Chapter 4: Inherited Talent
Editor: Atlas Studios
He had known all along that his daughter was strong. In this chaotic world, there was nothing wrong with being strong. In fact, he was even glad that his daughter had inherited their ancestor’s talent.
Mu Yangling had always thought that this talent of hers came from her previous life. After all, in her previous life, she was also very strong, at least much stronger than her male comrades in the team. In this life, this talent had been greatly enhanced. This had made her feel smug for a while, thinking that this was a benefit of being reborn.
However, after hearing her father’s words, Mu Yangling realized that this was an inherited talent.
Mu Yangling’s great-grandfather was a Hu1 and a warrior of the tribe. It was said that he had never suffered a defeat on the battlefield. Even when he went deep into the enemy’s territory, he could retreat unscathed.
Her great-grandmother was her great-grandfather’s spoils of war, a Han woman he had brought back from the battlefield. It was said that she was a stunning beauty who had once caused the warriors of the tribe to fight for her. Fortunately, no one could defeat her great-grandfather and snatch her away from him.
Her great-grandfather only had this one wife in his life, and she only bore him one son—Mu Yangling’s grandfather.
Bearing a great resemblance to his mother, Mu Yangling’s grandfather was blessed with gorgeous looks and a refined demeanor. Unfortunately, even his strength was inherited from his mother, causing his father to be worried sick about him.
In a tribe where the strong were respected, and a warrior had to prove his strength by defeating all competitors to be declared leader of the tribe, his son could only be at the mercy of others.
In order to train his son, Mu Yangling’s great-grandfather had gathered many martial arts manuals for him. He had even created a set of martial arts for him based on his weak strength and agile body. Unfortunately, her grandfather could only be ranked somewhere in the middle among the tribal warriors even after mastering it.
If his son was like the rough men in the tribe, Mu Yangling’s great-grandfather would be satisfied. Alas, this son was as gorgeous as his wife. This was a disaster in the Hu tribe. Without his protection, he could foresee his son leading a miserable life under others in the future. This was something he could not tolerate.
Therefore, after his wife died of illness and he was seriously injured, this warrior gave more than half of his wealth to his only son and chased him out of the tribe to live in a Han place.
The warrior believed that since his son looked like a Han Chinese and possessed martial prowess, he should be able to live well among the Han. At the very least, he wouldn’t encounter those difficulties he faced in the tribe.
Thus, Mu Yangling’s grandfather traveled all the way south and finally settled down in the tiny Nearhill Village seven miles away from Xingyuan Prefecture, Xingzhou, Mingshui County, Seven Mile Village. Eventually, he married her grandmother and gave birth to her father, Mu Shi.
Now that he had arrived in the land of the Han, his son, Mu Shi, was found to possess the strength that he had once dreamed of. This made Mu Yangling’s grandfather feel that fate was playing tricks on him. Because his son had the facial characteristics and extraordinary strength of a Hu, his family was subtly ostracized by the villagers.
Even as his wife’s family grew distant with them, Mu Yangling’s grandfather no longer thought of moving. This was because the final punishment for this act of escapism in exchange for convenience would eventually befall his descendants. Not wanting his descendants to bear the pain on his behalf, he passed this teaching to Mu Shi, who later passed it on to Mu Yangling. He warned his descendants not to think of running away when they encountered difficulties, because if they escaped, the punishment might land on their descendants, who would in turn suffer even more.
Perhaps her grandfather was right. Although Mu Yangling was born with divine strength, her younger brother was not outstanding. At the very least, Mu Bowen, who was already five years old, was like an ordinary child and did not inherit the divine strength of his ancestors. If her grandfather had brought her grandmother and father back to the Hu tribe in the end, their family might not be able to live as well as they did now.
After all, she and her younger brother were not bad-looking. According to her father, they looked like her grandfather, who looked like her great-grandmother.
Mu Yangling was much stronger than Mu Shi. In order to allow her to control her strength so that she would not hurt herself and others, Mu Shi had taught her martial arts since she was five years old. It was the martial arts that her grandfather had written on a parchment and passed on to him.
Although the warrior of the tribe had sent his son away, perhaps he still had a desire in his heart for his descendants to inherit his divine strength. When his son left, not only did he give him all the martial arts secret manuals he had gathered, but he also wrote down the martial arts he practiced for him to take away.
That said, it was actually just some external martial arts, involving merely ordinary moves. There wasn’t even a single manual for internal cultivation. This disappointed Mu Yangling, who was full of anticipation.
Other than practicing the martial arts that her father had taught her, Mu Yangling also often used the methods of the special forces learnt in her previous life to train herself. Subduing an opponent wasn’t at all an issue for her. However, she was only a little hunter now and had no use for such tactics. In this chaotic world, Mu Yangling also didn’t wish there came a day when those tactics would prove useful.
The father and daughter tied the wild boar to the cart and tied the other small prey to themselves. Then, Mu Shi pushed the cart and they rushed to Seven Mile Village.
It generally took them about an hour to walk from the village to town. Even if they were fast, it would take them forty-five minutes.
As the villagers liked to go to the market as early as possible, the father-and-daughter duo did not encounter anyone along the way at this hour.
Although it was a chaotic time, the Seven Mile Village was still very lively. It was all because the Imperial Court’s restrictions on the civilians had weakened. Now that traders and craftsmen were relatively free to come and go, the civilians’ markets’ development also started to thrive.
This was not Mu Yangling’s first time in town, so she looked around and suggested to Mu Shi, “Father, why don’t I bring these things to the stall first? You can push the wild boar to the eatery.”
“Let’s go together. Maybe the shopkeepers would be interested in the small prey.” Mu Shi said, “There are many well-to-do families in town. Let’s go to the eateries and restaurants to try our luck first. If it doesn’t work, we can come back and set up a stall.”
After some thought, Mu Yangling agreed. She followed Mu Shi to the center of the town, where the best inns, eateries and restaurants in the entire town were located.
Both eateries and restaurants liked their wild game. Since Mu Shi and she were quite capable, they rarely came back from the mountains empty-handed, so they provided a very steady supply of wild game. As early as five years ago, Mu Shi had already established a fixed supplier relationship with them. As long as they caught prey, they would let the eateries and restaurants have their pick first before bringing them to the market to sell.
Among them, because the eateries tended to order the largest quantity, they had priority over the restaurants.
The largest eatery in town was called the Wafting Fragrance Eatery. The owner’s surname was Liu, and he was one of the three Minister Counselors in the village; the shopkeeper’s surname was Zhang. The largest restaurant was called the Drunken Cloud Restaurant. The owner’s surname was Zhao, and he was also a Minister Counselor; the shopkeeper was his nephew. Finally, the last Minister Counselor in the village opened the Happiness Inn. The owner’s name was Sun Yue, and the shopkeeper’s surname was Qian.
As they often had to deal with these three families, Mu Shi had introduced them to Mu Yangling in detail when she followed him to town to sell prey at the age of six.
The purpose was to make Mu Yangling be very careful not to offend these three families because they were the most influential people in the village. Even the county magistrate of Mingshui County had to give in to them.
Mu Shi stopped the cart at the side door of the Wafting Fragrance Eatery. The assistant shopkeeper of the eatery opened the door and said with a smile, “Uncle Mu, are you here to deliver wild game again?” When he saw the wild boar on the cart, he actually gasped in shock. “Is it still alive?”
Mu Shi beamed and nodded. “It fell into a trap and thankfully did not die. Considering the rich people in town liked to eat fresh food, and because the weather is so hot, I didn’t dare to kill it at home.”
“Excellent! Our shopkeeper will definitely like it. Wait for me, I’ll call the shopkeeper over.” The assistant shopkeeper ran towards the back excitedly while muttering, “How impressive. He even dares to catch a wild boar alive.” It had to be known that wild boars were the most ferocious and, unlike domestic pigs, were not tame. Once they were angered, they would bite and stomp on people.
The shopkeeper was originally at the front and only planned to let the assistant shopkeeper buy some wild game to keep as backup. When he heard that there was a live wild boar, he quickly threw down his abacus and ran over.