Chapter 27
Chapter 27
Old Li listened, his heart filled with a myriad of emotions.
“Sigh, the common people have truly suffered since ancient times!”
“Fortunately, the Great Leader led us to overthrow the three great mountains.”
“Otherwise, we would be the same, bullied by others everywhere!”
Similarly, to prevent Hua Jiunan from being bullied, Old Li began teaching him martial arts.
Ancient Martial Arts: Tongbei Quan.
Old Li didn’t teach the flashy, ornamental kind, but true battlefield killing techniques!
Training in the bitter cold of winter and the sweltering heat of summer.
True skill was forged through relentless training and gradual tempering.
Every day before dawn, Old Li would take Hua Jiunan out to practice in the snow.
It wasn’t just ‘rising at the cock’s crow’-they were up even earlier than the roosters.
“Xiao Jiu, remember this: we don’t bully others, but we absolutely must not let others bully us!”
“When Grandpa is no longer by your side, if anyone tries to bully you, you give them a sound thrashing!”
The young Hua Jiunan would nod as he practiced his punches with milky-voiced shouts of “Hei! Ha!”
“Grandpa, I’ll remember!”
Watching from a distance, Deaf Granny felt a quiet sense of regret.
*Sigh, what a pity!*
*After Xiao Jiu’s skin was replaced, he can no longer invite Immortal Spirits into his body. He can’t learn my skills as a spirit medium.*
*Otherwise, with his constitution, even if he couldn’t invite Lord Hu San or Lady Hu San, inviting an Immortal Spirit of a Great House Head’s level would have been effortless!*
Note: Lord Hu San and Lady Hu San are the heads of the Immortal Spirits; more on this will be explained later.
For some unknown reason, the Snow Corpse stopped appearing after Hua Jiunan’s fifth birthday.
During their last meeting, he had left Hua Jiunan many precious medicinal materials like old ginseng, lingzhi mushrooms, and snow lotuses.
Among them were even four thousand-year-old spiritual items.
There was also a shimmering ox-horn dagger.
Two ancient characters were engraved upon it: Zhongkang.
When Deaf Granny brought the blade back, even the spirit medium Immortal Spirit, Eighth Master Chang, repeatedly backed away from it.
“Old woman, take that knife away! It gives this Immortal Spirit the creeps!”
“Good heavens, how many people must have been killed for it to have such heavy baleful qi!”
As the cold seasons came and went, ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
The year was 1997.
Ten years of uninterrupted martial arts training had made Hua Jiunan exceptionally strong.
At just fifteen years old, the youth possessed the smooth, lean muscles of a leopard.
Old Li also discovered that Hua Jiunan’s physical resilience and recovery abilities were remarkably powerful.
No matter how exhausted he became, a short rest would leave him as energetic as a dragon or tiger again.
Injuries sustained during training healed quickly, without leaving so much as a scar.
Looking at the bewildered Old Li, Deaf Granny laughed secretly to herself.
*This silly old man!*
*Xiao Jiu is covered in Dragon Skin; how could he not be extraordinary!*
After finishing his morning practice and breakfast, Hua Jiunan began reviewing his schoolwork.
Once this summer break was over, he would be able to attend high school in town.
Although the wind and snow raged through the hundred thousand mountains of the Northern Lands regardless of the month, the term ‘summer break’ was unified across the country…
Actually, with Hua Jiunan’s grades, he could have easily gone to school in the county seat.
However, he worried about his aging grandfather and grandmother and didn’t want to be too far from home.
After all, the distance from the village to the county seat was three hundred li.
Even though conditions had improved and asphalt roads had been built, it still required several hours on a bus.
Furthermore, studying in the county seat meant living in a dormitory, with only one trip home per month.
Going to the town was different:
Though he would still stay in a dorm, he could return for two days every week to see his grandparents.
Deaf Granny was now eighty years old. Though she was still full of spirit, her legs were no longer as nimble as they once were.
She sat cross-legged on the kang bed, smiling as she watched Hua Jiunan do his summer homework.
Suddenly, Deaf Granny began to twitch. A few seconds later, her pupils turned an eerie shade of green.
Her voice was no longer kind, but became incredibly sharp and piercing:
“Your third son actually dared to shoot at me with a gun. For your sake, I won’t lower myself to his level.”
“Is he never going to stop? He fired two shots!”
“He’s going for a third?! I must give him a lesson today!”
“Go to the West River and drag him back. If you’re late and he dies, don’t blame this Immortal Spirit!”
After Deaf Granny finished speaking, her whole body trembled again. It took several seconds for her to return to normal.
“Xiao Jiu, what did Grandma just say?”
Seeing Deaf Granny’s tense expression, Hua Jiunan hurried to repeat the words she had just uttered.
“Oh no! Child, quickly help me to the West River. Your Third Uncle has caused trouble!”
Half an hour later, the two of them indeed found Wang San lying unconscious in the snow by the river.
Hua Jiunan took out the golden needles his mother had left him and skillfully inserted them into several acupuncture points: Baihui, Guanyuan, Fuliu, and Taiyuan.
Deaf Granny had long since grown accustomed to Hua Jiunan’s actions.
For a little fellow who could write prescriptions to save the whole village at age five, knowing acupuncture was only natural.
Ten minutes later, Wang San, whose face was swollen and bruised a dark purple, finally regained consciousness.
“Mother, I’ve been hexed!”
“I was hunting just now and saw a yellow weasel drinking by the river.”
“I fired two shots, but the yellow weasel just shook its fur like it was nothing. When I went for the third shot, the gun backfired!”
Deaf Granny looked at her dim-witted third son and said crossly:
“That wasn’t just a yellow weasel, that was a Yellow Immortal!”
“If his Excellency hadn’t spared you for my sake, you’d be dead by now!”
As Hua Jiunan helped Wang San away, the yellow weasel that had been watching them from a distance suddenly bristled its fur.
It looked around in terror.
A cold wind blew past, and a Red-Dressed Female Ghost appeared silently behind the yellow weasel.
A pale ghostly claw reached out, grabbing the yellow weasel by the neck and lifting it up.
A Yellow Immortal, who had already attained a significant level of cultivation, was thus strangled to death.
The female ghost drained the yellow weasel’s blood and casually tossed its carcass by the river.
Then, with an eerie smile on her face, she gazed in the direction where Hua Jiunan had departed.
If Hua Jiunan had seen the female ghost, he would have certainly found her familiar.
Because this was the very same one that had been clinging to Wang San’s back ten years ago!