Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

The night the invitation arrived, Li Ping arrived on time. Zuixianlou was the largest restaurant in the south of the city, with its eaves upturned like swallows, and two strings of large red lanterns hanging at the entrance. The aroma of perfume mixed with the scent of wine could be smelled from half a street away.

The private room was located on the third floor. Inside, there was a round huanghuali wood table, which was piled high with delicacies from land and sea, including steamed shad, braised pork knuckle, and eight-treasure duck. In the center was a jar of aged wine that had been opened from its clay seal.

Yan Shichang, president of the Chengnan Chamber of Commerce, sat in the main seat. He had a round face, was plump, and wore three jade thumb rings on his fingers. When he smiled, he looked like a benevolent god of wealth.

When Li Ping entered, he stood up to greet him, bowing respectfully: "If Lord Li would do us the honor of visiting, whether these hundreds of merchants in the south of the city will live in peace or face chaos from now on depends entirely on tonight."

"President Yan, you're too kind." Li Ping sat down. "I have a big appetite and can eat anything. I'm just afraid someone might hide a thorn in the food, which would prick my mouth and their own hand as well."

"You jest, sir," Yan Shichang said, personally pouring him wine. "In the south of the city, whether something is thorny or meat is entirely up to the cook. If it's not clean, it'll naturally end up in the pot."

After several rounds of drinks and a great deal of idle chatter, Yan Shichang mentioned the Green Wolf Gang briefly, then brushed it off lightly: "The men under my command are ignorant and have offended you, sir. I have already disciplined them."

Yan Shichang waited a while, and seeing that he wasn't taking the bait, he simply put down his chopsticks, picked up his wine cup, and said, "Lord Li, since we've come this far, I'll take the liberty of saying a word for the merchants in the south of the city."

He leaned forward.

"The rule in the south of the city is to take 30% of the profits each month. Lord Li is a smart man; by giving up this 30%, the Jiangning Guild Hall can finally take root in the south of the city."

Li Ping did not accept the drink.

"Thirty percent?" He slowly spat out the shad bones. "President Yan, are the rules of this southern city written in the laws of the Great Qian Dynasty, or in your ledger?"

"It's all the same," Yan Shichang laughed. "You're a respectable person, sir. Even if your business in Jiangning expands into the capital, you'll still follow the rules of the southern part of the city. Everyone will benefit."

"What if I have a bad memory and don't like to remember rules?"

Yan Shichang's smile faded by half an inch.

"If we don't follow the rules, the shops in the south of the city are prone to fire at night. Fire and water are merciless. Lord Li is new here, we don't want you to lose even your place to stay." He gently placed the wine cup back on the table. "Lord Li is new here, so I'm afraid you don't know this yet."

"Chairman Yan," Li Ping interrupted him, taking out a stack of papers from his pocket and placing them on the table. "Take a look at this first, then we'll talk about the rules."

The paper was yellowed, the ink was freshly copied, and there were more than a dozen sheets stacked together, thickly packed.

"I bought the tax evasion records of the Chengnan Chamber of Commerce for two taels of silver during my three days in the capital from an old accountant who had two fingers broken by the Green Wolf Gang," Li Ping pointed to the paper. "In the past five years, the taxes reported by the shops under the Chamber of Commerce have not matched the actual accounts, with a difference of 37,000 taels. Even the toll receipts collected by the concubine's family, who was in charge of accounting for Chairman Yan, are on it."

Yan Shichang's face grew paler and paler.

"Thirty-seven thousand taels, enough for the Jingzhao Prefecture to take home two taels," Li Ping picked up his wine cup, took a sip, and said, "Chairman Yan, do you think if this account book were submitted to the Ministry of Justice, your concubine would still be able to count silver on her warm bed?"

Yan Shichang stared at the stack of papers, his temples throbbing twice.

After a moment of silence, he suddenly laughed, a laugh tinged with coldness.

"Lord Li, you're still young after all," he clapped his hands. "There are plenty of clever people in this world, but clever people often die young. Tonight, are you planning to finish this drink standing up, or leave lying down?"

The screen collapsed with a "crash".

Twenty swordsmen rushed out from behind the screen, dressed in black with black headscarves, their blades gleaming, and surrounded the private room so tightly that not a needle could get through.

Su Wan stood behind Li Ping, having not moved her knife since entering the room. When the attackers rushed out, her left hand rested on the hilt of her sword.

"President Yan," Li Ping said, picking up a peanut with his chopsticks, "you brought so many knives, are you worried about not being able to remove all the bones from this steamed shad?"

"Thirty percent, payable monthly, or else," Yan Shichang leaned back in his chair, "Tonight, this Drunken Immortal Pavilion will likely see a few more nameless corpses."

"Oh"

Li Ping chewed the peanuts.

The sword flashed briefly in the candlelight.

Twenty swordsmen, like twenty candles blown over by the wind, fell one after another. No one saw how Su Wan made her move; they only saw the sword light flashing between the candlelight, so fast that even the shadows couldn't keep up. The swordsmen charged forward with great momentum, and their fall was very orderly. The muffled groans mixed with the clanging of swords hitting the ground echoed in the private room for less than twenty breaths.

No one could get within three feet of Li Ping.

When Da Niu and Er Hu burst through the door, the floor was already covered with people. Er Hu, carrying an iron rod, looked around and put it down in disappointment: "Boring!"

"It's over," Li Ping said, "the food's still warm."

The last knife-wielder tried to climb towards the window, but Su Wan tapped the windowsill with her sword, and the man lay motionless on the windowsill.

Yan Shichang slumped in his chair, his jade thumb ring clattering against the table, his face trembling in layers.

Li Ping put down his chopsticks, picked up a wet wipe from the table, and wiped his hands.

"Chairman Yan," he said, "I have a bad memory. I forget everything that happened before tonight, whether it's the 37,000 taels or these twenty knives."

Yan Shichang's throat bobbed.

"But after tonight," Li Ping looked at him, "for every single account of the Chamber of Commerce, for every shop, for every tael of silver earned, if even a single coin is missing, I will use one of Chairman Yan's fingers to make up for it."

He stood up

"My lord!" Yan Shichang rushed to the table, frantically pulling a brocade box from his robes. "This is my privately hidden earth-elemental spiritual material, a fine earth-elemental stone. My lord is a cultivator, and you will surely find it useful as an apology gift today. Please accept it."

Li Ping glanced at the brocade box.

The box was opened, and inside lay a fist-sized, yellowish-brown stone, its interior faintly glowing, like the condensed light of a setting sun.

"A gift as an apology," he weighed it in his hand, "Then I'll accept the debt, and I'll keep it in mind."

He stuffed the brocade box into his pocket, turned and went out, but turned back at the door.

"By the way, the food tonight was excellent. Thank you for your hospitality, Chairman Yan."

Footsteps echoed down the stairs; the private room was as quiet as a graveyard.

That night, the lights in the back room of the Li residence in Jiangning stayed on until the third watch.

Li Ping closed the window, took out the Earth Essence Stone, sat cross-legged, and refined the spiritual energy within. The spiritual energy transformed into a scalding torrent, crashing into his meridians—ten times more powerful than the gentle streams nurtured daily by the Earth Spirit.

The Qi Sea of ​​a fifth-level Qi Refining cultivator felt as if a furnace of molten iron had been poured into it.

Overnight, his Qi Sea expanded slightly, forcefully advancing him to the sixth level of Qi Refining.

In the latter half of the night, he developed a high fever, his back arched like a bow, a sweet taste rose in his throat, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood, which splattered onto his clothes.

Su Wan did not go in from outside the door.

She moved a chair to the porch, placed her sword across her lap, and listened to the sounds coming from inside the house, keeping watch all night.

As dawn broke, the door opened.

Li Ping emerged, his face pale, yet his steps were steady. Deep within his Qi Sea, his spiritual energy sank in circles, becoming much thicker than yesterday; even the earth spirit he carried at his fingertips had solidified somewhat.

Su Wan looked at him for a while: "Is it worth it?"

"Worth it," Li Ping said, stretching his wrists and putting the brocade box away. "This kind of thing... Jiangning doesn't have the capital," he glanced at the sky, "the banquet has only just begun."

On the third day, Yan Shichang sent someone to deliver a box containing a property deed for a three-courtyard old house in Ping'an Lane in the south of the city, saying it was for "the tea money from that night".

Qian Duo stared at the property deed, speechless for a long time. Li Ping tapped the three characters "Ping An Lane" with his fingertip and said calmly, "Keep it. Chairman Yan's filial piety cannot be wasted."