Start with everyday skills and grind your way to immortality.

After leaving the coffin shop, Chen Qian did not go straight home.

He wandered around and eventually entered an inconspicuous clothing shop, where he picked out a coarse black linen robe without any patterns or markings.

The robe was wide and rough, which not only concealed the figure, but the wide cuffs and waist were also perfect places to hide a wood-chopping knife, a fire starter, and wood ash.

Back home, Chen Qian didn't waste a single moment.

Inside the temple, he began his arduous practice.

The medicinal power of the Blood-Veined Ginseng within the body was nearly exhausted, which was why it was even more necessary to squeeze out its last bit of residual heat.

The breathing is long and deep; that's the "Health Preservation Technique" circulating Qi and blood.

The footwork is unpredictable and ever-changing, shifting and dodging within a small space, which is the extreme stretching of the body technique.

The combination of movement and stillness allows the body's energy, blood, muscles, and bones to resonate.

Sweat soaked his back, and the fusion of the two skills gave him an unprecedented sense of exhilaration, achieving an efficiency of one plus one equals three.

The two complement each other. If he encounters an invincible opponent, his long breath and two fast legs will be his greatest trump card.

When I get tired of practicing, I just glance at the courtyard.

(Please remember the website 20 ...

Under the setting sun, a little fish squatted under an old locust tree, teasing ants with a twig, humming an unknown nursery rhyme, carefree.

[Experience in reading between the lines +1]

Looking at that innocent smile, Chen Qian's fierceness subsided slightly, but his grip on the woodcutter's knife tightened.

At dinner, Chen Qian silently devoured five large bowls of brown rice.

After the meal, he carefully sharpened the wood-chopping knife on the whetstone until the blade gleamed with a chilling light.

At 1:15 PM, night fell.

Linjiang County closed its city gates at 3:45 PM, after which no one was allowed to enter or leave.

With his bundle on his back, Chen Qian avoided his brother and sister-in-law's sight, nimbly vaulted over the courtyard wall, and disappeared into the night.

Once outside the city gate, the population gradually thinned out.

Chen Qian disappeared into a thicket of grass, changed into the loose black robe, and put on the fox mask with the eerie smiling face painted on it.

When they came out again, the gentle scholar had disappeared, replaced by a figure wearing a strange smiling mask.

Five miles to the west lies Laoqiaotan.

The further west you go, the more desolate the road becomes. What was originally a fairly smooth official road gradually turns into a muddy path overgrown with weeds.

The night wind became damp, cold, and sticky, carrying a rotten, watery, and earthy smell that went straight into my nostrils.

His overly acute sense of smell became a punishment in this situation, forcing Chen Qian to try his best to adjust his breathing and suppress the nausea.

We walked for who knows how far.

The chirping of insects all around had stopped at some point.

The silence was chilling; only the sound of his own footsteps and the rustling of his robes seemed particularly jarring.

Not far away, a vast expanse of dense reeds, gleaming grayish-white in the dim moonlight, could be vaguely seen.

The reeds swayed gently in the wind, making a rustling sound like the tide.

A black river stretched out in front of them, spanned by a dilapidated wooden bridge weathered by wind and sun.

It was hardly a proper bridge; it was just a crude structure haphazardly tied together from a few crooked logs, so narrow that only one person could pass at a time.

The bridge has endured countless years of wind and rain, and the wood has taken on a somber, moldy black color, with cracks and decay covering its surface.

As soon as someone steps on it, the entire bridge groans and creaks under the strain, swaying violently from side to side as if it might fall apart at any moment.

Below, in the deep, almost opaque river, it seemed as if countless arms were trying to pull everything on the bridge into the water.

Chen Qian steadied his breathing, took a deep breath, and stepped onto the swaying, broken bridge first.

The looseness of the wooden planks beneath his feet and the bottomless black river below left him no room for error.

He focused intently, relying on the slight boost to balance brought by his movement technique, and cautiously and quickly traversed the dangerous ten-odd steps.

I had barely stepped onto the soft sandy beach on the other side when I was still catching my breath.

"Waaaaah..."

A faint sobbing sound drifted intermittently on the wind, coming from afar.

It was the sound of a woman crying.

The mournful, plaintive sound seemed to carry endless grievances and sorrow, drifting eerily through the desolate night sky, penetrating people's ears and seeping into their hearts.

Chen Qian paused, his brows furrowing beneath his mask.

Although one should theoretically have the Li family mark protecting them, the cries still sent chills down one's spine and gave one goosebumps.

I don't know whether to go forward or retreat.

The key issue is that the source cannot be found.

I gritted my teeth and carefully walked another ten meters or so.

In the reeds ahead, not far from the path, a white figure could be vaguely seen standing in the water with his back to him.

She stood quietly in the middle of the murky water, her back to the road, the inky black water reaching above her calves.

The river was dark and offered no reflection, only making her pale white dress appear even more glaring.

Her body was trembling slightly, and she was sobbing with her head down.

The crying wasn't loud, but it felt like it had hooks, burrowing into your ears.

It touches the softest spot in one's heart, evoking a strange sense of sorrow, and making one want to go and ask her what grievance she suffered.

Her long hair was loose and wet, clinging to her pale neck and glistening in the dim moonlight.

She just stood there crying, completely ignoring Chen Qian, who was only a dozen steps away.

"An evil spirit..."

Chen Qian's palms were already sweating, and he gripped the handle of the wood-chopping knife tightly. In the dead silence, he could hear his own heartbeat clearly.

A suicidal thought popped into my head.

He wanted to verify whether the "Li family mark" on his chest was really as the hunter had said.

If the mark works, then he can freely gather and accumulate herbs in Black Mountain for these ten days.

If that doesn't work, you can always look for another way.

Rather than venturing into the more dangerous Black Mountain to try again, we might as well stay here and use this evil spirit to test the waters.

He stared at the woman in white, several plans forming in his mind, but each one made his heart tremble and he couldn't make up his mind immediately.

However, in the few moments he hesitated, a chill suddenly crept up his spine.

Something is wrong!

He stared intently at the white figure, trying to discern some flaw in her.

The woman's feet were clearly still standing in the same spot, treading on the murky water.

But her silhouette seemed a little clearer and more solid than before?

No, it's not that it's clearer, it's that we're closer to the shore!

But her feet were still standing in the same spot.

Chen Qian held his breath, his eyes unblinking, forcibly suppressing even the stinging sensation in his eyes.

One breath, two breaths... his eye sockets reached their physiological limit, and he instinctively blinked very quickly.

Just as the eyelids open and close.

The figure in white actually moved forward a little.

The river water still only reached her calves, but the distance between her and the riverbank had indeed shortened!

There was no walking motion, no ripples on the water; it was as if an invisible hand had cut a frame from the scene and moved it to a closer position.

Chen Qian immediately looked away.

At the same time, his body tensed slightly, and he took several steps back, his heels almost sinking into the soft mud.

"How do we get there?"

The puddle and the things in it blocked the only way to pass.

[Auditory recognition experience points +1]

Just as he was pondering a solution, a deliberately hushed conversation, mixed with the sound of messy footsteps crunching through the mud, faintly came from the direction he had come from.

The voices were familiar; they were the two people from the tea stall's backyard during the day.

No, judging from the heavier thud and the slightly rougher breathing, there were three.

There's one more!

"Hurry up, what are you dawdling for! Once you cross the bridge, you'll reach Sanchaliu. Don't make me late!" A slightly arrogant, unfamiliar voice urged impatiently.

"Master Daoist, do you think this place is really that eerie?"

"Hmph, do you think my eyes are wrong? This place is shrouded in yin energy, the water smells foul and malevolent. Ninety-nine percent of ordinary people who come here at night will encounter trouble!"

"But with me here, I guarantee you'll get through safely. Once you arrive, the most important thing is to get rid of that hot potato!"

It was the voice of the skinny man and his shifty-eyed accomplice, plus a slightly arrogant, unfamiliar voice that called himself "Daoist Master".

Chen Qian's eyes sharpened.

We mustn't run into them!

If one were to encounter this place alone, complications would inevitably arise.

If the other party becomes greedy and tries to take advantage of the money, the three of them working together would be extremely difficult for me to handle.

More importantly, if things get complicated and they miss midnight, the ticket they bought with ten taels of silver will be wasted.

With a quick scan, using the Night Vision ability, I discovered a small patch of slightly elevated ground a few steps to my right, deep within the reeds. Several particularly dense clumps of reeds intertwined and leaned, forming a natural, concealed depression.

Without the slightest hesitation, he ducked down, like a nimble cat, and silently slid into the pit, curling up and using a few withered leaves to cover himself.

Hold your breath and concentrate, minimizing your presence.

Almost at the same time he hid, two flickering flames, cursing and swearing, dispelled the darkness and waded into the shallow water.

The leader was a middle-aged man wearing a faded, stained Taoist robe.

His face was golden brown, and his triangular eyes gleamed with a sharp light. He held a peach wood sword that looked quite old in his hand.

Following behind were the two men from earlier that day, each holding a torch, the firelight casting flickering shadows on their tense faces.

He was carrying large and small bags, looking around nervously.

The three were soon drawn to the puddles blocking their path and the white shadows that appeared particularly bleak in the puddles, faintly visible at the edge of the firelight.

He suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Master Dao! There's a woman crying over there!"

The gaunt man, holding a torch, pointed to the center of the puddle with a trembling voice.

"Shut up! I'm not blind yet!" The Taoist priest, addressed as "Master Taoist," frowned, his previous arrogance subsiding somewhat, and a wary glint appeared in his triangular eyes.

He stared intently at the woman in white in the water, then glanced at the murky river beneath his feet. "It's a water demon, a troublesome thing. We can't go directly across. Let's see if we can find a dry place."

"Master Dao, why do I feel like that woman is getting closer?"

The shifty-eyed man shrank back, his torch lowering as he did so, his voice trembling with tears.

"Useless! You've already gone down into the tomb twice, and you still have this little bit of guts?"

"It's just something shady. With me here, how could it possibly cause any trouble?"

The Taoist priest rebuked him, but a fine layer of cold sweat quietly seeped from his forehead.

He looked around, then pointed to the side: "Go that way, the water's shallower there, run across!"

Carefully lowering the torch to illuminate the murky shallow water and mud at my feet, I tried to bypass the puddle from the side.

However, just as they stepped into the shallow water and began to navigate around it, something unexpected happened!

"Waaaaah!"

The white-clad woman's cries suddenly rose in pitch, becoming shrill and piercing, like fingernails scraping against glass.

Chen Qian, who was hiding in the shadows, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

The woman, who had been facing away from everyone, turned around instantly in a very awkward posture, without turning her neck!

A pale face, swollen from being soaked in water and with features squeezed together, looked at the three people trying to walk around it.

At the same time, the phenomenon of "approaching in the blink of an eye" has reappeared!

Chen Qian only squinted his eyes instinctively because of the shriek, and when he opened them again, he was horrified to find that...

The figure in white was no longer there!

It appeared out of thin air, seemingly teleporting, on the edge of the pool closest to the three people, only ten steps away from them!

Those dead fish eyes were filled with resentment and hunger.

"It's targeting us! Could it be something we're carrying that attracted it!" the shifty-eyed man cried out, his voice trembling with fear.

"There's no time to set up the formation!"

The Taoist's eyes twitched violently, and a hint of ruthlessness and heartache flashed in his triangular eyes. He knew that ordinary methods would probably be too late.

He abruptly pulled the satchel from his shoulder to his front, frantically rummaging through it.

What he pulled out were not various talismans, but only a few.

A roll of ink line that looked rather old, a stack of blank yellow talismans, and three old copper coins with severely worn edges.

"Listen up, you two!"

The Taoist priest bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the object in his hand, his voice hoarse and fierce:

"I'll use all my strength to subdue it. While it's immobilized, take this blood-soaked peach wood sword, dip it in this 'exorcising talisman,' and stab it in the heart!"

He then dipped his finger in blood and quickly drew simple runes on the three copper coins and the blank yellow talisman.

Then he chanted a spell and staggered as he stepped on a simple three-star orientation.

In the brief interval between drawing the talisman, everyone's vision blurred for only a moment.

When I opened my eyes again, the white-clad figure seemed to have had the process skipped, moving forward several feet without warning!

Bathed in the firelight.

The pale, swollen face suddenly magnified, and those grayish-white, turbid, dead fish eyes, overflowing with resentment, were now staring right up to the people's brows, as if they were about to touch their faces in the next instant!

"not good!"

The Taoist priest was startled and suddenly jerked his wrist.

Three ancient copper coins, accompanied by a whooshing sound, flew in an irregular triangle and shot towards the water at the feet and beside the woman in white!

Three muffled splashes as the water entered the vessel.

"Samsung Suppresses Evil, Stabilize!"