Turbid World: Martial Arts Master of the Republic of China Era, I Cultivate Immortality!

Chapter 123 Second Playthrough: The Super Evolution of the Portraits of Life! (Please Subscribe!)

Anping County, Tianjin, east of the city, Zhao Family Compound.

Zhao Zheng didn't know if someone had died before; he only knew that someone had broken the "Don't tell my mom" rule among boys.

In the living room, Zhao Zheng, who was being scolded by his mother, obediently lowered his head. After the scolding, a heartwarming scene of family affection unfolded.

Apart from Zhao's father, who was unaware of Zhao Zheng's drowning and thus did not appear, all of Zhao Zheng's aunts came.

Of course, that also includes his good-for-nothing younger brother.

Just like in the first playthrough, more than an hour passed. After Zhao's mother and the others left, Zhao Zheng, who was drinking tea alone in the living room, silently recited something to himself.

"Here comes the picture!"

A dark red light, like dried blood, suddenly appeared before Zhao Zheng's eyes, then quickly spread out and condensed into a seemingly boundless picture of all aspects of life.

Zhao Zheng wondered if it was just his imagination, but he felt that the cloud-patterned talismans on the border of the "Life's Many Faces" illustration had become clearer and more mystical.

The five paintings of the myriad aspects of life unfolded in sequence as Zhao Zheng's thoughts took hold. They were still the "intermediate state body" he had obtained in a week, "overturned master guest", "enclosed eunuch", "shackled woman" and "bird in a cage".

"what?"

Zhao Zheng let out a soft exclamation in his heart, his gaze carefully fixed on the panel on the first page of the "Scroll of Life's Many Faces" which was composed of small scarlet characters.

A Portrait of Life

[Photo by: Zhao Zheng]

Age: 17

[Talents: Adversity, Thousand Faces, Greed for Cruelty]

[Mirror of All Realms: Charging]

[New Player Gift Pack: Available to Open]

"???"

A series of question marks appeared in Zhao Zheng's mind. He could understand that the restart would cause all his attributes to be reset.

But where did his skill points go? And where did this Mirror of All Worlds function come from? Also, he's not exactly a newbie, is he?

Hmm? His Tai'a Magic Sword didn't—

Wait, the Tai'a Sword is still here?!

Zhao Zheng was surprised. He looked into the Purple Mansion through his inner vision and found that not only the Tai'a Sword was still there.

"Seriously, do I really have that many enemies?"

Zhao Zheng pondered, but lacking sufficient information, he couldn't figure it out at all. Just like his statement that he felt his death this time was inexplicable, he had no choice but to get up and leave the living room.

He didn't go anywhere else, but instead took Erniu's carriage to Zuowang Temple, which was located near the south of the city. As for why Ergou wasn't driving the carriage...

The reason was simple: Er Gou suddenly fell ill and, knowing he could no longer drive the carriage, volunteered to be in charge of carrying horse manure from the stable.

As for why he went to the Meditation Hall, the reason was even simpler: this time he was planning a speedrun, and he refused to believe that even on his second playthrough—

"Forget it, let's not raise the flag!"

Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, his gaze sweeping across the carriage to Anping County, which was exactly as he remembered it.

More than an hour later, at No. 49 Wangyun Road, Chengdong, inside the courtyard of Zuowang Temple.

"Master, please accept my bow!"

"Huh? Okay, get up—"

"By the way, Master, what about the disciple-acceptance gift?"

"Huh? It's over there!"

"Alright, I've taken the things. Oh, and Master, before you die this time, remember to dig your own grave first!"

"Oh? Okay!"

"Give me the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture!"

"Okay, sure!"

"By the way, Master, I want to learn thunder magic. Please prepare it for me!"

"Oh? Okay!"

"Alright, Master, that's all for now. Bye-bye, I'll come again tomorrow. Oh, and remember to use good quality material for your Taoist robe!"

"Uh, okay————"

"By the way, Master, you should buy your coffin from a different shop. The materials from Li's Coffin Shop aren't very good!"

"Oh? Okay!"

Master Mao, who bore a striking resemblance to Master Tianyi, nodded blankly with a somewhat bewildered and helpless expression, watching Zhao Zheng leave Zuowang Temple with the disciple-acceptance gifts and other items.

Seeing this, a worshipper who had finished offering incense nearby said with a strange expression, "Um, Master Mao, this person seems to be a madman—"

"But the moment I saw him, I admired him."

"???"

Got it, you're crazy too!

The worshippers who were offering incense looked at Master Mao with strange expressions. He had not accepted the apprenticeship gift but instead gave out a gift to accept disciples.

He's made up his mind; he'll never come to the Meditation Temple again!

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Zhao Zheng did not return to the Zhao family. Instead, he had Erniu drive him to the west of the city. After all, he had said before that he would kill Xiulian's entire family when he reopened the city.

After a while, they arrived at the west side of the city, but the carriage broke down. Zhao Zheng suddenly felt that Erniu should also go to the stable to pick up horse manure.

"You stay here and wait for them to come. I'll walk the rest of the way; it's not far anyway."

After getting off the car, Zhao Zheng looked at the wheel bearings scattered on the ground, gave Erniu some instructions, and walked towards the northwest.

However, after walking only a few steps, Zhao Zheng suddenly stopped and looked at a tea stall set up under an old locust tree a few meters away.

Or rather, he looked at the two old men arguing at the tea stall.

The two elderly people were arguing. The old woman, dressed in a black long gown, had a kind and gentle face.

The other person, an old man in a plain white robe, had a very fierce-looking face. Zhao Zheng saw this fierce-looking old man in white with his brows furrowed and spoke first in a deep voice.

"Both Confucius and Mencius said that human nature is inherently good, which shows that people's hearts are originally pure and good. The so-called distinction between good and evil only appears after being corrupted by the environment and shaped by circumstances. But you insist on praising Xunzi's theory that human nature is evil. What exactly do you mean by this?"

The old woman in black, though her expression was kind, retorted sharply, "Your thinking is still too outdated. What do you mean I'm advocating for the theory of inherent evil? Humans are born with a desire for profit and a thirst for evil. Without the constraints of propriety and the guidance of education, they will inevitably lead to conflict and chaos. So-called inherent goodness is merely something cultivated through effort. Xunzi's theory of inherent evil is the correct one!"

"Hey, if we follow your logic, wouldn't that mean judging the present by the future? If I have good intentions, act politely, and treat others kindly at this moment, but then make mistakes and do evil things in the future, would you then conclude that I have always been a bad person?" the old man in white retorted.

"No, no, I'm just saying that the evil in human nature is inherent in our very being and doesn't come out of thin air. I'm not saying that if you do something bad in the future, you're a bad person right now."

The old woman in black spoke calmly, but after a pause, she continued, "However, your kindness today is merely temporarily suppressed by etiquette and rules. When circumstances become chaotic in the future, once your desires arise, the evil in your heart will sprout. Your apparent kindness today is only because your evil thoughts have not yet taken root. How can you say that your heart is pure and good?"

"absurd!"

The old man in white gave a low shout, his face revealing a vicious expression, and said, "Innate goodness is innate goodness, and circumstances are circumstances. The goodness in a person is present from birth; doing evil later in life is merely losing one's innate goodness. How can you use future mistakes to deny the goodness of the present, and even more so, deny the innate goodness of a person?"

"Hmph, utter nonsense. I don't think we can reason with you. Let's ask someone else. Young man, you come and be the judge—"

The old woman in black spoke to Zhao Zheng, who was a few meters away, with a kind and benevolent expression. Upon seeing this, the old man in white also spoke fiercely.

"Kid, you've come at the right time! You be the judge and see who's right and who's wrong between us!"

"Okay, sure!"

Zhao Zheng stopped a meter away from the two old men and said, "So, you two, one insists that human nature is inherently good, and the other insists that human nature is inherently evil!"

"Yes!" ×2

"In my opinion—"

Zhao Zheng paused for a moment, then continued, "Let me put it this way—I once met a senior, and he told me that when you kill a bad person, the number of bad people in this world doesn't actually decrease—"

"Hmm? Because you became a bad person?" ×2

"Yes, that's what he said too. He said that when I kill this bad guy, I become a bad guy—but my reply was, what if I kill two at once?"

Zhao Zheng smiled and said, "The white-clad old woman and the black-clad old man both stared at him in surprise, making him smile even more. Your expressions are exactly the same as the master's!"

"You————" ×2

The two looked at Zhao Zheng with horror, or rather, at the demonic Buddha image that slowly emerged behind Zhao Zheng.

A demon Buddha with four heads and nine arms, a twin being in one body, neither Buddha nor demon, capable of both salvation and destruction, whose body is a mixture of half red gold and half black demonic aura.

The left half of the Demon Buddha's body is the true form of the Heavenly Demon, covered in black armor with dark patterns and flowing fire. The raging demonic energy reveals the supreme Heavenly Demon intent.

The right half of the Demon Buddha's body is the golden body of the Tathagata. The golden body is clear and solemn, and its brilliant Buddha light shines infinitely, revealing the power of compassion and salvation.

This is how it appears when viewed separately, but it changes when viewed together. The Demon Buddha has no trace of yin, turbid, or corrupt aura, nor does it possess the pure golden radiance.

The Demon Buddha was enveloped in a chaotic halo of golden and purple light, a blend of Buddha's gold and demon's purple. His appearance embodied both the Buddha's compassion for saving the world and the demon's power to annihilate all laws, making him both strange and contradictory.

While feeling conflicted, the two old men subconsciously looked at the four heads of the demon Buddha. They saw that while the four sides were divided to the left and right, the Buddha and the demon were also of the same body, yet each of them was able to exert its own dual will.

They only saw that the left half of the Demon Buddha's face was the false compassionate appearance of a celestial demon, with evil light hidden in his brows, concealing a desire to bewitch the hearts of all beings.

The right half of the Demon Buddha's face is the true compassionate face of the Tathagata, with the Buddha's eyes lowered in sorrow, harboring the thought of relieving all suffering and the love of universal salvation.

Half-benevolent, half-deceptive, he could see at a glance that the two old men's faces were one red and one white, one white and one red, fully demonstrating the demonic Buddha's ability to confuse people's minds.

The old woman in black and the old man in white dared not watch any longer. They only glanced at the light of the demon Buddha, which was neither extinguished nor saved, and which concealed demonic thoughts with a Buddhist heart and proved Buddhist nature with demonic intent. After that, the two looked at each other and got up and ran away.

Goodness is not in one's innate nature, nor is evil in one's inherent character; whether the future holds good or evil depends entirely on the rise and fall of one's mind in the present moment.

For example, I'm a little hungry right now —

Zhao Zheng smiled and spoke, and the sixteen-foot-tall demonic Buddha image behind him transformed into a great magical image, opening its blood-red maw to bite the black-clothed old woman and white-clothed old man who were running smaller and smaller.

Click, click, click—

Click—

A chilling chewing sound and the sound of the surrounding environment shattering rang out at the same time. Zhao Zheng, whose vision was alternating between black and white, opened his eyes in the carriage. He pursed his lips and took out a Buddhist scripture called "Commentary on the Infinite Life Sutra" from the space of the Five-Colored Divine Light Bead on his wrist, opened it and flipped through it.

All living beings have two spirits: one named Tong Sheng (同生), and the other named Tong Ming (同名). The Tong Sheng female spirit is on the right shoulder, inscribed with her evil deeds; the Tong Ming male spirit is on the left shoulder, inscribed with his good deeds.

"So these two old guys are the innate gods who record people's good and evil deeds. I was wondering why it felt like I'd encountered the Three Corpses—"

Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, "The so-called 'co-born gods' are the three corpses in Buddhism. One records the host's evil thoughts and deeds, and the other records the host's good thoughts and deeds."

It belongs to a type of spirit body similar to the Three Corpses!

The human body has 36,000 body spirits!

As for what the Body Spirit is, please refer to the *Supreme Secret Essentials*, *Seven Tablets of the Cloudy Bookcase*, and *The Pillow Scripture of the Supreme Lord Laozi* for details.

The descriptions in the scriptures can be understood as the body's monitoring system, which is in charge of the functions of various parts and monitors people's good and evil behavior, especially good and evil behavior.

After finishing his thoughts, Zhao Zheng looked at the carriage that wasn't broken and wasn't the one he was riding in, and said to Erniu, "Hurry up."

Yes, he still intends to kill Xiulian's entire family, but this time it has nothing to do with good or evil; it's simply because he doesn't like that old woman.

The most important thing in life is to be happy!

The time for killing an entire family is always short. An hour later, Zhao Zheng, who had not personally carried out the entire operation, returned to the carriage, along with Erniu, whose body was trembling.

"Scared?"

Zhao Zheng said to Erniu, who insisted on following him and ended up witnessing the scene, "Erniu, who was driving the cart, turned around with a pale face and said..."

"Young Master, why did you kill him—"

Erniu stopped talking and shut up under Zhao Zheng's furrowed brows, turning back to concentrate on driving the cart. After arriving home, Zhao Zheng told Ergou to continue driving, thus ending his day as a coachman.

Zhao Zheng didn't notice Er Niu's pale face and lowered head, as if he had something to say. He simply walked into the Zhao family's courtyard and into the training room that Er Niu had set up in his youth.

The room contained some training equipment.

"Pack up!"

Looking at the slightly dusty training room, Zhao Zheng gave a casual order and then turned to walk towards the bathroom, attended by the maids.

Time flies, and it's almost evening in the practice room.

After taking a bath and changing his clothes, Zhao Zheng sat on a futon. Instead of refining the relic, he looked at the panel displaying the myriad aspects of life that refreshed as he circulated the Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture.

A Portrait of Life

[Photo by: Zhao Zheng]

Age: 17

[Talents: Adversity, Thousand Faces, Greed for Cruelty]

[Cultivation Technique: Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture —]

[Realm: Foundation Building in 100 Days (100/100)]

[Mirror of All Realms: Charging]

"One breath a hundred days to build a foundation, a few days faster than the first playthrough—but it's still not enough—" Zhao Zheng murmured to himself.

The enemy was too powerful, so powerful that he felt that if he returned to the world of mechanical martial arts at a normal pace, his fate would probably be the same.

However, he couldn't guarantee that he could get the Guizang talent from Charming again, so he decided to change his mind, or rather, to forge his own path!

"Two experiences as a terrestrial immortal, plus 98% of the martial arts from the world of mechanical martial arts—with such a vast knowledge base, I refuse to believe I can't forge my own path—"

Zhao Zheng was thinking about this, but soon he thought of another question: what kind of road would he take?

"I've got it! Let's set a small goal first, like using my Qi Refining stage to break through to the Void Refining stage. Now that I have a goal, how do I implement it?"

Zhao Zheng pondered in his heart, subconsciously thinking about his current Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment stage. In fact, to be precise, his current Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment stage is not a stage, but merely a prerequisite for the Refining Essence into Qi stage.

Just as the prerequisite for martial arts practitioners is to cultivate qi and blood, the prerequisite for Taoist cultivation is to cultivate magical power.

The Hundred-Day Foundation Building is a process of cultivating magical power. It is also a process of judging a cultivator's talent in the path of cultivation by cultivating one hundred strands of magical power over one hundred days.

"If one hundred strands of magical power can be condensed into a single strand to enter the Refining Essence into Qi realm, then what would happen if I condensed one thousand strands and ten thousand strands of magical power into a single strand?"

The answer is that he will become stronger, it's like he's about to explode, this is Zhao Zheng's personal experience and feeling an hour later.

[Realm: Foundation Establishment in 100 Days (10000)]

Zhao Zheng successfully obtained 10,000 strands of magical power by refining the relic of the former abbot of Shaolin Temple. In other words, as long as he breaks through to the Refining Essence into Qi stage, one strand of his magical power will be equivalent to one hundred strands of magical power of an ordinary cultivator.

Of course, the ratio of 1 to 100 that he mentioned is not accurate; it can only be considered an average and a rough description.

Because the quality of everyone's magical power is different, even if they are the same age, at the same level, and have cultivated the same technique, their magical power will vary in quality due to other factors such as their physical constitution.

"That's the strength of a hundred people—"

Feeling a bit full and about to explode, Zhao Zheng looked at the relic floating in front of him, which could probably be refined into tens of thousands of strands of magical power. After thinking for a moment, he decided to continue.

As for the possibility of it actually exploding, he believed that was impossible, since he thought the human body had no limits!

"continue!"

Zhao Zheng closed his eyes and continued to refine the relic. The night passed without incident, and in the blink of an eye, it was the tenth day of the sixth lunar month.

It's still the practice room.

A Portrait of Life

[Photo by: Zhao Zheng]

Age: 17

[Talents: Adversity, Thousand Faces, Greed for Cruelty]

[Cultivation Technique: Shangqing Great Cave True Scripture —]

[Realm: Foundation Establishment in 100 Days (129600)]

[Mirror of All Realms: Charging]

"Perfect!"

Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, thinking to himself that everything was just as he had imagined; the human body has no limits.

Although he felt like he was going to explode several times last night, the ending was good, and everything went as he expected.

After experiencing several near-explosions, his body developed unparalleled adaptability, with his meridians and dantian perfectly accommodating the 129,600 strands of magical power he had refined from the relic.

"In terms of strength alone, even if I were still only at the Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment stage, I could easily kill my former self."

Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, then looked at the relic that had completely turned to ash and began to think about his breakthrough.

"Since I've already modified the Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment realm to this extent, why not modify the Refining Essence to Qi realm as well?"

""

Without hesitation, Zhao Zheng began making revisions, his goal remaining the same: to defeat cultivators at the Refining Essence and Transforming Qi realm while still being at the Refining Void and Harmonizing Dao realm.

Refining Void and Harmonizing Dao Realm cultivator: ————