Chapter 1: Perplexity

  In the following days, Gao Huaiyuan's life began to fill up, although the people in the Gao family still ignored him, only Gao Jianshi would occasionally find him and ask about his life. The rest of the people still treated him as a transparent person, so not many people paid attention to Gao Huaiyuan's whereabouts, which was exactly what he wanted.

  Every day at dawn, Gao Huaiyuan had to put on a set of clothes specially prepared for him by the old man, including a horse jacket filled with iron sand weighing 50 kilograms, and two iron sandbags weighing 15 kilograms each on his legs. There were also two iron sandbags weighing 10 kilograms each on his arms. The total weight was exactly 100 kilograms, which was simply cruel for an eleven or twelve-year-old boy.

  But it's not that the old man is heartless, it's just that after feeling his bones again, he discovered that he had a strong and fierce physique, shook his head and sighed, saying that foolish people have foolish blessings, this can also be considered as innate talent. So he made him a custom-made one, if an ordinary young man wore this set of clothes, let alone move around, it's probably impossible to even walk!

  Even so, for the first few days, Gao Huairen was still tormented by this set of movements. Every morning when he ran to the forest outside the city, let alone practicing martial arts, he was so exhausted that he could hardly crawl. Later, after the old man taught him a method of regulating his breath, the situation improved slightly.

  This method of controlling the breath is simple, it's just a matter of learning how to breathe and adjusting one's breathing at any time, then lowering the frequency of breathing and turning it into an internal circulation of energy within the body. In short, it's a kind of qigong. To learn this method, the old man also taught him many things about the human body's acupoints, so that he could quickly grasp this skill and use it to temper his physical strength. It was like letting him cultivate both internally and externally at the same time, using external force to supplement internal power. So after mastering this method of controlling the breath, even when running with the weight on his back, he gradually began to adapt.

  After several days of continuous exercise, Gao Huaiyuan's movement speed also gradually increased. The old man didn't teach him anything complicated, every day when he arrived at the forest, he would give him an iron rod and let him strike the air with all his might, 500 times for each hand, left and right. After a day of this, Gao Huaiyuan's arms were swollen like steamed buns, and whenever he pressed on one, it would leave a dent, hurting so much that he gritted his teeth.

  Moreover, he was made to stare at the willow leaves in the distance without blinking an eye. The willow leaves swayed gently in the wind, and it seemed simple, but anyone who stared for half a day would get dizzy. Gao Huai had extraordinary strength, but his eyes were ordinary, so he could only stare at the willow leaves honestly, until his eyes became sour and teary, unbearably bitter.

  According to the old man, this is basic training. If you can't practice well, don't think about learning advanced martial arts. Gao Huairen also had a strong determination not to give up. Since his master said so, he would practice like this and see what results he could achieve in the end.

  Such bitter training was extremely dull, and after a period of time, the old man would occasionally nod his head in satisfaction at Gao Huaiyuan's persistence. Later, when he saw that Gao Huaiyuan had made some progress, he started to find a stick to hit him with, making him wear that hundred-pound heavy armor, dodging and jumping around to avoid the stick in his hand.

  Gao Huaiyuan was badly beaten by the old man, wearing this outfit, wanting to avoid the old man's attack was almost impossible, so he didn't hesitate to protest, but the final result was also ineffective protests, could only be chased and beaten by the old man, Gao Huaiyuan could only be beaten into hiding his head and scurrying away, in his heart he couldn't help but secretly curse the old guy for being inhumane.

  During this period, Gao Huaiyuan suffered a lot, but he could also feel that his strength and speed were rapidly increasing. He knew that the old man's training had obvious effects, so he gritted his teeth and persisted.

  "One force against ten wills, don't think this is boring, strength is the foundation, this is to strengthen your physical power and endurance! And let you dodge the stick, that's to train your instinct to dodge, if it were really on the battlefield, if you can't dodge the opponent's sword and spear, I'm afraid it won't take long before you'll be killed! And then there's speed, under the sky no martial arts are unbeatable, only swiftness is unbreakable! Letting you practice chopping and slashing is to increase your speed of striking, combining strength and speed, nothing can withstand your one blow! You want to learn more profound martial arts? Practice this well first!" The old man looked at Gao Huairen holding the iron rod, continuously striking, while grabbing a handful of roasted beans, crunching away.

  Fortunately, the food at Gao's house has improved a bit during this period. If it was still like before, Gao Huairen would have collapsed long ago. Even so, after a morning of bitter practice, he still had to eat seven or eight steamed buns on an empty stomach. As a result, Gao Huairen soon gained a new nickname in the Gao household, being secretly referred to by everyone as "Rice Bucket".

  During this period, Gao Jian also asked Gao Huaiyuan if he was willing to read books and take the imperial examination in the future, just like his two elder brothers. However, Gao Huaiyuan flatly refused, claiming that he didn't have the talent for it. He said that while reading and recognizing characters were no big deal, he was dull-witted and never thought of taking the imperial examination to obtain any honors.

  Gao Jian gave up after hearing that, although he thought Gao Huaiyuan was no longer foolish, but he didn't think he was much smarter than others just because of the lightning strike. Besides, he was already 12 or 13 years old now, and it seemed a bit late to start reading and learning. So he had a bad impression of Gao Huaiyuan again, thinking that this guy who only knew how to eat but not work was useless. It seemed that when he got older, he couldn't count on this guy anymore. Therefore, he didn't care about him much anymore, let him do whatever he wanted!

  He only met Gao Huaiyuan a few times during this period, and always felt that the guy's gaze was not good, so he secretly observed him at night and soon grasped his affair with Li, making him even more disgusted with the Gao family, who had degenerated to such an extent. Poor old man Gao Jian, who didn't know that his son had cuckolded him, what a pity!

  From Gao Huai Liang's behavior, Gao Huai Yuan also grasped several handles. This guy often stole money from his mother, and the main financial power of the Gao family was held by Gao Huai Liang's mother, Zhang Shi, who was also Gao Jian's legitimate wife. Many income-generating matters in the mansion were handled by Zhang Shi, so it was more convenient for Gao Huai Liang to get money from her than anyone else. This guy could be said to be a complete wastrel, with no redeeming qualities except that he knew how to pretend to be refined. Usually, when facing Gao Jian, he would put on a respectful and well-mannered appearance, as if he were very educated. Therefore, it was truly pitiful that Gao Jian still held him in high esteem!

  After grasping the handle of Gao Huailiang, Gao Huairen was no longer afraid of being unfavorable to himself. As for his second brother Gao Huaren, Gao Huairen also understood that he was not a good bird either. He liked to find some friends to fool around with, fight crickets and drink flower wine, and was a dissolute person. However, this guy had no conflict with him and looked down on him with an air of disdain, never getting along with him. Therefore, Gao Huairen did not provoke him either, still living a solitary life in the mansion, continuing to be treated as thin air by others.

  Those people below no longer dare to provoke Gao Huaiyuan, and they keep a respectful distance from him. This has saved Gao Huaiyuan a lot of trouble, and overall, these days have passed quite smoothly.

  Nowadays, Liu Er's life is much better. Although Li Shi still holds a grudge against Gao Huaiyuan and Liu Er, she doesn't dare to bully Liu Er openly anymore. She just occasionally whispers to Gao Jian, speaking ill of Gao Huaiyuan, wanting to drive him out of the Gao family, best to send him back to his hometown in Daye County, letting him fend for himself and perish.

  These things were naturally unknown to Gao Huaiyuan, who was carefully retaliating against Gao Huailiang and Li Shi while continuing his training, and thus passed more than two months of relatively peaceful life.

  For the past two months, he hasn't been fully immersed in his martial arts training, but has also made time to go out and about on the streets. It's actually quite amusing - he's even become friends with Huang Yan and those young whippersnappers. After being taught a lesson by Gao Huaiyuan, not only did they not hold a grudge against him, but they would often wait outside the Gao residence for Gao Huaiyuan to come out, and as soon as they saw him, they'd pester him to teach them some moves. Over time, they've become quite familiar with Gao Huaiyuan.

  After getting in touch with them, Gao Hua Yuan discovered that these kids weren't actually bad kids, they just lacked proper parental guidance at home, which led them to hang out on the streets and bully younger kids. Apart from that, they didn't do much harm. Considering how respectful they were towards him, he decided not to let them become a group of hoodlums in Shaoxing City, so he befriended them and became their leader.

  Anyway, they were idle, so to prevent these kids from causing trouble on the streets, he gathered them and took them outside the city during their free time to teach them some grappling and fighting techniques. As a result, these guys became addicted to learning and started to truly regard Gao Huaiyuan as their boss!

  These kids unintentionally saw the iron sandbag on Gao Huaiyuan's body and knew that Gao Huaiyuan was also practicing martial arts. They all clamored to learn martial arts, so Gao Huaiyuan mentioned this to his master. After all, people from the south are not fierce enough, and it would be great if a few of them could learn some skills. Later, when the Song Dynasty is invaded by the Mongolian army, there will be more strong men. However, the old man did not agree and only said that if they wanted to learn, they could follow Gao Huaiyuan in the morning, but he would never accept them as his apprentices!

  Gao Huaiyuan reluctantly told them a few, and Huang Yan immediately jumped up early in the morning to practice martial arts with Gao Huaiyuan. As a result, the number of young people leaving the city in the morning changed from one person to several people.