Chapter 11: I Don't Like Fighting and Killing

Ye Mo was not a military household of Tianling Garrison; he was a convict exiled to the border for military service after committing a crime. Due to his cold and aloof personality, the people in the garrison did not like to associate with him, and he lived alone at the sparsely populated western edge of the garrison.

To demonstrate the sincerity and determination of her request to become his apprentice, Li Wuya didn't even return home. Instead, she took Li Qilang, and each of them dragged a small bundle of firewood to Ye Mo’s house.

Compared to the Li family’s courtyard, Ye Mo’s living quarters were very crude. It was just a solitary thatched hut; the walls weren't even built with yellow mud, and some wooden sticks were casually stuck into the ground around the house to barely form a fence.

"Uncle Ye, we’ve brought you some firewood."

Li Wuya stood on tiptoe in front of the wooden gate, craning her neck to peer inside.

After waiting for a while, there was no response.

Li Wuya silently retracted her neck, knowing that she would return empty-handed again today. She sighed and prepared to head back.

Li Qilang looked puzzled. "Sister, why must we learn internal martial arts from Uncle Ye?"

Li Wuya replied, "Of course, it’s for the safety of our own lives."

The incident where the post station was raided served as a wake-up call. The border region where she lived was not peaceful; she might encounter a life-threatening disaster any day.

She had been lucky to escape this time, but that might not be the case next time.

One had to remember that this world had martial arts experts.

Although she possessed spiritual power, it was still too weak. If she were to face someone who knew martial arts head-on—they wouldn't even need to be that skilled—she would only end up dead.

Even if her spiritual power grew stronger in the future, she would still need an excuse for using it.

Therefore, learning martial arts was imperative.

Li Wuya looked at the tightly shut door once more and prepared to leave with Li Qilang. Just as she turned around, she saw Ye Mo returning from outside.

"Uncle Ye, so you were out? I thought you were at home." Li Wuya immediately beamed with a smile.

Ye Mo was carrying a small bag of black flour he had bought from the garrison chief’s house. He glanced at the two small bundles of firewood placed at the entrance, then frowned at Li Wuya and Li Qilang. "Didn't I tell you not to come here again?"

Li Wuya looked at Ye Mo’s dark expression, thought for a moment, and decided to play the victim. "Uncle Ye, three days ago, the post station was raided by a group of Northern Yan people. My brother and I were inside at the time."

"You didn't see it—that group of Northern Yan people almost killed my brother and me. My brother was even shot with an arrow. At that moment, I thought we wouldn't survive."

Hearing this, there was finally a flicker of emotion on Ye Mo’s face. He gave Li Wuya a faint look.

When he went to the garrison chief’s house to buy grain earlier, the chief had told him about this.

‘It was all thanks to Sanlang’s quick thinking; he used rat poison to take down that group of Northern Yan people. Otherwise, I’m afraid not a single person in the post station would have survived.’

That was the chief’s exact words, but he didn't quite believe it.

For the past two years, this little girl had often dragged Li Sanlang along to fetch water and chop wood for him. That young man was indeed a decent fellow, honest and straightforward, but he didn't think he could come up with a plan to poison people with rat poison.

It was more likely that this little girl, who radiated cunning, was the one who did it.

Seeing that Ye Mo’s face wasn't as dark as before, Li Wuya pressed on. "Uncle Ye, please teach us martial arts. If we learn, we can protect ourselves if we encounter such things in the future."

Ye Mo returned to his previous coldness and said indifferently, "I’m a cripple; what martial arts could I possibly know? You should go find someone else." With that, he pushed open the wooden gate and limped into the house.

Seeing Ye Mo flatly deny that he knew martial arts, Li Wuya lowered her eyes. Knowing that pestering him further would yield no results, she took Li Qilang and left.

She could see it now: this Ye Mo was hard-hearted. The chances of moving him to agree to teach them by acting cute, playing the victim, or complaining were almost zero.

"Sigh, I don't have a protagonist’s halo!"

Five years since she transmigrated, she was still struggling at the subsistence level.

She finally found someone with some real skills, and the guy wouldn't even give her the time of day.

Was there any transmigrator as miserable as her?

Li Wuya felt bitter just thinking about it.

Having been rejected multiple times, Li Qilang was a bit unhappy. He pouted and said, "Sister, Uncle Ye doesn't want to teach us, so let's not learn from him. Can't we find someone else?"

Li Wuya looked at her naive, sulking brother and sighed.

She didn't want to hang herself from one tree either!

If she could find a second person in the military garrison who knew internal martial arts, she wouldn't be so eager to press her hot face against someone else's cold backside.

However, the indigenous military households living in Tianling Garrison were all at the very bottom of this world. Forget about high-end skills like internal martial arts; there were barely even a few people who were literate.

Only convicts like Ye Mo, who had been exiled here for military service, had more experience and greater skills.

"Qilang, the more capable a person is, the bigger their temper. If we want to learn skills from Uncle Ye, we can't give up because of one or two setbacks."

"Just like our father—back then, in order to learn external martial arts from Grandpa Qiu, he not only stood guard and kept watch for him but also gave him his entire salary for three consecutive years. Only then did Grandpa Qiu nod and agree to teach him."

"Think about how much Father sacrificed, and then think about how much we’ve sacrificed."

"Uncle Ye doesn't owe us anything. If he’s unwilling to teach us now, it just means the value we provide him isn't great enough, or... he doesn't think highly of us and doesn't feel we are worth the investment."

Li Qilang tilted his head and looked at Li Wuya, as if he understood, yet also as if he didn't.

Seeing this, Li Wuya smiled and said nothing more.

Constrained by their environment, they had no other channels to learn internal martial arts, so Ye Mo had to be won over!

Thinking of Ye Mo’s crippled leg, Li Wuya’s eyes narrowed. If she used the ability to heal his leg as a condition, he should agree to teach them internal martial arts, right?

However, Li Wuya quickly shook her head, dismissing the thought.

She was just a small military household girl with no master; where would she have learned medicine?

Without a legitimate and reasonable origin, she could not expose the fact that she knew medicine.

Don't let her enthusiastic, bee-to-a-flower approach toward Ye Mo fool you into thinking she wasn't afraid of him; she knew very well that this man was dangerous.

The first time she saw Ye Mo, she had been intimidated by the sharp gaze he accidentally revealed.

This man was like an invisible person in the garrison, seemingly caring about nothing and interested in nothing, but Li Wuya knew he was definitely not as simple as he appeared!

"Fifth Sister, what do we do now? Should we continue bringing firewood to Uncle Ye?"

"Let's stop for now. Let's go home first and learn some external martial arts from Brother."

"Ah, Fifth Sister, didn't you say you would never learn external martial arts even if you died?"

"It’s not like we have a choice, Qilang. Fifth Sister tells you, one must know how to compromise appropriately. Don't walk down one path until it’s dark. In short, we choose whatever is most beneficial to us at the moment."

"Uncle Ye won't teach us now, but we can't just do nothing because of that. To have the power to protect ourselves, learning some external martial arts for self-defense is our best option for now."

Li Qilang nodded, half-understanding.

Not long after, Li Wuya and Li Qilang returned to the Li house. As soon as they entered, they saw a dark-skinned, burly, and tall man standing in the courtyard.

"Father!"

Seeing who it was, the siblings immediately beamed and rushed over.

When Li Changsen saw his youngest daughter and son return, a happy smile appeared on his face. He stepped forward, grabbed one with each hand, and spun them around in place.

"Ah~"

Li Wuya and Li Qilang’s excited screams rang out in the courtyard.

Li Changsen watched his daughter and son, who weren't afraid at all, and felt very proud. These were his children; they were nothing like the eldest sons of his second and third brothers, who would be scared to tears if spun like this.

He hadn't been back for three or four months and missed the children dearly. He played with them for a long while until Jin Yue’e spoke up to stop them.

"Calm down, Mother isn't happy," Jin Yue’e whispered.

Li Changsen looked toward the main room and, sure enough, saw Old Madam Li with a long face, looking very displeased.

"Heh~"

Li Changsen let out a mocking laugh. Thinking that it was rare for him to be back and he didn't want to waste time on petty grievances, he decisively took his youngest daughter and son back to the east wing.

When Li Qilang saw Li Changsen, he spilled everything that had happened at the post station two days ago like beans from a bamboo tube, rattling it all off in one go.

Li Changsen was terrified as he listened. He personally checked Li Sanlang’s wound and only felt relieved when he saw it had scabbed over.

"In the future, if you encounter such things again, don't be reckless. Not to mention you are all still children, even adults wouldn't dare to rush out rashly."

Before Li Sanlang could speak, Li Qilang chimed in first: "Father, we aren't stupid. If there’s no benefit, we wouldn't rush forward."

As he said this, he lifted his chin and raised his eyebrows at Li Wuya, as if to say, ‘Fifth Sister, I remembered everything you said.’

Looking at her silly brother’s foolish expression, Li Wuya had the urge to cover her face.

Li Changsen was stunned and turned to look at Li Sanlang.

Could it be that the children had taken the initiative at the post station?

Li Sanlang looked indifferent. He hadn't been the one to take the initiative, but his younger sister had.

Later, under Li Sanlang’s detailed explanation, Li Changsen heard a version different from what outsiders knew: the three Northern Yan men were killed by his youngest daughter, and the rat poison was also put in the water by her.

Was his little daughter a bit... too capable?

Meeting Li Changsen’s suspicious gaze, Li Wuya’s eyes flickered. She couldn't go into detail about killing the Northern Yan men, so she had no choice but to act weak and pitiful.

"Father, I was scared silly at the time. I didn't even know what I was doing. I only knew that either they died or I died, so I acted. Did I do something wrong?"

How could Li Changsen bear to see his daughter like this? He quickly comforted her: "Wuya didn't do anything wrong; that’s exactly what you should have done." He paused, then added, "But Wuya, don't do that again next time."

He guessed that the group of Northern Yan men must have been exhausted from being chased by General Zhuang and his men. Otherwise, he wouldn't believe even if he died that a five-year-old girl could kill an eighth-rank and a seventh-rank expert.

Li Wuya nodded obediently. "Father, don't worry. I don't like fighting and killing. In the future, I will be a delicate and well-behaved girl."

Hearing this, Li Changsen and Li Sanlang’s expressions became a bit strange.

Delicate...

Their daughter’s (younger sister’s) personality seemed to be quite far from delicate.