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

Later, I killed my master using the swordsmanship I had secretly learned. But strangely, my master's heart wasn't black...

Later on, I became the abbot of Qingsong Temple!

Then, I started taking on disciples. After all, the Taoist temple couldn't rely on my fellow disciples who knew I had killed my master to survive.

Strangely, I seem to have become the master. When I see my disciples offering money to learn real skills, I'm not thinking about teaching them real skills, but rather how to extract more money from them...

I got a lot of money, but... I still haven't found my sister, nor have I found that human trafficker...

I think I'm smarter than my master because I killed a disciple who might have killed his own master, just like I did...

I had a nightmare. I dreamt that my apprentice asked me why I killed him. Did I... do something wrong...?

No, I did nothing wrong. The one who was wrong was that disrespectful fellow… I killed him again when he came back to life…

The most ridiculous thing is that even after his soul has left his body, he was still cursing me to die. Doesn't he know that good people don't live long while evil people live for a thousand years...?

I've started seriously practicing martial arts. I have quite a bit of talent, but unfortunately, I'm too old...

The martial artist at Xinmin Martial Arts School who taught me swordsmanship still laments from time to time how much better it would have been if I had learned martial arts a few years earlier. I really want to say that I was reading Taoist scriptures back then...

I learned the swordsmanship very quickly, but it's a bit of a pity because I didn't choose to join the New People's Government. They didn't teach me the internal cultivation method of this swordsmanship, and I couldn't even buy it with money...

I've started teaching my apprentice real skills...

I regret it... He's dead...

I don't quite understand what I'm afraid of... I sat in front of my parents' graves for a long time...

I cried. I'm almost thirty years old, the head of a temple, and a ninth-rank martial artist, and I actually cried... How embarrassing...

I killed someone again, this time a beggar who saw me cry. But when I saw the copper coin fall from the beggar's body, I began to understand what I wanted...

Of all my fellow disciples, only one remains... Yes, I killed them all; they knew too much... But unfortunately, this last one escaped...

My junior brother who ran away wrote to me, threatening me to abdicate and hand over Qingsong Temple to him. He also said that if I didn't agree, he would report what I had done to the newspaper...

I was scared, but I didn't agree to abdicate in his favor. Instead, I promised to give him a Taoist temple, since I now had an opportunity... and then I killed another person...

This is Master Qin's disciple...

Actually, I wanted him to kill Master Qin more... but... before he died, he begged me not to kill his master... I... really don't understand...

I died… I died from that strange sword technique of a boy who actually knew the price of rice… He must have been very rich… After all, the fabric of his clothes was quite expensive…

I miss my parents...

But I don't want my sister...

Because I don't want to see her down there...

As the blurry images and Guo Qing's murmurs faded away, Zhao Zheng, sitting on the futon, remained silent for a long time.

He looked up at the statue of the Three Pure Ones, whose faces were obscured by the smoke of incense, for a long while before turning his gaze to the second ink painting that had just appeared in the scroll.

A traditional Chinese ink painting titled "Fu Shi Ke".

"That's just how life is..."

Zhao Zheng murmured to himself, finally understanding what the "hundred aspects of life" meant. At the same time, a radiance seemingly forged from dried blood slowly condensed in his talent bar.

[Talent: Greed and Cruelty]

[Introduction: He used evil as a means to commit cruelty, but Heaven took his life away, and the consequences will follow...]

"I... can spend money on in-game purchases now???"

Zhao Zheng was slightly surprised as he experienced the effects of his innate talent, Greed and Cruelty, when two transparent characters appeared in the upper right corner of his vision.

[Attack+]

Zhao Zheng got up and took out some silver dollars from a hidden compartment in the wall, then went to the ritual room behind the main hall. It was the room his master used to refine and store ritual implements when he was alive, although there weren't many ritual implements there.

Zhao Zheng closed the door and went to the training wooden stake in the corner. He didn't understand the existence of the wooden stake at first.

After all, this was a Taoist temple. However, his master said, "Does that mean Taoist priests can't buy wooden stakes to practice their martial arts?" He had no answer to that. There was nothing he could do, because Taoist priests could practice their martial arts.

"top up!"

Zhao Zheng silently chanted in his mind, actually activating his innate talent of greed and cruelty. As soon as his talent of greed and cruelty was activated, two silver dollars in his hand immediately disappeared.

After the two silver dollars vanished into thin air, Zhao Zheng only noticed that the two characters in the upper right corner of his vision also began to change.

Or,

Four more characters!

[Attack +] → [Attack +100%]

"My attack power has doubled?"

Zhao Zheng was unsure. Not feeling any significant changes in himself, he raised his right hand and began to clench his fist, which shone with brilliant golden light.

Bang!

Under the full force of the attack, a clear fist mark about an inch deep appeared on the surface of the wooden stake. Zhao Zheng frowned as he looked at the doubled attack in the upper right corner of his vision, where a single punch had been used to eliminate the target.

"One punch...two dollars?"

For an ordinary family, this is half a month's... or even a month's living expenses... Zhao Zheng frowned and clenched his fist again.

Bang!

He continued his all-out attack, but this time the fist imprint on the wooden stake was only half an inch deep, making Zhao Zheng look at the fist imprint of Jiaqian.

"The attack power has really doubled..."

Zhao Zheng clicked his tongue in amazement, and couldn't help but imagine a scene in his mind: Master Huang and himself, each holding a wooden stake.

bang——

This punch is the result of twenty years of skill!

bang——

My punch has the power of two dollars!

The scene was so bizarre and absurd that Zhao Zheng slapped his forehead and continued to recharge, continuing to experiment with his talent, Greedy and Cruel.

After a short while, the experiment ended, and Zhao Zheng discovered that the effects of his innate talent, Greed and Cruelty, were not limited to his fists.

Any attack he launches, even spells, can have its power increased through the Greedy Talent.

However, they cannot be stacked!

For example, if he doubles the attack power of the Golden Light Divine Mantra first, and then doubles the attack power of his fist, the result is that only the attack power of the Golden Light Divine Mantra is doubled.

However, he discovered that he could actually control the percentage of attack bonus, and even if he only chose to increase his own attack by one percent each time, he could use it slowly!

In other words, as long as he uses his innate talent of greed and cruelty, he only needs to spend a minimum of one copper coin, which is twenty copper coins, to gain a 1% bonus to his attack power.

Or perhaps, spending both silver dollars in one go.

Gain a 100% attack power bonus!

Furthermore, as long as he activates his innate talent of greed and cruelty, even if he doesn't have any money on him, it will be recharged into his account and disappear into thin air.

Zhao Zheng studied this and found that he could not track down the whereabouts of the missing money. He also began to wonder if his talent for greed and cruelty could still be activated if his money was gone.

"It should be fine, right..."

Zhao Zheng looked at the Taoist temple in front of him, shook his head to clear his mind, walked out of the ritual room, left the main hall, and came to the side of Taoist Master Tianyi, who was sitting in front of his master's grave, and asked.

"Uncle-Master, aren't you sleepy? It's already two in the morning...it's past midnight..."

Zhao Zheng looked up at the night sky, where the stars had already parted and the moon was shining brightly. He then spoke, changing his terminology regarding time so that the other party might not understand.

"I know it's 2 a.m...."

Master Tianyi rolled his eyes speechlessly, said he wasn't sleepy yet, and then waved his hand to signal Zhao Zheng not to disturb him.

"Then you should get some rest, Uncle-Master!"

Zhao Zheng nodded, glanced at the guest room in the side hall from which snoring could be heard, and returned to the main hall. He sat on the futon and began to cultivate. Time flew by, and it was past three in the morning.

Standing at the main entrance of the main hall, Daoist Tianyi looked at Zhao Zheng, who was still cultivating, with admiration in his eyes, then turned around and went to his guest room to rest.

Thus, it was four in the morning.

July 31st of the first year.

Master Tianyi, who hadn't slept at all, heard the commotion in the courtyard, got up, left the room, and silently watched Zhao Zheng finish washing up in the courtyard before entering the main hall.

"Aren't you... sleepy?"

Seeing Zhao Zheng, who seemed to be preparing for morning prayers, Daoist Tianyi couldn't help but speak up. He noticed that Zhao Zheng's face showed no signs of fatigue and he still looked bright and energetic as he turned to look at him.

"If you're cultivating the Tao, why would you need to sleep?"

"???"

Don't you need to sleep?

Master Tianyi looked bewildered. Suddenly, he realized that Zhao Zhengxiu's path might be somewhat different from his own.