Chapter 4: Yang Tian Recruits Disciples

  Lei Meng and Yang Tian carried the wild boar, swaying it back and forth a few times, before lightly returning to Yang Fu's home. As they kicked open the courtyard gate with a "bang", and let out a loud "whoa" as they set down the wild boar, Yang Fu rushed out of the forge. At the sight of the two-meter-long brown wild boar, Yang Fu was so shocked that he couldn't say a word, although he knew the two kids were no ordinary children, but he hadn't expected them to be able to hunt and bring back such a large wild boar at such a young age.

  Yang Tian saw Yang Fu come out and excitedly said: "Old grandpa, quick, quick, bring a knife to divide this wild boar, today we have wild boar meat to eat!"

  Yang Fu came back to his senses upon hearing the sound, and chuckled as he said: "You two little guys are really something, you can even hunt wild boars. You two go rest first, I'll go to the village to call a few people to help."

  Yang Fu went out for a while and brought back three sturdy young men, each holding a shiny white vegetable knife in their hands. Fortunately, they were all beaming with excitement, or else it would have looked like they were going to chop people up.

  There was a young man named Yang Erwu who rushed in and saw the large wild boar, exclaiming: "Wow, what a huge wild boar! It must weigh over 300 catties. Old Iron Head, who hunted it?" Before Yang Fu could respond, he quickly ran to the front of the wild boar and cut open the tied rattan strips with a few swift strokes. The other two also looked at Yang Fu curiously, after all, he was already old in years, although his body was still good, but hunting and killing a wild boar was not something that anyone could do easily.

  Yang Fu walked up to the wild boar and burst out laughing, saying: "This is what those two little guys I brought back hunted down, can you believe it?" As he met the three people's incredulous gaze, he continued: "Second Master Yang, take a look at the top of that wild boar's head. There's a broken knife stuck in there, that was Yang Tian's handiwork." After enjoying the three people's shock and admiration for a while, he shouted towards the house: "Lei Meng, Yang Tian, come out and meet everyone! They're curious about you two." And with that, under the expectant gaze of Yang Erwu and the others, two children around 1.3 meters tall walked out of the house.

  Yang Tian raised his palm to wave at everyone and introduced, "Hello everyone, my name is Yang Tian, and he's called Lei Meng." Just after finishing speaking, Yang Erwu ran over, circling around the two of them looking up and down, muttering nonstop: Can't see what's so special about these two, how can they be so powerful at such a young age.

  Yang Tian felt like he was being treated like an animal, and just as he was about to get angry, Yang Fu shouted: "Second Master Wu, stand up straight for me!" Yang Erwu immediately stood up straight, after all, Yang Fu was still a senior figure, and couldn't be ignored.

  Then, Yang Fu introduced the three of them, saying: "Lei Meng, Yang Tian, the one standing in front of you is called Er Wu Zi. He usually likes to perform some acrobatics. The two by my side are called Zi Jiang and Bai Hui. Today they didn't go down, and coincidentally met up with us to divide this wild boar."

  Zi Jiang and Bai Hui smiled and nodded at the two of them, just as Yang Erwu was about to ask where they came from. Suddenly, Yang Fu let out a loud whistle: "Erwu, come quick! We'll cut up this wild boar so everyone can have some for lunch." He then busied himself directing Zi Jiang and Bai Hui to carry it over to the wooden board that had just been laid out outside, preparing to dissect the boar.

  Erwu quickly ran over to help, and Leimeng and Yang Tian also went into the house to find two wooden buckets to fetch water.

  After a flurry of excitement and bustle, the wild boar was divided into blocks of bright red pork and bones laid out on wooden boards, with puddles of blood left on the muddy ground. Yang Fu's four adults and Lei Ming's two children stood scattered around, their gray cloth clothes stained with specks of blood, although a bit tired, but under the midday sun, they looked particularly cheerful.

  Soon after, villagers came one after another to take a piece back home for cooking, and thanked Yang Fu on the way. Yang Fu responded with a smile, and hearty laughter was heard from time to time.

  It wasn't long before the pork was all divided up. Zijiang and Baihui took their share of the meat back home, while Leiming and Yang Tian had already taken theirs inside to cook. Only Yang Erwu stood there, staring blankly at the broken knife that had been used to cut off the pig's head, because he noticed that the material of this broken knife was different from the kitchen knives they normally used.

  Yang Erwu is nineteen years old. When he was very young, he would listen to the village elders tell stories and was deeply fascinated by the legendary heroes. Whenever he had some free time, he would imitate the plots of those stories and perform some acrobatics based on his own imagination. His peers in the village occasionally teased him about this, and he once stopped practicing because of it. Now, he saw the knife he had always dreamed of - although it was broken, it was still a real existence. Moreover, he also saw the mark of Wu's bravery in killing the wild boar with one slash, which split the wild boar's skull and killed it instantly. It's worth noting that those were two young children... If it were him, he would have needed to use an axe to chop through the hard skull of the wild boar, and besides, the wild boar wouldn't just stand there motionless waiting to be slashed - it might even charge at them before they could slash it. His thoughts kept drifting away, and he couldn't snap back to reality.

  Yang Fu saw the pork was distributed, and the satisfaction of receiving thanks had not yet dissipated. Only Er Wuzi was still standing there in a daze. He shouted: "Er Wuzi, what are you standing there stupidly for? Don't you go back to cook! Your old man is going to starve to death!"

  Yang Erwu suddenly came to, looked around and found that only Tie Lao was standing in front of the bloody wooden board with him. He hastily stepped forward and tightly grasped Tie Lao's left hand with his right hand that wasn't holding the meat, excitedly saying: "Tie Lao, tell Lei Meng and Yang Tian to take me as their apprentice..."

  "Stop, stop! They may be young, but they have their own ideas. I can ask for you, but whether they accept or not is up to them. You hurry back and cook dinner, come back after eating." Yang Fu hastily stopped Yang Erwu from continuing.

  "Thank you, thank you!" Yang Erwu let go of his hand and bowed twice before running towards home. After taking more than ten steps, he turned back and shouted: "I'll come over as soon as I finish eating!"

  Yang Fu watched him run back, and as soon as he turned around to enter the courtyard, he saw Yang Tian standing at the door. Yang Fu smiled and said: "How about it, Yang Tian? Are you going to take this big apprentice?"

  Yang Tian scratched his head with his right hand and said, "Old man, dinner is ready, let's eat first, we can talk after eating."

  The wild boar meat was cut into pieces and cooked in a pot, with some scallions added. The soup was fragrant and delicious, the pork skin was smooth, and the meat was all lean but very tender. Yang Fu brought two children to eat with some plain rice, it had been a long time since they had eaten such good food. Yang Fu savored slowly, looking at the two children eating with relish, feeling satisfied in his heart.

  After a while, Yang Tian and Lei Meng were full, and Yang Tian asked: "Lei Meng, the butcher Liu Erzi who killed pigs earlier wanted to learn martial arts from us, what do you think?" Lei Meng pinched his chin, with an old and mature look, saying: "Hmm, it's okay to teach him, if he has perseverance let him learn more, and you should also practice again. Besides, I want to get some bows and arrows when there is a chance, form a small hunting team in the village, and improve everyone's diet."

  Over the past month or so, the two of them have also gradually come to understand the situation around this village. This is a relatively remote small village, and the nearest town is a day's journey away, where people fled to escape war a long time ago. The main industry in the village is farming, occasionally digging up medicinal herbs from the mountains to sell, or catching birds to eat, but due to the lack of tools, they can only rely on setting traps to hunt, and the harvest is not ideal, so hunting has not developed.

  Yang Tian nodded after listening, then said to Yang Fu who was still eating the wild boar meat: "Old man, my knife is broken. When can you make another one for me?" Just as Yang Fu came back to his senses and was about to speak, Lei Ming interrupted him, saying: "Old man, look at how strong I am. Teach me how to forge and let me try."

  "Hehe, okay, I also need someone to inherit my skills. Let's take a break and we'll get started soon." Yang Fu was overjoyed.

  Yang Fugang had just eaten his fill and hadn't even had time to clean up when someone outside the gate started shouting: "Old Iron, have you eaten? I've eaten my fill and I'm coming over!"

  "Come in, Niwako. I've already eaten."

  Just after finishing speaking, Yang Erwu rushed into the house and looked at the two children with an expectant expression.

  Yang Fu smiled and said to Lei Meng: "Lei Meng, you say it."

  "Sit down, Erwu, I see you're back so soon, you must not have eaten anything. There's still some meat here, just make do and eat some more." Lei Meng and Yang Tian were both over twenty years old in actual age, so it was normal to address a young man by his name, but now he had the body of a child, which was quite strange. Yang Tian also cooperated and went to get another bowl and chopsticks.

  Looking at Erwu Zi standing there in a daze, Yang Fu said discontentedly: "What's wrong, Erwu Zi, don't you like the meat from my house?"

  "No, no, I'll just sit down and eat." Immediately, Er Wuzi sat down and nervously picked up the bowl and chopsticks handed over by Yang Tian from beside him.

  Lei Meng then said to Yang Tian who had just sat down: "Yang Tian, this afternoon you teach Er Wu Zi to practice his stance and see what the situation is."

  "Uh-huh." Yang Tian nodded.

  "Master is above, please accept a bow from his apprentice." Yang Erwu threw down his bowl and chopsticks and stood up to give Yang Tian a bow.

  Yang Tian saw him hastily stretch out his hand to support him, saying: "Don't, don't! You don't have to call me Master, just call me Yang Tian. What's the point of making it so complicated?" Yang Tian thought to himself, if you call me Master, then I'll also have to call Lei Ming Master, this deal isn't worth it.

  Yang Erwu only felt a strong force lifting him up, and he couldn't bow down anymore. He thought to himself that he had indeed met the legendary master, and hastily stood aside with reverence.

  Yang Fu saw this scene and knew that Lei Meng and Yang Tian were still here, so he said: "Lei Meng, Yang Tian, you two follow me to the forging room to take a look. Er Wuzi, you just eat here, after eating your fill, go find us."

  After finishing speaking, he took Lei Meng and the two of them left. Yang Erwu thought for a moment, seemingly making up his mind, sat down to eat quickly, finished eating, and then hastily cleaned up the dinner table before rushing out to find Yang Tian.