"The old blacksmith here? I know him. He's been working here for many years. What can I do for you?" Zhao Yu'er asked.
“I have nowhere to stay in the desert, and this place seems quite spacious, so I’d like to stay here for a while. I need his permission. Do you know where he went?” Li Ling asked.
"I don't know either. Why don't you wait here? The old blacksmith has been working here for so many years; he can't just leave like that!" Zhao Yu'er said.
"By the way, since you're going to stay here, you should get to know the surrounding towns. Shall I take you to see them?"
"Well, that's good. It's my first time here, so it would be great to have someone I know guide me!" Li Ling thought for a moment and then agreed.
Next, Zhao Yu'er took Li Ling to the market town and introduced him to the various merchants, explaining who had the fairest prices and whose goods were of good quality. She knew them all very well.
This reminded Li Ling that Zhao Yu'er and her mother controlled a considerable amount of power in the desert. As a woman, it would be impossible for her to achieve such a feat in the desert without considerable skill.
Just then, a middle-aged man ran up to the two of them and shouted urgently to Zhao Yu'er, "Yu'er, Yu'er, Brud is causing trouble over there!"
"What?" Zhao Yu'er's expression immediately changed upon hearing this: "Let's go over there quickly!"
Seeing this, Li Ling followed. When he got closer, he saw two groups arguing over the price of the furs.
After a heated argument, the two sides escalated to the point of fighting. At the slightest disagreement, more than ten people from each side started fighting in the street.
As soon as the two sides started fighting, Zhao Yu'er pulled Li Ling aside and said to him, "Hide here first, don't be afraid."
After saying that, Zhao Yu'er grabbed a leather water bag from the side and smashed it over the head of a person coming from the opposite direction, then turned to Li Ling and shouted, "Stay here and don't move!"
Then Zhao Yu'er rushed forward again, seized the opportunity, and smashed the object over the head.
"That's pretty tough!" Li Ling couldn't help but chuckle upon seeing this.
Moreover, as a master of innate martial arts, there are no more than five people in the martial arts world who can be his opponents. This little girl is actually worried about him getting hurt. She seems to be very kind-hearted.
Li Ling watched as Zhao Yu'er rushed into the crowd, skillfully knocking down one person after another. Clearly, this wasn't the first time she had done this, which made Li Ling understand her a little better.
"Um?"
Just then, Li Ling saw someone targeting Zhao Yu'er, holding a wooden stick and about to hit her. Li Ling warned, "Be careful."
"Whoosh~"
Li Ling unleashed a burst of sword energy, snapping the wooden stick in two with a 'whoosh' sound. The person holding the stick was stunned, and then Zhao Yu'er, who had recovered from her shock, knocked him senseless with a water bag.
Then, until the end of the melee, Li Ling secretly intervened several times, and Zhao Yu'er's side achieved a great victory.
Zhao Yu'er and her group confiscated all of the other party's valuables, a full load of goods, making it a very fruitful haul.
After finishing with the goods, Zhao Yu'er led her people to rest at a nearby well.
After washing his face, a young man walked up to Zhao Yu'er and asked with concern, "Yu'er, were you hurt just now?"
“Of course, I’m not made of tofu!” Zhao Yu’er replied directly, then turned to look at Li Ling.
Li Ling was currently sizing up Zhao Yu'er, who felt very uncomfortable under his gaze and exclaimed, "What are you looking at?"
As she spoke, Zhao Yu'er picked up the basin of water beside her and splashed it at him.
As the water was being splashed towards him, Li Ling's protective aura was instinctively activated, immediately blocking the water several inches away from him.
"Splash~"
The water that was splashed all landed on the ground.
"Wow, is this witchcraft? You're not a wizard, are you?" Zhao Yu'er was stunned by what she saw, and everyone around her was also dumbfounded.
"hey-hey."
Seeing the girl who had been so poised just moments before suddenly become so cautious, Li Ling couldn't help but laugh and say, "You've misunderstood. This isn't witchcraft, and there's no such thing as witchcraft in this world."
What I just used was a protective aura, which can be condensed as long as one's martial arts reach the Innate Realm.
Because everyone's skill level is different, the defensive effectiveness also varies. A true master, when their protective aura is fully activated, will be virtually unharmed even by a barrage of arrows.
"You're not lying to me, are you?" Zhao Yu'er asked, her face full of disbelief.
"I've seen martial arts practitioners before, but most of them only know a few moves of swordsmanship and fist techniques. No one has ever been able to do what you do!"
"The people you mentioned can only be considered to have practiced rudimentary moves at best. They haven't even cultivated internal energy. They can barely be considered to be wandering martial arts practitioners. They're not even third-rate, let alone innate masters," Li Ling explained to Zhao Yu'er.
“Even in the Central Plains, with a population of tens of millions, there are over a hundred thousand people who practice martial arts, but only thirty or forty are innate masters. Yi Tianxing, whom you met before, was also an innate master. Haven’t you witnessed his martial arts?”
"How would I know? I've never seen him use any martial arts. No wonder he said he wanted to have a duel with you before he left."
"I really didn't expect that. So, could you teach me martial arts? If I also had that innate qi, I wouldn't get hurt next time I fight Brood!"
After saying that, Zhao Yu'er looked on with longing, imagining herself possessing innate qi and beating Brood so badly that he was running away in terror.
"Hahahaha." Seeing Zhao Yu'er's dreamy expression, Li Ling couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Hey, what are you laughing at?" Zhao Yu'er asked, looking displeased.
"What's so funny? If we could win a fight, no one would dare shortchange us, and we wouldn't have to fear those bandits anymore!"
"Okay, I understand. I'm sorry, I just really... hahaha..." It took Li Ling a while to stop laughing.
"Uh~" Looking at Zhao Yu'er's annoyed face, Li Ling apologized, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to look down on you, but it's really not worth it for a dignified innate master to spend money on a piece of leather."
Do you know about Blood Slave, a henchman of a corrupt official in Central China? He's a master of innate martial arts. Do you know how much money he always carries with him when he works for the corrupt official?
"How much? It can't be a hundred taels, can it?!" Zhao Yu'er asked curiously.