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

Night, dark clouds obscuring the moon, a mournful wind blowing.

Approaching midnight,

A man with an unnaturally pale face, two overly red blushes on his cheeks, and wearing a melon-shaped hat, looking like a paper doll in a paper craft shop, quietly appeared at the entrance of Zuowang Temple.

The paper-figure-like man stared at the tightly closed Taoist temple gate with a strange smile, listening to the faint chanting coming from inside.

He stepped to the gate, then his body mysteriously deflated, becoming as thin as paper as he squeezed through the crack in the door and into the Taoist temple.

The man who entered the Taoist temple did not immediately retreat. Instead, he slithered along the ground like a snake to the closed entrance of the main hall, and then stood up.

The man, with a strange smile on his face, pressed his face against the crack in the door, peering through his sunken but still movable eyes into the main hall where the chanting was coming from.

Upon closer inspection, the eerie smile on his face vanished instantly, replaced by wide eyes and deep anger.

The man's body swelled back to normal size in the blink of an eye, and he reached out and pushed open the tightly closed door of the main hall. He endured the discomfort and dared not look at the main hall, which was quickly scanned by the statue of the Three Pure Ones.

The chanting in the main hall continued, but it was no longer coming from people; it was coming from a large tape recorder.

"Master, he's not here. He tricked us with a foreign... tape recorder..."

Looking at the large tape recorder on the prayer mat, the man spoke angrily, his voice identical to that of Master Qin's second disciple.

This was achieved by Master Qin using the paper-cutting shadow technique combined with the soul-transferring technique to temporarily attach part of his disciple's soul to this paper figure, thus enabling remote communication.

Of course, this paper figure can not only communicate with people remotely, but also attack people with some strange spells.

"Know……"

Hearing his master say to continue searching, the man opened the door to the side hall, but there was still no one there.

After a while, the man who had searched all the rooms in Zuowang Temple still couldn't find Zhao Zheng spoke up.

"Master, do you think he ran away...?"

As the man spoke, his body stiffened, and his once normal-looking body instantly withered. After a puff of smoke, a yellow paper figure, no bigger than the palm of a hand and covered with talismans, slowly fell to the ground.

at the same time,

Master Qin's Taoist temple

Inside the compound.

"You have such a poor sense of self-protection!"

Zhao Zheng, carrying a wooden stick, looked at the Qin Daoist and his disciple who he had knocked down on the ground. He did not look at the altar in front of the two, but looked at the rooftops around him.

"Aren't you coming out yet?"

"Tsk, how interesting, you actually managed to spot this humble Taoist..." A cheerful voice came from a dark figure descending from the rooftop.

Once the shadowy figure landed, Zhao Zheng was able to make out its appearance with the help of the dim light from the lanterns in the courtyard.

The other person was a man in his twenties, of average appearance, wearing a silk mandarin jacket, and holding a long knife in his left hand.

"Let me introduce myself, I am Guo Qing, the abbot of Qingsong Temple!" The man smiled, holding a knife and clasping his hands in a fist salute; he looked more like a martial artist than a Taoist priest.

"Actually, I didn't notice you. I was just making a bluff..." Zhao Zheng said slowly, choosing to tell the truth.

Although he didn't understand military strategy

But he knows how to spit out something!

Upon hearing this, Guo Qing's smile froze instantly, but he was not angry. He merely glanced at the unconscious Master Qin and his apprentice on the ground and looked at Zhao Zheng with pity.

"Too bad, you must die tonight!"

"oh."

"Hmm? Aren't you going to ask why?"

Guo Qing was stunned for a moment. Looking at Zhao Zheng, whose reaction was ridiculously calm, he took a half step back.

"There's no need!"

Zhao Zheng shook his head, and Guo Qing nodded in agreement: "It's really unnecessary. After all, you'll be a dead man soon!"

"You killed his eldest disciple, didn't you?"

Zhao Zheng asked to confirm, and Guo Qing smiled and nodded, saying, "Yes, I killed them. Last night I came over to ask Master Qin if he was confident he could drive you away, but when I arrived, I saw the three of them lying unconscious on the ground, so I just went along with it..."

Guo Qing paused as he spoke, made a throat-slitting gesture with his hand, looked at the still calm Zhao Zheng, and took another half step back.

"You killed him to drive me away?"

Zhao Zheng was confused, his eyes showing bewilderment. To be honest, he actually suspected that Guo Qing and Master Qin had a personal grudge.

"Not entirely, I just wanted to add fuel to the fire!"

Guo Qing glanced around, grinned, and said with a not-so-happy smile, "I have a junior brother who's going back to Anping County to open a Taoist temple, and I'm planning to give him one..."

"That makes sense..."

Zhao Zheng nodded, understanding that the death of Master Qin's eldest disciple was purely Guo Qing's attempt to profit from the situation. He wondered why anyone would use a human life to frame him!

"Understood? Good, that saves you from going down as a confused ghost... Actually, I'd rather give his Taoist temple to my junior brother, but alas, you're destined to die tonight!"

Guo Qing glanced at the unconscious Master Qin and his apprentice on the ground, then looked away and gazed at Zhao Zhengdao with a regretful expression.

Are you sure?

Zhao Zheng asked in confusion. He didn't mean anything by it, but what Guo Qing said was different from what he had calculated. The divination he had calculated showed that Master Qin and his disciple were in dire straits tonight.

"I forgot to tell you, besides cultivating Taoism, I also practice martial arts..."

Guo Qing smiled slightly, but after looking at Zhao Zheng's calm face, he frowned and stopped smiling, and then he took another step back!

"???"

Why is this person backing away while talking?

Does he have a mental illness?

Zhao Zheng was puzzled, but he didn't show it on his face. He just said "oh" and asked the question he most wanted to ask.

"Actually, there's something I haven't quite figured out!"

"Um?"

Guo Qing hummed in agreement, displaying a very magnanimous attitude that said, "Go ahead and ask." Zhao Zheng then directly asked the question.

"Even if we cultivators...can't live in harmony with each other, shouldn't we at least not resort to fighting and killing like this?"

He didn't mean anything by asking; he just felt that cultivating the Tao shouldn't be like this, and it wasn't what he thought.

Guo Qing was taken aback by Zhao Zheng's question. He looked at Zhao Zheng strangely and asked, "Are you the rich young master of that family? Do you know how many copper coins a dan (a unit of weight) of rice costs these days?"

"Fifty copper coins!"

"..."

"..."

Both fell silent. Guo Qing fell silent because Zhao Zheng actually knew the price of rice in Anping County.

Zhao Zheng remained silent because he understood everything, understood the ways of the world... it wasn't just the demons who ate people.

Humans...can also eat people like demons!

"Take your own life."

It was Guo Qing who spoke. Zhao Zheng glanced at the statues of the Three Pure Ones enshrined in the main hall of Master Qin's Taoist temple, which were different in style but all the same, and then looked back at Guo Qing.

"You know, when I came here, I asked the Three Pure Ones for nine Holy Grails..." Zhao Zheng said, and a faint golden light began to appear on his body as he circulated the Golden Light Divine Mantra.

"Golden Light Mantra..."

Guo Qing frowned slightly, his right hand pressing down on the hilt of the long sword he held in his left. Then he heard Zhao Zheng extend his right hand and gesture nine times: "Nine moves. You won't die after nine moves..."

"...I'll spare your life!"

Before the word "death" was even finished, Zhao Zheng moved his feet and pounced on Guo Qing, who was several meters away, like a tiger. Guo Qing sneered inwardly and drew his sword with his right hand, causing a surge of qi and blood within his body.

Clang——

A flash of cold light appeared, and the chilling shadow of a blade instantly sliced ​​through the air as Guo Qing swung his sword, aiming straight for Zhao Zheng's neck.

However, just as Guo Qing's long sword was about to cleave Zhao Zheng's neck, he saw a faint golden light suddenly emanate from Zhao Zheng's body. As he subconsciously squinted, he saw Zhao Zheng's left hand loosely grasp his right hand and then grab.

Clang—Clang—

Swah——

Clang is the sound of weapons being drawn, and clang is the sound of weapons clashing. But Guo Qing doesn't understand where the sound of the final sharp weapon slicing through flesh comes from.

Just like how he couldn't understand where Zhao Zheng got his primordial spirit sword, even though Zuowang Temple and his Qingsong Temple were both small sects.

"Oh right, I almost forgot to introduce myself. My name is Zhao Zheng..." Zhao Zheng said with a smile, then paused and shook the bronze sword in his hand.

"The sword is named Tai'a!"

"Too...too...oh..."

Guo Qing stared wide-eyed in shock at the bronze longsword in Zhao Zheng's hand, said a few words, and then fell silent.

He clutched his neck, which was suddenly gushing blood, with a look of horror on his face, and made a hoarse sound like a broken bellows coming from his throat.

He stared at Zhao Zheng in disbelief, his eyes filled with confusion, astonishment, and bewilderment. He couldn't understand how Zhao Zheng had fallen for the trap, since he had clearly dodged it at the last moment.

"It won't work if you say it out loud!"

Zhao Zheng smiled and glanced at the blood-free sword blade, now completely covered in golden light.

[Item: Tai'a Sword]

[Introduction: This is your newbie gift pack!]

"I……"

Guo Qing tried to speak, but all he was met with was a long sword that easily pierced his internal organs and went through his throat.

bang——

After finishing off Guo Qing, Zhao Zheng ignored him and turned around to look at a square-faced middle-aged Taoist priest who had appeared a few meters behind him and was looking at him.

That is to say, Master Zhang!

"The Tai'a Sword... Zhao Zheng..."

Having witnessed everything, Master Zhang felt as if he had seen a ghost... no, he should say he had seen... the Ancestral Dragon. He frowned as he looked at Zhao Zheng, then suddenly smiled, thinking to himself that he had been overthinking things, and looked at Zhao Zheng with a curious gaze.

"What was that move you just made called?"

He had just witnessed Guo Qing dodge Zhao Zheng's sword strike from the shadows, but he didn't understand why Guo Qing was still hit.

"The Seven Swords of Heaven-Burning, God-Slaying, and Void-Escape!"

"What domineering swordsmanship! He deserved to lose!"

"..."

Is it possible?

This is just a name I made up on the spot.

Zhao Zheng silently complained to himself, speechless!