Becoming a martial arts god starting from the mortician.

A steaming bowl of plain noodles was served, topped with two poached eggs.

Shen Qi picked up a mouthful of noodles with his chopsticks and slurped it into his mouth.

Zhao Youtian sat opposite him and ate even faster. He finished his bowl in a few bites, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and stood up.

"Seventh Brother, please enjoy your meal." Zhao Youtian rubbed his hands together. "I still have some trivial matters to attend to, so I won't accompany you today. I've taken care of everything at the Qian family's place; just give them your name."

Shen Qi nodded.

Zhao Youtian knows the rules.

The family already felt it was an honor to have someone from the Imperial Observatory personally come to their home for the encoffining. Having a steward running around doing errands would only make them seem less respectable.

After breakfast, Shen Qi went back to the mortuary, picked up the new wooden box provided by the mortuary, and headed towards the inner city.

……

The Qian family's house is not hard to find.

The vermilion gate was wide open, and a white banner hung high above the lintel, while two white paper lanterns swayed in the morning breeze.

As soon as Shen Qi stepped onto the steps, two gatekeepers dressed in blue robes stepped in front of him, blocking his way.

The two men looked him up and down. Dressed in a gray cloth tunic and carrying an old wooden box, he looked every bit the beggar from out of town.

One of them frowned and was about to tell the man to leave.

Shen Qi didn't give them a chance to speak.

He immediately showed his waist tag.

Although the servant did not recognize Shen Qi, everyone who made a living in Chengping County knew the name "Jiantiansi" (监天司).

The words that were about to come out were swallowed back down. "Please wait a moment, sir, I'll go and inform them right away!"

The other one quickly bent down and led Shen Qi inside.

A short while later, a series of hurried footsteps came from inside.

A middle-aged man in a silk robe rushed out, but before he could even stand up straight, he bent over.

"I'm so sorry for not greeting you sooner, sir!" The butler said with a beaming smile, gesturing for them to come inside. "Please come in quickly!"

Shen Qi hummed in agreement and started walking.

Pass through two hanging flower gates and walk along the covered corridor.

Before we even reached the courtyard where the body lay in state, a commotion reached our ears.

"Why should we use public funds for accounting? That batch of old grain was purchased at a high price by the old man himself! Now it's all rotting in the warehouse, why should we, the second branch of the family, have to cover the deficit!" The woman's scream was piercing.

"How dare you! Why didn't you dare say a word when the old man was here? Now that he's just passed away, you're all eager to divide the inheritance, aren't you!" The man slammed his fist on the table with a deafening roar.

"Brother, you can't say that. This business is quite large..."

The butler turned around and glanced at Shen Qi with an embarrassed expression.

Seeing Shen Qi's expressionless face, he could only smile awkwardly, steel himself and quicken his pace to lead him into the courtyard where the body was laid to rest.

……

Chaos reigned in the courtyard. Several middle-aged men and women, dressed in mourning clothes, were arguing heatedly around a coffin made of Phoebe zhennan wood. In the brazier next to the coffin, half of the paper money had burned, and no one bothered to add more firewood, even though the fire was about to go out.

Standing at the front was a middle-aged man with a large belly, who was angrily pointing at his younger siblings and cursing them.

Looking up, I saw the butler leading a young man carrying a wooden box in, and I was taken aback.

"Sir, this is Lord Shen, who was introduced by someone." The butler quickly stepped forward and lowered his voice.

Old Master Qian's expression changed.

He whirled around, shouting, "Shut up, all of you! Father's body is barely cold, and you're all yelling and screaming like this! What kind of behavior is this?! Get out of here!"

The younger siblings were taken aback by the shout and were about to retort when they saw their eldest brother put on a respectful expression and quickly approach the young man in gray.

"You must be Lord Shen?" Old Master Qian bowed deeply. "My father passed away suddenly, and I am deeply grateful for your personal trip."

Shen Qi nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over him, then sweeping over the nanmu coffin, and then looking at the relatives in the courtyard whose faces were full of resentment.

"Uncle Qian," Shen Qi said calmly, "the matter of burying a corpse is not for bystanders to observe."

"All unauthorized personnel must retreat outside the courtyard. The gate must remain open to allow the deceased to pass through; it must not be closed."

Grandpa Qian nodded repeatedly, "Of course, of course!"

He turned around and shooed away his younger siblings who were still trying to get closer to the coffin, like herding ducks. The steward also wisely led the maids and servants to the courtyard gate and stood guard at a distance.

The courtyard fell silent instantly.

All that remained was the rustling of the white banners in the wind and the crackling of the burning paper money in the brazier.

Shen Qi placed the wooden box on the square table next to him.

He didn't care about these rules, but since he had accepted the money, he couldn't act too casually.

He opened the box and slowly rolled up his sleeves. First, he took out a copper basin from the box, poured clean water into it, and washed his hands. After drying his hands, he lit three calming incense sticks and inserted them one by one into the incense burner.

Smoke rose.

Shen Qi closed his eyes in the smoke, then took out the tools one by one and arranged them on the square table.

Needles for sewing corpses, ointment, cotton thread, scissors, and sheepskin gloves.

Outside the courtyard gate, the Qian family members, who were peeking out, watched this scene, and their arguing subsided without them even realizing it.

He's definitely a big shot from the Imperial Observatory. Even the way he handles the burial of the dead is so sophisticated.

Then, Shen Qi walked to the funeral bed.

He stretched out two fingers, pinched the white cloth covering the old man's face, and gently lifted it.

Old Master Qian's face was revealed. His eyes were wide open, his eyeballs bulging, his lips were tightly clenched, his features were twisted into a grimace, and his face was full of resentment and anger.

That death was certainly not a pleasant sight.

Shen Qi then looked at his life thread.

A thick, bright crimson life thread is suspended in mid-air!

Shen Qi's heart skipped a beat.

This life thread is even brighter than Wang Laosan's from Qingping Town!

Without any hesitation, he extended his right hand.

……

The screen lights up.

In his youth, Old Master Qian stood in the Martial Arts Testing Hall of the Imperial Observatory. A brilliant red light shone from the white jade stone, covering sixty percent of it!

"A Grade B Martial Vein!" The official in charge of the inspection was overjoyed.

The scene then shifts to a snowstorm and a battlefield strewn with corpses.

But Old Master Qian had no intention of making any great achievements.

He lay motionless amidst the pile of corpses, his hands clutching tightly the few pieces of silver he had just plucked from the enemy's bodies.

His face was full of longing for money.

He doesn't like practicing martial arts at all.

He secretly sold half of the potent medicinal soup distributed in the army, turning it into loose silver and pocketing it. As for the alchemy techniques taught by the instructor, he only symbolically demonstrated them a couple of times during roll call to avoid being whipped.

I just endured it for three years.

Three years is a long time; even a pig should have made some progress in martial arts cultivation by now. Old Master Qian simply endured the time and barely managed to reach the Body Tempering Realm.

Then, he was kicked out of the tent. The reason given was that he was beyond redemption.

After being sent back to Chengping County, Old Master Qian was completely free.

He never practiced martial arts again. Relying on his extra strength compared to ordinary people, he gathered a group of thugs in the outer city to seize territory, collect protection money, and lend money at exorbitant interest rates.

Every penny, every ounce, every ingot.

Once they had accumulated enough, they quickly abandoned their work in the outer city and entered the inner city.

Through hard work, they accumulated a vast fortune.

The scene shifts rapidly, finally settling on two days prior.

Qian Family Study.

Old Master Qian was beaming, and the table was piled high with account books. He slapped the table, grinning from ear to ear.

"Drought! Refugees! This is a gift from heaven!" The old man's eyes gleamed. "Buy grain! Buy all the old and new grain! Buy as much as you can! Once the city's grain reserves are depleted, I'll raise the price tenfold!"

However, in the next instant...

The confidant rushed into the study, holding a copy of "Records of Peaceful Times" in his hand.

"Master! The Yan family has suddenly opened their granaries and distributed 3,000 shi of grain! They've also set up ten soup kitchens outside the city!"

"The prefectural government also issued a notice stating that the imperial relief grain was already on its way, and merchants in the city were strictly prohibited from raising grain prices!"

Old Master Qian's smile froze on his face.

He snatched the newsletter and stared intently at the four large black characters on the front page.

A family that accumulates good deeds.

Thirty thousand taels of silver worth of old grain.

We bought them at high prices, but haven't sold a single one. Now we can't even recoup our costs; they're all stuck in our hands, rotting in the warehouse.

The Qian family home is now empty.

"Yan Qing—"

Old Master Qian let out a mournful roar.

"You little beast! You're cutting off my livelihood!"

He clutched his chest tightly with both hands, his eyes rolled upwards suddenly, and he fell straight backwards.

He actually died of anger.

Shen Qi slowly opened her eyes.

He looked at the unseeing face on the stone bed, and the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

Grade B Martial Vein.

A talent that many people would kill for.

He spent three years hustling in the army and a lifetime crawling among piles of silver. He was bad at martial arts, bad at being a person, and in the end, he couldn't even figure out how to be a shrewd merchant.

This way of dying is truly ironic.

However, this actually benefited Shen Qi.

He picked up the sheepskin gloves beside him and put them on. Having taken their life-saving silk and their money, he naturally had to do a good job.

He took out a lump of ointment and rubbed it in his palm.

He looked down at Old Master Qian's distorted face. His brows were furrowed into a knot, his face full of resentment and unwillingness.

Shen Qi bent down and slapped the cream onto his face.

Press the dough with your fingers and knead it little by little.

He muttered something under his breath:

"In your next life, don't hoard food."