An hour later, the boy returned home with an iron pot on his back.

"Dad, I brought back the iron pot. The shopkeeper of the blacksmith shop, Chen, said that next time he took credit, he would come to the door to ask for money. The boy said as soon as he entered the house.

"Your Father Chen is not such a person, if you say seven mouths, it is seventy pots, and your Father Chen will not be unable to get along with me. He came to the door, but he could only come to cheat on drinking. The middle-aged man laughed.

The boy put the iron pot in the backyard and lined up the eight iron pots neatly.

The middle-aged man also walked out of the door, stared at his son, and asked, "Hey, why didn't you pant today?" ”

The young man showed a proud look on his face, patted his chest, and said proudly: "That's, who am I, Li Tianhua, and I am a man who wants to become a peerless master." ”

The middle-aged man patted the young man's head: "Go, go, set up firewood, burn two catties of charcoal, Dad, I want to use it." ”

Li Tianhua had no choice but to do so. It stands to reason that this kind of thing would not have been his turn, because he used to be so tired and out of breath when he came back from the bazaar, and he didn't have time to rest, how could he do such a thing? It's just that this time he was unusually not tired and lay down, so Dad handed over this errand to himself.

The young man suddenly regretted a little, why didn't he pretend to be lazy, so that he could steal a wave of laziness. At this point, it is useless to think more, and the boy can only do what his father has arranged now.

Li Tianhua had done this kind of charcoal burning before, but it was a middle-aged man who went to chop firewood and came back and handed it to him to burn. Since the boy took over the business of chopping wood, it is not his turn to burn charcoal.

Although he hadn't burned charcoal for a long time, he was still not unfamiliar with the simple work of burning charcoal. When he came to the backyard, he skillfully burned the firewood into charcoal, and then spread all the charcoal on the ground.

The middle-aged man didn't know where to take out a hammer, threw it to the boy, and then returned to the room and took out the shadow sword and handed it to the boy.

The middle-aged man said indifferently: "This sword was given by a friend of my father, you throw it into the charcoal fire and calcine it for half an hour, take it out and knock it with a hammer for 10,000 times after half an hour, and then put it into the fire to calcine." You get busy first, I'll go fetch some buckets of water. ”

The young man nodded, and the middle-aged man carried the bucket and walked straight five miles away. It was the place where Li Tianhua met the mysterious old man, and it was also the clearest section of the entire Tanxi stream.

By the time the man returned with the bucket, it was already noon.

The middle-aged man put down the bucket, looked at Li Tianhua, rubbed his waist and asked, "How many?" ”

The young man was already sweating profusely, but his face was not tired at all, and he replied, "This is the seventh thousand, three hundred and twenty-fourth." ”

The middle-aged man nodded, then picked up the second bucket and walked five miles away. This time, it took him only two quarters of an hour to make a round trip. Then, the third barrel, the fourth barrel......

When the sixth bucket of water was brought back, Li Tianhua had just finished knocking the 10,000th time. I saw him clutching his sore right arm, baring his teeth and shouting, "It's over!" ”

The middle-aged man looked at the Shadow Sword, quite satisfied, and said with a smile: "Okay, it's good, you can go eat." ”

When the boy returned to the house, he saw that his father had prepared a meal for him, and it was still hot.

The boy wondered a little, how could Dad have time to prepare a hot meal for himself when he was busy fetching water all morning?

The boy couldn't think of a reason, so he simply didn't want to think about it, and just gobbled it up.

Although his right arm was extremely sore, Li Tianhua could feel that his strength was slowly recovering, and the pain was constantly weakening.

The boy finished his lunch with difficulty, and when he went out, he saw his father calcining the Shadow Sword on the fire for a while, and refining it in water for a while.

Li Tianhua stared at this sword and suddenly remembered something: this sword is really too familiar. Yes, it's familiar.

The boy thought of where he seemed to have seen the sword in the morning. And this sword seems to come from the man in white that he met on the path!

It turns out that my father and the man in white are friends. Li Tianhua thought to himself.

If Xiao Mou knew that Li Tianhua thought so at this time, he would probably be half angry: this sword was obviously snatched by a middle-aged man from his Xiao Mou!

After working for more than three hours, the six buckets of water were boiling until they were steaming, and the middle-aged man finally breathed a sigh of relief. I saw that the tempered shadow sword, under the illumination of the setting sun, shone brightly and dazzlingly.

The middle-aged man brought the Shadow Trailing Sword to Li Tianhua and asked, "Do you want to be a hero?" ”

"Yes!" The young man Li Tianhua replied.

"Do you want to learn great martial arts?"

"Yes!"

"Do you want to be the number one in the world?"

"Yes!"

"Then you want to go." The middle-aged man put his son aside, took the Shadow Sword away, and walked straight into the house.

The boy was almost angry. At this moment, the middle-aged man walked out of the room slowly, still holding a wooden stick in his hand: "Take this practice, practice the ring cutting fighting method I taught you every day, and I will teach you something else in half a month." As for the sword, we'll talk about it then. ”

Since then, the boy began to read the Tao Te Ching every day, practice the ring cutting method, do some chores, and live a good life.

Fifteen days later, the time had finally arrived. A middle-aged man is choosing vegetables and feeding chickens and ducks in the backyard. The young man ran over excitedly and shouted, "Half a month is here, tell me to practice swords." ”

Without thinking about it, the middle-aged man said "no hurry" while continuing to choose vegetables.

The boy was about to be rushed to death, and he was so angry that his face was red and his neck was thick.

Finally, the middle-aged man slowly spoke: "You help me choose the dishes, and I will teach you." ”

Li Tianhua snatched the vegetables from the middle-aged man's hand, picked them up by himself, and said, "You can teach me now." ”

"Don't worry, you're choosing vegetables now, you have to concentrate on one thing, and you can't be distracted."

The boy let out a heavy breath, but still patiently chose the rest of the dishes.

"Alright." When he handed over all the vegetables to his father, he was finally relieved.

The middle-aged man smiled with satisfaction: "Okay, then I'll teach you some basics......"

"You..." Li Tianhua was so angry that his nose was crooked.

The middle-aged man smiled evilly: "I didn't tell you anything, you want to rob it yourself." Besides, the basics are also very important, so you should learn honestly first. ”

"Okay, good, say it quickly."

"Don't worry, you help me put the dishes in the stove room and wait for me in the yard."

Li Tianhua no longer had a temper, just silently put the dishes in the stove room, and then went to the yard.