Chapter 043 – An Incident
Slaughtering pigs was a straightforward business. First a stab, then a slice. The stab went into the neck, letting the blood drain quickly. The slice would take off the head and open the carcass to remove the innards and cut the meat.
Before Li Yuan transmigrated, he once read about a General Zhang who wielded a snake spear. General Zhang had been a pig butcher—and Li Yuan was, too.
Sometimes he wondered if General Zhang's spearmanship came from all that pig-stabbing practice. On the battlefield, all you had to do was just treat the enemy like a pig, jab the spear at their neck, one swift thrust after another—fast, precise, and deadly.
Nothing fancy, just skill gained through repetition.
That thought flashed through Li Yuan’s mind as he gripped his blade, eyes half-closed, recalling scenes from his previous life. He pictured row after row of butcher blocks, each holding a hog pinned by the neck, unable to move.
Stab! With a sudden twist of his wrist, Li Yuan imagined plunging the tip of the blade into the pig’s neck. The blade went in cleanly, and blood poured out in a scarlet rush. Once the blood was drained and the carcass washed...
“Hah!” Off went the head!
A hot surge flowed through his arms—some strange, blood-driven energy boosting his strength. Yet that downward chop wasn’t particularly fast or powerful. It felt like something was missing, as if he couldn’t fully channel his strength through every inch of steel. It was just a motion, nothing more.
Then came the slicing as he cut through the air, imagining the removal of intestines and organs. After finishing one imaginary carcass, he paused, sheathed his blade, then pictured the next pig and started all over again.
Outside in the snowy courtyard, flakes landed on wooden crates and basins, on the hard-packed yellow earth and the bare branches of a leafless tree. Snow swirled around him, stirred up by the flash of his blade.
Inside the house, Yan Yu leaned against the window, watching her husband practice in the wind and snow.
Snow fell; Li Yuan’s blade rose and fell. His footsteps trampled the snow underfoot, turning it into grimy black ice. Most people would slip if they moved too quickly on it, but the young man never lost his balance.