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

No. 49 Wangyun Road, Chengdong, Zuowang Temple.

Beside a small bamboo grove in the corner of the wall.

An old man and a young boy stood in front of the tomb, chatting casually. Xiang Yu, who was not far away, leaning on the stone table with his head tilted to the side, drinking tea from a cup, thought to himself... "These two are really in good spirits!"

Yes, they both look great!

Xiang Yu obediently lowered his head. Daoist Tianyi withdrew his gaze and looked at Zhao Zheng beside him, saying, "Sometimes running away solves nothing."

"...Is it possible that I cultivate Taoism because I am devoted to it, and that I don't go home because I don't want to disrupt the atmosphere at home?"

Zhao Zheng began, then paused, looking at the puzzled Daoist Tianyi, and continued, "My father married six wives, and I have four concubines..."

"???"

Wait, six wives... four concubines?

Master Tianyi looked confused, and Zhao Zheng explained, "My mother was my legal wife, and my fifth concubine died young."

"……oh!"

I see, I understand!

Master Tianyi let out an "oh," and the capillaries in his cheeks dilated and became congested again, causing his old face to turn red once more.

"To make a long story short, the thing is, I've been abroad for so long that my family has gotten used to me not being there, and it would be awkward for me to go back!"

"..."

You... your short answer is really impressive!

Master Tianyi thought to himself, nodded to show he understood, but still couldn't resist his curiosity and asked.

"Aren't you afraid your younger brother Zhao Cheng will steal your family fortune? You know, according to you, that includes two entire money shops!"

Actually, there are not only two money shops, but also shops on several streets and three gold shops, Zhao Zheng muttered to himself, then said with a serious expression.

"My nephew is wholeheartedly devoted to the Dao!"

"hehe!"

"I am the eldest son, and he is born out of wedlock."

"Oh……"

Knowing that Zhao Zheng would definitely inherit the family business, Daoist Tianyi said "Oh" and immediately lost interest in speaking, simply waving his hand.

"Go and rest!"

"Okay, Master, I'm going to rest now..."

The speaker was Xiang Yu, who jumped up from the stone bench, his eyelids already drooping, having tidied up the room and washed up.

"Um."

Zhao Zheng bowed respectfully and withdrew, turning to walk towards the main hall. However, Daoist Tianyi's voice rang out again.

"You really didn't know beforehand?"

"I had no idea!"

Zhao Zheng turned around and said that he knew that Daoist Tianyi was talking about the Changning Temple and Qingsong Temple. He was indeed unaware of the matter, and by the time he found out and wanted to stop it, it was too late.

Master Tianyi didn't speak, but stood in front of his elder brother's grave without turning his head, waving to Zhao Zheng once more.

Zhao Zheng bowed silently and began to wash up. After washing up, he changed into his Taoist robe and went to the main hall to take stock of the night's harvest.

After rounding down, he received five hundred silver dollars, but the bulk of it was not contributed by Master Zhang, but rather by Guo Qing.

This made Zhao Zheng feel that it was a bit wrong, after all, compared to Changning Temple, Qingsong Temple was not as large as his Zuowang Temple.

Although others have three apprentices, he doesn't!

However, Zhao Zheng didn't dwell on that. Instead, he frowned and thought, "I forgot to ask Old Li about the money we found in those two Taoist temples!"

However, it's not a big problem. Anyway, Li Qi will hand over what he finds, so it will eventually be his. After thinking it over, Zhao Zheng began to look through the five cultivation manuals he found in the three Taoist temples.

Master Qin alone contributed two books!

One was the paper-cutting shadow technique, and the other was the soul-sustaining technique. Zhao Zheng thought he could try practicing these two spells later.

Then, place another evil spell that appears to be a magic spell but actually contains the Seven Fiends Soul-Devouring Banner Technique for weapon crafting on the other side.

"The Changming Contemplation Method... Observe yourself, understand your mind and see your true nature... This doesn't seem to be just a Qi cultivation method, does it?" Zhao Zheng flipped through the cultivation method he had obtained from Master Zhang's bedroom at Changning Temple.

Just as he was thinking of figuring it out himself, he turned his head to look at the courtyard, then got up from the futon, patted his bottom, and walked out of the main hall.

Now that his martial uncle has come, if he were to still try to figure it out on his own, wouldn't his martial uncle's trip have been in vain? In the spirit of not letting his martial uncle's trip go to waste, Zhao Zheng began to ask Master Tianyi for guidance.

After a while.

"This method is not bad. It has some of the meaning of the Quanzhen School's 'seeing one's true nature'. You can try practicing it. However, if you feel uncomfortable during the practice, stop immediately..." Master Tianyi said with a serious face.

Seemingly afraid that Zhao Zheng wouldn't take it seriously, he added with a serious expression, "Since this method has the ability to temper one's character, it means that it will draw out your inner demons during your cultivation..."

As he spoke, Master Tianyi introduced the concept of inner demons. In Buddhism, inner demons are called the demon of afflictions, the demon of the five aggregates, and the demon of death, while in Taoism they are called the three corpses (upper, middle, and lower). Although the names are different, they are essentially the same: demons within the human heart.

Both religions use the same approach: to subdue the inner demons by having the primordial spirit take control through meditation, chanting mantras, performing good deeds, and eliminating demons.

"What if we can't subdue it? Or what if I become good friends with my inner demon?" Zhao Zheng asked curiously.

"???"

"Hmm... In my junior's opinion, the inner demon is actually me, it's all me. There's no reason why we can't be friends. Does subduing the inner demon really have to be done through fighting and killing?"

"..."

Master Tianyi didn't want to speak. He just glanced at his elder brother's grave. He didn't mean anything by it, but he wondered why his elder brother would take Zhao Zheng as his disciple. He thought that cultivating had made his brain stupid.

"Um?"

"If you can't subdue it, it will go mad!"

Master Tianyi spoke expressionlessly, then handed Zhao Zheng the Changming Temple Heart Sutra and Master Qin's two spellbooks. He then put away the remaining evil spellbook and sword spellbook.

"Alright, go cultivate!"

"Yes, Uncle-Master!"

Unconcerned that his swordsmanship had been taken away, Zhao Zheng respectfully bowed and returned to the main hall, since he wasn't going to practice swordsmanship that wasn't cool enough anyway.

He took the three cultivation manuals and sat down on the futon. He did not practice them, but instead silently recited the name of the manual in his mind.

A dark red glow suddenly appeared before Zhao Zheng's eyes, stretching out like an endless ancient scroll.

As the ink painting of the intermediate state of being flashed by, the outline of the second chapter slowly emerged from the misty ink edges of this seemingly endless ancient scroll.

It was still a traditional Chinese ink painting, but the man in the painting was not Zhang Daqi chopping wood in the courtyard, but Guo Qing, who was sitting on a grand chair with a smile on his face, with dozens of people kneeling in front of him, including women, and Guo Qing dressed in a Taoist robe.

At the same time, a faint, ethereal voice rang out: "I spent a fortune to worship the Daoist sect, and endured ten years of hardship to repay a life of kindness. I tried to teach my disciples to repeat my mistakes, but this body will ultimately be buried by greed."

As before, blurry images began to appear before Zhao Zheng's eyes, along with Guo Qing's murmurs.

My name is Guo Qing. Although I didn't quite understand why my father, a schoolteacher, named me Qing instead of Hei (Black) when I was a child, I was born at night.

However, after I went to the private school, I understood that "qing" actually means "black". Perhaps it's because my name reflects my personality. I feel that I'm quite unlucky. Black should be considered unlucky, right?

Because of a fire, my home was gone and my house was destroyed. My good friends were also gone, but thankfully my family members are all safe.

Seeing the cold looks from my former friends, I decided to learn martial arts. What can I do? I don't have my dad's brains.

Although our family savings weren't much, my dad was a teacher, so he still had some connections.

It's a pity he wasn't a scholar!

Then I became a disciple of Qingsong Temple!

Then ten years passed!

People might not believe it, but in the past ten years, apart from reading a lot of books, I haven't learned any skills at all.

It's not that I lack talent; in fact, I have great talent. I learned about 50-60% of the swordsmanship of the so-called Three Shadow Blade Warrior next door after just one viewing. The main reason I didn't master the skills was because my master didn't teach me.

Not only did he refuse to teach me, but over the past ten years, he also squeezed every last penny out of my family. Unfortunately, by the time I realized it, it was too late...

My father died of illness, and my mother followed him. My younger sister was sold to an unknown place by that human trafficker, and yet I still secretly hoped that my master would teach me real skills...