That night.
"Young Master Shen, what's going on?"
The village chief looked at the horse carriage behind Shen Ling and a flash of doubt shot through his eyes.
Shen Ling smiled and said, "We previously agreed to start cultivating a portion of young people to help protect the village. These weapons are for our saber lessons, which will begin tomorrow."
"So does this mean Young Master Shen is serious…"
The village chief turned to Shen Ling and stared at him for a long period of time. Just as suddenly he lowered his gaze to the ground. "I didn't think that Young Master Shen would actually be so concerned about the safety of us lowly sharecroppers. I thought you were just joking. This old man has misjudged you. I am very ashamed of myself."
Shen Ling looked at the village chief and said, "What's the matter with sharecroppers? Sharecroppers are human beings too. If you plan things right, in the future, you will be able to harvest enough crops, sell them, and save money, so that you can become wealthy citizens. You will even have your own fields. Isn't this how life works?"
The old village chief shook his head back and forth.
Even though this was indeed the ideal life, they were forced to sell their land early on and become sharecroppers. Their status in this society was at the bottom of the barrel.
No one had dreams of starting fresh. In their eyes, as long as they survived, they should consider themselves lucky.
These simple words explained it all:
To survive was their top priority.
After a moment of complete silence, the old village chief slowly got up and leaned heavily on his cane. "I'll head out now and call them over."
"Stop right there."
Shen Ling lifted his hand to stop him. "It's already late. You don't need to wake anyone up. We can start bright and early tomorrow morning."
"And you?"
The old village chief turned his eyes to look at Shen Ling and asked in a confused voice.
Shen Ling looked around at his surroundings and said in a soft voice, "If you don't mind, I'll just stay here."
"Really? Are you sure…"
The old village chief stared at Shen Ling in disbelief. "My house is so simple and crude. How can I let Young Master Shen stay here?"
"It's perfectly fine."
Shen Ling shook his head back and forth and tried to talk the old village chief into letting him stay at his place.
He turned his attention to the servants waiting by the side and said, "Have a few people guard the carriage. The rest can head back and report to your superiors. Oh, and if my father asks, tell him that I'm staying here for a while."
"Elder Young Master, this…"
The servant thought that this could be a problem. He knew Master Shen would not be taking this well. His son was the elder young master of the Shen family. Why would he would he lower himself to spend that night at the village chief's house?
Shen Ling said, "Stop with your nonsense. Just follow my orders. If there's a problem, come and find me."
"I got it."
Seeing that Shen Ling could not be persuaded otherwise, the servant could only do as he was told.
That night, Shen Ling spent the night in the old village chief's house.
Hearing the sound of Shen Ling's shallow breathing, a hint of shock shot through the old village chief's eyes.
The beds in his house were very hard and stiff. But the eldest young master of the Shen family had no trouble falling asleep at all. In fact, he was snoring very quietly in his corner of the room.
Feeling less doubtful about things, the old village chief gradually closed his eyes and fell asleep as well.
After one night.
Around 5:30 am, the old village chief ordered his subordinates to notify all the young men in the village to gather at the open space in the middle of the village after eating their breakfast.
Before it reached six am, more than a hundred young men had arrived.
During this time, Shen Ling was still eating his porridge.
The old village turned to look at Shen Ling and said in a slow voice, "Young Master Shen, the young men have all gathered in the center of the village."
"Ah, so early too…"
Shen Ling put down his spoon and started to yawn.
He had no idea that tenant farmers normally got up so early. That they were usually up by four or five in the morning. This was really too early for him.
After stretching out his limbs, he and the old village chief made their way towards the area located in the middle of the village.
Staring straight at each of the young men's faces before him, the old village chief coughed and said, "You all know who this is. There is no need for an introduction. It was Young Master Shen who saved us from an ill-fated death when the bandits came around last time."
The group of young men turned their eyes to look at the old village chief, with no clue why they were all called here at this time.
The old village chief hesitated at that moment, then looked at Shen Ling for help and said, "Do you want to speak now or should I?"
"It's fine. You may go ahead."
Shen Ling nodded his head.
The old village chief coughed then said, "Given the recent incidents with bandits and bandits sighted in the area, Young Master Shen has decided to personally go out of his way to teach you all how to wield the saber so that everyone will know what to do when such an event arises again."
The group of young men appeared very confused. "Young Master Shen is teaching us how to wield the saber?"
Shen Ling stared at each of the young men in the face and said word by word, "Don't you trust me?"
"We don't dare."
The group of strong and capable young men quickly shook their heads back and forth.
They all depended on the Shen family's fields to eat. They would rather cut off their arm than dare to offend the young master of the Shen family.
Even though they knew that Shen Ling was the one who had killed those bandits, there were not many people who would step forward and willingly admit to having witnessed such an act.
All of a sudden, Shen Ling pulled out his long saber and swung it at the sky.
With the intent of splitting the mountain, it was a full-strength attack!
A huge and dazzling light from the saber shot right into the sky. This time, the light of the saber flew for more than twenty meters before completely disappearing.
Though the saber light was long gone, the young and strong sharecroppers who all had their eyes on Shen Ling this entire time had a shocked expression on their faces. Some of them were even quivering out of fear.
So mighty and powerful!
After showing off his power, Shen Ling did not beat around the bush.
"Hand out the sabers."
The servants of the Shen family right away opened the carriage trunk and handed out the longswords to each of the young and strong sharecroppers.
Among those gathered today, there was even a fifteen-year-old boy…
Shen Ling was quite startled for a moment there.
Then, he suddenly recalled that he was only seventeen himself now.
Fifteen years old was considered an adult in this time and age.
Giving the young man a pat on the shoulder, Shen Ling walked to the front of the crowd and enunciated, "From today and onwards, you will be protecting the village and your homes with your lives. With my lessons, you will learn how to wield the saber. Pretty soon, all of you will be well-versed in the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique."
Having said that, Shen Ling looked around at the empty land in the middle village they were standing in.
Even though this place, which was where the tenant farmers all gathered when they had free time, was quite spacious, it proved a little difficult when trying to line up all one hundred people in a row.
After thinking things over for a bit, Shen Ling turned to look at the old village chief beside him and asked, "Is there a bigger space around here?"
The old village chief shook his head back and forth.
Outside the walls of this village, there were only roads, fields, or forests. There was no empty space around.
Shen Ling gave this some good thought and then looked at the young sharecroppers. "We have no suitable space around here, so everyone will just have to make do. Twenty people will start training the first round and the rest will gather around them and watch."
The young sharecroppers made no objections.
After the first twenty people stood apart at a five-meter distance, Shen Ling, who stood in front of them, drew in a deep breath.
"Watch me carefully!"
Shen Ling's voice came out a little muffled. Then he swept his saber in a horizontal motion.
After swinging his saber, Shen Ling started his lesson. "This is the first move of the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique called the mountain-separating stance."
After he said that, Shen Ling put his saber away.
"You can begin now."
After Shen Ling let out his order, the twenty young and strong sharecroppers began swinging their sabers.
"Your strength isn't right."
Shen Ling made his way up to a person and patted him on his shoulder. "You are a bit too nervous. It would be better if you relax a little."
"Okay."
The young sharecropper nodded his head.
After Shen Ling saw that everyone was able to swing their longswords in a decent way, he then moved on with the lesson and taught them the second move of the Mountain-splitting Saber Technique.
"The second move is called the mountain-shaking stance."
After Shen Ling did a demonstration of this move, he went on to explain, "As the name hints, the mountain-shaking stance does not involve speed or killing. Instead, it targets the opponent's hands and makes the opponent's palm numb."
The twenty young men then started to practice the mountain-shaking stance.
Compared to how quickly they mastered the first stance, the young men spent a lot more time trying to learn the second stance.
The third stance, mountain-cleaving stance."
Shen Ling then taught them how to execute the third stance.
This stance was very easy. It was both simple and crude.
Use all one's strength.
Then slash down!