Chapter 75: The Terrifying Training!

He slept for a day and a night.

If he let himself sleep on like this, he could surely sleep for three days and nights without waking.

But, the sleep was unrestful!

He still had to see his sister.

This burning desire woke him from his sleep; he insisted that the old man must let him go home as soon as possible. In the end, the old man made him take a bath, cleaned him up, and only then took him home.

He had been missing for two days.

When he finally returned home, his sister was there.

Her eyes were red from worrying.

She had waited for him at home for a long time.

He missed the way his sister hugged him then, although she wasn't fully grown yet, it was still comfortable to be in her arms.

"Where the hell have you been?!"

"Where the hell have you been?!"

"You've been missing for two whole days!"

"Where have you been, what would I do if you left as well?!"

"What would I do if you had gone too?"

Mary hugged him, as if afraid that once she let go, he would be gone forever.

Little did she know, he felt the same.

No one could understand the bond he and his sister had relied on for so many years.

Without the goal of returning home, he didn't know...

If he could have held on!

That day, he got his wish and saw his sister.

He fell asleep in his sister's arms and slept for a day.

Jack thought to himself that a few more instances like this wouldn't have been a problem, but now that he'd grown up, it was no longer appropriate to sleep hugging Mary. If it happened a few more times, maybe he could have enjoyed her embrace a bit longer, but unfortunately, that pit no longer posed a challenge to him. Neither could the old man present him with a puzzle that could confound him!

Sleeping in his sister's arms that day felt blissful.

Completely unaware...

That taking advantage would even be a consideration!

Looking back now, it feels like such a lost time.

And that pit, as well as the days that followed, also shaped his character.

He doesn't like to kill.

Unlike his several senior disciples and junior sister, he doesn't take to killing. To ordinary people, not liking to kill is normal, but for a disciple of Arnold's, not liking to kill and even being reluctant to kill, to the point of showing mercy, is very abnormal!

A man who crawled out of a pile of corpses, yet turned out to have such a disposition?

Even he was unsure of himself.

The more death he saw, the more he knew the value of life.

The colder and unforgiving the world was to him, the more he knew how precious sunshine and warmth were.

These were things to be cherished.

Not trampled upon!

Each of his senior brothers had been through it all, climbed out of piles of corpses, reached the limit of their fear to become numb, even forgetting what fear was, maintaining an indifferent attitude towards life. This made them the best weapon on the battlefield to wipe away fear and maintain composure.

His master was a soldier.

And so, he intended to forge soldiers even stronger than himself.

Hence, such arduous training was devised.

However, the degree of terror in the training his master had crafted far surpassed what he had even anticipated.

His several senior brothers all had indifferent personalities; his eldest brother was the same until he aged a bit and gained some enlightenment, thus becoming gentle. Incredibly, Jack was a rarity amongst his master's disciples. After enduring such brutal training, he managed to maintain such a temperament and character.

And bizarrely, he even felt pity for life.

Indeed, to speak of it...

The training was cruel.

His junior sister developed a dual personality and schizophrenia as a result of the training.

And the demons in his mind were also because of that.

As a child, he always looked out for his little sister Alma, often helping her take shortcuts. Many times, when Alma was punished, it was him who took her place. He remembered when Alma became Arnold's disciple, her first training was to climb out from a pile of dead bodies, just like his.

He sneaked food to her.

His master turned a blind eye and didn't interfere intentionally.

At the time, he only thought, since this was his junior sister, only a year younger than him and moreover, a girl, why couldn't compassion be shown for such cruel training? Why did she have to undergo the same brutal training as a man?

If Alma had undergone the same cruel training—

She might have become like his senior brothers.

Any person subjected to such training would probably experience a drastic change in nature.

Although Alma was cold and had a dual personality,

Fortunately, her disposition didn't turn entirely frigid.

She could laugh like a normal woman, aspired to be a lady, and displayed characteristics of a regular woman, unlike those who are entirely disconnected from normal people.

"Speaking of which, your eldest brother spent five days climbing out of the pit. By the third day, he couldn't even stand up until I personally fed him so he could muster the strength to stand again. Your third senior brother and the others also took four to five days. With your help, your junior sister also spent three days…" Arnold spoke with his hands behind his back.

At this point, Arnold looked rather somber.

It seemed like self-reproach.

"If it weren't for you protecting Jin Yue with all your might when you were young, I'm afraid Jin Yue would have become cold and indifferent, just like your senior disciples. It's my fault." Arnold said with a bitter smile.

"Master is not at fault. You only wanted to train us to be better disciples," Jack said.

"But this training is very tough!" Arnold sighed. "I always thought that indifference is the best tool for survival because it can keep you calm at critical moments. Less emotion and pity for the enemy means a better chance of survival. They become soldiers, excellent soldiers, unlike others. But you, you're different!"

Jack quietly listened.

"You are different from your senior and junior disciples; you are the only one who has gone through such brutal training and can still smile. You have a gentle temperament, you don't like to get angry, you are a bit soft-hearted. You are not like your senior brothers, cold and detached. But you are my most outstanding disciple."

"I am not the most outstanding!" Jack said.

"I say you are, so you are!" Arnold laughed heartily. "Why the modesty, my boy? However, you still have one step to perfect, if you could break through the inner demons, then you would step up even further, achieving a complete state of mind. But those negative emotions are terrifying, after all, they've accumulated over so many years because of that training."

Jack fell silent.

"Inner demons..."

The reason he occasionally had headaches was precisely because of this.

Undergoing such brutal training as Arnold's disciple, all had those inner demons, which were negative emotions that had piled up over the years in their hearts. When he was young, he learned breathing techniques from his master to calm and steady his mind, but that was not a solution in the end.

The negative emotions continued to accumulate.

Hidden deep in his mind.

Once they erupted, they were hard to control.

And as time passed, these inner demons built up even more, gradually leading to headaches.

Everything has its side effects.

Many athletes train for ten or fifteen years just to obtain an Olympic medal, but after retiring, their bodies deteriorate daily. This is the result of overtraining, not to say that relentless training only has benefits and no drawbacks.

Everything has its pros and cons!

"This is where you trained when you were nine!"

The two of them walked together, Arnold stroking his beard, smiling.

This little woodland was where Jack and Alma trained when they were children.

"Pop! Pop!"

At this moment, the sound of firecrackers came from afar.

As if someone was celebrating.

"What's that?" Jack looked toward the source of the sound.

Arnold glanced in that direction, snorted, and said, "It must be Jin Tong celebrating his seventieth birthday. That Jin Tong has lived a long life, clever man, to throw a birthday party the moment he turns seventy. Not only can he gather valuable gifts, but he can also invite friends, get to know people from other circles, and solidify his children's status!"

The person celebrating his seventieth birthday.

Indeed, a "youngster" in front of his master.

Because Jin Tong was a generation younger than his master.

Jin Tong would respectfully call his master a senior when they met.

The sound of firecrackers grew louder.

"That Jin Tong, when I was fighting on the battlefield, he hadn't even fully grown his hair. When I celebrated my seventieth birthday, it wasn't as grand as his. You can even hear it from here. But this kid is a bit too old-fashioned, what era is it, still using firecrackers for a birthday party?" Arnold scoffed.

Jack smiled.

His master was nearly a century old.

For an almost centenarian to maintain such health was indeed not easy.

"Should I go see Old Master Jin for his birthday?" Jack asked.

"No need. Among soldiers, we don't bother with such formalities, gift-giving and such. It's the duty of soldiers. Jin Tong forgot the rules, but I haven't!" Arnold waved his sleeve, and at that moment, he sniffed the air and said, "Smells good, seems they've prepared the meal!"

Jack nodded.

"Let's eat!"

Alma came to the green woods and said.

After speaking, she turned and walked away.

Clearly, she was still in an abnormal state.