Becoming an immortal from a canal worker

White Gang, Council Hall.

Xie Xiao pushed open the heavy wooden door and strode inside.

A middle-aged man sat in the main seat, with broad shoulders and a thick back. One hand rested on the armrest, his fingers tapping idly. His eyes were lazy, but his figure alone exuded a sense of oppression.

A man in a white robe was sitting on the chair to the left. His upper body was hidden in the shadows, and his face could not be seen. Only one of his hands, which was resting on his knee, was faintly visible in the light.

Xie Xiao walked into the hall and clasped his hands in a deep voice: "Master, a message from the spy says that all four of the Tendon Refining Realm cultivators have been killed by Chen Ping."

Yan Hai's fingers, which were tapping on the armrest, suddenly stopped. His eyes narrowed, revealing a fierce glint: "A mere Bone Refining Realm brat killed four Tendon Refining Realm cultivators?"

"Yes." Xie Xiao paused. "Moreover, according to reports from our undercover agents, Chen Ping has now moved next door to Li Yuan and stays indoors all day. Only the old man beside him occasionally goes out to buy groceries and strolls around the docks."

Yan Hai narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Since he's hiding in his shell, let's start with that old man. Throw him a lot of money and promises, and make him work for us!"

Xie Xiao spoke up, "Master Yan, I feel this is inappropriate."

Yan Hai frowned, his face showing displeasure: "What do you mean?"

"That old man hasn't received any training as a spy. When he passes on messages, he'll easily expose our other spies. This is not a good idea." Xie Xiao paused, then turned to the man in white, cupped his hands, and said, "I need your help, sir. Leave a loophole and kill one or two of their Red Flower Sticks. As long as we lure out either Lü Cheng or Li Yuan, we can get all our spies to act simultaneously and kill Chen Ping in one fell swoop."

Yan Hai frowned: "In this way, all our hidden agents will be exposed."

Xie Xiao sneered: "A few spies, they're dead anyway. They're just opportunists. If my White Gang gains power, they'll die anyway. They might as well die with some value."

Upon hearing this, the man in white leaned forward slightly, peeking half his face out from the shadows, and chuckled softly, "I can help with this, but you'd better think carefully. If Li Yuan and Lü Cheng go crazy and come over with those managers, I won't lift a finger. I supported your destruction of the Green Robe Society, so you already owe me that. Now you want me to set up an extra trap to kill someone? The price will have to be different."

Xie Xiao quickly replied, "I know what you want, sir. Once the Dragon Head Ceremony is over and the Green Robe Society is destroyed, our White Gang will naturally deliver the items to you intact."

The man chuckled and said, "The goods will naturally be handed over to me. This favor is an extra charge. I'll name my price: one hundred taels of gold."

Upon hearing this, Yan Hai's face twitched violently, his heart aching with pain: "Sir, one hundred taels of gold? Isn't that price a bit...?"

"make a deal!"

Xie Xiao didn't even wait for Yan Hai to finish his haggling nonsense before decisively declaring, "One hundred taels of gold! Thank you for your help, sir!"

The man leaned back in his chair and laughed heartily: "Master Yan, you're quite a remarkable person to manage things."

He paused. "Notify the Great River Gang to prepare to begin."

......

In the new courtyard, Chen Ping sat cross-legged on the ground, following the methods in the "Tendon Stretching Record," and began to stretch his first tendon.

This feeling is completely different from bone tempering.

Bone strengthening involves permeation, guiding qi and blood to penetrate the bones. You can feel the heat, the expansion, and the progress at every moment.

Tendon training, on the other hand, is like stretching, as if someone is holding both ends of the tendon and slowly pulling it outward. It's dull and suffocating; you can't feel any change. Only the pain of stretching is there, pressing down and refusing to dissipate.

Chen Ping gritted his teeth and endured the moment of solidification, then relaxed and took a deep breath.

As the sun began to set, the shadow of the soapberry tree in the courtyard grew longer. Only then did Chen Ping finish his practice, get up, fetch a bucket of water from the well, and pour it over his head, gasping in shock from the cold.

As he was wiping his face, the courtyard gate opened, and Yang Sen pushed it open and poked his head in. He glanced around with his one eye, saw Chen Ping there, and walked in. He sat down at the stone table and said, "A message has spread within the gang that they've found traces of a Red Flower Stick member from the White Gang. It seems to be Wei Xiaowu. He also went to the White family's birthday banquet. You might remember him."

Chen Ping shook his head: "I don't remember much."

Yang Sen continued, "Our informant reports that our bait has been taken. Wei Xiaowu and Lu Qi from the White Gang are preparing to intercept a batch of our grain in Blackwater Village, which is within the territory of the Great River Gang."

He grinned. "Haha, they don't know that the grain shipment was a trap. Someone in the gang was planning to take advantage of this opportunity to eliminate both of them at once."

Chen Ping threw the coarse cloth on the edge of the bucket without saying a word.

"Someone in the gang wants to take care of these two and asked if you want to come along," Yang Sen glanced at him. "Yellow Tooth said he told me to ask you. If you go, I'll go; if you don't, I won't go either. After all, I know my own limitations."

Chen Ping remained silent for a moment, then said calmly, "I need to train my tendons, I'm not going."

Yang Sen chuckled, stood up, and patted his shirt. "That's true. But the information does match up. Wei Xiaowu has taken the bait. Let those guys go."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the courtyard gate.

The footsteps faded into the distance.

Chen Ping sat by the stone table for a moment, his brows furrowing slightly.

The four assassins who had just passed through the Tendon Refining stage had only been gone a short while, and this time the White Gang members were exposed so easily, it was almost unbelievable how smoothly things went.

But since those people had already gone, he couldn't stop them, nor did he have the right to.

He lowered his head, sat cross-legged again, and found the tendon that had been stretched out earlier, continuing to solidify it.

After a while, the courtyard gate was pushed open again.

Li Yuan, dressed in a blue robe, strode in and stood by the stone table.

He glanced at Chen Ping and said, "The Great River Gang lost a Red Flower Stick. That person was very senior and I heard he was related to Lu Chengye. The person who did the killing was very clean; it should be that master of internal energy."

Chen Ping stopped and looked up: "The Great River Gang? Haven't they been in cahoots with the White Gang for a long time?"

Li Yuan sat down at the stone table and pondered for a moment: "Now it seems, not necessarily. We've been fighting the White Gang for so long, and the Great River Gang has been watching from the sidelines, never offering any support. Now that a master of internal energy is killing people on the Great River Gang's side, the White Gang probably wants to wipe us out along with the Great River Gang."

Chen Ping was silent for a moment before speaking: "Yang Sen came today saying that someone in the gang wants to go to Blackwater Village to kill Wei Xiaowu and Lu Qi."

Li Yuan's eyes darkened as she stared at Chen Ping: "Are you going?"

"I'm not going."

Li Yuan was silent for a moment, then stood up and said, "I'll go and tell the sect leader to remind those going to Blackwater Village to be careful. This has gone too smoothly."

Chen Ping stood up and called out to him, "Master."

Li Yuan turned around.

Chen Ping took the tattered fish-scale armor from inside the house and handed it over: "I'd like to have this armor repaired."

Li Yuan took it, unfolded it, and examined it. He gently stroked the scales with his fingers, his brows twitching slightly: "Exquisitely crafted."

He turned the soft armor over, looked at it in the afterglow for a moment, and sighed softly: "What a pity. The craftsmanship is good, but the material is ordinary. If the scales could be replaced with black iron or Qingyang gold, and combined with the craftsmanship, it could truly be called a treasure. Wearing it would be able to block a full-force attack from a martial artist with internal strength."

Chen Ping asked, "Mysterious Iron? Azure Sun Gold?"

Li Yuan nodded: "These are all materials for forging precious artifacts, and they are very expensive. Moreover, they are monopolized by the imperial court. If you want to get them in the martial arts world, you can only buy them from the black market, or you can find them by chance."

He paused, folded the soft armor, and handed it back to Chen Ping. "Keep the armor for now. It will at least protect your chest. I'll ask around tomorrow to see if any armor makers are willing to repair it."

Chen Ping took it, put it on close to his body, and bowed, saying, "Thank you for your trouble."

Li Yuan waved his hand and turned to leave.

The footsteps faded away outside the gate, and the courtyard fell silent once more.

Chen Ping lowered his head and continued stretching.

After an unknown amount of time, a very faint sound came from deep in my calf, like something that had been stretched to its limit and then suddenly relaxed. A warm current surged up from the sole of my foot and traveled up my leg bone.

Chen Ping stood up and stretched his ankles.

I've entered the tendon-strengthening stage.

He walked into the courtyard, took a deep breath, and performed a set of Stone-Crushing Techniques.

Different.

The same fist technique, the same blood and qi, but this punch penetrated much deeper, as if something that had been blocked before had been punctured, and the blood and qi surged out along the meridians, much more smoothly than when he was refining his bones.

It has only been stretched and solidified by three centimeters, and the amount of qi and blood that can be mobilized in a punch is still limited, but you can already feel the difference.

He stopped, stood still, and stood in the courtyard for a moment.

Just then, a whooshing sound came from the neighboring courtyard, deep and urgent, as if Li Yuan had left the house and was walking very fast.

Chen Ping didn't pay any attention, sat down cross-legged again, and continued to solidify his body.

I don't know how much time passed, but the night breeze grew cool and the courtyard became completely quiet.

boom.

The door was kicked open, and sawdust fell everywhere.

Three figures stood outside the door, their clothes billowing in the night wind, their auras surging, and an oppressive feeling emanating from them.