As women age, establish families, and become wives, they often share a common interest: worrying about the marital status of the younger generation. This is especially evident when a group of women gathers together. Kamado Kie was no exception.
Li Mo's age, in this era, made him an unmarried older man—at least in this rural area. Kamado Kie couldn't help but subtly probe whether Li Mo had any intentions of getting married.
He politely declined with a smile.
—I'm only eighteen! Why am I already being pressured to get married? At least wait until I'm twenty-five!
After being turned down, Kamado Kie didn't press the matter further. She could sense Li Mo's clear reluctance.
With this free time, Li Mo asked about the nearest river. Then, with little Tanjiro leading the way, he headed to the river to fetch water for daily use.
In just half a day, he had naturally started helping out.
"Uncle, why did you come to the river? Are you going to take a bath? But you already took a hot bath this morning."
With Tanjiro's guidance, Li Mo arrived at the stream where the family fetched their water. The water was clear, and he could see the pebbles at the bottom. The only disappointment was that there were no fish in sight.
He tapped Tanjiro on the forehead in response, but he didn't use much force because the child's forehead was surprisingly hard, and he didn't want to hurt himself.
Later, Li Mo replied, "Tanjiro, Uncle has his own secrets."
The sensible Tanjiro knew not to pry into others' secrets. He made a gesture of zipping his lips, indicating he wouldn't ask further. Then, Tanjiro watched as the young uncle squatted by the riverbank, seemingly lost in thought.
Is this Uncle's secret?
Tanjiro quietly observed the uncle who was willing to play with them. He couldn't see what the uncle was seeing.
Now, Li Mo's eyes were fixed on a scene only he could perceive. The system's interface unfolded before him in the flowing stream.
First, he checked the experience bar on the level-up page. It was no longer at zero; it had some progress. The only things that could be considered "combat" in the past two days were the training in his dreams and the chase with the black bear.
It seemed the latter was the reason. After the training, he had checked, and the experience bar hadn't moved. So, even if he didn't land the final blow, he could still gain experience? The mechanics were a bit unusual.
Remembering last night's chase, Li Mo felt his muscles ache. The intense pursuit had lasted over ten minutes, and the physical exertion from the tense chase was too much for an ordinary student like him.
If only he had invested in his stamina earlier, yesterday would have been much easier.
Aside from that, nothing else had changed. It seemed the experience bar for **"Dissipating Force"** had moved a bit, but he wasn't sure what upgrading it would do.
"Huh?"
"Uncle, what's wrong? Did you see a fish in the river?"
"Nothing, I must have been mistaken."
The system's interface wasn't missing a corner anymore? Last time he checked, one of the corners was missing. Wait, had he been controlling it with his mind all along? Did he even need to manually operate it?
Was it repairing itself? If so, why had it brought him to this world? What did he need to do to fully restore it? Damn it, wasn't there supposed to be a tutorial? Did the system even care about user experience?
He kept all these complaints to himself. After calming down, he reassured Tanjiro and fetched water to carry back home. Along the way, he taught Tanjiro a nursery rhyme to distract the child.
"Fireflies fly, flowers sleep, only in pairs do they look sweet~~~"
The child's innocent voice echoed through the empty forest.
...
In the afternoon, Li Mo went out again with Kamado Tanjuro. This time, their goal was to chop firewood.
The Kamado family made a living by producing charcoal. They went out to chop wood, turned it into charcoal, and sold it to obtain the necessary resources for survival. Thus, chopping wood was a task every head of the Kamado household had to do.
The New Year was approaching, and Tanjuro planned to make one last charcoal sale before the year ended, stocking up on daily necessities before staying home.
Li Mo understood that this was related to his arrival.
"Chop."
Kamado Tanjuro's wood-chopping movements were methodical. He always used the least amount of force to cut down the wood. To an outsider, it made chopping wood seem easy.
But when you actually tried it, it was exhausting!
After an hour, Kamado Tanjuro didn't have a single drop of sweat on his forehead, while Li Mo was drenched. In terms of efficiency, Li Mo was far inferior to Tanjuro.
"Why don't you feel tired at all?" Li Mo asked during a break.
Kamado Tanjuro said, "It's because of breathing."
"Breathing?" Li Mo remembered that the Kamado family's **Hinokami Kagura** was related to the Sun Breathing technique. What had been passed down wasn't just the sword forms but also the breathing techniques.
"Do you want to learn?"
"That's your family's secret. It wouldn't be right," Li Mo declined.
Tanjuro didn't press further and changed the subject. "What's the story about the sun earrings? When I asked Tanjiro, he made a strange face and said he didn't know, then ran away."
Li Mo could picture Tanjiro's awkward expression when lying. The child was terrible at it; every time he lied, his face would twist unnaturally.
"I told Tanjiro to keep it a secret."
"I understand. I won't ask about the story again."
"That's not necessary. I was just worried..."
Then, Li Mo told Tanjuro the story of Yoriichi Tsugikuni. The man, as quiet as a plant, was like a tree hollow—calm and reassuring. The version he told was more detailed than the one Tanjiro had heard. The protagonist was no longer an unnamed swordsman but Yoriichi Tsugikuni.
"I see. I understand. This story is just a story; please don't take it too seriously. Also, if a demon sees this, they'll notice, right?"
Kamado Tanjuro pointed to the sun earrings on his ears.
The man, who now knew the whole story, remained as calm as still water. "As long as this story isn't spread, the Demon King likely won't find out."
Li Mo said, "Starting today, I won't tell this story to anyone else."
Tanjuro said, "This is just a temporary measure. As you said, as long as demons roam this world, people will continue to suffer. Even if the Kamado family knows nothing, there's still a chance we could be attacked by demons in the future."
On this point, Kamado Tanjuro saw things clearly.
The conversation paused at this point. Kamado Tanjuro went back to chopping wood.
He's right.
As long as Muzan Kibutsuji exists in this world, people will be hunted by demons. I think I can understand how the Demon Slayer Corps members feel.
Later, Li Mo set aside his thoughts and continued chopping wood with Tanjuro. But as before, the task was exhausting and inefficient.
During another break, Kamado Tanjuro said, "I'll teach you the breathing technique."
"Are you sure it's okay?"
"It's fine."
"Then, I'll leave it to you."
Li Mo made his decision.