This Was the Li Family's True Strength

"Kill!"

In the Li Family's training yard, Li Yaozu practiced his swordsmanship. Whenever his emotions stirred, he liked to vent them through his sword techniques.

Before long,

he finally stopped and wiped the sweat from his brow.

At his current level of cultivation, he could already sense activity nearby.

He sensed that his two sons had arrived.

"Yunlin, Yun Bing, come here." Li Yaozu sat at the edge of the training yard. He watched the two boys stand before him with their heads lowered, their faces full of awe, but he didn't mind. Ever since the incident with Qu Xiaoxiao, the boys had grown closer to their fourth aunt than to him.

He lowered his voice. "I know you resent me for driving your mother and her family out of the house."

"Father, I don't." Li Yunlin kept his head bowed and shook it.

Li Yaozu smiled. "I'm sorry I haven't been a good father, especially to you, Yunlin. I was young and foolish back then. Your mother was carrying you when I was only fifteen, and I couldn't tell right from wrong. If the ancestor hadn't stopped him, your grandfather would have crippled me."

"All these years..."

As he spoke, Li Yaozu's smile faded. He furrowed his brow. "Even with time, I never became a father worthy of the name."

"But now, Yunlin, I have a favor to ask. If anything happens, protect your younger brother, no matter what."

At that,

Li Yunlin finally raised his head sharply. A trace of worry crossed his face. "Father, Aunt called for me, and now you have too. Has something happened to the family? I'm already at the fourth level of Qi Refining. I can help the family, too!"

Li Yaozu's gaze gradually softened.

"As long as you grow up well, you'll be of the greatest help to the family. Go. Take Yun Bing and wait for news."

Li Yunlin wanted to say more, but Li Yaozu sent him away.

He had a thousand things he wanted to say to Li Yunlin, but when the words reached his throat, he couldn't force them out. His heart was filled with guilt, and he didn't dare look at the two brothers.

"Those two boys must be terrified of me, right?"

Li Yaozu's expression was calm. "If anything really happens, Yunlin, take up your blade and sword, just as I did."

He remembered the day bandits had entered the Li Family. The family hadn't been nearly so large back then. They had only a tiny, dilapidated hut, and they had to scour every corner just to find food.

His parents had both rushed out, and he had cluelessly picked up a blade and sword.

That was also the first time he had seen his gentle mother kill a living person as easily as slaughtering a chicken.

Later, his father told him that the moment he took up a blade and sword, he had become a man, capable of protecting his younger sister and brother.

Just as he was now, he could not let the family they had struggled so hard to build suffer even the slightest harm. Even if it was his own wife, if she showed the slightest sign of threatening the family, he had to snuff it out completely while it was still in the cradle!

He picked up his sword again and practiced with fierce determination.

"If only I were stronger, I could take more of the pressure off the family!"

In the bedroom,

Li Dalong and Xu Cuihua leaned against each other, silent for a long time.

"Husband, so many years have passed, and our family has grown stronger and stronger. Have you ever looked down on me for being a country girl? Ever wanted to marry a few young women from wealthy families?" Xu Cuihua gave Li Dalong a scrutinizing look.

"I have!"

Li Dalong grinned. "Don't let my age fool you. Every man wants three wives and four concubines. Besides, we share a bed every day. Who wouldn't want to try a new flavor?"

Xu Cuihua glared at him.

Li Dalong chuckled. "But a thousand, ten thousand pretty girls couldn't hold a candle to you. Where could I find another woman as wonderful as you, one who could give me four good children? When I look at you, every other woman seems like stale leftovers. So I stopped thinking about it."

"You old lecher."

Xu Cuihua rolled her eyes. "You're just afraid I'll beat you up, aren't you? After all, I'm stronger than you."

"Xu Cuihua, you're a real force to be reckoned with." Li Dalong couldn't help grinning foolishly. "When I came out of seclusion, I thought I'd finally become the pillar of the family. How did you end up stronger than me?"

Xu Cuihua smiled without answering.

But her smile gradually grew proud, with a hint of... bitterness.

She still remembered those days. Back then, she had been a country girl from a village. She met Li Dalong on the street—yes, a burly hunter. He was dark and unkempt, but still far better than those slick, oily-haired men.

He was honest, kindhearted, and manly.

The days that followed proved just how right she had been to defy her family and marry Li Dalong.

After they married, her husband treated her with tender care. The only problem was that Li Dalong was always a little insecure. He said he came from a slave's background and was only a hunter, and couldn't give her the life she wanted.

So her husband went hunting every day to make life better for their family.

Every time he came back, he was covered in wounds. It broke her heart to see him like that. Even as the family gradually grew wealthy and had one child after another, she still worried for him. He was always coming home wounded. If not for the ancestor's protection, perhaps her husband...

Xu Cuihua didn't dare think about it.

But thanks to the ancestor, although she lacked the talent for cultivation, the Qi Refiner Cultivation Manual had let her find another path.

She began spending time with chickens, ducks, pigs, and dogs. Wasn't that a country girl's natural gift? Little by little, she learned to understand what animals were thinking.

Now, at last, she could stand on her own and face the dangers ahead alongside her family.

Even if it meant dying for the family and her children!

"Husband, do we... have a chance of winning this time?"

Xu Cuihua held Li Dalong even tighter.

Li Yaolong furrowed his brow, unsure how to answer, when a commotion suddenly rose outside.

The couple stood up.

"What's all that noise outside?"

Li Dalong and Xu Cuihua got dressed and went out. Everyone in the Li Family had already come out into the courtyard, and they joined them in looking outside.

It was already deep into the night.

Yet outside Zhien Village, torches blazed.

When the Li Family members reached the entrance, they saw that the villagers of Zhien Village had gathered outside the Li Family's gates. Each person held a torch high, turning the sky above this once-rustic place bright red!

The elderly village chief of Zhien Village stepped forward. After Qu Changming of the Qu Family had been dismissed as village chief for embezzlement, the village had chosen the old man most beloved by its people to take his place.

The chief's face was lined with age and his hair was white, but his expression was furious. He demanded, "Master Li, I've heard the Li Family is going to war with Tailin Town. Why have the people of Zhien Village been kept in the dark?"

Hearing the village chief's challenge,

Li Dalong froze. As far as he remembered, the old chief had always spoken gently. He had rarely seen him so confrontational.

Just as he was about to say something, the old man spoke again:

"After years of drought, more than three thousand people live in Zhien Village. Bandits have stolen our food, and we've gnawed on tree bark. Which family hasn't lost relatives and friends? If the Li Family hadn't shown us such great kindness—giving us a place to live and recover, and providing us with food and livestock—would Zhien Village even exist today?"

"Now the Li Family is going to Tailin Town to fight to the death and battle for the fate of its lineage, yet you say nothing. Where does that leave the people of Zhien Village?"

"Zhien Village has plenty of brave young men. The Li Family is going to war? We have weapons, too. And if we don't, there are kitchen knives and manure forks in our homes!"

Only then did Li Dalong understand what the villagers were thinking.

He looked at the villagers packed in front of the Li Family's courtyard, each holding a torch, and gratitude shone in his eyes.

But he shook his head at them and called out:

"I'm grateful for your support. But in Tailin Town, we'll be facing cultivators. It's a matter of life and death, and we're fighting for the fate of the Li Family's lineage. Please, go home."

"Ridiculous!"

The old chief wasn't having it. His eyes widened in anger. "The Li Family has shown us such great kindness. If my children learned that our benefactors had fallen into such danger and I'd said nothing, they'd call me a heartless ingrate when they burned incense for me after I was buried. I wouldn't rest easy even in death!"

At those words,

the villagers burst into loud laughter.

"The chief's right! My life's cheap. If Master Li's going to fight, then I, Wang Ergou, will go with him and fight those bastards!"

"That's right, count me in! I know how to hunt, and I can kill people, too!"

"When I couldn't get enough to eat, I thought I'd die right there in the street. Master Li gave me a bowl of food. Now I have a house and several acres of good farmland. I can hear the chickens and ducks whenever I step outside. My wife's given me three children. I've had a full life. Master Li, it's time I repaid you with my life!"

"..."

The villagers of Zhien Village shouted, but Li Dalong didn't find them noisy in the slightest. His eyes were red.

When his wife had asked whether they could win this time, he had been afraid. He feared that his impulsiveness would destroy everything the Li Family had built over the past few decades.

But now...

He wasn't afraid anymore!

Thinking back on his life, he had been nothing but a slave. He had never imagined he would reach this day.

But the ancestor had blessed him! He had gained a cultivation method, hunted in the mountains, and filled his belly. No one could bully him anymore.

He had married the finest woman in the world and had several children who made him feel his life had been worthwhile. His two grandsons were well-behaved, too.

And there was Zhien Village.

The villagers were so kind. They had once received a single act of kindness from him, and now they were willing to face a powerful enemy alongside him, even at the risk of their lives.

I've already been blessed with a life ordinary people wouldn't dare dream of, and so many people stand behind me. What the hell do I have to fear?!!

In that moment,

Li Dalong's eyes flashed. He found again the feeling he'd had the first time he hunted, facing down ferocious beasts!

"Hahahaha!"

"Good!"

Li Dalong thrust up his arm and cried, "People of Zhien Village, I'll tell you the truth, even if you laugh at me. I, Li Dalong, am just a hillbilly, and I get scared, too. Seeing you all shouting your support tonight made me realize I'm damn well getting old!"

"To hell with Tailin Town!"

"To hell with the Wang Family and the Hu Family!"

"Everyone, grab your weapons! I, Li Dalong, don't want any way back. I want the blood of those two families to pave the road ahead for us!"

The stars shone bright and the moon hung clear that night.

The entire village of Zhien joined the Li Family in shouting.

The torches they held high nearly turned the deep night red.

A group of people from the Chen Family, their injuries slowly healed, stared in shock at the frenzied villagers of Zhien Village. These ordinary people were so fanatical they could even make cultivators afraid!

The Chen Family Ancestor let out a long breath. "Get ready. We're going with the Li Family to kill our way into Tailin Town!"

At that,

Chen Chuang hesitated. "Ancestor, there are so few of us in the Chen Family..."

Before he could finish, the Chen Family Ancestor slapped him across the face.

"Is the blood in our Chen Family less fierce than that of the villagers?"

Chen Chuang didn't dare say another word.

Only then did the Chen Family Elder smile. He looked at the Li Family members still shouting to the heavens and the villagers of Zhien Village beside them. "I take back what I said before. This... is the Li Family's true strength!"