Start with acting, and you'll achieve immortality!

Li Ping lay prone behind the mud-sealed window paper, holding his breath.

He pressed his eye close to the extremely narrow slit and looked out.

Having just entered the Qi Refining stage, the world was already vastly different in his eyes.

Even late at night, the scene in the courtyard was much clearer than usual.

There were three people in total.

The one on the left is short and stout, walking with his head darting around, and carrying a long knife in his right hand.

The tall man on the right, who was hunched over, and the person in the very center, moved with extremely light steps, their body faintly glowing with a chaotic light.

It was a faint glimmer of spiritual energy, as dim as a candle flame about to go out, but it couldn't escape Li Ping's eyes now.

The person in the very center was also a cultivator.

"Brother Sun, shall we just rush in, chop this brat up with one blow, grab the martial arts manual, and leave?"

The tall man on the left spoke in a very low voice, which drifted in on the wind.

"Shut up"

The man in the middle whispered a rebuke.

"County Commandant Hu has always treated me well. This kid tricked us out of his martial arts techniques. If we retrieve this item and return to the mountain, the chief will surely reward us handsomely. Don't make a big fuss. Xiyun County is full of county soldiers now. If we get entangled, we won't be able to leave."

Li Ping heard everything clearly from inside the house.

孙二

This man was a former clerk in the county government, whose job was to collect the shop fees for Hu Guan. He was known for his sycophancy and bullying.

It seems that after Hu Guan's downfall, knowing he couldn't escape the law, he sought refuge with bandits in the Wanzhong Mountains, and tonight he's come specifically to take Li Ping's head as a pledge of allegiance.

Li Ping turned his head and looked at the earthen bed.

Li Da and Zhang Shi were fast asleep, completely unaware that death was at their doorstep.

Li Ping slowly stepped off the kang (a heated brick bed), his movements as nimble as a cat's.

He went to his sister-in-law Zhang's side and whispered twice in her ear.

Zhang turned over, groggily trying to speak.

Li Ping quickly covered her mouth and whispered...

"Sister-in-law, be quiet! There's a thief! You and brother hide in the cellar behind the kitchen. Don't come out unless I call you."

A flicker of panic crossed Zhang's eyes, but seeing Li Ping's serious expression, she nodded emphatically.

She gently woke up Li Da beside her.

Li Dayi opened his eyes and saw Li Ping holding that rusty salted vegetable knife in his hand. His large, bronze face was filled with astonishment.

He reached for the machete on the ground, but Li Ping grabbed his hand and stopped him.

"Brother, the newcomer knows magic; your woodcutter's axe is useless."

Li Ping pushed the entrance to Li Dachao's cellar.

"Protect your sister-in-law; I have a way to handle this."

Li Da gritted his teeth and finally led Zhang Shi quietly into the grain cellar behind the kitchen, pulling the wooden planks shut to conceal them.

Li Ping felt relieved and turned to sneak towards the side room.

In his past life, when he played video games, he was most skilled at setting traps in such intricate and narrow terrain.

He had lived in this courtyard for over a decade; he knew exactly where the floor tiles were cracked and where the plaster on the walls was crumbling.

He first went to the water vat, grabbed two large bags of quicklime powder left over from when his older brother repaired the stove, and stuffed them into his pocket.

Then, he found a bundle of hemp rope in the woodshed, tied one end to the base of the water vat behind the courtyard gate, and held the other end in his palm, pulling it straight up about half a foot off the ground.

Finally, he casually lit the dried mugwort he used to repel mosquitoes in the side room and threw it into the pile of firewood in the corner.

Just as these steps were completed, the bolt on the courtyard gate made a dull cracking sound.

"Click"

The courtyard gate was forcibly pushed open.

A bandit strode in, cursing under his breath: "This dilapidated door doesn't even have a lock..."

He stepped in, kicking the rope that Li Ping had taut.

The force was so strong that the bandit lost his balance and fell forward.

Li Ping reacted quickly, grabbing a handful of quicklime powder with his right hand and throwing it at the person in the face.

"what!"

When lime got into his eyes, the bandit let out a piercing scream and covered his eyes tightly with both hands.

Li Ping ducked, took a step forward, and the pickled vegetable knife in his hand transformed into a flash of cold light, plunging straight into the other man's neck.

The rusty iron blade sliced ​​through flesh, producing a teeth-grinding scraping sound.

Blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining Li Ping's sleeves crimson.

The bandit twitched twice, then collapsed limply, without even letting out a second scream.

Li Ping's hands were trembling.

This was the first time in his two lifetimes that he had personally killed someone.

The hilt of the knife was wet and covered in sticky blood; the stench was overwhelming.

His stomach churned, and he almost vomited on the spot.

"There's an ambush!"

Upon seeing this, Sun Er and another bandit outside the door were so startled that they took two steps back.

"Second Brother, this kid has a weapon! Dazhu has been taken down!"

The tall bandit shouted, wildly brandishing his long knife.

Sun Er squinted, noticing the large pillar's corpse on the ground, then looked at Li Ping, who stood in the shadows, his face pale but gripping a knife.

"What's the panic? He's just a mortal who hasn't even activated his qi, resorting to underhanded tricks."

Sun Er sneered, his figure suddenly leaping up, the long sword at his waist unsheathed, leaving a faint blue blade light.

Although he was only at the early stage of Qi Refining, he had cultivated for several more years than Li Ping, and his strength was far greater than that of ordinary people.

The air seemed to whistle as the blade slashed down.

Li Ping dared not take the challenge head-on.

He bent his knees slightly, rolled over like a lazy donkey, and awkwardly dodged the knife.

The blade grazed the hem of his clothes, tearing a slit in his long robe.

"Die!"

Sun Er's first strike missed, but he followed up with a sweeping motion.

Li Ping rolled twice on the muddy ground, then casually pulled off a bamboo pole from the side room and poked it towards the pile of firewood beside him.

The previously lit mugwort had ignited the firewood pile, and now the flames were gradually rising.

With a flick of the bamboo pole, the large bundle of burning firewood collapsed with a crash, hurtling straight towards the tall bandit behind him.

"Ouch!"

Sparks flew everywhere, and the tall bandit was hit squarely, his clothes instantly ignited, and he rolled on the ground in a sorry state to put out the flames.

In this way, only Sun Er remained in the arena.

Sun Er's face was so gloomy it could drip water.

He never expected that this mediocre clerk, surrounded by two desperate men and a monk, would not only not be terrified, but would instead use the terrain to his advantage, killing one and trapping the other.

"You've activated your Qi?"

Sun Er looked at the faint light emanating from Li Ping's body, a hint of shock flashing in his eyes.

"Thanks to Magistrate Hu, it was just completed."

Li Ping gripped the salted vegetable knife tightly, his palms sweating profusely, but a smile remained on his face.

"Brother Sun, stop now and turn yourself in to the county soldiers, and you might still save your life."

"Keep your mother's head!"

Enraged, Sun Er channeled all his spiritual energy into his legs, more than doubling his speed.

He pounced on Li Ping like a tiger descending from the mountain.

Li Ping fought and retreated, then ducked into the extremely narrow alleyway between the pigsties in the corner of the yard.

The narrow passage was flanked by earthen walls, only two feet wide, and had many twists and turns.

Sun Er chased after him with his knife, but because the passage was narrow, he couldn't use his long knife to perform a horizontal slash; he could only thrust it straight in.

"Prepare to die!"

Sun Er thrust his knife straight at Li Ping's heart.

Li Ping had nowhere to retreat; his back was pressed against the cold earthen wall.

Just as the long blade was about to strike, a ruthless glint flashed in Li Ping's eyes.

He twisted his body strangely to the right, letting the long knife pierce through his left shoulder clothing and even graz his skin.

A sharp pain came

But Li Ping's right hand also reached out at that moment.

He still had half a bag of quicklime left in his arms.

"Take this sandstorm!"

Li Ping roared and slapped all the remaining quicklime powder onto Sun Er's face.

Sun Er never expected this boy to be so fierce and brave, preferring to take a knife wound rather than resort to underhanded tactics.

The lime powder dissolved instantly in water, and the burning sensation caused Sun Er to let out a painful howl, his knife movements immediately becoming chaotic.

Li Ping stepped forward, all his strength, combined with the wisp of spiritual energy he had just acquired, converging entirely in his right hand.

The pickled vegetable knife in his hand transformed into a scarlet arc.

"Puchi"

The blade pierced Sun Er's heart to the root.

Sun Er froze, his eyes bloodshot and bursting.

He gripped Li Ping's shoulders tightly, as if trying to see why this minor official, who usually only knelt and begged for mercy before the county magistrate, could be so ruthless.

But Li Ping didn't give him a chance to speak. He gritted his teeth and twisted the hilt of the knife half a turn.

Sun Er's eyes gradually lost their luster, and his body slumped heavily onto Li Ping.

Li Ping pushed the corpse aside and collapsed to the ground.

The wound on his shoulder was bleeding, and his spiritual energy was completely depleted; a wave of exhaustion washed over him.

In the corner, the tall bandit who had been burned finally managed to extinguish the flames on his body.

As soon as he looked up, he saw the corpses of Dazhu and Sun Er lying in a pool of blood. Li Ping was sitting beside the bodies, staring at him with a cold, beast-like gaze.

The tall bandit let out a strange cry, threw down his long knife, and tumbled and scrambled over the wall, disappearing into the night.

The courtyard returned to its deathly silence.

Only the crackling sound of the burning firewood echoed in the fire.

Looking at his hands covered in blood, Li Ping finally couldn't take it anymore and began to vomit violently beside the well.

He vomited so much bile that he almost came up, and he was covered in cold sweat.

He looked down at his own reflection in the well water, a picture of dejection.

Today, with this blood on my hands, I am no longer just a blue planet worker who only wanted a peaceful life.