Alas......
Old Wang heaved a sigh, then lamented: "Oh, this world! Us common folk can't do much about it!"
Old Wang helped the beggar drink some more water. The beggar's distant gaze seemed to regain some clarity.
The beggar asked: "You...you are?"
Kindhearted Old Wang felt sorry for this young man and said: "I'm the fisherman from this village. Young man, you're from the north, right?"
The beggar didn't reply, but at the word "north", tears flowed from his eyes again.
Old Wang said: "We're all unfortunate souls. Listen, young one, you stay here and I'll go get you something to eat."
The beggar revealed gratitude that seemed to have been absent from him for a long time. He nodded repeatedly and said: "Thank you, thank you...kind elder, I, I...have no money."
The beggar was emotional, and his timid voice revealed his yearning for "food" and his fear of the harsh reality of poverty.
Old Wang of course believed him. He helped the beggar lie down, then went to fetch food.
......
......
Zhang San's peerless acting skills were fully revealed in this scene.
That's right. If someone thought this was the pinnacle of Zhang San's acting, then they would be wrong.
Incidentally, for the sake of his professional career, Zhang San was highly skilled in all kinds of abilities apart from martial arts and lightness skills - abilities like controlling his vocal chords, carpentry, masonry, and so on...
But out of all those skills that seemed completely unrelated to his work as a killer, Zhang San was most confident in his acting.
Zhang San claimed to be the most steady killer in Dawu Country (and the number one actor in Dawu Country).
After Old Wang brought over some steamed buns, Zhang San fully demonstrated what it was like to be someone who hadn't eaten for three days.
That biting, that swallowing.
Who would dare to say he wasn't starving?
When Old Wang asked if he wanted more...
That rejection, with yearning in the refusal, hope in the yearning, and subservience again in the hope of not asking for too much more.
If he wasn't a beggar, who was?
The two chatted for a while. Old Wang asked: “What’s your name?”
Zhang San replied: “Li San.”
“Where are you from in the north?”
“Lang Prefecture, Black Wolf County.”
“That’s a chaotic place!”
Zhang San nodded. Inwardly he thought, no kidding, if it wasn’t chaotic I wouldn’t have brought it up.
“What about your family?”
“All dead.”
If a long-starved person suddenly eats too much, it can easily cause stomach pain.
Zhang San, with his theoretical knowledge and practical experience, did not neglect these details. After eating, he writhed in pain on the ground for a while. Old Wang helped bring him back to his lodgings.
......
......
That night, Zhang San was temporarily taken in by Old Wang and given a mat on the floor to sleep on.
The sleeping Zhang San murmured: “Mother, your child misses you......”
Old Wang had just finished up and was about to go to bed himself when he heard those words. Tears rolled down his face and he sighed again. They were all suffering souls.
In the dead of night, Zhang San slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze gradually sharpened!
As a steady killer, observing the target and determining their true strength from those observations was extremely important. After all, in a country of martial arts practitioners like Dawu, how could you know if the other person wasn’t some expert hiding out in rural areas? These days even immortals could descend into the mortal realm, play dead, then beat the gang leader to death. With circumstances like that, how could anyone guarantee that the Old Wang from the neighboring village wasn’t the previous generation's White Sect leader who had retreated into the fishing village to live in seclusion because the White Sect had declined?
So Zhang San’s sharp gaze gradually faded away. He would have to wait for the perfect opportunity. Although in the past Zhang San would have definitely chosen to watch from afar using his self-invented “telescope”, this time was different.
His target was a “fisherman”, in short, a fisher.
This had been Zhang San’s greatest fear for the past twenty years. To overcome that fear and surpass himself, becoming a capable killer once more, this was a necessary step.
To overcome fear, you must first embrace fear!
Therefore, Zhang San, possessing intermediate-stage Earth rank martial arts, Heaven rank lightness skill, and unparalleled acting, came to Old Wang’s home.
So now...
What reason should he use to stay by his side and observe him tomorrow?
Lying on the straw mat, biting his thumb, Zhang San pondered this question.
......
......
How should a killer observe in order to determine a target's true strength?
Zhang San had asked that very question to his master when he was young.
His master punched him in the head, then scolded him for always messing around instead of properly practicing his martial arts. He said if you practiced your martial arts to the Heaven rank, would you still need to worry about the other person’s strength? Just kill them with one palm strike. How could the other person be an immortal?
At the time Zhang San really did want to say that yes, the other person could indeed be an immortal. But his master’s iron fists truly hurt, so Zhang San didn’t ask further and chose to figure it out himself instead.
Of course, after 20 years as a killer, Zhang San knew that he had to be realistic. The chances of running into an immortal were too low. But for the sake of a steady career, observing a target’s abilities was still essential.
So the money-grubbing Zhang San, even though his master ate a lot, still managed to pinch quite a bit of money from his master’s meals every year. Along with his income from 20 years as a killer, Zhang San should have had substantial savings. Yet why was the present Zhang San still so poor?
The reason was simple. Zhang San had used over half his money to buy secret manuals.
But he didn’t buy the manuals to cultivate from them, rather just to read them.
Because most martial arts in the world boiled down to inner energy combined with practicing fist or weapon techniques over many years, while lightness skills also utilized inner energy plus legwork and steps. But it was vital to realize that in the path of martial arts, specialization was paramount.
For instance, a master who focused on fist techniques, in order to advance from the Earth rank to the Heaven rank, would certainly continue honing his own fist style instead of picking up a sword technique.
Masters like that who specialized deeply in a certain martial arts skill for decades and achieved some success - as long as your foundational martial arts knowledge was solid enough, just by observing them you could infer a high chance of estimating their strength.
For example, someone who cultivated Iron Palm skill didn’t seem anything special if they only practiced for ten years. But if it was over twenty years, and they reached at least the Earth rank, then the coarseness of their palms would absolutely exceed that of an average farmer, and according to Zhang San’s research on the Iron Palm manual, by the Earth rank one’s skin would be so tough that even an ordinary person slashing with a knife would have great difficulty drawing blood, without even using inner energy.
As another example, someone with average fist and kick skills but extraordinary inner power, such masters had very distinct breathing. No matter how heavy the labor, their breath would maintain the same volume, and even after an intense fight they would prioritize regulating their breathing and calming their inner energy over tending to wounds, except for fatal wounds of course.
Many masters thought themselves safely hidden amongst common folk in rural areas or concealed within mundane city life, believing their strength cleverly obscured, even from some other masters.
They might think they had disguised themselves well, but in truth they had just not met cautious people like Zhang San.
He had wasted twenty years, not even ranking first on the killer leaderboard, just for the sake of researching the various sects’ martial arts, all in order to train himself to have discerning eyes!
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
