A late bloomer

[Grateful for the nanny's loving concern, you knelt and kowtowed three times toward the Marquis's Household, your forehead striking the ground audibly.]

[After staying at the inn for a while, you felt the expenses were too high. You went out, picked a house, and settled down in Liu Family Ferry. The house was small: a little courtyard, three rooms, a well, and a crooked-necked jujube tree growing in a corner by the wall. The previous owner said the tree bore fruit every year, sweet as could be, though rather difficult to pick.]

[The moment you closed the courtyard gate, you stood in the courtyard.]

[You had a home. This was something to celebrate, yet your feelings were complicated.]

[A new life was beckoning to you. You were free now. Although your main objectives were to stay alive, chop trees, and acquire traits, how could you waste these wonderful days? You chose:

1. Study martial arts. Even without a Spirit Root, you did not want to be too weak to truss a chicken!

2. Study letters. The importance of knowledge went without saying. Of course, for you, the most important thing was learning to read! You did not want to spend your whole life as a fish that slipped through the net of compulsory education.

3. Study both letters and martial arts. Of course, before choosing this, you needed to see whether you had what it took.]

[You gritted your teeth and chose the third option: study both letters and martial arts.]

[Recent years had been unsettled. Great Xia was constantly clashing with several neighboring countries, and martial arts schools flourished throughout the country. These schools accepted people regardless of sex or talent, but those sent to them were all people without talent.]

[If a family's child had a Spirit Root, it was no different from blue smoke rising from their ancestral graves. The child would be sent straight to an immortal sect. Even the worst immortal sect was ten thousand times better than a mortal martial arts school.]

[You had no Spirit Root. That had been determined when you were sold into the Marquis's Household at eight years old.]

[Back then, hoping to get a good price, the human trafficker had taken you and several other little girls to a passing master to be assessed. The master swept his gaze over you, shook his head, and said, "All mortal flesh." The trafficker's face fell on the spot.]

[After investigating your options, you chose the Changfeng Martial Arts School right by your home. Its master was named Liu Daye.]

[When you first came in, he thought you were looking for work and nearly drove you out. After all, you were already thirty. As far as martial arts were concerned, you were no different from an old person with one foot in the grave.]

[Even someone as worldly as Liu Daye never imagined you had come to learn martial arts.]

[But after hearing why you had come, Liu Daye took only one second to accept you as this unusual student and began introducing the school's packages with boundless enthusiasm. "A seven-day trial package costs two taels of silver! A thirty-day package costs three taels! A lifetime apprenticeship at the Changfeng Martial Arts School costs just twenty taels!"]

[You listened in a daze.]

[Packages? Lifetime apprenticeship? Why did those terms sound so familiar? Memories of signing up for gym memberships in your previous life suddenly began attacking you.]

[You had transmigrated into a poor family and never gone shopping. After entering the Marquis's Household, that had been even more out of the question. You had seen something of the world, but you really did not know much about local customs. You had never expected the merchants in this world to have developed this far.]

["Well..." You weighed your words before speaking. "By lifetime apprenticeship, do you mean your lifetime or mine?"]

[Liu Daye chuckled. "You're a sharp one, miss. Don't worry, I mean your lifetime. I, Liu Daye, have run this school for twenty years, cheating neither children nor elders. If you pay today, I'll even throw in a training uniform."]

[After hearing that, you no longer trusted this Liu Daye, whose expression changed so quickly, in the slightest. You even began to suspect that the Changfeng Martial Arts School's good reputation had been bought.]

[Seeing your doubtful expression, he suddenly clapped his hands. Two people wearing Changfeng Martial Arts School training uniforms immediately stepped forward, shielding Liu Daye behind them.]

["Disciple Liu Bai!" "Disciple Liu Hei!"]

["Greetings, Master!"]

[Liu Daye said nothing. With his hands behind his back and the bearing of an immortal sage, he looked at his two disciples and raised his chin slightly.]

[Liu Bai immediately understood. She threw a punch, and the stone lion at the entrance to the Changfeng Martial Arts School exploded with a crash!]

[You blinked, then rubbed your eyes before confirming that you had not seen things.]

[Liu Daye also blinked, then rubbed his eyes, finally confirming that he had not seen things either. "You unfilial disciple! Do you know how much silver that stone lion cost?!"]

[The smug look on Liu Bai's face instantly froze. She stood rooted to the spot, her fist still extended in its punching posture, looking as though she had been struck by lightning. Her face turned even darker than Liu Hei's.]

[Turning his gaze back to you, Liu Daye's expression became immensely welcoming again. "Well? That move just now was our Changfeng Martial Arts School's martial technique, the Changfeng Fist! You've seen its effects. Would you like a lifetime apprenticeship?"]

[Before paying, you made certain of one thing. "Does Liu Bai have a Spirit Root?"]

[Liu Daye waved a hand. "Why would a genius like that spare a glance for a little establishment like ours? Don't worry. You can do it too!"]

[You admitted that you were tempted.]

[The moment you handed over twenty taels of silver, Liu Daye became aloof and told you to go change into your training uniform first.]

[You immediately felt that you had walked into a wolves' den. Inwardly, you thought, *This is bad.*]

[A few more days passed, and you confirmed that your guess had been right.]

[Liu Daye, the martial arts instructor of the Changfeng Martial Arts School, only handled business and never taught in person. The one who actually taught was the senior sister, who was even younger than you-Liu Bai!]

[She gave you lessons in Liu Daye's place, teaching you fist techniques! Although she was rather rigid in how she did things, this senior sister's martial arts were first-rate. More than once, you marveled that those twenty taels of silver had not been wasted.]

[The move Liu Bai had used was called the Changfeng Fist, but in this world, it also fell under a more clearly defined general category: "External Martial Arts"!]

[Although the people studying at martial arts schools had no Spirit Roots, through day after day of practice, they gradually mastered something called "force." This was much like the internal power in the martial arts novels you had read in your previous life.]

[People who possessed force were called Low-Rank Martial Artists.]

[But without Spirit Roots, they could not draw in spiritual energy to temper their bodies, so there was a limit to what Low-Rank Martial Artists could achieve in their lifetimes.]

[You understood that even if you became a Low-Rank Martial Artist, the distance between you and a Houtian Martial Artist would still be like a heavenly chasm.]

[But your purpose in learning martial arts was simple: to protect yourself and live out this life safe and sound!]

[With the Changfeng Martial Arts School across the way, your days were exceedingly peaceful.]

[But your talent for martial arts was truly poor, so much so that you could even be called dull-witted. With your age working against you as well, you could only practice hard day and night.]