The afterglow of the setting sun lazily crawled over the white and smooth skin of the rolling mountains, shining warmly on this quiet land. The heavy snow that lasted for several days finally stopped in the evening.
The sudden clearing up restored clarity between heaven and earth.
The warm blue jade-like lake water is covered with a thin layer of cracked ice, rippling slowly with the biting north wind.
The needles of green pines are covered with thick white frost, like clusters of white pear blossoms; the tall oak trees are covered with snow, and their branches are icy and silvery, like white jade sculptures; the sparse bushes have become
The pure white coral bushes are in various shapes and forms, which is confusing and makes you feel like you are in a fairy tale world.
In the lee of the lake, there is a simple hunter's cabin.
The roof covered with a thick layer of snowflakes made the smoke rising from the chimney seem very peaceful; the wooden door that was not completely closed still showed a few flickering lights, making this pale world not too lonely.
I also saw Chris who was returning with the snow fox, and I couldn't help but feel warmth quietly surging in my heart.
The knee-deep snow could not stop him from speeding up.
Upon closer inspection, I discovered that his feet were also wearing buckler-shaped mesh soles.
This kind of sole is the product of wisdom developed over time by hunters who live in the foothills of the Alps. It can avoid the inconvenience of walking when your legs and feet sink into the snow.
When he was about seven or eight steps closer to the cabin, a huge mace suddenly poked out from the crack in the tightly sealed door, and a burly man with a fierce face flashed out.
However, when the strong man saw that the person coming was Chris, the expression on his face softened instantly. He casually hammered the mace into the snow, opened his arms with a hearty smile, and moved forward to give Chris a smile.
Reese gave a thick and joyful hug, "Oh, Chris, you're back! You know, it's been three days! I've been waiting for you for three whole days! If you don't come back today, I plan to go back to the castle to find your father.
Territory guards have been sent to the ice fields to search for you!"
The strong man's name is Sion Clark, and he is now the captain of the guard of the Eaton Territory. He is the only person whose military strength has reached the peak of a warrior.
He is from the south, and the men in his family have served as bodyguards for the Ainske family for generations.
And he was also highly appreciated by Archbishop Raphael, who asked him to follow Avril, who was known as the "Proud Son of Heaven" at that time.
However, when Avril was ambushed, he was busy with other matters and had no guard around.
This also became a mistake that he could never forgive himself for.
Although there was a strong man among the gangsters who ambushed Avril, with Sion's strength, even if he was by Avril's side at the time, it was just one more corpse.
But Sean didn't think so.
The Ainske family, which has been passed down for nearly a thousand years, has cultivated family guards who are never afraid of death.
But I can't accept my failure.
With this guilt, when Avril set off to the north, he also knelt on one knee in front of Archbishop Raphael, and without hesitation begged for permission to follow Avril to the north.
Raphael did not refuse.
Whether it is due to the love and care for his daughter, or the gratification from the loyalty of the family guards.
The Eaton family also trusts and values this man who values friendship.
Old Henry personally selected a woman of suitable age from the family to be his wife, allowing him to share weal and woe with the Eaton family. He also made him the captain of the guard of the territory, fully responsible for training and commanding the guards of the territory.
Sion is also worthy of old Henry's kindness.
When Avril died of illness and everyone thought he would return to the south, he chose to stay in the north.
"From the moment the Archbishop allowed me to come to the north, I was no longer a guard of the Einske family. The only person I was loyal to was Avril. Now that she has passed away, my loyalty should continue to her son Chris.
Instead of going back to the south to be loyal to the Einske family."
He used these words to abide by the rules of the game between lords and vassals: "The vassal of a vassal is not my vassal", and he also completely integrated into the Eaton family. And because he is the person with the highest cultivation level in the Eaton territory,
Therefore, it is logical that he became the best choice to guide Chris's cultivation.
It's just that his coaching method is a little different.
When teaching fighting, he just talked about the general skills, and then he picked up the mace and hit it without thinking. He also plausibly said to the tortured Chris, "Experience is gained from failure.
Skills are learned through beatings."
Even Kafka, who was born weak and unable to practice martial arts, had objections to this.
How can a beginner resist the attack of a peak warrior who has experienced life and death fights?
This way of teaching is so unfair to Chris!
However, Sien told him to shut up and leave with just one word, and never spoke again.
"In a life-and-death fight, there is never fairness. When Chris fights with the enemy in the future, the opponent will not show mercy because of his age!"
This sentence reached Old Henry's ears, and Old Henry specially told Sion to let him go.
As long as we can ensure that Chris' body will not be injured or disabled, there will be bruises, bruises, and bleeding~
up to you!
Not only that, the cruel old man also gave Kafka a lecture.
Dong Yi boasts that men in the north are not cowards, so what’s the point of having to suffer a little bit of flesh and blood?
Let Kafka not spoil his children because of heartache.
To put it bluntly, Chris is the only person in the Eaton family who has the hope of becoming a strong person. Since he wants to become a strong person, he must always be prepared to face all kinds of hardships. Now it’s not like Sion’s actions are without importance. If you can’t bear this, in the future,
How can you still have the indomitable courage to break through the shackles and become a strong person?
Such remarks made Kafka blush.
It's frustrating.
Obviously, whenever he sees cuts or bruises on Chris's body, the old man in front of him will feel so distressed that he can't eat, but why are the words coming out of his mouth so tough!
Chris didn't know about the dispute between his father and grandfather.
He just passively accepted the extremely difficult path of cultivation.
Of course, Zion is not a sadist.
His teaching method is a cultivation model inherited from the Einske family.
Even Chris's mother, Avril Lavigne, who was praised as the "Proud One of Heaven", was crushed by absolute strength from an early age when she started practicing.
The effect is also very good.
Everyone who survives has a good mentality. When faced with a desperate situation, he will not collapse emotionally, but strives to find a chance of life. Moreover, the body's reaction will become extremely sharp, and it will almost be difficult to avoid being hit hard.
It becomes a kind of instinct.
When Chris was sixteen, Sion stopped this brutal training method.
Because it is no longer needed.
By that time, Chris had become accustomed to treating the weapon in his hand as an extension of his body. He had accumulated enough experience and was familiar with fighting techniques in various situations.
Therefore, Sion's new round of teaching is to strengthen Chris to escape from the battle and save his life in the event of failure.
That's right, it's about how to escape successfully when you are inferior in skills.
In his words, failure is not terrible, and there is no shame in running away. Everyone will encounter an enemy stronger than themselves. But saving one's life means having the hope of being stronger than the enemy in the future!
As long as you stand up once more than you fall down, you are successful!
As a warrior, only a brave heart that is indomitable and gets stronger with each setback can overcome all the ups and downs in life.
As for how to train for this "escape"...
The method is also very different.
At the beginning, it was Sion himself who was chasing after Chris with a mace.
But later, he took Chris to the edge of the blood rock in the north to look for some ferocious beasts, and then deliberately angered them to attack Chris; he also strictly prohibited Chris from running away and not fighting back.
This continued until Chris was seventeen years old when he celebrated his coming-of-age ceremony, and then Sion announced that it was time for his teaching to end.
"Dear Chris, I have nothing more to teach you. When your mother Avril was your age, she was probably only three points stronger than you."
Avril's talent is recognized throughout the South as the pride of heaven.
Therefore, Sion's assertion made Kafka very happy and made old Henry grateful for God's favor on the Eaton family.
But for Chris, it aroused his competitive spirit.
He was not so arrogant that he wanted to be on par with his mother, but he quietly made up his mind during his coming-of-age ceremony that he would make up for his mother's regrets in this life, so he wanted to know where his shortcomings were.
In order to better realize what you want in your heart.
"The talent is just one point behind."
Faced with Chris' questioning, Sion explained this way, "As for the remaining two points, it is that you have one less training than your mother. Direct members of the Einske family have exclusive training methods. I just
A guard is not qualified to come into contact with you. However, when you go to the south, I believe the archbishop will treat you as a direct member of the family and accept that kind of training."
When he said this, Xion paused slightly.
Immediately, as if to prove the credibility of his words, he emphasized his tone again, "Well, it will definitely happen! Previously, your mother was the archbishop's favorite daughter; but now, you are your mother's only child!"
Chris didn't care whether he could get special care from his grandfather Rafael, but he had a deeper yearning to go to the south.
He had never left the Eton territory. When he was a child, while Avril was still alive, he had the idea of going to the south to have a look.
Because among the few memories he has of his mother Avril, there is a scene that has always lingered in his heart.
That was when Avril was telling him stories about the south. She would suddenly stop talking and tilt her head to the south in a daze, with something vaguely hidden in her eyes.
When he was still young at the time, he always thought that his grandmother was blinded by the wind and sand in the north.
Only when he grew up did he realize that his mother's blurry eyes were because she hid too much longing for her hometown and relatives.
Later, after Avril passed away, his father would occasionally tell him stories about the South.
But he didn't want to listen.
His father, Kafka, is still a man today.
It was not that Kafka did not remarry to maintain his relationship with the Einske family. It was because he felt that the ten years he had known, known, and fallen in love with Avril were enough to warm him for the rest of his life.
This also caused him to suddenly fall into silence when telling stories.
Chris didn't want to experience this déjà vu feeling.
Moreover, he is about to leave for the south.
If old Henry hadn't wanted to leave the snow fox fur to him as a meeting gift for his grandfather Raphael, which made him stubbornly hunt another snow fox again, he would have embarked on the journey to the south half a month ago.
.
Half a month was the fox hunting time given to him by old Henry.
Regardless of whether he can hunt it or not, he will rush directly to the cabin here to meet up with Xion and set off together.
Apparently, he was not punctual and kept Sien waiting for three more days.
But why does it matter?
Faced with Sion's complaint, Chris also smiled and said, "I'm sorry, Sion. This snow fox is too cunning and delayed me a little longer. But even if I arrived thirty days late, you wouldn't
I asked my father to escort me to the ice field to search. When I was sixteen years old, you left me alone in the ice field for two months and ignored me!"
"Hahaha~~~"
Sian laughed heartily and patted him hard on the back a few times before making way for Chris to enter the room.
But Chris had no intention of entering the house. Instead, he raised the snow fox in his hand and moved his chin towards the lake. "I'll go to the lake first to deal with the snow fox."
"Let me do it."
Xian suddenly stretched out his hand to snatch the snow fox, turned around and walked to the lakeside without saying anything, and teased from behind, "The snow fox is frozen stiff, and your poor skills will definitely damage the fur!"
It also made Chris smile.
He has been wandering around the ice fields frequently since he was fifteen years old!
He has hunted countless wild beasts, how could he not even have the skills to skin a snow fox? Not to mention, he skinned the last snow fox with his own hands~
Xian's unreasonable kindness was just out of love and care.
Naturally, Chris didn't argue. He turned around and entered the cabin and sat down in front of the fire. He added a few pieces of firewood, picked up the wooden bowl used by Sion and drank some hot water to warm his body. He wrapped his cloak tightly and leaned forward.
sleep.
He stayed alone on the ice sheet for more than ten days, chewing dry food when hungry and chewing ice cubes when thirsty. When he climbed into a tree to rest at night, he had to turn a blind eye and watch for unknown dangers, which made him very sleepy.
Now that he was back in the cabin, with the sense of security that Sion had outside the door, he felt unable to resist the onset of sleepiness.
By the time Xian entered the cabin after washing and peeling the snow fox, he had fallen into a deep sleep and snorted evenly.
It was a wordless night.
As the sun broke at dawn the next day, the two of them packed up early and started climbing the Alps with simple luggage on their backs.
The Eaton Territory, which has long been isolated, wants to re-enter the human kingdom. The only way is to follow the road opened by Mike Eaton for the caravan - cross the Alps, then walk along the edge of the desert, to the southwest of the Holy Empire
An important town and north-south hub, the city of Gardinerras.