Chapter 12: A Teacher who comes from Hell? (IV)
Listening to Xing Yu’s question, Long Hao Chen couldn’t help become somewhat shocked and after thinking deeply for a short while, he shook his head with an ignorant face.
Xing Yu’s face revealed a rare smile, “You are quite honest; you don’t try to give a casual answer just to satisfy me. Not to mention you, even the Knight Temple cannot easily answer to this question. Precisely because of this question, regarding genuine knights, there are two branches of knights differentiated by the Knight Temple: the Retribution Knights, and the Guardian Knights.
Retribution Knights focus on attack. They wield dual weapons and fight with the combination of their mounts and their offensive holy arts. Their fighting capabilities are very high and their strength in the battlefield surpasses the strength of soldiers and assassins of the same rank.
Guardian Knights give priority to defense. They wield a weapon in a hand, a shield in the other one, and are the core of teams. They are proficient with assisting and recovery holy arts. Their fighting capabilities are perhaps weaker than Retribution Knights’, but in collaborations, the Guardian Knights’ utility is way higher than Retribution Knights.”
At this point, Xing Yu stopped for a little. Still looking at Long Hao Chen, he asked: “Do you believe that there are more Retribution Knights or that there are more Guardian Knights?”
Long Hao Chen thought, then said: “There should be more Retribution Knights. You just said that the Retribution Knights’ offensive power are better.”
Xing Yu shook his head: “It is the opposite, we Knight Temple have a Guardian Knights ratio of 10: 1, compared to Retribution Knights.”
“Oh? Such a difference? But why?” Long Hao Chen asked puzzled.
Xing Yu answered: “Because we belong to the Temple Alliance. As the head of the six great Temples of the Temple Alliance, we Knight Temple mustn’t consider only our own individual combat capabilities: we have to consider our partners’ as well. The reason why it is called Temple Alliance is that it is only once people belonging to these six vocation fight together can they have the greatest fighting efficiency. But as the team’s core, the knight does not only have to consider his own attack and defense, but the protection of his allies as well. Thus, there are way more Guardian Knights than Retribution Knights.”
Long Hao Chen understood some of his words, “Teacher, then should I, in the future, become a Guardian Knight or a Retribution Knight?”
Xing Yu lightly answered: “You are the only one who can make the suitable choice. In this aspect, I cannot help you. Seeing your disposition, it would probably be more suitable for you to choose to become a Guardian Knight, but I am, personally, a Retribution Knight. What I can pass on to you in vast majority are abilities and skills used by Retribution Knights.”
“Teacher, I… …”
“Don’t be impatient to answer.” Xing Yu instantly interrupted Long Hao Chen, “You have a year to think deeply over this. A year later, you will tell me your answer.”
“Yes.”
One year later, in Hao Yue city.
Walking on a wide street in Hao Yue city, Long Hao Chen’s eyes looked curious and surprised.
What a big city! The street was at least 16.6 meters (5 Zhang) wide, and shops stood on both sides of the street. There was an incessant stream of horses and it was extremely noisy, this city’s burst of people couldn’t possibly be compared with Odin’s: it was as vastly different as between heaven and earth.
In the southern part of the Temple Alliance, Hao Yue was a middle sized city. But it was the first time Long Hao Chen, who lived from childhood in Odin, got to see a city of this scale.
Long Hao Chen was full of curiosity towards Hao Yue city and people on the road seemed as curious as him. He was dressed in simple clothing, but his face was similar to a porcelain doll’s. Today, after one year, Long Hao Chen’s face did not look unhealthy anymore and he had also grew up a lot. Although he still looked like a kid, his appearance looked slender.
The most surprising thing was that such a beautiful youth carried on his back two intersecting long swords. They were clearly two swords with refined-iron handles with a length of a meter (3 Chi), a width of a decimeter (0.1 meter, 3 Cun), and a thickness of more than 3 centimeters (1 Cun). Although they didn’t look like edged swords, they didn’t look light at all! They looked like a miniature version of the knight’s epee[1]. Could such a small kid possibly use this kind of epee?
These people didn’t know at all that if not for the sake of keeping a low profile, Long Hao Chen would not have any problem to carry two Genuine Knight’s epee and would easily use them.
A year of bitter practice caused incredible changes in him, as if he had been reborn. On the 83rd day in the owl-ants’ lair, he could finally rely on the bamboo swords to block completely the owl-ants’ attacks that came from all directions. However, he still had to practice in the owl-ants’ lair, only changing the weapons he brought. From the lightest bamboo sword, to a wooden sword, then an iron sword, a refined-iron sword, and finally an epee; he had to adapt to pairs of swords of all kind of weights. After he adapted to the knight’s epee, he had to come back from the epee to the refined-iron sword for one more month, then to the iron sword, the wooden sword, the bamboo sword, accomplishing a full lap.
After he accomplished all of that, a full-year had already passed. This time, he went to Hao Yue city because Xing Yu gave him two assignments as an evaluation of the year’s bitter training.
Upon entering the city, Long Hao Chen asked people where the Knight Temple of Hao Yue city could be found. After passing through a few wide streets, arriving close to the center of Hao Yue city, he identified his destination because of the symbol consisting of a shield and sword.
The Knight Hall of Hao Yue couldn’t be compared to Odin Hall at all. From outside, it looked like at least five layers of tall and big buildings were erected there, occupying a very wide area. At the entrance stood two armored young knights.
“Little friend, who are you looking for?” When Long Hao Chen arrived at the entrance of the Knight Temple, a young knight smiling at the entrance asked him. Having no choice but to answer, Long Hao Chen, who had an appearance of pretty boy advanced.
“Hello brothers, I am looking for the hall master, Nalan Shu.” Long Hao Chen politely spoke to the two knights.
“Looking for the hall master?” The two youth looked at him, and asked: “Why do you need to meet him?”
Long Hao Chen told: “My teacher told me to look for the hall master Nalan Shu, and then to deliver him a letter.”
“Then hand the letter to me.” said the young knight on the left.
Long Hao Chen shook his head: “Teacher said that I had to hand it to Na Lan Shu hall master personally.”
The young knight awkwardly retorted: “I am afraid that I can’t let you do that: this is Hao Yue city’s Knight Temple Hall, only people from the Temple like us can enter.”
Long Hao Chen, showing some anxiety, said: “But I am also from the Knight Temple! I come from Odin Hall.”
The young knight said: “That still won’t do, little brother, it is like this. As a kid from one of those halls, you can only enter for the examination every three years. Give this letter to me; I will help you to pass it. Then if the hall master is willing to meet you, you will be able to enter.”
Long Hao Chen wrinkled, Xing Yu warned him several times that this letter had to be personally delivered to Na Lan Shu.
At this moment, a pleasant voice echoed, “What are you doing? Embarrassing a little child?” This voice came from someone in the Hall.
This person was a lightly dressed teenage girl, her neatly combed pink-colored hair formed a ponytail and her beautiful blue large eyes looked attentively at Long Hao Chen. She looked 18-19 year-old. Her body gracefully moved, her shoulders exposing from each side, a handle of a sword.
“Senior knight.” In fact, both youths had just become knights recently, so they respectfully saluted her.
The young girl arrived in front of Long Hao Chen, curiously looking at his face, then said to the two young knights: “I heard all your words, but you should know that the custom are to die for people to live[2]. Plus, this little brother is also from one of the sub-temples of our Knight Temple. I will take him to meet uncle Nalan. Or do you believe that this child came to cause trouble?”
1.TL: kind of duelling sword that looks like a thick rapier
2. 规矩是死的，人是活的, litterally: rules/custom are to die, people are to live. I tried to translate its meaning rather than simply the words, thus I translated it a little differently. I think it means that people should be opened to adapt their rules to circumstances, if they want to live well.