I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 108: Making the fake look real, turning stone into gold

Linhe has well-developed water transportation, and merchants come and go like ants, so the profession of boatman is naturally indispensable.

The merchant in front of Xu Qing fell into the water and died while traveling on a boat with a boatman.

But the other party did not fall into the water accidentally.

Xu Qing was not interested in how merchants made their fortunes, how they hoarded goods, or how they falsified goods for profit. He just wanted to end this boring revolving door quickly and get the other party's reward.

Turning the pages of the Sutra of Saving People, the scenes of the merchant's life seemed to have been fast-forwarded, and in the blink of an eye, it arrived at three days ago.

The merchant was named Zheng Deli, a mercenary who made his fortune by cheating and deceiving people.

He has only one principle when doing business with others, and that is "packaging".

As the saying goes, clothes make the man, and gold ornaments make the Buddha.

If you want to do business with others and buy their goods on credit, you have to pretend to be rich!

Look, today Zheng Deli put on the brocade clothes that he had treasured for a long time but never dared to wear, and dressed himself up like a wealthy businessman.

Only in this way could he use his eloquence to get more money on credit when he went to the port to resell the fish.

In other words, if you dress up as a wind-beaten, ragged fisherman, who would pick you up from their basket?

In order to make it look more genuine, Zheng Deli picked up a heavy bag of pebbles from the riverbank before boarding the boat, put them in his purse as if they were silver, and covered the pebbles with copper coins.

When the ferryman saw the brocade clothes, his eyes suddenly lit up.

This is meeting a rich man!

It was Zheng Deli's destiny to have such a disaster. The boatman he met was not an ordinary boatman, but a pirate who used the name of ferrying to look for lone passers-by and commit murder and robbery!

There was more than one boatman on the boat, there was also an assistant named Yuan Hu.

When Yuan Hu saw Zheng Deli traveling alone, he couldn't help but feel suspicious.

Logically, when wealthy merchants travel far to make purchases, they will definitely bring servants with them to prevent any unexpected events.

Although Zheng Xingshang looks like a rich man, why doesn't he bring a bodyguard with him when he travels?
Yuan Hu usually does some very risky business, and this kind of work tests one's eyesight the most!
If someone is holding a sword or a stick, no strong person can touch him, and no one with more than two followers can touch him either, because it is easy to cause an accident.

Apart from these, the rest are mostly solo travelers who travel far away alone.

However, even if the passenger is alone on board, you still have to be wary of whether he has any other skills.

Otherwise, if you happen to meet an unlucky star, you might not be able to eat people, but be treated as a snack instead.

Faced with this situation, Yuan Hu also has a way to distinguish.

At this time, the boatman was rowing at the bow, while Yuan Hu was in the cabin chatting with Zheng Deli.

At a certain moment, Yuan Hu, who was holding a wine cup, suddenly had a trembling hand, and the cup rolled to the ground with a clanging sound.

It was at this moment that the ship, which had been moving steadily, suddenly began to shake violently. Zheng Deli didn't know what was going on, and he was staggering in the cabin. He could only shout to ask for directions.

"Captain! Why is the boat so bumpy?"

When Yuan Hu saw the other person's miserable appearance, he knew that this rich businessman was just an ordinary person who had never practiced any martial arts.

"Don't be afraid, sir. The ship will be stable soon."

As he spoke, Yuan Hu stomped his feet, and the whole boat really calmed down.

Zheng Deli stood firmly with a look of surprise on his face.

"This boat is so obedient! You stamp your foot and it really stops rocking!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the boatman's laughter came from outside the cabin.

"The bamboo pole is in my hand, but whether the boat is rocking or not is up to your grandfather to decide."

Zheng Deli suddenly realized that the two men were playing a trick on him. Yuan Hu stomped his feet to send a message to the boatman. When the boatman heard the noise, he stopped rowing the boat deliberately.

Yuan Hu sneered and took out the long rope from his waist. The boatman outside the cabin also rushed in and blocked Zheng Deli inside the boat.

"What do you want to do?"

"What are you talking about? Haven't you heard the saying, 'Don't show off your wealth, don't show off your wealth'?"

Yuan Hu smiled and said, "If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for getting on our boat."

"What a misunderstanding! What a misunderstanding! I don't have any money. This bag is filled with copper coins and stones. The brocade clothes I'm wearing are also second-hand goods bought from an apparel store. They are old clothes sold by others. I am really not a rich man."

"Do you think I'm blind? Who are you trying to fool? Who the hell would have nothing better to do than carry a bunch of stones on their back?"

Yuan Hu turned a deaf ear to it. This might be useful to fool others, but if he wanted to fool him, he would have to practice for a few more years.

Without saying a word, the two men put a rope around Zheng Deli, who was telling the truth, and strangled him to death on the spot.

But the revolving lantern does not end here.

Xu Qing understood that there was only one possible reason for this situation, that is, Zheng Deli, who was strangled by the rope, was not completely dead, but fainted.

In the cabin, Yuan Hu bent down to pick up the money bag and weighed it in his hand.

"Hey, this time we've really made a fortune! This amount must be at least three or four hundred taels of silver!"

The boatman also looked delighted, and the two men could not wait to open the purse. However, after peeling off the layer of copper coins covering it, they did not find the expected silver, but only some river stones and gravel.

"It's really a fucking stone!"

Yuan Hu poured out all the stones and then burst into a loud curse. The boatman beside him tried to comfort him: "Although the silver is fake, there are still a lot of copper coins and a few taels of silver. Our work is not in vain."

"I think the clothes he's wearing are pretty good. If I take them off and sell them to a peddler in the countryside, I think I can get a couple of taels of silver."

When Yuan Hu heard the boatman's comfort, the depressed mood in his heart was slightly relieved.

The two men stripped Zheng Deli of his clothes and hat, leaving only his inner trousers.

Zheng Deli had woken up at this time, but he didn't dare to say a word.

"What should we do with this corpse?" asked the boatman.

"What else can we do? Same old rules, throw it into the river!" Yuan Hu kicked the 'corpse' in annoyance.

Zheng Deli was stunned and said nothing.

The boatman frowned and said, "This time is different from before. Many people saw us when we brought him aboard. If someone found his body, I'm afraid we wouldn't be able to explain ourselves."

Yuan Hu scoffed and said, "What's the big deal? Once the boat docks, you and I will go and inform the body recovery team in advance. We'll say that this person got drunk and accidentally fell into the rapids."

"Don't forget, I've always been a passenger on the boat, and you're the boatman. With my testimony, everything will be perfectly safe."

A smile appeared on the boatman's dark face. "Brother Yuan is really thoughtful."

The two men did what they said, dragged Zheng Deli up and threw him into the river.

Zheng Deli did not dare to struggle. He just held his breath and let his body sink and float. When he could no longer hold his breath, he flapped his wings and swam towards the surface of the water.

"Huff, huff—"

Zheng Deli surfaced and gasped for breath. When he regained his breath, he looked up and saw the river was surging. The boat that had ferried him was nowhere to be seen.

He was like a duckweed, floating up and down in the turbulent river.

Zheng Deli felt desperate, but at this moment, a piece of driftwood suddenly floated towards him from a distance.

He was delighted and, seizing the opportunity, he hugged the driftwood in front of him.

"Those who survive a great disaster will surely have good fortune in the future. It's not that easy to kill you, Master Zheng!"

Zheng Deli climbed onto the driftwood, and as if to repay a debt of gratitude, the wood carried him along the way, avoiding many reefs and undercurrents, and finally sailed into a reed marsh.
When Xu Qing saw this, he could already guess what Zheng Deli would experience next.

Sure enough, just as Zheng Deli was still rejoicing, a three-year-old child's head suddenly emerged from the water surface in front of the wood!

The child was holding a piece of water grass in his hand, and the other end of the water grass was tied to the driftwood under Zheng Deli.

If you survive a catastrophe, you must have a finishing blow.

Before Zheng Deli had time to enjoy the difficulty of living, the water plants entangled his neck again.

With the human body as bait and the corpse lying upside down, Zheng Deli is really dead this time!

What is fate? It is the misfortunes and blessings that mortals cannot escape no matter how hard they struggle. This is called fate.

Afterwards, the Sutra of Deliverance gave out a reward, a mysterious magic that could make the fake look real and turn stone into gold.

Xu Qing sat cross-legged in the cabin, and after meditating for a while, he finally had an epiphany.

"Borrowing the soil produces gold, and everything turns into gold."

Picking up a few smooth stones from the reed marsh, Xu Qing chanted a spell, then put two fingers together and touched the stones. The stones in his palm suddenly sparkled, and in the blink of an eye they really turned into a pile of gold!
Xu Qing was amazed when he saw this.

However, others could not tell whether the gold was real or fake, but he knew it very well.

The gold in front of you seems to be real gold and silver, but in fact it is just an illusion evolved by the way of transformation. Once the Taoist time is over, this pile of gold will turn into stone again.

"Making the fake look real, turning stone into gold. If it weren't for the four-character qualifier above, maybe it really could turn stone into gold."

Xu Qing did not doubt whether there was a magic method to turn stone into gold in the world, because the five elements are mutually generated and restrained, and circulate over and over again. It would be strange if there was no method to follow or go against the flow.

Maybe one day he will really be able to comprehend the magic of turning stone into gold.

However, this kind of magic doesn't seem to have much meaning to him.

"It would be great if there was a spell that could transform a stone into a corpse."

Five speedboats quietly arrived on the outskirts of the reed marsh.

Lupin was experienced in rowing a boat. Although he was the last person to return, he came from behind and arrived at the reed marsh before everyone else.

Looking at the several speedboats around him, Lupin frowned and said, "How come there are only five of us left in a fleet of twelve? Could it be that the others have already gone deep into the reeds?"

A corpse retriever said nervously, "No one has ever entered the reeds. This patch of reeds is very spooky. A friend once tried to retrieve a body upside down in it, but he never came back."

"What are you talking about? No one has entered the reed marsh. Could it be that other people will disappear out of thin air?"

Lupin was just speaking when the nervous corpse retriever suddenly pointed at the reeds and said, "Someone! There's someone in there!"

"."

Lupin was startled by the sudden shout. He turned around and saw a black-sailed boat coming out of the reed marsh.

The man rowing the boat at the bow looked unfamiliar, probably the young man who had just joined the body recovery team today.

The young man came closer in his black-sailed boat, smiling, and said, "Guys, we're busy. I just fished out a body. It looks like the person the boatman mentioned who fell into the water."

Xu Qing did not choose to put Zheng Deli's body into the box garden. The body was murdered and there were signs of struggle on the body. If it could be sent to the patrol office and let Wang Lingyuan perform an autopsy, perhaps the river bandits who roamed on both sides of the river and took human lives could be brought to justice.

It is easy to save the dead but difficult to save the living. Xu Qing has always been happy to do things like this that can be done easily.

In this way, Senior Brother Wang can gain merit in performing autopsies, and the hard-working people living on both sides of the river can be relieved of a threat.
And he was equivalent to doing a good deed again.

The world is broken, and zombies are patching it up.
However, it seemed like someone wanted to stop him from sewing.

"You're new here, and I'm afraid you don't understand the rules of corpse retrievers. Everything on the body must be handed over intact to the deceased's family. You stripped the person's clothes and took all the money. Do you think this is appropriate?"

Xu Qing looked at the boats that were closing in on him, blocking his path, and said with amusement, "This body looked just like this when I fished it out. It's as if I didn't take anything from it."

Xu Qing pointed at Zheng Deli, who lay dead in the black-sailed boat, and continued, "Everyone can see that there's no shelter in my black-sailed boat. Are there any other clothes on board?"

Lupin narrowed his eyes and said, "You hid the looted property in the reeds. Who would know?"

"Boy, I heard that this merchant has a lot of silver for purchasing goods. It's heavy enough to fill a bag. If you know anything, take us to where you hide the things."

"If I don't understand"

Lupin drew the short knife from his waist for self-defense, his eyes flashing with ferocity.

Xu Qing smiled.

"There's more than just the merchant's body in my black-sailed boat. You ignored the other bodies and only asked about the merchant's body."

"What? A corpse without money on it isn't considered a corpse? Is this how you corpse retrievers usually treat corpses?"

Xu Qing no longer has any good feelings towards these unprofessional corpse retrievers.

Seeing Xu Qing challenge him, Lupin was completely annoyed.

"It's not your turn to tell me what to do. If you want to be a troublemaker, you have to be capable!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lupin winked at the corpse retriever next to him.

The other party immediately understood.

The corpse retriever coughed lightly and said, "In this business, whoever has the ability has the final say. Since you are not convinced, then have a match with Boss Lu. If you win, no one will ask about the corpses you retrieve in the future. But if you lose..."

"All the valuables on these bodies must be handed over to Boss Lu for disposal. If you find any bodies in the future, you must first have Boss Lu examine them. Whatever Boss Lu gives you in the end, that's yours."

Xu Qing raised his eyebrows and asked with interest, "Comparison of what?"

Lupin played with the dagger in his hand and said with a forced smile, "The old three: underwater fighting, underwater breath holding, and boat speed. Pick any one of them. As long as you can beat me in any one of them, I will call you my master from now on, and I will never touch the corpse you fish out."

"."

Seeing Xu Qing remained silent, Lupin said impatiently, "Have you chosen? If you don't dare to compete, then take us to where you hide your goods!"

Xu Qing tutted his words and said indifferently, "You choose what to compete in. But let's make a deal, if I win, I have to take a look at any corpse you find from now on. How about that?"

"Alright!" Lupin sneered and said, "I won't bully you. Let's compete in holding our breath. Whoever can hold their breath the longest in the water will be the one with the ability!"

"."

Xu Qing looked at Lupin with a strange expression, thinking that the road you are walking on is narrowing.

Everyone formed a circle around the boat, and Lupin jumped into the water first.

Seeing that the other party really wanted to compete in holding his breath, Xu Qing was happy and jumped down as well.

(End of this chapter)