Shield of Radiance (IV)

Long Haochen tried channeling a bit of Internal Spiritual Power into the shield. At once, the sun pattern at the center of the Shield of Radiance lit up, causing a layer of pale golden light to emerge across the entire shield. Light spiritual power even flowed back to him, so it did not consume much of Long Haochen's strength.

"Big Sister, thank you," Long Haochen said sincerely.

Li Xin smiled. "What are you thanking me for? You won it yourself. All right, let me tell you what to watch out for while studying at our branch temple."

Li Xin stayed in Long Haochen's room for nearly two hours before finally leaving. Through her introduction, Long Haochen gained a much deeper understanding of the Haoyue Branch Temple.

Early morning.

After washing up, Long Haochen ate the breakfast specially delivered to him. Only knights received such treatment; Quasi-Knights had to eat in the cafeteria. Once he had finished breakfast, he arrived early at the Knight Temple.

The Knight Temple was a two-story building, not particularly large. The first floor was where Guardian Knights attended lessons, while the second floor belonged to Punishment Knights.

When Long Haochen arrived, the spacious classroom for Guardian Knights was still empty. He found a corner, took off his heavy sword and placed it along with the Shield of Radiance beside him, then waited quietly.

Knights gradually began filing into the classroom. Before long, the room was full. Long Haochen counted roughly eighty knights. Compared to the nearly one hundred knights in the entire Haoyue Branch Temple, it was clear how much more numerous Guardian Knights were than Punishment Knights.

Although Long Haochen sat in a corner, he still drew the attention of the other knights. Most of them wore only fitted training clothes, and they could not help casting curious glances his way. He was simply too young.

"Look, who's that little fellow? Hey, isn't that a Shield of Radiance? His family must be pretty wealthy."

"But you can't get into our Knight Temple with money alone, can you? Could he be some instructor's relative?"

"You don't know about this? I heard from the brothers on gate duty yesterday that our Hell Rose brought back a handsome little boy. It must be this kid. But why would the Temple Master allow him to attend lessons here?"

An older knight walked over to Long Haochen and said gently, "Little brother, did you come to the wrong place? This is the Knight Temple. The Quasi-Knight classroom is next door." In the eyes of these knights, it would already be extraordinarily talented for someone Long Haochen's age to be a Quasi-Knight.

Long Haochen hurriedly rose to his feet and gave him a polite knight's salute. "Hello, I'm here to audit lessons at the Knight Temple. My name is Long Haochen."

Just as the knight was about to say something else, a somewhat hoarse voice rang out. "Class."

The knight jumped, seemingly terrified of the owner of that hoarse voice. He quickly turned around, rushed back to his seat, and sat down.

Long Haochen turned toward the podium. A tall, thin middle-aged man had appeared there, a round shield strapped to his back. The middle-aged man's gaze happened to fall on him as well.

"Do you have a problem?" the middle-aged man asked in a deep voice.

Long Haochen hurriedly shook his head.

The man immediately snapped, "Then what are you standing there for?"

Startled by his suddenly raised voice, Long Haochen quickly sat down.

The entire classroom fell deathly silent. Every knight watched the middle-aged man with respect, yet there was unmistakable fear in their eyes.

"New kid, my name is Ye Hua, and I am the chief instructor of the Haoyue Branch Temple. I don't care how talented you are. Once you're here, you're an ordinary knight. If you fail to meet my standards, I'll kick you out and send you back to be reforged with the Quasi-Knights. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Long Haochen stood up once more and gave the chief instructor a standard knight's salute.

An ordinary knight? Those words set the classroom buzzing. This boy, who did not even look fifteen, was actually a knight? Was that some kind of mistake?

"Everyone, stand!" Ye Hua suddenly roared.

As if by reflex, every knight sprang to his feet at once.

Ye Hua looked at them coldly. "Is this all the backbone you have? What have I taught you? As a Guardian Knight, what is the most important thing?"

"Calmness!" the knights answered in unison.

"Then have you achieved it?" Ye Hua's grim gaze swept over them.

This time, no one answered.

Ye Hua said, "All of you, go change into heavy gear. Run fifty laps around the training ground. Otherwise, you won't remember this lesson. Immediately. Now."

"Yes." No one dared object. The Guardian Knights jogged out of the classroom in orderly fashion.

Long Haochen was startled as well. He had not expected the chief instructor to have such a fiery temper.

"What are you still standing around for? Aren't you one of them? Go with them." Ye Hua pointed at Long Haochen and barked.

"Yes."

The equipment storeroom was in the basement of the Knight Temple. When Long Haochen came out after receiving a set of equipment, he felt like crying without tears. He was too young, and his body had not developed nearly enough. This set of heavy armor, weighing over a hundred jin, could not really be considered worn on him—it was more like it had been draped over him, hanging loose and slack. He had to grip both sides with his hands to keep it from falling off.

The clang of metal echoed across the wide training ground. One lap around it measured a full two hundred zhang, and with heavy gear added on, it was quite a burden even for knights whose External Spiritual Power had reached two hundred.

Ye Hua stood in the center of the training ground and watched them run. "No falling behind. Whoever falls behind will run another fifty laps for me. Long Haochen, come here." He had clearly learned Long Haochen's name from Nalan Shu.

"Yes, Instructor." Dragging his heavy armor, Long Haochen ran over to Ye Hua.

Ye Hua said flatly, "You're new, so it's understandable that you don't know the rules. I'll give you a chance now. As long as your attack can make my feet move, you won't have to run laps with them."

At those words, the knights running laps visibly picked up their pace. Not one of them even dared glance in Ye Hua's direction, though many wore expressions of pity.

"Yes." Long Haochen quickly removed his heavy armor, shield in his left hand and heavy sword in his right. Actual combat was the best way to improve one's fighting ability. Under sufficient pressure, it could also promote the growth of Internal Spiritual Power. More importantly, he was not afraid of losing. At worst, he would just have to run laps.

Ye Hua reached behind his back and removed his shield. He seemed entirely unconcerned that Long Haochen was using a magical shield like the Shield of Radiance as he said coldly, "You may attack first."

"Yes. Please instruct me, Instructor." Long Haochen felt somewhat awkward with a shield in his left hand and a sword in his right. After all, he had never used a shield before, so it felt a little unnatural. Still, having a shield was better than leaving his left hand empty. Before coming to the Haoyue Branch Temple, Long Haochen had decided that he would not easily use dual swords in battle. Only when training alone would he practice Punishment Knight skills.

When Long Xingyu taught his son, he had instilled in him one very important principle: never let an opponent know how deep your foundations ran.

With neat, rhythmic charging steps, Long Haochen's speed suddenly increased. Like a young leopard, he rushed toward Ye Hua. He was not exceptionally fast, but his footsteps were remarkably steady. His eyes remained fixed on Ye Hua, using his superior powers of observation to judge the instructor's movements.

The reason Long Haochen had been able to defeat Lin Jialu the previous night, aside from his opponent underestimating him, was most importantly his precise judgment and calculations. All of that rested upon the foundation of his superior spiritual power.