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

After a while.

"This thing works really well..."

Zhao Zheng put away the box gun, one of the legacies left by his master, and looked at Zhang Daqi, who was lying on the ground to the side, dead after he had stuck a talisman on his forehead to break his obsession.

Zhang Daqi was forced to let go of his obsession!

"Times have changed... It's not that I'm forcing you to leave, but you're already dead, and it wouldn't be good for your family if you stayed any longer... Humans have their own way, and ghosts have theirs; the paths of humans and ghosts are different..."

Zhao Zheng sighed. He could see Zhang Daqi's filial piety clearly, but he could also see the harm hidden within that filial piety even more clearly.

Leaving aside Zhang Daqi's body, which possesses a yin energy that can cause illness and damage to one's very foundation, just considering the harm caused by Zhang Daqi's continuously decaying body, he would have to kill Zhang Daqi. After all, Zhang Laoqi had said that Zhang Daqi ate with them!

"My son isn't dead! My son isn't dead! My son is still alive! Daqi, wake up! Wake up!"

Upon waking from his coma, Zhang Laoqi ran to Zhang Daqi, knelt on the ground, and embraced Zhang Daqi while weeping bitterly.

Crying, he raised his head and glared at Zhao Zheng, put Zhang Daqi on the ground and stood up, staring at Zhao Zheng with bloodshot eyes.

"It's all because..."

Zhang Laoqi stopped talking. With the box gun pointed at his forehead by Zhao Zheng, he quickly regained his composure and rationality.

"Pay up, checkout!"

Zhao Zheng, expressionless, pointed the box pistol at Zhang Laoqi's forehead. After a while, he looked at the three silver dollars in his hand, glanced at the somewhat dilapidated courtyard wall, and said, "I have too many." He then stuffed one of the extra dollars into Zhang Laoqi's hand.

"Bye-Bye!"

After saying that, Zhao Zheng removed the broken talisman from Zhang Daqi's forehead, which was no longer effective, and turned to leave. He only put away the box gun when he reached the gate of the courtyard, and began to count silently in his mind as he did so.

"Three, two, one...wait, is this old guy still not ready?"

Just then, Zhang Laoqi's apologetic voice came from the courtyard behind him: "Master Zhao, I'm sorry..."

"Um?"

Zhao Zheng turned around, feigning surprise, and saw Zhang Laoqi wiping away his tears, running over with a look of shame on his face.

"Master Zhao, I didn't really mean to hurt you just now, I just couldn't accept my son..."

"I understand, I get it, don't worry, I'm not angry..." Zhao Zheng patted Zhang Laoqi on the shoulder.

After thinking for a moment, he pointed to Zhang Daqi's corpse lying in the courtyard and explained, "When a normal person dies, the seven spirits usually disperse first, followed by the three souls. Your eldest son, however, was an exception; his spirit didn't disperse completely..."

The three souls and seven spirits in the human body govern physiological functions, and the separation of the two will mostly lead to the loss of physiological functions of the physical body.

That is, what is commonly known as death!

However, due to an unexpected situation, Zhang Daqi's three souls and seven spirits were not completely dispersed. In particular, the Shuangling and Taiguang of the three souls remained in his body, which allowed Zhang Daqi to still have the physiological perception, action ability, and thinking ability of being alive.

This is why Zhang Daqi could still walk and eat even though he was already dead. But once you're dead, you're dead. Staying with him would only harm yourself and others.

"I see……"

Although Zhang Laoqi was still confused, he roughly understood his son's previous state and felt even more guilty.

"Master, I'm sorry..."

As he spoke, Zhang Laoqi was about to kneel down, but Zhao Zheng quickly helped him up, saying, "Alright, let's hurry up and arrange his burial..."

"That……"

"I haven't learned the funeral rituals yet, you should find someone else..." Knowing what Zhang Laoqi was going to say, Zhao Zheng shook his head and politely declined.

He could exorcise ghosts and cure evil spirits, but he was still learning about funeral rites. Thinking this, Zhao Zheng glanced at Zhang Laoqi's patched clothes, paused, and continued.

"Actually, you don't need to waste this money. When my master died, I buried him directly. Performing rituals is not really necessary..."

After chatting with Zhang Laoqi for a while, Zhao Zheng took his leave after refusing Zhang Laoqi's offer of a third silver dollar for the third time.

Don't underestimate two silver dollars; at this point in time, two silver dollars is a lot.

Keep in mind that with current prices, the average family of four only needs three or four dollars a month for living expenses.

Three silver dollars are enough for an ordinary family of four to live a decent life, able to eat meat occasionally...

Zhao Zheng did not take a rickshaw, but walked to his Taoist temple. He took out the broken talisman that had lost its divine light and looked at it.

"There are still three Breaking Talismans in the temple. Looks like I'll have to draw a few more... Vermilion, the temple still has some in stock, rooster blood... Okay, I guess I'll have to eat chicken again today!"

Zhao Zheng put away the broken talisman, looked up at the street that was gradually becoming more lively, and saw stalls lining both sides of the bluestone road, with the sweet aroma of sugar paintings mixed with the heat of noodles and pastries spreading everywhere.

Further along the roadside, there were monkeys performing somersaults, and men balancing porcelain bowls on single ropes. The deafening sound of gongs was accompanied by constant cheers, but the crisp sound of coins falling to the ground was rather rare.

Zhao Zheng quietly watched the people in long gowns and mandarin jackets or short jackets and Western-style dresses sitting on the rickshaws that jingled and shuttled back and forth, and then looked at the cars that occasionally honked their horns.

"It's all from the Republic of China era, so why are there so many monsters and demons from that era...?"

Zhao Zheng thought to himself, his complaints stemming from the fact that he had dealt with a similar situation with Zhang Daqi once before, when his master was still alive.

Like Zhang Daqi, the other party was a medium-death being, a variant of the corpse-guarding soul, who died without knowing it, and was like a living person in the medium-death state.

As he pondered, Zhao Zheng's ears twitched slightly, and he looked up at the two men chasing each other on the rooftop in the distance.

The man chasing him shouted, "Don't run!" The man being chased didn't say anything, but just jumped and covered a distance of seven or eight meters.

"Okay, I almost forgot that there are extraordinary existences like martial arts and immortality in this world... Speaking of which, should I join a gang or escort agency like these martial artists to earn some extra money..." Zhao Zheng walked into the temple, lost in thought.

More than half an hour later,

No. 49 Wangyun Road, Chengdong, Zuowang Temple.

Zhao Zheng, who was carrying a rooster that was struggling even when it was tied up, glanced at the mark still on the threshold of the gate.

He took out his key, unlocked the door, pushed it open, and went inside. He didn't close the door, after all, this was a Taoist temple, although it was a small one and not many people came here on weekdays.

"Um?"

As Zhao Zheng carried the rooster into the kitchen, he stopped thinking about how to prepare it and silently recited a phrase to himself.

The moment the thought left his mind, the gradually intensifying crimson light reappeared before Zhao Zheng's eyes, and the ancient scroll that looked very long reappeared, but it was no longer blank.

Instead, it created its own separate article!

A watercolor painting appeared in the blink of an eye, and the man in the painting was none other than Zhang Daqi chopping wood in the yard.

At the same time, a faint, ethereal voice slowly rang out: "Half a lifetime without realizing my lofty ambitions, I became a lonely soul to fuel my father's fire. The axe's shadow cleaving the air is all an illusion, leaving only embers to comfort my parents."

In a daze, Zhao Zheng saw a series of blurry images, or rather, Zhang Daqi's past twenty years.

My name is Zhang Daqi.

My dad had a fortune teller choose my name!

My dad often told me when I was a child that I was a late bloomer. I didn't understand it then, but I thought it was amazing.

However, after my smarter younger brother was born, I found that my parents didn't seem to love me as much anymore.

But it doesn't matter. In this world, intelligence alone is useless. I will prove myself... Then, I joined a gang because I was relatively strong.

Actually, my dad would prefer me to become a rickshaw driver, just like him, but I'd rather do the opposite.

The reason is that I want to prove that I can succeed without his help and be better than my younger brother who is still in school.

But soon I realized I was wrong. People in gangs may seem powerful, but in the end they do things that are not respectable and things that I hated when I was a child... It seems I have become the kind of person I hated when I was a child.

However, I had already joined a gang, and Tianjin is a place where rules are strictly enforced, so I had no choice but to grit my teeth and continue to survive.

At first, it was fine. I just followed them to collect protection money and watched them use ruthless methods like chopping off fingers and stabbing themselves to scare the shop owners and their employees.

Honestly, I think they're so stupid!

I don't quite understand why you stab yourself instead of the other person, but... there's nothing I can do, that's just how the rules are.

I... hate rules.

But soon, when it was my turn to have my fingers chopped off, I chickened out, though not completely.

I didn't stupidly chop off my own finger; I just cut my thigh, and then I successfully collected protection money from the trembling pharmacy owner. After that, I went home and lay in bed for three days.

Three days later, I started asking my family for money because I didn't want to be a small-time hoodlum anymore; I wanted to be a big-time hoodlum, a big-time hoodlum who wouldn't get stabbed.

Unfortunately, despite spending money and money, my old man was starting to wish I were dead, and my mother was beating and scolding me, I still didn't become a big hoodlum.

I began to realize that becoming a tough guy who never gets stabbed was much harder than I had imagined, and then I started living a life of debauchery.

It wasn't really a case of living a life of extravagance, just spending my parents' money to go out drinking and partying. Hmm, Xiaorou's hands are really soft!

If they don't give it to me, I'll beat them up. It's not that I'm unfilial, it's just that why do they treat my brother so well?

Why can my younger brother go to school?

Why am I just a hoodlum?!

Later, I felt like I was dead. I clearly remember dying in a gang fight over territory.

But I also feel like I'm not dead, because I seem to be... still alive. I can run and jump, and I'm not very hungry.

I think it's great that I don't get hungry, at least it saves me a lot of money on food. When I was a child and was hungry, I often thought how wonderful it would be if people didn't get hungry!

However, I soon discovered that not only was I not hungry, but I also started to smell bad, a smell that I couldn't get rid of no matter how much I washed.

Although I haven't read many books, I've seen a lot of dead people, and I know what the smell of a corpse is, and then I started to get scared!

After I got scared... I started to miss home!

I managed to get all the money I lent out back by relying on my fearlessness after death, and I also left the gang. Then I used the money to buy a lot of firewood and started chopping wood. I don't know why I did it.

Perhaps it's because the winters in Tianjin are too cold, or perhaps it's because I saw that old man many times when I was a child... my dad would come home tired after a long day and still have to chop firewood.

Oh, right, I also took advantage of the night to beat up those neighbors who had bullied my parents... and my younger brother.

I don't know why I did this, but I know I have to do something for my family...

It's strange. Logically, I shouldn't be so filial to them, just like I shouldn't have secretly slipped the last few dollars into my brother's savings box, even though I really dislike my brother...

Ok,

I don't dislike him.

I just hate this world...

After a series of blurry images and seemingly self-talking murmurs ended, Zhao Zheng remained silent for a while, then sighed as he looked at the ink painting titled "Bardo" in the "Hundred Stages of Life" section of the picture before him.

"Eh...wait!"

Zhao Zheng let out a soft "hmm" and looked at the small print at the beginning of the scroll.

A Portrait of Life

[Photo by: Zhao Zheng]

Age: 18

[Talents: Insight, Compassion]

Realm: Refining Essence into Qi (Early Stage)

[Essence: The True Scripture of the Great Cavern of Shangqing (Introduction)]

[Dharma: Golden Light Mantra (Beginner)]

Skill Points: 1

……

[Talent: Sacrifice]

[Introduction: Suffering, pleasure, and neither suffering nor pleasure!]

"I think... I'm not afraid of pain anymore?"

As Zhao Zheng experienced the effects of his talent, he was surprised and was about to give it a try when a malicious voice rang out from outside the door.

"Master Zhao, didn't your master teach you how to write the word 'rules' before he passed away?"