Xun Nu pondered for a moment, then reached out and pinched Tang Li's hand bones.

He squatted down on one knee and pinched her leg bones, then stood up and said, "There's no need to formally acknowledge me as your teacher. I can teach you some martial arts. If you can become proficient, you should be able to defend yourself against ordinary people in the future. However, you may not be very suited to practicing with weapons like swords."

Tang Li rubbed the palm that the young male god had just pinched and gave a light cough. "It's alright, I just want to learn some martial arts for self-defense. Even if you wanted to specially teach me your skills, I wouldn't be able to learn them anyway."

With that agreed, Tang Li started getting up early each morning to learn from Xun Nu in the courtyard.

"Your strength is too little." Xun Nu grabbed Tang Li's soft and slender wrist, his expression stern. "If you don't strike with full force, you won't be able to cause any damage at all."

"Again, you need to accurately strike the few locations I told you about."

To her surprise, when the sweet young male god was instructing her, he seemed to transform into a different, strict person. His face was stony and his tone was flat. His movements were crisp and sharp, simply frightening.

But this 'fierce' young male god looked even more handsome, especially when he demonstrated for her. It was clearly the same movement, yet when he did it, it was as swift as lightning, not sluggish at all. That effortless feeling, Tang Li couldn't even achieve one percent of it.

She had a gentle personality and subconsciously held back thirty percent of her strength with each strike, not daring to use her full power, especially when sparring with Xun Nu for fear of hurting him.

Xun Nu was also quite helpless. He easily caught her hand again. "Still too little strength."

Tang Li had no choice. She gave him a fawning, pleading smile. "I'll practice a few more times."

Xun Nu paused, walked behind her, and silently took her arm, guiding it forward. "You need to do it like this, remember this arc and speed."

Tang Li felt that learning this from the young male god was probably asking for hardship. She didn't really understand in the first place, and with him holding her like this to 'practice', she remembered even less.

Just as she was thinking this, Xun Nu lightly kicked the back of her foot, making her kick out with force as he explained, "Kick your leg out at an angle like this." He did this move without any warning. Tang Li had no time to react at all and fell forward. Luckily, Xun Nu was holding her hand and pulled her back.

After Xun Nu let go, Tang Li lowered her head, feeling a bit ashamed, like when she had first apprenticed to learn cooking and failed to meet her teacher's expectations.

"That's all for today, we'll continue tomorrow." That was all Xun Nu said.

Tang Li was chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Her wrists were a bit stiff and her finger joints were still red and hadn't recovered. Xun Nu, who was helping beside her, kept looking at her hands. When Tang Li put down the sword to rub her hands, he suddenly grasped them.

Xun Nu held her hands and looked down at them. In a low voice, he slowly said, "I'm sorry."

Tang Li's hands moved but she didn't pull away. "What's the matter? It's my own fault for not learning well. I'll practice more tomorrow. Once I'm familiar with it, it will be fine."

Xun Nu shook his head. "I've never taught anyone before. Maybe I'm not good at teaching... Your hands, did I pinch them too hard this morning and hurt you?"

Only then did Tang Li understand what he was concerned about. She couldn't help but laugh. "No, you taught very well. I'm just not used to it. No matter what you learn, you have to suffer a bit. When I first started learning sword skills for cooking, I also cut my hands many times."

Xun Nu still held her hands, his thumb gently pressing on her reddened joints, his brows slightly furrowed. He now understood what it meant to be unable to bear seeing someone suffer.

Her hands, originally soaked in cold water, warmed up in no time from being held by Xun Nu, both hands flushing pink.

A shout came from the storefront. Only then did Tang Li retract her hands. She carried a tray and walked out. Before long, she hurriedly returned and pulled Xun Nu aside.

Glancing at the curtain still swaying at the kitchen doorway, she said in a low, urgent voice, "Xun Nu, a customer came to the store. I feel like there's something off about him."

Xun Nu: "How so?"

His calmness reassured Tang Li. She composed herself and explained, "As soon as he entered, he sat in the corner, wearing a conical hat as if hiding from something. When I saw him reach out to take out money, I noticed there were fresh bloodstains on the sleeve of his inner garment. There seemed to be unwashed blood between his fingers and a few spots of blood on his shoes too.

"Most importantly, I saw a wanted poster in front of the government office the other day. The vicious fugitive who slaughtered over a dozen households looked a bit like him. But I only got a glimpse when he lifted his hat, so I can't be certain."

Xun Nu patted her shoulder, his tone unchanged. "Mm, I understand. I'll go take a look. You stay here."

The man in the conical hat ordered a pot of wine and two small dishes. He sat in the corner for a while, then hurriedly left when it was almost dark.

"How was it? Did he leave?" Tang Li lifted the curtain and walked out.

There were no customers in the store by now. Xun Nu glanced at the sky outside. Seeing a light drizzle starting, he lifted the door panels to stand them up. It was time to close the store at this hour.

"He is indeed a habitual murderer. Although I don't know him, I could smell the extremely heavy scent of blood on him. He must have killed quite a few people not long ago." Xun Nu gave a simple explanation, not intending to elaborate.

Since the man had left, Tang Li didn't continue the discussion. She brought out the meal to eat.

In the middle of the night, the window to Xun Nu's room silently opened. A figure climbed out and vanished into the darkness.

The light rain intensified. The entire city was desolate and chilly in the heavy downpour, shrouded in damp mist.

The man named Wang Huan startled awake from a nightmare. He suddenly sat up and warily pushed open the window beside him, peering out through the crack. Outside, the rain formed a curtain connecting to the sky, a expanse of hazy mist without any abnormalities. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, his heart palpitating from the nightmare.

Feeling parched, he wanted to get out of bed to pour some water. But when he turned his head, he discovered a dark figure unexpectedly standing by his bedside.

Wang Huan immediately grabbed a large blade beside him and held it in front of his body. "Who's there!"

The figure spoke, asking, "Wang Huan?"

Wang Huan narrowed his eyes. To his surprise, this young man looked a bit familiar, seeming to be the owner of that small eatery from earlier. This left him momentarily at a loss. Once he reacted, he immediately turned vicious. Raising his blade, he hacked down.

With a clang, his blade struck something hard, the rebound splitting open his hand. Wang Huan finally felt afraid and demanded, "Who are you and what do you want with me!"

"Kill you." Standing by the bed, Xun Nu spoke these two words and drew his Xun blade. The blade gleamed like a crescent moon in the night, illuminating the side of the wielder's face.

Seeing the blade's reflection, Wang Huan remembered something and his eyes suddenly widened. His hand holding the sword began to tremble as he cried out in disbelief, "It's you, you're that Xun! Who, who actually went to the Refining Realm to buy my life!"

Xun Nu: "No one bought your life."

But Wang Huan didn't believe it. Everyone knew that this top assassin from the Refining Realm wouldn't make a move easily, and each job was worth ten thousand gold. He had only killed about a hundred people and was at most a petty thief with no real reputation in the martial world.

If no one had paid to take his life, how could it trouble this great god to come personally? Not only that, in order to figure out his background, he had even gone undercover to observe him in that small shop. To deal with a small fry like him, his actions were so meticulous, truly terrifying!

The more he thought about it, the more Wang Huan broke out in a cold sweat. He looked at the figure standing silently in the night, feeling enveloped by the shadow of death, and could hardly muster any thoughts of escape. Such an imposing aura and murderous intent, how oppressive.

"I beg you, please spare me. I'm just an insignificant nobody. We have no grudges. I'm willing to offer all my gold and silver, just begging you to spare my life!"

Suddenly, the heavy rain poured outside. A string of blood splattered on the bed curtain inside the room. The headless body fell onto the bed, and the bleeding head rolled off the bed, stopping at Xun Nu's feet, the bulging eyes still filled with undissipated fear.

...

It rained all night last night. Tang Li slept soundly and woke up a bit late in the morning. She hastily tied her hair and pushed open the door. Seeing the rising smoke from the kitchen, it seemed Xun Nu had gotten up early to start the fire.

Tang Li smiled slightly. Just as she was about to go to the kitchen to ask her young master if he wanted to practice martial arts today, the corner of her eye inadvertently swept over a corner of the small courtyard and she froze.

In that corner, there was an additional round cloth bundle with a soaked stain underneath. The surrounding soil had a slight reddish tinge, probably because the rainwater had diluted the blood. Walking closer, one could smell a mixture of earthy and bloody odors.

This couldn't be a human head, could it? Tang Li stood beside it, looking at the shape, really wanting to open the bundle to see if it was as she guessed.

"Don't get close, it's dirty." Xun Nu walked out from the kitchen and arrived silently beside her, startling Tang Li.

"What's inside?" Tang Li asked cautiously.

Xun Nu: "It's the wanted criminal from yesterday. I'll take it to the government office when it opens in a bit to collect the reward."

Tang Li suddenly remembered the reward amount - 300 taels of silver. Her small shop had been open for many days but had yet to turn a profit. Could it be that the young god, worried about her struggling business, had gone out in the middle of the night to earn some extra money to support the family?

Tang Li looked at Xun Nu, not quite sure how to react.

Xun Nu didn't know what she was thinking. He pulled her away from the bundled head and gestured for her to go to the kitchen. "There are quite a few evil criminals like him. They take pleasure in killing. Although their martial arts aren't high, they are more than enough to deal with ordinary people. Letting him roam the city is too dangerous."

Tang Li understood. The young god wasn't doing it for the reward, but out of concern for her.

Her heart thumped for a while. Tang Li looked at Xun Nu's tall and broad back and suddenly felt an indescribable sense of security. In this world she had come to, only Xun Nu could give her this feeling of reassurance. Sometimes, she really hoped that Xun Nu could love her the way he loved Chu Li in the original story. If that were the case, she would definitely take good care of him and cherish him.

"Xun Nu."

Xun Nu turned around.

Tang Li walked quickly forward and hugged him.

"You're so good to me. Is it because I saved your life once in the Ghostly Crying Plains?"

Xun Nu looked down at the top of her head. "A life-saving grace should be repaid."

Tang Li tightened her grip.

"But everything I do now is because my heart is drawn to you."

For a moment, Tang Li thought she had misheard. She froze for a second, let go of Xun Nu, wanting to look up and see his expression, but Xun Nu raised his hand and hugged her back, pressing her head against his chest.

"I am fond of you and want to protect you." He said again, his voice even lower and hoarser than before.

Tang Li could clearly hear her own heart beating rapidly, as well as the same pounding from Xun Nu's chest. She clutched the clothes on his back, feeling as if she had suddenly fallen into a dream or landed on a cloud.

"Me too... I like you too." Tang Li said in a daze.

Strangely enough, over the years, quite a few people had confessed their feelings to her, and several men she had met through matchmaking had even proposed marriage with grand gestures, but she had felt nothing. She had never been as nervous, joyful, and at a loss as she was now.

Perhaps it was because she understood that when the men she had known before said they liked her and wanted to marry her, it was because they wanted a virtuous wife and good mother, or simply thought they were a good match. But when Xun Nu looked at her, it was just her and her alone.

This was a world completely different from the one she was used to, not lacking in cruelty, but also having a unique romance. At least their encounter was something she had never imagined, and so was falling in love.

Suddenly, her feet left the ground. Xun Nu picked Tang Li up and placed her on the window sill. He looked straight at the slightly blushing Tang Li, his long, broad hand caressing her cheek, his eyes even darker and brighter than before. His Adam's apple bobbed a couple of times. "You... do you really like me?"

Tang Li lowered her eyes and smiled. "Mm, I like you." Having said that, she boldly raised her eyes and looked directly at Xun Nu, saying again, "I liked you from the start, and I like you even more now."

She thought that she was definitely a few years older than the young male god, so she should be more forthright at this moment. But when she met Xun Nu's eyes, she couldn't help lowering her head again, her heart filled with shyness.

Suddenly, she heard a soft, short laugh, the trailing sound hoarse and sexy. She looked up and found that Xun Nu had laughed, just for a moment, fleeting, but she had definitely seen it clearly. In contrast to his laughter, that smile also carried the shyness and joy of youth.

After a moment of stunned silence, Tang Li leaned forward, her arms around Xun Nu's neck, and gently and proactively offered her lips.

Author's Note: I, a sweet romance author, live up to my name.