Chapter 1: Walking towards the outside world

  This book is updated twice a day, one chapter at noon and one chapter in the evening.

  At first, Xia Yaren was bothered by Lao Tzu's evaluation for a long time.

  With his not-so-good cultural level, he only knew that "having creativity" seemed to be a compliment, but "dying with one's eyes open" was somehow a bad word.

  The old man was very irresponsible for Xia Yalai's cultural education, to the extent that he could only barely recognize 80% of the words when flipping through some yellowed and tattered books left behind by the old man, and as for being able to understand them, it didn't exceed half.

  Even so, the old man still forbade Xia Yalai from looking at his collection of books. As a result, Xia Yalai didn't escape getting beaten by the old man's stick. The only time he could sneak a peek was when the old man had drunk too much and fallen asleep.

  Some of the things in the book are similar to "cavalry", "turning advance", "detour", "encirclement" and so on, or some kind of battle plan, how many supplies were transported, various ways of deploying troops on different terrain, riverbank battles, plain meetings, mountain ambushes, etc.

  At first, Xiaya thought these were war stories, just like the legendary battles told by those down-and-out troubadours in town. But later on, he found some differences. At least, the contents of the old man's collection were absolutely not as thrilling as the stories told by the troubadours, and could even be said to be very dull and tasteless.

  Xia Yalai had twice plucked up the courage to ask the old man, with the first time resulting in the old man directly using a stick to hit his head swollen for three days. The second time, the old man was drunk and did not hit his head, but instead kicked him away, staring at him with eyes wide open and scolding him with words like "In my day when I led troops, if I had encountered a disobedient little brat like you, I would have chopped you up..."

  Alright, according to this old man who is full of nonsense, he was not only "once" a famous swordsman in the mainland but also "once" a general who led troops.

  Is it really like this?

  At least, Xiaya Lei Ming was clear that a general would absolutely not be unable to even drink wine. And the old guy, he could only drink the cheapest black wheat wine, which was not only spicy but also had a sour taste. Moreover, for this little money for wine, it was still deducted from the gap between his teeth.

  "If he's a general, then I'm the Emperor of the Empire." This was Xia Yaya's conclusion.

  But... regarding his own evaluation of his axe skills, was the old man praising himself or scolding himself?

  Luckily, he doesn't have to worry about it anymore.

  The old man died the day after he said this sentence.

  To use the old guy's own words, he died very "creatively".

  When Xia Yalai returned from chopping firewood, he saw the old man lying on the ground, already out of breath. He had died on the way - from crawling out of bed to crawl towards the cabinet where the wine bottles were placed. Unfortunately, he was too old and weak, and he ran out of breath halfway through, with his hand still stretching in the direction of the wine cabinet at the time of his death.

  In this regard, the old man was a very individualistic person, and even his way of death was individualistic to the extreme. Because the old man did not know that the wine bottle on the cabinet had been empty for a long time - there wasn't even a drop of wine left.

  Xia Yali buried the old man.

  They were buried behind the dilapidated house, and a pit was dug in a depression on the hillside. However, when erecting the tombstone, Xia Yalai encountered a problem - absurdly, after all these years, he didn't even know the old man's name.

  Before he was eight, he called him "Old Dad", after he was eight, he called him "Old Bastard". As for the townspeople's nickname for Old Bastard, it was something like "Old Drunk" and "Old Rascal".

  Sitting in front of the grave for a whole night, Xia Yali let out a sigh and chopped off a piece of wood. On it, he scribbled a line of crooked words:

  "The old fellow is buried here, may his soul rest in peace."

  He ran into town and sold the most valuable thing in his house - that broken axe for three copper coins, then exchanged these three copper coins for a bottle of wine.

  Three copper plates for a bottle of wine, undoubtedly the "highest-end" wine Xia Yali has ever bought in all these years.

  But he poured the bottle of wine on the old man's grave, watching with open eyes as the wine flowed into the muddy soil, and he himself didn't take a single sip.

  When the sky brightened, Xia Yalai finally stood up with a numb body. He stood in front of the tomb, looking at the wooden sign, and his eyes had some inexplicable things.

  "Alright, old man, you're gone. Now I'm the only one left."

  …………

  The first problem to be solved is feeding one's belly.

  Although he can be considered a professional hunter. No, it's not an exaggeration to say that he is the best hunter in the surrounding area of hundreds of miles.

  At the age of thirteen, he single-handedly chopped wood on a mountain and killed a starving bloodthirsty wolf with his broken axe - this kind of wolf is a low-level demon beast living in the Wildfire Prairie, when it is in an attacking state, its fur can become even harder than turtle shells, its teeth can bite off the hunter's long spear, and its movements are agile.

  That time, Xia Yalai used just one axe to chop off the wolf's head.

  A light axe.

  Actually, at that time, the thirteen-year-old Xia Yalai was so scared that he almost peed his pants. When the wolf pounced on him, he had almost lost consciousness and only instinctively swung the axe in his hand with a posture he had practiced thousands of times before.

  Then... he felt a hot, sticky blood splashing onto his face. When he opened his eyes, on the ground in front of him was a wolf's head with its teeth bared and its mouth open, severed from its neck. The wolf's body lay behind his own.

  Faced with this scene, he took a good while to come back to his senses, and then it was excitement.

  I'm actually this powerful already?!

  After bringing the wolf's corpse back, when he excitedly told the old man about it, the old man was still not happy. The reasons for his unhappiness were twofold: "You've practiced for so long, if you can't even kill a small wolf, you might as well go find a block of tofu to knock yourself dead."

  And it was the second sentence that was the real reason for the old man's anger:

  "You fool, do you know that if the wolf's head is chopped off, its fur will be worthless!! This wolf skin could have been exchanged for two silver coins, enough for us to drink for three months! Now it can only be sold for less than one-tenth of the price!!"

  The old man was right.

  That time, when Xia Yalai carried the wolf to the town, many people were very interested in asking for a price, but as soon as they saw the damaged wolf skin, no one asked about it anymore.

  In the end, that wolf skin was never sold, and Xiaya simply made a fur coat for himself. As for the wolf meat, he and the old man ate it for several days.

  Uh... can't think about wolf meat anymore.

  Although the flesh of that bloodthirsty wolf was difficult to eat and had a sour stench, for Xia Yareng who had been starving for a day and night and was frozen stiff all over, it was still an irresistible torture.

  However, Xia Yalai still decided not to go hunting in the mountains.

  He doesn't want to be a hunter.

  Young people always have a lot of illusions and want to go out and make a name for themselves.

  At least... in his opinion, finding a helper's job in the town was much better than cooping up in the mountains like an old fellow all one's life.

  Go to the town, find a job, even if it's just being an odd-jobber in a garage. Who knows, with my physical strength, I might be able to get hired by that mercenary group as a low-ranking attendant.

  Despite his rumbling stomach and icy hands and feet, Xiayale still thought with a heroic passion.

  Without the familiar axe, Xiā Yà Léi Míng took out the black fire fork from the furnace and inserted it into his waistband. He wore a wolf skin cloak with several holes in it and grass shoes that were almost worn through. With hope in his heart, he walked down the mountain.

  This is Xia Yare's first step towards the outside world!

  According to the legendary stories told by those wandering poets, it should be called "the wheel of history begins to turn".

  However, when our protagonist walked down the mountain, he didn't have any "wheels" to speak of, and his shoes were even worn out. At the same time, he was also starving to the point of dizziness.

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