My experience of grinding in another world

Chapter 35 Theft
For a moment, Chen Mu felt that even braised pork knuckle didn't taste quite right... well, pork knuckle is still very fragrant.

But the heartache is genuine.

All I was thinking about was treating them to a drink.

They're having a great time.

I completely forgot about the return gift.

It's been so long since I've given gifts that I've become rusty with business.

Chen Mu looked at Jie Jia's money pouch with envy.

"Take a second look, or you won't be able to see it again." Jie Jia calmly sipped his fish soup.

Chen Mu felt a sudden tightness in his chest.

……

Four days later, in Lanjia Lane, Dongshi, inside a three-courtyard house.

Thirty or forty gang members lay on the ground, fast asleep.

Inside the inner courtyard room.

Zhang Ye knelt on the ground, leaning on the hilt of his knife.

He shook his head violently, trying hard to open his eyelids.

He shook his head so hard that he fell face-first to the ground with a thud. His nose was bleeding profusely from the impact.

After thrashing around a couple of times, he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Chen Mu walked out of the alley behind the house and came to the front door.

"I can find you even when I move!"

He wore a straw hat, gray clothes, and half of his face was painted blue. He looked like a hero from Liangshan.

He glanced inside from the doorway, then reached out and closed the door behind him: "It's better not to go in. What if it's just an act?"

He strode into the courtyard and looked with a smile at the White Wave Gang members lying all over the ground.

Since you're playing the role of a Liangshan hero, you have to do what a Liangshan hero should do.

Then he reached out and searched for them one by one.

Fifteen minutes later, Chen Mu weighed the cloth bag in his hand with disappointment.

"Come early."

After searching through everything, he only managed to find a little over twenty taels of silver.

It must be because Jie Jia is too ruthless that these guys don't dare to carry money with them anymore.

I glanced at the closed door. Those people inside must be very rich, right?

Then he shook his head again.

"Never mind, it's better to play it safe."

"After all, he's a gang leader or hall master; what if he has some hidden cards up his sleeve?"

"I'd better hurry up and sell my fish."

Thinking this, Chen Mu carefully circled around to the back wall, climbed over it, and quickly left Lanjia Alley.

……

With the second-tier pharmaceutical technique, the Bewitching Incense is extremely potent.

No matter how much the White Wave Gang struggles, one gourd is enough to take them down.

In the following instances, Zhang Ye, the leader of the White Wave Gang, came up with quite a few solutions.

I tried many antidotes.

Unfortunately, Chen Mu wasn't idle either; he kept using his pharmaceutical skills to improve the Bewitching Incense.

The White Wave Gang could only sleep soundly.

Later, having no other choice, the White Wave Gang had to disperse its bases.

Chen Mu didn't intend to take them all down.

Whenever he went out to sell fish, he would randomly choose a White Wave Gang stronghold and treat all the gang members there to a drink.

The White Wave Gang was thrown into a state of panic by him, and they had no energy to bother this fisherman.

The fact that the return gifts were becoming less and less frequent was a great pity for Chen Mu.

……

Besides going out to sell fish every few days, he also had to outwit and outmaneuver the White Wave Gang.

Chen Mu spent the rest of the time quietly staying at home.

He diligently practices the Red Falcon Formation Technique every day.

After completing the Bone Transformation Technique, the breathing method of the Form Refining Technique becomes more complicated, requiring one hundred and twenty breaths per cycle.

The number of steps has nearly doubled.

This means that he needs to spend more time and energy each time he practices at full strength.

The daily proficiency gain is significantly less than that of the Yi Jin stage.

But the key was steady progress, so Chen Mu wasn't in a hurry. He continued to move forward step by step every day.

The iron lotus seed throwing technique has also become more difficult to upgrade.

Once you reach the third tier, throwing a more powerful iron lotus seed requires not only skill but also superior physical abilities.

He could feel that each throw was subtly changing the muscles throughout his body.

In contrast, the skill level for the hidden blade is much easier to increase.

Firstly, it's only at the second level, not yet at an advanced stage. Secondly, it's probably because the hidden blade technique is currently more of a swordsmanship skill.

While it can make minor adjustments to the body's muscles, it is primarily a hidden sword technique.

Chen Mu appropriately reduced his practice of throwing iron lotus seeds and focused his energy and time on the hidden sword.

……

Immersed in practicing his skills, Chen Mu barely noticed the passage of time.

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

In August and September, Qingshan County is in the midst of its sweltering heat.

Inside the back courtyard of Tianyi Studio.

A blue brick is placed on the stone table.

Chen Mu stood quietly to the side.

rub!
laugh!
A soft sound.

Suddenly, a hole appeared in the blue brick.

Chen Mu reached out and touched it.

The edges of the hole were smooth and hot.

In that instant, he drew his sword nine times.

Each time, the dots were placed on the same spot on the blue brick.

The sharp, point-to-point impact not only pierced through the blue bricks but also generated a large amount of heat.

"Would you like to join the Crimson Robe Pavilion?" The armored man beside the stone table raised his eyelids slightly. "I can help you with the introduction."

This hidden dagger is perfect for assassinations.

"Should I get half of the reward for referring me?" Chen Mu said casually.

With a flick of his wrist, the short sword disappeared into his sleeve.

"Let's eat some watermelon." Jie Jia picked up a piece of chilled watermelon and ate it in small bites, never mentioning joining the Zhu Yi Pavilion.

Chen Mu just bought this melon.

In order to have something icy cold on a hot day, he spent several days honing his medicine-making skills before finally finding a natural mineral similar to saltpeter from his previous life.

It is used to make ice by absorbing heat when it comes into contact with water.

"Can you tell me who paid to kill me?" Chen Mu sat down and took a big bite of a cool slice of watermelon.

“Yes,” Jie Jia said calmly.

"Aren't you assassins supposed to keep your employers' identities confidential?" Chen Mu asked in surprise.

Jie Jia rolled his eyes and glanced at Chen Mu.

Chen Mu nodded in understanding: "As long as the money is enough, it's fine, right?"

"Want to know?" Jie Jia put down the watermelon and stared at Chen Mu as he asked.

"No," Chen Mu said immediately, taking a bite of chilled watermelon with a look of enjoyment.

Jie Jia: "..." If you don't want to know, then don't bother with the hammer.

Chen Mu chuckled as he watched the drama unfold.

Since we're all dead anyway, it makes no difference whether we know or not.

After finishing the watermelon and tidying up the table, Chen Mu rested for a while before hiding under the shed to continue practicing his hidden sword technique.

The training technique allowed him to initially resist both heat and cold, and he could even endure this kind of hot weather.

But moving around under the sun generates not only external heat but also enormous internal heat.

It's really unbearable when both sides get hot at the same time.

It's much more comfortable to practice hidden sword techniques under the shade of a canopy.

It's not too late to practice the liver-strengthening technique when the sun sets in the evening.

"It seems like there are more and more cases of ghosts haunting the city lately." Chen Mu's short sword suddenly appeared and then disappeared. "Do you know why?"

“That shouldn’t be the case.” Jiejiacuo paused, his face filled with doubt. “With the warding-off-evil mirror here, there shouldn’t be so many fish that slipped through the net.”

In reality, while the occurrence of evil spirits has not been continuous over the past few months, it has been ongoing.

Chen Mu's sword practice stopped involuntarily.

"Could it be that there's something wrong with the evil-repelling mirror?" Chen Mu asked worriedly.

“Very similar.” Jie Jia thought for a moment and nodded. “More than ten years ago, I encountered this once in Jiuyang County, Yanshan Prefecture. The evil-repelling mirror in the city was stolen, and as a result, the number of evil spirits causing trouble suddenly increased.”

"How was it resolved later?" Chen Mu asked quickly.

"It's very simple. The higher-ups have sent down another warding-off-evil mirror," Jie Jia said calmly.

Chen Mu frowned.

The entire Great Liang Dynasty is now plagued by natural disasters and man-made calamities, and has long been in complete chaos.

The magistrate of Qingshan County disappeared for more than half a year and no one cared.

It's more accurate to say that Qingshan County belongs to the Li family, the county magistrate, rather than to the Liang Dynasty!
There was no higher-level government left.

Glancing at the composed Jie Jia, Chen Mu became even more certain that the old man must have a way to deal with the Yin spirits.

Looking at the silver beads in the other person's hand, Chen Mu shook his head helplessly.

He can't afford to hire such a bodyguard.

(End of this chapter)