Rebirth Of Cannon Fodder

8. My Master

Li Yan stares the disciples. They are practicing very early in the morning. Their shouts have awakened him from his beauty sleep.

A disciple stomps his foot hard on the ground when he practices his moves. His action leaves a deep imprint on the solid ground. His hands are making circular defensive moves.

A Tortoise.

That's how one would describe their defensive moves. Their ancestor created these moves after observing a Tortoise's fight with a predator. Impenetrable defenses.

Li Yan tilts his head a little. He might be a loser. A lazy person to his bone marrows. Watching practice is always a fun time for him.

Zhao Yang is walking toward him.

He greets, "Morning, Brother Li Yan. I'm going to the nearest town today. Would you like to join me?"

"Oh? Okay!"

As an outsider, he has nothing to do in this place. He has no chores. No morning practice. He is simply bored to death. Maybe that's why he got invited to come with him.

Zhao Yang is the typical senior brother that always tries to make everyone around him comfortable.

An honest, hardworking disciple from this Sect.

Li Yan and one other disciple come with him to do shopping for the Sect.

They have done shopping and their orders shall be sent as usual. Right now they are window shopping from one shop to another shop.

Li Yan is too busy staring to an item on display when he bumps into someone. That person glares at him.

Suddenly he grabs Li Yan's hand and twists it behind his back.

"Ouch! You are hurting me!" protests Li Yan.

Zhao Yang orders, "Release him!"

The one who caught Li Yan is a inner core disciple from Thunder Sect. His name is Yu Jung. He sneers when he hears Zhao Yang's order.

He asks, "Oh, yeah? What are you going to do to me?"

Zhao Yang grits his teeth. He is ready to attack him.

Li Yan acts faster. He stomps on his foot and he uses his free hand to elbow his attacker. He uses the Nine Cloud "Escape the Hell" moves to get away from him.

He is quite far from them as the result. The others stare him with widened eyes. They have never seen such weird moves.

Li Yan is always a lazy fellow. It's lucky he once has mastered these moves in the past. Come to think about it, he learned it to escape from his late father. When he started to nag him to practice harder. Never thought the moves would save his life.

Zhao Yang stands in front of him to protect him.

The disciple from Thunder Sect yells, "Surrender him! He killed our disciples!"

Li Yan yells back, "I never did it!"

That disciple takes out a warrant poster from his pocket. It shows a handsome young man with doe eyes and straight nose.

Zhao Yang protests, "This isn't proof. It could be anyone."

"Exactly. That's why we are capturing everyone who resembles him."

He tries to catch Li Yan again. The latter flees using the weird moves again. He could never catch up with him. He lost his tracks in the woods outside the town.

The Thunder Sect disciples leave after fighting the Infinite Mountain disciples for few rounds.

Zhao Yang yells worriedly, "Brother Li Yan, they have left. Are you still here?"

Li Yan jumps down from a nearby tree. He has been watching their fight earlier. Learned a thing or two moves from it.

He says, "We better head back. I need to report something to the Sect Leader."

An hour later, Li Yan faces the old man again. He doesn't want to lie to him. He told him the truth. About the real killer. How he steal their valuable things and sell them to a pawn shop.

The Sect Leader nods his head. It must be tough to live without money. He refuses to believe Li Yan would do such a thing if he had money.

He asks, "Would you become our disciple? We could protect you when they looked for you again."

"But..."

"Your father was my friend. It's my duty to help you."

Li Yan kneels down and says, "This disciple greets Master."

"Good. Study hard."

Li Yan frowns instantly. He hates learning. He could hear Feng Nan is laughing hard in his mind.

Li Yan curses that demon in his heart.

Zhao Yang greets, "Welcome to the Sect, junior apprentice brother."

"Thank you, Senior brother."

He stands up after his Master orders it. He follows Zhao Yang to his new settlement. As a disciple, he would have to live with other disciples.

Li Yan stares around. The room is small and a bit damp. Definitely suitable only for country bumpkins. He sighs in his heart.

Well, it's still better than living in the outdoors. No roof. Plenty bugs.

Zhao Yan has given him a used and a bit fungus smell mat. Then he makes a gesture to follow him out.

The senior brother orders, "I'm going to teach you some basic moves from our Sect. Watch carefully."

Li Yan stares him with great focus. It doesn't take long for him to remember all the moves.

Zhao Yang orders, "Now, perform them."

He is shocked to see Li Yan could do the moves so easily. He nods his head. It's a total different from teaching beginners. This man is the ex leader of a Sect.

Zhao Yang says, "I'm going to show you more advance moves. Watch carefully."

He stomps on the ground and his foot leaves a deeper imprint than other disciples. His hands move to make a defence stance.

He repeats it few times so Li Yan could get a clear understanding.

Li Yan nods his head. He tries to do it. Zhao Yang holds his hands to fix the defence stance.

Zhao Yang comments, "You need to make the stance perfect. This move has saved my life countless times. The move is simple and easy to learn."

Li Yan nods his head. He practices ten more times until he got it perfect.

Zhao Yang nods his head. This fellow is a talented learner. In a year or two, he might be able to catch up with him. Zhao Yang knows he isn't a smart disciple. He got to this stage through perseverance.

This is why his Master called him Niu (Ox) because he is a dumb and hard worker.

They kept practicing until lunch time. Their Master has called Zhao Yang so he has left after telling him to practice hard.

The moment he's gone, Li Yan has stopped his practice.

He complaints, "My muscles are all sore."

Feng Nan mind links him, "You are the reincarnation of a sloth. The most lazy human in the world."

"Thank you for nothing. You could have saved me earlier from the Thunder Sect."

"My pleasure to see your butt got kicked."

"Sadistic little demon. I'm going to exorcist you from my body."

"You can't live without me, moron. You can't even hunt games."

They kept bantering in his minds.

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This song describes brotherhood very well.