A New journey begins with a Mountain Thief.

After killing Lin Nu in Xiaoyun County, Zhang San avenged himself and ended the nightmare he had been haunted by for 20 years seeking revenge for Xiu Wangchou.

But Zhang San's own nightmare was not over yet, he would still occasionally wake up in horror in the middle of the night.

It was said that in that year, up to a hundred thousand people starved to death in Yajun!

In short, this was an absurd story of an absurd assassin.

What was even more absurd was that the assassin later went to cultivate immortality.

...

...

For several months in a row, neither Zhang San nor Wang Xiaoer had found a new residence, or rather, a residence suitable for an assassin.

Of course, outsiders might find it strange, why is it so hard to find a residence for an assassin?

You are an assassin, not a businessman, why do you care so much about where you live? You could just build a house on some remote mountain right?

Staying hidden in the mountains every day, take on tasks when you have them, and just stay in the mountains when you don't. Wouldn't that be more in line with the word "stable"?

But Zhang San said, people who think this way really do not understand the jianghu at all, let alone the underground society.

Perhaps this might have worked in the olden days, but in today's age where the underground society is developing rapidly, all kinds of hidden weapons, poisons, and even martial arts are constantly being updated and replaced day and night.

If you stay hidden in a remote mountain every day, only occasionally taking on assassin tasks, it is true that might be very safe, but eventually you will definitely be left behind by the rapidly developing times.

Because after a few years, you will find that all the new weapons that emerge in the jianghu in the future are things you do not know how to use, and also do not know how to counter. The various poisons that appear, you cannot recognize while also not knowing how to cure their effects.

And some new masters of the era, you cannot even recognize, and if you are careless, you may be killed by them!

Therefore, for a cautious assassin like Zhang San, it was absolutely impossible for him to hide away in some deep mountains. Moreover, having seen how the primitive underground societies in foreign lands were wiped out by the powerful underground society of the Great Wu Nation, Zhang San understood very clearly.

In this world, those who fall behind will get beaten! Keeping up with the times is an essential quality for a steady assassin.

Therefore, an assassin's residence must be in a town, and it must have ample sources of intelligence, like the Knowing Hall organization, or allow Zhang San to obtain all kinds of jianghu news in Xiaoyun County through the Old Man in Yellow.

Surely no one really thinks that assassins do not need to improve?

However, is just this enough?

No, Zhang San who calls himself the most steady assassin in jianghu, has many more considerations!

For example, how is the street layout design of that town and the location of the foothold, is it convenient to escape at any time? After all, you never know when you might need to flee.

So transportation is very important and must be considered.

Also, how is the local underground society of that town, how expensive is the annual protection fee? After all, this is also part of the regular expenses, and it relates to the most important thing in life - money!

Therefore, the fee charged by the local underground society is something that must be considered.

A residence suitable for Zhang San would definitely include but not be limited to these conditions, which is why Zhang San still had not found a foothold as good as Xiaoyun County.

...

...

On this day, it was noon, but the weather was cold. After all, it had been winter for some time already.

"Young master, come play!"

"Young lady, please restrain yourself, I am a scholar."

"Oh my, this servant could tell at a glance that you are a scholar of dignity and virtue, I also enjoy reading, why don't you come in and sit, and tell me what books you have been reading recently?"

"No need, I read the Spring and Autumn Annals."

Zhang San was completely immune to the charms of the courtesans, his main purpose of coming to such pleasure quarters was actually to probe the local underground society for any recent news of the jianghu.

As for why the various local underground societies like to sell information in the pleasure quarters, to be honest, even Zhang San had been puzzled by this for many years.

However, noticing Wang Xiaoer's curious look, Zhang San hurriedly grabbed Wang Xiaoer by the ear and ran off in a flash.

"Master! Don't pull, it hurts!"

Leaving the fifth town, Zhang San pulled the cart along, bringing Wang Xiaoer with him as he continued north.

Although he was sitting in the cart, seeing his master's gloomy expression all day after coming out of the pleasure quarters, Wang Xiaoer finally spoke up, "Master, don't be upset, looking at it positively, this shows that you are already one of the top masters of jianghu."

Zhang San's gloomy expression did not improve.

However, his bad mood was not because after traveling through a large county over the past few months, looking through five towns and countless villages, he still had not found a suitable foothold. Rather, it was because he had heard bad news in the town they were in today.

Wang Xiaoer was still trying hard to comfort him, "Master, don't be sad, when I grow up and master martial arts, I will serve you filially."

Suddenly Zhang San stopped in his tracks, and then... he cried.

Yes, Zhang San cried.

Not because Wang Xiaoer's words moved him, but because Zhang San was now facing two extremely serious problems that strongly threatened his survival, causing him great anxiety that led to tears.

The first problem - he had offended too many people!

Not only too many, but those people were truly too vicious!

Just in the town earlier, through the information bought from the underground society, Zhang San finally realized the situation he was facing.

Ranked first assassin on the Earth List, Hei Shanhu.

Ranked second assassin on the Earth List, Hei Shanke.

Do these two names seem very similar?

That's right, not long after the news of Hei Shanke's death spread, the furious Hei Shanhu issued a bounty of 50,000 silver taels in the underground society, solely to find out the real killer of his younger brother.

As the first ranked assassin on the Earth List, sworn brother of the head of the Dark Building, and having allegedly cultivated his martial arts to the Heaven level a few months ago, the first ranked assassin Hei Shanhu had a death feud with Zhang San.

Having a death feud with Hei Shanhu, and having killed their top expert Hei Shanke, was basically the same as thoroughly offending the second largest underground society of the Great Wu Nation, the 'Dark Building'.

Through this, Zhang San finally realized the even bigger problems he was facing.

Although Song Tianxing still did not know that the Grey Lion had a son called Wang Xiaoer, given the way people in the underground society operate, they would definitely aim to kill them all if they knew. Moreover, Song Tianxing was originally from the first underground society, the 'Black Heaven Gate', so there was no question about how he would act.

Plus, with the intelligence capabilities of the Black Heaven Gate as the first underground society, Zhang San was really worried.

Also, as time passed and Wang Xiaoer grew up, along with Wang Xiaoer's intelligence, and the fact that many people in jianghu knew it was Song Tianxing who killed the Grey Lion.

Zhang San thought briefly and realized the matter was simple.

This had nothing to do with whether Zhang San was willing to conceal the truth of Wang Xiaoer's father's death from him, and also nothing to do with whether Song Tianxing would eventually find out the Grey Lion had a son.

Once Wang Xiaoer grew up, or if Song Tianxing found out about Wang Xiaoer's existence prematurely.

The conflict between Song Tianxing and Wang Xiaoer was just a matter of time.

But behind Song Tianxing stood the entire Black Heaven Gate!

Alright.

He was bound to offend the first underground society sooner or later, and had already offended the second one.

Zhang San had just one word to say:

Damn!

The second problem - broke.

The various medicinal wines used to heal Xiu Wangchou, especially Huozhi Powder.

The large amount of Mewang Powder used to confuse the nine Earth level masters and drug them continuously for three days.

The knee injury from being struck by Hei Shanke's blade aura, breaking his iron cloth shirt, although he had recovered, the medicinal costs on the journey were not cheap.

And most critically, the two extreme poisons 'Black Flower' and 'Corpse Rot' that were used to kill the peak Earth level expert Hei Shanke. Although these two poisons were self-refined, just the material costs were bleeding Zhang San's heart!

Do not think that those petty villains in wuxia stories can casually take out all kinds of poisons and use them to harm righteous heroes, and that this is true and happens all the time in reality.

After all, no one truly thinks that poisons, especially poisons that can deal with Earth level experts, can be bought without money right?

So those things in wuxia stories are just stories. The reality is, did you think poisoning was just poisoning?

No, of course not!

In this commodity era, poisoning must also consider cost!

How many ordinary underground societies can casually take out so many poisons and drugs like Zhang San did?

So although he was not completely broke, the five hundred taels Zhang San found from Wang Hu's house, and the eight hundred taels his apprenticeship gift from Wang Xiaoer's mother, were all used up.

And for Old Man Huang's side, Zhang San didn't really have the heart to continue asking the old man to keep sending him money every month, just receiving the letter was enough.

That is to say, currently the master and apprentice were basically in a situation where a lot of money had been spent, but there was not a penny of income. The food and drink for the past two months had been completely self-reliant, and some of the money they had left had to be kept for various expenses to settle their next stop.

If this continued, they would really have to eat tree bark!

Could Zhang San not cry about the anxiety brought by these two problems!?

...

...

Gurgle... Gurgle...

On a remote mountain path, the surroundings were desolate. This was obviously a small path between mountain ridges.

A cart slowly moved forward. Wang Xiaoer's stomach kept playing music with "gurgle" sounds.

Zhang San, who was pulling the cart, was annoyed to hear this and scolded: "Can't your stomach rest for a while?"

Wang Xiaoer said aggrievedly: "Master, we eat wild vegetables every day. You have to consider that I'm still growing up."

"No money!" Zhang San directly rejected it.

Wang Xiaoer explained very rationally to Zhang San: "Master, you have to know that if I don't grow up well, how can I practice martial arts well? If I don't practice martial arts well, how can I make money in the future to support you?"

Zhang San was so annoyed by Wang Xiaoer that he said, "In the middle of nowhere, there definitely won't be any big fish or meat. I think we're more likely to encounter mountain bandits."

Wang Xiaoer also understood this reason. He looked around the mountain ridge and said bitterly: "It would be great if we could meet mountain bandits."

This remark was strange.

Even Zhang San couldn't help asking: "Why would you think that?"

Wang Xiaoer said matter-of-factly: "Master, don't you understand this? If there are mountain bandits, there must be mountain strongholds, after all, mountain bandits also need a place to live, and can a mountain stronghold not have meat? I learned this from books."

Zhang San thought, damn, although the logic was a bit weird for the purpose of eating meat, it really made some damn sense.

Just as he was speaking, more than twenty strong men with simple clothes but sinister looks, sturdy bodies and weapons suddenly rushed out from the mountain path ahead.

The one in the lead occupied the road and shouted: "This is my mountain, this is my tree. If you want to get past, leave road toll!"