"But I really want to study," Amelia lowered her head as though someone had bullied her.

Leon’s mouth twitched. "Stop acting. You are just nine years old. At this age, your acupoints are quite fragile, and you won’t be able to steadily absorb qi through them. By the age of ten, your teachers will systematically guide you into the path of cultivation."

Amelia’s eyes turned watery as she suddenly shouted, "Then at least teach me how to fight. You always wake up in the morning and go inside the forest. I can only see you late at night, and even then you will go back to cultivate without spending time with me."

Leon paused his eating when her words settled in his ears. He finally understood her reason for asking him to teach her cultivation was just a pretense to spend time with him.

But still, Leon took a deep breath and shook his head. "Brother is quite busy lately. Next week, I will surely teach you how to fight."

"No, you are lying." Tears streamed down from the little girl’s eyes as she pointed at Leon and said angrily, "Every time I ask you to spend time with me, you give me the same response, but you never once fulfilled that promise."

Leon’s expression changed as he walked over to the little girl. "Amy, it is not that brother doesn’t want to spend time with you. Every time, something important will come up."

Amelia dodged the hand Leon extended to stroke her head and said between sobs, "Everyone in the village has a father and mother, but when I asked you about ours, you always told me that they had gone out for some important business and will come back at the New Year festival. So, like a fool, I always dressed up in new clothes and waited for them, but they never came."

"You lied to me, right? You ran away from home since you quarreled with our parents, and now you neither want to go back nor do you want them to find out about me, right?"

Leon’s expression changed when he heard this. He turned his head to look at Grandma Mercy.

The old lady sighed. "Those soldiers told her all this nonsense when she refused their offer for a scholarship from their squad leader. They even promised her to bring her to her mother as long as she agreed to go with them. It was me who made noise at that time and gathered the crowd, otherwise they might really have taken her away. Initially, I thought Amy didn’t take it to heart, but it seems the child had taken what they said quite seriously."

Leon slumped back on his chair and looked at Amelia, who was now hugging Grandma Mercy.

When he and Amelia first came to this village, she was just two years old, and over the years, she had forgotten everything about her mother and the Skywalker family. Leon also made up a story to cover the absence of their parents so that she could live happily without worrying about anything. Although this was cruel to the little girl’s feelings, at least she could have a happy childhood.

But it seemed that those human alliance soldiers had somehow caught wind of his past and made up some rubbish side story to make the little girl willingly go with them without any resistance.

Grandma Mercy stroked the little girl’s head and added, "They even gave me a hundred iron grade coins to play along with them and take Amelia to Rose Valley Town."

Leon closed his eyes and remained silent for a long moment.

After a while, he walked up to little Amy and made her sit on top of the dining table as he sat opposite to her on the wooden chair.

"Brother won’t lie to you this time, but you have to promise me not to worry about father and mother anymore, okay?" Leon asked seriously.

Amelia lifted her head and nodded.

Tapping his finger on the table, Leon sighed. "Actually, when I was of your age, I had an accident and my bloodline heart was damaged. In order to cure me, they went to a far away place to look for a very rare herb. Before they left, they brought both of us to the Stone Fort Village so that their enemies wouldn’t take advantage of their absence and harm us."

"Since then, I have had no news of them and don’t have any idea where they have gone."

Amelia hesitated for a moment and asked doubtfully, "Then, is what those soldiers said correct? Did they know about our parents’ whereabouts?"

Leon sneered. "Them? Those ants are simply not qualified to even know our parents’ names, much less their current whereabouts. Both of our parents are powerful cultivators who could kill the likes of them with just a sneeze, and they dare claim they knew people of such status? That is simply ridiculous."

Amelia lowered her head and asked in a low voice, "Then is there no way to find them? Amelia also wants to go to the shrine of the Asura God in the New Year with mommy and daddy like other children of the village."

Leon’s heart shattered when he heard this. Suppressing his true feelings, he forced a smile and said, "Well, I do have a way."

Amelia’s eyes lit up as she looked at Leon hopefully.

Leon rubbed her little head and said, "If you become a powerful cultivator one day, then I will give you all the clues I have about their whereabouts. You can go there and look for them yourself."

Amelia thought seriously about it and nodded.

....................

Rose Valley Town, army division building.

Inside Squad Leader Ans Frostwell’s office, the head soldier of Stone Fort Village stood before a fatty middle aged man who looked nothing less than a fat pig. Even though the man was not pleasing to the eye, the head soldier didn’t dare show any disrespect as he kept his head bowed. 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

The fat man, Ans Frostwell, who was the current squad leader of Rose Valley Town, calmly looked at the man before him and asked, "I think you were supposed to deliver a girl to me by today, right?"

The head soldier took out a memory stone from his storage ring and placed it on the table respectfully. "Squad Leader Ans, I have selected the best girl from Stone Fort Village for you, but I was not able to bring her to you due to the interference of the villagers."

The squad leader flicked his finger and a strand of his qi entered the memory stone. The next second, like a hologram, an image of Amelia appeared above the memory stone.

Ans Frostwell squinted his eyes and nodded in satisfaction before he tossed a bag to the head soldier. "I will be going on a trip to the 31st stronghold tonight to see my father, and I will be back in a week’s time. By then, I don’t care how you do this, but I want her in front of me. Even if you have to use the army’s power, I want her."

The head soldier opened the bag and his eyes almost popped out when he saw the shining white pills inside.

"Qi gathering pills at the iron grade. There are 150 inside. Just eat one before you cultivate, and your cultivation speed will be ten times for the next 24 hours," Ans Frostwell said with a shrewd smile.

"Thank you, Squad Leader. I will definitely fulfill your order, please rest assured," the head soldier hurriedly expressed his gratitude and left the office.

One qi gathering pill which could hold its effects for 24 hours was worth at least a hundred iron grade coins in the market, so the head soldier was naturally excited to get more than 150 of them in exchange for a worthless little girl’s life.

After all, if he could get help from some top soldiers under Ans Frostwell, then dealing with that arrogant village chief was a piece of cake, and he was sure he would be able to gain much without even lifting his finger.

"Just you wait, bastard. I will show you what will happen to someone who messes with me," the head soldier gritted his teeth as he remembered how he was humiliated in front of the whole village by that old man.

Back at Leon’s home.

John had selected a five star cultivation manual called the Mountain Lifter, which was a technique used to strengthen the body, and a five star hammer technique called Earth Dragon Hammer Art. John was well aware of his mediocre talent and chose the one he thought would be the best for him, without being greedy for the higher tier ones.

After John left, Leon took little Amy and Coco to the outskirts of the forest to spend some time together with them.

Stopping at the side of a mountain stream, Leon handed a wooden sword he had carved out from a dry branch to little Amy.

"Today, I will teach you some sword moves. Look, is the weight of the wooden sword fine for you?" Leon asked.

Amelia held the wooden sword with both her hands and nodded with excitement. "I am ready, brother. Teach me your best sword move. Uncle John told me that your sword qi can even transform into a bird. I also want to study that."