With the Blade

Chapter 294: Chapter 245: How to Become a Warrior

"What? You all want to learn martial arts from me?"

Temporarily staying at the caravan camp in the wild, facing the group of villagers who approached, Du Chengfeng began to scratch his head.

The cause of the matter was not complicated; it was still about the problem of bandit captives. Previously, there were few captives, and most villagers couldn’t see them, but this time, there were simply too many captives. Those well-tied bandits following in the group inevitably drew attention.

After seeing these bandits, the villagers who followed from Jibei had some ideas.

Being from the border, these villagers already had some boldness and bravery. They used to fear bandits only because they couldn’t beat them—but now, these bandits, who were waving knives and looking ferocious before, could now be kicked by anyone. Who would fear them now?

With fear gone, confidence arose, and with confidence, people naturally have more ideas.

"We can’t always rely on Brother Du to take action, can we?"

The leader, Carpenter Li, smiled awkwardly.

"We also want to train some self-defense abilities."

"Well..."

Du Chengfeng scratched his head even more vigorously.

In theory, this was a good thing, even an excellent thing. It’s known that the matter of organizing militias had been discussed several times, but most villagers had no combat ability. Even the young Yang clan members could only put on appearances—Du Chengfeng realized that ordinary soldiers would only be mowed down in battle, so he hadn’t considered this aspect.

But this time, the villagers obviously wanted to achieve more than just the grass-cutting level of a militia.

They wanted to, like Du Chengfeng, try their best to stand firm independently.

"After all, Brother Du can’t always be around, right?"

The wooden Carpenter Li was silent for a moment but eventually spoke.

"Like the last time I encountered..."

"I know, I didn’t say I won’t teach."

Hearing Carpenter Li mention previous events, Du Chengfeng felt a sting in his heart.

Indeed, he was wandering and battling in the outside world, but his friends and family still couldn’t resist sudden dangers—he didn’t want to experience similar situations again, so the villagers’ requests matched his current intentions.

However, here’s the problem.

What could he teach?

"Hold on a moment, let me think first."

Saying this, Du Chengfeng began to calculate the skills he possessed.

Regarding martial arts, he now had some level of skill, partly due to various training, partly due to the accumulation from the Southern Chen Taizu for countless years, and finally supplemented by his combat experience, forming a unique system—though training to develop combat power from this would take too much time. Given the villagers’ basics, it would take at least ten or eight years.

Moreover, in this world, there are these ’Evil Energy Weapons,’ painstakingly training martial arts but getting killed in a single strike by a ’Deadly Weapon’ wielder—who could you reason with then?

But if switching to the quick advancement method using ’Evil Qi Weapons,’ ... the weapons themselves weren’t the problem; he could make some tools himself and then stain them with killings. But the issue was, could ordinary villagers really handle the stained weapons?

If they truly went down this path, it would be a brutal elimination. Perhaps some villagers with strong will could hold their weapons, but those who couldn’t hold them...

The scene would probably be tragic.

Another way is to study under Liu Bolun, though villagers themselves might not accept this route initially as it seemed irrelevant to combat. People would question what it’s for—even if all followed arrangements to study, a few might turn out like Ruan Shantao.

In the end, this is even harsher than using ’Evil Energy Weapons.’ Though the benefit is no side effects, increasing knowledge, transforming the quality would require a will tenfold more firm than mastering ’Deadly Weapons.’

Clearly, none of these apparent methods were suitable, at least not for the current situation.

"A firm will..."

Du Chengfeng began to have a toothache.

Yes, this is the most challenging part. Knowing well the depth of ’Evil Qi,’ he understood everything hinges on a firm will—compared to this unwavering firmness, those external powers seemed like auxiliary rewards. After all, in this ghost-seeing ’Idealist World,’ a firm will can change reality. What can’t be done with a will as firm as iron?

Yet, this is also the most difficult problem.

How to make a group of ordinary people’s will become as firm as iron?

"...Why don’t you try it first?"

After much consideration, Du Chengfeng could only try it out first.

The content of the test was naturally not his training methods, his strengthening experience was too odd for villagers to replicate—though there was another mold that could be replicated, which was Cui Yuan, who was self-isolating and practicing swordplay. Despite engaging in self-research of sword moves, little Cui maintained a habit of swinging the sword four thousand times a day, with a solid foundation.

Of course, villagers surely couldn’t reach Little Cui’s level, so by reducing it, first swinging a wooden sword four hundred times shouldn’t be a problem, right?

"No more!"

Du Chengfeng had only called up to two hundred swings when a villager threw down the wooden sword.

After all, with carriages and horses exhausting them during the day, the villagers were already weary. They intended to discuss the matter with Du Chengfeng—who would have thought he would instantly make them swing swords? How could they bear it?

Afterwards, by the three hundredth swing, more villagers threw down their wooden swords. Though tired, they wanted to persevere, the overwhelming fatigue had become unbearable.

By the four hundredth swing, only Carpenter Li was left completing the training.

"My will is alright!"

Carpenter Li patted his chest with a loud thump.

"Isn’t it strong?"

"Well... As long as you’re happy, old brother, that’s good."

Looking at the wooden Carpenter Li, Du Chengfeng thought for a moment but chose not to mention that the test was unrelated to Carpenter Li.

Just four hundred swings, yet the only one who completed it was a wooden man, and this was the group saying they wanted to become warriors.

Not everyone can become a warrior.

Du Chengfeng never so clearly felt this chasm.

"Not everyone can become a warrior."

Far away in Dengzhou, Yin Renwuzhao was also uttering the same sigh.

"To make everyone a warrior—no wonder it became chaotic in the beginning."