Becoming an immortal from a canal worker

The gates of the mortuary slammed shut behind them.

Without wasting words, Chen Ping directly ordered the two still trembling canal workers to tidy up the morgue, arrange the few fake coffins, and take stock of the unclaimed corpses that were already there.

The two canal workers were eager to get away from the gate, so they nodded repeatedly and shrank into the musty-smelling inner room.

"Walk."

Chen Ping glanced at Gouwa and said succinctly.

Gouwa took a deep breath, nodded, and led Chen Ping out through the dilapidated back door of the mortuary.

The alleyways of Xiahe County are intricate and complex, resembling a giant spider web.

Chen Ping followed behind Gouwa, deliberately avoiding several noisy main streets.

He deliberately made his short jacket even dirtier, and walking in the shadows, he looked like a down-on-his-luck beggar you could see anywhere.

Fifteen minutes later.

The two stopped deep in a long-abandoned alley.

This is a slum in Xiahe County. Most of the houses have collapsed, and waist-high weeds grow among the ruins.

That's my old family home.

Gouwa pointed to a dilapidated mud-brick house not far away, and said in a low voice, "After my father died, this place was abandoned. But I hid things in a secret compartment under the stove, with half a millstone on top, so most people wouldn't find it."

Chen Ping didn't speak, but simply narrowed his eyes slightly.

Something's not right.

There are breathing sounds.

And there was more than one; their breathing was heavy and rapid, accompanied by the clanging sounds of them rummaging through things.

"There's someone there."

Chen Ping grabbed Gouwa, who was about to rush inside, and pressed him into the shadows in the corner: "Stay put."

Gouwa was startled and was about to speak when Chen Ping's cold gaze forced him back down.

Chen Ping pulled out a dagger from his pocket, gripped it in the back of his hand, and, like a silent raccoon, quietly approached the half-open, dilapidated wooden door, close to the wall.

Unrestrained cursing and swearing came from inside the house.

"Damn it, what a slum! We can't even find a single copper coin!"

"Didn't Lai Tou Zhang say that this kid's brother died in the army? Logically, he should send some compensation back home."

"What bad luck! Take these few tattered clothes with you. They're a bit worn out, but after washing them, you can sell them to the dockworkers for a couple of drinks."

Chen Ping peered through the crack in the door.

The room was a complete mess.

Three men dressed in shabby short-sleeved shirts were ransacking the place, even overturning the bed.

Judging from their attire, with red ribbons tied around their waists, they are the lowest-ranking members of the White Gang.

These men were slouching and unsteady on their feet, clearly lacking any real martial arts skills; they were just thugs who bullied people with sheer ruthlessness.

Chen Ping had a better understanding of the situation.

Since they're not trained martial arts experts, that makes things easier.

"Squeak—"

Chen Ping made no attempt to conceal himself and simply pushed the door open and entered.

The sudden sound of the door opening startled the three gangsters inside.

They turned around abruptly and saw that the person standing at the door was just a canal worker with a face covered in coal dust and a seemingly thin build. Their tense nerves immediately relaxed.

"Oh ho? Where did this blind fool come from?"

The bald, burly man who seemed to be the leader threw down his tattered clothes, grinned maliciously, and drew a short knife from his waist: "Want a piece of the pie? Why don't you take a good look at yourself in the mirror..."

Before he finished speaking, Chen Ping made a move.

He was like a spring compressed to its limit, which suddenly burst open.

Before the bald, burly man could even open his mouth to mock him, Chen Ping had already taken five steps and crashed directly into his arms.

"Bang!"

Chen Ping's left shoulder slammed into the bald man's chest.

With a muffled thud, the bald, burly man felt as if he had been struck by a wild bull. His chest ached terribly, he couldn't catch his breath, and he fell backward.

At the same time, a flash of cold light appeared.

Chen Ping's right hand wielded a dagger like a viper's tongue, slicing precisely across the bald man's throat.

"Pfft."

Blood splattered.

The bald, burly man clutched his neck, unable to even scream, only making gurgling, bubbling sounds before collapsing limply to the ground.

The remaining two thugs were completely dumbfounded.

They were also people who had killed in the streets, but they had never seen anyone kill so decisively and efficiently.

"This is a tricky idea! Let's all work together!"

One of the shorter men, who reacted a little faster, roared and swung his axe at the enemy.

The movements are too slow.

Chen Ping stepped to the side, avoiding the axe blade, and his left hand reached out like an iron clamp, grabbing the short man's wrist and twisting it forcefully.

"Snap!"

The sound of the wrist bone shattering was crisp and piercing.

The short man screamed, and the axe in his hand fell to the ground.

Chen Ping didn't even glance at him. He kicked him in the knee, sending him sprawling to his knees. Then, with a backhand slash, he plunged the dagger deep into the man's back.

Two kills.

Only one tall, thin man remained inside.

He was terrified when he saw his two companions fall into a pool of blood in the blink of an eye. His knife trembled in his hand, and he turned to run towards the window.

"Can you escape?"

Chen Ping snorted coldly, and the dagger flew out of his hand.

"Knock!"

The dagger pierced the tall, thin man's thigh with pinpoint accuracy.

"ah!!"

The tall, thin man screamed and fell to the ground. Before he could get up, Chen Ping strode forward, stepped on his back, pulled out a dagger, and casually stabbed him again.

The room fell silent once more.

Only the strong smell of blood filled the air.

From entering to leaving, it was only a short ten breaths.

Chen Ping flicked the blood off his dagger and turned to look at Gouwa, who was staring blankly outside the door: "Come in and get your things."

Gouwa walked into the house, his face pale and his legs weak.

He looked at the three corpses on the ground, his stomach churning, but he forced himself not to vomit and stumbled to the already collapsed stove.

He laboriously moved aside half of the broken millstone, rummaged around underneath for a while, and pulled out a small wooden box wrapped in layers of oilcloth.

Open the wooden box.

Inside lay a yellowed, thread-bound booklet with three crookedly written characters on the cover: "Beng Shi Jin" (崩石劲).

Beneath the booklet were five pieces of silver and a yellowed land deed.

"They're all here! They're all here!"

Gouwa was so excited his voice was trembling. He held the box in both hands, and although his eyes lingered on the silver for a moment, he still obediently handed it all to Chen Ping.

"Big brother, here you go! This is what we agreed on!"

Chen Ping took the box and picked up the booklet first.

I flipped through a few pages at random. The handwriting was messy, accompanied by rudimentary diagrams of the human body's meridians, and there were many annotations next to them.

"Sink your Qi to the Dantian to calm your mind, unleash your power from the soles of your feet to penetrate your bones..."

Chen Ping silently recited a couple of sentences, confirming that this was the military killing technique that Gouwa had mentioned.

He tucked the booklet into his pocket, then picked up the five pieces of silver and the land deed.

"The transaction is complete, and all of these are now mine."

Chen Ping said calmly, clutching all the silver in his hand.

Gouwa looked at the empty box, his eyes dimmed for a moment, but then he lowered his head, not daring to utter a single complaint.

My life was saved by others; I'm already grateful to be alive.

"but......"

Chen Ping then changed the subject.

He picked out two pieces from the five taels of silver, along with the tattered land deed, and casually tossed them back into Gouwa's arms.

"Take it."

Gouwa caught it in a fluster, looking on incredulously: "B-Big Brother?"

"This land deed is just a piece of paper in Xiahe County. I have no use for it. You can keep it as a memento."

As Chen Ping spoke, he stuffed the remaining three taels of silver into his pocket, his tone indifferent:

"As for the two taels of silver, consider it your errand fee from now on."

He glanced at Gouwa.

"I don't support useless people, and I don't want you to starve to death on the way. Take this money, tidy yourself up, and run errands for me in the future. If you mess it up, I'll take the money from you the same way I gave you."

Gouwa was stunned for a long time, then suddenly knelt on the ground and kowtowed twice, his eyes red.

"Thank you, Brother Xie! My life, Gouwa's life, is yours from now on!"

"Get up and get to work."

Chen Ping ignored him and turned to walk towards the three corpses.

He first bent down and picked up the bald man's short knife, the short man's axe, and the tall, thin man's rusty long knife one by one.

Nowadays, ironware is more valuable than people; these are all valuable possessions, and it would be a shame to throw them away.

He tore a piece of cloth from the three men's clothes and wrapped the three bloodstained weapons in layers, tying a tight knot.

"Here you go." Chen Ping tossed the heavy cloth bag to Gouwa. "Don't make a sound."

Then, he picked up the dagger and swung it without hesitation.

Several flashes of cold light appeared.

The faces of the three thugs instantly became bloody and mangled, unrecognizable from their original appearance.

"This...this is..." Gouwa covered his mouth in fright.

"If the White Gang finds a body but can't recognize the face, they won't know who did it, and even if they investigate, it can drag on for a few days."

Chen Ping spoke calmly, as if he were talking about something perfectly ordinary: "Come and lend a hand, throw these three lumps of meat into the dry well in the backyard."

Together, the two dragged the three unrecognizable corpses to the backyard and threw them into the long-dried, weed-overgrown well.

Chen Ping then brought over several large stones and rotten planks to seal the well opening completely.

After doing all this, he carefully inspected the house, covered the large pool of blood on the ground with soil, and then left with Gouwa.

……

By the time they returned to the mortuary, it was already dark.

The few old white lanterns at the entrance of the mortuary were already lit, swaying in the wind, exuding a gloomy, pale white light.

Before even entering the door, Chen Ping heard an extremely arrogant voice.

"Is this the new shipment?"

Chen Ping suddenly stopped in his tracks, immediately grabbed Gouwa behind him, and slipped behind a patch of weeds outside the mortuary.

He peeked through the crack in the torn window paper and frowned slightly.

Several people were standing in the main hall of the mortuary.

The leader was the same pockmarked gang leader from the docks during the day.

He was standing with one foot on a coffin, holding an account book in his hand, pointing at the two trembling canal workers.

"You can't bring these in."

Chen Ping glanced at the cloth bag that Gouwa was holding.

If they bring these blood-stained weapons in, even a fool would know what they just did if that pockmarked man just glances at them.

"Hide it."

Chen Ping pointed to a loose stone slab in the corner of the wall.

Gouwa understood and quickly stuffed the cloth bag into the hole under the stone slab, then grabbed a handful of dry grass to cover it until no trace could be seen.

After carefully checking everything and confirming that everything was correct, Chen Ping straightened his collar, wiped the dust off his face, and pretended to have just returned before leading Gouwa through the gate.

"Hey, isn't this the new gatekeeper? Where did he go?"

Seeing Chen Ping return, the pockmarked leader turned his head, his triangular eyes scanning Chen Ping up and down, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

Chen Ping lowered his head slightly, feigning humility, and clasped his hands in greeting, saying, "Replying to your question, sir, I went to buy some dry rations. I was unaware of your esteemed presence and have failed to greet you properly."

"Stop trying to use fancy words with me."

The pockmarked leader waved his hand impatiently, pointing to a circle of unclaimed corpses wrapped in straw mats around him:

"Now that this mortuary has been taken over by your Master Ma, the rules need to be made clear."

He walked over to the thin corpse of a refugee, and kicked its shriveled belly with his toe in disgust, making a dull thud that made your teeth ache.

"In Xiahe County, the living are under the jurisdiction of the yamen, but the dead are under the jurisdiction of our Bai Gang."

"The dead in this place are divided into two types."

The pockmarked leader chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth that looked particularly menacing in the dim light.

"One type is owned, which is called 'gold ingot'. If the family is willing to pay to redeem the corpse, we'll give them face."

"The other type is the poor wretch who no one claims, that's called a 'human firewood'."

At this point, he suddenly leaned closer to Chen Ping, lowered his voice, and a strong smell of alcohol and blood wafted over him:

"If this 'human corpse' has just died and the flesh is still warm, don't rush to bury it."

"Keep it."

Chen Ping's heart skipped a beat, but his face remained calm: "What do you mean, sir?"

The pockmarked leader patted Chen Ping's face, looking at him as if he were a clueless fool, and then slowly said.

"In this world, dogs need to eat meat, and the fighting dogs we keep in our gang also need to eat meat. Burying this kind of ownerless rotten meat is a waste of land, so we might as well chop it up and feed it to the dogs."

"If you encounter a woman or child with delicate skin..."

He licked his lips, a near-perverted green light gleaming in his eyes:

"After washing and cleaning them, send them to the butcher shop in the city, where they can fetch a good price."

"Remember this? Every piece of meat in this mortuary is the property of our White Gang. If even a single ounce is missing, I'll make up for it with your own flesh!"

After saying this, the pockmarked leader let out a piercing laugh and swaggered out of the mortuary with several of his men.

Chen Ping stood there until the laughter completely disappeared into the night.

He reached up and wiped the dust off his face from the man with pockmarks, his eyes gradually darkening.