The Trolls Were Afraid Too?

The Troll brothers were wrestling over the remains of the wild wolf's skull. One had to admire this terrifying race: the two monsters had devoured an entire wolf weighing several hundred pounds, bones and all, and they grew bigger as they ate. Their food conversion rate was practically a hundred percent. If pigs on Earth had that kind of ability, pig-farm owners would never again have to worry about how to fatten them up quickly, and ordinary people wouldn't have to worry about the pork they bought containing excessive amounts of chemical growth stimulants.

The two Trolls were still considerably smaller than native Trolls. Aside from their left arms and right legs, which had come from native Trolls and remained the same rotting gray, their newly grown flesh was a pale gray-green, with softer skin and far fewer lumps and boils. Their light green hair was stained with the dark blood of the wild wolf. Most of what they ate went toward regenerating their bodies, but their hungry feeding instincts still ruled them. The Trolls turned their attention to the three humans not far away. When they saw one of them approaching, they finally couldn't hold back any longer. They dropped the tasteless wolf skull and roared as they charged.

As the Trolls drew closer, Chen Jinyang calmly tossed the hemp rope to the ground. Bracing himself on his left leg, he pointed his right foot lightly and gripped the end of the long pole with both hands, swinging it up from behind him. Using his rear hand as a pivot, he pressed down with his forward hand and brought it crashing down in a blazing-sky strike. The nearly eight-meter-long pole whooshed through the air, bending under the force of the swing, and slammed into one Troll's broad face. Its face burst into a mess of bruises and blood. The Troll let out a muffled groan and staggered backward; the pain-filled cry was knocked right back down its throat.

Riding the pole's rebound, Chen Jinyang turned and thrust the other end beneath the crotch of the other Troll, which was lurching toward him. He gave his wrist a light twist, and the Troll crashed face-first to the ground. He tossed aside the pole, stepped forward, seized the Troll's arms and legs, and twisted each joint backward, snapping them one by one. Then he folded all four limbs behind its back and twisted it into a knot, leaving it unable to struggle, before binding it with the coarse hemp rope.

The monster whose eyes had been burst and nose smashed, its face a bloody mess, wobbled to its feet. Most of its injuries had nearly healed in the short time since it had been struck, but its delicate eyeballs hadn't recovered, so it couldn't see clearly and could only thrash about blindly.

Chen Jinyang walked up to it. He grabbed one of its wrists and swiftly twisted and pulled. The Troll pitched forward involuntarily and tumbled face-first to the ground. Chen Jinyang stepped behind it and gently bent its arm. Crack! The Troll's arm bone snapped. Chen Jinyang did the same to this Troll as he had to its brother, folding all four limbs behind its back and tying it into a knot.

Chen Jinyang passed the pole behind the Trolls and hoisted them up like a shoulder pole, hanging them from a tree. Then he secured them with hemp rope. All done!

Chen Jinyang dusted off his hands and clasped them behind his back, admiring his handiwork as the Trolls dangled several feet above the ground. Too bad he couldn't put much weight on his right foot just then; he probably wouldn't be able to train according to plan for the next couple of days.

He turned and limped back, ready to end his morning workout and go eat. But when he looked up, he saw the two little ones clutching their heads and staring at him with their mouths wide open. As soon as they saw him coming back, they hurriedly shut their mouths and pretended to do squats.

When Chen Jinyang got closer, the two little tricksters squatted even more enthusiastically. He smiled and said, "All right, quit pretending to work hard! Let's go back and eat!"

The two cheered at once and scampered off. Chen Jinyang called after them, "This way! We're taking the shortcut back! Don't forget the javelins!" He then lifted the two little ones over the wall and vaulted up after them.

When they returned to the cellar, Phinia was already awake, happily gnawing on a piece of soft, toasted bread. Chen Jinyang gave her a smack on her perky, plump backside. "Go on! Wash your face before you eat!" As he spoke, he took a Silk Gourd from the nearby bag and handed it to the giantess.

Most ordinary people in this world had no habit of cleaning their mouths or brushing their teeth. By the time they grew old, most had mouths full of rotten teeth. Phinia had lived alone in the wilderness for years, so she hadn't even gotten into the habit of washing her hands and face before meals. If she got dirty, she'd just wash herself off in a river. Her personal hygiene was easy to imagine.

Chen Jinyang didn't want to spend the rest of his life facing a family member whose mouth was full of rotten teeth. The mouth-cleaning methods popular among Faerun's nobility were too expensive for ordinary people, though. A few days earlier, he'd found a kind of supple, silky Silk Gourd in the forest. When you put it in your mouth, it swelled into a wad that took a lot of chewing. Afterward, you rinsed away the bitter taste with clean water. It left your mouth even cleaner and fresher than brushing your teeth with a toothbrush in his previous life. He'd already had to remind Phinia to wash her face every day; now he also had to make her chew Silk Gourd to clean her teeth.

Phinia grimaced and reluctantly took the Silk Gourd, then went outside with a bucket of water. Chen Jinyang took another one, cut it in half, and held the pieces out to Alos and little Mishaer. The two little ones, who'd thought they'd escaped, drooped as they reluctantly accepted the pieces and followed Phinia outside.

Life was fairly uneventful when there were no monsters around to cause trouble. Fortunately, the two captured Trolls gave Chen Jinyang something to pass the time. By the standards of how human prisoners should be treated, he was seriously violating basic human ethics: beating prisoners, hanging them naked in the freezing cold, giving them icy baths, maiming them, and so on. If he'd done those things on Earth, he'd have become the world's most notorious enemy of humanitarianism. But since he was doing it to Trolls, there were no public advocates for Troll protection coming after him.

While Chen Jinyang was resting his leg for those two days, he had the two little ones practice squats, high-knee running, and frog jumps. They also had snowball fights, built snowmen and snow huts, and used a big wooden brush to give the two Trolls cold baths. By evening, the two little ones were so tired they fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Chen Jinyang still had to massage their muscles to help them relax; otherwise, the next morning they'd be in tears from aches all over. Phinia went hunting every day. The giantess preferred adventuring in the forest to staying in the village all day. She'd return at dusk for a warm, delicious dinner, then have some "healthy exercise" with Chen Jinyang—not suitable for children.

Once Chen Jinyang had recovered, he began teaching Alos and little Mishaer to stand in a horse stance. He himself started using the two Trolls to carry out his training plan. Every day, the two little ones stood in horse stances on the wall and watched Chen Jinyang "play" with the Trolls.

William would temporarily release the Trolls, then use them as living wooden training dummies.

The two starving Trolls roared furiously. The human in front of them was simply too hateful, yet astonishingly agile. Every attack they made ended in failure.

In their efforts to rip the hateful human apart and stuff him into their bellies, the Trolls even began using what little brain matter they had left, now solidified. Working together, the two Trolls tried to attack him from both front and back, spreading their arms to cover the area and keep him from escaping again.

Surrounded by the Trolls, Chen Jinyang was not the least bit afraid. Ignoring the four claws reaching for him, he pushed off the ground and shot into the arms of the Troll in front. His advancing, crashing fists struck in rapid succession, like a fierce tiger pouncing down the mountain, smashing into the Troll's chest. The monster screamed as it flew several meters backward, its entire chest cavity and internal organs nearly shattered. Chen Jinyang suddenly sensed darkness behind him and heard a rush of wind. The other Troll had seized its chance to attack, bringing its palms together as it swept them down toward him. Chen Jinyang suddenly went limp, collapsing like a puddle of mud and narrowly dodging the Troll's grasp. At the same time, he pressed down with his hand and pushed off with his foot, sliding over the snow and through the Troll's legs. He rose, stepped forward, and struck with a mountain-shaking blow, hitting it squarely in the lower back. As the Troll howled, its back shattered by the blow, Chen Jinyang leaped forward and chopped down with his elbow like an axe, breaking the great spine in its back. The Troll collapsed with a thud. Chen Jinyang stood watching the fallen Trolls struggle, waiting for them to recover, get back up, and fight again.

Chen Jinyang had given up on using the Trolls to hone his listening skills. They were huge and powerful, with endless fighting spirit and terrifying regenerative abilities, but they relied only on brute force. Their attacks were too simple and clumsy to pose much of a threat to him. As living punching bags, though, they were ideal. He could practice all kinds of attacks, power techniques, and special moves from his fist arts on the two Trolls without holding back. They were far better than shadowboxing or hitting a wooden dummy.

After using the Trolls as targets, Chen Jinyang would once again break their arms and legs, tie them up, and hang them. Tormented by hunger and pain, the monsters howled pitifully through the night. He even stuck two wooden stakes into their mouths to gag them. His methods were truly "cruel" beyond belief. Of course, to make sure the Trolls didn't lose all their strength from starvation, Chen Jinyang would occasionally show them mercy by tossing them some unwanted offal to fill their bellies.

Watching the two little slackers shirk their training while he worked out, then act busy as soon as he finished, Chen Jinyang didn't know whether to laugh or scold them.

"You two little lazybones! Come on, let's go back and eat!" At once, the children were as if pardoned. They stopped pretending to stand in horse stances and ran back as fast as they could.

"Yeah! We're going back to eat!"

Chen Jinyang watched the two lively children and shook his head with an amused smile. After more than a month of training, Alos and little Mishaer were much stronger than before, and they had far more energy. They'd also become much craftier.

The sun rose and set, time flew, and several more snowstorms came and went.

Winter in the North truly was a disaster for every living thing in nature. There were hardly any penned animals left, and hunting outside had become difficult and fruitless. But Chen Jinyang's skill grew purer by the day. His fist arts had officially entered the realm of hidden force. This was nothing like the time a few months earlier when he'd managed to produce hidden force. Back then, he had merely used his own tremendous strength and, with his blood and qi running wild, gotten lucky and produced an effect resembling hidden force. Now he could truly unleash hidden-force attacks at will.

After more than two months of unrelenting torment, the two Trolls were now so gaunt they were barely recognizable, and their former ferocity was gone. During each training session, they shrank back and refused to advance. Several attempts to escape had been beaten back by Chen Jinyang. After that, they simply gave up altogether and no longer even wanted to attack, resorting to the ultimate weapon of "nonviolent noncooperation" like the Third Brother. Chen Jinyang was at his wit's end. He had no choice but to give up on his excellent punching bags and cremate them, sending them off to the afterlife and helping them escape their suffering.

After torturing the Trolls and then destroying their remains, Chen Jinyang had shown truly appalling cruelty and viciousness. Even the two little ones couldn't bear to watch. With tears in their eyes, they gazed pitifully at the tragic end of the Troll brothers as they turned to ashes.

The "heartless" Chen Jinyang was unmoved by the little ones' tears. It was impossible to know whether the siblings were crying from an excess of sympathy or because stretching and training hurt too much.

Of course, even if the Trolls had contributed immensely to Chen Jinyang's cultivation, he still couldn't let them go. After spending several months with the two of them, he knew them all too well. The Troll brothers, who had been almost powerless to resist him, had grown increasingly clever and devious. Every so often, a flash of hatred and savage cruelty appeared in their fearful eyes. In the end, even the feral look in their unusually lively eyes was carefully concealed. But how could those changes possibly escape his notice? Having weathered the cruelty of the world, Chen Jinyang would never let them go.