Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

The gray donkey strolled slowly along the dirt road back to the city.

Li Ping rode on the donkey's back, bobbing up and down with its gait, feeling a sharp pain in his inner thighs from the chafing.

He changed his posture and spat out the foxtail grass he was holding in his mouth.

The escaped residents of Wild Fox Ridge were appeased, and Old Man Quan agreed to keep an eye on the situation outside the city for him.

But Li Ping knew in his heart that a group of starving, emaciated mortals could at best serve as eyes and ears.

If a real fight breaks out, it will depend on hard power.

Bai Lang's claw attack yesterday made him realize the vast gap between the Qi Induction stage and the Qi Refining stage.

If it weren't for my resilient spirit and lightning-fast reflexes, that arm would have been useless long ago.

"Money"

Li Ping turned to look at the fat man pushing the empty grain cart.

Where in the city can I get talisman paper? The cheap kind, the kind you can buy in bulk.

Qian Duo wiped his sweat and answered, panting heavily.

"Sir, you want to buy talismans? Those things are very expensive."

"The Bai family's Treasure Pavilion does have them; even the lowest grade Fireball Talisman costs ten taels of silver."

Li Ping rolled his eyes.

"Going to the Bai family's shop to buy things? Are you tired of living? I'm asking about the black market, or those down-on-their-luck wandering Taoist priests."

Qian Duo scratched his chin and thought about it carefully.

"In the dilapidated temple in the south of the city, there lives an old Taoist priest surnamed Ma."

"He's drunk all day long, and makes a living by drawing cheap talismans to repel mosquitoes and rats and scamming people out of a few dollars for drinks."

"However, eight out of ten of the talismans he draws are duds; they're completely useless."

"Dubs are great, they're cheap."

Li Ping's eyes lit up, and he slapped the donkey's rump.

"Let's go to the dilapidated temple in the south of the city."

Half an hour later

The three stood in a dilapidated temple that let in drafts from all sides.

The clay Buddha on the altar had long since collapsed, with half of its head collapsed.

An old man in a tattered Taoist robe was fast asleep in a pile of dry straw under the altar, snoring loudly.

Shi Gan stepped forward and kicked the old Taoist priest's buttocks with his toe.

"Old man, wake up! My family is here to patronize your business!"

Old Ma groggily opened his eyes and saw the gleaming crossbow in Shi Gan's hand.

Startled, he jumped up and bowed repeatedly.

"Gentlemen, I'm an honest man, I've never done anything like stealing chickens or dogs!"

Li Ping stepped forward, took out a piece of silver from his pocket, and threw it at the old Taoist's feet.

"Stop talking nonsense and hand over all the talismans you drew. I'll take them all."

Old Ma's eyes lit up. He picked up the silver coin, took a bite, and immediately put on a fawning smile.

He turned around and rummaged through a tattered box under the altar, pulling out a thick stack of crookedly drawn yellow paper.

"Sir, take a look."

"This is a fire talisman; it can be used to start a fire and cook."

"This is a spirit-binding talisman; it can immobilize wild rabbits and pheasants."

"This is a smoke-inducing talisman. Throwing it out will release a large cloud of white smoke; it's extremely useful for escaping."

Li Ping took the talisman and examined it.

The runes were drawn extremely crudely, and the spiritual energy fluctuations on them were pitifully weak; no wonder they couldn't be sold.

"How much?"

"Thank you for your kind offer. There are fifty sheets in total. I'll charge you five taels of silver."

Old Master Ma rubbed his hands together, grinning from ear to ear.

Li Ping nodded, took out five taels of silver and handed it over.

"From now on, I'll take all the talismans you draw."

"Delivered to the Li residence on the back street of the county government office every three days."

"If they dare to try and fool me with counterfeit goods..."

Li Ping tilted his head.

Shi Gan immediately picked up his crossbow and pulled the trigger against a pillar in the dilapidated temple.

With a "thud," the steel crossbow bolt sank to the hilt into the wooden pillar.

Old Master Ma trembled with fright and nodded repeatedly in agreement.

After buying the talismans, Li Ping led the two out of the city and to a desolate mountain valley behind Wild Fox Ridge.

The place is full of rocks and withered grass; you can't even see a ghost here normally.

"Sir, why are you buying all this junk?"

Shi Gan stared at the stack of inferior talismans in Li Ping's hand, his face full of confusion.

"If it really comes to fighting, the short crossbow in my hand is more effective."

Li Ping smiled and walked to a dead tree.

"Short crossbows can only travel in straight lines, and they can't hit fast-moving cultivators at all."

"Today I'll teach you a new battle tactic."

He took out a sleeping potion and tied it with an extremely thin silk thread.

The other end of the silk thread was tied between two stones to make a simple tripwire.

Then, three steps behind the tripwire, he dug a shallow pit and buried a spirit-binding talisman in the ground.

Finally, he pasted a fire talisman on the trunk of the dead tree and partially covered it with a stone.

After arranging everything, Li Ping patted the dirt off his hands and stepped back ten paces.

"Shi Gan, pretend you're a thief and rush over from that side path."

"Remember, don't use spiritual energy, just run with the strength of a mortal."

Shi Gan scratched his head, feeling that his master was being a bit strange, but he still did as he was told.

He drew his short sword from his waist, roared, and charged down the path.

After running a few steps, his foot tripped over the extremely thin silk thread.

"Bang!"

The smoke-inducing talisman was instantly activated, sending a thick cloud of white smoke into the air, directly covering Shi Gan's face.

"Cough cough cough! What the hell is that?!"

Shi Gan choked, tears streaming down his face, his vision obstructed, and he instinctively took a step back.

This retreat landed him squarely in the shallow pit.

The spirit-binding talisman buried in the soil emitted a faint light.

Shi Gan felt his legs stiffen, as if bound by invisible ropes, leaving him frozen in place, unable to move.

"My lord! I can't move!"

Shi Gan was terrified.

Li Ping stood at a distance, weighing a stone in his hand, a wicked smile playing on his lips.

"This is called a combo: first use Smoke to block movement, then use Spirit Binding to control the opponent."

"Next, it's time to inflict damage."

He hurled the stone with all his might, hitting it precisely on the half-covered rock on the withered tree trunk.

The falling stone triggered the fire talisman below.

"boom!"

A fireball the size of a washbasin exploded, and the intense heat scorched a large patch of Shi Gan's hair.

If this fire talisman hadn't been of inferior quality and limited power, Shi Gan would probably be roasted pig by now.

The effect of the spirit-binding talisman wore off quickly, and Shi Gan slumped to the ground, touching his charred hair, his face filled with terror.

"Sir, this trick is too cunning! It's impossible to defend against!"

Li Ping stepped forward and helped Shi Gan up.

"When cultivators engage in combat, they value fairness and impartiality."

"We mere mortals have limited resources, so we have to resort to underhanded tactics."

"Treat the terrain as a chessboard, and the talismans as traps."

"As long as you can accurately predict the opponent's movements, even a Qi Refining cultivator would have to drink my foot bath water."

Qian Duo watched in stunned silence, repeatedly giving a thumbs-up.

"Your Excellency is brilliant! This method is ingenious!"

Li Ping was preparing to set up the trap again when his gaze suddenly fell on the spot where the fire talisman had exploded.

A large crater was blasted open in the soil beneath the dead tree.

At the bottom of the pit, a bluish-green stone slab was exposed. Several intricate patterns were faintly engraved on the slab, and it emitted extremely faint fluctuations of spiritual energy.

Li Ping squatted down and reached out to touch the stone slab.

The moment his fingertips touched the patterns, a slight dizziness washed over him, as if something was calling to him.

"This is……"

Li Ping was startled.

This is definitely not a naturally formed stone; it looks more like the remnants of some kind of formation.

The remains of a cultivator are buried beneath these desolate mountains and wilderness?

Li Ping immediately grabbed a handful of soil and covered the stone slab again, even stomping on it a couple of times.

"Sir, what's wrong?"

Shi Gan leaned closer and asked

"It's nothing, just a dead rat."

Li Ping stood up and clapped his hands.

"That's enough training for today, let's head back to town."

This place is strange. I'll explore it again when I'm stronger.

at dusk

The three returned to their new house in the east of the city.

The house was enormous; Li Da and Zhang Shi wandered around inside for ages, but still couldn't figure out where the kitchen was.

Li Ping had just sat down in the main hall and taken a sip of tea when the gatekeeper led in a man covered in mud.

The man was Tiezhu, the son of Laoshuan, a villager from Yehuling.

Tie Zhu knelt down with a thud and pulled a bloodstained rag from his pocket.

"Lord Li, my father sent me to report that this afternoon, some of my brothers who went hunting in the mountains spotted Hu Lie deep in the mountains!"

Li Ping put down his teacup, his eyes narrowing.

"Hu Lie? How many men did he bring?"

Tie Zhu swallowed hard, his voice trembling.

He only brought a dozen or so bandits.

"However... he was accompanied by a strange man in a black robe."

"That strange man was incredibly powerful; with a casual wave of his hand, he cleaved a wild boar weighing several hundred pounds in two."

"My dad said that Hu Lie's aura is many times stronger than before."

"They're plotting to come down the mountain in a few days to seek revenge on you, sir!"

Li Ping took the bloodstained rag, on which was drawn a crooked skull, clearly a challenge left by Hu Lie.

Shi Gan, who was listening nearby, was furious and drew his short sword, cursing.

"That little brat dares to come back! Sir, I'll take the brothers to the mountain pass right now and ambush him, turning him into a pincushion!"

Li Ping waved his hand, signaling Shi Gan to step back.

He looked at the rag in his hand, and a smile crept onto his lips.

Did they find outside help? Did their cultivation level increase dramatically?

Just right

He was looking for a suitable live target to test his newly learned combo techniques.

"Tiezhu, go back and tell your father to take some men and guard the village, and not let them wander off."

Li Ping stood up, walked into the courtyard, and looked at the gradually darkening sky.

"Since Hu Lie wants to have fun, I'll prepare a big gift for him in Xiyun County."