Start with everyday skills and grind your way to immortality.

"oh"

The rooster's crow still echoed in the cave's dome, but the entire City of the Dead, like a watercolor painting splashed with water, began to fade and distort rapidly.

Chen Qian was swept up in the panicked crowd, trying to rush back the way he came.

But soon, he abruptly stopped in his tracks.

The road is gone.

The stone platform filled with red coffins that served as a receptacle vanished into thin air, replaced by a wall of black mud that seemed to writhe and be made of countless rotting flesh and blood.

Countless gaping mouths appeared on the wall, emitting hissing sounds as if they were devouring everything around them.

A stall owner next to him, also wrapped in a black robe, suddenly crashed headfirst into one of the large mouths in the black mud wall.

With a "whoosh," the person vanished instantly, as if swallowed by the earth.

As more and more people rushed into the giant mouth, Chen Qian couldn't help but believe it.

"Is this the exit?"

Chen Qian felt a chill run down his spine.

But this eerie city of the unjustly dead obviously cannot be judged by common sense, as the rooster's crow grew more and more urgent.

The sky began to collapse, and the falling stones turned into black smoke before they even hit the ground.

There's no time to hesitate!

Chen Qian took a deep breath, protecting the secret manual and silver in his arms.

He closed his eyes tightly and lunged at the writhing black mud wall!

boom!

There was no pain from the impact; instead, it felt like stepping into thin air and falling into a bottomless, icy swamp.

Sticky, slippery, suffocating.

The putrid smell of the soil instantly enveloped his entire body, compressing every inch of his bones.

At that moment, gravity seemed to be reversed; he felt as if he was not falling, but floating upwards.

It's like a seed buried deep in the ground, forcibly pulled out of the soil by some force.

Consciousness became blurred as he suffocated.

I don't know how much time passed; it might have been a moment, or it might have been an hour.

"puff!"

Chen Qian was jolted awake from his suffocation, feeling as if he had been spat out by the earth, and before he could react, he fell onto a patch of wet, cold grass.

"Cough cough cough"

Chen Qian coughed violently.

At the same time, he warily rolled over and stood up, holding the machete horizontally in front of his chest.

All around was quiet, with only the rustling of the morning breeze through the treetops.

There were no caves, no red mist, and no eerie stalls.

Chen Qian looked around.

This is no longer the old Qiaotan.

Before me lay a desolate hillside littered with jagged rocks, and not far away stood a dilapidated earth god temple, with faded red ribbons hanging from the old locust tree in front of it.

Chen Qian identified the direction.

"Withered Locust Slope"

When we entered, we were in the west of the city, but when we came out, we were in the east of the city, spanning a full ten miles.

This method is simply unheard of.

"He's alive."

Chen Qian slumped down beside the grave.

Only now did the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion from surviving the ordeal wash over me like a tidal wave.

The wound under his ribs burned with pain, and the knife wound on his thigh had reopened due to the intense running earlier, his trouser leg was already soaked with blood.

But he laughed.

His laughter was somewhat ferocious, yet also somewhat gleeful.

He touched his heavy chest, where there were more than 170 taels of silver and three secret manuals he had found.

But this is not all.

As my mind calmed down, the following thoughts surfaced at the opportune moment:

[Literacy and Character Interpretation Experience Points +5] 524→529

[Health Preservation Technique Experience Points +35] 153→188

[Experience in reading between the lines +24] 105-129

[Taste recognition experience points +3] 16→19

[Smell recognition experience points +11] 17→28

[Auditory Discrimination Experience Points +31] 13→44

[Agility Experience +19] 26→45

[Night Vision Experience Points +11] 16→27

From yesterday to today, all skill experience values ​​have improved significantly.

The thrill of walking on the edge of life and death was far more effective than a month of monotonous practice in the yard.

"It was worth it."

As long as you're not dead, you've made a huge profit.

Chen Qian carefully put his belongings away, tore off a piece of his clothing to bandage his wound, and stood up, leaning on his machete.

The morning mist was thick, enveloping the distant town of Linjiang.

Chen Qian dragged his weary body along the desolate path toward the county town.

The dew on the road soaked his shoes and socks, chilling him to the bone, yet it made him exceptionally clear-headed.

It was already dawn when we arrived in the county town.

"Crunch"

With a heavy scraping sound, the heavy city gate of Linjiang County slowly opened.

The soldiers guarding the city yawned and sleepily pushed open the city gates to greet the first rays of morning sunlight.

Chen Qian took off the black robe that was covered in mud and blood and put it away.

He mingled behind several elderly farmers who had gotten up early to sell vegetables in the city, keeping his head down, and successfully slipped into the city.

The streets were sparsely populated in the early morning, with only a few breakfast stalls just starting their fires, and steaming white vapors filling the air.

The aroma of steamed buns, the sweetness of soy milk...

This is the true essence of everyday life.

Compared to that gloomy and cold city of the dead, this place is simply paradise.

Chen Qian took a greedy breath of the air, which smelled of cooking oil, and quickened his pace.

After passing through several familiar alleys, the somewhat dilapidated gate of my own courtyard came into view.

The courtyard was quiet, but the wisp of smoke rising from the chimney allowed Chen Qian to finally relax after a long night of tension.

[Smell recognition experience points +1]

Suddenly, Chen Qian's nostrils twitched slightly.

Amidst the unique scent of morning dew and firewood, a very faint aroma suddenly entered my nostrils.

It wasn't on him.

The blood on his body had long since dried and congealed, emitting a foul stench.

But the smell was fresh, with a warmth that had just been splashed out.

My gaze followed the direction the scent was coming from; it was wafting from behind that low wall next door.

That's Zhang the butcher's house.

"Have they already started slaughtering pigs?"

After all, slaughtering pigs is a butcher's duty, and seeing blood early in the morning is common.

He was so tired that he just wanted to go home as soon as possible.

Chen Qian didn't go through the main entrance, afraid of disturbing his brother and sister-in-law, and even more afraid that his blood-stained appearance would frighten them.

He went to a secluded corner outside the courtyard wall, and despite the excruciating pain in his thigh, he gently pushed off the wall with his foot.

Although it wasn't as miraculous as the "Eight Steps to Catch the Cicada" technique, he was still relatively relaxed at this point.

It silently climbed over the wall and landed on the soft soil in the yard.

On the mottled window paper, the silhouette of my sister-in-law Lin Xiu busily moving was reflected.

She was kneading the dough, her body rising and falling slightly with the movement of her arms to save energy, a gentle and skillful motion.

"Cough, cough..."

Occasionally, the movements will pause for a moment.

She covered her mouth with her hand, trying her best to suppress the coughing sound in her throat, afraid of disturbing the little fish who was still sleeping.

There were also rustling sounds coming from the main room.

That was my elder brother, Chen Ke.

He was probably using the dim light of day to organize the account books and writing materials he would need for his trip to the grain store.

They moved very carefully, barely making a sound as they moved the stool.

Chen Qian hid in the shadows of the corner of the courtyard wall, covered in blood, like a vengeful ghost that had crawled back from hell.

But the fierceness in his eyes vanished completely at that moment.

"I'm back, I'm home."

Chen Qian murmured something in a low voice, so soft that only he could hear it.

He quietly pushed open the door to his room.

The room remained exactly as it had been when he left; the ink on the desk was still wet, and the bed was still in disarray.

Everything was so peaceful, as if the strange, bloody storm of last night was just an absurd dream.

Chen Qian stuffed the black robe deep under the bed and pressed the secret manuals and silver notes he had risked his life for under his pillow.

After changing into clean clothes, he collapsed heavily onto the bed.

"breathe"

[Health Preservation Technique Experience Points +1]

The chest and abdomen rise and fall with a unique rhythm.

Just then, a large rat peeked out from the corner and let out a short squeal.

"Chirp chirp."

This sound, which would normally be annoying, now seemed to carry a comforting, down-to-earth quality.