man in the future, so that your martial skills won’t be wasted.”

Yang Lai stood in the rain and didn’t care that it wet his clothes. He grinned, “No problem if you win me. If you can’t, don’t talk about it.”

Xie Ying heard Yang Lai’s words and then asked seriously all of a sudden, “Are you serious?”

Yang Lai looked carefree, “A gentleman won’t break his words.”

Xie Ying laughed and sheathed his weapon, randomly throwing the family heritage Qi Ke out of the wall of the courtyard, and somebody there caught this treasured knife which was famous in Dazhou.

After throwing the knife away, Xie Ying rubbed his face and said with a smile, “Come on.”

Yang Lai giggled and ran over to punch Xie Ying’s head top, with wind roaring, which had a magnificent aura.

Xie Ying calmed down and stepped backward, with his legs spinning several times on the ground. He seemed to avoid the fist with difficulty, but in fact, this young man who was known as a talent in the Xie Family had practiced martial arts for many years. He didn’t only practice knife skills but also studied other weapons. And he was not poor in fighting with bare hands. After escaping from the punch, Xie Ying strode across half of the courtyard and came to Yang Lai. He lowered his shoulders and dashed to make Yang Lai stagger for a few steps. Then he punched Yang Lai’s belly and made him unable to dodge.

Standing under the eave, Li Fuyao watched the scene and said expressionlessly, “It seems that your brother is going to lose, sir.”

Yang Wei laughed, “Xie Ying has practiced martial skills since he was a child and has a good talent. It’s natural that he has such powerful military force. Lai is at the same age as him and it’s normal that he is inferior to Xie Ying. But Lai always wants to join the army. I didn’t leave because I wanted to give him a chance. Xie Ying has read many martial books and is ambitious. Lai won’t have a hopeless future if he follows Xie Ying.”

Li Fuyao asked, “Sir, since you are a cultivator, why don’t you take your brother to this road?”

Yang Wei stretched out his hands and replied helplessly, “Lai is not fit for cultivating.”

Li Fuyao didn’t say anything. There were many cultivators in the human world, but there were more common people who couldn’t become cultivators. Many of them didn’t have a chance to start cultivating, and most of them saw the road ahead but couldn’t step on it. Yang Lai was the latter. Otherwise, how could he not start cultivating when he had a brother who was a disciple in Hengyang Academy?

Li Fuyao looked away from the two fighting in the courtyard and then turned to Yang Wei. Thinking of his eating style, he asked a question.

Yang Wei smiled knowingly, “Mr. Li, did you ask because the vital energy can’t constantly pour out of your heart when you are fighting?”

Li Fuyao nodded and asked everything that confused him, “When I fight, there is not much vital energy in my heart, but it’s not normal that I will pause when I start another move after one. Why would I be like this when I have extra strength?”

Yang Wei pointed at the rain water dropping under the eave and answered softly, “The rain water is the same. A drop will come after another, but if you see the storm, you can know that there is no interval between rain drops.”

Yang Wei didn’t explain this question thoroughly but made it mysterious. Li Fuyao frowned and didn’t ask more. He didn’t want to ask this question but had thought about it by himself these days. He wouldn’t have asked if he hadn’t seen Yang Wei when he was eating. Now that Yang Wei said a little, Li Fuyao didn’t plan to dig into it.

But he stood there and was still pondering over this question.

Qing Huai who remained silent for a long time suddenly called, “Idiot.”

Li Fuyao smiled awkwardly. In order to defuse his embarrassment, he turned to watch the fight in the courtyard.

At this time, Xie Ying punched Yang Lai to retreat several meters away. He stood in the middle of the courtyard and gazed at Yang Lai, asking with a smile, “What do you think?”

Yang Lai pursed his lips, “I can’t defeat you, so I can only go with you. But my brother entered the prison just to read an essay and didn’t do anything harmful. Don’t try to keep him staying.”

Xie Ying turned to the three people under the eave.

Yang Wei saluted and stated with a smile, “General Xie, I will leave Lai to you. If he makes trouble in the future, please write a letter to Hengyang Academy to inform me.”

Xie Ying’s expression changed slightly and he peered at Yang Wei, sighing, “It turns out that you are a cultivator. I am sorry to be impolite to you.”

Yang Wei didn’t say more but glanced at Yang Lai, telling him gently, “Lai, you must be careful after joining the army. If you die on the battlefield, I won’t have time to see your body.”

Yang Wei said something unlucky but didn’t think it was wrong. He just looked at his brother and laughed.

Yang Lai nodded and didn’t mind.

After knowing Yang Wei’s identity, Xie Ying stopped looking at him. Then he turned to the teenager Li Fuyao, who met his eyes without changing his expression. Li Fuyao stared at this young warrior and suddenly thought of something.

Could this warrior kill a cultivator?

At this thought, Li Fuyao was scared by what was on his mind.