Chapter Three

For the next couple of days, Ye Long continued his same routine. Waking up early to eat, training his martial arts, coming home to study, shower and sleep. His strength continued to grow little by little along with his knowledge of the world.

He was still studying the language book, but he didn’t study it a lot. Instead he decided to look at it every now and then to cram a few things into his head. He didn’t want to spend this year trying to learn something that he might not use until later on. Instead he read a few other books in his grandfather's study. There were a total of three books he has read over the past few days. One was on the religion of the world, one on politics, and the last one on mana.

Ye Long was very interested in mana. His grandfather told him that he didn’t have any talent for it, but Ye Long thought otherwise. If he didn’t have talent for it, then how could he sense what was in the air when he meditated? Ye Long wanted to know more of mana and it’s properties. He learned that it is basically the same as Qi, but instead of being in the body it is in the air.

Ye Long hasn’t tried to gather any yet because he didn’t know how to. Rather than spending time trying to figure out something he would learn sooner or later, he figured he continue to train.

Why would he want to spend an endless amount of time when there wasn’t any way to show off. Who would he show off his magic to anyways? In this small village having magic probably didn’t mean much.

Ye Long was in the back of his house continuing his shadow fighting. He still couldn’t win against his master, but he was better than before. Actually thinking about it, Ye Long could never beat his master. No matter if it was in any of his lives, Ye Long could never beat his master.

There were a few reasons for this. The most important being that he always died before he was able to advance to a certain degree. The second one being that he never trained hard.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to train, it was due to the fact that training bored him out. Sure he trained to be strong because the strong dominated the world. However if he constantly trained every single day, he wouldn’t have a life. Instead he spread his time out into talking to people and training. His progress was naturally slower than other disciples, but he felt that was ok. This was also a reason for him never being able to beat his master. That and due to the fact that his master was a high ranking martial arts.

In his past lives, Ye Long never learned some of the ultimate techniques his master taught to the other disciples. Ye Long only knew the basics and some intermediate ones. Other than that, Ye Long didn’t know anything else. It was like this for all the martial arts he knew or heard of.

Ye Long decided that he wouldn’t be like this in this life. He would master the basics to a terrifying level so he could match those who are stronger and know more advanced techniques than him. If he learned and mastered the couple of martial arts that he knew, he figured he’d be able to beat a magician if he got close to them.

That is until he figured out how to use mana. Once he figured that out, he would be able to make his own fighting style. One that used magic and martial arts at the same time. Just thinking about such a style got Ye Long excited.

“Hehehe, I told you he would be here.” A voice called out.

“It’s such a shame you didn’t die, now you’ll get the beating of your life.” Another voice said.

Ye Long took a deep breath as he turned around to see who it was. It was a group of five boys. He glanced them over real quick before nodding to himself. Their age was around six to ten years old.

Ye Long noticed that the two who attacked him a few days ago was also in the group of boys. Ye Long smiled to them.

“What the hell you smiling for?”

“Yeah, what you smiling for? You like getting beat?”

‘A beating huh, well it won’t be me who’s going to get beat.’ Ye Long told himself.

Fighting against a shadow is one thing, but the real deal is a lot better. Now that these bullies came back, Ye Long can test out his skills against them. If he’s able to beat them now, he’ll do some serious damage to them in the future.

“I’m smiling because you are all stupid.” Ye Long told them.

“Fucking monster grew some serious balls!”

“You talk big now, but how about when I beat you up! What then!?” A male the age of ten called out.

Ye Long started provoking them. He raised his hand and signaled them to come at him. “Come. If you have the balls to attack me with weapons, you wouldn’t mind fighting with your hands would you? I mean, I am a ‘Monster’ and all.”

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“Th-” An older boy was going to say something, but the ten year old stopped him. He looked at a six year old boy and nodded his head. The six year old boy took a step forward.

Ye Long took a stance for attacking and defending. The six year old boy started laughing at him. “What you had a dream of being strong so now you think you’re strong? Just because you take a random stance doesn’t mean you’ll know what to do!”

Ye Long grinned at the male. “Shut up and come already. If you don’t, you’ll be sorry.”

The six year old boy ran forward with his fist pulled back. Once he was in range, he shot his fist forward. It was heading straight for Ye Long’s face.

Ye Long has trained with his master, not only in another life but here as well. Looking at the speed of the young boys first didn’t even excite him. It was as if a catipler were crawling up his leg. His masters speed is much faster than this young boys, so to Ye Long he could easily dodge it. However he didn’t.

The fist approached Ye Long’s face, but he still smiled.

Bang!

The next moment happened way too fast. The six year old and the others didn’t even see what happened. It was as if they say an illusion. The only thing they saw was a hand movement made by Ye Long, but the next moment the six year old was facing the ground.

Ye Long sneered as he struck the boy in the back of the head. He instantly went down, shocking the other boys.

“So, who's next?” Ye Long asked with a smile on his face.

Training these last few days really paid off. However it still wasn’t good enough. Ye Long wanted to test and see if he could fight against all of them instead of one on one. If he could do that, then it would be much easier for him later on.

The two young boys from a few days ago stepped forward. They coldly snorted at him. “You think your big shit because you beat him? Wait until I have you kowtowing to me and licking my feet!” One of the boys shouted.

These young boys sure knew how to talk. However Ye Long wasn’t agitated by their words, to him they meant nothing.

Both boys ran towards Ye Long and started attacking him. They came from both sides and threw out a punch. Ye Long blocked their first and forced their momentum down. Both of the boys didn’t know what happened, but they suddenly stopped moving for a moment.

With both of the boys right in his range, Ye Long would naturally make his move. Their momentum was stopped, but his wasn’t. He moved his hands until his palm hit them directly in their chest.

Boom!

Both boys flew back and landed on their backs. They started groaning and holding their hand on their chest. It seemed like their chest was going to break after that strike.

The last two young boys seemed to be age ten. They had their mouths open full of shock. They didn’t say a word and ran towards Ye Long. Unlike the last three who went at him with their fist, one used their legs. He couldn’t attack them if they used their legs right?

The range of a person using their legs is greater than a person using their fist. If one had short range and the other had long, how would Ye Long be able to dodge it.

Ye Long moved fast. The leg that was approaching him like a whip was caught between his thigh and arm. He hit it down at the joint with his elbow causing a cracking noise. The young boy instantly went down and started crying.

The fist that missed Ye Long was still in the air. Ye Long’s body moved fast and he was right in front of the older boy. He clipped his leg making the older boy fall over, only to smash his palm against his head.

The older boy flew back and landed hard. He didn’t even move. Ye Long glanced at the young boys who were in pain and smiled. “This was fun! We should do this again.” He told them as he went to the front of the house.

He opened the door and walked in, only to find his grandfather at the door. His grandfather looked worried. “Ye Long, are you ok?”

Ye Long nodded. “Yes.”

“Really? Then what was that noise I heard?”

Ye Long laughed. “Nothing grandfather. Just taking out the trash.”