Chapter 1: The Decision (1/2)

Chapter 1: The Decision

Translator: TYZEditor: Lis

Crunching noises spilled out of Fatty’s mouth as he gnawed on the malt candy. The day’s austere chilliness was chased away in the dusky afterglow that spilled over the vast land, the incoming breeze as gentle as a feather. Ai Hui wondered if he would remember this day in the future.

”Have you decided?” Fatty asked doubtfully.

”I have decided,” Ai Hui replied. He had long made the decision, and there was no longer any hesitation.

Fatty sighed with some envy. He then commented, ”You don’t lose out to those wimpy kids. That would be a disgrace to me. I just can’t understand what’s so good about fighting and killing. Let’s take this money, go back, and live happily for the rest of our lives. Do you know how many people enter the Wilderness? Two thousand! And only the two of us survived! This money is the price of our lives! If I die, my family can still get the money. If you die…”

”That’s why I’m still alive,” Ai Hui interrupted Fatty, who had stood up to speak with increasing agitation. Slowly, Fatty lost his distraught expression and calmed down.

The opportunity to enter the Avalon of Five Elements did not come easily. Initially, due to Ai Hui’s inadequate natural abilities, he hadn’t been qualified to enter. However, in the last three years, his performance had been exemplary. His ability to maintain composure in complex and stressful situations and his display of courage and determination at crucial moments left an indelible impression in everyone’s minds.

When he made the request to enter the Avalon of Five Elements, the authorities ultimately gave their approval after consideration.

Out of the two thousand laborers, only two survived. Even if it was largely due to luck, it also illustrated the multitude of existing problems.

Fatty sat down, disappointed. He was too familiar with Ai Hui’s stubbornness. Soon after, however, he came to a realization and perked up once more to sincerely say, ”Remember to write my name on the compensation payment form. Why benefit others when you can benefit me?”

Ai Hui did not bother to care about him. He casually pulled a straw of grass from the ground, put it in his mouth, and pillowed his head with his hands as he stretched out, content on the ground. For the past three years in the Wilderness, his mental state had been stretched to the limit every day. Blood, death, fighting, and killing. It was an ice-cold world where darkness and scarlet melded together.

He didn’t know how he had endured those three years, and he did not want to remember it either. After all, there were no happy memories.

The afterglow from the setting sun shone on his body. Feeling warm and snug, Ai Hui’s eyebrows naturally unfolded while his steely face gradually relaxed into a state of tranquility.

It was so comfortable!

As Ai Hui’s sun-warmed body loosened up, his mental state followed suit, as though a restrictive fog had been lifted from his mind to dissipate silently into thin air.

The warm sunlight and the slightly invigorating breeze contained an uncanny quality that stirred up strange yet familiar memories from deep within his mind. The three years… no, not the ones he spent in the Wilderness. The three years before that, the sunlight and breeze in the swordsman school had felt just like this.

…..

In those days, before the sun had even risen, he would have gulped in a breath of cold air, ready to start cleaning the school that had been remodeled from a worn-out warehouse. After three runs of wiping down the entire floor, his body would be warmed up, ready to start in on constructing wooden shelves. Each plank had been collected from the nearby streets and were of different sizes and thickness. As such, one could not complain much about how it looked put together.

After constructing the wooden shelves, he began to arrange the swordplay manuals the owner had obtained recently.

One yuan could buy ten kilograms of manuals on the market. Paperbacks were cheap—but still more valuable than bamboo strips—while the ones that were bound with iron and had gold covers were a bit more expensive. Though there was a lot of work to be done, there was no one to rush him. In fact, Ai Hui had never been hurried along. He was able to leisurely flip through and peruse the manuals.

Occasionally, he fantasized about how well-off he would be if he were to live in the Cultivation Era. He would have sold swordplay manuals until his hands went soft.

After arranging the swordplay manuals, he started organizing the various flying swords and treasure swords.

At this point, the sun would have risen. Just like now, it would be warm and cozy. The corners of Ai Hui’s mouth involuntarily quirked into a slight smile.

Even though the flying daggers and treasured swords had lost their Spiritual Force and were just a bunch of unlit scrap metals, under the sunlight, the beauty of their antiquity would often captivate Ai Hui.

Flying swords represented the apex of the Cultivation World. For generations, the flying swords had been the favourite weapon of master blacksmiths. There were all kinds of oddities, and they existed in various shapes and sizes, there were all kinds of oddities. Some of the shapes were so weird that people could not even associate them with flying swords.

He did not dare to touch those that had rusted too much. If they broke, the owner would scold him again.

There was no salary for him, but all his meals were provided. To someone who had led the life of a miserable vagabond for the last ten years like him, this deal was as beautiful as the sunlight right now. He could not any better words to describe it.

The owner was a good man. It was just that his way of handling business was not as good.

Would a successful businessman run a swordsman school?

Ai Hui had stayed at the school for three years. During this period of time, less than ten people had visited the school. Upon seeing the signboard that hung over the entrance of the school, ninety percent of the visitors turned their heads and left.

In this day and age, were there even any Swordsmen left?

Other than countless swordplay manuals, treasured swords and flying swords, the swordsman school practically had nothing else. The owner had travelled to various marketplaces that sold rubbish just to obtain these things. Even when he travelled to foreign places to do business, he would buy back a batch of such things.